1. Diplomacy is described as a game where nation states use various tactics like threats, rewards, and negotiations to influence each other and resolve conflicts. 2. While embassies and ambassadors remain important, diplomacy has evolved with more informal and multilateral engagement. 3. Successful diplomacy involves bargaining through different strategies, with the goal of finding mutually agreeable solutions over conflicting priorities between countries.

1. Diplomacy Before Force
The Great Game

2. “The Game”
• Described as a game or series of games in which nation states
compete for various stakes
• Nation states “play” the game to achieve payoffs.
• Successful Players have “influence”
– What can the exert on other players in order to achieve the outcome
• Interstate violence is not as common as thought
– Less than 12% of all conflict ends in war- end in nonviolent
compromise
• Diplomacy is the method and mode in which countries exert
influence

3. Diplomacy
• Embassies & Ambassadors
– Ambassadors represent their governments abroad
• Can be professional or non-professional
• Professional Ambassadors recruited from the Foreign Service for their
skill, maturity and knowledge
• Non-professionals are wealthy, famous and can also be appointed for
political reasons
– Embassies are useful to governments for many reasons
• Continuous collection and transmission of information back home
• Maintenance of a regular line of communication between home and host
governments
• Cultivation of friendly relations
• Facilitate multi-lateral negotiations

4. Public (vs) Secret Diplomacy
– Openly public diplomatic negotiations held in full view of the media
and international community- Publics “right to know”
• Thought that it would remove suspicion and paranoia among the
general public in international relations
• Thought that there is a general sense of insecurity and distrust
experienced by all nations in the international system
– Secret Diplomacy is often helpful when very sensitive negotiations nee
to take place and each of the participants must be candid and open
minded.
• Allows for negotiations to be free from posturing which might otherwise
occur
• “Atmospherics”
• Outcomes might be made public but the negotiations might need to
remain out of view

5. Multilateral (vs) Bilateral Diplomacy
• Bilateral Diplomacy (Two Country)
– Time honored practice of pairs of countries exchanging ambassadors
and maintain permanent diplomatic missions on each other’s soil
reflects the traditional emphasis that states have had on relationships.
• Multilateral ( numerous countries)
– Became a common mode of diplomacy prior to this mostly limited to
either special meetings at moments of crisis when war threatened or
peace conferences following major wars.
– Multilateral diplomacy has become increasingly prevalent in the 20th
century because:
• Existence of many problems (arms control, economic, environmental
• Proliferation of intergovernmental organizations a global & regional levels
• Existence of many less developed countries that rely on UN and ECC which provide
settings for diplomacy and diplomatic contacts
– International organizations – most common method of diplomatic
contact for most nations- much more than bilateral exchanges

6. Tacit (vs) Formal Diplomacy
• Negotiation
– Formal direct communication through face-to-face meetings, cables,
or third party intermediaries
• Tacit Diplomacy
– Informal, indirect communication through words, (press conferences)
and actions ( placing troops on alert) designed to signal intentions or
the importance one attaches to some issue
– Posturing – could be prior to a formal negotiation or to reinforce
messages they want to convey
– Always been part of statecraft
• Historical examples?

7. Bargaining
• Bargaining :
– a means of settling differences over priorities between contestants
through an exchange of proposals for mutually acceptable solution.
There must be a conflict over priorities in order for bargaining to take
place
– Conflict can be mild or severe
– Disputants might be incompatible and irreconcilable
– People bargain for the benefits they seek
– Key Elements:
• Credibility & Potency
• Game playing and game theory
– Players deemed to be rational
– Players have minimums and maximums

8. The Bargaining Line
A’s Maximum
Demand
Bargaining Line
A’s Values
B’s Minimum
Demand
A’s Minimum
Demand B’s Values
B’s Maximum
Demand

9. Carrots & Sticks
• 4 types of bargaining tactics
1. Threats
2. Punishments
3. Rewards
4. Promises
– Realists – Anarchic approach tend to rely on Threats and
punishments
– It is more difficult to compel than to deter
• Compellance- seeks to persuade the other side to do something it does not want to
do. Either undertake a certain behavior or stop undesired behavior
• Deterrence- seeks to discourage other side from doing something that it wants to
do.
• Carrots and Sticks very important in the context of compellance and deterrence

10. Game Theory
• Basic Game Types:
– Zero Sum- structured so that what one party winds, the other party
automatically loses, conflict is total
• Game of Chicken
– Variable Sum – both parties can simultaneously win something, even
though one might benefit more than the other.
• Most international situations are variable sum games
• MINIMAX rule.
• The Prisoners Dilemma Game

11. Rules for Good Diplomats
• Five essential qualities
1. Truthfulness
2. Precision & Clarity of Expression
3. Calmness
4. Modesty
5. Loyalty

12. Rules for Good Diplomacy & Negotiation
1. Determine whether the other side is serious about negotiation
2. Do not dismiss what might appear to be purely cosmetic or symbolic
procedural concerns expressed by the other side
3. Show empathy and understanding to the other sides position
4. Offer proposals that are concrete enough for the other side to think
about and respond to.
5. If a comprehensive settlement of all aspects of a dispute is not possibl,
slice up the problem into narrower, more manageable issues to be
negotiated separately.
6. Do not humiliate the other side

13. Military Resources
• Enable a state to bargain through both explicit and implicit
threats and promises as swell as punishments and rewards
• Weapons as status symbols- examples?
• Successful bargaining relies not only on relative military
capabilities but also on how firmly a states holds onto goals
– Cost/Benefit analysis
– Core political goals
– Images & perceptions

14. Military Deterrence
• Any attempt by one party to prevent another from taking
some undesired action
– In military terms it is preventing one side from taking military action
by tipping the cost benefit balance where it is more costly to the other
side by taking action than that which could be gained.
– Game can change from diplomacy to war and from deterrence to
defense
– Cost Benefit Calculus of military power
– Leaders can miscalculate the risks or the seriousness of the deterrent
threat and carry out action anyway. Examples??
– Leaders perceive the need to act, they may become insensitive to the
needs and commitments of others that standing the way of success of
their policy

15. Economic Resources
• Economic levers of influence
– Embargos , boycotts, multinational investment, frozen assets , strings
attached to foreign aid
– Can be quite effective especially with states that are highly dependent
on the influencer in an unequal relationship – Examples?
• Neo colonialism
– Economic Carrots
• Foreign Aid Grants
• Most Favored Nation trading status
– Economic Sticks
• Embargos
• Boycotts

16. Military Resources
• Enable a state to bargain through both explicit and implicit
threats and promises as swell as punishments and rewards
• Weapons as status symbols- examples?
• Successful bargaining relies not only on relative military
capabilities but also on how firmly a states holds onto goals
– Cost/Benefit analysis
– Core political goals
– Images & perceptions

17. Summary
1. Game of international relations- governments attempt to influence
through diplomacy- seek to influence, communicate and resolve conflicts
through bargaining
2. Nature of diplomacy has changed – communications – informal, tacit
forms of diplomacy emerged
3. Essence of diplomacy is bargaining- threats & punishments- promises &
rewards – credibility and potency
4. International bargaining – zero sum games- variable sum & mixed motive
games
5. Remember rules for good diplomats
6. States use both military and economic resources as instruments of
bargaining
7. As military elements of influence wane, economic elements now emerge
as more dominant.