{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.024958402662229616, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0066555740432612314, 'mean_word_length': 5.2793733681462145, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
J. Fisher and A. Best (Eds.). (2011). On the Fringes of Diplomacy: Influences on British Foreign Policy, 1800–1945

It is a commonplace today to survey the outside influences that help to shape contemporary British foreign policy. Historians have begun to look at previous periods when the practice of diplomacy was supposedly restricted to the foreign policy elite. This collection of case studies, both of known and unknown figures and networks, illustrates the diversity of actors operating on the periphery of official diplomacy. Though a limited selection, all the chapters highlight the interactions between fringe figures and the diplomatic establishment. Some agents were subsidised or employed by the Foreign Office; others were independent individuals over whom the government had little, if any, control. With the exception of Mary Derby (Charmley and Davey),whose social networking at the time of the Eastern crisis of l875–8, almost destroyed the career of her husband, the foreign secretary, Lord Derby, the subjects of these chapters are men. All are well written with sharply drawn pen portraits and sufficient diplomatic and political detail to centre their chosen subjects. The press and intelligence networks are obvious choices. Lord Palmerston (David Brown) successfully managed the London press to advance his foreign policy agenda and to strengthen his domestic base. Few foreign secretaries were as adroit in manipulating the Fourth Estate. Editors and correspondents could be notoriously independent. The Francophile Times correspondent in Morocco, Walter Harris (John Fisher), was knowedgable but unreliable and caused his editors and the Foreign Office endless trouble. Antony Best’s account of the work of Vincent Kraft, a double agent operating in Japan during the First World War, leaves little doubt about the utility but also the costs of employing spies. The point is further underlined in Keith Hamilton’s study of Arminius Vambéry, a scholar, brilliant linguist, and traveller, whose shameless flattery gave him entrée to the Sultan in Constantinople. Despite his unique position, his reports could not be trusted and he proved an embarrassment to his Foreign Office paymasters. Hamish Ion’s wide-ranging chapter gives many illustrations of the interactions between missionaries and churchmen and the diplomatic establishment. The consequences, both in the field and in