Modern Diplomacy

R. P. Barston

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351270076
• Edition: 5
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Politica

Contemporary, thoughtful and extensively illustrated, Modern Diplomacy examines a broad range of current diplomatic practice. This leading and widely used book - now in its fifth edition - equips students with a detailed analysis of important international issues that reflect and impact upon diplomacy and its relations. The subject is brought to life through case studies and examples which highlight the working of contemporary diplomacy within the international political arena.

Organised around five broad topic areas, including the nature of diplomacy, diplomatic methods, negotiation, the operation of diplomacy in specific areas and international conflict, the book covers all major topic areas of contemporary diplomacy.

New features for this edition:

• 
  
  

• Developments in diplomatic practice

• 
  
  

• Strategies in diplomacy

• 
  
  

• International trade, geopolitics and agreements

• 
  
  

• Diplomacy of new regional organisations and groupings

• 
  
  

• Developing country diplomacy

• 
  
  

• Non-traditional diplomacy

• 
  
  

• New concepts – parallel and counter diplomacy

• 
  
  

• New case studies include: the Paris Climate Agreement, Brexit, international finance and trade agreements, and the UN security forces.

Modern Diplomacy is essential reading for students and practitioners of international relations, foreign policy, international law, international political economy, international economics, the Foreign Services Institutes and the National Diplomatic Academies.

Chapter 1

The changing nature of diplomacy

Diplomacy is concerned with the management of relations between states and between states and other actors. From a state perspective, diplomacy is concerned with advising, shaping and implementing foreign policy. As such it is the means by which states through their formal and other representatives, as well as other actors, articulate, coordinate and secure particular or wider interests, using correspondence, private talks, exchanges of view, lobbying, visits, threats and other related activities.

Diplomacy is often thought of as being concerned with peaceful activity, although it may occur within war or armed conflict or be used in the orchestration of particular acts of violence, such as seeking overflight clearance for an air strike. The blurring of the line, in fact, between diplomatic activity and violence is one of the developments distinguishing modern diplomacy. More generally, there is also a widening content of diplomacy. At one level, the changes in the substantive form of diplomacy are reflected in terms such as ‘oil diplomacy’, ‘resource diplomacy’, ‘logistics diplomacy’, ‘global governance’ and ‘humanitarian diplomacy’. Certainly, what constitutes diplomacy today goes far beyond the sometimes rather narrow politico-strategic conception given to the term. Nor is it appropriate to view diplomacy in a restrictive or formal sense as being the preserve of foreign ministries and diplomatic service personnel. Rather, diplomacy is undertaken by a wide range of actors, including ‘political’ diplomats,¹ advisers, envoys and officials from a wide range of ‘domestic’ ministries or agencies with their foreign counterparts, reflecting its technical content; between officials from different international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations (UN) Secretariat, or involving foreign corporations and a host government transnationally; and with or through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and ‘private’ individuals.

In this chapter we are concerned with discussing some of the main changes that have taken place in diplomacy since the 1960s – the starting point for the overall study. Before looking at the changes, some discussion of the tasks of diplomacy is necessary.

Tasks of diplomacy

The functions of diplomacy can be broken down into six broad areas: ceremonial, management, information and communication, international negotiation, duty of protection and normative/legal. Particular functions within those categories are set out in Table 1.1. The significance of each will vary from state to state. For some, diplomacy may be largely devoted to ceremonial representation; others may allocate resources to high-level roving envoys or in support of an established role in international rulemaking. The functions of diplomacy are also particularly closely related to evolving events and issues such as international crises, human and natural disasters or outbreaks of violence, which shift the diplomatic spotlight on to previously remote geographic areas or issues.

Table 1.1 Tasks of diplomacy

Ceremonial
• protocol • representation • visits
Management
• day-to-day problems • promotion of interests (political, financial, trade, scientific, military, tourism) • threat management • explanation and defence of policy • strengthening bilateral relations • bilateral coordination • NGO liaison • multilateral cooperation
Information and communication
• assessment and reporting • monitoring • Web operation and development • image projection • cybersecurity • counter information (presentation and defence)
International negotiation
Duty of protection
• citizens • consular access • investigation • consular cooperation • diaspora
Contribution to international order
• normative • rulemaking • mediation/pacific settlement

Traditionally, diplomacy has been associated with the first of the functions in Table 1.1. Formal representation, protocol and participation in the diplomatic circuit of a national capital or international institution continue as important elements in state sovereignty and as part of the notion of international society. At a substantive level, much of the business of diplomacy is concerned with the management of short-term routine issues in bilateral and multilateral relations (coordination, consultation, lobbying, adjustment, the agenda of official or private visits). These include the promotion and management of interests, which for most states are dominated by financial, economic, resource issues and tourism, along with threat management.

The term ‘threat management’ is used here to differentiate this form of diplomacy from defence, security policy or traditional military-security activities, and refers to coping with adverse developments affecting key interests. The term ‘threat management’ is also preferred since it reflects more fully the fusion of ‘domestic’ and international policy. Threats here are understood to include developments such as large-scale cross-border refugee movement, the economic effects of pandemics, major crop failure, capital flight, bilateral dispute over loss of core export market, hostile transnational communications and media attacks, threats to national treaty-making capacity by sub-regional authorities, or adverse images of a state’s stability caused by criminal activity or political upheaval.

Other management activities include the explanation and defence of a particular decision or policy. These particular functions rely heavily on diplomatic negotiating skill, linguistic and technical expertise.

A third function of diplomacy is acquisition of information and assessment, including acting as a listening post or early warning system. Next to substantive representation, an embassy, if it is functioning conventionally – and not all are – should identify any key issues and domestic or external patterns, together with their implications, in order to advise or warn the sending government. As Trevelyan notes on embassies:

Apart from negotiating, the ambassador’s basic task is to report on the political, social and economic conditions in the country in which he (she) is living, on the policy of its government and on his conversations with political leaders, officials and anyone else who has illuminated the local scene for him.²

Contribution to international order

In the final category are the diplomatic functions relating to conflict, disputes and international order. In the multilateralist view, an important function of diplomacy is the creation, drafting and amendment of a wide variety of international rules of a normative and regulatory kind that provide structure in the international system. The principal normative objective of diplomacy from a multilateralist perspective is contribution to the creation of universal rules. Multilateralism is thus distinct from other approaches, such as regionalism, and in direct contrast to narrow state power preoccupation, for example ‘soft’ power, ‘smart power’ and ‘win-win power’.

Timely warning of adverse developments is one of the major tasks of a foreign ministry and an embassy, in cooperation with intelligence services, requires considerable coordination with other ministries, expertise, judgement and political courage.

Monitoring functions, which are generally omitted from discussion of diplomatic purposes, should be distinguished from assessments. The latter provide an analysis of short-run or longer-term developments relating to a state, region, organisation, individual or issue. Assessment is at the core of foreign ministry and embassy functions to provide advice, shape decisions and act as an early warning system.

Monitoring exists in a number of forms, including covert intelligence gathering. However, in terms of diplomatic functions it is defined here as the acquisition of data from public sources in a receiving state (such as press, television, radio, journals and other media outlets) about the reporting or presentation of the sending state. The concern is with the image being presented of that state, and the accuracy of press reports on its policy or actions in the media. Monitored reports are used to form the basis for a variety of diplomatic responses, including press rebuttals, television interviews and informal exchanges through to formal protest. Other types of monitoring involve detailed tracking of foreign government statements; statements by ministries and agencies; press, media and other communications sources for information on attitudes, foreign policy activity, and indications of shift or changes in policy.

In underlining the importance of accurate information and assessment, Jamaica Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Johnson Smith, commenting on media about concerns over the possible impact of US tariffs in the US-China steel dispute on Jamaica (an exporter of bauxite and alumina, but not steel), emphasised ‘Good foreign policy must be driven by facts not speculation’.³

The function of international negotiations is at the core of many of the substantive functions set out so far. It is, however, no longer the preserve of the professional diplomat.

The duty of protection is a traditional function which has assumed increased significance in contemporary diplomacy. The growing mobility of citizens, international sporting events and international conflicts have all added a variety of types of protection problems with which embassies and consulates now must deal.

In the final category are the diplomatic functions relating to conflict, disputes and international order. As part of the development of international order, an important function of diplomacy is the creation, drafting and amendment of a wide variety of international rules of a normative and regulatory kind that provide structure in the international system.

In the event of potential or actual bilateral or wider conflict or dispute, diplomacy is concerned with reducing tension, clarification, seeking acceptable formulae and, through personal contact, ‘oiling the wheels’ of bilateral and multilateral relations. An extension of this is contributing to order and orderly change. As Watson suggests, ‘the central task of diplomacy is not just the management of order, but the management of change and the maintenance by continued persuasion of order in the midst of change’.⁴

Counter-diplomacy

The converse of this can also be put, in that diplomacy may be a vehicle for the continuation of a dispute or conflict. In other words, differing state and non-state interests and weak or contested norms concerning local, regional or international order produce quite substantial differences between parties, in which diplomacy through direct initiatives, informal secret contacts or third parties simply cannot provide acceptable or workable bridging solutions. Diplomacy is stalled and meetings routinised without expectation of progress. In addition, for some, the purpose of ‘counter-diplomacy’ is the use of diplomacy to evade or frustrate political solutions or international rules. Counter-diplomacy seeks the continuation or extension of a conflict and facilitation of parallel violence.

In other contexts, the potentia...