The United States has the second largest number of active diplomatic posts of any country in the world after the People's Republic of China, including 272 bilateral posts (embassies and consulates) in 174 countries, as well as 11 permanent missions to international organizations and seven other posts (as of May 2025). It maintains "interest sections" (in other states' embassies) in Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea.

History

In December 1777, Morocco became the first nation to seek diplomatic relations with the United States and together they maintain the United States' longest unbroken treaty. Benjamin Franklin established the first overseas mission of the United States in Paris in 1779. On April 19, 1782, John Adams was received by the States General and the Dutch Republic as they were the first country, together with Morocco and France, to recognize the United States as an independent government. John Adams then became the first U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands and the house that he had purchased there, at Fluwelen Burgwal 18 in The Hague, became the first U.S. embassy in the world.

In the period following the American Revolution, George Washington sent a number of close advisers, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Francis Dana, and John Jay, to the courts of European potentates in order to garner recognition of U.S. independence, with mixed results.

The first overseas consulate of the fledgling United States was founded in 1790 in Liverpool, Great Britain, by James Maury Jr., who was appointed by Washington. Maury held the post from 1790 to 1829. Liverpool was at the time Britain's leading port for transatlantic commerce and therefore of great economic importance to the United States. President George Washington, on November 19, 1792, nominated Benjamin Joy of Newbury Port as the first U.S. Consul to Kolkata (then Calcutta), India. Joy was not recognized as consul by the British East India Company but was permitted to "reside here as a Commercial Agent subject to the Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction of this Country." The United States' first owned overseas property is the American Legation in Tangier, which was a gift of the Sultan of Morocco in 1821. In general during the nineteenth century, the United States' diplomatic activities were done on a minimal budget. The U.S. owned no property abroad and provided no official residences for its foreign envoys, paid them a minimal salary, and gave them the rank of ministers rather than ambassadors who represented the great powers—a position which the U.S. only achieved towards the end of the nineteenth century.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the State Department was concerned with expanding commercial ties in Asia, establishing Liberia, foiling diplomatic recognition of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War, and securing its presence in North America. The Confederacy had diplomatic missions in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Papal States, Russia, Mexico, and Spain, and consular missions in Ireland, Canada, Cuba, Italy, Bermuda, and Nassau and New Providence.

The United States' global prominence became evident in the twentieth century, and the State Department was required to invest in a large network of diplomatic missions to manage its bilateral and multilateral relations. The wave of overseas construction began with the creation of the State Department's Foreign Service Buildings Commission in 1926.

Following the 1984 US embassy bombing in Beirut, and a 1985 report by Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, new guidelines for American diplomatic buildings focusing on security were issued. It advised that facilities should be located within a single, well-defended site, away from heavily populated areas.

As of 2024, America had the two largest embassy complexes in the world, in Baghdad and Beirut.

Current missions

Africa

At one point or another, the U.S. has maintained embassies in all the African states it recognizes with the exception of São Tomé and Príncipe. The U.S. Embassies in Libya and Sudan have been closed for security-related reasons since 26 July 2014 and 22 April 2023 respectively. The U.S. Embassies in Comoros and Guinea-Bissau closed in 1993 and 1998 respectively. The Comoros is covered by the U.S. Embassy in Antananarivo and Guinea-Bissau, which continues to host a Liaison Office in Bissau, is covered by the U.S. Embassy in Dakar.

Americas

The U.S. has embassies in all states in the North and South American continents with the exceptions of Antigua & Barbuda (where it has a consular agency), Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Asia

The U.S. has embassies in all Asian countries it recognizes apart from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Yemen. It has 'interests sections' in other nations' embassies in Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, and Syria. It also has a de facto embassy in Taiwan.

Europe

The U.S. has embassies in (or, in the case of Vatican City, near) all European countries it recognizes apart from Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, and San Marino.

Oceania

The U.S. has embassies in all countries in Oceania it recognizes apart from the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, and Tuvalu.

International organizations

Closed missions

Africa

Americas

Asia

Europe

Oceania

Missions to open

See also

• Ambassadors of the United States

• History of United States diplomatic relations by country

• List of countries by number of diplomatic missions

• List of diplomatic missions in the United States

• United States Foreign Service

• Diplomatic Security Service

• List of consular districts of the United States

• Timeline of United States diplomatic relations

Notes

References

External links

• State Department

• Details of diplomatic missions of the United States