The Foreign Service Journal, December 2010

erhaps this article should have been titled “Confessions of a Convert toMultilateral Diplo- macy.” Why? My intensive, yearlong immersion in the occasionally frustrating, but increasingly vital, work America does in multilateral organizations convinced me of the importance of the United Nations system and our role in it. Where once it might have been argued that multilateral diplomacy was a mere addendum to the pursuit of the “real” business of engaging nation-states bilaterally, now that logic is fraying. W ANTED : E XPERIENCED O FFICERS TO A DDRESS G LOBAL C HALLENGES M ULTILATERAL DIPLOMACY CAN BE VERY CHALLENGING , BUT IT IS OFTEN THE MOST REWARDING WORK A F OREIGN S ERVICE PROFESSIONAL CAN DO . B Y G LYN T. D AVIES Curtis Parker P F OCUS ON M ULT I LATERAL D I PLOMACY 16 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 0