Members of Congress often travel abroad on official trips for business purposes in order to meet with governmental officials and gain first-had knowledge on issues relevant to foreign policy. The task of planning, executing and escorting these Congressional delegations, or CODELs, is given to members of the Department of State at the United States embassies… Read More "More No-tell CODELs"
Dean Rusk served as Secretary of State for eight controversial years, from 1961 through 1969, when public discomfort over his daughter’s interracial marriage prompted him to offer his resignation. (LBJ refused to accept it.) He ended up serving through the end of Johnson’s term. Born February 9, 1909, David Dean Rusk spent his early years…
How to Handle a Crisis – Ambassador Edition
As part of its Ambassadorial Seminar, the Foreign Service Institute gives each of the participants a copy of “This Worked for Me,” a collection of insights and best practices from recent ambassadors (thus the first-person voice throughout) to assist newly minted ambassadors on how to effectively conduct relations with their host-country counterparts while motivating and…
Baker’s Half Dozen — Six Precepts of Foreign Policy
A skilled diplomat and negotiator, James A. Baker III served as the Secretary of State during a period of tumultuous change, including the collapse of the Soviet Union, Operation Desert Storm, and the U.S. invasion of Panama. In these remarks, which lay out specific steps on Ukraine and are at times critical of President Obama, Secretary Baker…
A Brief History of the Consular Service
When most people think about consular matters, if they think about them at all, it’s only because they are having difficulties in a foreign country or because they have to apply for a visa to travel, study, or immigrate abroad. However, in focusing only on these functions, as important as they are, we also overlook…
Top Ten Things You Learn From a Hostage Situation
Sometimes it just ain’t easy working for the State Department. If you go through the lengthy history of the Foreign Service in the second half of the 20th Century, there are a surprising number of diplomats who have been held hostage. And while the situations and political context are very different, certain things do stand out.…
Death of an FSO, As Remembered by His Widow
Dennis Keogh had been Political Counselor in South Africa from 1980-83 and made 25 trips to Namibia. In the spring of 1984, he agreed to serve for a month as head of the new U.S. Liaison Office (USLO) in Windhoek. In that troubled region, which South Africa had administered since World War I without a… Read More "Death of an FSO, As Remembered by His Widow"
The State Department is not exactly known for its jocularity but once in a while, it can have its fair share of pranks. When April Fool’s Day rolls around, local officials may pull pranks on Foreign Service Officers, who in turn have occasionally played jokes on their fellow officers and superiors (which does not always… Read More "April Fool’s Day in the Foreign Service"
8 Weird Things You Didn’t Know About American Diplomats
OK, when you think about State Department types — if you think about them at all — chances are they’re pretty dull. And make no mistake, they do a lot of boring crap, just like the guys in the CIA or the Pentagon, except those guys have Bond movies and Seal Team Six and therefore…
A Unified Diplomatic Service for the 21st Century, Part III
The unusually strong response to Stephanie Kinney’s piece on the lack of core values within the Foreign Service — by far the most popular item we have posted to our site — led us to ask if she had ever written a paper formulating her ideas about a 21st century State Department. She had — first as…