Unit 1: Definition and Importance of Diplomacy

What is Diplomacy?

Making a precise and agreed definition of diplomacy in the moderns sense is not possible but here are listed some of the explanations;

• “Master-institution of international relations.” (Wight, 2002, 113)
• “The profession, activity, or skill of managing international relations, typically by a country’s representatives abroad.” Oxford dictionary

Analysing the different definitions of diplomacy helps us deduct the actors, tools and the scope of diplomacy as well as the tasks carried out by it and consequently to the important role it plays in international relations.

1. Scope : The first thing that has to be defined would be the scope of diplomacy since the other elements such as actors and tasks could only be determined according to how broad the scope is defined. When the term is taken in a narrow sense it usually describes political relations between states and includes the practices of the diplomats and ministries of foreign affairs. The scope of diplomacy has expanded through the course of history.
2. Actors : The actors of diplomacy change depending on the scope that is accepted. The main actors of diplomacy, as it is traditionally accepted regardless of its scope, are foreign ministers along with other employees of the ministry and the diplomatic agents in foreign countries, that is the head of mission and members of the diplomatic staff of the mission.On the other hand, when diplomacy is described in the broad sense, the actors it involves widens significantly. The actor diversification in diplomacy is closely related to rapid globalisation. There are many issues that cannot be solved with the attempts of single states anymore. Environmental issues, terrorism, immigration, humanitarian issues and many others need the cooperation of different states and sometimes the international community as a whole. The same technological developments have also increased the role of political leaders as actors of diplomacy.
3. Functions : According to the Article 3 of Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the functions of a diplomatic mission are;

• representing the sending state in the receiving state,
• protecting in the receiving state the interests of the sending state and of its nationals,
• within the limits permitted by international law, negotiating with the government of the receiving state,
• ascertaining by all lawful means conditions and developments in the receiving State, and reporting thereon to the government of the sending state and promoting friendly relations between the sending state and the receiving state, and developing their economic, cultural and scientific relations.
• The most important function of diplomacy, regardless of its scope or its actors, is communication.
• Another major function of diplomacy is representation. The main instrument of representation is embassies and its main actors are ambassadors, consulates, attaches and other diplomatic personnel. Representation can take several facets. Symbolic or ceremonial representation is one those.
• Monitoring the receiving state is one of the oldest functions of diplomacy. The aim of monitoring is to gather information about the receiving state and report this information to the sending state.
• The informative function of diplomacy is not one sided and the diplomats are also responsible for providing information about their state and its policies to the government of the receiving state. They explain or at times may have to defend their state as part of their mission.
• Protection of citizens of the sending state is an other function of diplomacy. This is a very narrow sense of diplomacy but is one of the traditional functions of diplomacy that has not lost its significance.
• Another function of diplomacy is described as “contribution to international order.” This function refers to “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” and contribute “to the creation of universal rules.” (Barston, 2013, 3)

Diplomatic Relations

Diplomacy has a wide scope with many different actors which has led to the emergence of different diplomatic engagements.

Diplomacy Between States : In very broad terms it is possible to separate diplomatic relations between states into two, depending on the number of actors, as bilateral diplomacy defining relations between two states and multilateral diplomacy defining the relations between more than two such actors.

1. Bilateral diplomacy : As is defined in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the establishment of diplomatic relations between States, and of permanent diplomatic missions, takes place by mutual consent. (Article 2) Establishing diplomatic relations is only one of the facets of recognition for states. The next step in interstate relations after recognition and establishment of diplomatic relations would be to send and receive diplomatic representatives and establishing embassies.
2. Multi-lateral diplomacy : It is an outcome of modern diplomacy, which came to exist after the Congress of Westphalia and usually functions through conferences. On the weak side it may bring certain issues to a gridlock by any of the parties if a desired outcome is not reached. This may postpone or even sweep away the possibility of any solution. On the strong side it serves as a ground for cooperation. This cooperation can be directed to problem-solving as well as goal-setting in issues concerning the parties, which at times may include all states as in the case of League of Nations or United Nations.

Communiqué : An agreed statement issued at the end of a summit meeting or other high- level visit or multilateral conference. (Berridge and James, 2003, 45)

Congress of Westphalia (1644–48). The congress at which an end to the Thirty Years’ War was negotiated. The main fruits of the negotiations were the two treaties of peace signed on 24 October 1648 known collectively as either the “Treaty” or the “Peace” of Westphalia. They are generally reckoned to have resolved the structure and codified the constitutional rules of the European states system as it had emerged from the unity of medieval Christendom.

Great Power Diplomacy : A Great Power is generally described as a state that has influence in international relations. This influence mostly derives from state capabilities such as territory, strategic position and geographical extent, population, resources, military strength, political stability and strong economy. To these must also be added the elements of soft power, which is described as “the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments.” There should also be a consensus about which state is a great power.

Congress of Vienna (1815) The congress of the powers, which restored the international order in Europe following the protracted convulsions of the Napoleonic Wars. For diplomacy, the Regulation which it agreed solved at long last the serious problem of precedence, while the restoration of the Swiss Confederation and the guarantee by the Congress of Switzerland’s permanent neutrality fortified a tradition which was subsequently to prove of considerable value to the world diplomatic system. (Berridge and Alan, 2003, 272)

Concert of Europe The term used to describe the main historical model of great power management of a statessystem, that of nineteenth century Europe following the Congress of Vienna. (Berridge and Alan, 2003, 47)

Middle Power Diplomacy : The term middle power refers to the states which have neither the capacity nor the claim to be great power but have more strength and influence than the small states. These states are usually accepted to be established democracies, industrialised and affluent economies, managed by efficient public bureaucracies with a low incidence of corruption and adopt functional rather than dominant behaviours towards their geographical neighbourhoods. (Spies, 2016, 284) Middle power diplomacy is usually a multilateral diplomacy. This is because they lack the sources to be influential in unilateral and bilateral actions. Thus they prefer to establish alliances and coalitions with like-minded states, which would provide them a chance of leadership and influence.

Small State Diplomacy : Being a small state means to have relatively less power in the international system. They usually have small territory and population, low sources and income, weak economy and military, and high vulnerability. As a consensus is deemed necessary for a state to be considered a great power, considering itself a small state is criteria for describing small states, as this a factor that shapes their behaviours. For this reason, diplomacy becomes more important for these states than is for any other state as a tool of overcoming their vulnerability and weakness.

Non-Aligned Movement : The movement consisting for the most part of Third World states which had as its rationale a determination to resist pressure to abandon their non-aligned stance of refusing to join either of the military alliance systems. (Berridge and Alan, 2003, 186)

Diplomacy of Non-State Actors : The proliferation of non-state actors in diplomacy has become necessary due the fact that states are no longer capable of responding to all the issues that has entered the agenda of international diplomacy, as mentioned before. Non-state actors of diplomacy include non-governmental organisations, corporations, as well as the intergovernmental organisations. The diplomatic relations of the non-state actors with state actors is defined by the term polylateralism, which brings a third dimension in diplomacy, in addition to bilateralism and multilateralism. Polylateralism is the conduct of relations between official entities (such as a state, several states acting together, or a state-based international organisation) and at least one unofficial, non-state entity in which there is a reasonable expectation of systematic relationships, involving some form of reporting, communication, negotiation, and representation, but not involving mutual recognition as sovereign, equivalent entities. (Wiseman, 2010: 27).

Types of Diplomacy

Diplomacy can vary according to time, place, situation and relations but there are some important types of it.

1. Secret Diplomacy : It is to everyone’s knowledge that a major part of diplomacy is carried out in secrecy. Secret diplomacy refers to diplomatic engagements that take place without the knowledge of the public. However it does not mean that the diplomatic meetings that occur behind closed doors are secret diplomacy. If the term was defined in this way, almost all diplomatic intercourse would have to be defined as secret diplomacy. Neither does it mean confidentiality. What is meant by secret diplomacy is that the very existence of certain diplomatic meetings are kept secret from domestic and foreign publics.
2. Conference and Summit Diplomacies : Conference diplomacy refers to the multilateral diplomatic negotiations that take place in international conferences. Bilateral or limited multilateral negotiations also take place among the participants of conference diplomacy.
   • Conference diplomacy can be divided into two according to the way they take place; through international organisations or ad hoc.
   • Kaufmann offers two different types of classifications. (Kaufmann, 1996,11-16) The broad one differs between a deliberative conference, a legislative conference and an informal conference.
   • A more detailed classification on the other hand identifies eight objectives for diplomatic conferences;
     1. to serve as a forum for general discussion of broad or specific issues;
     2. to make decisions binding upon governments;
     3. to make decisions giving guidance or instructions to the secretariat of an intergovernmental organisation, or on the way in which a programme financed by governments should be administered;
     4. to negotiate and draft a treaty or other formal international instrument;
     5. to provide for the international exchange of information;
     6. to provide for the pledging of voluntary contributions
     7. to international programmes;
     8. to review progress under an agreement or a treaty concluded earlier.
        
        Another critical aspect of conference diplomacy is about how the decisions are taken. Decisions can be taken with unanimity, consensus, and simple or qualified majority voting.
        
        Another determinant in conference diplomacy is the power of the states. Although each state is equally represented in conference and therefore it would expected that they would diminish the power gaps, great powers usually tend to dominated the conferences.
        
        Since tsar Alexander of Russia’s representing his country at the Congress of Vienna a branch of diplomacy called Summit diplomacy was developed. Summit diplomacy refers to the meetings of heads of states or governments. It can be bilateral, brining the leaders of two states together or multilateral with the participation of several leaders. It also can be ad-hoc or institutionalized and regularly take place.
        
        Coercive Diplomacy : Coercive diplomacy defines the use of limited force or the threat of using force in diplomatic relations, with the aim of achieving desired ends. The success of coercive diplomacy depends on the outcomes that are aimed and the way that it is used. Coercion “should only be employed reactively to stop or undo undesirable actions already undertaken by an opponent” and should be about influencing or avoiding rather than defeating or winning. (Jakobsen,2016, 478) A version of coercive diplomacy is military diplomacy which can be described as the use of force of threat of it to achieve military goals. The use of naval force for the same ends is referred as gunboat diplomacy. A term often confused with military diplomacy is defence diplomacy, which actually is carried out by civil politicians of the ministry. But as the two groups of actors usually act together the line between two types of diplomacy also gets blurred.
        
3. Crisis Diplomacy: Crisis diplomacy defines the international efforts to manage and solve a crises. New types of global crises, such as humanitarian, economic, environmental or health crises necessitate the involvement of many state and non-state actors in order to reach a solution. Armed conflicts or those that carry a risk of turning into an armed conflict is the priority of crisis diplomacy. In such cases the aim is to prevent the conflict or stop it and start a peace process, by finding a solution that would be accepted by all parties of the conflict.
4. Track Two Diplomacy and Multitrack Diplomacy :
   1. Track two diplomacy refers to the unofficial diplomatic activity. Since it differs from official diplomacy its actors are also not state officials. NGOs, local leaders, conflict resolution practitioners, universities, academics, students can all be actors of track two diplomacy which is defined as; the unofficial, informal interaction between members of adversarial groups or nations with the goals of developing strategies, influencing public opinion, and organising human and material resources in ways that might help resolve the conflict by Montville. The aim of track two negotiations is to bring together people from different sides of a conflict in an attempt to bridge their difference. Brining people from different countries together is not only a conflict resolution activity but also may aim building bonds among countries. Track two diplomacy is used also to improve regional security in general without addressing a specific conflict. An important function of track two diplomacy is to change the perceptions of, and about the other. Along with the opportunities it offers track two diplomacy has also some advantages over official track one diplomacy;
      • since the participants are not government officials they are not limited with state policies.
      • They aren’t manipulated by them.
      • There is more room for discussions and negotiation and eventually mutual understanding.
      • Since these meetings are not public most of the time, they are also free of the pressures, criticism and oppositions.
      • Their resolutions - if they reach any-are not binding. There are some reasons why it fails;
      • The main reason for the failure is that the final words are said by the governments.
      • The failure of track two may also be due to the incompatibility of the people that carry out the process
        
        To overcome this shortcomings another type of classification is suggested under the name of multitrack diplomacy
        
   2. Multi-track diplomacy claims that placing all aspects of unofficial diplomacy under track-two makes it difficult to seize whole scope and context of the field. For this reason, multi-track diplomacy offers a multilayer differentiation with nine tracks instead of two. It also foresees a cooperation with official diplomacy. Therefore,
      1. The first track in multitrack diplomacy is the government and its official representatives as the actors of traditional diplomacy.
      2. Track two would be the professional, experienced nonofficial attempts of conflict resolution through nongovernmental actors.
      3. Track three is defined as business and consequently is carried out by businessmen.
      4. Track four of multi-track diplomacy is carried out by private citizens.
      5. Track five includes research, training, and education.
      6. Track six of multi-track diplomacy is activism.
      7. Track seven is religion.
      8. Track eight is about the funding of all these multitrack diplomacy activities.
      9. The last track, track nine is the communication and media.
5. Economic Diplomacy : An initial definition of economic diplomacy is the implementation of foreign policy by using economic means to achieve political goals or that it is a strategy to promote foreign policy objectives. More specifically, it can be the use of diplomatic means to promote and achieve economic objectives. Economic diplomacy takes various forms, such as the formation of an export policy, the attraction of foreign investment, multilateral or bilateral level of internal market protection measures and the development of aid programs. It negotiates a broad area of fields such as production, trade in goods and services, financing, global natural environment, information, data, regulatory frameworks. State institutions, international economic organisations like IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organisation are still the major actors of economic diplomacy but private companies, especially multinational ones, and individuals are also powerful actors, influencing state behaviour. In most cases these actors are also the direct beneficiaries of the international economic diplomacy negotiations. The influence of these actors in both domestic and international economics have increased considerably. This has led to definition of another type of diplomacy called business diplomacy as part of the domination of markets and international firms.
6. Public Diplomacy Public diplomacy defines the diplomatic communication between traditional actors of diplomacy and the public. By public it is meant foreign publics and the international community as a whole but in certain cases domestic public also becomes the audience of public diplomacy. With soft power, Joseph Nye contributed the concept and made an emphasis on cultural aspect which led the emergence of cultural diplomacy which can be defined in two ways.
   • The cultural activities of states in other countries as means of promoting its culture and gaining influence.
   • Cultural diplomacy sees culture as the essence of a people and therefore as a key element for building mutual understanding between different publics.
     
     One of the most significant change in the practice of public diplomacy was the variation of actors with the influence of media. Participation of these actors have lead to the emergence of new types of diplomacy such as celebrity diplomacy and sports diplomacy. Celebrity diplomacy is the inclusion of celebrities as advocates to publicise certain causes like peace, human rights, environment and raise awareness about these issues. Sports diplomacy on the other hand, is about using major sports events, institutions or individual sportsman to support country image, as well as a means of drawing attention to local or global issues.
     
7. Digital Diplomacy : Digital diplomacy is one of the newest modes of diplomacy. It is about the technological developments that have transforming effects on diplomacy. Digital diplomacy has developed in several stages defined by vision, rapid technological innovations and organisational adoptions by foreign ministries. (Gilboa, 2016, 541) Digital diplomacy is closely related to public diplomacy. Policy- makers employ digital diplomacy, especially social media, for several functions:
   1. to investigate what the public thinks about foreign policy choices;
   2. to educate the public about foreign policy and international relations;
   3. to explain challenges and alternative means to address them; and
   4. to cultivate public support for policies they have selected. (Gilboa, 2016, 546)
      
      This way while citizens become actors in diplomacy they also become the audience of it through digital diplomacy.
      
      The Group of Seven (G7) and The Group of Twenty (G20) : The Group of Seven (G7), formerly G8 is a club of industrialised democratic states (France, Germany, Japan, the USA, the UK, Italy and Canada) that meets annually to discuss important economic, financial, and political issues.
      
      Twiplomacy : The use of Twitter and other social media sites by government agencies and officials to engage with the public, disperse information and even leverage global influence.