TY - BOOK AU - Stearns,Monteagle TI - Talking to Strangers: Improving American Diplomacy at Home and Abroad SN - 9781400828463 AV - E840 U1 - 327.73 20 PY - 2022///] CY - Princeton, NJ : PB - Princeton University Press, KW - POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General KW - bisacsh KW - Agriculture Department KW - Alaska purchase KW - American Revolution KW - Azerbaijan KW - Balkans KW - Bolshevik revolution KW - British Foreign Service KW - Buchanan, James KW - Caribbean KW - Chernobyl KW - Civil War, American KW - Cyprus KW - Demosthenes KW - Eisenhower Doctrine KW - Enlightenment KW - European alliance system KW - Fillmore administration KW - Ford administration KW - French Revolution KW - Gadsden purchase KW - Grant administration KW - Greek civil war KW - Indochina KW - Jackson, Andrew KW - KGB reports KW - Korean War KW - Louisiana Purchase KW - McKinley administration KW - accountability KW - acid rain KW - arms control KW - bilateral diplomacy KW - cables, diplomatic KW - chauvinism KW - chief of mission KW - communism KW - cone system KW - continuity KW - cultural affairs KW - despatches KW - diplomacy KW - diplomatic negotiation KW - diplomats KW - doctrines KW - economic affairs KW - ethnic cleansing KW - government, American KW - human rights KW - interpreting services KW - intervention KW - language training KW - legation KW - limited career extension (LCE) KW - management positions KW - management KW - military base agreements N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Foreword --; Preface --; Acknowledgments --; Abbreviations --; Talking to Strangers --; CHAPTER ONE The New Frontiers of American Diplomacy --; CHAPTER TWO The Diplomacy of Reason --; CHAPTER THREE The Diplomacy of Doctrine --; CHAPTER FOUR The Diplomacy of Process --; CHAPTER FIVE Diplomacy as Representation --; CHAPTER SIX Diplomacy as Management --; CHAPTER SEVEN Diplomacy as Communication --; CHAPTER EIGHT Diplomacy as Negotiation --; CHAPTER NINE Improving the Reach of American Foreign Policy --; CHAPTER TEN Improving the Grasp of American Diplomacy --; Notes --; Index; restricted access N2 - In this discerning book, Monteagle Stearns, a former career diplomat and ambassador, argues that U.S. foreign policymakers do not need a new doctrine, as some commentators have suggested, but rather a new attitude toward international affairs and, most especially, new ways of learning from the Foreign Service. True, the word strangers in his title refers to foreigners. However, it also refers to American foreign policymakers and American diplomats, whose failure to "speak each other's language" deprives American foreign policy of realism and coherence. In a world where regions have become more important than blocs, and ethnic and transnational problems more important than superpower rivalries, American foreign policy must be better informed if it is to be more effective. The insights required will come not from summit meetings or television specials but from the firsthand observations of trained Foreign Service officers.Stearns has not written an apologia for the American Foreign Service, however. Indeed, his criticism of many of its weaknesses is biting. Ranging from a description of Benjamin Franklin's mission to France to an analysis of the Gulf War and its aftermath, he offers a balanced critique of how American diplomacy developed in reaction to European models and how it needs to be changed to satisfy the demands of the twenty-first century. Full of examples drawn from Stearns's extensive experience, Talking to Strangers addresses the problems that arise not only from an overly politicized foreign policy process but also from excessive bureaucratization and lack of leadership in the Foreign Service itself. Anyone interested in our nation's future will benefit from reading Stearns's pull-no-punches analysis of why improving American diplomacy should be a matter of urgent concern to us all UR - https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400828463?locatt=mode:legacy UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781400828463 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9781400828463/original ER -