WHERE ARE WE?

U.S. State Department    2201 C Street N.W.    Washington, D.C. 20520

In Washington, D.C. The United States Department of State is in the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C., and is near the White House. It is located between 23rd and 21st Streets, NW, south of the Foggy Bottom metro stop. If you were walking down 23rd Street to the Lincoln Memorial from the metro stop, you would walk past the State Department.

If you need help finding information, you can e-mail the Bureau of Public Affairs or write us at:

Public Information Unit

Bureau of Public Affairs

Rm. 6808

U.S. Department of State

Washington, D.C. 20520-6810

In Other Countries Overseas
We have more than 250 diplomatic and consular posts around the world, in the Western Hemisphere, Europe and the New Independent States, Africa, the Near East, South Asia, and East Asia and Pacific. These posts include embassies, consulates, and delegations and missions to international organizations, some of which have web sites that are linked to this page.

WHAT DO WE DO?

The Department of State is the lead U.S. foreign affairs agency. It promotes U.S. objectives and interests in shaping a freer, more secure, and more prosperous world through formulating, representing, and implementing the President's foreign policy. The Secretary of State, the ranking member of the Cabinet and fourth in line of presidential succession, is the President's principal adviser on foreign policy and the person chiefly responsible for U.S. representation abroad. Find more information in our pamphlet Diplomacy: The State Department at Work.

OUR HISTORY

For more than 200 years, the State Department has supported Presidents and Secretaries of State, worked with the Congress, and served all citizens of the United States as we grew to become a great power. To read about our past and our role in foreign affairs, see A History of the United States Department of State, 1789-1996.