{"product_id":"9781612772400","title":"Safirka: An American Envoy","description":"\u003cp\u003ePeter S. Bridges’s service as an American ambassador to Somalia capped his three decades as a career officer in the American Foreign Service. \u003cem\u003eSafirka\u003c\/em\u003e, a frank description of his experiences in Somalia and elsewhere, offers pointed assessments of American foreign policy and policymakers. Bridges recounts his service in Panama during a time of turmoil over the Canal; in Moscow during the Cuban missile crisis; in Prague for bleak years after the Soviet invasion; in Rome when Italian terrorists first began to target Americans; and in key positions in three Washington agencies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Somalia Bridges managed the largest American aid program in sub-Sahara Africa. He dealt with a postcolonial regime, hobbled both by traditional clan rivalries and by a leader who cared far less about Somalia’s people and progress than about maintaining his control over that poverty-stricken, strategic – which soon erupted in civil war.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kent State University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47180007080176,"sku":"9781612772400","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781612772400_p0.jpg?v=1769903829","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781612772400","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}