Diplomacy in the Digital Age: Essays in Honour of Ambassador Allan Gotlieb is a pleasant sojourn through the fine minds of 18 Canadians well versed in diplomacy and the international quandaries facing our country today. It is a series of eclectic essays, edited by Janice Gross Stein, with gems of insight that crystallize some of the dilemmas of our increasingly complex world. One walks away with a sense of having read something worthwhile, but not quite sure what it is—a natural pitfall of a book of essays.
The book is written in honour of Allan Gotlieb, Canada’s former ambassador to the United States, a wise hook to propel us into today’s challenges. Gotlieb, and his wife Sondra, were the undisputed masters of public diplomacy in Washington DC in the 1980s, a world of diffused power and celebrity mania. Many of the writers regularly refer back to Gotlieb, his time...
John Bell is the director of the Middle East and Mediterranean Programme at the Toledo International Centre for Peace in Madrid. He has led many track two initiatives in the Middle East and North Africa, and is a co-founder of the Jerusalem Old City Initiative (based at the University of Windsor).
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