Author: darkpassport
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#39: London
The center of the world. At least, that’s what it felt like. Coming from a relatively new country like the United States, the history of London England is too much to fathom. Experiencing the traditions and architecture of “The Square Mile”, as the City of London proper is occasionally referred to, is something one could…
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#38: Niagara Falls
In between the faraway lands and exotic places we are fortunate enough to visit in this career are the more simple and close-to-home destinations. Sometimes these trips are for major events, such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation my coworkers and I supported in San Francisco last year. Others revolve around a handful of low-key meetings…
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#36: The 75-Year Flood (Part I)
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a relatively new country as far as the rest of the world is concerned. Situated on the Arabian Peninsula directly across the Persian Gulf from Iran, its modern fortune arose from beneath its own desert floor in the form of oil and gas. UAE’s initial ruler quickly reinvested much…
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#34: Pretzels and Beer
Continued from Blog #33: Munich Security Conference Hallway reputation. Personal brand. Leadership shadow. Regardless of the buzzwords we use to describe the way others think about us in the workplace, a bad reputation can be hard to shake. The concept isn’t exclusive to humans, either. Amsterdam banned the smoking of cannabis in public in an…
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#33: Munich Security Conference
“Rechts!” barked the man sitting in the backseat with me, craning his neck to look out the rear window. Upon hearing this, our driver firmly tugged the steering wheel with a smooth confidence that could only come from highly specialized government training. The vehicle lurched into the lane to our right and the engine revved…
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#32: Ivy League Pizza
“How many world leaders do you think are just completely out of their mind?”“A pretty sizeable percent.”-President Obama answering a question from Jerry Seinfeld during an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Royals, political leaders, and even some diplomats routinely get placed onto a pedestal making them appear larger-than-life. Indeed, members of such distinction…
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#31: San Francisco
“It is an odd thing, but every one who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco.”-Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray This is a continuation of Blog #29: APEC Leaders’ Summit. Through a combination of work-related activity and downtime, my coworkers and I are fortunate enough to be able to explore…
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#30: Operation Santa Claus
U.S. government employees who are experts in economics, politics, defense, agriculture, trade, security, technology, public relations, environmental issues, and other topics are dispersed in nearly 300 locales across the globe. But diplomacy is not a unilateral concept. In fact, it doesn’t work at all without reciprocity. This is precisely why there are a few thousand…
The Dark Passport 