
Publication date:
21 December 2012Length of book:
244 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersDimensions:
235x160mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781442220805
In his new book, Lessons from a Diplomatic Life: Watching Flowers from Horseback, retired State Department official and career diplomat Marshall P. Adair recounts and reflects on his time in the US Foreign Service. The story of his assignments throughout the world reveals important details about significant foreign policy issues and historic events, including Bosnia, American policy toward Tibet, the 1988 Burmese uprising, and the foundations of the current US-China relationship. It provides the reader with an inside look at the history of the US State Department, US diplomacy, and US foreign policy of recent decades, during what was often an unstable and uncertain time. This first-hand, detailed account of the author’s work with foreign governments and populations provides a unique outlook on US relations around the world that has critical policy implications for the situations we face today. Through this retelling, Adair illuminates how the depth and accuracy needed of diplomats and Foreign Service agents requires a close and intimate understanding of the cultures and governments they work with.
An autobiography that doubles as a travelogue and description of the challenges of contemporary diplomacy, this is a very engaging reflection on a life fulfilled by service to the United States in a kaleidoscope of countries and cultures, each vividly and insightfully portrayed. Adair provides a remarkably accessible and often entertaining answer to the mystery of what diplomats do and what difference they make. One comes away astonished by the variety of work experiences the U.S. Foreign Service offers its members and gratified by having gotten to know one of them and his family on such pleasant terms.