Word: diplomatic
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Despite the mounting unease about his leadership, Dinkins remains unfazed. His response last week to demands that he publicly condemn the Watkins murder was characteristically orotund. Quoth the mayor: "I say that if two nations are in dispute and one diplomat says to the representative of another government, 'Her Majesty's government is exceedingly distressed,' everybody knows that means we're mad as hell. Now, however, I'm prepared to say I'm mad as hell, not simply 'We're exceedingly distressed...
...prolonged standoff or the outbreak of war -- would be almost certain to unleash centrifugal forces on the fragile united front. "With stock markets crashing, higher oil costs, hostages in danger and voters calling for quick solutions, governments everywhere will be hard pressed to keep their nerve," says a NATO diplomat in Brussels. And that is to say nothing of the demoralizing effects of young people returning home maimed or zippered into body bags...
...what power does the Violeta Chamorro government actually wield? Not much, according to State Department officials, who believe that the ousted Sandinistas still run the country. "The civilians hold the offices, but the Sandinistas have all of the muscle, and they monitor phone calls at will," says a U.S. diplomat just back from Nicaragua. Humberto Ortega, brother of the ex-President and Chamorro's army chief, earns grudging American respect as the most politically adroit figure in the country. Chamorro gets a harsh assessment. "Even her friends call her 'Rag Doll,' " says the U.S. official. "She's basically apolitical...
...repair U.S.-Kenyan relations, which have become increasingly strained since President Daniel arap Moi's crackdown on dissidents last month. Afterward, Moi described the talks in such glowing terms as "friendly," "genuine" and "sincere." But U.S. officials had a decidedly different assessment of the three-day parley. One diplomat declared that Kenya had "backstepped politically and economically...
...vast Russian republic, which embraces nearly two-thirds of the Soviet Union's 289 million people, the President is no longer the undisputed ruler. Rather than challenge Yeltsin further, Gorbachev appears to be eager for compromise. "It's important for them to coordinate economic policy," explains a Western diplomat in Moscow, observing that if they cannot work out a common policy, Gorbachev is "going to get left behind...