Outside contacts --- Playing devil's advocate here to all of you: if all your work is inside your office on your computer, what is the point of having an embassy in-country? You could run your embassy's business entirely from the capital or from half a dozen key regional locations, with the odd trip to present credentials, call on a couple of important people, host a National Day reception. But shouldn't diplomacy be more than that? Isn't it about getting out and about to really know the country you're in and its people, so that you are best placed on the one hand to report and analyse, identify opportunities and risks, recommend policy, and then on the other hand show them who you are as a country, what you represent and how mutually beneficial it can be for both sides to work together. If we are not doing this as diplomats, then the nay-sayers who are critical of diplomats as massive wasters of public money have their case made for them.

Source author: Liz Galvez LizG@diplomacy.edu