Review: Administration in Foreign Affairs
MacMahon, Arthur W. (1953). "Review: Administration in Foreign Affairs". International Affairs: 533–534.
- Has attachment: File:6BBZMTE2.pdf
Abstract: Professor Macmahon begins with a chapter on policy-making, and the shares taken therein by the President, the Cabinet, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Security Council. In Chapter II he traces the growth in the work of the State Department, notably in the 'economic', 'intelligence', and 'informational' activities and in the new phenomenon of 'council diplomacy'. He then deals in Chapter III with the Foreign Service and its tasks abroad, or as he calls it 'the field structure for foreign programmes' (pp. 104 et seq.). He goes on to a chapter on Interdepartmental Co-ordination-tone of the commonest words in administration. It is shiny and slippery from much use' (p. 164). And he concludes with a discussion on the selection of personnel, including a side-glance at the 1943 reforms of the service in the United Kingdom-the 'outstanding example' of a country which has created a 'combined foreign affairs service deliberately divorced from the general civil service' (p. 235).
This is a competent book written from experience and from study. It is a pity that it is not written and arranged in a simpler style, and with a few charts and layouts to clarify the shape of the Administration and the position of its officers. A plan of the State Department in genealogical form showing the descent of power from the Secretary of State to the 'junior country desk officer' would have been very welcome.
Extra details:
DOI: 10.2307/2608833 MAG: 2605635687 CorpusID: 157427580 OpenAlex: W2605635687
