Overview

In his new book, Lessons from a Diplomatic Life: Watching Flowers from Horseback, retired State Department official and career diplomat Marshall P. Adair recounts and reflects on his time in the US Foreign Service. The story of his assignments throughout the world reveals important details about significant foreign policy issues and historic events, including Bosnia, American policy toward Tibet, the 1988 Burmese uprising, and the foundations of the current US-China relationship. It provides the reader with an inside look at the history of the US State Department, US diplomacy, and US foreign policy of recent decades, during what was often an unstable and uncertain time. This first-hand, detailed account of the author’s work with foreign governments and populations provides a unique outlook on US relations around the world that has critical policy implications for the situations we face today. Through this retelling, Adair illuminates how the depth and accuracy needed of diplomats and Foreign Service agents requires a close and intimate understanding of the cultures and governments they work with.

Full Product Details

9781442220805

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Reviews

An autobiography that doubles as a travelogue and description of the challenges of contemporary diplomacy, this is a very engaging reflection on a life fulfilled by service to the United States in a kaleidoscope of countries and cultures, each vividly and insightfully portrayed. Adair provides a remarkably accessible and often entertaining answer to the mystery of what diplomats do and what difference they make. One comes away astonished by the variety of work experiences the U.S. Foreign Service offers its members and gratified by having gotten to know one of them and his family on such pleasant terms. -- Charles W. Freeman, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense and former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia For those who believe that the information age has reduced the significance of the U.S. Foreign Service, this fascinating first-person account of the overseas experiences of an accomplished American diplomat will provide a useful corrective. Dragooned by the needs of the service into a first assignment in Paris, the dream of every Foreign Service Officer, the author happily moved from there to the heart of Africa and then on to a series of demanding posts in China, Southeast Asia, and the Balkans, gaining experience, immersing himself in local culture and history, surviving adventures, and enthusiastically promoting U.S. interests at every turn. This book admirably captures the excitement and challenges of working and raising a family abroad in the nation's service. -- J. Stapleton Roy, former U.S. ambassador to Singapore, China, and Indonesia Marshall Adair has written a unique and invaluable book about life in the American Foreign Service, one of the least appreciated and understood, but most important institutions to our nation's security. I have had the privilege as a political appointee to work with Foreign Service officers abroad and in Washington. Their uniform excellence and dedication to the best American values was inspirational. Adair brings to life the strengths and weaknesses of American foreign policy and our foreign policy apparatus in dramatic ways, with illuminating examples based upon his own varied and distinguished service. It is must reading for anyone wishing to understand how the U.S. Foreign Service operates to present the best of America abroad. -- Stuart E. Eizenstat, former U.S. ambassador to the European Union, undersecretary of state, and deputy secretary of the treasury

An autobiography that doubles as a travelogue and description of the challenges of contemporary diplomacy, this is a very engaging reflection on a life fulfilled by service to the United States in a kaleidoscope of countries and cultures, each vividly and insightfully portrayed. Adair provides a remarkably accessible and often entertaining answer to the mystery of what diplomats do and what difference they make. One comes away astonished by the variety of work experiences the U.S. Foreign Service offers its members and gratified by having gotten to know one of them and his family on such pleasant terms. -- Ambassador Charles W. Freeman, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense and U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia

Author Information

Marshall P. Adair is an independent consultant on international relations, specializing in China and Europe. He retired as a Minister-Counselor in the Senior Foreign Service in September, 2007.

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