bout de papier, Vol. 15, No. 3 (1998) — Fall 1998 // Automne 1998, p. 3
Editor:
The Summer 1998 issue is by far the best bout de papier ever. Each article was a pleasure to read, and outgoing editor Carol Turner-Trusca has set a high standard for future generations of editors. If she gets to attend the next Forum 2000, she will have been well rewarded indeed!
Rob McRae’s report on Vaclav Havel’s “Forum 2000” was a masterpiece of analysis of how changing paradigms must affect thinking and behaviour on all levels.
My first reaction was to wonder why DFAIT doesn’t make better use of our state of the art communications system to create a simple virtual think tank where all can explore and debate these issues – opening policy analysis and development to all members of the department, with the corresponding synergism that can result from a dialogue among 8000 plus individuals.
A holistic approach to global challenges can be achieved by harnessing the perspectives and energies of the entire DFAIT community in an organized and focused manner, bringing seemingly unrelated backgrounds and experiences into direct contact.
Eduardo del Buey
Canadian Embassy
Mexico
Editor:
I am writing as a colleague. Having spent seven of my 26 years in the U.S. Foreign Service assigned to postings in Canada, I’ve come to know and respect the abilities and professionalism of Canadian diplomats. That respect was recently heightened when I read John Kneale’s “Foreign Service”; part autobiography, part primer on a career in Canada’s diplomatic service. Cogent, entertaining and eminently readable, the book is a delightful compendium of Mr. Kneale’s fascinating postings and his even more fascinating reactions to them. I found it to be a largely affectionate look at a way of life under stress — not unlike my own foreign service.
In the absence of anything similar in print about life in the U.S. Foreign Service, I recommend it to my confrères at State as a good look in the mirror.
James D. Walsh
Deputy Chief of Mission
Embassy of the United States of America
Madrid
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