Patterns of Diplomacy

In this article the institution of diplomacy is examined in terms of its main functions: negotiation, representation and as a channel of information. Some theses about how diplomacy changes with growing internationalization, about changes in diplomatic style from elite-oriented via treaty-oriented to structure-oriented diplomacy, about the various effects the extraordinarily high rank of the diplomat has, about the types of contact diplomats usually have in the host-society and about the loyalty problems of diplomats, are advanced, illustrated with examples and discussed.In the second part of the article the changes over time in one particular foreign service, that of Norway, are analyzed. The method used was to obtain all available information about the social backgrounds, education and diplomatic careers of the 398 who had been or still were members of the Norwegian foreign service as diplomats from the last century up to the end of 1964. Most of the article shows trends in these data when they are divided in five or six phases, defined by events in the history of Norway in general and its foreign service in particular. These trends are found to be consistent with the theory fragments advanced in the first part of the article, but other interpretations are also possible. Finally some predictions are made with regard to what future diplomacy will look like, and some major sources of conflict are pointed out.