Kurt Volker, the new US ambassador to Nato, hit the ground running when he took over the job in August.

Arriving at Nato headquarters in Brussels on August 12, four days after the Russia-Georgia conflict broke out, he was rushed straight into a meeting of Nato ambassadors to discuss the crisis. At the end of a hectic day he finally got to see the inside of his official residence – only to find US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice’s office on the phone.