Author: Geoff Berridge
DC Confidential: The controversial memoirs of Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. at the time of 9/11 and the Iraq War
2005
His memoirs have attracted attention in part because they reveal confidential information on very recent events and persons still in office and in part because they argue that British prime minister, Tony Blair – the ‘indispensable ally’ (p. 250) – missed the opportunity to moderate the actions of the US administration at the time of the Iraq War. As to the first point, I cannot help agreeing with Sir Christopher’s many critics: he broke a trust (though not as far as an outsider can judge on any vital questions) and may have weakened the important relationship between civil servants and ministers. As to the second, that is a serious question, though one for diplomatic historians to judge. How should the historian of diplomacy react to these memoirs?
The student of diplomacy will find much of value in DC Confidential – though no great surprises. In its intimate descriptions of the numerous encounters between Tony Blair and George W. Bush, and their respective camp followers, the book provides further evidence of the diplomatic advantages and disadvantages of summitry (chs. 19, 20, 23). It also provides a classic example of the way in which even a traditionally influential MFA, the British Foreign Office, can be effectively sidelined by a head of government on a key (the key) foreign relationship; as ambassador in Washington, Sir Christopher in practice answered directly more to 10 Downing Street than to the FO. Above all, the volume gives a lively and rich account of how a modern ambassador – a ‘professional networker’ (p. 223) – has to operate in Washington (esp. chs. 8, 9, 14, 15, 17, 21, 22). His ‘task’, writes Sir Christopher, who clearly enjoyed it immensely, ‘is simple to describe: find things out and influence decisions’ (p. 207). However, he must pursue the last aim without ‘being drawn into Washington’s inter-departmental rivalry’, which would ‘damage the embassy’s reputation for trustworthiness and impartiality’ (p. 210). Why would this be dangerous? He does not draw a picture for us because the implication is obvious: it would close off vital sources of information. In short, Sir Christopher draws our eye to the tension between the two main tasks of the Washington ambassador.
In general these memoirs are light reading and padded out with a great deal of ordinary (and much trivial) detail. There is also a strong whiff of score-settling in them. Nevertheless, Sir Christopher Meyer was obviously a successful ambassador in Washington (the British government wanted him to stay on for longer but he had to return home for personal reasons) and his account of his time there should not be read simply for its gossip and as a primary source for historians on the origins of the Iraq War. It also shows with great clarity how a Washington ambassador needs to operate in order to achieve success.
You may also be interested in
Intervening in Africa: Superpower Peacemaking in a Troubled Continent
Governance and conflict in the Mano River Union States: Sierra Leone a case study
The MRU states (Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone) experienced more than two decades of bitter conflicts. With the exception of Guinea which was spared a full-scale civil war, the other three neighbouring MRU states went through violent civil conflicts which resulted in massive human suffering, social dislocation and the destruction of the region's economy.
Managing the Cold War: A view from the front line
Michael Alexander, a Russian-speaking senior British diplomat who died in 2002, was a major behind-the-scenes figure in what he calls the ‘management’ of the cold war to a peaceful conclusion.
Managing Global Chaos
The Peace Brokers: Mediators in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-79
Cyprus: the search for a solution
Lord Hannay, a senior British diplomat with great experience of multilateral diplomacy, retired in 1995 but was then persuaded to accept the position of Britain’s Special Representative for Cyprus. In this role he played an influential part in the UN-led effort to broker a settlement to the Cyprus conflict until the negotiations temporarily foundered in May 2003, when, with a mixture of relief and regret, he stepped down. (There is a postscript on the referendums held on the island in 2004 on the fifth version of Kofi Annan’s settlement plan.) He has written a brilliant account of the cour...
Kosovo Crossing: American Ideals meet Reality on the Balkan Battlefields
The author of this review compares Noam Chomsky's A New Generation Draws the Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the Standards of the West and David Fromkin's Kosovo Crossing: American Ideals meet Reality on the Balkan Battlefields.
Weapons Overview
Mediation in the Yugoslav Wars: The Critical Years, 1990-95
The Secret History of Dayton: U.S. Diplomacy and the Bosnia Peace Process 1995
FDR’s Ambassadors and the Diplomacy of Crisis: From the rise of Hitler to the end of World War II
What effect did personality and circumstance have on US foreign policy during World War II? This incisive account of US envoys residing in the major belligerent countries – Japan, Germany, Italy, China, France, Great Britain, USSR – highlights the fascinating role played by such diplomats as Joseph Grew, William Dodd, William Bullitt, Joseph Kennedy and W. Averell Harriman. Between Hitler's 1933 ascent to power and the 1945 bombing of Nagasaki, US ambassadors sculpted formal policy – occasionally deliberately, other times inadvertently – giving shape and meaning not always intended by ...
The Mediation Process: Practical Strategies for Resolving Conflict
The Demilitarization of American Diplomacy: Two cheers for striped pants
The trenchant contribution to this subject of the outstanding American scholar-diplomat Laurence Pope is published in Palgrave’s ‘Pivot’ series of short books designed to be brought out quickly.
Diplomacy under a Foreign Flag: When nations break relations
A clash of professional cultures: The David Kelly affair
The Hutton inquiry into the death of Dr David Kelly, the senior British arms inspector in the UN inspection mission to Iraq who was found dead in an English wood in July 2003, offers revealing insights into the contrasting professional cultures of journalists, politicians and scientists. This paper focuses both on the language and on the transgressions associated with each of the three professional cultures under investigation.
United Nations, Divided World, 2nd ed
An Examination of the Role of Women in Conflict Management: Sierra Leone Case Study
This paper examines the role of women in conflict management, using Sierra Leone as a case study.
Post Cold War diplomatic training
Victor Shale's paper refers to a specific time period: the post-Cold War period which brought about new forms of conflicts, and high levels of terrorism. In the light of the change in traditional diplomacy, his paper examines multistakeholder diplomatic training and its importance as an approach in penetrating different cultures, and examines whether this approach could be used to minimise intractable conflicts.
From U Thant to Kofi Annan: UN Peacemaking in Cyprus, 1964-2004
2004 marked the fortieth anniversary of the United Nations presence in Cyprus. Since March 1964, the UN has been responsible for addressing and managing both peacekeeping and peacemaking efforts on the island.
Keeping the Peace in the Cyprus Crisis of 1963-64
After some difficulties, a UN force was established in Cyprus (UNFICYP) following the collapse of the bicommunal independence constitution of this former British colony - a constitution which the Greek Cypriots had always felt too favourable to the Turkish minority - at Christmas 1963. In this book, Alan James, Professor Emeritus of Keele University and leading authority on peacekeeping, provides what is likely to be regarded as the definitive history of the creation of this force.
Virtual Reality and the Future of Peacemaking (Briefing Paper #14)
Return to the UN: United Nations diplomacy in regional conflicts
‘… lively … persuasive … careful analysis… This is a very readable study, combining narrative strength with political acuity, and informative on the years of disappointment … Much has changed since the UN’s annus mirabilis, but Berridge’s conclusions still stand’, Nicholas Sims, London School of Economics, Millenium.
Education and Conflict: Complexity and Chaos
Embassies in Armed Conflict
Metaphor and War: The Metaphor System Used to Justify War in the Gulf
Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror
All memoirs are incomplete; instant ones even more so; and memoirs about security matters are the worst, in this respect. The book, however, manages to disappoint in an unusual way.
Barriers to conflict resolution in Africa: Mediating beyond power and ethnicity in the EAC and SADC countries through a Kenyan case study
This paper assesses the relevance of ethnicity and power in conflicts occurring in the EAC and SADC regions through a case study of Kenya. It engages with elites’ power contestation and the manner in which power has historically caused violence and instability in Kenya. Further, an account of researches on ethnicity and its inducing of violence is made. Through this, one discovers the importance of ethnicity beyond that of being a channel for the upsurge of violence.
Intractable Syria? Insights from the Scholarly Literature on the Failure of Mediation
The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross: Commentary
The Fundamental Principles are the result of a century of experience. Proclaimed in Vienna in 1965, they bond together the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and guarantee the continuity of the Movement and its humanitarian work. In this succinct commentary intended for the general public, Jean Pictet explains the meaning of each of the seven Fundamental Principles; he analyses them on the basis of different criteria and presents all their various aspects, thus mak...
Preventive Diplomacy: Stopping Wars Before they Start
Track 2 diplomacy and Pakistan
Decision-Making in the UN Security Council: The case of Haiti, 1990-1997
Question: 'When is a "Foreword" not a "Foreword"? Answer: When it is written by Adam Roberts. This book started life as an Oxford doctoral thesis under the supervision of Professor Roberts, and the former supervisor has done both the former student and readers of this book a great service by prefacing it with a seven-page essay in which he underlines its importance in convincing detail. So this, unlike ninety-nine per cent of examples of the same genre, is a Foreword that should not be ignored.
War and the Private Investor: A Study in the Relations of International Politics and International Private Investment
DC Confidential: The controversial memoirs of Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. at the time of 9/11 and the Iraq War
The publication of these memoirs in autumn 2005 caused a public furore in Britain so I shall not waste time giving any background on Sir Christopher Meyer. (Just punch his name into Google, which will enable you in the blink of an eye even to find out from the BBC website which records he chose when he appeared on Desert Island Discs.)
The Role of Nigeria in Restoring Peace in West Africa
Remmy Nweke attempts a search into the rationale behind Nigeria‟s decision to make Africa the cornerstone of her foreign policy.
Peace Negotiations and Time: Deadline Diplomacy in Territorial Disputes
Regional water cooperation in the Arab – Israeli Conflict: A case study of the West Bank
The conflict between Israel and Arab countries, with several devastating wars, is about territory and land, and maybe just as crucially on the water that flows through that land. This dissertation, an analysis of the management of water in the West Bank, as a case study, seeks to underline the possibility of using soft power diplomacy, in addition to mediation and water cooperation, for a more collaborative kind of approach to the conflict.
Diplomacy Before and After Conflict
Conflict resolution and peace building (disseration by Unisa Sahid Kamara)
Unisa Kamara's dissertation seeks to give an account of the Sierra Leone conflict and the different measures and strategies including diplomatic attempts and efforts that were employed by various parties in trying to secure a peaceful and durable solution to it. The paper discusses the peace building measures and activities that were employed in sustaining the Sierra Leone peace process after the attainment of a negotiated settlement.
A kind of diplomatic incantation: Exchanging British and Japanese diplomats in the Second World War
The Responsibility to Protect
DC Confidential: The controversial memoirs of Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. at the time of 9/11 and the Iraq War
DC Confidential: The controversial memoirs of Britain's ambassador to the U.S. at the time of 9/11 and the Iraq War.
Mediation in International Relations
High Noon in Southern Africa: Making Peace in a Rough Neighbourhood
Embassies under Siege
The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century
Female leadership in conflict prevention, diplomacy and UN peacekeeping initiatives
A New Generation Draws the Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the Standards of the West
Note: The author of this review compares Noam Chomsky's A New Generation Draws the Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the Standards of the West and David Fromkin's Kosovo Crossing: American Ideals meet Reality on the Balkan Battlefields.
Strengthening of the Coordination of Emergency Humanitarian Assistance of the United Nations
Diplomats at War: British and Commonwealth diplomacy in wartime
In their Preface, the editors of Diplomats at War say that the two world wars in the twentieth century had a “catalytic impact upon the practice of diplomacy”; among other things, they continue, this produced “an unprecedented revolution” in the way heads of mission conducted their business.
The Embassy: A story of war and diplomacy
This book tells the story of the vital role played by the US Embassy in Monrovia in helping to mediate an end to the brutal, 14-year civil war in Liberia in 2003.
The Falkland Islands War: Diplomatic Failure in April 1982
The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate
The Search for Peace
