

The Art of Diplomacy
75+ Views Behind the Scenes of World Politics
A new book, conceived on the occasion of Wolfgang Ischinger’s 75th birthday and edited by Tobias Bunde and Benedikt Franke, brings together a stellar group of contributors who investigate myriad aspects of the art of diplomacy.
What is diplomacy? An art, a craft? Or something in between? Is there such a thing as a diplomatic secret recipe? What actually makes a good diplomat? What tips and tricks help to break the deadlock? When does humor help, when only bluffing? How do diplomatic cultures and styles differ in different countries? How undiplomatic can, and perhaps even must, a diplomat sometimes be? How does the work of today's diplomats differ from that of their predecessors? And why do we need diplomats today, when half the world is just a click away from the next video conference?
In this book, renowned companions of Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger reflect on basic questions of diplomacy. Taking the reader behind the scenes of diplomacy, they reveal their most astonishing experiences, successes, and failures on the diplomatic stage, or outline their ideas for the diplomatic handling of unresolved challenges. A book for anyone who wants to better understand what matters when negotiating war and peace.
The volume, published by Econ in Berlin, contains contributions from Javier Solana, Patricia Espinosa, Atifete Jahjaga, Børge Brende, Robert Cooper, Fatou Bensouda, James G. Stavridis, Josep Borrell, Jasmine M. El-Gamal, Siemtje Möller, Sebastian Groth, Benedikt Franke, Joseph S. Nye, Nikolaus vom Bomhard, Karl Kaiser, Elmar Brok, Sam Nunn, Desmond Browne, Izumi Nakamitsu, Ivan Krastev, John Scarlett, Sauli Niinistö, Charles A. Kupchan, Ian Bremmer, Klaus Naumann, Wolfgang Schüssel, Sigmar Gabriel, Nora Müller, Fu Ying, Kevin Rudd, Kenneth Roth, Nathalie Tocci, Ana Palacio, Tawakkol Karman, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, Tobias Bunde, Timothy Garton Ash, Markus Söder, Franziska Brantner, Frederick “Ben” Hodges, Norbert Röttgen, Boris Ruge, Steven Erlanger, Teijka Tiilikainen, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Thomas Rid, Dmitri Alperovitch, Sorin Ducaru, Manuel Muñiz Villa, Kersti Kaljulaid, Marietje Schaake, David Miliband, Achim Steiner, David Beasley, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Armen Sarkissian, Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, Robert B. Zoellick, Theo Waigel, Carl Bildt, Nasser bin Nasser, Peter Ricketts, Igor Ivanov, Strobe Talbott, Constanze Stelzenmüller, Jane Harman, Srgjan Kerim, Louise Mushikiwabo, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, Frank G. Wisner, Eka Tkeshelashvili, Radosław Sikorski, Rose Gottemoeller, Ivo H. Daalder, Helga Maria Schmid, Thomas Greminger, Alexander Dynkin, Ine Eriksen Søreide, Peter Neumann, Espen Barth Eide, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Johannes Hahn, Ottilia Anna Maunganidze, Benedetta Berti, Christine Lagarde, Christoph Heusgen, Catherine Ashton, Jens Stoltenberg, Jan Eliasson, and Wolfgang Ischinger.
The English edition is available since February 24, 2022. A German edition of the book was published on July 28, 2022.