Political Tradecraft: The Main Instrument in the Diplomacy Toolbox
Good officers seek to align other countries’ interests with those of their own government, even if they disagree with policies or instructions.
By EUNICE REDDICK and GINA ABERCROMBIE-WINSTANLEY | SEPTEMBER 8, 2024
Taiwan’s strategic importance to the United States is no secret. Not only does Washington view the island as critical to its power projection in the Pacific, but as a shining example of a thriving democracy. U.S.-Taiwan relations are complicated, especially since the United States recognized Beijing as the seat of the Chinese government in 1978. When Washington withdrew its formal diplomatic recognition from Taiwan, the U.S. Embassy there became the American Institute in Taiwan, led not by an ambassador but a director.
Although Taiwan has been democratic since 1987, the same party, the Kuomintang, ruled it until 2000, when the opposition Democratic Progressive Party won its first presidential election. Its anticipated victory prompted an insatiable appetite for information in Washington in the runup to the election. U.S. officials wanted to learn as much as possible about the future leader, Chen Shui-Bian, and his likely policies, and to figure out how he might change Taiwan’s relationship with mainland China. While the United States helps to guarantee Taiwan’s security, it doesn’t support its formal independence and favors stable ties with Beijing. It fell to the American Institute’s political section to satisfy Washington’s appetite with extensive diplomatic reporting.
Eunice Reddick, the section chief, and her staff didn’t wait for instructions to send a series of in-depth cables. In fact, the section had been writing dispatches about Chen and his views since he was mayor of Taipei, the capital, beginning in 1994. The reporting continued even after he lost his reelection bid four years later, because he was likely to run for president. In addition to Chen’s background and political agenda, Reddick’s section wrote about media and public reaction to his views and record as mayor, as well as about political and other figures who could end up in his administration. The section also examined Chen’s experience with mainland officials and analyzed the potential impact of his support for Taiwan’s independence.
The set of duties, responsibilities and skills required of diplomats who work in political affairs is known as political tradecraft. It’s the main instrument in the diplomatic tradecraft toolbox, which also includes economic tradecraft, commercial diplomacy, consular affairs and public diplomacy, among other tools. Political officers are career diplomats, not political appointees. They work both at diplomatic missions abroad and at headquarters, such as their Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the State Department.
Reporting on elections, political leaders, cabinet reshuffles and power struggles is among the most frequent cable traffic that diplomats from all countries send to their capitals. The best cables interpret the information they gather to help headquarters understand what a particular development means for the home-country. Along with reporting, the political section is responsible for managing — or “gardening,” in the words of former Secretary of State George Shultz — the political relationship with the host-country through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The section’s third main duty is to advocate for the home-country’s policy priorities and against host-government decisions and actions that hurt its interests. In all this, good political officers seek opportunities to advance their national interests.
The section chief is usually known as the embassy’s counselor for political affairs and its third-ranking official after the chief and deputy chief of mission. The section’s composition depends on the size of the post — a U.S. diplomatic mission can have a single political officer responsible for handling all issues in the bilateral relationship, a team of more than a dozen, with each member focusing on just one or two topics, or any number in between. The average political section has between three and six officers, plus local staff, and is divided into an internal and external unit. The former reports on internal political affairs, and the latter on the host-country’s foreign relations.
What are the key skill sets political officers need to possess? Managing relations with other countries begins with building and cultivating a diverse network of sources who can provide the most accurate and useful information, for which curiosity, interpersonal skills and language ability are essential. Empathy helps to win the trust and confidence of others, and to understand where they are coming from in their decision-making. Aside from emergencies, political officers rarely send raw information to their capitals or other governments — rather, it has to be processed. This is where mastering the entire set of communication and analytical skills can make a big difference. Whether drafting a cable to headquarters, a memo to a superior or a document to a foreign government, an officer’s writing must be clear, concise, to the point, grammatically correct and easy to digest. In meetings with foreign interlocutors, active listening is imperative, and adhering to the norms of cross-cultural communication goes a long way.
In policy implementation, judgment and creativity are critical as one tries to determine the best ways to carry out decisions made at headquarters in a foreign environment. Whatever those ways are, officers need advocacy and negotiation skills to ensure that their country’s policies and actions are correctly understood, and to persuade foreign officials to modify their behavior when necessary. In all their work, political officers must do their best to align other countries’ interests with those of their own government, even if they disagree personally with a particular decision or an entire policy — this is perhaps the most difficult part of political tradecraft.
Attending conferences, receptions and other events is an important part of political officers’ work. All diplomats take part in representing their mission and country, but the more practical benefit of such functions is the opportunity to make new contacts and collect information from old ones in a short period of time. Sometimes officers have to make remarks, which tests their public speaking skills. There are usually journalists at these events who have a job to do, and officers should be aware that anything they say, even off the record, can end up in the press.
What type of subject matters do political officers work on as they carry out their main duties of reporting and analysis, managing relationships and implementing policy? In the 21st century, bilateral and multilateral issues have become less distinct than they were for much of the previous century, largely because of globalization and technological advances. Security and migration, for example, have long had bilateral aspects to them, but they cannot be effectively addressed today if governments ignore regional and even global conditions and contexts. Other areas of responsibility for political officers include human rights, arms control and nonproliferation, terrorism, trafficking in drugs and persons, as well as other transnational crime. Even climate change, extreme poverty and infectious diseases have significant political implications.
In managing a country’s foreign relations, success is impossible unless the headquarters and its diplomatic missions in the field are on the same page, and ideally, in lockstep. That takes constant coordination and regular communication, at the heart of which are political officers. When the U.S. government needs something from a foreign country, officers at the State Department work with that country’s embassy in Washington, and officers posted in the receiving state work with its government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Like all career diplomats, political officers work both at home and abroad during various times in their careers, and they need to master the fundamentals of political tradecraft no matter where they are.
Eunice Reddick is a former U.S. ambassador to Niger and Gabon, and former political section chief in Taiwan.
Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley is a former U.S. ambassador to Malta and consul general in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The above is an adapted excerpt from the book “Diplomatic Tradecraft,” published with permission from Cambridge University Press. © Nicholas Kralev 2024