Customer Reviews

The Accidental Diplomat: Dilemmas of the Trailing Spouse

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4 star:		(2)
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As one who coaches and encourages military spouses in their efforts to pursue a career while there partner serves on active duty, I read this book with great interest. The similarities between military spouses and those of foreign service officers far outnumber the differences, and I found many of the quotes and themes portrayed in the book strikingly similar to those I hear from military spouses.

This is a thought-provoking book that raises some important questions about the presumptions and expectations concerning these spouses. Among them, you will find exceptional talent, outstanding credentials, and often tales of foresaken or unstable career progress, confused identities, and unappreciated and unrecognized contributions.

I sincerely hope that Hughes' book will provoke discussions within the State and Defense departments concerning the valuable contributions, frustrated achievements, and untapped talent within these groups, and lead to a long-overdue evolution in the perception, roles, and individual rights of foreign service and military spouses-- and improvements in resources available to ensure their personal and professional development and well-being.

"The Accidental Diplomat" is surely the best book ever written on the subject of the tribulations that face the spouse of a foreign service officer. This cleverly-titled tome documents, through numerous interviews and incisive commentary, the unforgivable practice by our government of forcing spouses to assume diplomatic duties -- without pay -- and the price the foreign service officer would pay if his/her spouse "shirked" this "responsibility." The book also provides devastating commentary on the fact that many of these spouses have given up promising careers in the US in order to follow his/her spouse and thus to assume the peculiar status of unpaid-quasi-diplomatic-helper. While most of the spouses in question are wives, this book resists (for the most part) the temptation simply to declare that "men suck" or to reach some equally-simplistic conclusion. The author is no doubt a brilliant young addition to sociological circles and should be closely watched in years to come for additional illuminating commentary on feminism, injustice, and societal conditions in general.

I purchased this book a short month ago and am amazed at how many friends and family members have begun reading it over coffee only to walk out of my house with it under their arm. It is returned to me ... sheepishly ... with a small "thank you". One couple that read the book, he a retired officer from Canada's Foreign Affairs, and she his wife, both thought the book should be in the library of every Canadian embassy and in the headquarters in Ottawa. They also thought that the various support groups for spouses of foreign affairs officers should have at least one copy. Needless to say, they took the amazon.com address.

I'm not sure I would call this book a tome, as the previous reviewer did. It is pretty concise and compact (around 200 pages). But it is a smart, objective look at an important subject. With the globalization of business, more and more corporate spouses will be finding themselves in similar positions. This book is a great starting point for the debate to come.

This is a fascinating study, and should be read by all who want to see how globalization affects the home and the family.