Traditional diplomacy is based on the notion of competing nation-states, each attempting to maximize its autonomy and independence According to Nowotny, multilateral organizations like the World Bank, the UN, and nongovernmental relief agencies are at least as important as governments and often have better technical expertise on staff. To succeed in this more complex setting, Nowotny recommends recruiting technical experts to serve in a country's diplomatic corps and establishing a -multilateral track- to allow some diplomats to specialize in working with other agencies ... By setting his real-world experience on an academic foundation, Nowotny has produced a thoughtful study that will interest those in the diplomatic services and those who hope to enter.- -- Marcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., Library Journal Drawing on his experience as a diplomat, a scholar, and an astute observer of international politics, Nowotny has produced a book as wise as it is interesting. He offers an important and compelling vision of how to update the art of diplomacy to a changed and changing world.- --Charles A. Kupchan, professor of international affairs at Georgetown University and former director for European affairs at the US National Security Council Thomas Nowotny has dared to write three books between two covers. Here is the autobiography of a seasoned and shrewd Austrian diplomat who has served in Cairo, New York, Paris, and London, as well as a personal adviser in Chancellor Bruno Kreisky's cabinet. His is also the profound analysis about recent transformations in global governance from the perspective of a well-informed political scientist. If this were not enough, he gives us the benefit of his experience as a diplomat about how today's national diplomatic services ought to cope with, and adapt to, a new era of multilateral diplomacy. This book is a real bargain--for the price of one you get a happy threesome of keen insights.- --Gunter Bischof, Marshall Plan Professor of History and director of Center Austria, University of New Orleans What role is left for diplomats in an age of instant communications? Thomas Nowotny offers a sure and comprehensive guide to the continuing, yet changing, relevance of statecraft in a global age.- --Dan Hamilton, Richard von WeizAcker Professor, Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations By combining an insider's insights with those of a true expert's perspective on the necessity of global diplomacy in the early 21st century, Nowotny's book succeeds masterfully.- --Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch, former International High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina