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April 24, 2001

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 is a case study of a particular mediation written by an individual who played a key role in it. The [...]

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 knowledge about the practice and history of modern American diplomacy'. To this end, its Oral History Project, created in 1985 [...]

March 3, 2001

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 start of his diplomatic life, which commenced in Bahrain and continued in London. This is a shrewd and lively book. [...]

December 10, 2000

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. His memoir, which is uncluttered with the trivial detail sometimes found in this genre and written with great verve, will [...]

November 29, 2000

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. vii + 224. [ buy this book ] Sally James, Diplomatic Moves: Life in the Foreign Service (London/New York: 1995) [...]

July 10, 2000

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 gem, and a large gem. It breathes life, wisdom, and good humour, and is full of rich detail. I found [...]

June 26, 2000

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 it. Cross, who was born of missionary parents in Beijing, spent 32 years in the US Foreign Service, and though [...]

March 15, 2000

Making Foreign Policy: A Certain Idea of Britain

(John Murray Publishers, 2000), ISBN 0-7195-6046-2, Pp. 224, Index, price UK £17.99. [ buy this book ] In the course of his distinguished diplomatic career Sir John Coles worked in the Cabinet Office and was Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. At the time of his retirement in 1997 he was concluding over [...]

December 11, 1999

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 bibliography which itself stretches over 70 pages. While dwelling chiefly on the Western tradition, it also takes in the Ottoman [...]

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