Career Diplomacy ─ Life and Work in the US Foreign Service

While this overview of the US Foreign Service is targeted toward those interested in joining the Foreign Service as a career, it will also interest general readers, students, and journalists due to its accessible writing style and detailed content on the history and structure of the organization and its role in American foreign affairs. Authors Kopp and Gillespie, former Foreign Service agents, draw on their own experiences and on interviews with 100 current and former Foreign Service officials. They discuss what to expect in a Foreign Service career, from the entrance exam through five career tracks to senior service, and offer inside details on interagency conflict, budgets, analysis of specific missions, dissent within the organization, and the pros and cons of the practice of diplomatic immunity. Appendices offer a Department of State organization chart, Foreign Service core precepts, a list of those interviewed for the book, and list of websites and blogs, plus extensive chapter notes and a glossary. This second edition addresses major changes in the organization since 2007: deepening cooperation with the US military, the changing role of the Foreign Service in Iraq, and the surge in Foreign Service hiring at the Department of State and the US Agency for International Development. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Harry W. Kopp is a former foreign service officer and consultant in international trade. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Trade Policy in the Carter and Reagan administrations and his foreign assignments included Warsaw and Brasilia. He is now president of Harry Kopp, LLC, a consulting company. He is the author ofCommercial Diplomacy and the National Interest.

Charles A. Gillespie was a former foreign service officer and was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs; American ambassador to Grenada, Colombia, and Chile; and Special Assistant to the President on the National Security Council Staff.