Authors Amplified: Jonathan Addleton, ‘Dust of Kandahar’ Author and former U.S. ambassador to Mongolia

Global Atlanta invites you to join our Authors Amplified book talk series, this time with Jonathan Addleton, Dust of Kandahar author and former U.S. ambassador to Mongolia

Speaker

A five-time USAID country director (India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Mongolia and Central Asia), Jonathan Addleton also served as US Ambassador to Mongolia and USAID Representative to the European Union. He retired from the Foreign Service in January 2017, returning to his hometown of Macon, GA to teach at Mercer University. He now serves as Rector/President of Forman Christian College in Lahore, Pakistan. His several books include a memoir titled Some Far and Distant Place (University of Georgia Press) and an extended reflection of his assignment in Afghanistan titled The Dust of Kandahar: A Diplomat Among Warriors in Afghanistan (Naval Institute Press).

Diplomat Among Warriors in Afghanistan

The Dust of Kandahar provides a personal account of one diplomat’s year of service in America’s longest war. Ambassador Addleton movingly describes the everyday human drama of the American soldiers, local tribal dignitaries, government officials, and religious leaders he interacted and worked within southern Afghanistan.

Addleton’s writing is at its most vivid in his firsthand account of the April 2013 suicide bombing outside a Zabul school that killed his translator, a fellow Foreign Service officer, and three American soldiers. The memory of this tragedy lingers over Addleton’s journal entries, his prose offering poignant glimpses into the interior life of a U.S. diplomat stationed in harm’s way.

Georgia’s deep pool of international expertise is sometimes hidden in the ivory towers of academia or overshadowed by looming national figures. Sought-after thought leaders sometimes shine globally while being ignored in their own backyard.

With Authors Amplified, a monthly series of book talks open to subscribers and the public, Global Atlanta showcases authoritative local voices in foreign affairs and international business while highlighting the state’s intellectual contributions to important global conversations.

The Authors Amplified series is presented by the Atlanta Global Studies Center (AGSC), a partnership of Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia State University, funded in part by a US Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center grant, with a mission to empower the metro region’s global agenda.