Holm on Carne Ross' "It's time to scrap ambassadors and their embassies"

Sir,

Carne Ross’s attack on old-style diplomats characterizes them as obsolete and ill-suited to tackle tomorrow’s challenges. He says ambassadors and embassies are out of touch with reality and only in contact with others of their own ilk. Where does he get his information from? Movies like Walt Disney’s “The Princess Diaries” or adverts for Ferrero Rocher chocolates? As a former British diplomat, Ross should know better than to portray diplomats as old-fashioned stereotypes, swilling champagne while dressed in tuxedos or moustachioed ambassadors attending lavish dinner parties.

In fact, modern diplomacy is undergoing dramatic changes to adapt to new working conditions. Diplomats have always tried to maximise the influence of their home countries through contacts with international players who wield real power. Historically, this meant working in the principalities of Europe and the royal courts. For most of the last 150 years, their activities centred on parliamentary and ministerial power houses. Globalization and the communications revolution have changed all that. The Internet and emails etc. give non-state players influence over the classic political and diplomatic decision-makers. Today, the international media, non-governmental organisations, multinational businesses, individuals, political consumers, religious leaders and many others play their part in the process. Many diplomatic services are moving fast to adapt their organisations, skills and resources to this new reality.

Classic diplomacy still has its role. States continue to exercise power and experienced, emphatic diplomatic negotiators (and ambassadors and embassies) will be needed to conclude important intergovernmental agreements in future. But they will work in parallel with new activities called Public Diplomacy. (Maybe it is ill-named, as Ross says, but it’s still a necessary function whatever we choose to call it.) So from now on: 

• Diplomats will be working with more non-state players to gain influence 
• Public Diplomacy will be an integral part of decision-making in diplomatic systems 
• Diplomats will be recruited from a wider spectrum of people to include experts in communications, information technology, rhetoric, international culture etc. 
• Diplomatic efforts will be tailor-made to the job in hand. For instance, the people and skills required to reach an ambitious climate agreement in Copenhagen in December are very different to those needed to handle the consequences of Geert Wilders’ controversial film on Muslims 
• Diplomacy will become more decentralized, with embassies and diplomats acting more independently from head quarters; these days, there is often no time for old-style coordination and hierarchical decision-making 
• Diplomats will be more open to the public and the press. We have already seen a tendency for ambassadors to participate in electronic media. Some even act like reporters in the field.

So Carne Ross need not worry that modern diplomats are out of touch. His stereotyped description of diplomacy may be entertaining but it is also unrealistic. Public Diplomacy departments are being established in more and more foreign ministries; it is sometimes surprising which governments accept non-state players as legitimate counterparts. Tomorrow’s diplomacy will be different and much more difficult.