58 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL FS HERITAGE For 40 years, the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) has served the Foreign Service community by capturing, preserving, and sharing the experiences of U.S. diplomats, ensuring that their historical insights and lived experiences continue to inform and inspire practitioners, students, policymakers, and the broader public. ADST was founded in 1986, when Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Director Stephen P. Low and Ambassador Richard B. Parker envisioned a nonpartisan, nongovernmental 501(c)(3) educational membership organization whose mission would be to support instruction at FSI and the future National Foreign Affairs Training Center (NFATC), then in the early stages of construction. ADST was conceived to not only support The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training celebrates four decades of work to support diplomats and foster greater public appreciation for their work. BY FRAN LESKOVAR Fran Leskovar is ADST’s special projects coordinator, focused on integrating emerging technologies into diplomatic tradecraft training and instruction. His work includes developing AI-based training tools and initiatives for diplomatic practitioners, as well as digital storytelling projects designed to educate the broader American public about our nation’s diplomatic history. A passionate oral historian, Leskovar is committed to making the experiences of past generations accessible. Building a Constituency for U.S. Diplomacy diplomatic tradecraft instruction at FSI/NFATC but also foster greater appreciation for U.S. diplomatic tradition and practice among Americans. As Low reflected in the late 1980s: “The association can help a great deal to make the new campus not just another training center, but a center of focus for American diplomacy. It can help build that constituency that we always complain that we don’t have; a constituency of Americans who recognize that we’ve played a role in the world and that we can feel some pride in that.” The Oral History Project Is Born Around the same time that Low and Parker were laying the foundation for ADST, newly retired Foreign Service Officer Charles Stuart Kennedy was beginning an effort that would eventually become one of its signature programs. The inspiration came while attending the funeral of his former boss, Ambassador Burke Elbrick. As Kennedy later explained in his oral history: “I realized how many stories [Elbrick] had told us in Belgrade about things he did as a junior officer, and what he had done throughout his career, and I thought, ‘Gee, somebody really should have gotten those stories on the record.’ I thought maybe somebody better start doing something about it. I started to see the glimmers of an oral history program.” Together with another retired consular officer, Vic Wolf, Kennedy quickly set about turning the idea into reality, identifying best practices in oral history, and exploring funding ISTOCKPHOTO/RA3RN
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