Carne Ross

Political movements and new states lack one thing: diplomats. Ross's team provides them

Jonathan Saunders for TIME

Carne Ross, center, with Polisario Front officials at their New York City offices.

FACILITATOR

As Carne Ross talks about how he resigned from the British Foreign Office in 2004 after Britain's decision to go to war in Iraq proved more than he could abide in a frustrating 15-year diplomatic career, the phone rings. "That'll be Kosovo," Ross says. Probably calling to say thanks.

There aren't many people who can go to work expecting appreciative calls from countries, but Ross can, and Kosovo is the latest place to owe him a debt of gratitude. The newly independent Balkan state was one of the first clients he took on when he started Independent Diplomat (ID), a...

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