Diplomatic rank: Encyclopedia II - Diplomatic rank - Traditional diplomacy

Diplomatic rank - Traditional diplomacy

Until the early 19th Century, each European nation had its own system of diplomatic rank. The relative ranks of diplomats from different nations had been a source of considerable dispute, made more so by the insistence of major nations to have their diplomats ranked higher than those of minor nations, to be reflected in table seatings etc..

In an attempt to resolve the problem, the Congress of Vienna of 1815 formally established an international system of diplomatic ranks. The four ranks within the system were:

1. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, or simply Ambassador, who is a representative of the head of state. Equivalent, and in some traditions primus inter pares, is the Papal nuncio. Amongst Commonwealth countries, the equivalent title High Commissioner (who represents the government rather than the head of state) is normally used instead.

A diplomatic mission headed by an ambassador would be known as an Embassy; one headed by a High Commissioner is called a High Commission. An ambassador is entitled to use the title "His/Her Excellency".

2. Minister Plenipotentiary (in full Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary), or simply Envoy. Usually just referred to as a Minister, an envoy is a diplomatic representative with plenipotentiary powers (i.e. full authority to represent the head of state), but ranking below an Ambassador.

3. Minister Resident or Resident Minister, or simply Minister, is the, now extremely rare, lowest rank of full diplomatic mission chief, only above Chargé d'affaires (who is considered an extraordinary substitute).

• Note that both the Minister Plenipotentiary and the Minister Resident are diplomatic ministers, which are not the same thing as government ministers or religious ministers. A diplomatic mission headed by either type of Minister would be called a Legation. As they formally represent the head of state, they are entitled to use the title "His/Her Excellency", which originally was reserved for Ambassadors.

4. Chargé d'affaires, or simply Chargé. As the French title suggests, a chargé d'affaires would be in charge of an embassy's or a legation's affairs in the (usually temporary) absence of a more senior diplomat.

As it turned out, this system of diplomatic rank did nothing to solve the problem of the nations' precedence. The appropriate diplomatic ranks used would be determined by the precedence among the nations; thus the exchanges of ambassadors (the highest diplomatic rank) would be reserved among major nations, or close allies and related monarchies. In contrast, a major nation would probably send just an envoy to a minor nation, who in return would send an envoy to the major nation. As a result, the United States did not use the rank of ambassador until their emergence as a major world power at the end of the 19th Century. Indeed, until the mid-20th Century, the majority of diplomats in the world were of the rank of envoy.

In diplomatic parlance, all the diplomats that station inside a nation is known as the diplomatic corps; one of these diplomats is recognized as the primus inter pares - in practice rather a protocolic honor - who act as the spokesperson for all, known as the dean of the diplomatic corps (often by length of service, although in some Catholic nations it is held ex officio by the Papal Nuncio) or as Marshal of diplomacy.

After World War II, it was no longer considered acceptable to treat some nations as inferior to others given the United Nations doctrine of equality of sovereign states. Consequently the use of the ranks of envoy and minister resident for legation chiefs gradually ceased. Where those ranks still exist, these usually act as mere embassy section chiefs.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Traditional diplomacy", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki