A common misconception that many people have is that embassies are part of the territory of the country that runs the embassy.

For example, the American embassy in Canada would be part of the United States.

This is not quite true. The theory covering how an embassy or a

diplomat works deals with the concept of extraterritoriality. Learn more

about extraterritoriality, the thing that makes international relations function on this episode of sponsored by audible.

My audio book recommendation today is Backstabbing for Beginners, my crash course in international diplomacy by Michael Suzanne.

The year is 1997. Michael Suzanne, a fresh-frace graduate, takes up a job at the UN's Oil for Food Program,

the largest humanitarian operation in the organization's history.

His mission is to help Iraqi civilians survive the devastating impact of economic sanctions that were

imposed following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. On March 8th 2004 in a Wall Street

journal op-ed, Suzanne becomes the first insider to call for an independent investigation of the UN's dealings with Saddam Hussein.

Backstabbing for beginners is at once a witty tale of one of man's political coming of age

and a stinging indictment of the hypocrisy that prevailed at the heart of one of the world's most idealistic

institutions.

You can get a free one month trial to Audible and two free audio books by going to Audible

trial.com slash everything everywhere or by clicking on the link in the show notes.

The definition of extraterritoriality, according to Miriam Webster's, is exemption from the application or jurisdiction of local laws or tribunals.

Many people think that an embassy is the territory of the country which operates it because the laws

of that country operate there. However that doesn't make it the territory of the

country. In the example I gave in the introduction the American Embassy in Canada is not American Territory.

It's Canadian Territory.

However, the land where the embassy is located is subject to extraterritorial jurisdiction.

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