Diplomats in international cooperation: stepchildren of the foreign service

A NEW development in diplomacy, the demand for diplomats in international cooperation, is the subject of this study. The origins of this development in World War II and its later burgeoning with the creation of strong new international organizations in Western Europe will provide the background of the study. The way national governments conduct their relations with these organizations will provide the framework for discussion. Many of the descriptions of diplomatic activity are based on my own experiences and observations, first, as United States Lend-Lease representative in Turkey during most of 1943 and 1944; second, as a lawyer in the Department of State from 1945 to 1952; and third as a research scholar in Europe in 1958 1959, while on sabbatic leave from the Cornell Law School and the fortunate holder of a Guggenheim fellowship and a Fulbright research grant. A natural consequence of these personal experiences is that this study will concentrate on "international cooperation" with a European accent, al though the United Nations is obviously the world's most important instrument of international cooperation. Further more, my research was essentially completed during my sabbatic year, so that this study reflects practices and conditions as they existed up to the end of 1959 and, except in a very few instances, does not take account of changes occurring between that date and publication.
The word "diplomacy" will be used in this study to denote the work of diplomats, who are not to be confused with the makers of a country's foreign policy.¹ Diplomats are instruments of foreign policy. They help in its formulation by collecting the information on which the policy makers rely in reaching their decisions. They help in its implementation by negotiating with diplomats from other countries, seeking agreement along the lines laid down by the politicians. Sometimes, of course, their recommendations on policy are sought, and these are very often fol lowed, by the policy makers; but in this function they are not conducting diplomacy-they are then merely another link in the chain that forms a nation's foreign policy.