Ten years ago, France and the United States were at a bit of an impasse over our invasion of Iraq. But now that we are back to being liaisons, French diplomat Antonin Baudry can satirize the diplomatic debacle in his graphic novel Weapons of Mass Diplomacy (SelfMadeHero, $25), illustrated by Christophe Blain.
Baudry, who uses the pseudonym Abel Lanzac for the book, will speak at Politics & Prose on Friday, August 22nd at 7 p.m. In 2002, he became an advisor and speechwriter for French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin. He told The Paris Review that meeting de Villepin “was just like being hypnotized. He explained a lot of things to me and everything seemed clear, and then when I left, I couldn’t remember a thing.”
Baudry shares his experience through the voice of young “Arthur Vlaminck,” just hired as a speechwriter for French Foreign Minister “Alexandre Taillard de Vorms.” With an office of under 10 people, de Vorms calls himself the captain of France’s foreign affairs “raft” navigating the possible beginning of World War III. He does not want to join U.S. President George W. Bush and English Prime Minister Tony Blair in fighting Iraq, despite tremendous pressure.
Vlaminck’s first assignment is to write a speech for de Vorms articulating France’s decision to the United Nations Security Council. He—like Baudry was—is very new to diplomacy, but the speech has to convince both French and worldwide audiences. As Vlaminck says, “a Minister must choose his words wisely. Let slip a wrong one and you’ll set off an international incident.” The story succinctly captures the tricky nature of diplomatic relations, and having to represent a powerful person or entity.
Through insider knowledge, expressive cartoons, and sophisticated wit à la the French, Weapons of Mass Diplomacy reveals the many tensions and quirks of the Ministry office. The characters have been likened to those in Dilbert or The Office, with the “toadying” one, the “temptress,” the “eternally frustrated,” and others who report to the Minister’s “long-suffering, soft-spoken” chief of staff. Handpicked by de Vorms, the staffers are fiercely loyal and must work together while being “whirled around the world … attending to [de Vorms’s] ever-changing whims.”
The original version of the book, Quai d’Orsay, is a bestseller in France and won Best Graphic Novel at the Angoulême comics festival. It was also made into a movie released earlier this past spring, called The French Minister.
Since leaving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Baudry worked for other departments of the French government and is now the Cultural Counselor for France at the French Embassy in the United States. In 2012, he created a board game about the French presidential election, “La Course à l’Élysée”, also illustrated by Blain.
This event is free and open to the public.
