Dubya Talks the Talk

Diplomacy is an art form, a subtle construct of gestures and words, body language and rhetoric carefully arranged for a single purpose: to persuade another country to behave the way you want. Tone is the hardest thing to get right. How do you convey your views so they're firm and forceful without putting the other side's back up?

George W. Bush is in the process of finding out. As a youthful candidate who wanted to be taken seriously despite his inexperience in foreign affairs, he struck a tough-guy pose, compensating for shallow knowledge by adopting the combative tone of a cold warrior....