Profile: Donald Bliss

Distinguished Careers in U.S. Diplomacy

I’m reviving a practice started last fall sharing sketches of American diplomats featured in Profiles in Service (Arlington Hall Press, 2026). Early each week I’ll turn to another story, and later share a related moment linking Peace Corps service to diplomatic efforts. Some are simple, some strange, some extraordinary.

Read about past featured RPCV diplomats.

Peace Corps Volunteer Lawyer

I think the greatest value of the Peace Corps is what it does for Americans who serve in it. It exposes them to other cultures in a very grassroots way.

– Donald T. Bliss (PCV Micronesia 1966-68; U.S. Ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization 2006-09)

Days after learning he’d passed the New York Bar, Don Bliss boarded a flight from Key West, Florida for Micronesia to serve as one of four volunteer lawyers.

There he and more than 600 volunteers took on such development projects as education, community development, health, enhancing the judicial system and drafting legislation for the fledgling Congress of Micronesia.

In the process, Bliss and his colleagues found themselves assisting Micronesians as they prepared for self-government, then under the tutelage of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

I learned to appreciate better what values are truly universal—like those enshrined in the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—and those values which simply reflect a particular culture.

After a career in law, Bliss became one of few RPCV non-career ambassadors, representing the United States at the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal.

There he drew on the cross-cultural skills first developed as a volunteer to bring the group of thirty-six international representatives on the governing Council and 184 member nations to consensus on thorny aviation security issues.

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