THE LEGAL

SETTING OF
DIPLOMACY
DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY
- It is a fundamental rule of international law that
allows a diplomat to engage in international
diplomacy without fear or interference.
- Protection of a diplomat from civil and criminal
charges and from detention or personal harm.
- It is an early and clear example of states
preferring to find ways to cooperate rather than
accepting greater conflict.
HOW BROAD IS THE
COVERAGE OF IMMUNITY
FOR DIPLOMATS?
 Immunity is broad enough to protect the diplomat from
normal law enforcement and civil suits.
 A diplomatic staff also enjoys the same immunity the
ambassador does, and this immunity extends to the attaches
and the spouses and families of the diplomats.
 If war breaks out, diplomatic immunity continues until
diplomats have departed from the host country.
ex. 1941, Japanese diplomats in Washington, D.C. at the
time of the attack on Pearl Harbor
 Immunity even extends to a deceased diplomat.
 Immunity also covers the home of the ambassador.
 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of
1961 – where widely accepted diplomatic practices
were set down
WHY DO THEY ENJOY THIS
PRIVILEGE UNDER
INTERNATIONAL LAW?
 Governments would be reluctant to send
ambassadors to other states if someone might harm
them or take them hostage.

 Privileges and immunities are not intended to

benefit individuals but to ensure the efficient
performance of functions.
PERSONA NON GRATA
 If a host government wants to get rid of an
individual with diplomatic immunity, it must
declare that person persona non grata (The
principle that a person can be found unacceptable
by a host government and can be expelled) and ask
for his or her recall by the sending government. He
has to return to the sending state and the host state
does not have to give an explanation.
Principal Reasons a Host State Might Declare a
Diplomat Persona Non Grata

 Personal misconduct
 Espionage
 Retaliation by a state that has had one of its
diplomats found unacceptable
Examples:
 In 1994, President Bill Clinton’s administration
expelled the senior Russian intelligence officer,
Aleksander Lysenko of the Russian embassy, the 1st
such expulsion since 1986.
 The Clinton administration was upset over the
espionage of a CIA employee, Aldrich Ames, who
continued spying for Russia after the end of the
Cold War.
DO DIPLOMATS CASUALLY ABUSE
THEIR EXTENSIVE IMMUNITY AND
DO SO WITH IMPUNITY?
 Professional diplomats follow an ethical code that
requires them to obey local laws.

“ The best guarantee of the diplomat’s immunity is

the correctness of his own good conduct.”

“The privilege of diplomatic immunity imposes on

the diplomat the obligation to obey the laws of the
host country.”
EMBASSY
- The location of a diplomatic mission in a host
country; enjoys substantial immunity for
diplomatic purposes.
EMBASSY ROW
- a street where embassies of many countries
cluster together in the capital of the host country
ex. Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C.
EXTRATERRITORIALITY
- This status meant that embassy personnel could follow
their own country’s laws inside the embassy, though those
laws might be incompatible with the laws of the host state.

!However, this historical view is not accurate today, if it

ever was.
 An embassy is inviolable only in the sense that the
diplomats and their diplomatic business are not to suffer
interference and that local authorities will not enter the
embassy without permission.
 An activity sanctioned by the sending state in one
of its embassies will not necessarily hold up as
legitimate in the eyes of the host state.
Ex. The Radwan vs. Radwan case of 1972

 Non-diplomatic acts, civil or criminal, that occur in

an embassy fall under the jurisdiction of the host
state.
EMBASSY SECURITY

 Host states have a legal obligation to

protect embassies and consulates;
however, this protection does not
always hold up in practice.
On rare occasion, mobs storm
embassies and sometimes burn them.
Ex. - The Chinese “Cultural Revolution” of the late 1960s
- A Pakistani mob burned the American embassy in
Islamabad and killed a Marine guard in 1980
- 1979 Seizure of the US embassy in Tehran, Iran
- 1995, a rocket grenade was fired into the US embassy in
Moscow
- Placement of listening devices, or “bugs” by the Soviets in
the new American Embassy in Moscow
ASYLUM
- is the protection from arrest or extradition given to a
local political refugee by an embassy.
- American Foreign Service regulations allow asylum if
the refugee is in mortal danger from a mob.
The Caracas Convention Diplomatic Asylum of 1954
allows Latin America countries to grant asylum and
determine whether an offense is criminal or political.
Because of this convention, asylum cases occur with
some frequency in this region.
CONSULS and CONSULATES
 They do not have quite the same immunities and inviolability
diplomats and embassies do, even though the International
Law Commission of the United Nations has recommended the
same protection.
Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963:
 The consuls have less protection from civil and criminal
prosecution than diplomats.
 Host authorities can enter consulates in matters of public
safety such as fire.
 The protection of consulate records, the freedom of
communication, and the freedom of movement for consuls is
about the same as for diplomats.
PROTOCOL
- is the proper conduct and procedures involved in
diplomacy.

- has grown out of need and is a matter of custom

more than formal international law.
 - In the 17th and 18th centuries, diplomats wasted much time and
occasionally dueled over matters of prestige and status. Each
diplomat wanted a seat at the head of a table, or one closest to a
host, or to be put first in line in a procession. The diplomats’
positions symbolically reflected their countries’ power and
importance.

Congress of Vienna of 1815 – adopted a principle of seniority

based on the dates of accreditation of the ambassadors in a given
capital. From that time on, seniority would control position on
formal occasions.
 Dean of diplomats – is the most senior of the
diplomatic corps and arbitrates for the others in
matters of dispute among ambassadors in the same
capital.
Chief of Protocol – appointed by host governments,
they ensure that proper procedures, including
deference of seniority, always receive respect.
- Proper protocol diffuses conflict over symbols so
issues of substance can receive due attention.
DIPLOMATIC STYLES
DIPLOMATIC STYLE
- is the characteristic way states and other actors
approach and handle their foreign policies.

National cultures can hold different prescriptions

for the behavior of people, including worldly
diplomats.

Raymond Cohen – cultural differences run deep

and obstruct the resolution of conflicts.
MUTUAL MISPERCEPTION
Non-Westerners
 Think the American  Think the non-Western style
style overly emphasizes
frankness, impatience,
insensitivity, a resort
to new initiatives, and
a tendency to view
issues as crises.
Westerners / Americans
focuses too much on a
concern with social form,
history, preference for
principles over specifics,
intransigence to
bargaining, and a
willingness to end meetings
without agreement.
OPERATING CONDITIONS
OF DIPLOMACY
EXPENSE
 The rapid rise in the number of states since the 1960s has
required expanded diplomatic operations for many states
and involves a serious financial burden for most of them.
 Since the demise of the Soviet Union, the United States
probably has the largest diplomatic establishment in the
world, however, in 1993 and 1994, cost-cutting pressures
led it to close 18 consulates and 2 embassies in Africa.
 When governments fail to establish an embassy—or to
close one, as Gambia did its Washington embassy in
1985—the reason is often the financial costs involved.
WAR

 When leaders suspend negotiations to make war,

the role of the diplomat is severely limited. The use
of military force implies that the goals of the
warring states are irreconcilable. Diplomacy can be
effective only when room for negotiation exists and
compromise is possible.
POWER
 While diplomacy is ongoing, military strength may
be useful to support diplomacy. The two
professions should support the same foreign policy,
and in a coordinated way.
 Diplomats from weak countries may not receive
attention, and military power unguided by
diplomatic advice may prove to be a blind, reckless
force.
“Diplomacy without an army is like music without
instruments.”
– Frederick the Great, King
of Prussia
Coercive Diplomacy – a defensive strategy that attempts
to persuade an opponent to halt an aggressive action. In
addition to diplomatic ploys, the threat of force, or the
actual use of limited force, can serve to restore peace.
Gunboat Diplomacy – an offensive tactic rather than a
defensive gambit to head off an aggressive act.
ex. In 1995, China placed flags on unoccupied atolls in
the Spratley Islands, between China and the Phils., and
enforced this territorial claim with destroyers.
TERRORISM
 Terrorists use violent acts to dramatize their
grievances and wear down the will of governments
that resist them. Terrorists have sometimes focused
on diplomats because the latter’s traditional,
peaceful role has made them vulnerable.
 Grey Wolves, a group of Turkish Armenians who want
autonomy from Turkey, has specialized in
assassinating Turkish diplomats and their families
 Most early deaths of diplomats were from sickness
and disease but since the Second World War, most
deaths have resulted from acts of terrorists.
 Bombings and other terrorist-related matters
frequently disrupt embassy activities.
 Diplomacy is more difficult to carry out because of
terrorist activities.
 State-Sponsored Terrorism – some countries have
used their diplomatic pouches to carry bombs and
other weapons from one country to another.
TECHNOLOGY
 Hans Morgenthau - Diplomacy would naturally
decline with the onset of modern communication
technologies such as the telephone, telegraph,
cable, and communication satellite.
 Ex. In the Persian Gulf crisis of 1991, President
George Bush and President Mikhail Gorbachev
conducted an unprecedented 75-minute telephone
conversation, including the time of translation.
Unfortunately for diplomats, telephones bypass their
roles.
EXTENT OF AGREEMENT
 If states share common interests and have few
disagreements, the diplomat’s task will be
relatively easy.
 The United States and Canada have the longest
demilitarized border in the world and they resolve their
minor problems in a spirit of friendship unlike with
China and the Soviet Union which shared a hostile
border at which end had placed about a million troops.
SECRET VS. OPEN DIPLOMACY

 One of the causes of the 1st World War may have been a
series of military obligations that the participants of the
war had made in secret.
 President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points aimed
at structuring a better world included a
recommendation that the diplomatic process, as well as
the agreements of states, receive public scrutiny.
 League Covenant – required that countries publish
and register every treaty with the League of Nations.
PROBLEMS WITH OPEN
DIPLOMACY:

• Diplomats cannot be effective in a “fishbowl”

environment. Public negotiating will lead to posturing
for public effect, with diplomats either making empty
gestures or taking rigid positions.
• Diplomacy calls for concessions and compromise, and
these are difficult to achieve with media and anxious
publics watching.
• Democracy-Diplomacy Dilemma: To be effective,
diplomacy must be secretive, but to meet the
requirements of democracy, it must be open.
DIPLOMATIC SKILL
 Whatever the obstacles a diplomat faces,
considerable skill will enhance successful
diplomacy.
 While excellent individual diplomats have come
from African, Asian, and the Middle Eastern
countries, many others are POLITICAL
APPOINTEES – relatives of the rulers, political
opponents, or troublemakers appointed as
diplomats to get them out of the country.
 Nonprofessional diplomats often seek the pleasures
of their station rather than work.
 Ex. In 1986, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations,
Said Rajaie-Khorassani, tried on a $100 raincoat in a
New York department store. He ripped off the price tag
and headed for the exit. When he got caught, he told the
police he was merely looking for a three-way mirror to
see if the coat would fit.
 Unskilled diplomats lack knowledge as to how
embassies function, they do not know the language and
culture of their host country, and they produce a low
morale among FSOs because they deny these
professionals a deserved ambassadorship which could
lead to problems in international diplomacy.
 President George Bush outdid other presidents in making
some particularly shameful appointments as with Joy
Silverman, Amb. to Barbados who held no college degree
nor did she have an impressive job record, Peter Secchia,
Amb. to Italy and Joseph Gildenhorn, Amb. to Switzerland.
 Not all political appointments are poor choices, however.
 Shirley Temple Black, ambassador to Czechoslovakia
 Raymond Seitz, ambassador to Great Britain
 Most ambassadors (about two-thirds) are FSOs, well
trained, and skilled, but it was only in 1924 that a
professional diplomatic corps resulted from the Rogers
Act – in addition to studying foreign languages, the
diplomatic corps go through the Foreign Service Institute
staffed by a faculty drawn from the most experienced
diplomats. Only after a long and distinguished career do
the most successful FSOs become ambassadors.