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 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 roles.

Since leaving federal service in 2021, Kosnett has established the consultancy Kosnett Associates LLC with his wife Alison Kosnett, a specialist in development and governance. He is a Senior Fellow with National Defense University’s Joint Forces Staff College and with the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis; an Advisor to the humanitarian organization AfghanEvac; and a Trustee of North Carolina’s Montreat College. Kosnett is an elected member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, an organization of veteran foreign policy leaders dedicated to strengthening American diplomacy.

Kosnett has appeared on BBC News; Sky News UK; Voice of America; and the American Academy of Diplomacy podcast The General and the Ambassador. He has spoken at the George C. Marshall Center; the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; Greece’s Delphi Economic Forum; and universities in the United States, Canada, and Central Asia.

On the creative side, Kosnett edited the book Boots and Suits: Historical Cases and Contemporary Lessons in Military Diplomacy (Marine Corps University Press, 2023). He has also re-embraced his first calling – from student days – as a wargame designer; and writes science fiction.

A graduate of Harvard University with a degree in Government, Kosnett has formally studied Turkish, Japanese, Dutch, and Russian. He holds 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 and Alison Kosnett and their adopted Kosovo street dog divide their time between Atlanta, Georgia and the North Carolina mountains.