United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali once
confessed: "I have been performing the functions of the
Secretary-General of this Organization for two years, and I still
do not understand how it works". This is not surprising. International organizations form a unique world of multilateral diplomacy, the complexity of which caused the downfall of so many professional diplomats who had been considered very successful in their national diplomatic service. This book – characterized as political lexicography – attempts to throw light on the peculiar language of international organizations. In this language, very many words look deceptively familiar but have a different meaning, often not registered in any existing dictionary. This book covers this gap for diplomats, translators, journalists and other people who use English and Russian and want to understand the complex world of multilateral diplomacy.