Catalytic Diplomacy (1999–)

Every Man Should
Try (1962–1999)

Welcome

From the navigation menu, please select a chapter of either book to read.

This website summarizes a lifetime of activism for peace starting in 1962 and still continuing today, 48 years later. It contains, first, at book length, Catalytic Diplomacy, discussing work done by the author in the eight years from 1999 to 2006 and some discussion of follow-on work involving Catalytic Diplomacy Travel Grants.

Posted second is the author’s published life memoir, Every Man Should Try: Adventures of a Public Interest Activist (PublicAffairs, 1999) covering the earlier 38-year period, 1962–99.

From a Leading Expert on Russia and Arms Control:
“You have indeed been a big influence on the process and many of the people in it, and those who think about the issues.”
—Strobe Talbott, former Deputy Secretary of State and famous chronicler of arms control in such relevant works as: The Russia Hand: A Memoir of Presidential Diplomacy, The Master of the Game: Paul Nitze and the Nuclear Peace, Deadly Gambits: The Reagan Administration and the Stalemate in Nuclear Arms Control, and End Game: The Inside Story of Salt II

From a Leading Expert On Asia:
“Jeremy Stone’s in-depth interactions with the scientific and policy communities in Asia were always helpful to me when I was on the National Security Council staff of the Bush Administration.  He unearthed interesting trends and tested original ideas.”
—Michael Green, Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (2004–2005) and NSC Director for Asian Affairs (2001–2003); Georgetown University.

From a Leading Expert on North Korea:
“North Korea is a hard nut to crack and hammering it won't work. Jeremy Stone tried probes of various sorts which might have provided an opening, had the Bush administration more amenable to diplomacy with Pyongyang. His various efforts [in Catalytic Diplomacy] demonstrated that Stone has the right chemistry to serve as a catalyst: he's unconventional, open‑minded, creative, and indefatigable.”
—Leon Sigal, Director of Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council; author of Disarming Strangers: Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea

From a Leading Expert on Iran:
“I endorse strongly your three chapters on Iran. I am in awe of your unyielding courage under the most exasperating circumstances, of your extraordinary energy and determination to get things done, and of your tenacity in  pursuit of bridging the divide between the American and Iranian cultures. ...You have chronicled meticulously your sustained efforts in scientific and political exchanges. I am impressed by your ability to record in such great and vivid detail the events and personalities. ...In fact, I feel that the Obama team working on Iran should seek your advice as to how to deal with Iran if it has not yet done so.”
—R.K. (Ruhi) Ramazani, Professor Emeritus at University of Virginia; author of: The United States of Iran: The Patterns of Influence, Revolutionary Iran: Challenge and Response in the Middle East, The Foreign Policy of Iran: A Developing Nation in World Affairs 1500-1941 and other works.

From the Introduction by Academician E.P. Velikhov to the Russian Edition of Every Man Should Try:
“Jeremy’s effectiveness has really been impressive.  He led only a very small organization [i.e., Federation of American Scientists], whose professional staff grew from one to only a  half-dozen over thirty years.  Yet he is able to show, in these Chapters about his own efforts that he could compete—in influencing the political life of his own country and of the whole world—with the most powerful governmental entities and with non-governmental organizations whose budgets were many times higher than his own.”
—Academician E.P. Velikhov

 “This is an entertaining, engaging and instructive account of a richly productive career.  As a fellow worker in the vineyard, I knew of Jeremy Stone’s imaginative contributions to sound policies of nuclear arms control and of his success in easing Soviet pressures on the foremost Russian advocate of such policies, Andrei Sakharov.  I was, however, surprised and intrigued to read of his many other ventures to advance the cause of world peace and human rights from Peru to Cambodia and spots in between.”
—Ambassador Paul C. Warnke, former Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency

“Far more than a record of private adventures in public service, this book shows how one person’s initiative and instinct for timely intervention–governed by candid self-assessment–can help shape great events.  Jeremy Stone is a political Archimedes who finds the leverage to move issues of historic import.”
—Alton Frye, Presidential Senior fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

“Jeremy Stone’s pithy recountings of his activities as an ‘entrepreneurial activist’ give flesh, blood and occasional tears to the abstraction of nongovernmental organizations.  Ingenious and indefatigable, Stone brashly presses high levels of government, and often persuades with the sheer strength, and deft timing, of his arguments.  This is a wonderfully, wittily engaging book, instructive as well as inspiring.  Both activists and passivists should read it.”
—Wade Greene, adviser on philanthropy and journalist

“Jeremy Stone seems to have gotten involved, Zelig-like, in almost every major issue of arms control, national security, or global conflict over the last several decades. He crossed paths with everyone from Albert Einstein to Henry Kissinger to Mikhail Gorbachev to Carl Sagan. His 'adventures' include some remarkable successes — like singlehandedly stopping the CIA's practice of opening U.S. mail sent abroad — as well as some clear failures. His accounts of these episodes, which are leavened by humor and self-criticism, left this reader breathless and inspired. This is an amazing book about an extraordinary life spent trying to 'change the world.'.”
—Amazon.com reviewer