The Foreign Service Journal, April 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2022 41 The three editions of Inside a U.S. Embassy (1996, 2003/2005, and 2011). COURTESYOFAFSA Two successive AFSA executive directors—Susan Reardon and Ian Houston—provided the institutional backing for the second and third editions, while Foreign Service Journal editors Steve Honley and Susan Maitra contributed in-house editing support. Each of the three editions begins with an introduction by the AFSA president at the time of the project: Tex Harris (1996), John Limbert and John Naland (2003 and 2005), and John Naland and Susan Johnson (2011). Randy Berry, who was refugee coordinator in Uganda in 2002 and is now U.S. ambassador to Nepal, remembers why he said yes when former A-100 classmate Dorman asked him to participate in the project. “I was flattered,” Ambassador Berry told us when we interviewed him for this article in December. “When I entered the Foreign Service, there was fairly little information out there about the variety of opportunities in the career. I saw this book as a chance to show people what the State Department does. One of the great surprises I had when I joined the Service was just how many different types of jobs there are. I was happy to bring atten- tion to a less traditional role that a diplomat can play.” The new editions of Inside a U.S. Embassy also capture the process of change at State and within the Foreign Service. Ambassador Berry, the State Department’s first special envoy for the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons, says the department has made much progress on gender issues since he joined in 1993, before security clearance questions about sexual orientation were changed. “Back then it never would have occurred to me that serving out a career as an openly gay person was possible,” he says. “But I’ve seen opportunities open over the years, primarily because of the brave actions of those who came before me.” Today, says Berry, he sees the Foreign Service as a welcoming place for the LGBTQI+ community. “I would encourage anybody from this community—or anybody more generally—to come into the Foreign Service. This is a remarkable career, with great oppor- tunities for advancement.” The second edition became a best seller, both within the foreign affairs agencies and outside. The State Department distributed thousands of copies to would-be Foreign Service officers—if you passed the written exam in the mid-2000s, it’s likely you received a copy in the mail along with a note from the Director General congratulating you on your accomplishment. Since the second edition’s first printing, AFSA has soldmore than 150,000 copies of the book.