AMBASSADOR PHILIP S. KOSNETT (Ret.) represented the United States in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia during a Foreign Service career focused on security cooperation and post-conflict governance. His executive assignments included Ambassador to Kosovo; Chargé d’Affaires (acting ambassador) in Turkey and Iceland; and Deputy Chief of Mission (deputy ambassador) in Turkey, Iceland, and Uzbekistan. Kosnett also served as a provincial administrator in Iraq and as a political-military officer in Iraq and Afghanistan. He held political-economic, counterterrorism, law enforcement, and environmental diplomacy portfolios in Japan and The Netherlands. In Washington, he served in policy, crisis management, and intelligence analysis roles.

Since leaving federal service in 2021, Philip Kosnett has taken on roles in international security, investment, and education. In addition to consulting via Kosnett Associates LLC, he is a Senior Fellow with National Defense University’s Joint Forces Staff College and with the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Global and National Security Institute at the University of South Florida.

Philip Kosnett is the editor of Boots and Suits: Historical Cases and Contemporary Lessons in Military Diplomacy (Marine Corps University Press, 2023), and an Editorial Advisor at PRISM - the flagship journal of the Pentagon’s Irregular Warfare Center. He has also returned to his first calling, from student days, as a wargame designer.

A graduate of Harvard with a degree in Government, Philip Kosnett has formally studied Turkish, Japanese, Dutch, and Russian. He is a recipient of numerous State Department awards, the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service, the Department of the Army Medal for Outstanding Civilian Service, and the Republic of Kosovo Order of Dr. Ibrahim Rugova. Philip Kosnett is an elected member of  the American Academy of Diplomacy.