Serving foreign ministers do not often publish books explaining the concepts that underlie their conduct of the business of diplomacy. Diplomacy deals with concrete problems as they arise, often unexpectedly, day by day. To succeed, it has to be both practical and flexible. Foreign ministers are loath, therefore, to give hostages to fortune by committing to paper principles which they may have to accommodate later to changed circumstances. The danger of proclaiming high-sounding principles is illustrated by the sorry fate of the concept of an ‘ethical foreign policy’, which has drawn amused, and at times cynical, comment in Britain recently.