Guerrilla diplomacy in an increasingly complex international system

To start off, my apologies for the low blogging activity lately, I am absolutely swamped with work and with academic requirements.

Nonetheless, I would like to turn your attention to Daryl Copeland, a most interesting diplomat/scholar. I encourage you to get a hold of his new book 'Guerrilla Diplomacy: Rethinking International Relations', or read some reviews.

I attended one of his talks today at the University of Ottawa. He was quite engaging and offered some fresh insights into the state of the diplomatic discipline.

Well, he essentially echoed what many of us 'non-diplomats' already suspected - diplomacy is hurting, and its hurting real bad. As he puts it, "diplomacy does not have a very good reputation today" because not only is the practice seen by many as ineffectual in an increasingly militarized international policy setting, but diplomats themselves no longer understand what diplomacy really is.

In his opinion, the only hope for saving this ailing profession is to radically overhaul the current diplomatic business model and more creatively using the diplomatic resources at our disposal. The Guerrilla Diplomat is his answer. Read here to find out what he's talking about.