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Mediating estrangement: a theory for diplomacy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 October 2009
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How does one live according to reason if the other, the alien, the foreigner whether remote or nearby may burst into one's world at any moment?
Raymond Aron, Peace and War
Diplomacy has been particularly resistant to theory. What knowledge we do have of the practice and principles of diplomacy is largely drawn from the works of former diplomatists like Abraham de Wicquefort's L'Ambassadeur et ses Fonctions (1681), Frangois de Callières' De la Manière de Négocier Avec les Souverains (1716), Ernest Satow's Guide to Diplomatic Practice (1917) and Harold Nicolson's Diplomacy (1939).1 Conveying a view of diplomacy as a specialized skill of negotiation, these works seek to ‘maxim-ize’ that skill for the benefit of novices entering the profession. Understandably, their histories of diplomacy tend to be sketchy and rather anecdotal, and their theories of diplomacy, when they do exist, usually consist of underdeveloped and implicit propositions. Moreover, since the authors were serving governments at the apogee of imperial power, they were not interested in looking too widely and too deeply into a past which might undermine the foundations of skilful negotiation—order, continuity, and ‘common sense’.
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References
1. de Wicquefort, A., L'Ambassadeur et ses Fonctions (Amsterdam, 1730);Google Scholarde Callières, F., On the Manner of Negotiating with Princes, A. Whyte (trans.), (Notre Dame, Ind., 1963)Google Scholar; Satow, E., Guide to Diplomatic Practice (London, 1979)Google Scholar; Nicolson, H., Diplomacy (London, 1963).Google Scholar
2. However, an admirable sequel to Nicolson's work has recently appeared, Watson's, AdamDiplomacy: The Dialogue between States (London, 1982).Google Scholar Watson's work is also valuable because it investigates early non-western views of diplomacy (such as Kautilya's Arthashastra), an area which will be peripheral to our enquiry into the form of diplomacy which spread to become the dominant global system, Western diplomacy.
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4. This is not to imply that the behaviouralist approach is inherently less conservative. Interesting (but certainly not sufficient) evidence of this is provided by its nominal origins. Seeking to avoid any objections from corporate trustees, the Ford Foundation changed a ‘social’ (too close to ‘socialism’) science research proposal to a ‘behavioural’ (thought to be mor e neutral in connotation) science proposal. See Deutsch, K., ‘Problem Solving: The Behavioral Approach’, in Hoffman, A. (ed.), International Communication and the New Diplomacy (Bloomington, 1968), p. 75.Google Scholar
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10. This enquiry shuns narrow definitions of terms. If I were to pretend that a single definition could capture the essence of diplomacy, then there would be n o purpose for an enquiry. In fact, it would negate an enquiry, for its very rationale is to question the existence of a defining essence. Moreover, the high level of ambiguity inherent in international relations can render the attempt for exactitude in definition a specious activity. Specificity of terms should, of course, be expected from any historical investigation which would apply alienation theories.
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13. One example of a test-case states: ‘L’idée que suggère tout natureilement le mot “aliener” est celle de transmission d'un sujet a un autre: il semble toutefois que ce mot peut aussi j'en signifier “perdre volontairement se défaire de, renoncer, etc”’ Dictionnaire de la Terminologie du Droit International (Paris, 1959).Google Scholar
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46. Ibid., p. 201.
47. Ibid., p. 211.
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57. Ibid., p. 315.
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