Emmanuel Macron used every diplomatic trick in the book at the White House – but Trump writes his own rules

By Helen Drake, Professor of French and European Studies and Director of Loughborough University London's Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs, Loughborough University

If there was a book of diplomacy, then French president Emmanuel Macron threw it at US president Donald Trump in their joint press conference in Washington DC. Macron delivered quite the masterclass in the diplomatic arts. Unthreatening body language and public displays of affection? Check.

Meeting your interlocutor on any and every inch of common ground? Check. Macron’s willing use of fluent English was a key tactic here. Other than when answering French-language questions (when to have responded in English would have brought Macron yet more domestic grief), he adapted to the language…

Read complete article

~	It was risky for Ontario Premier Doug Ford to call an early election — but it did pay off

~	Keir Starmer at the White House: what ‘progressive realism’ now means in relation to Ukraine and Donald Trump

~	Keir Starmer meets Donald Trump: assiduous planning results in deft diplomacy

~	I studied the evidence behind theories of Oscar success – here’s what I found

~	The Vegan Tigress: intimate play resurrects fierce forgotten Victorian writer

~	Raised voices and angry scenes at the White House as Trump clashes with Zelensky over the ‘minerals deal’

~	US: Trump Administration Guts Foreign Aid

~	Global Voices statement on the attacks on Serbian NGOs

~	UK/Egypt: Mother’s hunger strike for imprisoned activist son Alaa Abd El-Fattah ‘could be a matter of life and death’

~	How to make a political Oscars speech that doesn’t flop – according to rhetorical theory