Dealing with Dragons, Bears, and Some Nice People Too: A Diplomatic Chronicle
11/19/2024 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM EST
Location: DACOR Bacon House, 1801 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006
Event Description
Join us for an ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Book Launch with Ambassador B. Lynn Pascoe on his book, Dealing with Dragons, Bears, and Some Nice People Too: A Diplomatic Chronicle.
Dealing with Dragons, Bears, and Some Nice People Too is a candid insider’s take on issues at the core of U.S. foreign policy. Lynn Pascoe writes about momentous events he participated in, giving historians and people interested in U.S. foreign policy a primary source and firsthand perspective on some of the most critical events of the times. It’s the story of one U.S. diplomat’s close involvement over 45 years with the dramatic changes in China, the Soviet Union/Russia, and Southeast and Central Asia, followed by his efforts to invigorate the United Nations’ management of conflicts around the world.
Pascoe covers tensions in Beijing, the stalling of Kissinger’s China diplomacy, the later establishment of formal diplomatic ties, and the fallout from the brutal 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. In the mid-1990s Pascoe led our pseudo-embassy in Taiwan as it developed its democracy, built a thriving economy during the island’s “golden age,” and weathered a serious missile threat from Beijing. He analyzes the U.S.-Soviet conflicts in the eighties and the transformation of the relationship after Gorbachev’s rise to power.
Following the monstrous tsunami that killed over 170,000 people in Indonesia’s Aceh Province, Ambassador Pascoe led the massive U.S. civilian and military efforts to help alleviate the terrible tragedy. On retiring from the Foreign Service, he assumed the high-profile job of UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon tasked him to transform the UN’s Political Department into the leading actor easing local conflicts worldwide. He recounts in frank detail the successes and failures of the new approach.
“This lively and readable account offers firsthand insights into how and why major geostrategic and humanitarian decisions were made. Pascoe is refreshingly frank about the persons and policies he thought mistaken and equally generous in his praise of the many others he thought served the interests of his country and the world.”
–– Raymond F. Smith, retired Foreign Service officer, editor of the online journal American Diplomacy, and author of Negotiating with the Soviets
“A solid work of historical reporting, with the authority of someone who was an eye-witness and a participant, it will be an important source for academics and other experts on many of the major events in the global politics of modern history from roughly 1970 to 2020.”
–– Edward Marks, U.S. ambassador and Foreign Service officer (ret.)
Lynn Pascoe, served almost forty years as a U.S. Foreign Service officer. Posted in Beijing in the mid-1970s and as Deputy Chief of Mission after the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, he headed the U.S. mission in Taiwan in 1993–96, served as Deputy Director of the Soviet desk during the tense early 1980s, then assisted Secretary of State George Shultz. Later stints included U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Eastern Mediterranean, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, and Ambassador to Indonesia. In 2006 Pascoe was named the first American in thirty-five years to head the UN’s political effort as Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs.
