Ambassadors are the highest-ranking diplomats of the U.S. and are usually based at the embassy in the host country. They are under the jurisdiction of the Department of State and answer directly to the secretary of state; however, ambassadors serve "at the pleasure of the President", meaning they can be dismissed at any time. Appointments change regularly for various reasons, such as reassignment or retirement.
An ambassador may be a career Foreign Service Officer (career diplomat – CD) or a political appointee (PA). In most cases, career foreign service officers serve a tour of approximately three years per ambassadorship, whereas political appointees customarily tender their resignations upon the inauguration of a new president.
Note that the information in this list is subject to change due to regular personnel changes resulting from retirements and reassignments. The State Department posts updated lists of ambassadors approximately monthly, accessible via an interactive menu-based website.[3][7][8]
Ambassadors to international organizations
Ambassadors to the United Nations
Current ambassadors from the United States to the United Nations:
Other international organizations
Current ambassadors from the United States to other international organizations:
Ambassadors-at-large
Current ambassadors-at-large from the United States with worldwide responsibility:[12][13]
Other officials with the rank of ambassador
Officials who were granted the rank of ambassador in their senate confirmations:
Office of the United States Trade Representative
U.S. State Department
Other chiefs of mission
Senior diplomatic representatives of the United States hosted in posts other than embassies. Unlike other consulates, these persons report directly to the Secretary of State.
Special envoys, representatives, and coordinators
These diplomatic officials report directly to the Secretary of State. Many oversee a portfolio not restricted to one nation, often an overall goal, and are not usually subject to Senate confirmation.[14][13][15] Unlike the State Department offices and diplomats listed in other sections of this Article, the offices and special envoys/representatives/coordinators listed in this Section are created and staffed by direction of top Federal Executive administrators – primarily U.S. Presidents and Secretaries of State – whose political or organizational management philosophies may not be shared by their successors.[16][17][18] As such, many of these positions may go unfilled upon assumption of office by successor Presidential Administrations, with their offices sometimes merged with or subsumed into other offices, or abolished altogether.
Nations without exchange of ambassadors
Bhutan: According to the U.S. State Department, "The United States and the Kingdom of Bhutan have not established formal diplomatic relations; however, the two governments have informal and cordial relations."[19] Informal contact with the nation of Bhutan is maintained through the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.[19]
Iran: On April 7, 1980, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution.[20] On April 24, 1981, the Swiss government assumed representation of U.S. interests in Tehran, and Algeria assumed representation of Iranian interests in the United States.[21] Currently, Iranian interests in the United States are represented by the government of Pakistan. The U.S. Department of State named Iran a "State Sponsor of Terrorism" on January 19, 1984.[22]
North Korea: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is not on friendly terms with the United States, and while talks between the two countries are ongoing, there is no exchange of ambassadors. Sweden functions as Protective Power for the United States in Pyongyang and performs limited consular responsibilities for U.S. citizens in North Korea.[23]
Taiwan: With the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China in 1979, the United States has not maintained official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Relations between Taiwan and the United States are maintained through an unofficial instrumentality, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, with headquarters in Taipei and field offices in Washington, D.C., and twelve other U.S. cities. The Taipei Office of the American Institute in Taiwan, a non-profit, public corporation, functions as a de facto embassy, performing most consular functions and staffed by Foreign Service Officers who are formally "on leave".[26]
Notable past ambassadors
Many well-known individuals have served the United States as ambassadors, or in formerly analogous positions such as envoy, including several who also became President of the United States (indicated in boldface below). Some notable ambassadors have included:
Ambassadors killed in office
Eight United States Ambassadors have been killed in office – six of them by armed attack and the other two in plane crashes.[27]
^The U.S. Embassy in Kabul transferred operations to Doha, Qatar, on August 31, 2021, following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.[9][10] Since December 31, 2021, the U.S. Interests Section at the Embassy of Qatar in Kabul has served as the protecting power for the U.S. in Afghanistan.[11]
^ a bOne ambassador, resident at Madrid, is accredited to Andorra and Spain.
^ a bOne ambassador, resident at Luanda, is accredited to Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe.
^ a b c d e f gOne ambassador, resident at Bridgetown, is accredited to Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
^In 1989 the military government of Burma changed the name of the nation to Myanmar, but the United States government and other Western governments still refer to the country as Burma in official usage.
^ a bOne ambassador, resident at Antananarivo, is accredited to Madagascar and Comoros.
^ a b c d eOne ambassador, resident at Suva, is accredited to Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga, and Tuvalu.
^ a bOne ambassador, resident at Paris, is accredited to France and Monaco.
^ a bOne ambassador, resident at Dakar, is accredited to Guinea-Bissau and Senegal.
^ a bOne ambassador, resident at Rome, is accredited to Italy and San Marino.
^ a bOne ambassador, resident at Bern, is accredited to Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
^ a bOne ambassador, resident at Port Louis, is accredited to Mauritius and Seychelles.
^ a bOne ambassador, resident at Wellington, is accredited to New Zealand and Samoa.
^American citizens who travel to North Korea do so at their own risk and in some cases in violation of U.S. and/or UN sanctions.
^ a b cOne ambassador, resident at Port Moresby, is accredited to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.
^The ambassador to the U.K. is known as the "Ambassador to the Court of St. James's".
^The U.S. also does not recognize Moroccan claims to sovereignty over Western Sahara.
^Full title is Ambassador-at-Large, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Senior Bureau Official for Global Health Security and Diplomacy
^The United States Consul General to Hong Kong, resident in Hong Kong, is concurrently accredited to Macau.
References
^U.S. Senate – Powers & Procedure Archived October 10, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Senate.gov; retrieved May 25, 2012.
^Henry B. Hogue. "Recess Appointments: Frequently Asked Questions" (PDF). Congressional Research Service, the Library of Congress. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 29, 2017. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
^ a b"List of U.S. Ambassadors". United States Department of State.
^"Chiefs of Mission Listed by Country". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on May 12, 2017. Retrieved June 24, 2018.
^"Ambassadors at Large". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on July 7, 2018. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
^"Chiefs of Mission to International Organizations". U.S. Department of State. Archived from the original on July 6, 2018. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
^"Current list of U.S. Ambassadors". United States Department of State. United States Department of State. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
^Jakes, Lara (August 30, 2021). "In a final blow of the 20-year war, U.S. envoys close their embassy and exit Kabul". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
^U.S. Embassy in Kabul (August 31, 2021). "Security Message: Suspension of Operations". Retrieved April 2, 2022.
^Beitsch, Rebecca; Rai, Sarakshi (November 12, 2021). "Qatar to formally represent US interests in Afghanistan". The Hill. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
^"United States Ambassadors at Large". Archived from the original on January 17, 2017. Retrieved February 3, 2017.
^ a b"Assistant Secretaries and Other Senior Officials". Archived from the original on May 21, 2018. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
^"Special Envoys, Representatives and Coordinators". American Foreign Service Association. January 7, 2019. Archived from the original on January 18, 2019. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
^"Alphabetical List of Bureaus and Offices". Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
^Torres-Bennett, Aileen (October 31, 2017). "Tillerson Wants to Whittle Down Number of Special Envoys". washdiplomat.com. Archived from the original on November 1, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
^Labott, Elise; Gaouette, Nicole; Herb, Jeremy (August 29, 2017). "First on CNN: Tillerson moves to ditch special envoys". CNN. Archived from the original on March 10, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
^Kanowitz, Stephanie (October 31, 2017). "SIDEBAR: Who's In and Who's Out". washdiplomat.com. Archived from the original on November 1, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
^ a b"Bhutan (08/04)". United States Department of State.
^Goshko, John M.; Walsh, Edward (April 8, 1980). "U.S. Breaks Diplomatic Ties With Iran: Carter Breaks Ties, Orders Ouster of Iranian Diplomats". The Washington Post. p. A1. ProQuest 147221464.
^"Former No. 2 Iran Diplomat To Be Allowed Back in U.S.". The Washington Post. April 25, 1980. p. A27. ProQuest 147210403.
^"Chapter 3 – State Sponsors of Terrorism Overview". State.gov. Archived from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved September 4, 2011.
^"The Embassy | SwedenAbroad". swedenabroad.com. Archived from the original on March 17, 2013. Retrieved October 10, 2016.
^"Suspending Embassy Operations in Syria". U.S. State Department. February 6, 2012.
^"U.S. recognizes Syria opposition offices as 'foreign mission'". Reuters. May 5, 2014.
^Roy, Denny (2003). Taiwan: a political history (1. publ. ed.). Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801488054.
^"US Ambassadors Killed in the Line of Duty". Associated Press. September 12, 2012. Archived from the original on September 12, 2012. Retrieved September 12, 2012.
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