Life-long diplomat tells how he and his diplomatic colleagues spent months having meetings, teas, and breakfasts in which nothing was decided and no action taken while the world around them crashed. Until, at the end, they hurriedly and cowardly leave the mess they created. In a way, I should give this book 5 stars in the sense that it does accurately describe diplomatic incompetence except for the fact that the author is too clueless and pompous to know it.