Publication

This brief discusses the use of special envoys by the US government, a practice which has expanded to an unprecedented extent under the Obama administration. The envoys interviewed for this brief observed that their senior, but sometimes ambiguous positions in the government structure often afforded them greater access to senior foreign officials and news media than were enjoyed by regular officials below the level of cabinet secretary. The brief concludes that the recent proliferation of special envoys is a product of the operating styles of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who appear to have found this mechanism to be an effective tool for addressing select foreign policy issues.