incredible subject depth and breadth by VDL

happy taco tuesday

diplomat blasts cable to 150 embassies, then spots egregious typo in heading

parents reaching end of school holidays like

The three stages of life:

1. Birth

2. Advance the national interest

3. Death

junior diplomat watches as ambassador absolutely chews out veteran colleague

when your embassy is bigger than entire host foreign ministry

cheque please?

diplomacy is NOT for the faint of heart

it is a careful and thorough process taking into account the operational needs of the department

just me?

POV: trying to talk to someone who isn't monitoring the situation

when diplomat returns to capital after 3 years in paris

The foreign service is an incredibly tough career.

Here’s how I crushed it, and you can too:

👉Meditate 5am every day
👉20-min ice bath every evening
👉Coffee only after 90 mins of sunlight
👉Dad is a cabinet minister
👉5x work-outs paired with foreign language pod

also a reminder of their ultimate goal: displace the US, not replace it

quick guide: how to handle someone who says geopolitics is boring

diplomat still heading into work bc the national interest cannot wait

embassy life: a guide

sneaking back into embassy at 4pm after ✌️coffee with contact✌️

(holding 3 shopping bags and fully-loaded boba-tea)

me if advancing the national interest contained protein

(unfortunately it does not and i am skinny)

"haha yes, konnichiwa to you too"

Most Lebanese Say Only Army Should Have Weapons Amid growing calls for Hezbollah's disarmament, most Lebanese believe that only the army should be allowed to have weapons.

79% of folks in Lebanon seem to believe Hezbollah needs to be disarmed :-)

news.gallup.com/poll/699071/...

actual footage

diplomat reaching out to old contacts to see if they say anything interesting

spent all morning on this

just me?

ambassador when minister is in town

but do NOT accidentally use the wrong personality with the wrong contact

ambassador confidently micro-managing project they don't understand