Preface If you’re not familiar with my “dip & Dip” writing a word of explanation may be in order. For nearly fifty years I have been intrigued or at least fascinated by the twin worlds of “real diplomacy, aka Henry Kissinger’s Realpolitik,” and “Diplomacy,” Allan B. Calhamer’s classic game. My writings are usually devoted a subject drawn from one or the other, occasionally both, which can be very simple or very complex, as a Google search, or a look through The Diplomacy Archives, TDP, or DW will show. As I age I find I’m drawing less and less on my memory and more and more on Google and Wikipedia for background information, although my personal Diplomacy archives, library, and input from others, and current events also heavily influences my writing. By the way, I won’t make it easy for you by providing all the links to items I found online. I want you to get used to doing your own searches. You’ll find a lot more interesting stuff that way. So, on with this story. Introduction I’ve always been interested in greatness in diplomacy and Diplomacy, particularly the human side of it. How real diplomats practice their trade, how Dippers play the game, and those rare occasions when one person does both fascinate me; and hopefully they will you to. As I often do when beginning to write an article I did several searches on Google using different word combinations to see what would come up. For example: A GOOGLE SEARCH ON SECRETS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL DIPLOMATS, CHARACTERISTICS OF GREAT DIPLOMATS, and WORLD’S GREATEST DIPLOMATS; led to the following conclusion: GREATNESS REVISITED, OR HOW I TOPPED THE GOOGLE LISTINGS, The last search led to the following article, SO WHO WERE THE GREATEST “REAL” DIPLOMATS OF THE LAST MILLENNIUM, ANYWAY? Which was the first article listed. That article appeared in winter 1999 issue of TDP. You might want to read it before going further. Got it? I'll Let You In On A Little Secret Henry Kissinger Taught Me… TIME FOREIGN RELATIONS: WHAT IS A DIPLOMAT? Time magazine’s website links to its archives which is a valuable research tool for anyone interested in diplomacy. My search came up with FOREIGN RELATIONS: WHAT IS A DIPLOMAT? From August 1957 which included the usual Machiavelli, Talleyrand, and John Foster Dulles (the US Secretary of State at that time) quotes. My favorite line in the story was, “Also last week he learned that he was the object of a nightclub torch song called I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles. Singer: pert Texas Redhead Carol Burnett (Yes, THAT Carol Burnett!), 24, at Manhattan’s Blue Angel. Check out the story for sample lyrics or Wikipedia. STEPHEN COYEY’S “SEVEN SECRETS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE”, 1989, Any author who can sell 25 million copies of a book in 40 languages is worth a read, and will no doubt attract imitators and critics. Covey still manages to do both over 20 years later. THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE DIPLOMATS, by Quentin E. Hodgson, 2008 Hodgson reviews a new book by Dennis Ross offering a Bush and Clinton era look at the effectiveness of American diplomacy. MANAGEMENT GURU STEPHEN COVEY DIES AT 79, by Valli Meenakshi Ramanathan, 2012 Ramanathan reports Covey’s death from complications resulting from a bicycle accident at age 79. What a way and time to go. SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE DIPLOMATS, by Parag Khanna, The New American Foundation, 2011 Khanna sounds like a Henry Kissinger or Fareed Zakaria wannabe. His article retools Covey’s self-help strategies for those seeking to influence global affairs: 1) Be Proactive, 2) Begin With the End in Mind, 3) Put First Things First, 4) Think Win/Win, 5) Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood; 6) Synergize, 7) Sharpen the Saw. Khanna is a senior research fellow at The New American Foundation. Never heard of it? Neither had I. But it’s worth checking out its website and especially taking a look at where its money is coming from and how much some of those people, businesses, or groups are donating to it. MOSH PIT DIPLOMACY, by Stephanie Giry, NY Times, 2011 There aren’t a lot of articles online criticizing Khanna, but there are some, and this is one of the firey ones . Stephanie Giry, from Foreign Affairs magazine, goes after Khanna’s two highly successful books, “The Second World,” and “How to Run the World.” For some reason whenever someone tries to combine an academic and populist approach to diplomacy they get shot at. THE SEVEN ELEMENTS OF CHARISMA, West Side Los Angeles Toastmasters Quick, name a Dipper who has charisma. My first choices were Conrad von Metzke, Rod Walker, and Edi Birsan. No surprises there. Then I decided that Chris Martin also had it. In fact he was the perfect example of a charismatic Dipper in his prime. The others are all well past their prime. Well, maybe except for Edi. Charisma, by the way, is a noun defined as “a personal attractiveness that enables you to influence others.” Westside Toastmasters lists these seven elements of charisma: Presence (refers to the quality of commanding respectful attention) Regal Bearing (The manner in which one carries or conducts oneself), Manner (A way of acting or behaving), Finesse (Refinement and delicacy of performance, execution, or artisanship), Enigma (An action, mode of action, or thing, which cannot be satisfactorily explained), Diplomacy (Tact and skill in dealing with people, subtly skillful handling of a situation involving others), Allure (The power to entice or attract through personal charm). Does that sound like you? If so, you have charisma; and chances are you’re a good Dipper. I highly recommend this article to you. Oh, by the way, Chris Martin is NOT a member of Toastmasters, but Edi Birsan is. Characteristics of a Good Diplomat? One of those “ask us stupid questions” sites came up with the following characteristics of a good diplomat: Patience, Sharp intellect, Strong will, Good poker face, Ability to hold one’s drink, and not bothered by cigar smoke. Former US Secretary of State Warren Christopher is universally regarded as having the best poker face in modern diplomacy. Somebody once said if World War III broke out and told Christopher he’d probably blink once. If the world was going to end within the next 24 hours and told him, he’d probably blink twice. Another good line, “Otto von Bismarck” insisted that German diplomats practiced drinking champagne and chain smoking cigars so as to get used to the atmosphere and conditions of international diplomacy. This still holds good today – Russian, Chinese, and other Asian politicians are all heavy smokers and drinkers.” Which raises an interesting question, “Why haven’t we ever had a DipCon event in Bismarck, North Dakota?” COMMON DENOMINATORS OF GOOD AMBASSADORS, Karl Gruber, ediplomat website, 2012 Karl Gruber served as Austrian Foreign Minister and Austrian Ambassador to the United States, Spain, Switzerland, and West Germany. And yes, if you’re wondering, one of his ancestors helped write Silent Night. Gruber lists the following positive common denominators for diplomats: good communicator, effective habits of cooperation, thorough knowledge of their own country and the country of their assignment, well-rounded view of the world, precision, a sense of humor, a sense of discretion, good judgment, and the following negative ones: provincialism, ethnocentricity, inability to understand nuances in foreign countries, and the belief that one’s own country is the best in everything are handicaps which, after a certain age, no amount of training r experience can overcome. Sounds like a formula for success in a Diplomacy tournament, doesn’t it? THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL UNDER SECRETARIES, by Brian Carlson, Public Diplomacy Council, 2012 This article, highly recommended, offers an insider’s view of what makes a high-ranking diplomat (an under secretary is the second ranking person in the State Department and is often the highest rank career diplomat) successful: Habit 1: Remember that it is all about “the field.” Habit 2: The most important thing the Under Secretary can do for the field is --- are you ready? Can you guess?---“send money.” Well, to be accurate, “send resources.” Habit 3: The next most important thing the Under Secretary can do for the field, and therefore for public diplomacy, is to restrain Washington. Habit 4: The Under Secretary’s target audience is at the other end of Constitution Avenue. That is, on Capitol Hill. Habit 5: that discussion of chutzpah and being proactive leads to a mini-analysis of the State Department’s organizational culture. Habit 6: Mention of the military reminds that the State Department does not own “public diplomacy. Habit 7: Lastly, in the inter-agency, you can lead, but you cannot direct. THE GREATEST UNDERSTATED U.S. DIPLOMAT, by Nikolas Kralev, 2011 The author offers William J. Burns, deputy secretary of state, an interesting example of what a modern State Department bureaucrat should be. ZHENG HE: ANCIENT CHINA’S GREATEST DIPLOMAT?, by Kunming College of Eastern Language, 2012 To be honest, I’d never heard of Zheng He until I read Gavin Menzie’s two books 1421 and 1434 (Check out his web site for more information), but afterwards I was fascinated by Zheng He. You may be as well after you read this article, especially if you’ve been following the recent news about China’s first aircraft-less aircraft carrier and its rapidly expanding Blue Water navy. Read the Zheng He story and then compare it with Chou En-lai and you decide which was China’s greatest diplomat ever — not to mention what kind of Dipper they would have made. ABOUT DIPLOMATS, by Lesley Barker, eHow Contributor This brief “about” article covers History, Significance Identification, Function, and Considerations for diplomats. For instance, it refers to the Vienna Convention treaties of 1961, 1963, and 1969 which, among other things covered the use of diplomatic pouches (See my article elsewhere in this issue.). Or it offers tidbits like, “What’s the difference between an embassy, a chancery, and a diplomatic mission? Do you know? Well, find out! HONORARY CONSULS BOOST DIPLOMACY, from Korean Times, 2012 Honorary counsuls do serve a real purpose, although it might not be obvious at first. I remember the first one I met vividly. His name was Jean Louis Paris and he ran a French restaurant in San Diego. His primary job was hosting a host of Bastille Day parties and occasionally entertaining French VIPs passing through town. Today, of course, it’s all about business. FACTS AND FIGURES, DiploFoundation, 2012 The DiploFoundation is an interesting organization and its website is worth a look. I can’t decide if it’s a legit academic institution or a money-making degree mill, like some American “for profit” educational schools. Check it out and let me know what you think, or if you’ve had any experience with it. INSTITUTE FOR DIPLOMATIC STUDIES, CAIRO, EGYPT, from Ministry of Foreign Affairs website When I first heard of it, I was shocked to discover that there was another IDS. After all, I had established my IDS in 1971. Over the years I’ve kept in touch with the Egyptian one, as well as several other, similar institutions in other countries. Just recently I checked out its website and found, to my shock, that most of the site is down and there’s no mention of a current director or staff. I hope they’re OK. “Great Negotiations: Agreements that Changed the Modern World,” by Fredrik Stanton, as reviewed in Political Bookworm by Steven Levingston There aren’t a lot of books published on diplomacy, theoretical or practical; perhaps one for every fifty published on military affairs (See my article in an upcoming issue of DIPLOMACY WORLD on diplomacy and Diplomacy libraries), but Stanton’s book is a good one. He examines six case studies of real diplomatic moments, the “highest stakes poker games in history,” as he calls them: The Franco-American Alliance of 1778;’ The Louisiana Purchase; The Congress of Vienna; The Treaty of Portsmouth (Read James Bradley’s The Imperial Cruise for a different take on that event and what led to it. Superb.); The Cuban Missile Crisis; and Reagan and Gorbachev at the Reykjavik Summit. BOOKS FOR DIPLOMATS, list from eDiplomat.com, 2012 A good reading list of 23 titles dealing with all aspects of diplomacy. Some are well known, others less so, but all worth a look. Many of them can be found used on Amazon.com. There are also many magazines and journals that deal with diplomacy. The Library of Congress and State Department also have specialists who can answer specific questions. They’ve been very helpful to me over the years. What Happens When a DIPPER Becomes a dipper? Or Vice-Versa? Certain people just stand out in your memory. For me, among Dippers I would have to include Von Metzke, Walker, Naus, Birsan, and Calhamer; and I could fill a couple of pages with other names. Among diplomats, and I’ve met many over the years two stand out. The first, of course, is Henry Kissinger. Who doesn’t know of him? Rarely has a diplomat been so respected, so admired, so feared, and so hated by so many. The other is a name most people wouldn’t recognize and yet he was a real person: Philip Noel-Baker. No one else in the world’s history has ever done what he did. He won an Olympic medal in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1959. His biography is available on Wikipedia. I met him in 1968, as I recall. He was so modest I didn’t have a clue as to who he was or what’d he done. An excellent model for any dipper or Dipper. Both men were at least aware of Diplomacy, as was Ambassador Alejando Orfilia, who served as Argentine ambassador to the United States and later as head of the OAS. He’s now retired and devotes his time to running a highly successful vineyard over the hill(s) from where I live. Jamie Young went the other way. When I first met her she was just starting her career in diplomacy as a bureaucrat at ACDA, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. She was a participant in the above-mentioned Reykjavik Summit because of her knowledge in weapons systems and her linguistic skills in Russian and Chinese. Her Diplomacy career began at DipCon V in Chicago many years ago. After 33 years in the State Department her career is winding down as a counselor to the secretary of state (equal in rank to an under-secretary). Way to go, girl! After retirement she’ll be joining the faculty of Georgetown University. I met Francois Rivasseau in 1989 at the first Euro(Dip)Con in Paris when he was a mid-level French foreign ministry bureaucrat. Today he serves as the deputy chief of the EU delegation in Washington. He’s right on track to fulfilling my prophecy that someday he would be France’s Foreign Minister. I hope to see him in November at the French national Diplomacy championships. The amazing thing about Jamie and Francois is that both of them are the personification of the qualities I have mentioned above in describing the perfect diplomat and Dipper. They have proved that you can do it. So why haven’t you? Conclusion So, what have we learned? The personal characteristics of a solid diplomat or Dipper are listed above and include truthfulness, calm, accuracy, patience, good humour, modesty and loyalty. Yeah, right. More precise and workable skills like self-control, an ability to formulate one’s thoughts, an ability to read a situation, an instinct for discreet flattery and a talent for making contact are also listed. And what of the pastry forks? I leave you with this story. Rank within the diplomatic culture or Diplomacy world is not merely indicated by how the diplomat holds him or herself; nor by the number of games or tournaments son. There are many signs that a trained eye will pick up upon to determine a diplomat’s or Dippers rank. It is not just the salary grade and title, or the number of Cons attended or t-shirts collected, that are changed when a diplomat is promoted or a Dipper rises in the hobby’s pecking order. There is also a change in the number of rooms and bathrooms in the home and contents of drawers and cupboards, all in line with the Ministry’s strict rules. According to the Danish Foreign Ministry, the embassy counselor must have eighteen stainless steel pastry forks of the Erik Rosendahl A/S brand. A commercial counselor need only have twelve pastry forks, while an attaché is provided with eight. The most distinguished ambassadors have three pepper pots while the others must be content with two. Among Dippers the Oldest Farts have at least one GRI Diplomacy board. Mid-level players have an Avalon Hill version (preferably one piece), later players may have an Avalon Hill triparte game board, and newbies will have a Hasbro edition. The most distinguished hobbyists may have such trophies as a hand-embroidered mapboard, a wood-carved Diplomacy board table-top, t-shirts falling apart from age and at least two-sizes too small, or a signed photo of Edi Birsan with hair. The younger ones will have recent Dip event t-shirts that have never been washed, and are probably too large for them. Larry Peery (peery@ix.netcom.com) If you wish to e-mail feedback on this article to the author, and clicking on the envelope above does not work for you, feel free to use the "Dear DP..." mail interface.