Suppose you have landed a diplomatic job after completion of your MA International Relations (IR) but your syllabus didn’t include any class on diplomacy and besides you don’t have much time to set aside for reading on widening concept of diplomacy. Then the book ‘Diplomacy: Theory and Practice’ is the right choice for you to read. It explains the nuts and bolts of diplomacy in a clear way. The book has been written by G.R. Berridge. The author is currently a professor of International Politics at the University of Leicester in UK. In addition to this book he previously wrote several books on diplomacy such as British Diplomacy in Turkey, A Dictionary of Diplomacy, and Diplomacy at the UN and so on.
Diplomacy is “a major ingredient of power”
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MFA is the most important organ in a state for coordinating "multidimensional international relationships" (19) of a state. It is assumed that the origin of MFA traces back to France when in 1589, Henry III appointed Louis de Revol as foreign minister.
Following the introductory part the book continues with the topic of 'negotiation'; "Negotiation consists of discussion between officially designated representatives" (25) of states to achieve an agreement over an issue, it is a lengthy and time consuming process that undergoes three important stages. Pre-negotiation is the first phase in which the parties agree on the need for negotiating. However, only if states have very strong mutual interest will agree to negotiate and afterword the agenda, timing and venue of the negotiation will be decided. The interesting point is the matter of venue. Because it has to do with the prestige and matter of saving face for the states to negation; if the negation is between the two countries which don't have friendly relationship then venue should be in the third country which is neutral and at the same time equally distanced from the capitals of the negotiating states. For
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The resident embassies which are headed by ambassadors carry out a wide range of activities starts from presenting their home countries, preserving their citizens’ rights, promoting relations of their countries, negotiating and political reporting to "commercial diplomacy" or trade service. The diplomatic missions, their staff and the ground on which the diplomatic missions are located enjoy inviolability under the Vienna 1961 convention. The fact that in spite of the "communication and transportation revolution" (123) the resident embassies still survived, is a testimony to the significance of these resident embassies (diplomatic missions). Due to high level of interaction among countries, the consulate came to existence which performs similar but smaller functions than the embassies in larger cities where a country doesn't have its permanent diplomatic
Barker, Nancy and Brown, Marvin L. JR., ed. Diplomacy in an Age of Nationalism: Essays in Honor of Lynn Marshall Case. Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1971.
International organizations such as NATO and the UN are essential not only for global peace, but also as a place where middle powers can exert their influence. It is understandable that since the inception of such organizations that many crises have been averted, resolved, or dealt with in some way thro...
Mingst, K. A. (2011). Essentials of international relations. (5th ed., p. 79). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
Mingst, Karen A. Essentials of International Relations. New York : W.W. Norton & Co., 2008.
Shiraev, Eric B., and Vladislav M. Zubok. International Relations. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
On the international scene, diplomacy is employed between nations as a means of negotiating on issues regarding trade, environment, culture, peacemaking among others for the mutual benefit the parties/nations involved. Personal diplomacy is premised on the idea of engaging face-to-face or having one on one discussions with partners in a non-threatening environment with an aim to persuade someone and seek common ground on issues.
To understand the international relations of contemporary society and how and why historically states has acted in such a way in regarding international relations, the scholars developed numerous theories. Among these numerous theories, the two theories that are considered as mainstream are liberalism and realism because the most actors in stage of international relations are favouring either theories as a framework and these theories explains why the most actors are taking such actions regarding foreign politics. The realism was theorized in earlier writings by numerous historical figures, however it didn't become main approach to understand international relations until it replaced idealist approach following the Great Debate and the outbreak of Second World War. Not all realists agrees on the issues and ways to interpret international relations and realism is divided into several types. As realism became the dominant theory, idealistic approach to understand international relations quickly sparked out with failure of the League of Nation, however idealism helped draw another theory to understand international relations. The liberalism is the historical alternative to the realism and like realism, liberalism has numerous branches of thoughts such as neo-liberalism and institutional liberalism. This essay will compare and contrast the two major international relations theories known as realism and liberalism and its branches of thoughts and argue in favour for one of the two theories.
Lewicki, R., Saunders, D.M., Barry B., (2010) Negotiation: Readings, Exercises, and Cases. 6th Ed. McGraw-Hill Irwin. New York, NY
Roskin, M., & Berry, N. (2010). IR: The new world of international relations: 2010 edition (8th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Longman/Pearson Education.
When discussing whether or not a nation-state should enter a war and when to do so, three beliefs on foreign policy and war exist. The three different diplomatic stances are that of pacifism, just war theory, and political realism. Political realism, or realpolitik as it is often referred to, is the belief war should only occur when it is in the national interest of the particular nation-state. Henry Kissinger, a political realist, in his book Diplomacy argues that realism is the only logical answer. Just war theorists, along with pacifists, on the other hand oppose these arguments and therefore critique of this form of diplomatic action. To construct a valid understanding of the realist perspective the arguments Kissinger puts forth in his book Diplomacy will be examined, and then a critique of those arguments will be offered through a just war theorist perspective.
Russett, B., Oneal, John. (2001). "Triangulating Peace: Democracy, Interdependence, and International Organizations." New York: Norton.
The study of international relations takes a wide range of theoretical approaches. Some emerge from within the discipline itself others have been imported, in whole or in part, from disciplines such as economics or sociology. Indeed, few social scientific theories have not been applied to the study of relations amongst nations. Many theories of international relations are internally and externally contested, and few scholars believe only in one or another. In spite of this diversity, several major schools of thought are discernable, differentiated principally by the variables they emphasize on military power, material interests, or ideological beliefs. International Relations thinking have evolved in stages that are marked by specific debates between groups of scholars. The first major debate is between utopian liberalism and realism, the second debate is on method, between traditional approaches and behavioralism. The third debate is between neorealism/neoliberalism and neo-Marxism, and an emerging fourth debate is between established traditions and post-positivist alternatives (Jackson, 2007).
Diplomacy has a variety of definitions which depending on the user perspectives on the term “diplomacy”. In the context of international relations, diplomacy is the negotiator’s ability in conducting negotiations between the representatives of nation states in a peaceful manner. The essential of negotiation is to resolve a conflict without offending others. According to Iragorri (2003), an effective negotiation is being able to achieve mutual agreement by peaceful means. The process of a negotiation in diplomacy goes through five important stages that is preparation, discussion, proposing, bargaining and settling process (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).
Weber, Smith, Allan, Collins, Morgan and Entshami.2002. Foreign Policy in a transformed world. United Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited.
International negotiations may comprise a number of different channels during a peace process. Negotiations between states may take place in public front channels or they may be veiled to maintain secrecy of the bargaining process. This essay will look at the later and examine whether the beneficial effects of secret diplomacy can also yield negative consequences. This essay will be divided into three sections. The first section will define secret diplomacy, referred to as back channel diplomacy (BCD), and outline some of its characteristics. The discussion will outline why parties use BCD and convey the benefits and disadvantages. The second section will outline the function of BCD in two negotiation case studies. The first will look at Israel and Palestinian negotiations leading up to the Oslo Accords in 1993. The second case study will examine British negotiations with the IRA and Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland leading up to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The third and final section will evaluate the use of BCD in both cases and convey some lessons for policymakers. This essay argues that whilst BCD can be helpful in facilitating a peace process, it can be damaging if it is not managed with front channel diplomacy (FCD).