Our April issue demonstrates why old-school diplomacy matters now more than ever
This issue, we spotlight the enduring importance of diplomatic missions in an increasingly fractious world. Our editor in chief, Andrew Tuck, introduces the idea and other highlights this month, including our Style Special.
Monocle’s outposts around the world act as embassies for our business. Our offices, shops and cafés are places where you can enter our domain and leave the rest of the world behind. If, for example, you push open the door of our shop in Merano, South Tyrol, its manager, Linda Egger, will immediately set about making you feel at home. She’ll dispense useful information about the town, suggest where you might have supper and hopefully entice you to make a small trade deal for a Monocle product or two. She’s a Monocle ambassador who represents the brand and can talk with passion and knowledge about our history.
We are blessed to have lots of people in our business – from editors to baristas – who are good at this diplomatic work. Some are cultural attachés; others sit in the commercial section of the mission. One or two occasionally need to adopt a military attaché’s mantle when world events demand nimble manoeuvres. And it all works rather nicely.
While some might question the role of actual national embassies at a time when diplomacy can occasionally seem irrelevant, the best of them still do vital work. They take care of their country’s diaspora, build bridges with their host nations, manage moments of tension and use soft power to make friends. They host parties at which political differences are forgotten as guests sample wine from the home country.
It’s why, for this issue, we asked our foreign editor, Alexis Self, to put together The Good Embassy Guide, celebrating missions that do their nations proud. In those pages, you’ll see how five Nordic nations came together on one site in Berlin in a display of their shared histories. We’ll take you to the Italian embassy in London to explore how it has become a showcase for the national brand and look at how the Peruvians use food to make friends in Washington. It’s a story about why physical space matters. Let’s not pretend that laptop diplomacy is a substitute.
It was also an embassy that hosted our editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, and Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, for their interview in this issue. They sat down together at the Canadian mission in Tokyo to discuss how middle-sized powers can become less dependent on the US, forge new trade ties that aren’t jolted by fluctuating tariffs and better defend themselves. And it’s a fascinating conversation about national brands and considered diplomacy too.
This issue is also our Style Special. As well as guiding you to some new retail outposts and selecting brands that you should know, it includes some illuminating interviews. One of these is with Olivier Bron, the CEO of US department store Bloomingdale’s. He has been in position for two years and is tasked with revitalising the company – and not just what’s on sale. “Getting the merchandise right isn’t enough,” he tells our reporter Rosemary Feitelberg. “You need to have the right marketing, the right campaigns and the right store design.” And it seems to be working. But what makes the story so fascinating is that he’s delivering this turnaround at a time when Saks Global has filed for bankruptcy and many analysts have been predicting the end of the US department store.
And there are many more stories in the issue that show how you can create your own path and move beyond the conventional narrative. In our Business pages, for example, we spotlight the Japanese shops rethinking retail (from football to convenience stores). In Culture, we meet Martin Krasnik, the editor of Danish long-reads newspaper Weekendavisen, which is widely read in print. And in our Expo, we present dealers who have allowed their passion and heart to guide their successful businesses.
But it’s the idea of us all finding our inner ambassador that stayed with me most while reading the proof pages for this issue: how being a good representative, taking care to explain your stance and even looking the part matter. And that embassy party, of course. If you would like to drop me a diplomatically worded note, you can always find me at at@monocle.com.
