Ambassadors of the United States are persons nominated by the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

to serve as the country's

diplomatic representative Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...

s to foreign nations, international organizations, and as ambassadors-at-large. Under Article II, Section 2 of the

U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

, their appointment must be

confirmed In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

; while an ambassador may be appointed during a recess, they can serve only until the end of the next session of Congress, unless subsequently confirmed. Ambassadors are the highest-ranking diplomats of the U.S. and are usually based in the

embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

in the host country. They are under the jurisdiction of the Department of State and answer directly to the secretary of state; however, ambassadors serve " at the pleasure of the President", meaning they can be dismissed at any time. Appointments change regularly for various reasons, such as reassignment or retirement. An ambassador may be a career

Foreign Service Officer A Foreign Service Officer (FSO) is a commissioned member of the United States Foreign Service. Foreign Service Officers formulate and implement the foreign policy of the United States. FSOs spend most of their careers overseas as members of U ...

(career diplomatCD) or a

political appointee According to the United States Office of Government Ethics, a political appointee is "any employee who is appointed by the President, the Vice President, or agency head". As of 2016, there were around 4,000 political appointment positions whic ...

(PA). In most cases, career foreign service officers serve a tour of approximately three years per ambassadorship, whereas political appointees customarily tender their resignations upon the inauguration of a new president. The

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

provides lists of ambassadors that are updated periodically; th
most recent listing
was published 1 November 2021. A listing by country of past chiefs of mission is maintained by the Office of the Historian of the U.S. Department of State, along with the names and appointment dates of past and present ambassadors-at-large and mission to international organizations.

Current U.S. ambassadors

Note that the information in this list is subject to change due to regular personnel changes resulting from retirements and reassignments. The State Department posts updated lists of ambassadors approximately monthly, accessible via an interactive menu-based website.

Ambassadors to International Organizations

Ambassadors to the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Current ambassadors from the United States to International Organization of the United Nations:

Other international Organizations

Current ambassadors from the United States to other international organizations:

Ambassadors-at-large

Current ambassadors-at-large from the United States with worldwide responsibility:

Other chiefs of mission

Senior diplomatic representatives of the United States hosted in posts other than embassies. Unlike other consulates, these persons report directly to the Secretary of State.

Special envoys, representatives, and coordinators

These diplomatic officials report directly to the Secretary of State. Many oversee a portfolio not restricted to one nation, often an overall goal, and are not usually subject to Senate confirmation. Unlike the State Department offices and diplomats listed in other sections of this Article, the offices and special envoys/representatives/coordinators listed in this Section are created and staffed by direction of top Federal Executive administratorsprimarily U.S. Presidents and Secretaries of Statewhose political or organizational management philosophies may not be shared by their successors. As such, many of these positions may go unfilled upon assumption of office by successor Presidential Administrations, with their offices sometimes merged with or subsumed into other offices, or abolished altogether.

Nations without exchange of ambassadors

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

: According to the U.S. State Department, "The United States and the Kingdom of Bhutan have not established formal diplomatic relations; however, the two governments have informal and cordial relations." Informal contact with the nation of Bhutan is maintained through the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. *

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

: On April 7, 1980, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran after the 1979

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...

. On April 24, 1981, the Swiss government assumed representation of U.S. interests in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, and Algeria assumed representation of Iranian interests in the United States. Currently, Iranian interests in the United States are represented by the government of Pakistan. The

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

named Iran a "

State Sponsor of Terrorism State-sponsored terrorism is terrorist violence carried out with the active support of national governments provided to violent non-state actors. States can sponsor terrorist groups in several ways, including but not limited to funding terroris ...

" on January 19, 1984. *

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is not on friendly terms with the United States, and while talks between the two countries are ongoing, there is no exchange of ambassadors.

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

functions as Protective Power for the United States in

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

and performs limited consular responsibilities for U.S. citizens in North Korea. *

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

: With the normalization of relations with the People's Republic of China in 1979, the United States has not maintained official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Relations between Taiwan and the United States are maintained through an unofficial instrumentality, the

Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), also known as Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO), Taipei Representative Office (TRO) or Taipei Mission, is an alternative diplomatic institution serving as a ''de facto'' e ...

, with headquarters in Taipei and field offices in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and twelve other U.S. cities. The Taipei Office of the

American Institute in Taiwan The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT; ) is the ''de facto'' Embassy of the United States of America in Taiwan. The AIT institution is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the federal government of the United States in Taiwan with Congressional oversi ...

, a non-profit, public corporation, functions as a ''de facto'' embassy, performing most consular functions and staffed by

s who are formally "on leave".

Notable past ambassadors

Many well-known individuals have served the United States as

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

s, or in formerly analogous positions such as

envoy Envoy or Envoys may refer to: Diplomacy * Diplomacy, in general * Envoy (title) * Special envoy, a type of diplomatic rank Brands *Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft *Envoy (automobile), an automobile brand used to sell Br ...

, including several who also became President of the United States (indicated in boldface below). Some notable ambassadors have included:

Ambassadors killed in office

Eight United States Ambassadors have been killed in officesix of them by armed attack and the other two in plane crashes.

Ambassadors to past countries

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

North Yemen North Yemen may refer to: * Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (1918–1962) * Yemen Arab Republic The Yemen Arab Republic (YAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية اليمنية '), also known simply as North Yemen or Yemen (Sanaʽa), was a ...

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

* South Yemen *

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

Notes and references

External links

Websites of U.S. Embassies and Consulates

Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ambassadors Of The United States United States Department of State

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...