The Foreign Service Journal, September 2014

22 SEPTEMBER 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL A distinguished diplomat explores an evolving concept of diplomacy to meet the kaleidoscope of opportunities and challenges America faces. BY MARC GROSSMAN COVER STORY A DIPLOMACY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: BACK TO THE FUTURE? Marc Grossman, a vice chairman of The Cohen Group inWashington, D.C., retired from the Foreign Service in 2005 as the under secretary of State for political affairs. During his 29-year career, Ambassador Gross- man also served as chief of mission in Turkey (1994-1997), assistant secretary of State for European affairs (1997-2000) and director general of the Foreign Service (2000 -2001). He was recalled to the State Depart- ment to serve as the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2011 to 2012. The author wishes to thank Mildred Patterson, Jenny McFarland and Dylan Vorbach for their help in preparing this article. Some of the ideas on a diplomat’s philosophy were explored in Joint Forces Quarterly (No. 62, 2011). The story of the diplomatic campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan was reported in the Yale Journal of International Affairs (Sum- mer 2013). The ideas on Ukraine were discussed in the GermanMarshall Fund blog inMarch 2014. S ince my retirement from the Foreign Service in 2005, I have had the chance, inspired by colleagues doing the same, to think about the future of the dip- lomatic profession. When I meet new Foreign Service officers, I tell them that I envy them for having a chance to reshape the job of diplomacy—not just because our world has changed, but because they are more educated, technologically savvy and diverse than my cohort.