On March 1, the Center for European Policy Analysis asked the ambassadors of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia how they’re helping Ukraine confront the Kremlin threat while ensuring that their own countries won’t be next on Putin’s hit list.
Larry Luxner
Miami native Larry Luxner, a veteran journalist and photographer, has reported from more than 100 countries in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia for a variety of news outlets. He lived for many years in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the Washington, D.C., area before relocating to Israel in January 2017. Larry has been news editor of The Washington Diplomat since 2005.
St. Kitts & Nevis—barely twice the size of the District of Columbia—is the smallest independent sovereign nation in the Western Hemisphere. Representing this tiny twin-island Caribbean federation in Washington is Ambassador Thelma Phillip-Browne, a doctor by profession who’s also an evangelist preacher and one of her country’s all-time champions in netball.
As much as Turkey would like to stay out of the current Russian bloodbath engulfing Ukraine, it can no longer remain neutral—a geopolitical reality acknowledged by Ankara’s ambassador in Washington, Hasan Murat Mercan.
When Nureldin Mohamed Hamed Satti arrived in Washington back in July 2020, he was welcomed as Khartoum’s first ambassador to the United States in 23 years. Yet Satti’s mission proved to be short-lived. On Jan. 31, the 75-year-old former UN official was forced to resign after a military coup back home plunged Sudan into a political and humanitarian crisis.
The current state of US-China relations is the worst since Nixon’s landmark trip to Beijing 50 years ago, says a prominent China scholar.
Guatemala, Central America’s largest nation, often makes headlines, though nearly always for the wrong reasons—violent crime, drug trafficking, natural disasters and illegal immigration. When it comes to uncovering ancient civilizations, however, Guatemala is a world leader.
As Russia masses more than 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine and the threat of an invasion dominates world headlines, experts ponder what Vladimir Putin really has up his sleeve.
Ambassador Rufus Gifford, the State Department’s new chief of protocol, has been on the job for barely three weeks. But he’s already made history as the first openly gay diplomat ever to hold that title.
The last three months of 2021 saw the departure of nine foreign ambassadors to the United States.
One month ahead of a crucial summit between Europe and Africa set for Feb. 17-18 in Brussels, several key Washington-based diplomats are warning that the security crisis in Africa’s impoverished Sahel region could soon spin out of control without urgent outside intervention.
Afghanistan’s largest TV channel, a Hulu comedy about an Egyptian immigrant family in New Jersey and a French series about Nazi occupation during World War II all garnered awards Dec. 15 at the 9th annual America Abroad Media (AAM) gala.
The National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC) recognized Iraq’s Fareed Yasseen as its 2021 “Ambassador of the Year” during a Dec. 14 awards ceremony and luncheon at Washington’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
The ongoing pandemic has defined Nomaindiya Cathleen Mfeketo’s nearly two years as South Africa’s ambassador to the United States, literally from day one.
Ivonne A-Baki, one of the most prominent women diplomats in Ecuador’s 200-year history, says women have come a long way since she arrived in Washington as her country’s first female ambassador here 23 years ago—but that the battle for gender equality is far from over.
A veritable who’s who of American and foreign diplomats, public servants, educators, scientists, musicians and artists came together Nov. 30 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Fulbright Program, one of the world’s most widely recognized and prestigious scholarships.
In the days and weeks following the 2010 earthquake that ravaged his country, Joseph—then Haiti’s ambassador to the United States—was a familiar face on CNN. And now, as the Caribbean nation descends further into a nightmare of natural disasters, political assassinations, kidnappings and lawlessness, this elder statesman cannot and will not remain silent.
