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A diplomatic agent of the highest rank. More particularly the title is used:
In most cases, to designate the head of a diplomatic mission to a foreign state where that head, as among heads of mission, falls into the first diplomatic class. By derivation, the mission in question is then called an embassy. An embassy has just one ambassador. Usually such agents are formally described as the ambassador of [the sending state] to [the receiving state]. When at their posts, Britain refers to her ambassadors as ‘Her Majesty\'s Ambassador’; but if this usage could give rise to ambiguity (because of the presence of other ambassadors from states with a female head of state), they are referred to as ‘Her Britannic Majesty\'s Ambassador’.
Almost invariably, to designate a member state\'s permanent representative to the UN and some other international organizations. An exception may (but will by no means necessarily) occur if that individual is not a regular member of his or her state\'s diplomatic service; thus, when Lord Caradon, Minister of State in Britain\'s government, was her permanent representative to the UN (1964–70), he was not called ambassador. A state\'s permanent mission to an international organization may include more than one individual with this title – but only one of them can be the state\'s permanent representative, who is also the head of mission.
In some states, as a courtesy title given to those who have served as an ambassador in either of the above two senses. Britain does not follow this practice; the United States does.
Ambassadors in senses 1 and 2 are always called His or Her Excellency; and their full title is Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.
Ambassadors in sense 1 require the agrément of the receiving state before they can be appointed. Inasmuch as an ambassador is, in form, the personal representative of the head of state, he or she will probably be received by the head of the sending state before (or soon after) taking up the appointment. This is certainly the practice in Britain.
The heads of diplomatic missions exchanged between members of the Commonwealth are called high commissioners, not ambassadors. But in point of status and function there are no differences whatsoever between ambassadors and high commissioners (although in London some small differences of treatment continue to exist).
See also envoy; full powers; resident; Rosier, Bernard du; roving ambassador. |
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