"The experiences of Capt Michael Symes, the first official British emissary to the Burmese court, offer lessons for diplomats dealing with the country?s current rulers... MILITARY-ruled Burma is surely one of the world?s least rewarding assignments for a United Nations diplomat. Visiting envoys are routinely refused contact with the country?s dictator, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, in his remote capital of Naypyidaw, the ?Royal Abode.? Months or years may pass with no signs of progress before an envoy finally abandons his mission in frustration—and the regime claims another victory in its war of wills against the outside world. Much has been made of Than Shwe?s monarchical pretensions, and in his approach to diplomacy it is not difficult to see the influence of rulers of an earlier age, when Burmese kings believed they could keep the world at bay by treating foreign emissaries with studied disdain. Indeed, any diplomat who wishes to understand the mindset of Burma?s current rulers should probably go back at least as far as Bodawpaya, the king who perfected a brand of diplomacy still practiced in Burma today..."