The 2010 WikiLeaks release of 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables has made
it eminently clear that there is a vast gulf between the public face
of diplomacy and the opinions and actions that take place behind
embassy doors. In _At Home with the Diplomats_, Iver B. Neumann offers
unprecedented access to the inner workings of a foreign ministry.
Neumann worked for several years at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, where he had an up-close view of how diplomats conduct their
business and how they perceive their own practices. In this book he
shows us how diplomacy is conducted on a day-to-day basis.
Approaching contemporary diplomacy from an anthropological
perspective, Neumann examines the various aspects of diplomatic work
and practice, including immunity, permanent representation, diplomatic
sociability, accreditation, and issues of gender equality. Neumann
shows that the diplomat working abroad and the diplomat at home are
engaged in two different modes of knowledge production. Diplomats in
the field focus primarily on gathering and processing information. In
contrast, the diplomat based in his or her home capital is caught up
in the seemingly endless production of texts: reports, speeches,
position papers, and the like. Neumann leaves the reader with a keen
sense of the practices of diplomacy: relations with foreign
ministries, mediating between other people's positions while
integrating personal and professional into a cohesive whole, adherence
to compulsory routines and agendas, and, above all, the generation of
knowledge. Yet even as they come to master such quotidian tasks,
diplomats are regularly called upon to do exceptional things, such as
negotiating peace.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780801463006
Publisert
2017
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
Cornell University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter