Custom Search

Ambassador

For other uses, see Ambassador (disambiguation).

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. In everyday usage it applies to the ranking plenipotentiary minister stationed in a foreign capital. Diplomatic officers heading missions outside the capital, or heads of "interest group" missions between two states which do not have diplomatic relations, are known as consuls. 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 to most laws of the host country.

Among members of the Commonwealth, ambassadors are known as High Commissioners and embassies are known as High Commissions due to their current or historical sharing of a common head of state. 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 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 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. Ordinary ambassadors are those heading a permanent diplomatic mission, for instance the senior professional foreign service officer in a mission. Extraordinary ambassadors could be appointed for special purposes or for an indefinite term; politically appointed ambassadors would fall under this category.
Among European powers, the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary (French ambassadeur extraordinaire et plénipotentiaire or German Botschafter ausserordentlicher bevollmachtiger) 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, rather than to the State.

Ranking below full ambassador is the rank of minister plenipotentiary, or envoy, who represent their government rather than their head of state. The United States was always represented abroad by ministers plenipotentiary until World War I, while European powers appointed ministers plenipotentiary for nations not deemed important enough for a full ambassador. This rank is almost never used in the present day.

Ambassador

Lists of ambassadors

See also