Opinion | Ameliorating ambassadorial appointments

Political appointees are political personalities, intellectuals and business figures who are generally rewarded for helping political parties or politicians. Career ambassadors, in contrast, are professional diplomats who make it to the top post through years of training and experience. Professional experiences and skills that career ambassadors are better equipped with yield strategic advantages and give them better visibility. Political appointees tend to have an inclination and loyalty to parties rather than the concerned ministry, and often promote party interests over national interests. Perhaps this is why political appointments have always been the subject of debate. In this regard, well-trained career diplomats with specialised knowledge of protocol, cross-cultural dealings and negotiation tactics can ensure a mature diplomacy, enhancing outreach in the host country as well as a smooth management of the diplomatic mission. Seasoned diplomats have the edge in multilateral diplomacy, ensuring that negotiations are handled with professionalism. Given the current period of global challenges and complex security issues, diplomatic conduct must be precise and handled by qualified professionals who are aware of emerging challenges in the international arena. An uncanny sense of diplomatic nuances, along with the knowledge of institutional memory, gained through years of diplomatic services, has an increased significance in dealing with such complexities. A foreign service