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The current ambassador to China, Gary Locke, is teaching the Chinese some useful stuff without a word of preaching or assertion, mainly by carrying his own bags and flying economy, and being seen to do so. The German for ambassador is botschafter, which means message carrier, and Locke’s story nicely enlarges our idea of how [...]
Archive for the ‘Diplomacy’ Category
December 1st, 2011
August 21st, 2011
Juan Cole says it’s just about over.
November 28th, 2010
Whoever sent a quarter-million U.S. diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks should go to jail.
November 8th, 2010
Category: Diplomacy, Economics, Handbasket, world going to hell in, International Affairs, Macroeconomic Policy, Watching Conservatives
Robert Zoellic goes gold bug, and the strange US lock on the World Bank presidency.
September 2nd, 2010
Kabuki theatre comes to the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
January 12th, 2009
Save the planet if not Gaza: fire Tony Blair as Middle East envoy.
December 4th, 2008
How the UN can deal with the Somali pirates.
November 8th, 2008
Category: Diplomacy
Obama can only partly restore America’s position in the world.
November 7th, 2008
Jon’s post (not, I think, representing his real views) implies that being respected, or even loved, by foreigners is only useful insofar as we can manipulate them into doing something for us. This recalls Calogero’s dad’s distinction between fear and respect (A Bronx Tale, 1993) and misses the important point that if a lot of [...]
November 6th, 2008
The LA Times’ Rosa Brooks celebrates the Obama victory today, arguing that the US will now rise in international public opinion and popularity. She is hardly alone in this, as several commentators are arguing now that an Obama presidency will enhance America’s “soft power.” The problem is that, perhaps because she only has a 700-word [...]
