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Best Sellers | | Home Career Diplomacy: Life and Work in the U.S. Foreign Service | |
|  | |  | | | Career Diplomacy: Life and Work in the U.S. Foreign Service | | | | | SKU:
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Usually ships in 1-2 business days | | Only 1 left in stock, order soon! | | | | | | The U.S. Foreign Service is sometimes derided, often underappreciated, occasionally praised, rarely examined, and almost never understood. And yet whether America's diplomacy succeeds or fails depends to a large extent on its Foreign Service professionals. "Career Diplomacy" is an insider's guide that examines the Foreign Service as an institution, a profession, and a career. Harry W. Kopp and Charles A. Gillespie, both of whom had long and distinguished careers in the Foreign Service, provide a full and well-rounded picture of the organization, its place in history, its strengths and weaknesses, and its role in American foreign affairs. Based on their own experiences and through interviews with over 85 current and former Foreign Service officials, the authors lay out what to expect in a Foreign Service career, from the entrance exam through midcareer and into the senior service - how to get in, get around, and get ahead. This book concludes with a stirring chapter on tomorrow's diplomats and the future of the Foreign Service as an institution. Readers will benefit from several appendices, which include a Department of State organization chart, core precepts of the Foreign Service, and internet resources. "Career Diplomacy" reveals what America's professional diplomats do and how they do it. It is a rare, first-hand look in to the life and work of this country's professional diplomats, who advance and protect U.S. national security interests around the globe. | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Harry W. Kopp | | Paperback: | 266 pages | | Publisher: | Georgetown University Press | | Publication Date: | 2008-10 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 1589012194 | | Product Length: | 8.94 inches | | Product Width: | 6.1 inches | | Product Height: | 0.81 inches | | Product Weight: | 0.93 pounds | | Package Length: | 8.9 inches | | Package Width: | 5.9 inches | | Package Height: | 0.9 inches | | Package Weight: | 0.95 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 19 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 19 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 34 found the following review helpful:
 The Foreign Service, Demystified Nov 13, 2008
By Christopher D. Helmkamp
I've had many informal chats with current and retired FSOs and heard many VIPs from the State Department speak about their careers over the past four years (first in Peace Corps and then coordinating conferences on diplomacy and national security here in DC). If I were to put together all of the bits and pieces I've picked up about the interagency process and life as a diplomat along the way, it still wouldn't amount to what I learned reading this book.
The book is very well written, with humor (perhaps the kind only past, current or future public servants will appreciate), concision and breadth that covers everything from the politics of the institution to the future of the career. It's also dead honest: it avoids creating any romantic notion of the foreign service and replaces it with a straightforward account upon which aspiring diplomats can set realistic expectations (or decide to pursue other careers).
If you are considering a career in the foreign service (at the Department of State, USAID, Foreign Commercial Service or Foreign Agricultural Service), or if you are interested in demystifying the structure of the US foreign service, this is a book you must read.
21 of 21 found the following review helpful:
Indispensible look at the U.S. Foreign Service Oct 31, 2008
By Robert G. Loftis
With all of the talk in the current political campaign about rebuilding America's diplomacy, it is critical that anyone interested in foreign affairs understand one of the essential tools of diplomacy: the men and women of the diplomatic service. This comprehensive but concise book is the best description of the work and life of the Foreign Service that I have read (and I have been in the FS nearly 30 years). It is an honest and unapologetic look at the strengths and weaknesses of the foreign service, crisply written, with voices from across the service. For anyone contemplating a career in diplomacy, this book should be your first stop. For everyone else, this book provides a clear and accessible view of a part of the federal government unfamiliar to most Americans.
24 of 25 found the following review helpful:
The past, present and future of the Foreign Service Nov 02, 2008
By Deron Aucoin
I first purchased Kopp and Gillespie's book as a citizen considering a career in the Foreign Service. Although it includes plenty of testimony from frontline diplomats making a heroic difference across the world, "Career Diplomacy" is more than a peek into the day to day of Foreign Service Officers (FSOs). It is part history of the service, part employee manual, and part crystal ball.
Already familiar with the typical Fortune 500 career ladder, Kopp and Gillespie detailed for me how a career in the Foreign Service would proceed. Included is everything from how the promotion and tenure process works, to how country assignments are determined, even to the text of the oath every new FSO recites (for me, one of the more inspiring points). The authors also spend time on the future of the Foreign Service: its "transformational" path and the new skills that will be required of its newest diplomats. For a book about an organization in the midst of generational change it is strongest for its contemporary and forward looking detail.
Most importantly for me though, and perhaps for others considering a career in the Foreign Service, "Career Diplomacy" has reminded me that the Foreign Service is more than just expatriate adventures in exotic faraway places. It is, at the end of the day, about serving your country. Something that I have long felt the call to do but have never been sure of where I would best fit. To that end, "Career Diplomacy" answered the right questions that have pushed my status from "considering" to "applying."
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 Not a book to read for fun. Nov 21, 2009
By Lance B. Hillsinger
"Career Diplomacy" is not a book to read just for fun. It is book to read if you are interested in becoming a foreign service officer.
Career Diplomacy is a book full of facts. We are told how diplomats are hired, trained, and promoted. We are given, complete with organizational chart, the structure of the State Department. We are shown, in a table format, what foreign service officers earn and in line item format what the the State Department spends on its various programs. The reader is simply bomabared with the dry details and minutea of the inner-workings of the State Department.
Weaved between these dry facts, are some genuinely interesting stories. We are told how diplomacy -- the diplomacy of a career diplomat -- saved Portugal from becoming a communist country. We are given "let-me-tell-what-happened-to-me" stories of lower ranking diplomats in Iraq. We are told how the State Department implemented an effective AIDS treatment program in Africa. More of such stories, and fewer charts and tables, would have made Career Diplomacy a more interesting book. However, doing so would have changed Career Diplomacy from its main puprose, that of an information guide for budding diplomats, into the realm of pleasure reading for the general reader.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 Required Reading (Kind of) Oct 18, 2010
By Adam Rabiner
This is not a general interest book. Career Diplomacy is, however, a MUST READ for anyone considering a career in diplomacy or already in the midst of the application process. Most readers with a cursory interest in diplomacy or statecraft are better served with more journalistic fare. Those already working for the State Department or other Federal agencies with employees abroad don't need this book because they have lived experiences. But if you are a potential or actual job applicant and really want to know the nuts and bolts of a job in Foreign Service this book is essential. This book will provide you with concrete information about what is expected of you, the application processes, the strengths and weaknesses of the system, tips on how to advance your career, and future trends in diplomacy. It will help you make decisions about your career and may even provide some additional confidence to help with your candidacy.
See all 19 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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