Green Zone Diary

Green Zone Diary: A Diplomat's War Story is a vivid insider's account by a State Department Foreign Service Officer posted in the Middle East during the early 2000s. Centered on Baghdad's Green Zone, Madsen takes us behind the scenes of a war effort with heartwarming and heartbreaking honesty. As relentless bureaucracy alternates with tragedy, the reader is offered a glimpse of war-time diplomatic tasks we rarely stop to think about: signing death certificates of people you admire or coordinating a return of a minor who inexplicably found himself in Iraq.

Separated from the chaos of the war only by office walls, Madsen faces an additional struggle: to find her place and safety among the soldiers and private contractors alongside she swore to serve.