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

by Shawn Dorman

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,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0964948826
• ISBN13: 9780964948822
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Potomac Books
• Length: 136 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.5" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Foreign Service Security Officer's Review

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.

Don't believe everything you see in the movies!

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.

Great Source of Information

Inside a U.S. Embassy gives readers an excellent view of the inner workings of an U.S. Embassy. It gives backgrounds on many different employees of the embassyes and the work they have done. It also walks you through the average day of many people working at the embassyes throughout the world. I would recommend the book to anyone who would like to learn more on the topic. I feel it also gives a better look into foreign service life that Realities of the Foreign Service where the essays become repeatitive.

Wonderful

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!

Definitely worth reading.

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.