Role of Ambassador

Granted to ambassadors and embassy staff by the 1815 Congress of Vienna and the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations are diplomatic immunity and personal safety while living in the host country.

In my case it took the Italian government a couple of months to sign my agrimont because of political exigencies such as mid-term elections where the chief-of-staff who receives had not yet been elected.

Role of Ambassador

An ambassador is an official envoy. A highest ranking diplomat formally representing the head of state who is usually accredited to another sovereign state, or to an international organization as the resident representative of his or her own government or appointed for a special and often temporary diplomatic assignment.

An ambassador is a person who says ‘yes’ when he means ‘maybe’ and ‘maybe’ when he means ‘no’. This is of course a caricature of a diplomat. One thing sure, however, is that an ambassador is a shock absorber—he has to defend his government’s policies whether or not he personally believes they are wrong. When his host country is displeased about the actuations of the country he represents, he is the first to know. This is usually in the form of a summons by the foreign office of his post.

In its most common use, the term ambassador usually applies to the highest ranking government representative stationed in a foreign country. While in the host country, the ambassador has control of specific territory called an embassy, whose territory, staff and vehicles are afforded diplomatic immunity.

Among members of the Commonwealth of Nations the ambassador is known as a High Commissioner. Diplomats sent to the Holy See are known as Papal or Apostolic Nuncios.

As formally defined and recognized at the Congress of Vienna (1815), ambassadors were originally regarded as personal representatives of their country’s chief executive rather than of the whole country, and their rank entitled them to meet personally with the head of state of the host country. Since 1945, all nations have been recognized as equals, and ambassadors or their equivalents have been sent to all countries with which diplomatic relations are maintained. Before the development of modern communications, ambassadors were entrusted with extensive powers.

Historically, officials representing their countries abroad were termed ministers, but this term was also applied to diplomats of the second rank. This system of diplomatic rank under international law was formalized in the 1815 Congress of Vienna.

Ambassadors have plenipotentiary powers (i.e. full authority to represent the government). In modern usage, these heads of mission in foreign postings carry the full title of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary—their mission is permanent. The status of ambassador ordinary and non-plenipotentiary is rarely used, although they may be encountered in certain circumstances as when their mission is temporary and only for a specific purpose.

Among European powers, the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary (French: ambassadeur extraordinaire et plénipotentiaire or German: außerordentlicher und bevollmächtigter Botschafter) was historically regarded as the personal representative of the Sovereign. The custom of dispatching ambassadors to the head of state rather than the government has persisted. For example, ambassadors to and