Effective Diplomacy Matters. Agree or Disagree?                                      by YASR AVCU

Diplomacy includes arbitration, mediation and conferences, also international organizations may be a tool of diplomacy because of their feature of providing balance of power. So, we can say that diplomacy is important to provide order, to provide balance of power and it stabilizes relations between especially nation states. If there is no war or military action between two states, then diplomacy is effective in there, so for avoiding war or military action, effective diplomacy matters. In this case, interests or economic relations between states are significant, especially according to realists, these interests and economic relations facilitates implementation of diplomacy which is used everywhere around the world. As I mentioned above, diplomacy is art and science. Therefore, for effective diplomacy, diplomats should be talented and intelligent, they should have knowledge about foreign policy of own country and other countries to shape foreign policy of their own country. Diplomats should observe the economy, culture and politics of other countries, very well. I will try to prove my argument that effective diplomacy matters by giving some examples and mentioning functions of diplomacy.

The first and most important function of diplomacy is negotiations. “Negotiations between two representatives are a key component in diplomacy, because in doing so the representatives find a common interest.” As I mentioned above, interests are important for diplomacy and states which use diplomacy to find solutions. Common interest or finding a middle way in negotiations is so significant in terms of avoiding war or military action between states, It is much more safe, secure and simple rather than war, of course. For example, after the War of Independence of Turkey, there was Lousanne Conference to conclude the war. During this term, states did not have enough economic and military power to fight, so they used negotiation which is a function of diplomacy to find a middle way. As a result of negotiations, they found common interests and concluded the war. In this case, effective diplomacy matters.

The second function of diplomacy is “the gathering of information and subsequent identification and evaluation of the receiving state’s foreign policy goals”. As I mentioned above, diplomats should observe the country regarding economy, politics, culture, etc. After the observation, they gather information about country, are aware of environment in country, make some analysis, make some synthesis and make an inference about country. After these steps, they send inferences to own country and foreign policy or strategy of country is determined according to these inferences,. Gathering information is important because of these reasons. For example, during the 18th and 19th century, powerful states like Britain, France, Russia gathered some information about minorities of Ottoman Empire and they sometimes encouraged the minorities to get their independence and to weaken Ottoman Empire. They became successful, because minorities in Ottoman Empire got their independence and this conflicts in Ottoman Empire weakened it. As a result effective diplomacy matters.

The third function of diplomacy is expansion of political, economic, and cultural ties between two countries. It is also some kind of finding a middle way, again. With this function of diplomacy, states avoid the war or military action, because especially economic ties are so important. They shape their foreign policy according to economic interests rather than military capacity. For example, in Syria case, Turkey can not intervene to the Syria because of economic relations with Russia and China. Turkey must determined its foreign policy according to economic relations with Russia and China, because Turkish energy resources depend on Russia and Turkey buys cheap consumer products from China. As a result Turkey could not intervene to Syria because of its economic ties, effective diplomacy matters.

The fourth function of diplomacy is that “diplomacy is the facilitating or enforcing vehicle for the observation of international law”. International law is crucial to provide balance of power, to provide order as I mentioned above. In international system, diplomacy is a tool to enforce international law. It is some kind of checks and balances system for states. So, with diplomacy, states observe the attitudes of other states, check their attitudes in terms of legal or illegal and balance their policies with own policies. Thus we can say that also international law shapes diplomatic maneuvers of states. For example, states shape their foreign policy according to advantages of international law, sanctions of international law with diplomacy. As a result, effective diplomacy matters.

Although I mentioned that diplomacy is important for avoiding war and military action, military capacity of the state is important for even diplomacy. Because a huge or technological military capacity of a state is threat of other states. When state uses diplomacy, at the same time it should show its military power as a bluff to appear strong physically. As you mentioned in class, diplomacy without military power is something like music without instrument. Therefore military capacity also important for effective diplomacy.

Consequently I think, I proved that effective diplomacy matters with examples which are in above. In my opinion, states should use diplomacy rather than military power and effective diplomacy is important to find permanent solutions. And finally, effective diplomacy matters in all cases which are in universe.

                                                             DOĞUŞ SÖNMEZ

Marmara Üniversitesi, Siyaset Bilimi ve Uluslararası İlişkiler