What Diplomats Do

The Life and Work of Diplomats

By (author) Brian Barder Foreword by Sir Ivor Roberts

Publication date:

22 July 2014

Length of book:

216 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442226357

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.

Foreword by Sir Ivor Roberts
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The Candidate for a Diplomatic Career
Chapter 3: Arrival at a New Post
Chapter 4: Life in the Embassy
Chapter 5: Life Overseas
Chapter 6: Multilateral Diplomacy
Chapter 7: Diplomacy in a Hostile Country
Chapter 8: Dealing with Foreigners
Chapter 9: Dealing with the Foreign Ministry from Abroad
Chapter 10: Entertaining and Being Entertained
Chapter 11: Serving in the FCO at Home
Chapter 12: A Dog's Life for the Spouse and the Kids?
Chapter 13: Consular and Commercial Activities
Chapter 14: Looking Back: Reflections on the Diplomatic Career

Sir Brian Barder’s book What Diplomats Do offers comprehensive insight into the life and work of diplomats. It deserves to be read by practitioners and aspiring practitioners of diplomacy, by students and teachers of diplomacy, and by anyone interested in what diplomats actually do. It crosses genres as easily as it addresses and holds the attention of a broad audience. The book’s location at the intersection between a textbook on diplomacy, memoirs of a former ambassador, and a fictionalised account of the life of a British diplomat at home and abroad gives it its unique character. This allows the book to fill a gap on the bookshelf between those books with a clear academic approach such as Geoff Berridge’s Diplomatic Theory and Practice, on the one hand, and books that are first and foremost diplomatic memoirs.