(Instruments of Power: 1 of 4)
Welcome to the 21st of 72 monthly posts.
Today’s post is the first of a four-post series on the Instruments of Power and is focused on the topic of Diplomacy.
As covered in the series’ introductory post, my intentions with this post are to cover the following:
What is Diplomacy?
How does America execute it?
Why should any of us care?
(Re)Introduction
If you somehow arrived here without reading any prior posts, I decided to write this four-post series on the Instruments of Power for a few reasons.
For one, I needed topics to write about for my monthly writing exercise project, 72 Airman’s Writings – this blog.
Second, I attended Squadron Officer School Class 22A. Among the many topics we discussed over the course of those five weeks was the National Instruments of Power.
Third, I figured that this would be a valuable opportunity to slightly increase my knowledge as a military officer. Read slightly differently, diving into this particular topic helps me understand my role in facilitating one instrument of power better through learning a bit more about the roles of others facilitating other instruments of power.
Finally, I’m sharing the D of the DIME acronym with you in this post because we sometimes do things in order, and the D stands for Diplomacy. Oh, and I’m only using the DIME acronym because I did not want to commit to “too many” posts that might keep me from other more timely topics or something.
So, What is Diplomacy?
Before we start zooming about the internet to find more academic or practical answers about it, I want to throw in what my initial take on Diplomacy is.
I think that Diplomacy is what an entity does to convince other entities to behave in certain ways through discussions, primarily deals.
Let’s pull up the old Britannica[1] definition:
Diplomacy is “the established method of influencing the decisions and behaviour of foreign governments and peoples through dialogue, negotiation, and other measures short of war or violence” – complete with a British English addition of a “u” in “behavior.”
A quick aside, I wonder how close the military’s purpose is defined to “the established method of influencing the decisions and behavior of foreign governments and peoples as well as non-state actors through martial compulsion, threat of violence, or war.”
For another perspective on Diplomacy, Merriam-Webster[2] offers this:
“2: skill in handling affairs without arousing hostility; TACT”
What I’ve picked up in just these two definitions includes a specific lack of violence, and a particular focus on influence via communication.
How does America “do” Diplomacy?
As I may or may not have mentioned in my introduction post to the instruments of power, the United States as a nation executes Diplomacy via the Department of State.
Diplomacy is not executed in every office subordinate to the Secretary of State, but it appears to me that the bulk of Diplomatic work within the Department of State falls under the Office of the Under Secretary for Political Affairs (DoS (P)).
While the DOS(P) is headed by a singular Under Secretary, the DoS(P) is composed of eight bureaus that oversee dealings in global regions, international organizations, and counterterrorism.
Even as each of these bureaus carries some responsibility for Diplomacy, their focuses are based in policies, as is mirrored throughout the whole of the Department of State. Some of the policies are related to the following items directly from the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs[3]:
– Fair and reciprocal trade,
– Sustainable economic development,
– Poverty reduction;
– Combating drug trafficking, transnational crime, and illegal immigration;
– Supporting democracy, the rule of law, and good governance to strengthen our national security and our economy.
I think it is clear that excellence in the work of diplomacy requires some knowledge or skill in the fields of economics or commerce, business or operations management, statistical analysis, history (so, so, so much history), legislation, law, philosophy, and more.
What’s not so clear but is still obvious is the need to communicate effectively.
To further explore what else might be demanded by Diplomacy at large, here are the listed policy issues[5] the entire State Department currently holds with either excerpts of their descriptions or my simplified interpretations of them, followed by relevant skill sets or relationships:
Anti-Corruption and Transparency: ‘to reduce crime and terrorism, to promote governmental stability and accountability abroad, and to promote U.S. businesses in every region.’
I’m sure this includes statistical analyses, law enforcement, historical reviews, geopolitics, foreign language expertise, business management, and relationships with security services (likely to include military entities), regional community leaders, and educational professionals.
Arms Control and Nonproliferation: “…to counter threats to the United States and the international order…”
More historical review, security expertise, and likely military engagement.
Climate and Environment: “…to advance U.S. interests on issues related to the climate crisis…”
Environmental science, geopolitics, and climatology.
Combating Drugs and Crime: …combating drugs and crime.
More statistical analysis, economics.
Covid-19 Recovery: “…to mobilize an international response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its secondary impacts while strengthening global biosecurity infrastructure…”
Epidemiology.
Countering Terrorism: “…to degrade and defeat these adversaries…”
Military. Philosophy.
Cyber Issues: “…to promote an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable information and communications infrastructure…”
Cyber security. Social engineering. Systems engineering.
Economic Prosperity and Trade Policy: “…focus on building a strong U.S. economy…”
Economics.
Energy: “…removing barriers to energy development and trade…”
Energy development, economics, and environmental science.
Global Health: “…to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats.”
Epidemiology. Perhaps a focus on prevention rather than post-event care, too.
Global Women’s Issues: “to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls through U.S. foreign policy.”
Philosophy. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Human Rights and Democracy: “…bilateral diplomacy, multilateral engagement, foreign assistance, public outreach, and economic sanctions.”
Scanning this and the rest of the policy issues on our list, it feels a bit like we’re mostly repeating things we’ve already picked out, so I’ll stop doing that, now.
Human Trafficking: “…to combat human trafficking…”
The Ocean and Polar Affairs: “…to… manage ocean resources with neighboring countries and the international community…”
Refugee and Humanitarian Assistance: “… to save lives and alleviate suffering…”
Science Technology and Innovation: “… promote the value of science to the general public.”
Treaties and International Agreements: This one is actually just what it says it is.
There are so many disciplines that Diplomacy needs to facilitate its execution beyond the ability to negotiate, listen, and speak in a foreign language! The DoS employs about 76.6k personnel[6] to conduct its various missions in this and nearly 200 other countries.
Maybe that wasn’t precisely //how// America does Diplomacy, but I think that provides us a decent baseline for much of the purpose the DoS follows.
Now, we ask the next question:
Why should any of us care?
Keeping in mind that my generally intended audience is “anyone aspiring to be a leader” or “those looking to improve themselves,” I believe we should care for a few reasons. Here are some in mind immediately:
1: Especially as a military member, it’s important to keep in mind that our way of national or community service is only one of many. Service to the nation through or in partnership with the DoS is as admirable a path as taking any oath of enlistment or office within the military. Anyone that might recommend consideration of the military as a career path or stepping stone to other professional goals would do well to also recommend examination of Diplomatic paths.
2: The large variety of disciplines that the DoS demands – internally or externally – provides opportunities for many to pursue. Each of these disciplines should be considered important and should be encouraged and fostered in our different communities. You never know when your mild spark of open-minded encouragement might light a fire in someone else to become their own better version of themselves. Add to that spark your slightly increased awareness of the breadth of the DoS, and maybe you’ve given someone’s fire a path to ignite!
3: More selfishly, if any of us wants to increase our professional attractiveness, the skills listed above include hard skills (more STEM stuff, but especially statistical analysis!) and soft skills. Not that any of us need this particular reminder, but developing our soft skills will improve our usefulness in any role – and while a bit of a joke, we all know that those stuffy STEM-types often need some softening around the edges!
Conclusion
Alright, this post has touched on what Diplomacy is: It is a pen where the Military is a sword; it fights with words rather than weapons in the international arenas.
We’ve very lightly touched on how Diplomacy is focused: through the Department of State and with a handful of policy issues to guide it. Each of those policies is handled by a variety of subordinate offices, and those offices have subordinate bureaus.
We as aspiring leaders ought to care in order to benefit our own organizations, the people within our organizations and communities, and ourselves individually.
I encourage anyone who reads this to share their thoughts on this post and to chase the rabbit trails that any of the below links in the References section might lead you to.
You might also want to browse the other posts on this blog – you just might learn something or find yourself curious about something!
References
[1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/diplomacy
[2] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diplomacy
[4] https://www.gcsp.ch/global-insight/key-skills-five-main-diplomatic-functions-0
[5] https://www.state.gov/policy-issues/
[6] https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GTM_Factsheet0920.pdf
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