The future is now. The economic crisis has sped up globalization, and we are already living in a new era. The strength of the BRICS countries has to compete with growth in the “double MIT” (Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey and Malaysia, India, and Thailand) and more. Of the world’s major global companies, 25% are in these countries.

Diplomacy, like negotiation and card playing, is an old, traditional ‘art’. To succeed at all three, the player needs an edge over his or her opponents, an edge based on preparation, confidence and cultural acuity. The more you know going in, the greater your chances of ultimate success.

In June, Michael T. Sestak, a former cop and naval officer who went on to work for the US Foreign Service in Vietnam, was brought before a judge in Washington, DC on corruption charges. Sestak was allegedly a major part of one of the most lucrative illegal visa scams in history—while he was employed at the US consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, he had a side business rubber-stamping fraudulent visa applications for paying clients fed to him by a Vietnamese-American family, a gig that netted nearly $10 million all together according to the Department of Justice.

The State Department has closed a total of 19 diplomatic posts in the Middle East, North Africa, and East Africa and has ordered the U.S. Embassy in Yemen evacuated. But what exactly does that mean for U.S. missions and U.S. citizens abroad? To find out, we talked to a current State Department Foreign Service officer who is on detail at the American Foreign Service Association, a union for diplomats.

Both efforts need to bring us into the 21st century by also allowing our foreign service to use social media. If the foreign services of our U.S. and European allies can use the tools of public diplomacy – to blog, tweet and speak out in support of their national interests – why can’t we? Today’s foreign service long ago embraced the tenets of guerrilla diplomacy, exchanging pinstripes for a backpack.

It's apt that Simon Fraser, permanent under-secretary to the Foreign Office, head of the diplomatic service and chair of the FCO board, should have a copy of Henry Kissinger's seminal work, Diplomacy, in his Whitehall office.

In spite of September’s deadly attack on the American consulate in Benghazi that claimed the lives of an ambassador and three others, the U.S. Foreign Service has more applicants than ever.