ambassador
An ambassador is a traveling dignitary funded to win friends and influence governments, though primarily preoccupied with polite cocktails and evasive smiles. Expert at praising one nation while implying its neighbor is incompetent in the same breath. Draped in the regalia of his homeland, he swallows local inconveniences with a smile, airing delicate complaints only in private reports. His 'courtesy visits' are performances that simultaneously stir national pride and diplomatic dread. Upon return, he boasts of 'progress' while foreign honors become souvenirs gathering dust.