Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, 6th ed. – Online updating pages
Chapter 5: Packaging Agreements
p. 76, first full para., agreements without a third language: In 2005, a fresh statement of Kyrgyzstan’s reluctant commitment to continuing US use of its Manas airbase for operations in Afghanistan was drafted and due to be announced during a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In the event, the Kyrgyz version of the agreed text was surreptitiously watered down at the last minute. Fortunately for the Americans, an alert US embassy staffer spotted this and Rice had to insist that it be corrected. This incident created ‘a terrible impression’, says Marie Yovanovitch, the US ambassador, in her memoirs (pp. 137–40).
p. 77, side letters: These have a long history. I have just discovered that one accompanied the Treaty of Blois of 19 April 1572, which created an edgy defensive alliance between England and France. Nervous of having a commitment to come to the aid of the Protestant English in the event of an attack by Catholic Spain written into the treaty, the French were willing only to provide an assurance on this point in a private letter written by King Charles IX. This was accepted by the English negotiators in return for a tacit retreat by the French in their support for Mary Queen of Scots.
Further reading
Yovanovitch, Marie, Lessons from the Edge: A memoir (Mariner Books, 2023)