Diplomacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Diplomacy - Essay Example First of all let us try to define what is diplomacy. This term is very often mixed with the term 'foreign policies'. The difference between the two terms was well summarized by Watson (1982, p.10), who points out that "while foreign policy is the substance of a state's relations with other states and agencies and the goals it strives to achieve by those relations", diplomacy is "the process of dialogue and negotiation by which states in a system conduct their relations and pursue their purposes by means short of war." As observed by Berridge (1995, p.1), "diplomacy as a professional activity is regulated by custom and by law. These two conditions are central to the emergence and maintenance of the transnationally distributed diplomatic logic of appropriateness: general respect for the common set of legal rules and routines delineating diplomacy as a practice anchored in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Conduct (1961) and the recruitment and socialization processes at foreign minis tries socializing diplomats into the dual role of promoting national interests in ways conforming to the transnationally accepted diplomatic norms and procedures". According to Der Derian (1987, p. 111), "what uniquely characterizes the paradigm of diplomacy is its utility for states in balancing the forces of hegemony and anarchy. In other words, diplomacy emerges as the collective and reflexive embodiment of the states' ultimate task - self-preservation in an alien environment". But it is generally known that there is no future without history. Diplomacy has a long history of adaptation and change (Hocking 1999, 2001: Melissen, 1999). That is why there is no doubt that it is time to do some hard thinking in regard to the analysis of the historical experience of diplomatic relations. The evolution of the foreign service is traced in detail in: M.S. Anderson, The Rise of Modern Diplomacy 1450-1919 (London, 1993).Diplomatic law is an area of international law that is a summation of norms, which govern the status and functions of state organs of foreign affairs. For a long period of time diplomatic law has been based on custom. The first attempt to conduct partial official codification of diplomatic law has been made in Latin America. On the 20th of February 1928 it has been established "Havana Convention of 1927, which under the heading "Duties of Diplomatic Officers" stated that these officers must not interfere in the internal affairs of the receiving state and must confine their relations to the foreign ministry of the host state" (Robersts, 2006). Nowadays diplomatic law is mainly codified.The most significant document in the area of diplomatic relations is undoubtedly Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.The establishment of diplomatic relations involves the interchange of diplomatic missions. Such an interchange becomes possible only in appropriate legal and political