Diplomacy’s privileges are exceptional. 

As a diplomat, you represent your country, perhaps the UN too. You help people in difficulty, deprivation or disaster. Defending principles and applying them to global issues gives your life extra purpose.

Not to mention your colleagues, locals you meet, and the network of diplomats, leaders, experts, journalists, businesspeople, commentators and academics.

Whether you work at a UN office or in the field, ‘diplomat’ is a platform, password, and profile for a wider audience. Pushing for ambitious goals in an unfamiliar or multicultural environment is a path to different ways of thinking.

There’s no shortage of criticism of the UN. But few would deny its noble purpose, which you represent.

As a UK diplomat I’ve been fortunate: for me the good has outweighed the less good.

But some truths hit hard.

1. To experience different cultures is a joy. To be uprooted every few years can damage relationships. undermine your partner’s career, disrupt children’s education, and hurt friendships.

Each community, each culture is a home. Everywhere you’re both comfortable and a little restless. With modern comms and travel, how much easier than for earlier generations. Still, falling in love with each posting, leaving can feel like abandoning.

2. You may often be far from those you love. Is your family with you, or living in another ‘home’? They face barriers, uncertainties, and obstruction. How do you speak openly if your phone is monitored?

Sometimes when relatives fall sick or die, you cannot be there for them in the way you want.

3. You’re always on stage, particularly as Ambassador. The platform is a gift. 

But it’s relentless. In Vietnam I’d be stopped in the street for a selfie. “Đại sứ ơi! Hey, Mr Ambassador!”

Digital comms never stop if you’re open and responsive. In some postings: hostile surveillance at events, at home, on holiday. You need trips away, if/when possible, and ways to maintain balance, prioritizing health and peace of mind.

4. It’s fulfilling to lead in a crisis. The immediate impact of your work is clear.

That doesn’t mean immunity from trauma. Working under crisis pressure can leave marks. So can the more gut-wrenching tasks, as I remember from Thailand’s Boxing Day tsunami.

5. It’s a job that rarely pauses. You’re on call 24-7.

Diplomacy law: crises happen on Fridays, at weekends, at 1 a.m. or on leave. I’ve been blessed with outstanding deputies. But in some countries only “the Ambassador” cuts through.

You must prioritize health and family. If you can, take time away. Often on a complicated posting you can’t. You must always be available and in a crisis, visible and prominent.

6. The corporate cultures of ministries, and the UN, can be powerful and useful. But it often rewards groupthink and undervalues creativity. Bureaucracy we all expect. Overseas the local version adds another layer.

Then the internal politics of any large organization. All the more acute with threats of budget and staff cuts.

7. One of my role models in the UK diplomatic service was Head of Security Policy (my big boss) when I joined. She’d been sitting next to her Ambassador boss in The Hague when he was shot.

Memorial plaques at the Foreign Office (FCDO) record victims’ names. Not to speak of many courageous UN agency workers who lost their lives in recent months.

Diplomacy isn’t the most dangerous civilian profession, but diplomats and field workers can be targets.

8. You represent the government’s view, not yours. Diplomats serve not because they agree with every policy (who does?), but because they believe in the system, its goals or its principles.

That it’s legitimate, effective, accountable. That it allows free expression of opinion. That decisions can be influenced to a degree from within.

Often, you can’t say in public what you think.

9. Public service is a privilege. How could you complain about pay? We work alongside people facing poverty, trauma and state oppression. Food is on my table, not to mention freedom. The opportunities I’ve been presented with are beyond price.

But we should be honest. Competition for jobs doesn’t mean talent can’t bleed away into banking, corporate law and consultancy.

10. To be a diplomat is a social role. Oddly it can also bring loneliness. An Ambassador is often ‘The Ambassador’ first, human second. Overseas, some things can’t be discussed.

Diplomacy itself offers remedies. The warmth of colleagues, the privilege of meeting extraordinary people, the bonds built through shared challenges.

I’ve no complaints. In any moment of doubt an instant cure: gratitude for exceptional privileges. 
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