Read more
Informationen zum Autor Raymond F. Smith worked for the State Department for several decades, primarily doing political analysis, before retiring with the rank of minister counselor in the Senior Foreign Service. He held two of the most significant analytical jobs in the State Department: minister counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and director of the Office of Russian, Central Asian, Caucasus, and Eastern European Affairs, Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He is the author of Negotiating with the Soviets (Indiana University Press, 1989). He lives in Dallas, Texas. Klappentext This title presents the intellectual and analytical tools of the trade. It is written by a senior diplomat whose political analysis was nominated for the State Department's highest political reporting award. It selected for the Diplomats and Diplomacy Series of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) and DACOR, an organization of foreign affairs professionals. Some of the finest political analysis done in the world today never reaches the public eye because it is included in classified reporting cables that U.S. embassies send to Washington. Further, until now, the existing literature on diplomacy has been limited to memoirs of former diplomats and analyses of international affairs by diplomats, academics, and think tanks. "The Craft of Political Analysis for Diplomats" offers a fresh approach. Author Raymond F. Smith combines a practitioner's personal view of what is required to do good diplomatic political analysis with his understanding of the social conflict and change that informed his work for the State Department. Smith clearly explains everything the Foreign Service candidate or professional needs to know about crafting political analysis, including how to write for the analyst's intended audience, how to make best use of the intellectual and analytical tools of the trade, what happens when the analyst's views differ from government policy, and why political analysis risks becoming irrelevant, even though it is still urgently needed. In addition, "The Craft of Political Analysis for Diplomats" features a case study of four formerly classified and highly restricted Embassy Moscow cables on the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as a case study built around two formerly classified cables that received the State Department's highest award for political analysis. Zusammenfassung Until the recent unauthorized release of thousands of classified State Department cables! public attention was rarely drawn to the frequently outstanding political analysis done by American diplomats abroad. ...
