Book Review: International Politics and Economics: The Diplomatic Career
| Published date | 01 March 1964 |
| Author | M. Cadieux |
| Date | 01 March 1964 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206401900109 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
84
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Book
Reviews
International
Politics
and
Economics
THE
DIPLOMATIC
CAREER.
By
Lord
Strang.
1962.
(London:
Toronto:
Andre Deutsch.
160pp.
$4.25)
Many
books
have
been
written
on
the
art
of diplomacy
and
a
large
company
of
authors
have,
with
varying
degrees
of
skill
and
erudition,
examined
and
described
the
forces
that
are
involved
in
the
process
of
foreign
policy
formulation.
It
is,
however,
rarely
that
one
finds
a
read-
able
book
that
contains
useful
information
on
both
policy
and
diplomacy
(not
mutually
exclusive
terms),
as
well
as
useful
information
both
for
the
aspirant
to
a
career
in
the
foreign
service
and
for
the
casual student
of
international
affairs.
The
title
of
this
slender
and
pleasant
volume
of
Lord
Strang
is
in
a
sense
misleading.
It
suggests
that
this
is
a
book
concerned
exclusively
with
the
activities
of
the
individual
in
a
career
which
will
require
him
to
serve
in
many
different
countries
performing
an
enormous
variety
of
duties.
The
book
is,
in
fact,
only
in
part
devoted
to
this but
it
makes,
nonetheless,
a valuable
contribution
to
the
published
works
on
what
a
diplomat
is
and
does-or
should
do.
The
rest
of
the
book
is
also
Interest-
ing
and
instructive
and
provides
leaven
for
a
loaf
that
might
not
otherwise
be
entirely
to the interested
layman's
taste.
For
the
prospective diplomatist
there
is
much
in
this
book
to
ponder.
For
those
with
experience
in
diplomacy
there
is
much
to note
and
compare.
There
are
of
course
many similarities
among
foreign
services
both
as
regards
the
functions
that
are
performed and
the
manner
in
which
those
who
must
staff
them
are
selected,
trained
and
guided
in
the
performance
of
their
duties.
The
qualities
that
are
sought among
those
who
are
to
become
British
foreign
service
officers-integrity,
diligence,
flexibility,
imagination,
to
mention
but a
few-are
those
which
are
sought
among
candidates
for most foreign
services.
The
parallel
with
the
Canadian
foreign
service is,
however,
particularly
close
for
in
its
organization
and
its
functions
the
Department
of
External
Affairs
owes
much
to
the
example
of
the British
Foreign
Office.
Thus anyone
seriously
contemplating
a
career
in
the
Canadian
foreign
service
could
benefit
from
reading
Lord
Strang's
description
of
the
work
of
the
Foreign
Office
and
of
members
of
British
missions
abroad.
The
historian
too
may
find
grist
for
his
mill
in
the
expert
specula-
tions
concerning
notable
negotiations
and
the
processes
of
foreign
policy
formulation
in
recent history.
Lord
Strang
demonstrates
the
insight
of
long
experience
in
his
suggestions
as
to
what
may
have
been,
at
the
time,
weighty
considerations in
the
minds
of
those
involved
in
the
German-Soviet
negotiations
of
1940
and
those
concerned
with
developing
British
policy
on
Suez
in
1956.
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