Balancing Acts - Refections of a New Zealand Diplomat

Dunmore Publishing, 2017.

This is Gerald McGhie'sfascinating and insightful account of some of the highlights of almost 40 years service as a New Zealand diplomat - most notably in the Soviet Union - twice - first during the Brezhnev years of the Cold War; and second from 1990 when he witnessed the dramatic events that led to the fall of Gorbachev, the rise of Boris Yeltsin and the collapse of the Soviet Union, which saw him become New Zealand's last Ambassador to the Soviet Union and first to Russia. McGhie worked in Samoa earlier - shortly before independence in the 1960s, and later in Papua New Guinea. The author also presents a snapshot of the activities of a Wellington-based foreign service officer during the period he worked closely with the Foreign Minister on the sporting-contact issue in the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games in 1990. He also provides a personal perspective on New Zealand's foreign policy inthe modern era.