The paper “Diplomacy without Diplomats?” by George Keenan covers many issues regarding the current state of affairs of the Foreign Service branch within United States government. The issues covered within this essay portray the Foreign Service both as a well off, vital player in international relations but also as a seemingly useless, figure head in comparison to what it once was/is supposed to be. This analysis will summarize the article for better understanding as well as critically discuss both the positive and negative elements of this article. To begin his discussion Mr. Keenan first provides a history of America’s Foreign Service, the factors leading up to its creation as well as the original organization. The first item is the original organization of the service and how it worked. Originally, the Foreign Service was divided into two separate parts, the first of which was the diplomatic portion, responsible for providing support for ambassadors, ministers and any senior officers involved with international relations. The second branch was that of the consular officers. The purpose of this branch was less to do with actually interacting with foreign governments as it was for protecting the American citizens within that country (handling visa’s, resolving passport issues etc.) It is also important to mention that although within the same branch of the American government, these two services were “poorly related to each other.” After handling the original organization of the Foreign Service Keenan moves to its slow but sure evolution to the office we know it as today. Although the Foreign Service was formed originally with no particular mandate but rather to handle perceived national interests and also to keep in with international trends, it eventually received a specific direction after the First World War when in 1924, Congress approved the Rogers Act which combined the two branches to create the current Foreign Service of the United States. This new...