Memoirs of a Foreign Service Arabist

Diplomats and Diplomacy

by Richard B. Parker

Parker's experiences in the Foreign Service shed light on many aspects of U.S. diplomacy in the Near East, an area of continuing interest and concern today. In this memoir, Richard Parker takes a look at his own life, the people and times around him, and comments on the thorny Middle East issues and the foreign and domestic potentates with whom he dealt. He writes tellingly of his (sometimes perilous) service in Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and as U.S. ambassador in Algeria, Lebanon, and Morocco. His memoir not only offers a first-person viewpoint and analysis of historic events and personalities but also finds the humor in many of them. "Replete as it is with insights and intriguing details about the formation and execution of America's Middle East policy, Parker's memoir is a useful addition to the history of the period from the 1960's to the 1990's. It is also an informative and authoritative look into the practical problems facing an active diplomat trying to carry out (as well as shape) his government's policy in fast-moving and sometimes dangerous situations." ―Gordon Brown "This memoir has fascinating insights into history. Parker's comments on the personal issues that lay behind the deterioration of US-Egyptian relations before the 1967 Egyptian-Israeli war is one such account. His vivid description of a special mission to Yemen weaves in discussion of how Yemeni issues fit into and made more difficult our relations with Egypt and complicated relations with Saudi Arabia. There are a great many such insights and 'pen-portraits' that contribute to history and keep the book moving along." ― Ambassador Ronald E. Neumann (ret., President American Academy of Diplomacy

312 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 2013