"The fact is we do not ask our officers to perform duties outside of accepted diplomatic practice, " he said.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Ideology is "so yesterday, " Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently said, telling us volumes about our current diplomatic practice.

WSJ: Pakistan's Struggle for Modernity

In keeping with its practice in every other nation with whom it has diplomatic relations and an official presence, the United States will place its embassy in Israel in the capital of the Jewish State, Jerusalem.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: New Wind Blowing in the Middle East

But after allowing the fullest weight to these pleas, it still remains undeniable that the disavowal or the discountenancing of our diplomatic representatives in remote places (whether they be naval men or civilians) is a practice fraught with danger of the gravest nature, and should only be done in the rarest cases and on the clearest grounds.

ECONOMIST: From the archive

Doing so would involve policies toward the Soviet Union starkly different from those now being pursued by virtually every industrialized democracy namely the practice of offering essentially unconditional economic, financial, food, medical and technology assistance as well as diplomatic and political support to the central authorities in Moscow.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Soviet Crackdown Watch (Part I)