CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- News from France concerning the recent work stoppage by diplomats of the prestigious Quai d'Orsay is unusual, to say the least. Thousands of diplomatic officers, both in Paris and abroad, have abandoned their duties in protest of huge budgetary restrictions that have torpedoed their efforts to perform very important tasks.
But why dwell so much on the element of surprise when there had been omens for some time pointing to such an eventuality? And is it valid to characterize the case as a French phenomenon when similar financial problems have affected other diplomatic services in the past and present?
In reality, such trends must be attributed to painful readjustments in the era of globalization as well as to the contemporary tendency to demystify and even discredit an activity as old as mankind.
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