CO-EXISTENCE OF DIVERGENT DIPLOMATIC ROLES

New entrants to the diplomatic arena represents different groupings and organisations of local, national and international interests. These divergent forces co-exist with each other and exercise different forms of diplomatic influence to achieve their objectives. These newly emerged diplomatic functions and roles can be categorized in the following manner:

1. Economic Diplomacy/Economic Diplomats : Economic Diplomacy is concerned with policy issues e.g. work of delegations at WTO and BIS. Economic diplomats also monitor and report on economic policies in foreign countries and give the home government advice on how to best influence them. Economic Diplomacy employs economic resources, either as rewards or sanctions in pursuit of a particular foreign policy objective.

2. Commercial Diplomacy/Commercial Diplomats: Commercial Diplomacy describes the work of diplomatic missions in support of the home country’s business and finance sectors in their pursuit of economic success and the country’s general objective of national development. It includes the promotion of inward and outward investment as well as trade. Important aspects of a commercial diplomats’ work is the supplying of information about export and investment opportunities and organising and helping to act as hosts to trade missions from home. In some cases, commercial diplomats can also promote economic ties through advising and support of both domestic and foreign companies for investment decisions.

3. Corporate Diplomacy/Corporate Diplomats: Corporate Diplomacy consists of two organizational roles considered to be critical for the successful coordination of a multinational company, namely that of a country business unit manager who should be able to function in two cultures: the culture of the business unit, and the corporate culture that is usually heavily affected by the nationality of the global corporation, and that of a corporate diplomat who as a home country or other national who is impregnated with the corporate culture, multilingual, from various occupational backgrounds, and experience in living and functioning in various foreign cultures. These two roles are essential to make multinational structures work, as liaison persons in the various head offices or as temporary managers for new ventures.

4. Business Diplomacy/Business Diplomats: Business Diplomacy pertains to the management of interfaces between the global company and its multiple non-business counterparts and external constituencies. For example, global companies are expected to abide by multiple sets of national laws and multilateral agreements set down by international organisations such as the World Trade Organization (TWO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO). On account of a global company, Business Diplomats negotiate with host country authorities, interface with local and international NGOs in influencing local and global agenda. At the firm level, they help define business strategy and policies in relation to stakeholder expectations, conduct bilateral and multilateral negotiations, coordinate international public relations campaigns, collect and analyse pertinent information emanating from host countries and international communities.

5. National NGO Diplomacy/National NGO Diplomat: National economic NGOs represent the interests of civil society in the economic sphere and consist of various constituencies ranging from consumer protection, anti-corruption to stakeholder groups and environmentalists.

6. Transnational NGO Diplomacy/Transnational NGO Diplomat: Transnational NGO diplomacy is able to organize events and lobbying activities at cross- border levels. Transnational NGO (T-NGO) diplomats operate at an international level and include organisations such as Greenpeace creating for instance coalitions against WTO, WEF, IMF or transnational enterprises. T-NGOs propose their own policy solutions to the international arena, as for example during the multilateral negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol agreement (climate change) or the debt rescheduling of least developed countries at the IMF. They are also involved in implementing technical cooperation projects in developing and transition economies thereby complementing, at times even substituting for national governments. They also offer cutting edge research in areas crucial for international and crisis manag