Customer Reviews

Arts of Power: Statecraft and Diplomacy (Cross-Cultural Negotiation Books)

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Although this book contains only 140 pages of text, Freeman has managed to pack a lot of useful information into it. Its focus is on the practical application of statecraft. To quote Freeman, "statecraft is concerned with the application of the power of the state to other states and peoples. Diplomacy applies this power by persuasive appeals short of war." In other words, diplomacy is but one tool of statecraft. What makes this book rare is that the author is a career foreign service officer, in a bureau where the preservation of peace at any cost is often paramount. It is unusual at best to hear anyone from the Department of State to discuss the usefulness of the application of force or intelligence to international relations.
Arts of Power falls somewhere between the books of international theory and those social psychology books which are full of common-sense, yet contradictory aphorisms-- and it succeeds where the others fail. With a few exceptions, no decent practical guide to the application of statecraft has been written in centuries. Freeman has corrected this error, and in spades.

Very interesting, but really a dictionary that assumes alot of foreign policy knowlege. I bought this is the hopes that it would be a great intro to foreign policy book and was dissappointed. Nonetheless, it will make a good reference book.

This book is a excellent introduction for people into diplomacy and statecraft. In its brief pages, you learn all the definitions, such as the functions of a embassy or a consulate, the way to conduct state relations, the skills for diplomacy, a topic about Intelligence and much more.

Now I understand why sometimes an ambassador is call for consultation!

This is a powerful book. It is a concise guide to diplomacy, even for the non-diplomat such as myself. This book gives me a very useful and alternative angle on customer service and communicating.

If you've taken any class in international relations, you already know everything that is in this book and more. The prose is hardly readable and often sounds like definitions straight out of the dictionary. You would think that someone who spent a career in the foreign service would spend ample time recounting his experience in the practical aspects of diplomacy. I was expecting insight into the "real-world" of diplomacy, but all I got was a headache from reading his terrible writing.