THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2024 23 (CSIS) study, “The Embassy of the Future” (2007); the Harvard University Belfer Center report, “A U.S. Diplomatic Service for the 21st Century” (2020); and Arizona State University’s “Blueprints for a More Modern U.S. Diplomatic Service” (2022). With Ambassador John Limbert, he is the author of the novel Believers: Love and Death in Tehran (2020). Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Amb. Grossman holds a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MSc in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is married to retired FSO Mildred Anne Patterson and has one daughter, Anne. I had the opportunity to interview Ambassador Grossman in early October, ahead of the AFSA Awards Ceremony. —Editor in Chief Shawn Dorman At a briefing of NATO leaders on Nov. 1, 1985, in Brussels, after U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s Geneva summit with Soviet General secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, from top left: Marc Grossman, Sir Brian Fall, Ambassador Turgay Ozceri, Ambassador Fredo Dannenberg. Seated, from left: British Foreign Minister Geoffrey Howe, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, Deputy Secretary General Eric da Rin, and Chairman Peter Carington. COURTESY OF MARC GROSSMAN U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman (right) speaks during a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Feb. 27, 2003. At left is U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns. Amb. Grossman joined the Foreign Service in 1976, serving his first tour in Islamabad. As he rose through the ranks, he served as deputy chief of mission at U.S. Embassy Ankara from 1989 to 1992 and then as executive secretary of the State Department and special assistant to the Secretary of State. He returned to Türkiye as ambassador (1994-1997) and then served as assistant secretary of State for European affairs (1997-2000). As Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources (2000-2001), he helped revolutionize the State Department’s human resource strategies, emphasizing increased hiring, training, assignment reform, and retention of personnel. He served as under secretary of State for political affairs from 2001 to 2005. During his career, he helped marshal the diplomatic response to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, managed U.S. policy in the Balkans and Colombia, and contributed to a further enlargement of the NATO alliance. His distinguished service earned him the title of Career Ambassador in 2004, the highest rank in the Foreign Service. After retiring from the Foreign Service (the first time) in 2005, Amb. Grossman joined The Cohen Group as a vice chair. He was awarded the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award in 2005, the Director General’s Cup for the Foreign Service in 2006, and the State Department’s Distinguished Service Award in 2013. He was called back to the department to serve as the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2011 to 2012, and retired again in 2012. Amb. Grossman has served as chair of the board of the Senior Living Foundation of the American Foreign Service since 2009. He co-authored the Center for International and Strategic Studies AP PHOTO/THIERRY CHARLIER
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