Making Diplomacy Work

Making Diplomacy Work: Intelligent Innovation for the Modern World is a critical and comprehensive survey of how diplomacy works. While most discussions of diplomatic reform stop short of proposing concrete ideas to make diplomacy work better, this text suggests doable initiatives that could make diplomacy more versatile, more attuned to modern realities, and more capable of confronting the shared problems that no state can solve on its own. It takes a fresh look at the practice of diplomacy, sets its achievements and failures in a contemporary context, and analyzes the major factors that have changed the way it is conducted. The book is built on the premise that diplomacy must adapt some of its ritualistic and stale procedures to become more effective in the modern world, given the growing number of international actors, the expansion of global non-governmental organizations, and the continuing communications and information revolution. Providing a thorough examination of current issues from a diplomatic perspective, it offers an extensive array of real-world examples and case studies, including the United Nations during the Iraq crises, the efforts to "state-build" in Afghanistan, and the public diplomacy results of the Shanghai World Expo 2010.