Originally published in The Washington Diplomat

By Michael Coleman

Few modern-day diplomats have left as indelible a mark on the U.S. State Department as Thomas Pickering, and retirement has not diminished the former ambassador’s influence on urgent issues ranging from Iran to Benghazi.

The New Jersey native’s globetrotting four-decade career in the Foreign Service included key ambassadorships to the United Nations, Russia, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria and Jordan. In the 1970s, King Hussein of Jordan declared Pickering “the best American ambassador I’ve dealt with.”