Description
Johan VERBEKE. Diplomatic skills: the basics. Brussel: ASP, 2022, 232p.
Diplomacy aims to make the world a somewhat better place. And for that to happen, we need thoughtful people, which most diplomats happen to be. But thought alone does not carry us very far. Thought needs to result in action. It is not thinking about the world but changing it that makes for an effective diplomat. Diplomacy is not a science, but a practice. It is what diplomats do. They write reports, make public speeches, debate, negotiate, preside over meetings … For all that they need diplomatic skills. This book is about these skills. Looking at them more closely, we soon realise that these are skills upon which most of us, diplomats and non-diplomats, rely most of the time. Somehow, we are all diplomats.
Diplomacy aims to make the world a somewhat better place. And for that to happen, we need thoughtful people, which most diplomats happen to be. But thought alone does not carry us very far. Thought needs to result in action. It is not thinking about the world but changing it that makes for an effective diplomat. Diplomacy is not a science, but a practice. It is what diplomats do. They write reports, make public speeches, debate, negotiate, preside over meetings … For all that they need diplomatic skills. This book is about these skills. Looking at them more closely, we soon realise that these are skills upon which most of us, diplomats and non-diplomats, rely most of the time. Somehow, we are all diplomats.