Jacques Rial
préface de Bénédict de Tscharner
2008, Genève, IHEID et DiploFoundation
Paperback, 240p.
ISBN 987-99932-53-19-8
Diplomats as Writers: Switzerland
Diplomats normally write a lot. It belongs to their trade. But do they publish? They certainly do since there are at least 6 Nobel Literature prize winners among them (St John Perse, Pablo Neruda, George Séféris, Ivo Andrić, Czesław Miłosz, Octavio Paz) and maybe more.
In Switzerland however (as in a few other countries) strict administrative regulations have often put a limit to this activity. Nevertheless, Jacques Rial, a retired Swiss diplomat, has looked into the catalogues of the main Swiss libraries and has made some surprising discoveries.
Moreover, the topic is rather in vogue: DiploFoundation has recently published a first volume devoted to Italian diplomats as writers (Pasquale Baldocci and Stefano Baldi: La penna del diplomatico, which is in its second edition and has already been translated into English). Similar research has now been announced in other countries, especially in Latin America.
Le Bicorne et la Plume was put on-line last December and has benefited from many suggestions, corrections and additions by Swiss colleagues. The book has just been published under the joint sponsorship of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, and DiploFoundation.
About the author
 Jacques Rial is a retired Swiss career diplomat. In the early sixties he served with the UN in the Congo and later joined the Swiss diplomatic service (1967). After assignments at the Ministry in Berne, then in London and in The Hague, he was appointed Ambassador to Cameroon (also accredited to Gabon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome), then to Uruguay and Paraguay and finally to Croatia. Back at headquarters, he became negotiator for Switzerland in matters of international refugee policy.
He has published books about Africa and diplomacy. His hobby is sailing: in 1992, he rounded Cape Horn on board a 35 ft yacht.
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