Ambassador Philip Kosnett

During a decades-long State Department career, Ambassador Philip S. Kosnett represented the United States in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, focusing on international security and  post-conflict governance and development. He established a record of success as a strategist, negotiator, and leader of interagency and civil-military teams in conditions of peace and war.

Kosnett’s senior positions included Ambassador to Kosovo; Charge d’Affaires (acting ambassador) in Turkey and Iceland; and Deputy Chief of Mission (deputy ambassador) in Uzbekistan. He served four years in Iraq and Afghanistan as a provincial administrator and senior political-military officer, and held political-economic, counterterrorism, and environmental diplomacy portfolios at U.S. missions in Japan and The Netherlands.  He served in intelligence, policy and crisis management positions in Washington. 

Since leaving federal service in 2021, Kosnett has taken on roles in consulting, policy analysis, education, and humanitarian action. He has established the consultancy Kosnett Associates LLC with his wife Alison Kosnett, a specialist in international development and governance; and has affiliated with the DC-based Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), North Carolina’s Montreat College, and the crisis response organization AfghanEvac. 

Ambassador Kosnett’s most recent publication is the book Boots and Suits: Historical Cases and Contemporary Lessons in Military Diplomacy (edited for Marine Corps University Press, 2023). He has also re-embraced his first calling, from student days, as a designer of historical and science fiction simulation games. As a commentator, he has appeared on BBC News, Sky News, and Voice of America, and has spoken at colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, and Central Asia.

A graduate of Harvard with a degree in Government, Kosnett has formally studied Turkish, Japanese, Dutch, and Russian, and is self-taught in Pentagon dialect. He holds the State Department Superior Honor, Meritorious Honor, and Senior Performance 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.