Is there a Geneva / New York divide?

Published: July 8, 2007, 10:30 am

Tags: united nations, new york, civil society, mc carthy, negotiators, humanitarian impacts, disarmament, arms control, geneva, multilateral negotiations, bob dylan, diplomacy

Bob Dylan played a sold-out concert in Geneva recently, mixing songs from his latest album, "Modern Times," with some of his old classics, including "Like a Rolling Stone," which contains the following cryptic lyrics:"You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat / who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat..."Nobody quite knows what this means, and Bob isn't giving any clues. I prefer a straightforward interpretation: The female subject of the song riding through Manhattan on a Harley Davidson driven by, well, a diplomat; possibly from South-East Asia (which could explain the Siamese cat reference).All of this set me to thinking about the very different experiences that diplomats dealing with disarmament and arms control must have in Geneva and in New York - apart, that is, from featuring or not in Bob Dylan songs.On one level, diplomats posted to Geneva and those posted to New York are supposed to be doing the same thing: defending their national interests in the face of

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