Consular Affairs and Diplomacy.

AuthorKunsman, June
PositionBook review

Jan Melissen and Ana Mar Fernandez, (Eds.) Consular Affairs and Diplomacy, Leyden, Netherlands: Brill/Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2011, ISBN 978-90-04-18876-1, 334 pp.' $172.00

Consular Affairs and Diplomacy, the 7th in a Diplomatic Studies series of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations, gathers a series of papers on the history, roles and challenges of "the consular institute" (or, more comfortably from an American perspective, "the consular function"). Arranged in three parts, the book opens with Themes in Contemporary Consular Affairs, moves to Part II with three articles discussing American, Russian, and Chinese perspectives and approaches to the challenges including several of those raised in Part I. Historical reviews of the consular institution including the evolution of the Spanish, Dutch, and French consular services make up Part III. While the papers range across submissions from nine countries, each does, in its course, address two central shared interests. First, when and how has the consular function been integrated into the larger diplomatic corps in various foreign services? Second, what roles have consular officers played in foreign affairs throughout their history and what roles are theirs today? The emphasis is on citizen services. Though the texts do address visa adjudication issues, that topic is not the central focus but is worthy of a text of its own that includes analysis of the fraud prevention, intelligence sharing and national security challenges in an interagency and international context in the world after 9/11.

Despite a few neologisms, the articles manage to avoid jargon, minimize use of acronyms and, in a text of over 300 pages dealing with the structures of various government foreign affairs agencies, burden the reader with only one wiring diagram. As with any collection of papers from multiple sources, no single voice or style directs the text. Several of the articles need serious editing to eliminate redundancies and ease the eye-glaze burden on the reader, particularly the polemical article on honorary consuls. In addition, the organization of the three sections appears more random than focused on a logical progression.

The various articles describing the creation and evolution of consular functions and titles through reviews of the Spanish, Dutch and French services that make up Part III provide the context for the articles on current challenges in the delivery of consular services. Those...

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