American Ambassadors: A Guide for Aspiring Diplomats and Foreign Service Officers

Diplomats and Diplomacy

by Dennis C. Jett

If you ever wondered who becomes an American ambassador and why, this is the book for you. It describes how Foreign Service officers become ambassadors by rising up through the ranks, and why they typically make up about 70 percent of the total number of ambassadors. It also covers where the other 30 percent come from--the political appointees who get the job because they helped elect the president by supporting him as a campaign contributor, a political ally, or a personal friend. It explains why, despite being illegal and a threat to national security, selling the title of ambassador remains a common practice that is also unique to the United States. It considers why some suggestions for reform are misguided, what might be done, and why who the president is matters so much in determining how well the United States will be represented abroad.

This updated and revised edition of Jett's classic book not only provides a timely overview of American ambassadorship for Foreign Service Officers, aspiring diplomats, and interested citizens, but also calls for much-needed reform, describing the dire implications of failing to change our ambassadorial appointments process for the future of American diplomatic practice and foreign policy.

437 pages, Paperback

First published December 17, 2014

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history of American diplomacy.

[Alex Radtke · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look into a deliberately opaque process, there are plenty of anecdotes and tidbits to make this book worth recommending to someone with a passing interest. The introduction to the book, focused on John Lodge as an exemplar for the failings of the American diplomatic corps, was enough to convince me to check this out of the library. The quick and breezy history of American ambassadors (and plenipotentiaries or what-have-you) is engaging and does a wonderful job at placing the current state of affairs in context. The book focuses mostly on the process of becoming an ambassador, with a heavy emphasis in the latter sections on political appointees. Even the chapter, "What an Ambassador Does" does not go into the kind of detail that one might expect about exactly WHAT an ambassador DOES. There is also a lack of flow in the ideas of the book, which is particularly prevalent in the concluding chapter. There's an over-reliance on small case histories that leads to a somewhat stilted structure, which is then further exacerbated by some odd attempts at segueing (for example, there's a free-floating section where he tries to condemn the "fact-free" writing of Dick Morris, and while Dick deserves such condemnation, it doesn't gel with the surrounding text).