Getting Our Way: 500 Years of Adventure and Intrigue: The Inside Story of British Diplomacy

by Christopher Meyer

Over the last five hundred years, Britain's power has waxed and from the puny island nation of the sixteenth century, to the global superpower of the nineteenth century, to the more modest post-imperial status today of a major European power. But in these radically different circumstances, the wisdom of Lord Palmerston's observation has endured. Getting Our Way recounts nine stories from Britain's diplomatic annals over the last five hundred years, in which the diplomats themselves are at the center of the narrative. It is an inside account of their extraordinary experiences, sometimes in the face of physical danger, often at history's hinge. Be it Henry Killigrew's mission to Edinburgh in 1572, Castlereagh at the Congress of Vienna, Our Man in Washington and the Nassau Deal, or the handover of Hong Kong to China, we can see how Britain has viewed its interests in the world and sought to advance them. Some of these dramatic episodes record triumph, some failure, but all of them illustrate how the three pillars of the national interest—security, prosperity, and values—have been the foundation of British foreign policy for half a century. Each story is illuminated by colorful anecdotes and insights drawn from Christopher Meyer's first-hand experience of international relations. Moreover, the book is a salutary reminder that foreign policy (what is to be done) and diplomacy (how it is to be done) begin and end with the national interest. And far from being the preserve of aloof aristocrats, the pursuit of our national interest is replete with intrigue, treachery, espionage, and danger—an extraordinary combination of high principle and low cunning, vice and virtue, all with the specific aim of "getting our way."

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, British Literature

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Sherwood Smith]

Written by an insider, it really was not an inside look, but so facile an overview it slides the reader right over the surface of events, especially historical events. As a look at the diplomatic mindset it is a real disappointment. I should have known better than to expect anything insightful from someone writing about his own time. (And the historical stuff was little better than soundbites.)

I'm glad I got it used; passing it on.

[Kiona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dropped due to being too monotone

[Levin Low · Rating 3 out of 5]

diplomatic incidents 🤝🏻 british humour

[T.A. Keenleyside · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative and entertaining look at over 500 years of British diplomacy, most of it pertinent to other powers.