Customer Reviews

Diplomacy for the Next Century (Castle Lectures Series)

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Abba Eban writes about his experiences as an Israeli diplomat by beginning with a description of his first encounter with Harry Truman. He describes Truman's small- town middle America appearance understating the most powerful man in the most powerful country ever in history. When presenting his diplomatic credentials to Truman, Truman states to Eban, and subsequently to another diplomat, that he "never lost any sleep over bombinb" Hiroshima and Nagasaki-- which leads Eban to conclude that Truman likely lost much sleep over the decision. He goes on to note the remarkable influence that Truman and his advisors-- Marshall, Acheson, etc, had on the shaping of post- war events. This book, however, is about diplomacy, and it's goal is to present the "realist" position. In it, he argues that countries make decisions that are in their own interests, and that any attempt to alter that by introducing supranational rules is likely to fail. The book is clearly more complicated than the simple summarizing statement, and is therefore a remarkably interesting book, especially from an individual who has been involved in international relations for over 50 years.

Looking back on his long and distinguished career, Eban has a unique perspective which he shares with the readers. He's strongest when describing personal anecdotes such as the one in which Harry S. Truman was gifted with a torah from the Israeli delegation and had no idea what a torah was. He thanked the Israelis profusely though and said "I've always wanted one of these." I have to smile. Politics sure have changed. I can't believe an American president today would not have a cadre of handlers briefing him on his every move.

I particularly liked some of his analyses of the United Nations and the challenges it faces because human beings see themselves as part of a nation-state, not as citizens of the world. He gives the example of the first men to walk on the moon who planted an American flag. Nobody thought about planting a flag from "Planet Earth".

Like a true talmudic scholar Eban is quick to see both sides of an issue and a central theme of the book is that you can't look to the past to predict the future. He gives example after example where surprises occurred in recent history that nobody had ever expected or predicted, such as the collapse of the Soviet Union.

As I'm not that acquainted with many details of history I found some of the book a little dense. I had to read the chapter on the Oslo Accords twice with a yellow highlighter in my hand to finally understand. This was a peace accord negotiated in Norway in 1992 which led the historic photo of Arafat and Rabin shaking hands. It worked because the Norwegians are neutral. He feels that when the U.S. tries to broker a peace agreement, it creates problems because everyone knows that Israel is a U.S. ally. We have all see the latest peace negotiations on American soil fall apart in the past few months which definitely illustrates this point.

The book whetted my appetite to learn more and that is good.

This is an easy fascinating read by an incredibly eloquent writer. He had interesting insights on the major forrign policy issues of the last 50 years. Not knowing all the details to many of these events, Mr Eban does a great job of suummerizing the events in a short but helpful fashion.

This is a must read for anyone interested in how foreign policies are formed. Loved the section on the inherent contradiction between what is good for he country vs what is good for oneself.

Mr. Bban has done an excellent work on the practice of diplomacy. As one of the most promient diplomatic minds of the 20th century, he presented the current dilemmas of diplomatic community with great clarity and insight. For example, Mr. Eban makes an excellent point about the necessity of secret diplomacy. Although we value the virtue of transparency in government, diplomacy should be kept secret so that negotiators from different nations could proceed without domestic interference. Good works in diplomatic history are hard to come by in the recent decade and "Diplomacy for the Next Century" should definitely be an addition for anyone with an interest in international affairs.