A British diplomat for over 40 years reflects on the role of soft power as an essential part of a state’s international work.

What does a professional diplomat actually do? Can they exert a real influence on the course of negotiations between presidents and prime ministers and thereby bring about beneficial change in relationships between nation-states?

Peter Westmacott’s 40-year career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office straddled the last decade of the Cold War and the age of globalisation. It included spells in pre-revolutionary Iran and the European Commission in Brussels and culminated in prestigious ambassadorial postings in Ankara, Paris and Washington in the post-9/11 era.

Westmacott mounts a vigorous defence of the continuing relevance of the diplomat in an age of instant communication, social media and special envoys, and provides details of what he sees as some of the successes of recent British diplomacy.

A committed Internationalist, Westmacott offers views on the Brexit referendum and its aftermath, and voices his concerns about Britain’s ability to continue to bring its influence to bear on the wider world now that it has left the European Union.

He will be in conversation with Jenny Kleeman.

Peter Westmacott’s They Call It Diplomacy: Forty Years of Representing Britain Abroad is published by Head of Zeus. Buy a copy from Waterstones, our bookselling partners.

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