Political tradecraft is a set of duties, responsibilities and skills required of diplomats who work in political affairs. It is the main instrument in the diplomatic tradecraft toolbox, which also includes, among other tools, economic tradecraft, commercial diplomacy, consular affairs and public diplomacy. Political officers work both at diplomatic missions abroad and at headquarters, such as their ministry of foreign affairs or the State Department. Although there are some differences in a political officer’s daily duties at home compared with those abroad, they all participate in managing international relations and implementing foreign policy. Those who rise to the most senior positions in their ministry or department also take part in the policymaking process. The primacy of politics is the reason the political department is the most powerful in any ministry of foreign affairs, and its head, known as “political director,” is typically among the highest-ranking officials.

In the summer of 1968, Mailer covered the Republican and Democratic conventions in Miami and Chicago, respectively. In this work, as in Armies of the Night, Mailer employs the literary tactics of New Journalism, and includes himself as a character in the narrative. Yet the Mailer of Miami and the Siege of Chicago is different from the Mailer of The Armies of the Night. In addition to providing the historical and political context for the publication of this work, this chapter will discuss the shift in Mailer’s level of involvement, enthusiasm, and support for the protests that erupted in Chicago.

Though many see the 1950s–1970s as the height of Mailer’s career, he remained a fixture in the literary world – and on best-seller lists – for decades afterward. During the last decade of his life, Mailer offers some of his sharpest and most poignant cultural commentaries, offering a critical appraisal of the American political system and the country’s political leaders, examining the way recent presidential administrations continue to feed the imperialist myth of an American empire, and weighing in on the subject of patriotism and American exceptionalism after 9/11. At this writing, it has been 13 years since his passing, and in some ways his early writings seem to be gaining in relevance, his nonfictional pieces serving as eerie predictions of contemporary issues, and have been referenced frequently in recent years.