Diplomacy

A few years back I found myself sifting through books at the Powell’s satellite store in the Portland International Airport. In search of some good in-flight reading, I stumbled upon Gina Berriault’s The Descent. Its yellowed and frayed pages called out to me from the pile of books on the cart. This copy had obviously seen better days, with its pages beginning to pull away from the binding. This, for me, was a sign it was sure to be a good book.

One of the truths of human history is that mankind has a tendency to go to war for some pretty stupid reasons; my personal favorite was the 17^th century's War of Jenkins' Ear, though in the 19^th century the United States and Canada nearly went to war over a pig, which probably would have trumped the unfortunate Mr.

I know that neither of these countries are technically a part of South Asia (although I’ve included China in the list of countries I intend to discuss), but since I live in Paris I feel I should discuss elements of French foreign policy from time to time, especially since it often goes unnoticed abroad, and yet cannot be dismissed too quickly. By the way, just because I live in France doesn’t mean I’m an expert on its foreign policy, which is one of the reasons why I don’t intend to write about it too often.