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One working day of my future job
An Ambassador’s work can be defined in a few words such as ‘maintenance and promotion of bilateral relations between two countries’ or one could even write a book to describe it since her/his work covers everything that can be construed as relations between two countries. Giving visas is bilateral work and so are visits of Heads of State/Government. Participating in a trade promotion event is bilateral work. So are signing of agreements. And because there are so many components to bilateral work, no two days in an Ambassador’s official life are the same.
Therefore, I will divide a day’s work of an Ambassador into various simple categories. These are only for explanatory purposes to give a broad overview. A day’s work may involve some or all or none of what is mentioned below. For example, when a big event happens such as the visit of a President or a Prime Minister, the whole Mission gets busy in its preparation for a month or more before the visit. During the visit, the Embassy and the Ambassador may find time just enough to do the bare minimum of the daily work, which could be called routine.
Keeping above things in mind, a day in Ambassador’s life would look somewhat like this:
Work before office: An Ambassador has to keep herself/himself abreast of developments in her/his country, the country of her/his posting and the world, in general. Therefore, an Ambassador would read newspapers, check news on Internet and watch television while still at home before leaving for office. Sometimes, events at the beginning of the day or the night ahead determine the course of the day. For example, an Ambassador may wake up to the news that a high profile businessman has landed in her/his country of posting after evading the law enforcement agencies of her/his country. The Ambassador can rest assured that he would be besieged with calls, queries, messages and instructions from various directions the time she/he lands in office and most of her/his day may be devoted to handling this single issue.
Correspondence: Ambassadors receive a lot of correspondence. It is usual for them to begin their day in office going through the mails and letters. There may be messages from the home government on certain action that needs to be taken, or messages just for information to ensure that all Missions are in the loop. Messages may range from letters from one head of government/state to another about a substantive issue or a congratulatory new year greetings. Messages could be an invitation to the Ambassador to attend an event or a media query. Most of the messages get marked down to respective Departments for taking action. Some messages may be required to be handled by the Ambassador herself/himself. Ambassadors have to send replies to some of the messages themselves.
Files: Files may be on paper or online. Departments in the Mission maintain files subject-wise. These may be put up to the Ambassador for her/his approval. Certain actions may be taken only with the Ambassador’s approval. Certain files may be put up to the Ambassador for information only because the issue is important. Sometimes, a letter or a message may have come to Ambassador for which she/he may have requested the background material or a draft letter and a file may have been put up to her/him later with all necessary material to enable her/him to take action.
Internal discussions and meetings: Other diplomats meet the Ambassador to discuss issues related to their department. There might be one-to-one (most frequent), one-to-some or a full meeting involving all departments. Some issues need to be discussed before they are put down in a written form, some before action is to be taken and some because it is better or easier to discuss them rather than put them up on file. Issues for discussions may again be on a wide range of topics from a commercial report to a cultural event.
Administrative work: An Ambassador is also the administrative head of the Mission. When the Mission size is big, a lot of management work may be involved. Even in a smaller Mission, an Ambassador has to deal with administrative issues on a day to day basis. This may be a disciplinary matter or repair work of the Chancery or budgetary issues and so on.
Delegations: Delegations from home country visiting the host country may call on the Ambassador either to brief her/him on their local meetings or seek her/his guidance. Delegations from the host country also meet the Ambassador. The delegations may be from the government departments or they may be private such as from commercial establishments. The Ambassador also accompanies visiting official delegations for important meetings.
Reports: An Ambassador sends periodic reports on bilateral issues. Sometimes, she/he may also need to send messages on important internal and external developments (relation between host country and other countries/international organisations). A part of Mission’s work is to keep the home government updated regarding important issues and events and the Ambassador also has to play her/his part in this.
Protocol: When important dignitaries visit the host country, the Ambassador may receive/see them off at the airport, host receptions/working lunch/dinner for the delegation to interact with local officials or accompany the dignitary.
Meetings: The Ambassador has to meet local ministers and high officials in ministries of the host government to make, discuss or follow up on proposals and resolve pending matters. Ambassadors frequently have meetings with their counterparts in the foreign ministry of the host government to ‘synchronize their watches’.
Participation in events: These may be events organized by the Embassy, which the Ambassador may be inaugurating or she/may be delivering a speech at the event. These may be events organized by the host government, where the Ambassador is an active participant or a ceremonial event where the President or the Prime Minister of the host government is participating and Ambassadors have been invited. Ambassadors also participate in events such as national day receptions of other countries.
Firefighting: It is not rare for an Ambassador to see an urgent situation crop up from nowhere. This may be a consular issue or an input that needs to be sent to the home government within a few hours. Such sudden work may sometimes consume a lot of time in an Ambassador’s day in office since they have to be sorted out in a limited amount of time.
As I have mentioned earlier, an Ambassador’s day does not end at what is mentioned above.