Publication Announcement

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

– President John F. Kennedy, January 20, 1961

Get ready for a collection of stories that reveal the grit and the glory of grass-roots development and high stakes diplomacy.

This Fall, Moonshine Cove Publishing will release Profiles in Service: Fourteen Journeys from Peace Corps Volunteer to U.S. Ambassador. Please consider following along and joining the mailing list as I build up the backstory at the site linked above.

From the first generation of Peace Corps Volunteers emerged 50 future ambassadors, protagonists in some of our nation’s most dramatic events over the last 65 years. Profiles shares intimate portraits of those who spent decades in service to America, from sharing U.S. culture and values in remote villages to enduring 444 days of captivity in Iran. As volunteers and diplomats they helped write constitutions in foundling nations, infiltrated enemy sanctuaries in Vietnam, and hunted looted antiquities after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Their stories cover the world, from hurricane cleanup in Central America and economic development in South Korea to negotiations with Balkan warlords and strongmen across Africa. The sketches also illuminate the human side, like finding the courage to integrate a southern high school after Brown v the Board of Education and taking comfort in African village beliefs to grieve the loss of a newborn.

Drawing on oral histories from the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, fresh interviews, and other primary sources, Profiles links Peace Corps service with key diplomatic efforts to highlight how the volunteer experience shaped individual careers and today’s diplomatic corps. In so doing, it satisfies one of JFK’s key intentions for establishing the agency in the first place: to strengthen the pool of candidates entering the foreign affairs community.

I hope you’ll follow the journey and enjoy the stories.

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