{"id":3015,"date":"2015-03-07T05:55:12","date_gmt":"2015-03-07T05:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=3015"},"modified":"2016-08-22T07:07:42","modified_gmt":"2016-08-22T07:07:42","slug":"how-do-you-become-an-ambassador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-do-you-become-an-ambassador\/","title":{"rendered":"How do you become an ambassador?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Richard Waterman<\/a>, University of Kentucky<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In December 2014 President Barack Obama nominated Colleen Bell \u2013 a soap opera producer \u2013 as the country\u2019s next ambassador to Hungary. Before Bell\u2019s confirmation vote, Obama\u2019s 2008 Republican rival, Senator John McCain, took to the Senate floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand how the game is played,\u201d McCain protested<\/a>, \u201cbut [Hungary] is on the verge of ceding its sovereignty to a neo-fascist dictator getting in bed with Vladimir Putin, and we\u2019re going to send the producer of The Bold and The Beautiful as the ambassador?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Colleen Bell, producer of the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful \u2013 and ambassador to Hungary.<\/span>
\nHelga Esteb\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Further underscoring McCain\u2019s point, other Obama nominees have included individuals<\/a> who either lacked relevant language skills, or failed to have a detailed understanding of the history and politics of the country to which they were assigned.<\/p>\n

But criticism of ambassadorial appointments shouldn\u2019t be limited to President Obama. Research by John Bretting, Joseph Stewart and myself has shown that in previous administrations, important ambassadorships have often gone to the most connected \u2013 over the most qualified \u2013 individuals.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a pattern that could have international repercussions, especially in volatile countries where even the slightest political missteps come with consequences.<\/p>\n

Obama takes a page from his predecessors<\/h2>\n

To serve as ambassador to the Court of St. James, President George W Bush nominated Robert H Tuttle<\/a> \u2013 whose background was in running car dealerships. Bush also appointed his former co-owner of the Texas Rangers to serve as ambassador to France<\/a>, while rewarding a number of major campaign contributors with appointments to ambassadorial posts in countries like the Bahamas, Belize, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.<\/p>\n

The same tendency to reward contributors is true of Bush\u2019s predecessors Bill Clinton, George H W Bush and Ronald Reagan \u2013 and even includes examples like FDR\u2019s 1938 appointment of Joe Kennedy, Sr. as ambassador to the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The practice of using ambassadorships to reward political supporters stretches back decades. For example, in 1939, Joe Kennedy, Sr was appointed ambassador to the United Kingdom.<\/span>
\nWikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Such appointments have contributed to the common perception that presidents only reward contributors, political allies and friends with quality ambassadorial positions. And this, in turn, has created the impression that ambassadors are merely figureheads, fit only for entertaining foreign dignitaries.<\/p>\n

Ambassadors do play a critical role<\/h2>\n

It should be pointed out that the car dealer also happened to be a respected businessman with a Harvard degree. Other appointees who, on the surface, may appear to be no more than beneficiaries of their fundraising prowess, nonetheless have important real world experience that may be useful in an ambassadorial post.<\/p>\n

Savvy ambassadors are important to any administration. As Tim Chorda, the President of the Council of American Ambassadors, noted in a 2013 Washington Post article<\/a>, in trade relations there is<\/p>\n

a\u00a0very heavy emphasis on the ambassador as\u00a0part of the sales team, in a good sense, for the United States\u2026 The strength of the United States derives from its wealth, the same way the strength of Qatar derives from its oil wealth. And\u00a0the ambassador and the embassy need to be advocates for that \u2013\u00a0not only advancing opportunity for the sale of products and services, but when a problem arises, going in and solving it, helping the company to solve it and get on with their business.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the same article, the Washington Post\u2019s Lydia DePillis added that \u201cthough the ambassador might not claim credit for completed peace treaties or trade deals, the final version is usually the product of extensive negotiations in which the ambassador is intimately involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, ambassadors do<\/em> perform important functions; they\u2019re not merely party animals, and their actions can have far-reaching consequences.<\/p>\n

For example, in 1990, US ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie \u2013 a career diplomat and George H W Bush appointee \u2013 did not send a clear enough signal to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein that his invasion of Kuwait would be met with strong military resistance. Some have argued that \u2013 if not for her blunder \u2013 the first Gulf War could have been averted.<\/p>\n

What about Foreign Service Officers?<\/h2>\n

Foreign Service Officers are career diplomats who are employed by the US State Department. Many are appointed as ambassadors.<\/p>\n

What sort of ambassadorial positions do these highly skilled diplomats receive? Given their language skills and detailed knowledge of specific countries and regions, one might assume that they receive critically important appointments.<\/p>\n

Yet a quantitative analysis<\/a> by John Bretting, Joseph Stewart and myself revealed that Foreign Service Officers often receive appointments to countries that are lower on the UN\u2019s Human Development Index, and are assigned to countries that have less trade with the US.<\/p>\n

For the study, we also conducted a survey of State Department employees, and found that career Foreign Service Officers receive appointments to less prominent and desirable countries. Additionally, the more degrees ambassadors possess, the more likely they are to be appointed to less desirable countries.<\/p>\n

This occurs regardless of the sitting president\u2019s political affiliation: Presidents George H W Bush and Bill Clinton both displayed similar patterns in making their appointments.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, those with political campaign experience, those who previously served as administration officials, and those with personal ties to a president are more likely to receive better ambassadorial assignments. Such findings are consistent with the conventional wisdom that presidents do not reward individuals with high levels of experience to important posts.<\/p>\n

While unqualified appointees can certainly be bad for foreign policy, they can also reflect poorly on the sitting president. Last year, President Obama nominated hotel magnate (and campaign bundler) George Tsunis as US ambassador to Norway. After Tsunis botched questions at his confirmation hearing, Norwegian Americans petitioned senators to reject his nomination; Tsunis eventually withdrew his name from consideration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite such examples, there\u2019s little indication that future presidents will promote policy over politics. But instead of pursuing \u201cthe bold and the beautiful,\u201d they might want to place greater credence in the savvy and the skilled.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
\nRead the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Richard Waterman, University of Kentucky In December 2014 President Barack Obama nominated Colleen Bell \u2013 a soap opera producer \u2013 as the country\u2019s next ambassador to Hungary. Before Bell\u2019s confirmation vote, Obama\u2019s 2008 Republican rival, Senator John McCain, took to the Senate floor. \u201cI understand how the game is played,\u201d McCain protested, \u201cbut [Hungary] […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":6952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[46,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3015"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6955,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3015\/revisions\/6955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}