Types of Diplomacy - 1

Last week, I read about various types of Diplomacy over the net and found it so interesting that I thought of compiling a short piece on them. There are more categories but I have chosen 18 [ evident from the image below ] - 8 will be discussed in this post and the remaining 10 in the next. For the sake of simplicity, I have arranged them alphabetically.

1. Citizen diplomacy is the political concept of average citizens engaging as representatives of a country or cause either inadvertently or by design. Citizen diplomacy may take place when official channels are not reliable or desirable; for instance, if two countries do not formally recognize each other's governments, citizen diplomacy may be an ideal tool of statecraft. Citizen diplomacy does not have to be direct negotiations between two parties, but can take the form of: scientific exchanges, cultural exchanges, and international athletic events.

One of the pioneers of citizen diplomacy, physicist Robert W. Fuller, traveled frequently to the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s in the effort to alleviate the Cold War.

The phrase "citizen diplomacy" was first coined by David Hoffman in an article about Dr. Fuller's work which appeared in Co-Evolution Quarterly in 1981.

2. Cowboy diplomacy is a term used by critics to describe the resolution of international conflicts through brash risk-taking, intimidation, military deployment, or a combination of such tactics. It is criticized as stemming from an overly-simple, dichotomous world view. Overtly provocative phraseology typically centralizes the message, such as George W. Bush's "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists."

One of the earliest known applications of the term was in 1902, when it was used by Jackie Lawlor from Westford, Massachustts and the American press to describe U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policies. Roosevelt had at the time summarized his approach to international diplomacy as "Speak softly and carry a big stick".

The idea of negotiating peacefully, simultaneously threatening with the "big stick", or the military, ties in heavily with the idea of Realpolitik, which implies an amoral pursuit of political power that resembles Machiavellian ideals.

This is also called Big Stick diplomacy.

3. Cultural diplomacy specifies a form of diplomacy that carries a set of prescriptions which are material to its effectual practice; these prescriptions include the unequivocal recognition and understanding of foreign cultural dynamics and observance of the tenets that govern basic dialogue.

It is the exchange of ideas, information, art, lifestyles, values systems, traditions, beliefs and other aspects of cultures.

4. Dollar diplomacy is the term used to describe the effort of the United States — particularly under President William Howard Taft — to further its aims in Latin America and East Asia through use of its economic power by guaranteeing loans made to foreign countries. The term was originally coined by President Theodore Roosevelt. It was also used in Liberia, where American loans were given in 1913. It was then known as a dollar diplomacy because of the money that went into being able to have soldiers paid without any fighting; as most people would say was quite small wage.

The term is also used historically by Latin Americans to show their disapproval of the role that the U.S. government and U.S. corporations have played in using economic, diplomatic and military power to open up foreign markets.

5. Economic diplomacy is concerned with economic policy issues, e.g. work of delegations at standard setting organizations such as World Trade Organization (WTO). Economic diplomats also monitor and report on economic policies in foreign countries and give the home government advice on how to best influence them. Economic diplomacy employs economic resources, either as rewards or sanctions, in pursuit of a particular foreign policy objective. This is sometimes called "economic statecraft".

Economic diplomacy is traditionally defined as the decision-making, policy-making and advocating of the sending state-business interests. Economic diplomacy requires application of technical expertise that analyze the effects of a country's (Receiving State) economic situation on its political climate and on the sending State's economic interests.

6. The term Facebook diplomacy was coined sometime in October 2008 in casual notes exchanged on Twitter, in connection to U.S. President Barack Obama's electoral political campaign's keen use of Facebook and other social network websites. The term Facebook diplomacy was further introduced and elaborated to describe the potential 'soft power' that can be created with Internet social networking tools like Facebook to counter terrorism, and interfere with repressive governments and militant groups in a discussion at a social networking and technology conference in December 2008 in New York.

In general, Facebook diplomacy is a user created hybrid of public diplomacy and citizen diplomacy as applied in the Facebook social networking platform, other lesser known terms that have also evolved here in this diplomacy category include Twitter diplomacy, Google diplomacy and digital diplomacy.

7. Freelance Diplomacy is a form of self-financing diplomatic representation used by countries who as a general rule, could not afford to hire expert diplomatic consultants full time.

A 'Freelance Diplomat' is hired for a specific task or may sometimes be contracted on a permanent basis to run a Delegation, Mission or Embassy. They may also used to promote investment into the country they work for. It is understood to be a performance based relationship, where the diplomat is paid on results only.

Prominent Freelance Diplomats include:

Carne Ross former British diplomat.
Colin Evans recognized to be the world's leading trade diplomat.
Jimmy Carter former President of the United States.

SMS Panther



8. In international politics, Gunboat diplomacy refers to the pursuit of foreign policy objectives with the aid of conspicuous displays of military power — implying or constituting a direct threat of warfare, should terms not be agreeable to the superior force. The term comes from the period of colonial imperialism, where the European powers would intimidate other states into granting trade or other concessions (unequal treaties) through a demonstration of their superior military power.

Notable example is The Agadir Crisis, also called the Second Moroccan Crisis, or the Panthersprung, was the international tension sparked by the deployment of the German gunboat Panther, to the Moroccan port of Agadir on July 1, 1911.

Source: Wikipedia

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Indira Mukherjee found Cowboy and Gunboat diplomacy particulary interesting. Watch out for the next post which talks about Shuttle, Ping Pong and Panda Diplomacy.