In that sense, recent events here — the victory of the radical Islamic movement Hamas in Gaza and Fatah's rapid collapse there — have focused the diplomatic mind and shaken Israel, the United States and the Sunni Arab states, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, already nervous about a rising Iran.
And all this comes on top of Arab mistrust for America as Israel's chief source of aid, arms and diplomatic backing never mind its huge handouts to Egypt.Sympathy for the devilNo single issue in recent years, however, has damaged America's image on the Arab street more than its treatment of Iraq.
For the U.S. president to publicly assert that a private contractor was an accredited diplomat and should get diplomatic immunity was mind-boggling to say the least.
And for almost as long, some of the world's best diplomatic and legal minds have retorted that trying to pin down a legal definition of aggression is at best fruitless, at worst harmful.The sceptics' case was well put by Sir Austen Chamberlain, a British foreign secretary, who said in 1928 that such a definition could be a "trap for the innocent and a signpost for the guilty".
Admittedly they usually have in mind diplomatic, not military, action.
Clustered into expressive categories beyond "like kind," there are stories here; time and place are given context as well as insight into the diplomatic maven's mind, and inspired me to look into my own gem box to see what messages might be lurking.
But this is the Balkans, where mind-bending diplomatic complexities are commonplace (think Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo).
My diplomatic peers don't mind having their bags checked through a scanner, neither do I, and nor should anyone with nothing to hide.
With Red and Black on air later in 2011 and three-year deals in the bag for Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor, Cowell looks set to remain a key producer of ITV entertainment hits, so Bedell is understandably diplomatic when asked if she minds the late-night calls.
* A Britishism referring to a 2003 comedy starring Hugh Grant as a prime minister who unexpectedly dispenses with diplomatic niceties and speaks his mind at the film's climax.
