Excellent Glossary of Diplomatic Terms

Excellent Glossary of terms: http://www.ediplomat.com/nd/glossary.htm http://www.washdiplomat.com/glossary.html Acronyms in American Diplomacy: http://www.aafsw.org/state/glossary1.htm

In the United States Foreign Service: In the United States Foreign Service, a system of personal ranks is applied which roughly corresponds to these diplomatic ranks. Personal ranks are differentiated as "Senior Foreign Service" (SFS) or "Foreign Service Officer" (FSO). The SFS ranks, in descending order, are Career Ambassador, awarded to career diplomats with extensive and distinguished service; Career Minister, the highest regular senior rank; Minister­Counselor; and Counselor. In U.S. terms, these correspond to 4­, 3­, 2­ and 1­star General and Flag officers in the military, respectively. Officers at these ranks may serve as Ambassadors and the most senior positions in diplomatic missions.

FSO ranks descend from FS­1, equivalent to a full Colonel in the military, to FS­9, the lowest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service personnel system.[2] (Most FSOs begin at the FS­5 or FS­6 level.) Personal rank is distinct from and should not be confused with the diplomatic or consular rank assigned at the time of appointment to a particular diplomatic or consular mission. In a large mission, several Senior Foreign Service Officers may serve under the Ambassador as Minister­Counselors, Counselors, First Secretaries, and Attaches; in a small mission, an FS­2 may serve as the lone Minister­Counselor of Embassy.

See also (Titles and Ranks in Diplomacy): http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/ 89585.pdf In the British Diplomatic Service: As in the US Foreign Service, the British Diplomatic Service differentiates between officers in the "Senior Management Structure" (SMS; equivalent to the Senior Civil Service grades of the Home Civil Service) and those in the "delegated grades". SMS officers are classified into three pay­bands, and will serve in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London as (in descending order of seniority) Permanent Under­Secretary, Directors­General, Directors, or Heads of Group; overseas they will be Ambassadors (High Commissioners in Commonwealth countries), or Consuls­General, Deputy Heads of Mission or Counsellors for larger posts.

(Deputy Heads of Mission at the historically most significant Embassies, for example those in Washington and Paris, are known as Ministers.)

In the "delegated grades", officers are graded by number from 1 to 7; the grades are grouped into bands lettered A­D (grades 1 and 2 are in Band A; 3 in B; 4 and 5 in C; and 6 and 7 in D). Overseas, B3­grade officers are Third Secretaries; C4s are Second

Secretaries; and C5s and D6s are First Secretaries. D7 officers are usually Deputy Heads of Mission in medium­sized posts or Heads of Mission in small posts.

In the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: As with other Commonwealth public servants, officers from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) are graded into four broadbands (BB1 to BB4), with the Senior Executive Service (SES Band 1 to SES Band 3) following above. Ambassadors, High Commissioners and Consuls­General usually come from the Senior Executive Service, although in smaller posts the head of mission may be a BB4 officer. Generally speaking (and there are variation in ranking and nomenclature between posts and positions), Counsellors are represented by BB4 officers; Consuls and First and Second Secretaries are BB3 officers and Third Secretaries and Vice Consuls are BB2 officers. DFAT only posts a limited number of low level BB1 staff abroad. In large missions a SES officer who is not the head of mission could be posted with the rank of Minister.

What Consulates Do: http://www.consular­corps­

college.org/CCC_Docs/What%20Consuls%20Do%20text.pdf Multilateral diplomacy Furthermore, outside this traditional pattern of bilateral diplomacy, as a rule on a permanent residency basis (though sometimes doubling elsewhere), certain ranks and positions were created specifically for multilateral diplomacy: •

A permanent representative is the equivalent of an ambassador, normally of that rank, but accredited to an international body (mainly by member—and possibly observer states), not to a head of state.

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A resident representative (or sometimes simply representative) is the equivalent — in rank and privileges — of an ambassador, but accredited by an international organization (generally a United Nations agency, or a Bretton Woods institution) to a country's government. The resident representative typically heads the country office of that international organization within that country.

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A special ambassador is a government's specialist diplomat in a particular field, not posted in residence, but often traveling around the globe.

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The U.S. Trade Representative is a diplomat of cabinet rank, in charge of U.S. delegations in multilateral trade negotiations (since 1962).

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The UN Secretary General personally mandates Special Envoys for a particular field, e.g. Africa's long­term AIDS problem, climate change negotiations, or ad

hoc as for a (civil) war zone; states, especially (regional) superpowers, may do the same, e.g.: •

To help with the Northern Ireland peace process, the United States has appointed a Special Envoy to Northern Ireland with the diplomatic rank of Ambassador. As of 2006, the position was occupied by Mitchell Reiss.

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During the 2006 democracy movement in Nepal, India sent on April 18 Karan Singh, who is related to royalty in both predominantly Hindu countries, as Special Envoy to neighbouring Nepal where increasingly violent opposition started its successful challenge of the king's autocratic rule.

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In 2005, Belgium created a former cabinet member, Pierre Chevalier Special Envoy of the OSCE presidency—in fact ahead of its 2006 turn as rotatory Chairman­in­Office of the organisation; the post was never formally created—to mediate in the Gazprom natural gas­pipeline crisis involving Russia, Ukraine and the EU.

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The EU appoints various Special Representatives (some regional, some thematic); e.g. in 2005—as a response to events in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan— the Council of the EU appointed Jan Kubis as its "Special Representative for Central Asia".

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A case sui generis is the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Consular counterpart Formally the consular career (ranking in descending order: Consul­General, Consul, Vice­Consul, Consular Agent; equivalents without diplomatic immunity include Honorary Consul­General, Honorary Consul, and Honorary Vice­Consul) forms a separate hierarchy. Many countries do not internally have a separate consular path or stream, and the meaning of "consular" responsibilities and functions will differ from country to country. Other titles, including "Vice Consul­General", have existed in the past. Consular titles may be used concurrently with diplomatic titles if the individual is assigned to an embassy. Diplomatic immunity is more limited for consular officials without other diplomatic accreditation, and broadly limited to immunity with respect to their official duties.

At a separate consular post, the official will have only a consular title. Officials at consular posts may therefore have consular titles, but not be involved in traditional consular activities, and actually be responsible for trade, cultural, or other matters.

Consular officers, being nominally more distant from the politically sensitive aspects of diplomacy, can more easily render a wide range of services to private citizens, enterprises, et cetera. They may be more numerous since diplomatic missions are posted only in a nation's capital, while consular officials are stationed in various other cities as well. However, it is not uncommon for individuals to be transferred from one hierarchy to the other, and for consular officials to serve in a capital carrying out strictly consular duties within the 'consular section' of a diplomatic post, e.g. within an embassy. Some countries routinely provide their Embassy officials with consular commissions, including those without formal consular responsibilities, since a consular commission allows the individual to legalize documents, sign certain documents, and undertake certain other necessary functions.

Depending on the practice of the individual country, "consular services" may be limited to services provided for citizens or residents of the sending country, or extended to include, for example, visa services for nationals of the host country.