21st Century Diplomacy: A Practitioner’s Guide

Kishan S. Rana
2011, Continuum
Paperback, 392 pages
ISBN: 978-1441168382

In 21st Century Diplomacy, Ambassador Rana has produced an invaluable guide for junior diplomats to the fast-changing and demanding world in which they will work, and he has so from the perspective of a senior and highly successful insider.
– Paul Sharp, University of Minnesota Duluth, USA

A seminal contribution to scholarship on modern diplomatic theory and practice. 21st Century Diplomacyis a nuts and bolts manual for modern diplomacy, which will be invaluable to both scholars and practitioners in the field of international relations. There is no better person than Ambassador Rana to undertake this significant study, given his vast diplomatic experience and his keen involvement, in recent years, in building human resource capacity in the craft of diplomacy across the world.
– Shyam Saran, former Foreign Secretary of India and currently Chairman, Research and Information Systems for Developing Countries, New Delhi

The clichéd image of the venerable profession of diplomacy is one of stuffed shirts living in exotic, well-appointed residences and attending a whirl of cocktail parties. Yet how far this is from reality is superbly described in this new book by Kishan Rana. This seasoned representative of one of the best diplomatic services in the world reveals the true story of diplomats as modern managers of foreign relations, networking and negotiating with politicians, businessmen, academics or artists, and equally at home with the use of modern methods of technology. Rana’s comprehensive picture of the diplomat of the 21st century is not only scholarly and magisterial but also, with its telling use of amusing anecdotes taken from everyday life in embassies and international conference halls, highly entertaining. This excellent volume can be highly recommended to every student of contemporary diplomacy.
– Ambassador Hans Winkler