Diplomacy and its Discontents

James Eayrs is a keen and articulate observer of international politics. His incisive critiques of the moral turpitude and inefficiency of the diplomatic profession in Right and Wrong in Foreign Policy and Fate and Will in Foreign Policy provoked unflattering attention and attempts at rebuttal by the statesmen and politicians who shape our foreign policy.

This volume makes these two controversial studies available once more, bringing them up to date with discussions of the 'October crisis' in Quebec and other recent events, and incorporating the author's selection of his recent writings on the irrelevance, or deliquescence, of modern diplomacy. All three parts of the book hold to a single theme – the decay of diplomatic method. In the incisive prose characteristic of all Eayrs' writing, these discourses present a convincing view of the tragi-comedy of foreign affairs. The general reader and the student of politics and international affairs will find this a perceptive analysis of statecraft, full of insights into the workings of government.