1. Good Books to Support Good Management in Diplomacy
The theme of this calendar was inspired by Mark Twain’s quotation that:
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them”.
Diplomats, like many other professionals, must read, understand, synthesise and make sense of newspapers,
magazines, emails, official reports and so many other things related to their daily work. But there is so much else
to read both for pleasure and to deepen our knowledge. The digital revolution has successfully given us access to
more and more information and taken away the time available to do so.
We believe that reading one book a month is an entirely reasonable objective. Our challenge was that of selecting
books that support professional development and are relevant to management in diplomacy. The selection reflects
our reading history over many years and our belief that these are transformational works as they changed the way
we think, live and work.
Some of the 11 books we’ve selected have been in best-seller lists for many years and perhaps some may be
unknown to you and we hope this will not stop you from being curious about them. Happily, books are perhaps the
cheapest luxury available today (even free if your library has a copy).
Reading good books was, is and will continue to be essential to personal and professional growth. This is why the
2013 Diplo calendar is a joint initiative of the Diplofoundation and the Diplomatic Institute of the Italian Ministry
of Foreign Affairs.
Stefano Baldi and Eduardo Gelbstein

2. Concept:Baldi-GelbsteinIllustration:Veljašević
Enhance creativity and memory
Tony Buzan, The Mindmap Book

3. Concept:Baldi-GelbsteinIllustration:Veljašević
Time is more valuable than money
MTD Training, Successful Time Management

4. Concept:Baldi-GelbsteinIllustration:Veljašević
A Users manual for your Brain?
John Medina, Brain Rules

5. Concept:Baldi-GelbsteinIllustration:Veljašević
Thinking is an activity
Edward De Bono,
Thinking Course

6. Concept:Baldi-GelbsteinIllustration:Veljašević
Discover the Genius in You
Michael J. Gelb, How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci

7. Concept:Baldi-GelbsteinIllustration:Veljašević
Emotional intelligence is more important
to success and happiness than
professional skills and IQ
Daniel Goleman,
Working with Emotional Intelligence

8. Concept:Baldi-GelbsteinIllustration:Veljašević
A step-by-step pathway for living with
fairness, integrity, honesty and dignity
Stephen R. Covey,
7 Habits of Highly Effective People

9. Concept:Baldi-GelbsteinIllustration:Veljašević
Bureaucratic traps to avoid
C. Northcote Parkinson, Parkinson´s Law

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Improving interaction between politicians and
civil servants (and vice-versa)
Jonathan Lynn and Anthony Jay, Yes Minister

11. Concept:Baldi-GelbsteinIllustration:Veljašević
A Good Person is as Rare as a Black Swan*
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan*Juvenal ± 90 AD

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One thing we learn from history is
that we don�t learn from history
Sun Tzu, The Art of War

13. istitutodiplomatico.wordpress.com

14. Istituto Diplomatico is the structure of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA)
responsible for training. Its main task is to update and improve the professional
quality of the MFA staff (both diplomats and non-diplomats) through courses and
seminars. The Faculty consists mainly of internal staff and experts from the
Ministry. The two main courses offered for diplomats are aimed at junior and mid-
dle-rank officers. The main activities for non-diplomat staff relate to pre-post
courses and specialized professional training. The Institute is developing a series
of self-paced online learning modules focused on the MFA’s activities and functions. Its most recent
project is a blog (ISDI learning corner, available at http://istitutodiplomatico.wordpress.com/) for
sharing useful information concerning diplomatic soft skills.
DiploFoundation emerged from a project to introduce ICT tools to the practice of
diplomacy, initiated in 1992 at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic studies in
Malta. In November 2001, Diplo was established as an independent non-profit
foundation by the governments of Malta and Switzerland. Diplo has received wide
recognition for its work, including consultative status with the United Nations. Today, Diplo works to
increase the capacity of small and developing states to engage effectively in international policy, nego-
tiations, and diplomacy. We do this by providing capacity development programmes in areas such as
Internet governance and climate change diplomacy; using and developing tools for e-participation in
global governance, including remote participation in international meetings and social media for
global negotiations; and providing specialised and effective academic programmes – accredited with
the University of Malta - for professional diplomats seeking cost-effective and high-quality training
in both traditional and contemporary diplomacy topics.