In my three and a half decades as a U.S. Foreign Service officer, proudly serving five presidents and ten secretaries of state from both parties, I’ve never seen an attack on diplomacy as damaging, to both the State Department as an institution and our international influence, as the one now underway.
A foreign service officer resigned from the State Department effective Thursday, writing in a blistering op-ed in The Washington Post that he could no longer serve in "The Complacent State," particularly in the wake of the El Paso mass shooting.
Author Peter Van Buren's big misdeed: telling it like it is.
Michael Ratney's term ended on June 24, 2022. Michael Ratney, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, is the Acting Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute (FSI). Ratney served most recently as Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. Previously, he was the […]
Department of State Suggested FSOT Reading List Below is a list of reading material suggested by the Department of State to help you pass the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) and become a diplomat. This page is a great resource, and I recommend you review the suggestions and consider purchasing a publication in the area(s) you believe
I worked at the State Department for 27 years and was proud to watch it become more diverse. Until President Trump.
In a piece drawn from his book “War on Peace: Revised and Updated,” Ronan Farrow writes about the damage done to the State Department by Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump, and the struggles by the Biden Administration to restore the power of diplomacy.
Officials are expressing concern over a series of departures of high-ranking diplomats at the State Department, with one former official warning that "having so many vacancies in essential places is a disaster waiting to
As Tillerson loses his grip, diplomats brace themselves for a Cabinet shake-up that could elevate two military hawks. “There is a lot of worry that he might be even more antagonistic toward the foreign service than Tillerson was,” one staffer said. “Pompeo they think of as more calculating and more destructive.”
A foreign service officer resigned from the State Department effective Thursday, writing in a blistering op-ed in The Washington Post that he could no longer serve in “The Complacent State,” particularly in the wake of the El Paso mass shooting.
The American Foreign Service Association said it would ask a court to compel the production of the documents, known as "Certificates of Demonstrated Competence," if the department does not do so voluntarily by the end of Thursday.
So far, only one defendant, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, has appeared in the case, and prosecutors say they're worried information they provide to the company's attorneys could end up in the hands of other defendants or Russian spy agencies.
Anxiety and listless days as a foreign-policy bureaucracy confronts the possibility of radical change
President Donald Trump on Friday fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, the latest in a series of dismissals of independent government watchdogs that have come in the wake of the President’s acquittal on articles of impeachment earlier this year.
Donald Trump keeps using that word, "McCarthyism." I don't think it means what he thinks it means.
Trump appointees reportedly harassed career employees at the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, accusing them of being “disloyal” “traitors” and part of the “Deep State.”
The State Department's acting inspector general, Stephen Akard, is keeping his old job — raising concerns in Foggy Bottom.
Outraged citizens and lawmakers wondered why the State Department celebrated "International Pronouns Day" on Wednesday amid a series of global crises they argued better deserved its attention.
State Department officials involved in US embassy security were not made aware of imminent threats to four specific US embassies, two State Department officials tell CNN, further undermining President Donald Trump’s claims that the top Iranian general he ordered killed earlier this month posed an imminent threat to the diplomatic outposts.
Marie Yovanovitch cites ‘concerted campaign’ in testimony before closed-door session
An official ceremony will honor a diplomat who paid a steep price to cross the master of realpolitik.
Democrats blasted the Friday-night dismissal as an assault on the rule of law.
They sort through millions of dollars worth of diplomatic gifts on behalf of the government.
Philip Reeker, a veteran foreign service officer, became the latest State Department official to defy the Trump administration.
A previously unreported breach reveals new details of Russian access to U.S. government communications.
American forces are evacuating thousands of U.S. citizens from war-torn Lebanon. But smaller evacuations take place quite often and receive barely a mention in the media — the evacuation of families and non-essential personnel from U.S. embassies in countries that have become dangerous.
Philip T. Reeker's term ended on July 31, 2021. Ambassador Philip T. Reeker had led the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs since March 2019. Prior to taking up duties in Washington, from 2017, Ambassador Reeker was Civilian Deputy and Policy Advisor to the Commander of U.S. European Command, in Stuttgart, Germany. He served as […]
Mary Elizabeth Taylor, the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, submitted her resignation on Thursday, saying that the president's actions 'cut sharply against my core values and convictions.'
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CHICAGO — Anne Smedinghoff had a quiet ambition and displayed a love of global affairs from an early age, joining the U.S. Foreign Service straight out of college and volunteering for missions in p…
If you are trying to line up a plum appointment abroad, are you better off diligently plugging away in the Foreign Service, or making a sizable...
Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen says the new diplomatic post is a nod to the digital world's impact on people's day-to-day lives, which he says is greater than most nations' impact.
Are you interested in becoming a U.S. Foreign Service Officer (FSO)/diplomat in 2024? Then this is the guide for you!Along with a discussion on the process to become an FSO/diplomat, I will also share with you the steps you can take to best prepare for the application, personal narratives, Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT), and
Career Diplomacy is an insider's guide to the Foreign Service as an institution, a profession, and a career. In this thoroughly revised third edition, Kopp and Naland provide an authoritative and candid account of the life and work of professional US diplomats, who advance and protect this country's national security interests around the globe.
As U.S. diplomats defy the president and the secretary of State to testify before impeachment investigators, they’re being hailed as heroes by colleagues who’ve long felt abused.
The outgoing US ambassador to Panama issued a scathing critique of President Donald Trump and his foreign policies in an op-ed.
"Foreign service officers are wondering if it is safe to express concerns about policy, even behind closed doors," the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine said during remarks at Georgetown University.
