Overview

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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9780801477652

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Reviews

Based on a close ethnographic and historical analysis of Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Iver B. Neumann s book provides a detailed, fascinating insider account of the behavior of Norwegian diplomats. Neumann offers critical anthropological insight into the wider world of international diplomacy from its origins to the present day, including the cultural norms and values that define what it means to be a diplomat in our increasingly globalized world. A valuable contribution to the anthropology of elites and the study of modern government, this book should be essential reading for anyone interested in understanding modern bureaucracy and contemporary statecraft. Cris Shore, The University of Auckland

<p> Based on a close ethnographic and historical analysis of Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Iver B. Neumann's book provides a detailed, fascinating insider account of the behavior of Norwegian diplomats. Neumann offers critical anthropological insight into the wider world of international diplomacy from its origins to the present day, including the cultural norms and values that define what it means to be a diplomat in our increasingly globalized world. A valuable contribution to the anthropology of elites and the study of modern government, this book should be essential reading for anyone interested in understanding modern bureaucracy and contemporary statecraft. -Cris Shore, The University of Auckland

Author Information

Iver B. Neumann is Professor and Director of Research at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. He is the author of Uses of the Other: The ""East"" in European Identity Formation and coauthor most recently of Governing the Global Polity: Practice, Rationality, Mentality.

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