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The Last American Diplomat: John D Negroponte and the Changing Face of US Diplomacy (International Library of Twentieth Century History) - Softcover
Can John D. Negroponte be described as 'The Last American Diplomat'? In a career spanning 50 years of unprecedented American global power, he was the last of a dying breed of patrician diplomats - devoted to public service, a self-effacing and ultimate insider, whose prime duty was to advise, guide and warn - a bulwark of traditional diplomatic realism against ideologue excess.
Negroponte served as US ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines and Iraq; he was US Permanent Representative to the UN, Director of National Intelligence and Deputy Secretary of State to George W. Bush. His was a high-flying and seemingly conventional career but one full of surprises. Negroponte opposed Kissinger in Vietnam, supported a 'proxy war' but opposed direct American military action against Marxists in Central America - facing bitter Congress opposition in the process. He swam against the floodtide of George W. Bush's neocon-dominated administration, warning against the Iraq war as a possible new 'Vietnam' and criticising aspects of Bush's 'War on Terror'. He disconcerted the administration by arguing that the re-establishment of Iraq would take as long as five years. And he was influential in international social and economic policy - working for the successful re-settlement of millions of refugees in Southeast Asia following the Vietnam War, issuing early warnings about the scourge of AIDS in Africa and successfully launching the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
George W. Liebmann's incisive account is based on personal and shared experience but it is no hagiography; beyond the author's discussions with Negroponte, this book is deeply researched in US state papers and includes interviews with leading actors. It will provide fascinating reading for anyone interested in the inside-story of American diplomacy, showing personal and policy struggles, and the underlying fissures present even in the world's last remaining superpower.
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George W. Liebmann is a lawyer and historian specialising in American and international diplomatic history. His publications include Diplomacy Between the Wars: Five Diplomats and the Shaping of the Modern World (I.B.Tauris).
""The Last American Diplomat is a true masterpiece, a book far above the standards and the contents of the great majority of the dozens of, often ephemeral, works published each year about the theme and themes of American foreign policy. It is a most detailed and finely written tome about the career and the character of an American whose name is known or remembered, alas, by few who ought to. But there is more to it. George Liebmann has written excellent biographies of men and diplomats who had incarnated the standards of what might be called - necessarily imprecisely, but essentially truly - of 'the old diplomacy'. This study of Negroponte is a prime example of Liebmann's historical philosophy as well as his architectural examination of his protagonist's public career."" – John Lukacs, American Historian, author of The Future of History
""So much more than a biography, this fascinating new book by George Liebmann is a major contribution to diplomatic history. Through the lens of John Negroponte's remarkable career, the reader gains arresting insights into the events and personalities that shaped US foreign policy in the Cold War and post-Cold War periods."" – Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University, Former US Ambassador to the Holy See
""So much more than a biography, this fascinating new book by George Liebmann is a major contribution to diplomatic history. Through the lens of John Negroponte's remarkable career, the reader gains arresting insights into the events and personalities that shaped US foreign policy in the Cold War and post-Cold War periods."" – Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University, Former US Ambassador to the Holy See
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- PublisherI.B.Tauris
- Publication date2014
- ISBN 10 1780766947
- ISBN 13 9781780766942
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages384
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