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

Who works in an embassy? What do diplomats actually do? Inside a U.S. Embassy is the only book that truly answers these questions. Inside a U.S. Embassy is a unique resource, 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 to the IT professional. Also included is a selection of day-in-the-life entries from 17 different countries, each describing an actual day on the job in an embassy. 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 and edited by a former Foreign Service Political Officer. Updated and revised for 2005.

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.