President Donald Trump is pursuing an ambitious foreign-policy agenda, which ranges from regime change in Iran to peacemaking in Ukraine. Normally U.S. ambassadors would be on the frontlines of such efforts. Yet in December, the Trump administration recalled more than two dozen career ambassadors, and it has been slow to fill vacancies. The result is that the U.S. lacks ambassadors in such important countries as Brazil, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Iraq, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates.

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