This story is mainly based on memories and notes from four decades in the service of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The perspective on the international developments described is personal and selective. My point of departure is how events looked from my different postings in Stockholm, West Berlin, Paris, Ankara, East Berlin, Brussels, and Washington. Partly at close range, partly at a distance, I witnessed how the Greek military junta was brought down, how Turkey went from a military regime to civilian rule, how the Berlin Wall came down how Germany was reunited, how the Soviet Empire was dissolved, how the Swedish security policy doctrine was reformulated how Russia was persuaded to withdraw its troops from the Baltic states and how Sweden for a short period became a respected cooperation partner of the United States.
As ambassador to Washington, Liljegren was instrumental in forging a close relationship between the Bildt Government and the White House as they were assisting Russia and the Baltic states in reaching agreement on the removal of Russian troops from the territories of Estonia and Latvia. Liljecren writes about American foreign policy under the Clinton and Bush administrations, the attempts at repairing the transatlantic rift, Turkish-Greek relations, the Cyprus problem and the geopolitical role Turkey has played and may play in the future. Liljegren also reveals how he assisted the Greek resistance movement against the Greek military junta in the sixties and seventies; and how Swedish Social Democratic Governments have been overly respectful in their attitude towards the Soviet Union/Russia and too intimate with countries like Communist East Germany.
Includes photos, footnotes and index
Reviews
A great insight of a diplomatic practitioner.
--Robert L. Faherty, Vice President/Director, Brookings Press, Brookings Institution Washington, DC
an easy, enticing read despite the seriousness of its subject matter.
--Catherine Collins, author and former correspondent for the Chicago Tribune in Turkey
a hit for those who want to feel as participants in the important political events of the last decades in an elegant and charming way. . . Ambassador Liljegren is probably one of the most interesting envoys that Sweden has had after the Second World War.
--Smalandsposten
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