A diplomat is an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country. Discuss (3,000 words, academically written) Diplomats have generally been considered members of an restricted and prominent occupation. The public image of diplomats has been described as “a caricature of pinstriped men gliding their way around a never-ending global cocktail party. (Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel) J. W. Burton has noted that “despite the absence of any specific specialized training, diplomacy has a high professional status, due perhaps to a degree of secrecy and mystery that its practitioners self-consciously promote.
The state supports the high status, privileges and self-esteem of its diplomats in order to support its own international status and position. The high regard for diplomats is also due to most countries’ conspicuous choice of diplomats, with regard to their professionalism and ability to behave according to a certain etiquette, in order to effectively promote their interests.
Also, international law grants diplomats extensive privileges and immunities, which further distinguished the diplomat from the status of an ordinary citizen. (www. telegraph. co. uk/news) In the context of U. S. military history, foreign policy can be defined as “the goals the nation’s officials seek to attain abroad, the values that give rise to those objectives, and the means or instruments used to pursue them. ” (Oxford Companion to US Military History: Foreign Policy)
International relations refers to the collective interactions of the international community, which includes individual nations and states, inter-governmental organizations such as the United Nations, non-governmental organizations like Doctors Without Borders, multinational corporations, and so forth. The term is also used to refer to a branch of political science which focuses on the study of these interactions.
As an academic discipline, international relations encompasses a wide range of academic fields, ranging from history to environmental studies, and there are a number of areas of specific specialty, for academics who are interested in them. The concept of international relations on some level is probably quite old, given that humans have been establishing governments and communicating with each other for thousands of years.
However, many people agree that international relations truly began to emerge around the 15th century, when people started exploring the world and interacting with other governments and cultures. Organizations like the Dutch East India Company were among the first multinational corporations, for example, while representatives of various European governments met with foreign governments to establish trade agreements and to discuss issues of mutual concern. As one might imagine, international relations can get incredibly complex.
It is also sometimes known as “foreign relations,” and specialists in this field do things like staffing diplomatic agencies abroad, providing consultation to businesses which are considering establishing branches overseas, and assisting charitable non-governmental organizations with their missions. Many specialists pick a particular region of the world to focus on, as the language and etiquette of international relations is incredibly varied, depending on whom one deals with.
In the academic world, the study of international relations encompasses the history of this immensely varied field, along with studies of modern foreign relations. Students often examine specific relationships to learn more about them, and they may look at emerging global issues as an ongoing part of their education. Many people in the field of international relations also spend time abroad, studying foreign relations from a different angle and performing specific regional research. Diplomat is an official engaged in international negotiations or a person who deals tactfully with others.
ChaCha! Diplomatic recognition in international law is a unilateral political act with domestic and international legal consequences, whereby a state acknowledges an act or status of another state or government. ChaCha! Diplomacy is an activity whose roots lie deep in the remote history of humankind, the use of representative by holders of political power to establish contacts of varied nature between two political nature dates back to primitive times, in fact to the time when political organizations appeared. A History of Diplomacy Jeremy Black)
According to the German historian Otto Ranke, towards the middle of the 18th century, the expression diplomatic corps began to be used in Vienna to designate the group of personel serving in the foreign missions. Around 1787, annual Register, published in London used the adjective diplomatic as the personnel serving in mission abroad. Edmund Burke, writing in 1796, used the expression diplomacy to designate the group of chiefs of missions accredited to Paris.
The word diplomacy, therefore, has not been part of political vocabulary for very long, but there is no doubt it first appeared to designate the activates of diplomats, that is of those officials whose business was foreign relations. Thus the etymological meaning of the word coincides with the material meaning that we have already given, one of whose element is the use of intermediaries in contact between different political powers. (A History of Diplomacy Jeremy Black) However, to complete the definition of diplomacy we have been contracting it is necessary to add one last element.
A state that wants to carry out a friendly policy vis-a – vis another state sends to it a representative with the mandate of promoting good relations between them. But if this envoy is not recognized by the receiving state as a legitimate representative of the sending state he will not be able to carry out his mission for want of the initial officials contact indispensable to start a dialogue between these states. (Google ) Diplomatic services around the world not only represent and serve national interests.
They also serve a larger international purpose, that of knitting the multi-state system together through a web of relationships and common parlance, practice and values that facilitate relations and negotiations among contending nation states. Diplomats constitute something of an international guild characterized by a common tradecraft. As such, they help order a messy international arena. The Internet, NGOs, and Wall Street now also provide opinionated new players in this arena, but they do not yet speak for the nation states.
The challenge for diplomats of the future will be to incorporate in their “state-centered roles” skills and modalities that recognize and maximize the positive values “new non-state players” bring to the diplomatic arena. Recognition of the representativeness of the intermediaries is therefore an essential element of the diplomatic institution and not simply a formality. Similarly the inviolability of the duly accredited intermediaries is not a privilege, as it is sometimes rongly asserted, but an essential characteristics deriving from the very nature of the diplomatic institutions, because without this reciprocal inviolability, the institution could not exist.
The concept of diplomacy can be describe as an instrument of foreign policy, for the establishment and development of peaceful contact between the government and different state, through the use of intermediaries with mutually recognized by respective parties. (German Foreign Policy – Series D – Volume VI – March-August 1939. pdf”) A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization.
The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and friendly relations. Diplomats are the oldest form of any of the foreign policy institutions of the state, predating by centuries foreign ministers and ministerial offices. (Wikipedia ) The ranks of diplomats— ambassador, envoys, ministers, and charge d’affaires — are determined by international law, namely the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. Diplomats have generally been considered members of an exclusive and prestigious profession.
The public image of diplomats has been described as “a caricature of pinstriped men gliding their way around a never-ending global cocktail party. W. Burton has noted that “despite the absence of any specific professional training, diplomacy has a high professional status, due perhaps to a degree of secrecy and mystery that its practitioners self-consciously promote. The state supports the high status, privileges and self-esteem of its diplomats in order to support its own international status and position. Diplomats do a very important job for their countries.
Almost every country in existence has at least a few diplomats who are sent out to various other countries for the purposes of negotiating and mediating relations between the two governments. The high regard for diplomats is also due to most countries’ conspicuous selection of diplomats, with regard to their professionalism and ability to behave according to a certain etiquette, in order to effectively promote their interests. Also, international law grants diplomats extensive privileges and immunities, which further distinguished the diplomat from the status of an ordinary citizen.
While posted overseas, there is a danger that diplomats may become disconnected from their own country and culture. Sir Harold Nicolson acknowledged that diplomats can become “denationalized, internationalized and therefore dehydrated, an elegant empty husk” Diplomats can be contrasted with consuls, attaches, who represent their state in a number of administrative ways, but who don’t have the diplomat’s political functions. Diplomats in posts collect and report information that could affect national interests, often with advice about how the home country government should respond.
Then, once any policy response has been decided in the home country’s capital, posts bear major responsibility for implementing it. Diplomats have the job of conveying, in the most persuasive way possible, the views of the home government to the governments to which they are accredited and, in doing so, to try to convince those governments to act in ways that suit home country interests. In this way, diplomats are part of the beginning and the end of each loop in the continuous process through which foreign policy is made.
The home country will usually send instructions to a diplomatic post on what foreign policy goals to pursue, but decisions on tactics – who needs to be influenced, what will best persuade them, who are potential allies and adversaries, and how it can be done – are for the diplomats overseas to make. In this operation, the intelligence, integrity, cultural understanding and energy of individual diplomats are critical. If they are any good at their jobs, they will have developed relationships grounded in trust and mutual understanding with influential members of the country in which they are accredited.
They will have worked hard to understand the motives, thought patterns and culture of the other side. The foreign government that an ambassador is assigned to must first approve the person. In some cases, the foreign government might reverse its approval by declaring the diplomat a persona non grata: an unacceptable person. This kind of declaration usually results in recalling the ambassador to her home nation. In accordance with the Congress of Vienna of 1815 and the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the ambassador and embassy staffs are granted diplomatic immunity and personal safety while living abroad.
Usually a diplomat’s main goal is to simply maintain good relations with the country in question. By speaking with the leaders and establishing a friendly relationship, a diplomat not only establishes himself as a trustworthy person, but also builds trust in his own country. This could even be for the ultimate goal of establishing a treaty or becoming allies. Usually much of the communications will cover issues such as foreign aid, and what exactly watch country expects of the other. If done correctly, diplomacy is a great way for countries to get every single issue out on the table and establish a great relationship.
The function of a diplomat, when he’s exercising the responsibilities of a diplomat, is to represent the view of his government, his nation, because, in this modern world, it isn’t sufficient to say that the diplomat is the representative of the sovereign to another sovereign. In the modern world you have a much wider responsibility. In many ways you represent the interests of your nation as well as the policies of the government that you may be serving at the moment. A review I made from wiki article come out that.
Diplomats in posts collect and report information that could affect national interests, often with advice about how the home country government should respond. Then, once any policy response has been decided in the home country’s capital, posts bear major responsibility for implementing it. Diplomats have the job of conveying, in the most persuasive way possible, the views of the home government to the governments to which they are accredited and, in doing so, to try to convince those governments to act in ways that suit home country interests.
In this way, diplomats are part of the beginning and the end of each loop in the continuous process through which foreign policy is made. Advocacy The home country will usually send instructions to a diplomatic post on what foreign policy goals to pursue, but decisions on tactics – who needs to be influenced, what will best persuade them, who are potential allies and adversaries, and how it can be done – are for the diplomats overseas to make. In this operation, the intelligence, integrity, cultural understanding and energy of individual diplomats are critical.
If they are any good at their jobs, they will have developed relationships grounded in trust and mutual understanding with influential members of the country in which they are accredited. They will have worked hard to understand the motives, thought patterns and culture of the other side. Negotiation The diplomat should be an excellent negotiator but, above all, a catalyst for peace and understanding between peoples. The diplomat’s principal role is to foster peaceful relations between states. This role takes on heightened importance once war breaks out.
Negotiation must necessarily continue but within significantly altered contexts. A career diplomat, obviously, has one thing to look forward to, and that is that he can serve through a succession of administrations, that is, he is not partisan. The proper term for a career diplomat, who is a career bureaucrat of course (there’s nothing nasty about the word “bureaucrat,” despite some people’s attitude toward it), the key element is non-partisanship. It’s not a question of being bipartisan; non-partisanship serves the national interest through the mechanism of the State Department.
The aged statement that a diplomat is a man who’s sent abroad to lie for his country is drivel. As a matter of fact, in my opinion, the most basic duty of a diplomacy is honesty. So that dismisses that mature saying. The diplomat performance his duties through intense communication and regular contact with other delegates. The exchange of information allows diplomats to parade their interests in the hope of finding endorsement by others. Cliques abound and caucuses emerge as the political landscape changes in response to international political events.
Information and knowledge are the most important tools of a diplomat. The most influential diplomats are recognized for their particular talents in communications, analysis and judgement. Information gathering constitutes an important part of a diplomat’s daily routine. All diplomats analyze the atmosphere. where they frequently encounter new trends and developments in the multilateral sphere. They provide their foreign ministries with information that facilitates the formulation of foreign policy, and in turn utilize this same information to pursue new opportunities in their efforts to achieve national objectives.
Accurately analyzing, interpreting, and predicting trends requires expertise in the substance of the issues as well as a certain amount of intuition. However, even the most intuitive diplomats must have some ability to judge the political implications of their analysis. Effective diplomats spend considerable time preparing for the arduous work they face at the representing country. The milieu of a diplomat involves a complex mixture of issues and personalities and involves constant adjustment to the fast pace of his countries diplomatic scene.
Diplomats need to know who are the important players on an issue, and how to find opportunities to influence or become involved with those “calling the shots“. When a diplomat’s government decides to take the initiative or assume leadership on an issue, he or she us expected to know where contentions lie and with whom to discuss the matter. Of course, the most important people to negotiate with are individuals who can deliver votes or exert influence on a given resolution or issue. Networking is thus an essential part of a diplomat’s professional life.
If a diplomat lacks the skills to build networks and relationships, he or she will find it difficult, perhaps even impossible, to effectively realize his or her government’s instructions and foreign policy objectives. Obviously, no one can be everywhere and do everything at once, so knowing where and when to sacrifice attention is essential. An experienced diplomat compensates by structuring relationships within the missions, the delegations, or the caucus groups so that other can fill any gaps.
Yet it is difficult and time-consuming to develop these relationships unless one has a good insight into human nature and considerable international experience to know what works and what does not. Many countries have a small diplomats staff in their missions. This adds to the already heavy workload of the men and women representing these countries. In the case of the smaller missions, the diplomats are forced to carefully select the issues and meetings they will deal with.
It is common not to have enough personnel to make individual assignments to an issue or committee, but instead to have each staff member cover several issues at the same time. the purpose of a diplomat, when he’s exercising the household tasks of a diplomat, is to represent the view of his government, his nation, because, in this up to date world, it isn’t sufficient to say that the diplomat is the representative of the supreme ruler to another sovereign. In the modern world you have a much wider responsibility.
In many ways you represent the interests of your nation as well as the policies of the government that you may be serving at the moment. Whether in terms of trade relations or political relations or the pursuit of peace, which is of course the overriding objective of extraordinary policy. A career diplomat, obviously, has one thing to look forward to, and that is that he can serve through a succession of administrations, that is, he is not partisan.
