Forty years ago I had a woman friend who took me to meet her relatives. On one occasion we went to visit a former ambassador to Lichtenstein. My friend told me to call him Wally. So I called him Wally, and was otherwise gracious if not formal, which I gathered was the point. Wally was a chubby millionaire in a house full of women, his wife and four beautiful daughters. I understood the whole show was some sort of family battle. We weren't invited to stay for dinner, but I was rewarded for the performance, later.

Anyway, the ambassador position is a political appointment for inconsequential nations.