As nationalism may seduce the masses, so may vanity have the same effect upon individual diplomats engaged in conflict resolution. While some may debate what strategic interests, conspiracies or prejudices are at play in motivating policy, too frequently it may be the egos of the personalities involved.

Last week I was able to view a handful of the 81 films from 25 countries, at the five-day long AFI Docs festival that attracted filmmakers, national policy and opinion leaders, journalists and a large crowd of viewers to the 13th annual running of the event in the Washington DC area.

Some memoirs concentrate on self-promotion and score-settling, but Hill avoids the former and mostly eschews the latter. He focuses instead on the on-the-ground work of the diplomat, which may entail dangerous forays far beyond embassy walls. What comes through with exceptional clarity in this book is Hill's concept of service.

The scent of nationalism was present in the former-Yugoslavia before Vladimir Putin effectively assumed power in Moscow. Already during the early stages of the conflict in Bosnia & Herzegovina, "BiH"  solutions were being fashioned in the hope of, well appeasing is perhaps an appropriate term, those leaders in the region but also Moscow who saw feudal nationalism as the vehicle to replace authoritarian communism.

The News Sorority is a dish fest -- if you care what Katie and Diane and Christiane are really like, for God's sake do not start reading on a Friday night, because you'll miss Bill Maher and may just be finishing when John Oliver comes on.

Every year we commemorate the genocide, we expect that those who betrayed Srebrenica might this time ask for forgiveness from the survivors. Instead, much of Europe appears inclined to forget Srebrenica and punish all Bosnian & Herzegovinians ("BiH") for reminding it of its collective failure to prevent the genocide.