The Last American Diplomat

The Last American Diplomat
Author: George W. Liebmann
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2012-01-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 085772133X

Can John D. Negroponte be described as 'The Last American Diplomat'? In a career spanning 50 years of unprecedented American global power, he was the last of a dying breed of patrician diplomats - devoted to public service, a self-effacing and ultimate insider, whose prime duty was to advise, guide and warn - a bulwark of traditional diplomatic realism against ideologue excess. Negroponte served as US ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines and Iraq; he was US Permanent Representative to the UN, Director of National Intelligence and Deputy Secretary of State to George W. Bush. His was a high-flying and seemingly conventional career but one full of surprises. Negroponte opposed Kissinger in Vietnam, supported a 'proxy war' but opposed direct American military action against Marxists in Central America - facing bitter Congress opposition in the process. He swam against the floodtide of George W. Bush's neocon-dominated administration, warning against the Iraq war as a possible new 'Vietnam' and criticising aspects of Bush's 'War on Terror'. He disconcerted the administration by arguing that the re-establishment of Iraq would take as long as five years. And he was influential in international social and economic policy - working for the successful re-settlement of millions of refugees in Southeast Asia following the Vietnam War, issuing early warnings about the scourge of AIDS in Africa and successfully launching the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). George W. Liebmann's incisive account is based on personal and shared experience but it is no hagiography; beyond the author's discussions with Negroponte, this book is deeply researched in US state papers and includes interviews with leading actors. It will provide fascinating reading for anyone interested in the inside-story of American diplomacy, showing personal and policy struggles, and the underlying fissures present even in the world's last remaining superpower.

The Last American Diplomat

The Last American Diplomat
Author: George W. Liebmann
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Diplomats
ISBN: 9780755624034

Early years -- Hong Kong -- Vietnam -- Standford interlude -- Kissinger and the National Security Council -- Ecuador -- Thessaloniki -- Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fisheries -- Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs -- Honduras -- Assistant Secretary for Oceans, Environmental and Scientific Affairs -- Deputy National Security Advisor -- Mexico -- The Philippines -- Panama -- McGraw-Hill -- United Nations Iraq -- Director of National Intelligence -- Deputy Secretary of State -- Conclusion.

The Back Channel

The Back Channel
Author: William Joseph Burns
Publisher:
Total Pages: 522
Release: 2019
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0525508864

As a distinguished and admired American diplomat of the last half century, Burns has played a central role in the most consequential diplomatic episodes of his time: from the bloodless end of the Cold War and post-Cold War relations with Putin's Russia to the secret nuclear talks with Iran. Here he recounts some of the seminal moments of his career, drawing on newly declassified cables and memos to give readers a rare, inside look at American diplomacy in action, and of the people who worked with him. The result is an powerful reminder of the enduring importance of diplomacy. -- adapted from jacket

The Ambassadors

The Ambassadors
Author: Paul Richter
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2020-10-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1501172433

Veteran diplomatic correspondent Paul Richter goes behind the battles and the headlines to show how American ambassadors are the unconventional warriors in the Muslim world—running local government, directing drone strikes, building nations, and risking their lives on the front lines. The tale’s heroes are a small circle of top career diplomats who have been an unheralded but crucial line of national defense in the past two decades of wars in the greater Middle East. In The Ambassadors, Paul Richter shares the astonishing, true-life stories of four expeditionary diplomats who “do the hardest things in the hardest places.” The book describes how Ryan Crocker helped rebuild a shattered Afghan government after the fall of the Taliban and secretly negotiated with the shadowy Iranian mastermind General Qassim Suleimani to wage war in Afghanistan and choose new leaders for post-invasion Iraq. Robert Ford, assigned to be a one-man occupation government for an Iraqi province, struggled to restart a collapsed economy and to deal with spiraling sectarian violence—and was taken hostage by a militia. In Syria at the eruption of the civil war, he is chased by government thugs for defying the country’s ruler. J. Christopher Stevens is smuggled into Libya as US Envoy to the rebels during its bloody civil war, then returns as ambassador only to be killed during a terror attach in Benghazi. War-zone veteran Anne Patterson is sent to Pakistan, considered the world’s most dangerous country, to broker deals that prevent a government collapse and to help guide the secret war on jihadists. “An important and illuminating read” (The Washington Post) and the winner of the prestigious Douglas Dillon Book Award from the American Academy of Diplomacy, The Ambassadors is a candid examination of the career diplomatic corps, America’s first point of contact with the outside world, and a critical piece of modern-day history.

An American Diplomat in Bolshevik Russia

An American Diplomat in Bolshevik Russia
Author: DeWitt Clinton Poole
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2014
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0299302245

Almost one hundred years after World War I and the Russian Revolution, U.S. diplomat DeWitt Clinton Poole's (1885-1952) perspective on his experiences negotiating with Bolshevik authorities and monitoring anti-Bolshevik movements throughout the Soviet Union is now fully accessible. Through Poole's perspective, a key figure in U.S.-Soviet relations, this book sheds new light on the Russian Revolution and World War I.

American Ambassadors

American Ambassadors
Author: Dennis C. Jett
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2021-11-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030837696

If you ever wondered who becomes an American ambassador and why, this is the book for you. It describes how Foreign Service officers become ambassadors by rising up through the ranks, and why they typically make up about 70 percent of the total number of ambassadors. It also covers where the other 30 percent come from—the political appointees who get the job because they helped elect the president by supporting him as a campaign contributor, a political ally, or a personal friend. It explains why, despite being illegal and a threat to national security, selling the title of ambassador remains a common practice that is also unique to the United States. It considers why some suggestions for reform are misguided, what might be done, and why who the president is matters so much in determining how well the United States will be represented abroad. This updated and revised edition of Jett's classic book not only provides a timely overview of American ambassadorship for Foreign Service Officers, aspiring diplomats, and interested citizens, but also calls for much-needed reform, describing the dire implications of failing to change our ambassadorial appointments process for the future of American diplomatic practice and foreign policy.

The Last Diplomat

The Last Diplomat
Author: Don Marrs
Publisher: Don F. Marrs
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2012-12
Genre: Diplomats
ISBN: 9780988354609

"In the spring of 2031 terrorists detonate nuclear bombs in nine American and European cities. They are not the small ""suitcase" bombs intelligence agencies had anticipated, but large strategic weapons, smuggled to their targets on trucks and aboard ships. Millions die in the firestorms. In the months that follow, thousands more are lost to radiation sickness, starvation and the lawless gangs terrorizing the countryside. The global financial system collapses. The military labors to establish order but is forced to commit nearly all its resources to the cities, which have become massive refugee camps. In the rural outland there is anarchy. The Chinese offer aid, but demand an impossible concession: the dissolution of the United States and creation of a new Sino-American continental state. They are refused. Can the U.S. hope to rebuild without aid? Its wounds are deep, the damage severe. The struggle continues, the days grind on, but the leaders know they are making almost no progress. In July they receive news so terrible that at first they cannot believe it. In five locations at once, Chinese troops are landing on American beaches. For the first time in over 200 years the United States is being invaded by a foreign power!"--Amazon blurb.

A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution

A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution
Author: Jonathan R. Dull
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 1987-07-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780300038866

Looks at the effect of the American Revolution on European relations, relates American diplomatic efforts to others of the time, and explains why England could not find allies against the colonists

Last Best Hope

Last Best Hope
Author: George Packer
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2021-06-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0374603677

One of The New York Times's 100 notable books of 2021 "[George Packer's] account of America’s decline into destructive tribalism is always illuminating and often dazzling." —William Galston, The Washington Post Acclaimed National Book Award-winning author George Packer diagnoses America’s descent into a failed state, and envisions a path toward overcoming our injustices, paralyses, and divides In the year 2020, Americans suffered one rude blow after another to their health, livelihoods, and collective self-esteem. A ruthless pandemic, an inept and malign government response, polarizing protests, and an election marred by conspiracy theories left many citizens in despair about their country and its democratic experiment. With pitiless precision, the year exposed the nation’s underlying conditions—discredited elites, weakened institutions, blatant inequalities—and how difficult they are to remedy. In Last Best Hope, George Packer traces the shocks back to their sources. He explores the four narratives that now dominate American life: Free America, which imagines a nation of separate individuals and serves the interests of corporations and the wealthy; Smart America, the world view of Silicon Valley and the professional elite; Real America, the white Christian nationalism of the heartland; and Just America, which sees citizens as members of identity groups that inflict or suffer oppression. In lively and biting prose, Packer shows that none of these narratives can sustain a democracy. To point a more hopeful way forward, he looks for a common American identity and finds it in the passion for equality—the “hidden code”—that Americans of diverse persuasions have held for centuries. Today, we are challenged again to fight for equality and renew what Alexis de Tocqueville called “the art” of self-government. In its strong voice and trenchant analysis, Last Best Hope is an essential contribution to the literature of national renewal.