Ambassador

An ambassador, rarely embassador, is a diplomatic official accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization, to serve as the official representative of his or her own country. In everyday usage it applies to the ranking plenipotentiary minister stationed in a foreign capital. The host country typically allows the ambassador control of specific territory called an embassy, whose territory, staff, and even vehicles are generally afforded diplomatic immunity from most laws of the host country.

Diplomats

Role

The senior diplomatic officers among members of the Commonwealth of Nations are known as High Commissioners, who are the heads of High Commissions. Representatives of the Holy See are known as Papal or Apostolic Nuncios, while the head of a Libyan People's Bureau is a Secretary.

Historically, officials representing their countries abroad were termed ministers, but this term was also applied to diplomats of the second rank. The Congress of Vienna of 1815 formalized the system of diplomatic rank under international law:

Ambassadors are ministers of the highest rank, with plenipotentiary authority to represent their head of state. An Ordinary Ambassador is one heading a permanent diplomatic mission, for instance the senior professional diplomat in an embassy. An Extraordinary Ambassador could be appointed for special purposes or for an indefinite term; politically appointed ambassadors would fall under this category.

Moreover, a Resident Ambassador is one who resides within the country to which s/he is accredited., while a Non-Resident Ambassador does not reside within the country to which (s)he is accredited, but lives in a nearby country. Thus a resident ambassador to a country might at the same time also be a non-resident ambassador to one or more other countries.

Among European powers, the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary (French ambassadeur extraordinaire et plénipotentiaire or German ausserordentlicher und bevollmächtigter Botschafter) was deemed the personal representative of the Sovereign, and the custom of dispatching ambassadors to the head of state rather than the government has persisted. For example, ambassadors to and from the United Kingdom are accredited to or from the Royal Court of St. James's, rather than to the State.

Because members of the Commonwealth of Nations have or had a common head of state, they do not exchange ambassadors, but instead have High Commissioners which represent the governments rather than the head of state.

Ranking below full ambassador are the rank of Envoy, Minister resident and Chargé d'affaires. They represent their government rather than their head of state. For further details, see diplomatic rank.

While the title still reflects the Ambassador's natural vocation to head a diplomatic mission, the rank is often held by career diplomats, as a matter of internal promotion, regardless of the posting, and in many national careers it is quite common for them to be appointed to other functions, especially within the ministry/ministries in charge of foreign affairs, in some countries in systematical alteration with actual postings.

Extraordinary postings

Not unlike many diplomats of the lower rank of Resident (Minister) or the usually full rank of high commissioner, or in other circumstances a Consul representative, an ambassador can in specific historical conditions be entrusted with a task that is no less administrative then diplomatic, such as representing the protector in a protectorate of the subordinate kind, e.g. posted by France in the Saar (rather a mandate territory by another name, in part of Germany)

Lists of ambassadors

*List of Ambassadors from Serbia
*List of High Commissioners and Ambassadors from Australia
*List of Ambassadors from Egypt
*List of Ambassadors from Finland
*List of Israeli Ambassadors and List of Israeli ambassadors to the United States
*Ambassadors from the United States
*Ambassadors to the United States
* List of Ambassadors and High Commissioners to Canada
*List of Ambassadors and High Commissioners to the United Kingdom

Non-diplomatic ambassadorships

In a less formal sense, the word is used for high-profile non-diplomatic representative of various entities (rarely states), mainly cultural and charitable organisations, often as willing figure heads to attract media attention, e.g. film and pop stars makes appeals to the public at large for UNESCO activities (see UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors), sometimes during press-swarmed visits in the field.

In French speaking regions such as France, Wallonia or Quebec, the title of ambassadeur culturel 'cultural ambassador' designates artists or ensembles whose performances are deemed an outstanding representation of french culture.

In Flanders, the title of cultureel ambassadeur 'cultural ambassador' is formally awarded by the flemish government to flemish artists and ensembles whose outstanding performances, especially abroad, are deemed to deserve a specific subsidy.

Even more loosely, the word ambassador is sometimes used, without being an actual title, as a vague description of anyone who acts as a high-profile spokesman, frontman etcetera, even implicietly by excelling in a field (such as an art) which he is the said to be an 'ambassador' of, even if no organised campaign is involved.

See also

* Diplomatic rank
* Consulate general
* High Commissioner
* Nuncio