Customer Reviews

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

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"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.

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!

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.

This book captures the essence of working for America in a US Embassy overseas. Forget the black tie and cocktail image of diplomacy. You are more likely to find a diplomat in a jeep seeking out opposition force leaders in Africa or searching the African bush for a lost American. Having served 11 years in the US Army Infantry and 24 years in the Foreign Service, I would rank serving overseas in the Foreign Service as equally as dangerous as serving on the front lines in an infantry unit. The advantage of an infantry unit is that you have many friendly comrades next to you while in the Foreign Service it is not uncommon to stand alone in the middle of a war or crisis. Most Americans do not know that we have lost more Ambassadors overseas than we have lost Generals. If you are seeking a real challenging career that is equally as rewarding, join the Foreign Service. However, the standards for candidates are the highest in the world. The book captures who we are and what we do for America everyday.

Finally, a book that explains what diplomats really do! This is a really good read, and a welcome departure from the usual staid, academic studies of the Foreign Service. Using first-hand accounts from diplomats and other embassy staff, this book sheds some light on a livelihood that's utterly foreign to most of us, and usually misunderstood. It should be read not only by those considering taking the very difficult foreign service exam, but by every taxpayer interested in what our government is doing to protect us in these dangerous times.

The book has its share of heroes -- from the guy who bucks the system to expose a brutal Latin American junta to the Ambassador who puts his body between an angry mob and some terrified gypsies. But to its credit, it also deals with the mundane -- giving voice to those who make the appointments, procure the pencils, and ensure the embassy cars run on time. Tight editing weaves these disparate accounts into a whole that's compelling. One gets the sense that these are folks who signed onto public service because they want to do more with their lives than chase a buck. There's plenty of adventure in their lives, but not always glamor.

One small quibble -- the portrait of a junior officer serving as the deputy spokesperson of a major embassy struck me as not very representative of the experience of most junior officers, who are more often assigned to visa work for their first couple of jobs. That said, I still found her story interesting. On balance, I found this to be a very educational and entertaining book that deserves to be widely read.

State Department personnel are chronically depicted in the press and in movies as effete social butterflies who don't care about the plights of those they are charged to serve. This book concisely refutes that cliche by clarifying the many activites carried out by agencies represented in U.S. diplomatic missions. This concise, well-organized introduction to the work the American government carries out abroad should be required reading for every high school student. I was especially moved by the accounts of the bravery and compassion of embassy personnel that were conveyed in the "One-day Journals from Embassy Staff."

Every applicant for the Foreign Service who is preparing for his or her Oral Examination should read this book.

What a grouch! Adiegoriv is complaining about a free gift from the Department of State. If you are planning to take the Foreign Service Written Exam (usually given in April), you need this book BEFORE you take the test. It is true that the State Department is currently sending Inside a U.S. Embassy to Foreign Service Written Exam passers as a gesture to help them understand more about embassies and real Foreign Service work. My suggestion: if you get a free book because you passed this difficult exam, pat yourself on the back and give the extra copy to a friend or family member who might be interested in your exciting future career in international affairs.

Inside a U.S. Embassy: How the Foreign Service Works for America is an anthology of brief essays and personal testimonies penned by experienced professionals and published by the American Foreign Service Association itself, that reveal the role a U.S. embassay plays oversees and the demands placed upon its public servants and diplomats. Focusing on individual stories rather than cold facts or an excess of statistics, Inside a U.S. Embassy Includes profiles of the wide range of U.S. embassy responsibilities, from ambassador and mission director to refugee coordinators, consular officer, security officer and more. Brief true tales include typical days in the life of the foreign service as related in one-day journals from individuals worldwide, and amazing glimpses of the foreign service in action during moments of crisis. A fascinating revelation of the tireless men and women who labor to represent America abroad.

First of all, taking up this book one shouldn't anticipate that he might be introduced to different stages of political decision-making processes at the embassy or in Washington. That's clearly not the purpose of the book. But irrespective of that, it is brisk and exciting, packed with the information, surely about the largest Foreign Service in the world.
The book is divided into three parts. The first is a matter-of-fact account about overall embassy jobs, which gives each position job description precisely on two pages. Those summaries are fairly elaborate to allow to distinguish, for instance, between Economic Officer and Commercial Officer.
The second part comes up with an insight from the daily agendas of Foreign Service members. Among numerous full-day schedules and activities, one can also find out there, that US Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, for instance, observes Nigerian national holidays, that doesn't seem to be general practice.
Finally, in the last part, Foreign Service members put in the picture their most interesting, but also unpleasant accounts of their time at a US Embassy.
All in all, a useful book for both, those, who have already been to an embassy, and those, who have not. An inaccuracy in the book, since it is updated and revised for 2005, is a reference to a number of the EU member-states (p.31), which today is twenty-seven instead of fifteen.

One of the strengths of this book is that it relates three facets into the life of a diplomat: the job itself, a day in the life, and "war stories." Of all the career resources I've seen this is the first one that broke a career into this logical structure. The only piece is missing is the all-important family piece, but that is well-covered in the companion book "Realities of Foreign Service Life" by Patricia Linderman.
Dorman's book describes each role in the embassy as written by the person in that role, starting at foreign national all the way to ambassador. The day in the life shares what a person in a specific function does that day. You wonder if those days are really that eventful, and seemingly they are. The "war stories" section, for lack of better name, are exciting and are full of high adventure overseas. "Diplomats do it unarmed" might be the corresponding bumper sticker.

This book's candid portrayal reinforces the need for the prospective diplomat (and their family) to know exactly what they are getting into. This book provides that insight, warts and all. Don't rely on the DoS's online interest survey or website to provide an objective viewpoint; if you're gonna buy that pricey subscription to "The Economist" you want to be sure this is what you want to do!

Fortunately this book is also current in that it somewhat reflects the post-9/11 world. However, with the Secretary Rice's January 2006 announcement of a strategic restructuring of the State Department, this book may need a second edition.