Book Talk – Diplomat’s Dictionary
In his classic work Diplomat’s Dictionary, Ambassador Chas Freeman sets out a collection of definitions of the diplomatic craft and terminology; part Talleyrand, and part Ambrose Bierce. First published in 1994, this remains the most acute, the wittiest and the pithiest of all introductions to the practice of diplomacy. In an era when it sometimes seems that the US and Europe possess not diplomats but anti-diplomats, its lessons are more important than ever. To discuss the book and its lessons, Ambassador Freeman was joined by Anatol Lieven, director of the Eurasia program at the Quincy Institute.
Program
Panelists
Chas Freeman
Ambassador Chas W. Freeman is a career diplomat (retired) who was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs from 1993-94, earning the highest public service awards of the Department of Defense for his roles in designing a NATO-centered post-Cold War European security system and in reestablishing defense and military relations with China. He served as U. S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm). He was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during the historic U.S. mediation of Namibian independence from South Africa and Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola.
Anatol Lieven
Anatol Lieven directs the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He was formerly a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and in the War Studies Department of King’s College London. From 1985 to 1998, Lieven worked as a journalist in South Asia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and covered the wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya and the southern Caucasus.