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Tag: Diplomatic Reporting

Brevity (in diplomacy)

On August 9th, 1940, Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of UK, sent a Memorandum to the War Cabinet . He asked his staff to write shorter Reports and to avoid those useless phrases which could be replaced by one word.

In particular he wrote, in the final part of the Memorandum:

The saving in time will be great, while the discipline of setting out the real point concisely will prove an aid to clearer thinking.

Copy of the original document is available at UK National Archives http://www.ukwarcabinet.org.uk/documents/345

cab-67-8-11-0001-000

 

Diplomatic Reporting at the age of Wikileaks

Amb. Roberto Toscano, former Italian Ambassador in New Delhi and Teheran, and Lecturer at the Italian Diplomatic Institute, has been interviewed on some aspects of Diplomatic Reporting.

First Question is: “What can we learn in terms of diplomatic reporting from Wikileaks documents?”

Second Question is: New Technologies should be used to report more or to report in a different way?

Third Question is: “What diplomats should keep in mind when writing a report?”