Not Quite the Diplomat


Book Description

Describes what has been happening in Britain, Europe and the world since 1997. This book explores the questions: will the British still be trying to work out who we are and what we want to be as the world moves on? Does the Western alliance still have the time and the will to shape the world before the rise of India and China? And more.




Not Quite the Diplomat


Book Description

Not Quite the Diplomatdescribes what has been happening in Britain, Europe and the world since 1997 from the perspective of one at the heart of international events. In examining how we got to where we are, he writes frankly about many of the major players and what happened behind closed doors; his sketches of world leaders - including Chirac, Putin, Kohl and Blair ('a man who has convictions to which he holds strongly - while he holds them') and of key moments done with the brush of a master portraitist. In arguing about where we should be, he writes with the directness of a man freed at last from the bonds of diplomatic restraint. No recent book by a politician of any political persuasion has been so engaging, so outspoken - and often so funny. If Chris Patten is no longer the diplomat, it is the readers of this book who are the beneficiaries.




What Diplomats Do


Book Description

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.




Ever the Diplomat


Book Description

"First published in Great Britain by Harper Press in 2012"--Colophon.




Diplomatic Implausibility


Book Description

In the aftermath of the Dominion War, the Klingon cruiser IKS Gorkon is on its way back to the homeworld when it is diverted by a distress call... It is two hundred years since the expanding Klingon Empire discovered an icy planet rich in a valuable mineral, topaline. They named the planet 'taD' - Klingon for 'frozen' - and called its people 'jeghpu'wl' - conquered. It is four years since the Klingon Empire invaded Cardassia, breaching the Khitomer Accords and causing a diplomatic rift with the Federation. On taD, depleted Klingon forces were overthown in a coup d'etat, and the victorious rebels took advantage of the disruption to appeal for recognition to the Federation. Now the Klingons have returned to taD and re-established their control. But the stubborn rebels insist on Federation recognition. A solution to the impasse must be found: a task that falls to the Federation's new ambassador to the Klingon Empire. Worf regards himself as a fighter, not a diplomat. But the Federation disagrees. Now, for the sake of the Empire, Worf must somehow forge a peace between the hardened rebels and the battle-hungry Klingon forces. And as everyone knows, Klingons do not negotiate...




Not Quite A Diplomat


Book Description

Described as Mrs Thatcher's favourite diplomat, Robin Renwick was at the centre of events in the negotiations to end the Rhodesian War. As Ambassador in South Africa, he played a bridging role between the government and the ANC, having become a trusted personal friend of Nelson Mandela and of F. W. de Klerk. In the Foreign Office, he played an integral part in forging the agreement that returned two thirds of our contribution to the European budget back to Britain. In Washington, where he became a confidant of George Bush Sr, then of Bill Clinton, he was deemed an exceptionally influential British Ambassador whose efforts were devoted to getting the US and its allies to take the actions needed to end the Bosnian War. Not Quite A Diplomat looks back over an illustrious career in the foreign service and paints vivid and revealing first-hand portraits of some of the giants of international politics over the past forty years, from Mandela and Mugabe to George Bush Sr, the Clintons and Margaret Thatcher. In this entertaining memoir, Renwick examines why diplomacy too often consists of ineffective posturing, and explores the likely effects of Brexit, Trump and, potentially, Jeremy Corbyn on Britain's standing in the world.




Not Quite Nice


Book Description

Sunday Times Bestseller Theresa is desperate for a change. Forced into early retirement, tired of babysitting her bossy daughter's obnoxious children, she sells her house and moves to a picture-perfect town, just outside Nice. Once the hideaway of artists and writers, Bellevue-Sur-Mer is now home to the odd movie star and, as Theresa discovers, a close-knit set of expats. Settling to the gentle rhythm of the seaside, Theresa embraces her new-found friendships and freedom. But life is never as simple as it seems, and when skeletons fall out of several closets, Theresa starts to wonder if life on the French Riviera is quite as nice as it first appeared ...




The Diplomat's Pregnant Bride


Book Description

Will inconvenient pregnancy lead to convenient matrimony in this Duchess Diaries novel by USA TODAY bestselling author Merline Lovelace? A wild weekend changes Gina St. Sebastian's life, but one thing won't change—her marital status. Ambassador Jack Mason, the dashing, arrogant father of her unborn baby, can forget about a marriage of convenience. She's perfectly capable without him. Never mind the heat between them. That's pregnancy hormones! Jack will deploy his formidable charms to do what's right—marriage for the baby's sake. Yet the more he tries to convince Gina, the more he realizes he wants her as much as he wants his child….




The Cold War


Book Description

The Cold War offers a brief but detailed treatment of one of the most complex eras of the 20th Century. In this fully revised second edition, J.P.D. Dunbabin, drawing on international scholarship and using much new material from communist sources, describes a world in which covert operations could be as important as outright diplomacy, 'soft' power as influential as 'hard', and in which competing ideologies ruled the hearts as much as the heads of the leaders in power. Dunbabin’s account is global in scope, taking into account the importance of players beyond the superpowers, and shedding light on the proxy conflicts such as those in Africa and the Middle East that, if not caused by the continuing stalemate between the great powers, were used as weapons within it.




Diplomatic Baggage


Book Description

When Sunday Times fashion journalist Brigid Keenan married the love of her life in the late Sixties, little idea did she have of the rollercoaster journey they would make around the world together - with most things going horribly awry while being obliged to keep the straightest face and put their best feet forward. For he was a diplomat - and Brigid found herself the smiling face of the European Union in locales ranging from Kazakhstan to Trinidad. Finding herself miserable for the first time in a career into which many would have long ago thrown the towel, she found herself asking (during a farewell party for the Papal Nuncio): was it worth it? As this stream of it-really-happened-to-me stories shows, it most certainly was - if only for our vicarious bewilderment at how exactly you throw a buffet dinner during a public mourning period in Syria, remain viable as a fashion journalist when taste-wise you are three seasons out of it and geographically a world away, make people believe that there are actually terrible things going on in paradise, be a good mother and save some of the finest architecture in Damascus and Brussels from demolition - seemingly all simultaneously.