Lessons from a Diplomatic Life

Watching Flowers from Horseback

Marshall P. Adair

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2012
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781442220812
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In his new book, Lessons from a Diplomatic Life: Watching Flowers from Horseback, retired State Department official and career diplomat Marshall P. Adair recounts and reflects on his time in the US Foreign Service. The story of his assignments throughout the world reveals important details about significant foreign policy issues and historic events, including Bosnia, American policy toward Tibet, the 1988 Burmese uprising, and the foundations of the current US-China relationship. It provides the reader with an inside look at the history of the US State Department, US diplomacy, and US foreign policy of recent decades, during what was often an unstable and uncertain time. This first-hand, detailed account of the author's work with foreign governments and populations provides a unique outlook on US relations around the world that has critical policy implications for the situations we face today. Through this retelling, Adair illuminates how the depth and accuracy needed of diplomats and Foreign Service agents requires a close and intimate understanding of the cultures and governments they work with.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• First Assignment: Paris (August 1972–June 1974)
• Edge of Darkness: Lubumbashi (September 1974–July 1976)
• Introduction to China: Taipei (August 1980–July 1981)
• The Last International City: Hong Kong (August 1981–June 1984)
• The Middle Kingdom: Beijing (August 1984–June 1986)
• Where “the Dawn Comes Up like Thunder”: Rangoon (August 1988–January 1990)
• Flower Pepper and Buttered Tea: Chengdu (February 1990—July 1992)
• Old War: Tuzla (September 2002–June 2003)
• New War: Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida (August 2003–July 2006)
• Coda
• Index
• About the Author