Word: diplomatic
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...billion to $2.5 billion, while costs continued to rise. Total debt, $12 billion, rose from 37% of gross domestic product in 1979 to 130% in 1991, effectively crowding out the private sector's ability to tap into domestic credit sources. "They mortgaged their soul to the West," says a diplomat. Now, with an integrated European market about to become reality, the attention of French businessmen is being distracted away from Africa. And a unified European Community may force Paris to adopt a Europe-first policy, denying the Ivory Coast its privileged position within France...
Billboards picturing Houphouet-Boigny, 86, are everywhere. They show Le Vieux in a charcoal-gray leisure suit surrounded by enthusiastic young Ivory Coasters, the camera angle chosen to make the tiny President look as tall as everyone else. Houphouet is regarded as a master politician. Says a Western diplomat: "When the Ivory Coast won a regional soccer game, everyone was convinced it was because Houphouet managed to buy off the other teams. They feel he is capable of anything...
...Saddam has tweaked his enemies time and again, counting on Bush, Major and French President Francois Mitterrand to be too distracted by domestic issues to respond. "Saddam concluded that with all its problems, the West lacked the stomach to go to war with him again," says a senior British diplomat. "He saw that as an excellent opportunity to push his luck...
...expects an official solution to be reached at the London conference. Even if all the main factions show up, the conference will include representatives of so many nations and groupings, from the European Community to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, as to constitute what a Dutch diplomat calls "about as unwieldy a group as they come." Prospects that the three-day meeting can accomplish much are minimal...
Viktor Oshchenko, a diplomat in the Russian Embassy in Paris, was a British double agent for years. Last month Moscow asked him to come home. Fearing the worst, he defected to London. MI-6 is now debriefing him at a safe house. He must know plenty: Moscow has since recalled at least a dozen of his fellow spies from Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. Oshchenko specialized in stealing science and technology secrets. Says a senior British diplomat: "The Russians' need for everything is more desperate than ever because of the country's abysmal shape...