Madeleine Albright Quotes
Well, the thing that I learned as a diplomat is that human relations ultimately make a huge difference.
Albright, Madeleine. Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box. Harper, 2009.
The Arab culture, like most desert cultures, maintains a degree of hospitality that is much greater than that of most other cultures. Even enemies are granted hospitality. This sometimes confuses Western diplomats who might interpret the friendly hospitality as institutional friendship but it often is nothing more than the gracious hospitality that is expected in Arab society.
The basic treaty sold some of Ethiopia’s colonial territory (Eritrea and Tigray) to Italy in exchange for arms. Italy had tried to conquer the area but lost 500 men in the Battle of Dogali. However, after this peace treaty, Italy maintained that Article 17 of the treaty gave them the right to declare Ethiopia an Italian Protectorate which they did. However, there were two different versions of the treaty that the Italians had drawn up—one in Italian, the other in Aramaic. Britain, Belgium and Germany supported Italy; France, Turkey and Russia supported Ethiopia. Menelik then, to make matters clear, repudiated the treaty in 1893. Italy send an invasion force that was soundly thrashed by the Ethiopians setting the stage for the Italian attack on Ethiopia in World War II years later. Parties to International treaties thereafter have paid close attention to the different language versions.
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright is an American politician and diplomat who served as the first female United States Secretary of State in U.S. history from 1997 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton.
