The Foreign Service Journal, December 2015

44 DECEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL successful negotiation is one in which you get less than what you hoped for and more than you thought you’d get.” To men like this, the way to get other nations to do your bidding is not to call them racists. The way to shift the South African government is not to urge its overthrow. There may be people in the U.S. government who can usefully perform these functions, but diplomats have other chores. These chores, often hidden behind the diplomatic niceties known as cookie-pushing, break down into two general categories: • To find out what’s happening in the country where the diplomat is stationed and report back to his gov- ernment. This involves knowing the movers and shakers, detecting trends, spotting events that Washington must hear about. This often is a journalistic job, although the diplomat is more specialized than the average foreign cor- respondent, and his copy is written for the eyes of the State Department back home. • To make sure that the American government’s views get across to governments abroad. This is done by “rep- resentations,” which can mean anything from an ambassa- dor’s formal call on a foreign minister (to present a protest or even an ultimatum) down to a consul’s visit to a Mexican jail warden to request better treatment for young Americans locked up for pot-peddling. Specialists within the embassies may be assigned to maintain links with Swedish trade unions, to renew passports for American tourists in Italy, to help export- ers sell goods in Thailand, to set up trade fairs in Russia, to register the birth of American babies born in Egypt, to ship home the bodies of Americans who die in Nigeria, or to hold the hands of junketing congressmen and their wives. (...) Everyday diplomacy proceeds at a measured pace, as embassies run Uncle Sam’s errands abroad. In a crisis—in the Middle East, say, or in Cyprus—the pace speeds up frantically. Such a crisis might involve embassies in a half dozen capitals or more. Each sets up a special command post, usually with the ambassador at the helm and with diplomats acting as so many reporters, contacting their sources, trying to find out what’s going on and what it means. Back in Washington, all this comes into the Operations Center on the seventh floor of the State Department. This center is manned around the clock and has empty rooms next to it that can be turned into special task force offices during a crisis. Into these rooms come the experts on the crisis area. The policy-makers—the Secretary of State and his aides—have offices just down the hall and are in constant touch. Reports from ambassadors on the scene come in hourly, or more often, by telephone or Telex. Instructions and queries go back to them fromWashington. Sometimes special negotiators are dispatched fromWashington. Sometimes the diplomats on the scene are left to make the representations, get the information and offer the analyses on which American policy is based. All this activity takes place within a framework of rules, manners and customs, developed over centuries, as arcane and as impenetrable to outsiders as the behavior of lawyers or clerics. Much of this pomp and protocol looks silly to laymen, but it does grease the wheels of the world’s business. Harold Nicolson, the British author-diplomat, says the word “ambassador” comes from a Celtic word for “servant.” An ambassador, he implies, is the servant of his sovereign— of his king or president—sent abroad to faithfully represent that sovereign, no matter what his own views might be. The ancients, like modern American presidents, fre- quently used “political” ambassadors: Louis XI once sent his barber on a mission to Burgundy. But over the centuries, the idea of the professional diplomat grew, embodying the kind of special qualities outlined by a 17th-century French diplomat, François de Callières: Apart from owning sound judgment and an observing eye, a good diplomat should be Successful negotiations can usually be best handled by diplomats who understand the needs and problems of the other side.