How to be a diplomat

What are the characteristics of a great diplomat? Robert D. Blackwill (Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs) once wrote that great diplomats must possess an abiding interest in and passion for the art and craft of diplomacy and international relations. “If this subject matter does not feed you,” he wrote, “if you do not have a compelling instinct to learn about the world, pursue a different profession.”

Here in the United States, a diplomat for foreign service is expected to have hold a Master’s degree and should choose a career track: Consular, Economic, Management, Political, and Public Diplomacy. It helps to know several languages.

U.S. News reported that “one of the core goals of a U.S. diplomat is to establish as productive a relationship as possible between the U.S. and another nation, whether the country is friendly or hostile.”

Diplomats come from all walks of life.

Born to Indian immigrant parents, Nikki Haley served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations (2017–2018) and went on to become the first Indian-American to hold office in South Carolina. The actress Shirley Temple served as United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia from 1989–1992. Army General Colin Powell was the first African-American Secretary of State. President Jimmy Carter’s legacy (Camp David, 1978) emphasized global human rights and those peace talks were consistent with his own beliefs on the necessity of living life in a moral way.

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