Abstract
The great Florentine statesman and historian Francesco Guicciardini wrote:
In matters of business take this as a maxim, that it is not enough to give things their beginning, direction, or impulse; we must also follow them up, and never slacken our efforts until they are brought to a conclusion. Whoso conducts business on this system contributes in no small measure to its settlement; while he who follows a different plan will often assume things to be ended which in truth are hardly begun. (Guicciardini: 85)
Guicciardini’s maxim on the need to prevent agreements unravelling by following them up applies with at least as much force today as when it was written in the early sixteenth century. ‘As soon as agreement is reached by the negotiators,’ wrote the world-weary George Shultz, US Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan, ‘it usually starts to collapse in the hands of those who implement it’ (Shultz 1993: 747).
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Further reading
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© 2015 G. R. Berridge
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Berridge, G.R. (2015). Following up. In: Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137445520_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137445520_7
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