Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Geographic Examination of the United States Diplomatic Footprint

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This doctoral dissertation research project will analyze and assess the ideas and assumptions that motivate the maintenance of the United States' widespread diplomatic apparatus, a far-reaching network of 285 embassies and consulates. The practice of diplomacy has changed dramatically in recent decades as a result of technological advancements and shifting geopolitical concerns. Individuals around the world now have the opportunity to communicate directly with ambassadors and foreign ministers on Twitter, disclosure of diplomatic correspondences on WikiLeaks have heightened calls for more transparency in diplomatic exchanges, and non-state terrorist actors continue to challenge the idea that diplomats and their facilities are inviolable. While some countries have adjusted to 21st century realities by adapting to a more mobile, maneuverable diplomatic corps and fewer diplomatic facilities, the United States remains committed to a widespread diplomatic network. This diplomatic footprint is the hallmark of universality, a sustained effort beginning in the second half of the 20th century to acquire nearly total diplomatic coverage by scattering around the world embassies and consulates designed to look, work, and behave in a similar manner regardless of their geographic location. Attending to this understudied phenomenon means studying the historical and geographic conditions out of which the United States? relatively even and uniform diplomatic apparatus materialized. By examining the relationship between diplomatic infrastructure and foreign policy aims, this project will apply geographic approaches focusing on everyday materialisms and institutional networks to examine diplomatic practice and the implications of those practices. The project will expand current approaches to diplomatic theory and practice, bringing examinations of everyday practice back into a central role in diplomatic studies. Project findings will facilitate self-evaluation by the U.S. Department of State of the implications of its diplomatic geography, and it will assist others engaged in diplomatic practice in assessing the geographic implications of practices on statecraft. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.The doctoral student will focus the project on the following sets of questions: (1) What factors influence decision making related to U.S. embassy and consulate placement? (2) How does the U.S. approach to diplomatic infrastructure differ from that of other states? (3) In what ways does the universal character of each facility prove alternately productive and counterproductive for U.S. foreign policy aims? The student will employ methods that draw on institutional ethnographic techniques at multiple scales and a wide range of voices, including ground practitioners, high-level policymakers, retired ambassadors, voices from the past, and the student's own experience in Washington, D.C., and within the U.S. Department of State. She will identify the origins of the universality argument and its continued relevance alongside 21st century diplomatic practices. She also will engage in archival research and conduct interviews with current and former members of the diplomatic corps.