The English Job: Understanding Iran and Why It Distrusts Britain
Straw, Jack: The English Job: Understanding Iran and why it distrusts Britain (Biteback, 2019), pp. 390, incl. index, ISBN 978-1-78590-399-1 It was only by chance that I stumbled on this book, partly because from [...]
Diplomatic Security under a Comparative Lens—Or Not?
Eugenio Cusumano, Christopher Kinsey, eds. Diplomatic Security: A Comparative Analysis. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019. 280 pp. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-5036-0898-6. “Diplomatic security” is the term now usually preferred to “diplomatic protection” for the steps [...]
Barder, Brian, Brian Barder’s Diplomatic Diary
Barder, Brian, Brian Barder’s Diplomatic Diary, ed. Louise Barder (privately published: London, 2019), pp. 307. Paperback ISBN 978-1-944066-29-1; hardback ISBN 978-1-944066-25-3. Available from Amazon, as well as other booksellers. Sir Brian Barder, the senior British [...]
Room for Diplomacy: The history of Britain’s diplomatic buildings overseas, 1800-2000
Mark Bertram, Room for Diplomacy: The history of Britain’s diplomatic buildings overseas, 1800-2000, 2nd ed. (Spire Books: Salisbury, 2017), pp. 479 incl. index, ISBN 978-1-904965-54-1 Mark Bertram joined the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works [...]
Diplomatic Notebooks 1, 1958-1960: The view from Ankara
Zeki Kuneralp, Diplomatic Notebooks 1, 1958-1960: The view from Ankara, ed. and introduced by Sinan Kuneralp (The Isis Press: Istanbul, 2018), ISBN 978-975-428-616-8/978-975-428-617-5, pp. 342, incl. name and analytical index. Publisher's page Zeki Kuneralp (1914-1998) was [...]
The Summer Capitals of Europe, 1814-1919
(Routledge, 2017), 342pp (incl. index). ISBN: 978-0-415-79245- (hbk); 978-1-315-21170-1 (ebk) This is an original work, meticulously researched, rich in detail, and written in a clear and – here and there – refreshingly pungent style. Soroka [...]
Curing the Sick Man: Sir Henry Bulwer and the Ottoman Empire, 1858-1865
(Republic of Letters: Dordrecht, 2011) ISBN 9789089790569, pp. 269 incl. index This is the first book of a very promising young historian. Laurence Guymer, who is head of the Department of History at Winchester College [...]
The Embassy: A story of war and diplomacy
(Beaufort Books: New York, 2016), p. 376, incl. index. ISBN 9780825308253 This book tells the story of the vital role played by the US Embassy in Monrovia in helping to mediate an end to the [...]
Diplomatic Interference and the Law
(Hart: Oxford and Portland, Oregon, 2016), 493pp. incl. index. ISBN 9781849464369 (hb), ISBN 9781509902781 (Epub). Q: ‘Why will there never be a coup d’état in Washington? A: Because there’s no American Embassy there.’ This old [...]
John le Carré: The Biography
(Bloomsbury: London, 2015). 652 pp. incl. index. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4088-2792-5 TPB: 978-1-4088-2793-2 ePub: 978-1-4088-4944-6[ buy this book ] I thought to review this book because I had enjoyed the spy novels of John le Carré [...]
Back Channel to Cuba: The hidden history of negotiations between Washington and Havana
(The University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, 2014), 524pp. incl. index. ISBN 978-I-4696-1763-3 (cloth); ISBN 978-I-4696-1764-0 (ebook) This book went to press after the much-publicised handshake between US president Barack Obama and Cuban president [...]
The Demilitarization of American Diplomacy: Two cheers for striped pants
(Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2014), pp. 88 (incl. index). ISBN 10: 1137298545 / ISBN 13: 9781137298546 The trenchant contribution to this subject of the outstanding American scholar-diplomat Laurence Pope is published in Palgrave’s ‘Pivot’ series of [...]
Radio Free Europe: An insider’s view
(New Academia Publishing: Washington, DC, 2013), pp. 139 (incl. index). ISBN 978-0-9886376-8-9. [Buy this book] James F. Brown, who held joint British-American citizenship and died in 2009, spent 27 years at the Munich home of [...]
Diplomatenleben
Akteure, Schauplätze, Zwischenrufe – Ein Lesebuch 2013. 436 S. Geb. CHF 48.00 / EUR 39.50 ISBN 978-3-0340-1206-5. [buy this book] A must-have for German-speaking students of Swiss diplomacy (and diplomacy generally) since the Second World [...]
Last Man Standing: Memoirs of a political survivor
(Pan Macmillan: London, 2013), pp. 582 (incl. index). ISBN 978-1-4472-2276-7. [buy this book] [Kindle ed] Jack Straw was the ablest and wisest of Tony Blair’s foreign secretaries and served in this capacity from 2001 until [...]
British Diplomacy and the Descent into Chaos: The career of Jack Garnett, 1902-19
(Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke, 2012), 280 pp (incl. index). ISBN 978-0-230-34897-4. [buy this book] [Kindle ed] I am in favour of biographies of relatively obscure individuals like Jack Garnett because there are plenty of them on [...]
Transformational Diplomacy after the Cold War: Britain’s Know How Fund in Post-Communist Europe, 1989-2003
(Routledge: London and New York, 2013), 224 pp. (incl. index). ISBN13: 978-0-415-69203-8 (hbk). ISBN13: 978-0-203-38158-8 (ebk). [buy this book] This is the long awaited history of the Know How Fund (KHF) produced by the recently [...]
21st Century Diplomacy: A practitioner’s guide
(Continuum: London and New York, 2011), 372pp (incl. index). ISBN: 9781441168382. Available in pb at £19.99. [buy this book] Kishan Rana is a man of lengthy and varied experience in the Indian Foreign Service, ending [...]
Economic Diplomacy: India’s experience
(CUTS International: Jaipur, 2011), 285pp. (incl. index). ISBN 978 81 8257 139 6. Kishan Rana is a widely published former Indian ambassador and Bipul Chatterjee, his co-editor, is the deputy executive director of the Indian [...]
The Practice of Diplomacy: Its evolution, theory and administration
2nd ed (Routledge: London and New York, 2011), pp. 317 (incl. index). [buy this book] [Kindle ed] First published in 1995, the long-awaited second edition of this valuable textbook on the history of diplomacy has [...]
The Queen’s Ambassador to the Sultan: Memoirs of Sir Henry A. Layard’s Constantinople Embassy, 1877-1880
(The Isis Press: Istanbul, 2009), pp. 721 (incl. index), ISBN 978-975-428-395-2. Sinan Kuneralp (ed.), Twixt Pera and Therapia: The Constantinople Diaries of Lady Layard (The Isis Press: Istanbul, 2010), pp. 279 (incl. index), ISBN 978-975-428-398-3. [...]
Diplomats at War: British and Commonwealth diplomacy in wartime
(Martinus Nijhoff: Leiden and Boston, 2008), pp. 304 (incl. index). ISBN 978 90 04 16897 8 In their Preface, the editors of Diplomats at War say that the two world wars in the twentieth century [...]
The Blair Years: Extracts from the Alastair Campbell diaries
(Hutchinson: London, 2007), pp. 794, incl. index. ISBN 9780091796297 Until his resignation amid huge controversy in August 2003, Alastair Campbell was Tony Blair’s official spokesman and director of communications and strategy – ace spin doctor, [...]
Twentieth-Century Diplomacy: A Case Study of British Practice, 1963-1976
(Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2008), pp. 224, incl. index. ISBN 978-0-521-83916-7 Some years ago, John Young, Professor of International History at the University of Nottingham and long-serving Chair of the British International History Group, turned [...]
Just a Diplomat
Zeki Kuneralp, Just a Diplomat, trsl. by Geoffrey Lewis with a preface by Andrew Mango (The Isis Press: Istanbul, 1992), pp. 152, incl. appendices and index. ISBN 975-428-029-0 Theophilus C. Prousis, British Consular Reports from [...]
Cyprus: the search for a solution
(I. B. Tauris: London and New York, 2005), pp. 256 incl. index. ISBN 13 978 1 85043 665 2 [ buy this book ] Lord Hannay, a senior British diplomat with great experience of multilateral [...]
Diplomacy and Developing Nations: Post-Cold War foreign policy-making structures and processes
(Routledge: London, 2005) pp. xi 280, ISBN-10: 0714654035 [ buy this book ] Guest Review by Kishan S. Rana This book is a valuable addition to the slim body of literature on foreign ministries and [...]
The Twenty-First Century Ambassador: Plenipotentiary to Chief Executive and Asian Diplomacy: The Foreign Ministries of China, India, Japan, Singapore and Thailand
Kishan S. Rana, The Twenty-First Century Ambassador: Plenipotentiary to Chief Executive (Malta and Geneva: DiploFoundation, 2004), pp. xiii + 258. ISBN 99909-55-18-2 (Paperback). Kishan S. Rana, Asian Diplomacy: The Foreign Ministries of China, India, Japan, [...]
Diplomacy with a Difference: The Commonwealth Office of High Commissioner, 1880-2006
(Martinus Nijhoff: Leiden and Boston, 2007), pp. 353, incl. Index. ISBN 978 90 04 15497 1 [buy this book] In writing her history of the origins and evolution of the office of high commissioner, Dr [...]
Politics and Diplomacy in Early Modern Italy: The structure of diplomatic practice, 1450-1800
(Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2000), pp. 262 incl. index of names [only]. ISBN 0521-56189-2. [buy this book] This collection of essays, edited and well introduced by Daniela Frigo of the University of Trieste, reflects the [...]
The Year of Europe: America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, 1972-1974
Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Vol. IV (Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon, 2006, on behalf of the Whitehall History Publishing Consortium) This is the latest volume in the DBPO series, which has proved so invaluable [...]
Spies in Uniform: British Military and Naval Intelligence on the Eve of the First World War
(Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2006), pp. 272 incl. index. ISBN 0-19-926150-4 [ buy this book ] Matthew Seligman, who is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Northampton, sets as his target the [...]
DC Confidential: The controversial memoirs of Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. at the time of 9/11 and the Iraq War
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson: London, 2005), pp. 301 incl. index. ISBN 0-297-851144 [ buy this book ] The publication of these memoirs in autumn 2005 caused a public furore in Britain so I shall not waste [...]
Essence of Diplomacy
(Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke and New York, 2005), pp. ix, 207 incl. index. ISBN 13:978-1-4039-9225-3; 10:1-4039-9225-8 [ buy this book ] Christer Jönsson is Professor of Political Science at Lund University in Sweden, where Martin Hall [...]
England and the Avignon Popes: The practice of diplomacy in late medieval Europe
(Legenda: London, 2005), pp. xiv, 304, incl. index. ISBN 1-904713-04-1. [ buy this book ] In England and the Avignon Popes, Karsten Plöger, who is a Research Fellow at the German Historical Institute in London, [...]
The History and Politics of UN Security Council Reform
(Routledge: London and New York, 2005), pp. xii, 134, incl. index. ISBN 0-415-30845-3. [ buy this book ] Dimitris Bourantonis, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Athens University of Economics and Business and a [...]
Lucky George: Memoirs of an Anti-Politician
(Allen Lane The Penguin Press: London, 1999), pp. xiv, 402, incl. index. Hb: ISBN 0-713-99316-2. Pb: ISBN: 0140282211 [ buy this book ] This is a belated and less than comprehensive note on this book, [...]
Managing the Cold War: A view from the front line
(RUSI: London, 2005), pp. 267. ISBN 0-85516-191-4 [ buy this book ] Michael Alexander, a Russian-speaking senior British diplomat who died in 2002, was a major behind-the-scenes figure in what he calls the 'management' of [...]
Discourse on the Art of Negotiation
translated by Aleksandra Gruzinska and Murray D. Sirkis, Currents in Comparative Romance Languages and Literatures vol. 140 (Peter Lang: New York, 2004), pp. xlviii, 93. ISBN 0-8204-7436-3 [ buy this book ] The translators of [...]
Multilateral Conferences: Purposeful International Negotiation
(Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke and New York, 2004), 281pp. (with index), ISBN 1-4039-3321-9 (hbk) [ buy this book ] Ron Walker was a member of the Australian diplomatic service for 37 years, for the last 22 [...]
Under the Wire: How the telegraph changed diplomacy
(Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass. & London, 2003), 265pp. (with index), ISBN 0-674-01035-3 [ buy this book ] Nickles, who is a State Department historian, has written what I believe is the first full-length study [...]
The New Diplomacy
(Polity Press: Cambridge, 2003), 150pp. (with index), ISBN (pb) 0-7456-2790-0 ; (hb) 0-7456-2789-7 Shaun Riordan was a British diplomat for 16 years before resigning in 2000 to take up private consultancy work and journalism in [...]
Chinese Ambassadors: The rise of diplomatic professionalism since 1945
(University of Washington Press: Seattle and London, 2001), 259pp., with selected bibliography and index. ISBN 0-295-98028-1 (paper); 0-295-98087-7 (cloth). [ buy this book ] Xiaohong worked on Western European affairs in the Ministry of Foreign [...]
The Long Affair: Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution
(Sinclair-Stevenson: London, 1996), 367pp. (with index), ISBN (pb) 0-2266-1656-8; (hb) 0-2266-1653-3. [ buy this book ] Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and third president of the United States (1801-9), was one [...]
Keeping the Peace in the Cyprus Crisis of 1963-64
(Palgrave-Macmillan: Basingstoke and New York, 2002), pp. 241 (with index). ISBN 0-333-74857-3. [ buy this book ] After some difficulties, a UN force was established in Cyprus (UNFICYP) following the collapse of the bicommunal independence [...]
Cursed is the Peacemaker: The American Diplomat Versus the Israeli General, Beirut 1982
An ADST/DACOR 'Diplomats and Diplomacy' book (Applegate Press: Belmont, CA, 2002), pp. 488 (with index). ISBN 0-9719432-0-6. [ buy this book ] Philip Habib, a Brooklyn-born son of Lebanese immigrants, joined the US Foreign Service [...]
The International Law Commission 1949-1998. Vol. One: The Treaties, Part I
(Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1999), pp. 608 (with index). ISBN 0-19-829803-X. [ buy this book ] This first volume of a three-volume set is - price apart - a marvellous text for any student of [...]
Leadership Selection in the Major Multilaterals
(Inst. for International Economics: Washington, Nov. 2001), pp. 132 with index. ISBN 0-88132-335-7. [ buy this book ] Inspired by the damaging leadership contest fiascos of recent years in certain international organizations, not least that [...]
The Permanent Under-Secretary of State: A brief history of the office and its holders
History Notes, no. 15, April 2002 (FCO, Records and Historical Department: London), pp. 57. Free on request. As the title of this booklet indicates, it is only a brief history of this increasingly influential office [...]
A Diplomat in Siam (introduced and edited by Nigel Brailey)
first published 1994, rev. ed., Itineraria Asiatica, Thailand vol. VIII (Orchid Press: Bangkok, 2000), pp. 208, with index; ISBN 974-8304-73-6; price USD23.00 [ buy this book ] email: wop@inet.co.th Nigel Brailey, a University of Bristol [...]
Bilateral Diplomacy
(DiploProject: Geneva and Malta, 2002), pp. 283, with index. ISBN 99909-55-16-6 [ buy this book ] The second book on diplomacy by the former Indian ambassador, Kishan Rana, is hot on the heels of his [...]
Unvanquished: A U.S.-U.N. Saga
(I.B. Tauris: London and New York, 1999), ISBN 1-86064-497-X, pp. 352, incl. index. [ buy this book ] Question: When is a diplomatic victory not a diplomatic victory? Answer: When it is achieved by means [...]
Decision-Making in the UN Security Council: The case of Haiti, 1990-1997
(Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1998), ISBN 0-19-829483-2, pp. 322 with index. [ buy this book ] Question: 'When is a "Foreword" not a "Foreword"? Answer: When it is written by Adam Roberts. This book started life [...]
The Diplomacies of New Small States: The case of Slovenia with some comparison(s) from the Baltics
Trsl. from Slovene by Maja Visenjak-Limon (Ashgate: Aldershot, etc., 2001), pp. 237, ISBN 0-7546-1706-8 Milan Jazbec is the State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence in Slovenia responsible for his ministry's co-operation and preparations for [...]
Consular Law and Practice, 2nd edn
(Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1991) ISBN 0-19-825601-9, pp. 739 with index. [ buy this book ] The author of this book is a member of the US State Department's Senior Executive Service, Chairman of the [...]
The system of privileges and immunities applicable to the international organisations in Switzerland and to the permanent foreign delegations in Geneva
(Geneva, 1997) pp. 67; pamphlet in A4 format; available free on request (English, French or Spanish) from Ms Danielle Wertmueller Amadeo Perez is Legal Adviser to the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the International Organisations [...]
Herding Cats: Multiparty Mediation in a Complex World
(United States Institute of Peace Press: Washington, D.C., 1999) ISBN 1-878379-92-5, pp. 735 with index. [ buy this book ] This massive book is divided into three main parts, each of the chapters in which [...]
Frontline Diplomacy: The U.S. Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection on CD-ROM
(ADST: Arlington, VA, 2000). (PC only). Available to non-member individuals at $145, and to institutions/corporations at $475 (offline use) or $800 (networked use). The ADST is a private, non-profit organization whose mission is 'to spread [...]
Yes, (Saudi) Minister! A Life in Administration
(The London Centre of Arab Studies, 1999), ISBN 1-900404-17-6. [ buy this book ] After a brilliant ministerial career in Riyadh, Algosaibi fell from grace at the Ministry of Health in 1984. This was the [...]
Journeying Far and Wide: A Political and Diplomatic Memoir
(Scribner's: New York, 1992), ISBN 0-684-19350-7, 352pp with index. [ buy this book ] Kaiser was an active Democrat and 'noncareer officer' in the US Foreign Service under three Democratic presidents: Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter. [...]
A Selection of New diplomatic memoirs
Harry Brind, Lying Abroad: Diplomatic Memoirs (London/New York: 1999) pp. xi + 260. [ buy this book ] Richard Faber, A Chain of Cities: Diplomacy at the End of Empire (London/ New York: 2000) pp. [...]
Inside Diplomacy
(Manas Publications: New Delhi, 2000), 455pp. with Index, ISBN 81-7049-102-2. [ buy this book ] This is a book on diplomacy in general and the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in particular. It is also a [...]
Born a Foreigner: A Memoir of the American Presence in Asia
(Rowman and Littlefield: Lanham and Oxford, 1999), pp. 281, ISBN 0-8476-9469-0. [ buy this book ] This is the eighth volume in the ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series, and is a very solid addition to [...]
Making Foreign Policy: A Certain Idea of Britain
(John Murray Publishers, 2000), ISBN 0-7195-6046-2, Pp. 224, Index, price UK ã17.99. [ buy this book ] In the course of his distinguished diplomatic career Sir John Coles worked in the Cabinet Office and was [...]
The History of Diplomatic Immunity
(Ohio State University Press: Columbus, Ohio, 1999), pp. 727, ISBN 0-8142-0740-5 [ buy this book ] This is a massive book in more than one sense. It is over 700 pages long, including an invaluable [...]