Diplomacy should be wholly transparent. There should be no back-room deals or secret arrangements with dictators. All diplomatic communications should be published on the Internet in real time, and national leaders and diplomats should never meet privately.

AGAMEMNON: What’s your affair, I pray you?

AENEAS: Sir, pardon; ’tis for Agamemnon’s ears.

AGAMEMNON: He hears nought privately that comes from Troy. Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act I, Scene III.

This article is an extract from the book ‘Principles of Good Government’ by Matthew Bransgrove