Book Club - Lessons from the Edge

Registration opens one month in advance.

Abstract

Lessons from the Edge is an inspiring and urgent memoir by the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine—a pioneering diplomat who spent her career advancing democracy in the post-Soviet world, and who electrified the nation by speaking truth to power during the first impeachment of President Trump. Throughout her career with the State Department, Marie Yovanovitch witnessed the corrosive effect of corruption, injustice and instability. As Ambassador to Ukraine, her third ambassador post, she saw how President Vladimir Putin adeptly exploited corrupt leaders in neighboring countries and undermined their developing democracies. Nowhere was Putin’s aggression clearer than in Ukraine where Russia meddled in elections, launched cyberattacks, peddled misinformation, illegally annexed Crimea, invaded the Donbas, and attacked Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea.

Her diplomatic career came crashing down when she was targeted by a smear campaign and abruptly recalled from her post in Kyiv, Ukraine. She has reclaimed her own narrative, first with her lauded congressional testimony during the first impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump, and now with this powerful memoir: the dramatic saga of one woman’s role at the vanguard of American foreign policy during a time of upheaval, for herself and for our country.

About the Author

Marie Yovanovitch served as the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan, in addition to other senior government positions during her thirty-three-year diplomatic career. She retired from the State Department in 2020 and is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a non-resident fellow at Georgetown University. She has received multiple awards, including the Presidential Distinguished Service Award (twice), the Secretary’s Diplomacy for Freedom Award, the Trainor Award for Excellence in the Conduct of Diplomacy, and the PEN/Benenson Courage Award.