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Golf diplomacy

A canny emissary in Washington
by
June 2022, no. 443

Diplomatic: A Washington memoir by Joe Hockey with Leo Shanahan

HarperCollins, $34.99 pb, 306 pp

Golf diplomacy

A canny emissary in Washington
by
June 2022, no. 443
Ambassador Joe Hockey meeting with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Image supplied.
Ambassador Joe Hockey meeting with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Image supplied.

In the chaos that opened the Trump administration in 2017, foreign governments were looking for any and all insiders for information. Australia turned to Joe Hockey, who turned to golf. In this very readable account of the former treasurer’s four years in Washington (2016–20), Hockey tells us how he navigated ‘TRUMPAGEDDON’. This is a story replete with funny anecdotes and unsettling observations. Diplomatic leaves the reader convinced that diplomacy is more about art and luck than about science and process. It is also oddly reassuring about the vicissitudes that the Australia–United States relations can weather, even under the most weird leadership.

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