==Traditional diplomacy==
Until the early 19th_Century, each European nation had its own system of '''diplomatic rank'''. The relative ranks of diplomats from different nations had been a source of considerable dispute, made more so by the insistence of major nations to have their diplomats ranked higher than those of minor nations, to be reflected in table seatings etc..
In an attempt to resolve the problem, the Congress_of_Vienna of 1815 formally established an international system of diplomatic ranks. The four ranks within the system were:
1. '''Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary''', or simply Ambassador. A Diplomatic_mission headed by an ambassador would be known as an ''Embassy''. Equivalent, and in some traditions ''primus inter pares'', is the Papal_nuncio. Amongst Commonwealth countries, especially if the British crown is Head of State, the equivalent title High_Commissioner is more common.
2&3. A diplomatic '''minister''' (compare Minister_(government) and Minister_(Christianity)) is a true Diplomat (not merely consular) accredited by one Sovereign_state to another who ranks below an ambassador.
A Diplomatic_mission headed by either type of Minister would be called a ''Legation''.
As most legations are now embassies, reflecting the United_Nations doctrine of equality of sovereign states, contemporary diplomatic Ministers where those ranks still exist usually act as embassy section chiefs.
The Vienna Conventions (from 1815) established two formal ranks of Ministers:
2. A '''Minister Plenipotentiary''', or in full '''Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary''', or simply Envoy. (usually just referred to as a Minister) is a diplomatic representative with Plenipotentiary powers (i.e. full authority to represent the ruler of his state), but ranking below an ambassador. At one time (until well into the 20th_century), full ambassadors were only sent by powerful states to other powerful states and most diplomatic representatives to and from less powerful states were Ministers Plenipotentiary.
3. A '''Minister_Resident or Resident Minister''' , or simply Minister, is the, now extremely rare, lowest rank of full Legation chief, only above Chargé_d'affaires (who is considered an extraodinary substitute)
4. '''Chargé d'affaires''', or simply Chargé. As the French title suggests, a chargé d'affaires would be in charge of an embassy's or a legation's affairs in the (usually temporary) absence of a more senior diplomat.
Of the four diplomatic ranks, all ministers and ambassador represents the head of state (rather than the government as is the case for the other ranks); originally only the ambassador was entitled to use the honorary title "His/Her Excellency".
As it turned out, this system of diplomatic rank did nothing to solve the problem of the nations' precedence. The appropriate diplomatic ranks used would be determined by the precedence among the nations; thus the exchanges of ambassadors (the highest diplomatic rank) would be reserved among major nations. In contrast, a major nation would probably send just an envoy to a minor nation, who in return would send an envoy to the major nation. As a result, the United_States did not use the rank of ambassador until the end of the 19th_Century.
At each posting (usually the national capital) one of the diplomats is recognized as the one in line -in practice rather a protocoloary honor- to act as spokesperson for all, known as dean of the corps diplomatique (often by seniority, in some catholic nations ex officio the papal nuncio) or Marshall of diplomacy
By the end of World_War_II, it was no longer considered acceptable to treat some nations as inferior to others. Consequently the use of the ranks of envoy and minister resident for legation chiefs gradually ceased.
In modern diplomatic practice there are a number of diplomatic ranks below Ambassador. These are in terms of rank:
* '''Ambassador'''
* '''Minister'''
* '''Minister-counselor''' (where there are several Ministers in a single Embassy, the most senior of which is simply Minister and the others the lesser rank)
* '''Counselor'''
* '''First Secretary'''
* '''Second Secretary'''
* '''Third Secretary'''
* '''Attaché'''
==Consular career==
There are also consular ranks for officials serving in a consular post or carrying out strictly consular duties within the 'consular section' of a diplomatic post, with a rather similar, but formally non-diplomatic status (this allows a wider application, being less politically sensitive, of services rendered to private citizens, enterprises etc.). These are:
*Consul-General
*Consul
*Vice-consul
*Honorary Consul
==Multilateral diplomacy==
Furthermore, outside this traditional pattern of bilateral diplomacy, as a rule on a permanent residency basis (though sometimes doubling elsewhere), certain ranks and positions were created specifically for multilateral diplomacy:
* a Permanent_representative is the equivalent of an ambassador, normally of that rank, but accredited to an international body (mainly by member - and possibly observer states), not to a head of state
* a special ambassador is a government's specialist diplomat in a particular field, often traveling around the globe
* the U.S._Trade_Representative is a diplomat of cabinet rank, in charge of US delegations in multilateral trade negotiations (since 1962)
* the UN_Secretary_General personally mandates '''Special Envoy'''s for a particular field, e.g. Africa's long-term AIDS-problem, or ad hoc as for a (civil) war zone
* the EU appoints various '''Special representatives''' ad hoc, e.g. in 2005 for the violent repression of political unrest in post-soviet Uzbekistan
==See also==
* Amban
* Apocrisiary
* Diplomacy
* Legate
* Internuncio
* Windsor_uniform
* Diplobrat
Minister
Pl:Szefowie_misji_dyplomatycznych