David Ramseur has been a major figure in Alaska politics for over 30 years. He served as press secretary, communications director, chief of staff, and foreign policy advisor to Alaska Governors Steve Cowper and Tony Knowles and to Anchorage Mayor and U.S. Senator Mark Begich. Today we are discussing Ramseur’s 2017 book Melting the Ice Curtain which tells the story of the courage and persistence of the Alaskan and Russian citizen-diplomats who stared down the Cold War to bridge the gap between Alaska and Russia, which are separated at their closest point by just 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) between Little and Big Diomede islands. David was inspired by his many visits to the USSR and Russia, including his time living and working there in the early 90s. He began researching this book in earnest in 2015 by interviewing more than 130 key players and examining enormous amounts of archived materials which were being stored all over the US and Russia. Currently, David is a visiting scholar in public policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage's Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER).
