Séance 3-Mutlilateral diplomacy

Dr. Martin Dahinden

Geneva

Most important place, has the highest number of IOs, ONGs and IA(gencie)s.

What is diplomacy?

Process and practice of communication and negotiation between actors in the international system, with the aim of achieving agreements.

Skills of a diplomat

• Observe and report:
  • Since ancient times. Some famous diplomatic reports are important sources of history. These are not mere reports but they are designed taking into account the objective of the bilateral negotiations (and also in multilateral ones). The goal is to build a network, gain access to the right people…
• Communication:
  • Explain the position of the government beyond what can be accessed publicly. E.g. explaining to the USA why the CH did a certain thing. This is a key part of the process. This also goes for explaining on TV, the words and their effects have to be understood.
• Negotiation:
  • Observe, analyse and understand to get the words in the correct way to achieve a certain effect.
    • Finding an agreement against a background of our interest that is gotten from the HQ, with a certain legal marge of self-agency.

Multilateral Diplomacy

Process and practice of involving three or more countries in resolving international issues. It involves negotiations, dialogue, and cooperation among multiple nations to achieve common goals. It is often conducted within international organisations like the United Nations.

This isn’t like the traditional envoys between one country and another but a bunch of countries negotiating together to reach a common agreement. This is much more complicated. This is the main focus today and there is an enormous number of multilateral Organisations, fora etc. They differ regarding thematic focus, composition, rules of procedures, legal status…

Examples

WHO, WTO, ITU, ITO, etc… In Geneva negotiations go on everywhere. Each organisation with their own negotiation culture. E.g. in NATO you disagree directly and to the point but in the UNO everything is planned and you have to plan where to insert your statement and how to do it correctly (there are timings, ROPs, etc…).

History

Origin: European conference diplomacy.

• Multilateralism has come out of European history.

Westphalian system

• The decision that states are sovereign and should come together to negotiate. This can’t be found in other histories such as Chinese one.
• This idea of equal status to negotiate was part of the enlightenment period, even though it took time to cristallise.

Congress of Vienna

• First time in history that some voices met regularly to fix things with such equality and legal formalisation (concert of Europe that this congress gave birth to).
• Gave birth to The Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine, established in 1815, was one of the first permanent multilateral institutions. Although interrupted at times by conflict, it evolved through the 19th century and survives to this day.

League of Nations

• The LoN, predecessor of the UNO, an idea of Woodrow Wilson. He wanted talks to be in neutral territory, criticised the talks of Versailles. It had flaws and failed to prevent WW2 but it was an important instance of multilateralism.

United Nations

• SF 1945, the political umbrella organisation after the LoN was dissolved. Many of the organisations then came to Geneva.

International Organisations

• ASEAN, G20, G7, etc… In the last 20 years more and more multilateral structures have formed.

The treaty making process has six broad stages

Pre-negotiation

Happens before the negotiation starts. It is also a moment to build confidence, know each other as diplomats or carry out a study with specialised bodies to know all the details. It also allows to manage the media and be able to track what you are going to tell them, as it is possible to put pressure on counterparts trough media statements. Often, counterparts discuss how to handle the media.

If things go wrong in this phase, the whole negotiation might not be able to catch up with this and just be done for. Negotiations don’t happen in the void, rules and confidence-building are important. Framework is almost everything, proving that the international system isn’t completely anarchical, it is still a society.

Agenda

First it is necessary to set the agenda, even in bilateral ones. The topic has to be set and prepared. The order and content is negotiated in this phase, in some negotiations (such as disarmament ones) the chairman may have the power to close and reopen points despite of order.

Typical agenda for multilateral negotiations

Opening Session

• Introduction by the chairperson:
  • There has to be one in multilateral negotiations, which has to be decided. It can be one of the countries f.ex or somebody from the outside, the UN, high authority, etc… this affects the process considerably.
  • Delegations can talk to the chairman before they open the floor so as to ask them not to touch some topics immediately, granted they are reliable and neutral.
  • Adoption of the agenda:
    • Changes can be made but this is avoided as it could be chaotic.
• Opening Statements by delegations
  • Set the tone: start vague and then get precise afterwards? It is the moment to put HQ instructions on the table. This statement will be very visible even to parties not present to diplomats, so we have to analyse the effects of our words.

Format

Do we want to limit the negotiation to technicalities and experts? To political figures? Put it under the umbrella of an IO? Sometimes doing it outside gives more freedom. Which committees (or subcommittees) do we want to have?

Discussion of agenda items

• Each agenda item is discussed sequentially. Delegations present their positions, proposals, and concerns.

Delegation

What level of representatives will be participating? Ministers level (experts)? Regular diplomats? We can start with experts and continue with diplomats.

Timing

It is possible to put a deadline or just wait until a desired result is reached. A deadline puts pressure and forces a compromise. With no deadline negotiations can be endless.

Negotiation

People come together and negotiate something. At many IOs they form committees annually to focus on certain tasks. It is important not to use dirty tricks to keep reputation up, specially with countries that rely entirely on soft power.

Consensus building

• Efforts to find common ground and reach consensus on contentious issues, sometimes facilitated by mediators or facilitators. It is possible to know the tricky issues beforehand or learn them during negotiation but the thing is this is where countries solve issues.

Drafting and Finalisation

• Final text based on negotiated terms and agreements reached during negotiations. Sometimes the secretariat of the chairman prepares a draft for it.
  • When some words are not agreed upon they are put between brackets. The language matters, specially legally. The lawyers of each delegation spot problems when it comes to wrong choice of words.
• It helps clarify what has been agreed upon; when something is written down it is often clearer.

Signature

Signing to discuss.

Closing Session

• Adoption and signing of the final text (initials of the diplomat are left in the text).
  • Doesn’t necessarily entail commitment to ratify it.
• Closing statements by delegations (expressions of gratitude, recall of specific agenda items and concerns…).

Ratification

Committing to respecting.

Coming into force

Ratification comes into force.

Implementation

Effects are implemented.

Typical structure of a treaty

1. Title.
2. Identification of the parties.
3. Preamble.
   • Sets the tone and objectives of the agreement (context).
4. Main text.
5. Final clauses.
   • When does the treaty enter into force f.ex.
6. Signatures.
7. Appendices.
   • Easier to change so things that are unstable are put there. E.g. in the chemical weapons convention they put a list with the chemicals that are forbidden in the appendix.

Multilateral diplomacy

There is no standard format.

ROPs

• Some organisations are very strict, others are purely ad hoc. Others are in-between of course.

Organisational cultures.

• Each setting has a culture, a way of doing things. In NATO f.ex. delegates come together fast and often unstructured to find a way of acting. On the other hand the conference of the Islamic States has a different culture entirely.

Level of activity

• Depends on how much a country wants to influence the outcome, big players are more selective on where they act (human rights f.ex.) and others just react when they are threatened.
• It also depends on capacity, if you have few diplomats in Geneva you can’t be everywhere.

Alliances

• EU member countries f.ex. sit together before the meeting and get to a common position to get a speaker that will represent them.
• There are also ad hoc alliances e.g. CH, Austria and Australia for the mine ban.

Relationships

• Some countries just naturally support each other.

Context (developments outside the multilateral negotiation)

• Media, public, contacts among senior members of the government, etc… impact the outcome of the negotiation.
• If a country can’t pass the treaty trough its senate you wont make concessions to them as it is useless f.ex.

Typical roles in diplomatic conferences

• Chairperson.
• Secretariat.
  • Supporting role, helps move things ahead and advise delegations.
• Delegations.
• Observers:
  • Negotiation setting where countries negotiate among themselves but OIs or ONGs observe, even write papers to circulate.
• Head of Delegation.
• Deputy Head.
• Advisers:
  • Familiar with political issues and legal ones as well.
• Technical experts:
  • In-depth knowledge, sometimes from the private industry if there is no one in the government accesible.
• Note taker:
  • Takes notes on how something came to be. These might not be found in the published document.

UNIGE ACofIN