Democracy and Its Discontents

Ninety years ago, Sir Eyre Crowe was permanent under-secretary of the British Foreign Office. That’s to say he was an unelected official who answered to a political head, in his case the foreign secretary. Doubtless Sir Eyre was speaking for all his colleagues at “the Office,” and perhaps all diplomats, when he said that he always “deplored all public speeches on foreign affairs.” That was the voice of the true professional, who thought diplomacy too important to be left to the politicians, let alone their electorates.

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