Nicholas Kralev spent over two decades as a Financial Times and Washington Times correspondent travelling with Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright around the world, allowing him a unique position to observe the conduct and evolution of US diplomacy. Through his time as a correspondent as well as for his research for his books America's Other Army and Diplomatic Tradecraft, he gained incomparable experience visiting 80 U.S. embassies throughout the world. 

In his speech, Kralev focused on his work at the Washington International Diplomatic Academy and his experience both observing and training career diplomats. He discussed the lack of investment in diplomacy and diplomats by politicians in power, caused, he believes, by the little politicians know about and respect diplomatic tradecraft. Compared to the professionalism of the army, Kralev noted, diplomats are undertrained, undertooled and indeed, too few in number. Giving the example of the US, he shared that the country has 162 times more members of the military than it does diplomats. 

In the following discussion with Christiana Parreira, Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations and Political Science at the Geneva Graduate Institute, Kralev discussed the inertia of the state of diplomacy, despite its capacity to change.