This article posits that the diplomat's weakness as a historical actor stems from two salient factors: (a) the impassivity of the diplomatic practice, and (b) the diplomat is an actor of ‘one front’ ‐ the external. Politicians and military men act within the internal lines of the domestic and the external. The diplomat is in the service of grand things but is never on heroic tracks; his service is always that of dependency. The apparent political weakness of the professional diplomat makes him, in not a few cases, a ‘pathetic hero’ of international politics.
Diplomacy & Statecraft
Volume 12, 2001 - Issue 1: Westphalia
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Related Research Data
“A Speech That the Entire Ministry May Stand for,” or: Why Diplomats Never Produce Anything New
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