PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: diplomacy
3rd president of the United States
Thomas Jefferson was the draftsman of the Declaration of Independence of the United States and the nation’s first secretary of state (1789–94) and second vice president (1797–1801) and, as the third president...
German chancellor and prime minister
Otto von Bismarck was the prime minister of Prussia (1862–73, 1873–90) and founder and first chancellor (1871–90) of the German Empire. Once the empire was established, he actively and skillfully pursued...
American author, scientist, and statesman
Benjamin Franklin was an American printer and publisher, author, inventor and scientist, and diplomat. One of the foremost of the Founding Fathers, Franklin helped draft the Declaration of Independence...
Italian statesman and writer
Niccolò Machiavelli was an Italian Renaissance political philosopher and statesman, secretary of the Florentine republic, whose most famous work, The Prince (Il Principe), brought him a reputation as an...
prime minister of Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu is an Israeli politician and diplomat who served as his country’s prime minister three times (1996–99, 2009–21, and 2022– ) and is the longest-serving prime minister since Israel’s independence....
6th president of the United States
John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States (1825–29) and eldest son of President John Adams. In his prepresidential years he was one of America’s greatest diplomats (formulating, among...
Flemish artist
Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish painter who was the greatest exponent of Baroque painting’s dynamism, vitality, and sensuous exuberance. Though his masterpieces include portraits and landscapes, Rubens...
2nd president of the United States
John Adams was an early advocate of American independence from Great Britain, a major figure in the Continental Congress (1774–77), the author of the Massachusetts constitution (1780), a signer of the...
pope
St. John XXIII ; beatified September 3, 2000; canonized April 27, 2014; feast day October 11) was the pope, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, from 1958 to 1963. He was one of the most popular popes...
Austrian statesman
Klemens von Metternich was an Austrian statesman, minister of foreign affairs (1809–48), and a champion of conservatism, who helped form the victorious alliance against Napoleon I and who restored Austria...
French statesman and diplomat
Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, prince de Bénévent , prince de Bénévent was a French statesman and diplomat noted for his capacity for political survival, who held high office during the French Revolution,...
5th president of the United States
James Monroe was the fifth president of the United States (1817–25), who issued an important contribution to U.S. foreign policy in the Monroe Doctrine, a warning to European nations against intervening...
English statesman
Sir Francis Walsingham was an English statesman and diplomat who was the principal secretary (1573–90) to Queen Elizabeth I and became legendary for creating a highly effective intelligence network. He...
Chilean poet
Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet, diplomat, and politician who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He is perhaps the most important Latin American poet of the 20th century. Neruda was the...
41st president of the United States
George H.W. Bush was a politician and businessman who was vice president of the United States (1981–89) and the 41st president of the United States (1989–93). As president, Bush assembled a multinational...
Dutch statesman and scholar
Hugo Grotius was a Dutch jurist and scholar whose masterpiece De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625; On the Law of War and Peace) is considered one of the greatest contributions to the development of international...
pope
Leo XIII was the pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, from 1878 to 1903. He brought a new spirit to the papacy, expressed in more conciliatory positions toward civil governments, by less opposition...
Chinese leader and scholar
Hu Shih was a Chinese Nationalist diplomat and scholar, an important leader of Chinese thought who helped establish the vernacular as the official written language (1922). He was also an influential propagator...
American diplomat, humanitarian and first lady
Eleanor Roosevelt was an American first lady (1933–45), the wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States, and a United Nations diplomat and humanitarian. She was, in her time, one...
American attorney, author, and ambassador
A public figure since the age of three, when she moved into the White House with her parents and baby brother, Caroline Kennedy is an attorney, author, and former ambassador, but, to many, she is best...
chancellor of Sweden
Axel, Count Oxenstierna was the chancellor of Sweden (1612–54), successively under King Gustav II Adolf and Queen Christina. He was noted for his administrative reforms and for his diplomacy and military...
American journalist and government official
Samantha Power is an American journalist, human rights scholar, and government official who served on the National Security Council (2008–13) and as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2013–17)...
French author
François-Auguste-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand was a French author and diplomat, one of his country’s first Romantic writers. He was the preeminent literary figure in France in the early 19th century...
American politician
Nikki Haley is an American politician who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2017–18) in the administration of U.S. Pres. Donald Trump. She was the first woman to serve as governor of South...
United States government official
John Bolton is an American government official who served as national security adviser (2018–19) to United States President Donald Trump. Bolton previously was the interim U.S. ambassador to the United...
Portuguese ruler
Marquis de Pombal was a Portuguese reformer and virtual ruler of his country from 1750 to 1777. Sebastião was the son of Manuel de Carvalho e Ataíde, a former cavalry captain and former nobleman of the...
French diplomat
Ferdinand, viscount de Lesseps was a French diplomat famous for building the Suez Canal across the Isthmus of Suez (1859–69) in Egypt. Lesseps was from a family long distinguished in government service....
American politician
Mike Huckabee is an American politician who served as governor of Arkansas (1996–2007) and who unsuccessfully ran for the 2008 and 2016 Republican U.S. presidential nomination. In 2024 President-elect...
Roman general and statesman
Titus Quinctius Flamininus was a Roman general and statesman who established the Roman hegemony over Greece. Flamininus had a distinguished military career during the Second Punic War, serving as military...
American politician
Rahm Emanuel is an American politician who served as an adviser to U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton (1993–99) before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (2003–09). He later was chief of staff (2009–10)...
Italian author
Baldassare Castiglione was an Italian courtier, diplomat, and writer best known for his dialogue Il libro del cortegiano (1528; The Book of the Courtier). The son of a noble family, Castiglione was educated...
prime minister of Israel
Yitzhak Rabin was an Israeli statesman and soldier who, as prime minister of Israel (1974–77 and 1992–95), led his country toward peace with its Palestinian and Arab neighbors. He was chief of staff of...
United States senator
Jeff Flake is an American Republican politician who represented Arizona in the U.S. Senate (2013–19). He previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives (2001–13). In 2021, Flake became the U.S....
Indian politician and author
Shashi Tharoor is a prominent Indian diplomat and politician who, after a distinguished career at the United Nations, became a minister twice, from 2009 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2014, in the Government...
president of Brazil
Itamar Franco was a Brazilian politician who served as president of Brazil (1992–95). Franco was born on a ship off the eastern coast of Brazil, sailing from Rio de Janeiro to Salvador. His father died...
Portuguese explorer
Pêro da Covilhã was an early Portuguese explorer of Africa, who established relations between Portugal and Ethiopia. As a boy, Pêro served the duke of Medina-Sidonia in Sevilla (Seville) for six or seven...
Mexican writer and diplomat
Octavio Paz was a Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat, recognized as one of the major Latin American writers of the 20th century. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990. (See Nobel Lecture:...
president of Nigeria
Olusegun Obasanjo is a Nigerian general, statesman, and diplomat, who was the first military ruler in Africa to hand over power to a civilian government. He served as Nigeria’s military ruler (1976–79)...
American businessman
Joseph P. Kennedy was an American businessman and financier who served in government commissions in Washington, D.C. (1934–37), and as ambassador to Great Britain (1937–40). He was the father of U.S. Pres....
American actress and diplomat
Shirley Temple was an American actress and public official who was an internationally popular child star of the 1930s, best known for sentimental musicals. For much of the decade, she was one of Hollywood’s...
Egyptian lawyer and government official
Mohamed ElBaradei is an Egyptian lawyer and government official who was director general (1997–2009) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and briefly served as the interim vice president of...
American politician and diplomat
George Mitchell is an American politician and diplomat who served as a member of the U.S. Senate (1980–95), including service as majority leader (1989–95), and who later was special adviser to the peace...
president of Finland
Juho Kusti Paasikivi was a Finnish statesman and diplomat who, as prime minister (1918, 1944–46) and then president (1946–56) of Finland, cultivated harmonious relations with the Soviet Union in an effort...
American businesswoman and humanitarian
Cindy McCain is an American businesswoman and humanitarian and the wife of U.S. senator and two-time Republican presidential candidate John McCain. After serving as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations...
United States secretary of state
Madeleine Albright was a Czech-born American public official who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (1993–97) and who was the first woman to hold the cabinet post of U.S. secretary of state...
American attorney, educator, and diplomat
Richard Theodore Greener was an attorney, educator, and diplomat who was the first African American graduate of Harvard University. Greener was the son of seaman Richard Wesley and Mary Ann (le Brune)...
American politician
Jon Huntsman, Jr. is an American politician who served as governor of Utah (2005–09) and as U.S. ambassador to China (2009–11) and to Russia (2017–19). He sought the Republican presidential nomination...
American diplomat and historian
George F. Kennan was an American diplomat and historian best known for his successful advocacy of a “containment policy” to oppose Soviet expansionism following World War II. Upon graduation from Princeton...
Canadian government official
Stéphane Dion is a Canadian politician who was the leader of the Liberal Party (2007–08). Dion was the son of one of the cofounders of Laval University’s political science department. He grew up during...
American government official
Donald Rumsfeld was a U.S. government official who served as secretary of defense (1975–77; 2001–06) in the Republican administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and George W. Bush. After graduating from...
- abolitionism
- activism
- advertising
- air force
- anarchism
- army
- banking
- business
- church and state
- civil rights
- civil war
- colonialism
- communism
- coup d'etat
- crime
- criminology
- diplomacy
- economics
- espionage
- fascism
- first lady
- government
- history
- human rights
- independence
- inquisition
- intelligence
- journalism
- labour movement
- law
- marketing
- Marxism
- modeling
- nationalism
- navy
- Nobel Prize (all)
- Nobel Prize - Economics
- Nobel Prize - Peace
- oratory
- organized labour
- pacifism
- philanthropy
- piloting
- pioneer
- political science
- president
- prime minister
- publishing
- reform
- social movement
- social service
- socialism
- sociology
- temperance movement
- terrorism
- women's movement