American Ambassadors

Contents Introduction 1. A Brief History of the Title 2. Who Gets to Be an Ambassador - The Traditional Route 3. The Nontraditional Route 4. The Last Steps - Clearance and Confirmation 5. What An Ambassador Does 6. Where Ambassadors Go 7. Why It Matters and How It Might Be Changed Acknowledgements Appendices Endnotes Index

Dennis Jett is a former American ambassador and current professor at Penn State University's School of International Affairs. His career in the U.S. Foreign Service spanned twenty-eight years and three continents, and his academic expertise focuses on international relations, foreign aid administration, and American foreign policy. Immediately prior to joining Penn State, he was dean of the International Center at the University of Florida for eight years. Jett's previous book, Why American Foreign Policy Fails: Unsafe at Home and Despised Abroad (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) was called a "bracing read" that analyzes how "American foreign policy has become completely captive to American domestic politics" by Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Jett has been interviewed on Jim Lehrer News Hour, CNN, NPR and other national news programs on a range of international issues including peacekeeping, democracy, Peru, Liberia, and terrorism. Additionally, he has written more than eighty opinion pieces for major newspapers including the International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Miami Herald.

"American Ambassadors is an engaging read for both those who know little to nothing about US foreign diplomacy and those familiar with the process yet intrigued by the nuances of the system. ... The book is very well organized and the chapters are arranged so as to be useful to both novices and professionals. ... Ambassador Jett has put together a thoroughly enjoyable book. ... This is a highly recommended book to anyone interested in the American style of diplomacy!" (Sean Cosden, H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences Online, networks.h-net.org, June, 2017)