Questão 741508

1------“Certain broader conditions must also be borne in“Certain broader conditions must also be borne in

mind when one considers the future of foreign service

work. Among the most significant has been the extreme

4 fragmentation of American policy-making and diplomacy

in recent years.

Effective diplomacy in the traditional European

7 sense, up through the French Revolution and even later,

rested on the assumption that the diplomat, in speaking to

the government to which he was accredited, was speaking

10 for the supreme source of power in his own country and

would be backed up by its authority in anything he

undertook to say in its name. This in turn rested on the

13 assumption that some single coherent and responsible

center of power—a crowned head, a president, or an allpowerful

prime minister—in the diplomat's own country

16 was in a position to compel the country's other authorities

to play their part in meeting any commitments made

through the diplomatic process. This principle, known in

19 German speaking countries as das Primat der Aussenpolitik

(the precedence of foreign policy), was seen by monarchs

and prime ministers of earlier ages as a sine qua non of

22 successful diplomacy.

Application of this principle to a democratic society

would always present difficulties, since it is plainly

25 incompatible with the diffusion of authority that

democratic rule usually requires. The incompatibility was

bound to be particularly acute for the United States, where

28 the diffusion of political power is extensive even in

comparison with other democracies. For example, because

of the constitutional requirement that treaties be ratified by

31 the Senate, the chief executive has never been able to

negotiate the text of a treaty without confessing that the

other party could not rely on the wording unless and until it

34 had passed muster in the Senate.

As the American political system matured and the

powers of individual states, courts, and even municipal and

37 local authorities gained acceptance, it gradually became

clear that the federal government could not often speak for

the country as a whole without consultation, and sometimes

40 even negotiation, not only with Congress but with a host of

other authorities or players. Entities with which

accommodations had to be reached even came to include

43 some private enterprises. The extreme diffusion of

authority at home was bound to place limitations on the

representation of America’s interests by its ambassadors

46 (…) abroad”.

KENNAN, George F. Diplomacy without diplomats? Foreign Affairs,

vol. 76, n. 5, Sept.-Oct. 1997, p. 204-205, with adaptations.

Considering the ideas and the vocabulary presented in the text, mark the following items as right (C) or wrong (E).

Effective diplomacy in the traditional sense assumed that commitments made through the diplomatic process would be enforced by a single center of power in the diplomat’s own country, irrespective of any resistance from other domestic authorities.