Customer Reviews

American Diplomats: The Foreign Service at Work

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I am currently going through the hiring process for the Foreign Service and purchased this book to gain an understanding of what types of responsibilities American diplomats take on abroad and at home.

American Diplomats provides first hand accounts of economic, political, managerial and diplomatic functions carried out by many Foreign Service Officers over the span of a hundred years. The accounts are professionally written but at the same time seem to provide very frank opinions - and even grievances - surrounding the challenges that diplomats face. Some examples include: meeting with the King of Saudi Arabia, challenges in maintaining the safety of staff in war torn Colombia, negotiating in a UN setting, getting held hostage in Iran after the revolution and trying to keep Israel from attacking Iraq during the first gulf war.

I very much enjoyed reading the narratives. One drawback to this book (when compared to others) is that most of the contributors were higher level / senior foreign service officers and the experiences they described were most likely not representative of the work and life of the average FSO. That's alright; there are several other books on Amazon that effectively depict the average FSO life. "Living with Uncle Sam," "Bush Hat Black Tie," "Realities of Foreign Service," "Inside A US Embassy" are all good books as well.