From the beginning, the focus of the book The Foreign Consuls Among Us was on the fact that the United States is host to almost 3,000 consuls who represent more than 130 foreign nations across the fifty states. But while much had been written for institutions of higher education (often sitting on dusty shelves in university libraries) on the status of ambassadors and other diplomats serving in Washington, there was a long-standing need for an easy-to-understand guide to the role of the consular persons in their postings away from our nation’s capital.

To fill that void and to provide a service to the communities in S. Florida where I was serving as honorary consul (and Secretary of the Consular Corps for ten years), I combined my academic background with my passion for writing. My first law school thesis had been on the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Privileges and Immunities, and I’m a European and U.S.-educated lawyer with a PhD in Educational Leadership, and certificates from the University of Geneva (International Organizations) and the Hague Academy of International Law (Diplomatic Law). And with a lifelong love for the written word, it made sense for me to create a readable Guide to the consular institution as it operates in the United States.