The ancient world

The view in late medieval Europe that the first diplomats were angels, or messengers from heaven to earth, is perhaps fanciful, but some elements of diplomacy predate recorded history. Early societies had some attributes of states, and the first international law arose from intertribal relations. Tribes negotiated marriages and regulations on trade and hunting. Messengers and envoys were accredited, sacred, and inviolable; they usually carried some emblem, such as a message stick, and were received with elaborate ceremonies. Women often were used as envoys because of their perceived mysterious sanctity and their use of “sexual wiles”; it is believed that women regularly were entrusted with the vitally important task of negotiating peace in primitive cultures.

Information regarding the diplomacy of early peoples is based on sparse evidence. There are traces of Egyptian diplomacy dating to the 14th century BC, but none has been found in western Africa before the 9th century AD. The inscriptions on the walls of abandoned Mayan cities indicate that exchanges of envoys were frequent, though almost nothing is known of the substance or style of Mayan and other pre-Columbian Central American diplomacy. In South America the dispatch of envoys by the expanding Incan Empire appears to have been a prelude to conquest rather than an exercise in bargaining between sovereigns.

The greatest knowledge of early diplomacy comes from the Middle East, the Mediterranean, China, and India. Records of treaties between Mesopotamian city-states date from about 2850 BC. Thereafter, Akkadian (Babylonian) became the first diplomatic language, serving as the international tongue of the Middle East until it was replaced by Aramaic. A diplomatic correspondence from the 14th century BC existed between the Egyptian court and a Hittite king on cuneiform tablets in Akkadian—the language of neither. The oldest treaties of which full texts survive, from about 1280 BC, were between Ramses II of Egypt and Hittite leaders. There is significant evidence of Assyrian diplomacy in the 7th century and, chiefly in the Bible, of the relations of Jewish tribes with each other and other peoples.

China

The first records of Chinese and Indian diplomacy date from the 1st millennium BC. By the 8th century BC, the Chinese had leagues, missions, and an organized system of polite discourse between their many “ warring states,” including resident envoys who served as hostages to the good behaviour of those who sent them. The sophistication of this tradition, which emphasized the practical virtues of ethical behaviour in relations between states (no doubt in reaction to actual amorality), is well documented in the Chinese classics. Its essence is perhaps best captured by the advice of Zhuangzi to “diplomats” at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. He advised them that

if relations between states are close, they may establish mutual trust through daily interaction; but if relations are distant, mutual confidence can only be established by exchanges of messages. Messages must be conveyed by messengers [diplomats]. Their contents may be either pleasing to both sides or likely to engender anger between them. Faithfully conveying such messages is the most difficult task under the heavens, for if the words are such as to evoke a positive response on both sides, there will be the temptation to exaggerate them with flattery and, if they are unpleasant, there will be a tendency to make them even more biting. In either case, the truth will be lost. If truth is lost, mutual trust will also be lost. If mutual trust is lost, the messenger himself may be imperiled. Therefore, I say to you that it is a wise rule: “always to speak the truth and never to embellish it. In this way, you will avoid much harm to yourselves.”

This tradition of equal diplomatic dealings between contending states within China was ended by the country's unification under the Qin emperor in 221 BC and the consolidation of unity under the Han dynasty in 206 BC. Under the Han and succeeding dynasties, China emerged as the largest, most populous, technologically most advanced, and best-governed society in the world. The arguments of earlier Chinese philosophers, such as Mencius, prevailed; the best way for a state to exercise influence abroad, they had said, was to develop a moral society worthy of emulation by admiring foreigners and to wait confidently for them to come to China to learn.

Once each succeeding Chinese dynasty had consolidated its rule at home and established its borders with the non-Chinese world, its foreign relations with the outside world were typically limited to the defense of China's borders against foreign attacks or incursions, the reception of emissaries from neighbouring states seeking to ingratiate themselves and to trade with the Chinese state, and the control of foreign merchants in specific ports designated for foreign trade. With rare exceptions (e.g., official missions to study and collect Buddhist scriptures in India in the 5th and 7th centuries and the famous voyages of discovery of the Ming admiral Zheng He in the early 15th century), Chinese leaders and diplomats waited at home for foreigners to pay their respects rather than venturing abroad themselves. This “ tributary system ” lasted until European colonialism overwhelmed it and introduced to Asia the European concepts of sovereignty, suzerainty, spheres of influence, and other diplomatic norms, traditions, and practices.

India

Ancient India was home to an equally sophisticated but very different diplomatic tradition. This tradition was systematized and described in the Artha-shastra (one of the oldest books in secular Sanskrit literature) by Kautilya, a wily and unscrupulous scholar-statesman who helped the young Candra Gupta to overthrow Macedonian rule in northern India and to establish the Mauryan dynasty at the end of the 4th century BC. The ruthlessly realistic state system codified in the Artha-shastra insisted that foreign relations be determined by self-interest rather than by ethical considerations. It graded state power with respect to five factors and emphasized espionage, diplomatic maneuver, and contention by 12 categories of states within a complex geopolitical matrix. It also posited four expedients of statecraft (conciliation, seduction, subversion, and coercion) and six forms of state policy (peace, war, nonalignment, alliances, shows of force, and double-dealing). To execute policies derived from these strategic geometries, ancient India fielded three categories of diplomats (plenipotentiaries, envoys entrusted with a single issue or mission, and royal messengers); a type of consular agent (similar to the Greek proxenos), who was charged with managing commercial relations and transactions; and two kinds of spies (those charged with the collection of intelligence and those entrusted with subversion and other forms of covert action).

Detailed rules regulated diplomatic immunities and privileges, the inauguration and termination of diplomatic missions, and the selection and duties of envoys. Thus, Kautilya describes the “duties of an envoy” as “sending information to his king, ensuring maintenance of the terms of a treaty, upholding his king's honour, acquiring allies, instigating dissension among the friends of his enemy, conveying secret agents and troops [into enemy territory], suborning the kinsmen of the enemy to his own king's side, acquiring clandestinely gems and other valuable material for his own king, ascertaining secret information and showing valour in liberating hostages [held by the enemy].” He further stipulates that no envoys should ever be harmed, and, even if they deliver an “unpleasant” message, they should not be detained.

The region within which this system operated was separated from its neighbours by deserts, seas, and the Himalayas. India had very little political connection to the affairs of other regions of the world until Alexander the Great conquered its northern regions in 326 BC. The subsequent establishment of the native Mauryan empire ushered in a new era in Indian diplomatic history that was marked by efforts to extend both Indian religious doctrines (i.e., Buddhism) and political influence beyond South Asia. The Mauryan emperor Ashoka was particularly active, receiving several emissaries from the Macedonian-ruled kingdoms and dispatching numerous Brahman -led missions of his own to West, Central, and Southeast Asia. Such contacts continued for centuries until the ascendancy of the Rajput kingdoms (8th to the 13th century AD) again isolated northern India from the rest of the world. Outside the Chola dynasty and other Dravidian kingdoms of South India, which continued diplomatic and cultural exchanges with Southeast Asia and China and preserved the text and memories of the Artha-shastra, India's distinctive mode of diplomatic reasoning and early traditions were forgotten and replaced by those of its Muslim and British conquerors.

Greece

The tradition that ultimately inspired the birth of modern diplomacy in post-Renaissance Europe and that led to the present world system of international relations began in ancient Greece. The earliest evidence of Greek diplomacy can be found in its literature, notably in Homer 's Iliad and Odyssey. Otherwise, the first traces of interstate relations concern the Olympic Games of 776 BC. In the 6th century BC, the amphictyonic leagues maintained interstate assemblies with extraterritorial rights and permanent secretariats. Sparta was actively forming alliances in the mid-6th century BC, and by 500 BC it had created the Peloponnesian League. In the 5th century BC, Athens led the Delian League during the Greco-Persian Wars.

Greek diplomacy took many forms. Heralds, references to whom can be found in prehistory, were the first diplomats and were protected by the gods with an immunity that other envoys lacked. Their protector was Hermes, the messenger of the gods, who became associated with all diplomacy. The herald of Zeus, Hermes was noted for persuasiveness and eloquence but also for knavery, shiftiness, and dishonesty, imparting to diplomacy a reputation that its practitioners still try to live down.

Because heralds were inviolable, they were the favoured channels of contact in wartime. They preceded envoys to arrange for safe passage. Whereas heralds traveled alone, envoys journeyed in small groups, to ensure each other's loyalty. They usually were at least 50 years old and were politically prominent figures. Because they were expected to sway foreign assemblies, envoys were chosen for their oratorical skills. Although such missions were frequent, Greek diplomacy was episodic rather than continuous. Unlike modern ambassadors, heralds and envoys were short-term visitors in the city-states whose policies they sought to influence.

In marked contrast to diplomatic relations, commercial and other apolitical relations between city-states were conducted on a continuous basis. Greek consular agents, or proxeni, were citizens of the city in which they resided, not of the city-state that employed them. Like envoys, they had a secondary task of gathering information, but their primary responsibility was trade. Although proxeni initially represented one Greek city-state in another, eventually they became far-flung; in his famed work History, Herodotus indicates that there were Greek consuls in Egypt in about 550 BC.

The Greeks developed archives, a diplomatic vocabulary, principles of international conduct that anticipated international law, and many other elements of modern diplomacy. Their envoys and entourages enjoyed diplomatic immunity for their official correspondence and personal property. Truces, neutrality, commercial conventions, conferences, treaties, and alliances were common. In one 25-year period of the 4th century BC, for example, there were eight Greco-Persian congresses, where even the smallest states had the right to be heard.

Rome

Rome inherited what the Greeks devised and adapted it to the task of imperial administration. As Rome expanded, it often negotiated with representatives of conquered areas, to which it granted partial self-government by way of a treaty. Treaties were made with other states under Greek international law. During the Roman Republic the Senate conducted foreign policy, though a department for foreign affairs was established. Later, under the Empire, the emperor was the ultimate decision maker in foreign affairs. Envoys were received with ceremony and magnificence, and they and their aides were granted immunity.

Roman envoys were sent abroad with written instructions from their government. Sometimes a messenger, or nuntius, was sent, usually to towns. For larger responsibilities a legatio (embassy) of 10 or 12 legati (ambassadors) was organized under a president. The legati, who were leading citizens chosen for their skill at oratory, were inviolable. Rome also created sophisticated archives, which were staffed by trained archivists. Paleographic techniques were developed to decipher and authenticate ancient documents. Other archivists specialized in diplomatic precedents and procedures, which became formalized. For centuries these archive-based activities were the major preoccupation of diplomacy in and around the Roman Empire.

Roman law, which stressed the sanctity of contracts, became the basis of treaties. Late in the Republican era, the laws applied by the Romans to foreigners and to foreign envoys were merged with the Greek concept of natural law, an ideal code applying to all people, to create a “law of nations.” The sanctity of treaties and the law of nations were absorbed by the Roman Catholic church and preserved in the centuries after the Western Roman Empire collapsed, and a foundation was thus provided for the more sophisticated doctrines of international law that began to emerge along with the European nation-state a millennium later.

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