Studies in Diplomacy and International Relations General Editors: Donna Lee, Senior Lecturer in International Organisations and International Political Economy, University of Birmingham, UK and Paul Sharp, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Alworth Institute for International Studies at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, USA. The series was launched as Studies in Diplomacy in 1994 under the general editorship of G.R. Berridge. Its purpose is to encourage original scholarship on all aspects of the theory and practice of diplomacy. The new editors assumed their duties in 2003 with a mandate to maintain this focus while also publishing research which demonstrates the importance of diplomacy to contemporary international relations more broadly conceived. Titles include: G.R. Berridge (editor) DIPLOMATIC CLASSICS Selected Texts from Commynes to Vattel G. R. Berridge, Maurice Keens-Soper and T. G. Otte DIPLOMATIC THEORY FROM MACHIAVELLI TO KISSINGER Herman J. Cohen INTERVENING IN AFRICA Superpower Peacemaking in a Troubled Continent Andrew F. Cooper (editor) NICHE DIPLOMACY Middle Powers after the Cold War David H. Dunn (editor) DIPLOMACY AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL The Evolution of International Summitry Brian Hocking (editor) FOREIGN MINISTRIES Change and Adaptation Brian Hocking and David Spence (editors) FOREIGN MINISTRIES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION Integrating Diplomats Michael Hughes DIPLOMACY BEFORE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION Britain, Russia and the Old Diplomacy, 1894-1917 Gaynor Johnson THE BERLIN EMBASSY OF LORD D'ABERNON, 1920-1926 Christer Jonsson and Martin Hall ESSENCE OF DIPLOMACY Donna Lee MIDDLE POWERS AND COMMERCIAL DIPLOMACY British Influence at the Kennedy Trade Round
Mario Liverani INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST, 1600-1100 BC ]an Melissen (editor) INNOVATION IN DIPLOMATIC PRACTICE Peter Neville APPEASING HITLER The Diplomacy of Sir Nevile Henderson, 1937-39 M. ]. Peterson RECOGNITION OF GOVERNMENTS Legal Doctrine and State Practice, 1815-1995 Gary D. Rawnsley RADIO DIPLOMACY AND PROPAGANDA The BBC and VOA in International Politics, 1956-64 TAIWAN'S INFORMAL DIPLOMACY AND PROPAGANDA Ronald A. Walker MULTILATERAL CONFERENCES Purposeful International Negotiation A. Nuri Yurdusev (editor) OTTOMAN DIPLOMACY Conventional or Unconventional? Studies in Diplomacy and International Relations Series Standing Order ISBN 978-0-333-71495-9 (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Essence of Diplomacy Christer Jonsson Professor of Political Science Lund University, Sweden and Martin Hall Researcher, Lund University, Sweden
Christer Jonsson and Martin Hall 2005 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-9225-3 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-54341-0 ISBN 978-0-230-51104-0 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230511040 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jonsson, Christer, 1944- Essence of diplomacy I Christer Jonnson and Martin Hall. p. cm.-(studies in diplomacy) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Diplomacy. 2.1nternational relations. I. Hall, Martin, 1967-11. Title. Ill. Studies in diplomacy (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm)) JZ1305.J677 2005 327.2-dc22 2005043353 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 OS Transferred to digital printing 2006
Contents Acknowledgments Preface vii ix Introduction 1 1 The Study of Diplomacy 7 Extant studies 7 Why is diplomacy marginalized in international relations? 12 The turn to history and the return of diplomacy? The English school, constructivism and postmodernism 19 Concluding remarks 22 2 Analytical Framework 24 Diplomacy as an institution 25 Toward a historical sociology of diplomacy 30 Mediating universalism and particularism 33 Building blocks of theory 37 3 Institutionalization and Ritualization 39 Institutionalization 39 Ritualization 42 Shared symbols and references: diplomatic protocol 45 Reciprocity, precedence and diplomatic immunity SO Diplomatic ranks 63 Concluding remarks 65 4 Communication 67 Language 69 Gathering information 73 Transmitting information: diplomatic signaling 75 Negotiation 82 Verbal and nonverbal communication 84 Private and public communication 88 Technological development 90 Concluding remarks 95 v
vi Contents 5 Diplomatic Representation Behavior: acting for others Status: standing for others Concluding remarks 6 The Reproduction of International Society Reproduction of premodern international societies Reproduction of the modern society of states Concluding remarks 7 Diplomacy and Changing Polities Philip, Alexander and the Greek community Religious vs. secular polities in the Early Middle Ages The European Union Concluding remarks Conclusions Notes Index 98 100 113 117 119 121 125 134 136 136 143 150 162 164 168 201
Acknowledgments This book is the result of the collaborative efforts of two co-authors with similar yet differing backgrounds in international relations. Jonsson, the senior co-author, has long experience of research in the fields of international negotiation and cooperation. Hall, in his dissertation and postdoctoral publications, has drawn on historical sociology and International Relations theory. As we hope to demonstrate, these perspectives can be complementary and cross-fertilizing when theorizing diplomacy. We arrived at the idea of a joint research project on diplomacy via different routes. In 1996, Jonsson was invited by Raymond Cohen to participate in a conference at Bellagio, Italy, on diplomacy in the Ancient Near East, as manifested in the so-called Amama Letters. The stimulating discussions at the conference, which brought together experts in ancient history and specialists in contemporary diplomacy and international negotiations, served as an eye-opener, as far as the timeless features of diplomacy are concerned. In connection with his assignment to write a chapter on diplomacy and international negotiation for the Handbook of International Relations (published in 2002), Jonsson delved deeper into the literature on diplomacy and found it wanting in terms of theory building. Hall, having reviewed research within the historical sociology of international relations, found the inadequate treatment of international institutions a missing link in this rich and fertile field. Our joint project was initiated in 2001, thanks to a generous grant from the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. We are extremely grateful to the Foundation and its staff for their unrelenting support of, and trust in, our undertaking. In the course of our project we have incurred many debts. We want to acknowledge the useful feedback we have received from students, at Lund University, at Fudan University, Shanghai, at Rutgers University, Newark, and at a joint Lund-University of California summer school in 2004, who were exposed to, and encouraged to discuss, our ideas. Several colleagues at home and abroad have commented on our drafts at seminars and conferences. While unable to name all, we want to extend our gratitude to Yale Ferguson, Richard Langhorne, Maria Stromvik and Torsten Om for their particularly helpful input and constructive criticism. In the course of the project, Jonsson had the opportunity to spend a couple of months at the Stanford Center for International Security vii
viii Acknowledgments and Cooperation. He is grateful for the friendly reception and support he received from its staff and researchers. Special thanks are due to Scott Sagan and Alexander George for being instrumental in arranging this fruitful visit. The Stanford libraries as well as the British Library have been invaluable sources of material for the project. Chapter 4 in this book is a substantially revised and expanded version of our article "Communication: An Essential Aspect of Diplomacy", published in International Studies Perspective, 4 (2003). We are indebted to the International Studies Association for granting permission to reproduce the text. We also want to thank Paul Sharp and Donna Lee, the co-editors of the Palgrave Studies in Diplomacy series, for their unfailing support and encouragement in bringing our manuscript to publication, as well as the staff at Palgrave Macmillan for their advice and support in the production of the book. Our co-authored volume is the fruit of an intense exchange of ideas over several years. We share responsibility for the book in its entirety, including remaining errors. In our text, we hope to be able to convey to the reader some of the joy we have experienced in working on this project together.
Preface It seems very difficult to theorize about diplomacy. Those of a historical bent will suggest that there is nothing new to say in these terms, while practitioners may doubt the utility of theorizing in general. As a result, and asjonnson and Hall note, the study of diplomacy has been marginalized within International Relations (IR). Given diplomacy's importance to what goes on, in the world, and an understanding of it, this marginalization has been a surprising, bordering on scandalous, state of affairs. Scholars of International Relations, therefore, owe a great debt to Christer Jonsson and Martin Hall. In providing us with Essence of Diplomacy, they have produced a path-breaking work which employs the best of the sociological theory which is at long-last percolating into mainstream academic IR to demonstrate diplomacy's importance. So long as the human condition is governed by pluralist, rather than solidarist, conceptions of who we are and how we live, then relations between separate groups will remain. These relations must involve communication, representation and reproduction. The modalities of these three elements may change over time and by place. In themselves, however, they are the essential elements of diplomacy and point to the way in which diplomacy, itself, is an essential element in international relations. After this book, practitioners and historians will no longer be able to ignore the benefits, at least, of international theorizing, and IR scholars will no longer be able to ignore diplomacy's centrality to nearly everything in which they are interested. Indeed, a rich research agenda of empirical studies is now needed to explore the full implications of Jonsson and Hall's argument. Paul Sharp Professor and Head of Political Science University of Minnesota, USA. ix