This is the rare diplomatic memoir that is not overly impressed with itself and seeks to underline the importance of the policy moments that the writer had supposedly touched.
Ambassador Marks’ memoir, A Professional Foreigner, is perhaps an overly modest view of his diplomatic achievements that he claims "missed the big moments". But that is this book's strength. Diplomacy is actually the aggregation of small, continuing efforts to create communication and understanding between nations, not just the big moments of negotiation (or lack thereof).
In the future, the book will be read by those interested in the policy movements in U.S. and African relationships during the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. And there's a section which provides a wonderful primer on the situation in Sri Lanka and makes the reader want to visit.
This memoir should be required reading, however, for anyone who is thinking of a career in the diplomatic service of almost any country, especially the U.S. foreign service. It provides a rare view in a memoir of life at post, with its unexpected changes, the uncertainty of future assignments, and the constraints that face members of the profession. It is a life unlike most professions and this book should be read carefully by all family members prior to making the decision to embark on a diplomatic career. Not for nothing is it subtitled, "Life in Diplomacy."
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- Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2023
