National Council Senior International Affairs Fellow and previous speaker at the Council’s annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers’ Conferences Jeremy Jones has authored a new book, Oman, Culture, and Diplomacy, published by Edinburgh University Press. The book provides a portrait of Oman through its diplomacy. For Oman, the idea of diplomacy refers not only to the country’s interactions in the global community, but also to the way in which Omani life itself is shaped by principles and practices of social and political engagement that are essentially diplomatic, grounded in ideals of tact and tolerance that have developed over a long historical period. The book draws upon key research into Omani religious and social traditions and ethnographic studies of language and  social customs, conducted expressly for the project, and argues that this culture is not only where Oman’s contemporary foreign policy has been nurtured, but also where, within this culture, a specific conception and practice of diplomacy has been developed.

Review of Oman, Culture, and Diplomacy in Middle East Policy, Summer 2012, Volume XIX, Number 2