With all the pace and drama of a political thriller, Dirty Diplomacy is a riveting account of a young, fast-living ambassador's battle against a ruthless dictatorship in Central Asia and the craven political expediency in Washington and London that eventually cost him his job. Craig Murray is no ordinary diplomat. He enjoys a drink or three, and if it's in the company of a pretty girl, so much the better. Murray's scant regard for the rules of the game also extends to his job. When, in the first few weeks of his posting to the little-known Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan, he comes across photographs of a political dissident who has literally been boiled to death, he ignores diplomatic nicety and calls it for what it is: torture of the cruelest sort. Murray soon discovers that this is no one-off incident: fierce abuse of those opposing the government is rife. It's not long before he is tearing around the country in his embassy Land Rover, shaking off Uzbek police tails and crashing through roadblocks to meet with dissidents and expose their persecutors. He even confronts the despotic president, Islom Karimov, face-to-face. But Murray's bosses in London's Foreign Office, ever mindful of their senior partners in Washington, don't want to upset the applecart. Karimov is an ally in the newly announced Global War on Terror. His country is host to a big American air base. The last thing they need is a battling young diplomat stirring things up. In Craig Murray, that's exactly what they've got...

Effective diplomacy remains fundamental to the conduct of international relations in the twenty-first century, as we seek to define and manage a challenging new world order peacefully. New Perspectives on Diplomacy highlights the importance of diplomacy in political and military crises, featuring details of life as a diplomat, the importance of alliance building, managing failure and diplomatic negotiations with armed groups. Using regional case studies from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Russia and Asia, the second volume demonstrates that the importance of diplomacy and diplomats remains undiminished.

Effective diplomacy remains fundamental to the conduct of international relations in the twenty-first century, as we seek to define and manage a challenging new world order peacefully. New Perspectives on Diplomacy examines the implications of the shifting international landscape upon how states interact with one another. Reflecting on the significant changes to the system of states over the past 50 years, including the end of the Cold War, the rise of transnational networks, challenges to borders, growth in national populism and the increasing difficulties presented to diplomats by radical transparency, the first volume presents the global context against which contemporary diplomacy is conducted.

Why do states still need diplomats? Despite instantaneous electronic communication and rapid global travel, the importance of ambassadors and embassies has in many ways grown since the middle of the nineteenth century. However, in theories of international relations, diplomats are often neglected in favor of states or leaders, or they are dismissed as old-fashioned. David Lindsey develops a new theory of diplomacy that illuminates why states find ambassadors indispensable to effective intergovernmental interaction. He argues that the primary diplomatic challenge countries face is not simply communication—it is credibility. Diplomats can often communicate credibly with their host countries even when their superiors cannot because diplomats spend time building the trust that is vital to cooperation. Using a combination of history, game theory, and statistical analysis, Lindsey explores the logic of delegating authority to diplomats. He argues that countries tend to appoint diplomats who are sympathetic to their host countries and share common interests with them. Ideal diplomats hold political preferences that fall in between those of their home country and their host country, and they are capable of balancing both sets of interests without embracing either point of view fully. Delegated Diplomacy is based on a comprehensive dataset of more than 1,300 diplomatic biographies drawn from declassified intelligence records, as well as detailed case studies of the U.S. ambassadors to the United Kingdom and Germany before and during World War I. It provides a rich and insightful account of the theory and practice of diplomacy in international relations.

This handbook integrates a range of conceptual and empirical approaches to diplomacy in the context of ongoing technological and societal change. Technological and societal disruptions affect modern diplomacy, altering its character and reforming its way. In light of such changes, this book offers both historical foundations and contemporary perspectives in the field. By doing so, it demonstrates how contemporary change impacts the work of diplomats representing sovereign states. Global diplomatic services will forever be affected by the digitalization of engagement between states during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In this rapidly changing culture, with burgeoning geopolitical and geostrategic realignment among global powers, the tools of diplomacy have changed. The state’s foreign policy astuteness and responses to these changes could have long-term impacts. All this culminates in opportunities for improving the management of diplomatic services and efficiency of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) of various states. This book provides useful insights into how modern diplomacy works, especially the integration of informalities into formal diplomatic practices in complex peace and security environments, within such a framework of change.

"A look at the U.S.-Cuban relationship seen through the story of a spy ring sent by Cuba in the early 1990s to infiltrate anti-Communist extremists in Miami."--

Diplomacy is generally considered the art of managing and directing international relations through dialogue and negotiation, which is carried out by staff in the diplomatic corps to manage crises and settle disputes by peaceful means. Also, modern diplomacy is playing a major and effective role in economic development, the protection of human rights, the preservation of environmental protection, the dialogue of religions and civilizations, and others, to serve the interests of states, achieving their goals, and bringing them closer together. In the end, it must be noted the growing role played by contemporary diplomacy in the field of strengthening friendly relations between countries, encouraging cooperation among them, and contributing to resolving and settling disputes, which reflects positively on international peace and security. In addition to the important functions that diplomatic and consular missions perform in the field of protecting and caring for the interests of states and their nationals, and mainly participating in preparing the directions and paths of foreign policies for their countries through the information they provide to decision-makers and presidents, kings, and princes of states, diplomacy is structure and action.