Inside a U.S. Embassy: How the Foreign Service Works for America [Paperback]

Shawn Dorman (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2009

Who works in an embassy? What do diplomats actually do? Inside a U.S. Embassy offers an up-close and personal look into the lives of the diplomats and specialists who make up the U.S. Foreign Service, taking readers inside embassies and consulates in over 50 countries, providing detailed descriptions of Foreign Service jobs and first-hand accounts of diplomacy in action.

Gain a sense of the key role played by each member of an embassy team from Paris to Kabul, from Bogota to Beijing, and places in between. Travel into the rainforests of Thailand with an environmental affairs officer, face rampaging militias with a political officer in East Timor, and join an ambassador on a midnight trip into a Macedonian refugee camp to quell a riot.

The book includes profiles of diplomats and specialists around the world serving in Foreign Service positions -- from the ambassador to the security officer, the consular officer to the IT specialist. Also included is a selection of day-in-the-life accounts from 17 different countries, each describing an actual day on the job. The story section includes 26 tales from the field that give a sense of the extraordinary: the coups, the evacuations, the civil wars, the hardships and rewards of representing America to the world.

Inside a U.S. Embassy was published by the American Foreign Service Association in 2003, and updated and revised in 2005. Over 70,000 copies have sold.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Shawn Dorman is Associate Editor of the Foreign Service Journal and runs the book program for the American Foreign Service Association. She has written extensively on issues related to the diplomatic career. A former U.S. Foreign Service officer, she has served in Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia and Russia, and in the State Department Operations Center in Washington, D.C. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc.; 2 edition (August 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964948826
• ISBN-13: 978-0964948822
• Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 6.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #150,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Very informative May 9, 2004

By Lady Murasaki

Format:Paperback

"Inside a U.S. Embassy" is a great start in learning more about the Foreign Service, focusing on the individuals who serve the United States from abroad. It covers a diverse group of people and is quite easy to read. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 consists of profiles of Foreign Service employees in "each type of position in a typical U.S. embassy," including Ambassador, Political Officer, Consular Officer, Office Management Specialist, and Foreign Service National. The profiles included are of both men and women who have served in different parts of the world. However, like a previous reviewer, I wonder if they could have chosen to do a profile of a Junior Officer that is more consistent with what Junior Officers are expected to do. She didn't seem so "junior" to me! Part 2 consists of one-day hour-by-hour journals from embassy staff around the world. I liked the fact that they included the journal of a Foreign Service spouse, since families also play a large role in the Foreign Service. The most personal, and fascinating, part was Part 3, which has "tales from the field" from Foreign Service staff with experiences including the evacuation of an embassy (Pakistan), the assassination of an ambassador (Afghanistan), a coup (Guinea-Bissau), and organizing a Little League in the Ukraine. Also included in the book are a map of Department of State locations and a list of foreign affairs and Foreign Service resources.

Being curious about what the Public Diplomacy section does, I was a little confused about finding the term "Public Diplomacy" in only one place in the book (in the "Embassy Flow Chart") and instead finding a profile of a "Public Affairs Officer." While I'm assuming a Public Affairs Officer works in the Public Diplomacy section, what's the difference between a Public Affairs Officer and a Public Diplomacy Officer (a term used on the Department of State website). A minor gripe.

Also, I would have found a general introduction to the structure of an embassy (i.e. a description of the different sections - Consular, Economic, Political, Public Diplomacy, and Administrative) really useful. On the cover of the book, it says "How the Foreign Service Works for America." I'm quite satisfied with the profiles and comments from actual Foreign Service Officers and Foreign Service Specialists; however, I think that in order to get a better picture of what they do, we should be informed about the structure of the organization they work for and how they got their start.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful January 13, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This is one of my favorite books on the Foreign Service, and I would recommend this book to any prospective FSOs or to anyone remotely related to one. Part I provides various profiles of the different embassy jobs available. Not only does it include profiles of the standard career tracks (political, economic, etc.) but it also discusses other positions, such as environmental officers. Before I read this book, I had no idea that there even were environmental officers. There are many more people working in an embassy than is evident from initial research into the foreign service, and this section is particularly helpful in demonstrating the variety of jobs one can hold. It also gives a brief bio of each person it profiles, which was very helpful because you can see the varied backgrounds that FSOs have. There are also bios on USAID and other government officials that work abroad in there. Part II provides daily journals of people in various positions, which is helpful both to see what these officers really do and to see what kinds of hours they keep. This section (and Part III) also lets people get glimpses of life in other countries. Finally, Part III contains short essays that cover both the good points and the bad points of Foreign Service life. I agree with another reviewer in that the junior officer position was not typical (possibly because they profiled someone who had received a State Department fellowship), but I believe the rest of the profiles are. Overall, a very helpful book!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Career guidance for future diplomats - but a bit more August 2, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

While "Inside A U.S. Embassy" is essentially a recruiting tool intended to offer foreign service applicants a look at what they're in for, it's also useful for anyone curious as to what the people from the US State Department actually do behind embassy walls in their far-off and often exotic postings.

The book is constructed as a series of short essays by foreign service personnel. Part 1 has them describing what they actually do, from Ambassador (Colombia) and Deputy Chief of Mission (Cyprus) down to Environmental Officer (Cote d'Ivoire) Junior Officer (South Africa) and even Marine Security Guard (Armenia).

More specifically, Part 2 is set up as day-in-the-life diaries from people like a Consular Officer (visiting Americans in a jail in the Phillipines), USAID Mission Director (economic development meetings in Mongolia), and even spouse (packing up and saying goodbye from yet another move, this time from Armenia).

The tone overall is positive without being pollyannish (an FS employee based in Nigeria gripes about how post-9/11 security scanning of his mail delays it and turns it "crispy). They even discuss the dark side of the job: the stories in Part 3 ("Tales from the Field") include in it the story of the kidnapping and death of Ambassador Adolph Dubs in Afghanistan in 1979, the bombing of the Kenya and Tanzania embassies in 1998, and, of course, the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1980.

If you're considering joining the US Foreign Service (if you pass their tests, which are next set to begin in April 2004) or just want to know what embassy people do other than push cookies, this is a very useful and interesting book.