A Life in Diplomacy

A Life in Diplomacy
Author: Maharajakrishna Rasgotra
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 512
Release: 2016-04-28
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9385890956

An insider's account of the personalities and policies that shaped Indian diplomacy Former foreign secretary, Maharajakrishna Rasgotra joined India's external affairs ministry when Jawaharlal Nehru, Girija Shankar Bajpai, Sardar Patel were—with a mix of pragmatism and hope—creating the foreign policy of the newly independent nation. This was taking place as the Cold War slid into the subcontinent and complex relationships with India's neighbours—China, Pakistan and Nepal—were taking shape. Looking back on those crucial years with a discerning eye for the interplay of personalities—Nehru, Krishna Menon, or S. Radhakrishnan, for instance—Rasgotra assesses their influence on events and their impact on the evolution of Indian diplomacy. For over three decades Rasgotra's assignments took him to Nepal, Britain and France, among other countries, as well as twice to the United States. His account of Nixon and Kissinger, and the mix of truculence and persuasion in their dealings with Mrs Gandhi in the run up to the 1971 Bangladesh war, sheds new light on the events of that time. His tenure as foreign secretary covered a period of great change and A Life in Diplomacy provides a ringside view of the beginnings of ethnic violence in Sri Lanka, the last years of the Cold War, the negotiations on the formation of SAARC, Mrs Gandhi's assassination and the Bhopal gas disaster. This is a compelling, authoritative account of a personal and professional journey; a reflective look at the leaders, events and forces that formed relations between India and the world over fifty years.

Diplomacy

Diplomacy
Author: Henry Kissinger
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 912
Release: 2011-12-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1439126313

A brilliant, sweeping history of diplomacy that includes personal stories from the noted former Secretary of State, including his stunning reopening of relations with China. The seminal work on foreign policy and the art of diplomacy. Moving from a sweeping overview of history to blow-by-blow accounts of his negotiations with world leaders, Henry Kissinger describes how the art of diplomacy has created the world in which we live, and how America’s approach to foreign affairs has always differed vastly from that of other nations. Brilliant, controversial, and profoundly incisive, Diplomacy stands as the culmination of a lifetime of diplomatic service and scholarship. It is vital reading for anyone concerned with the forces that have shaped our world today and will impact upon it tomorrow.

A Life in Diplomacy

A Life in Diplomacy
Author: Orobola Fasehun
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2016-06-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9781535061643

The memoir of Dr. Orobola Fasehun captures his nearly three decades of service in academia and diplomacy at the national and international levels. He thus brings to the fore, in a succinct manner, the gap between theory and practice.

Career Diplomacy

Career Diplomacy
Author: Harry W. Kopp
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2011-03-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1589017544

Career Diplomacy—now in its second edition—is an insider's guide that examines the foreign service as an institution, a profession, and a career. Harry W. Kopp and Charles A. Gillespie, both of whom had long and distinguished careers in the foreign service, provide a full and well-rounded picture of the organization, its place in history, its strengths and weaknesses, and its role in American foreign affairs. Based on their own experiences and through interviews with over 100 current and former foreign service officers and specialists, the authors lay out what to expect in a foreign service career, from the entrance exam through midcareer and into the senior service—how the service works on paper, and in practice. The second edition addresses major changes that have occurred since 2007: the controversial effort to build an expeditionary foreign service to lead the work of stabilization and reconstruction in fragile states; deepening cooperation with the U.S. military and the changing role of the service in Iraq and Afghanistan; the ongoing surge in foreign service recruitment and hiring at the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development; and the growing integration of USAID’s budget and mission with those of the Department of State.

Leadership

Leadership
Author: Simon McDonald
Publisher: Haus Pub.
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-11-09
Genre:
ISBN: 9781913368685

A British diplomat shares lessons on leadership gained over his expansive career. Simon McDonald argues that we should reflect on the nature and strategies of leadership before entering a leadership role, and we should look to examples of others to help us in shaping our own approaches. Over nearly four decades in Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service, McDonald worked for four permanent under-secretaries and a dozen senior ambassadors before becoming a permanent under-secretary himself and leading the Service--which has over 14,000 staff members in 270 countries--for five years. He also worked directly for six foreign secretaries and under five prime ministers. Observing these people undertaking such important and difficult work, McDonald saw the behaviors which helped them achieve their objectives, as well as those which hindered them. In this book, McDonald synthesizes the skills he's learned through his many years working in diplomacy, offering an insightful contribution amid heightening debates over the leadership of the United Kingdom. Considering the future of British leadership, he makes a case for the reform of the monarchy, the cabinet, civil service, and, in particular, the House of Lords, of which he has been a member since 2021.

Memoirs of a Bystander

Memoirs of a Bystander
Author: Iqbal Akhund
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 534
Release: 1997
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Memoirs of a Bystander is a candid account by a pioneer diplomat of Pakistan of some major events in the country's diplomatic history. Blending pen-pictures of the eminent personalities whom he met or had to deal with - Ayub, Shastri, Bhutto, Zia, Nasser, Tito - with description, analysis and anecdotes, Iqbal Akhund's highly readable, and at times, amusing account casts a fresh light on critical and still controversial events in Pakistan's history.

Career Diplomacy

Career Diplomacy
Author: Harry W. Kopp
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2021
Genre: POLITICAL SCIENCE
ISBN: 1647121353

In this new and thoroughly revised edition of Career Diplomacy, Foreign Service veterans Harry W. Kopp and John K. Naland lay out what to expect in a Foreign Service career, from the entrance exam through midcareer and into the senior service--how to get in, get around, and get ahead.

Outpost

Outpost
Author: Christopher R. Hill
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2014-10-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1451685912

An “inside the room” memoir from one of our most distinguished ambassadors who—in a career of service to the country—was sent to some of the most dangerous outposts of American diplomacy. From the wars in the Balkans to the brutality of North Korea to the endless war in Iraq, this is the real life of an American diplomat. Hill was on the front lines in the Balkans at the breakup of Yugoslavia. He takes us from one-on-one meetings with the dictator Milosevic, to Bosnia and Kosovo, to the Dayton conference, where a truce was brokered. Hill draws upon lessons learned as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon early on in his career and details his prodigious experience as a US ambassador. He was the first American Ambassador to Macedonia; Ambassador to Poland, where he also served in the depth of the cold war; Ambassador to South Korea and chief disarmament negotiator in North Korea; and Hillary Clinton’s hand-picked Ambassador to Iraq. Hill’s account is an adventure story of danger, loss of comrades, high stakes negotiations, and imperfect options. There are fascinating portraits of war criminals (Mladic, Karadzic), of presidents and vice presidents (Clinton, Bush and Cheney, and Obama), of Secretaries of State (Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Hillary Clinton), of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and of Ambassadors Richard Holbrooke and Lawrence Eagleburger. Hill writes bluntly about the bureaucratic warfare in DC and expresses strong criticism of America’s aggressive interventions and wars of choice.

What Diplomats Do

What Diplomats Do
Author: Brian Barder
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2014-07-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1442226366

What do diplomats actually do? That is what this text seeks to answer by describing the various stages of a typical diplomat’s career. The book follows a fictional diplomat from his application to join the national diplomatic service through different postings at home and overseas, culminating with his appointment as ambassador and retirement. Each chapter contains case studies, based on the author’s thirty year experience as a diplomat, Ambassador, and High Commissioner. These illustrate such key issues as the role of the diplomat during emergency crises or working as part of a national delegation to a permanent conference as the United Nations. Rigorously academic in its coverage yet extremely lively and engaging, this unique work will serve as a primer to any students and junior diplomats wishing to grasp what the practice of diplomacy is actually like.

A Professional Foreigner

A Professional Foreigner
Author: Edward Marks
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2023-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1640125825

Young American Foreign Service officers are accustomed to being teased by friends and relatives as to what they do in the "Foreign Legion" or the "Forest Service." In the United States, unlike in many countries, the role of a professional diplomat is little known or understood. In A Professional Foreigner Edward Marks describes his life as an American diplomat who served during the last four decades of the twentieth century, from 1959 to 2001. Serving primarily in Africa and Asia, Marks was present during the era of decolonization in Africa (but always seemed to be at the opposite end of the continent from the hottest developments), was intimately involved in the early days of the U.S. government's antiterrorism programs, observed the unfolding of a nasty and tragic ethnic conflict in one of the most charming countries in the world, and saw the end of the Cold War at UN headquarters in New York. Along the way Marks served as the U.S. ambassador to two African nations. In this memoir Marks depicts a Foreign Service officer's daily life, providing insight into the profession itself and what it was like to play a role in the steady stream of history, in a world of quotidian events often out of the view of the media and the attention of the world. Marks's stories--such as rescuing an American citizen from a house of ill repute in Mexico and the attempt to recruit mongooses for drug intervention in Sri Lanka--are both entertaining and instructive on the work of diplomats and their contributions to the American story.