American Ambassadors: The Past, Present, and Future of America's Diplomats - Paperback

by D. Jett (Author)

Some of those named as American ambassadors are the product of both a time-honored tradition and a thinly veiled form of corruption. 'American Ambassadors' explains how a person becomes an ambassador, where they go, what they do and why, in today's ever more globalized world, they are more important than ever.

Author Biography

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.