United States | The Foreign Not-in-Service

America says it’s back. But where are its ambassadors?

The painfully slow confirmation process is a window into Washington dysfunction

But where is our excellency?
|NEW YORK

CERTAIN SIGNIFICANT people were nowhere to be seen as Joe Biden touched down last week in the three countries he visited on his first trip abroad as president: American ambassadors. Mr Biden has yet to nominate envoys to Britain, Belgium or Switzerland, much less to guide them through the bog of Senate confirmation.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “The Foreign Not-in-Service”

Power and paranoia: The Chinese Communist Party at 100

From the June 26th 2021 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from United States

US President Donald Trump

America really could enter a golden age

Donald Trump would need to build on its strengths, and subdue his own weaknesses

A 4-year-old girl carries a doll while walking with her immigrant mother.

To end birthright citizenship, Trump misreads the constitution

It would also create huge practical problems


Migrants from Mexico and Guatemala are apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers after crossing a section of border wall into the U.S.

Donald Trump cries “invasion” to justify an immigration crackdown

His first immigration executive orders range from benign to belligerent


The new American imperialism

Donald Trump is the first president in more than 100 years to call for new American territory—including Mars

The beginning of the end of the Trump era

The new president is more confident, and radical, than ever—and also more accepted

Pam Bondi seems like a relatively safe pair of hands

But is America’s next attorney-general an independent operator?