[WW]The good diplomat

Day 3,148, 02:53 • Published in Netherlands Netherlands • by Redi Jodikku

We are in a changing world and at this point a lot of important things are happening. Now is when the diplomats and high representatives of different countries are meeting and talking about what to do and how to do it. You won’t probably see them, as the nature of their job is obscure, but they are there, working for you and your country. The question I would like to address here is, are they doing what’s best for your country? Are they good diplomats?

There are a lot of different characteristics that make a diplomat a good one. Personally, I'm someone who prefers to judge the practices more than the outcome. With this I mean, I'm not analyzing someone's results only based on the final position but I tend to look at if he always followed the best practices possible, sometimes things that are not possible to be predicted could happen and influence the result, in a good or in a bad direction, but in the long run what matters is if the diplomat is addressing things as he or she should do it.

This being said, the first characteristic I would want to see in a diplomat is the ability to speak, dialogue and in a final stage negotiate the best possible outcome. He or she has to be open to speak always. Sometimes the diplomat will need to speak with his or her worst enemy, putting his feelings apart and being able to start a conversation and closing it with a good deal for his country or business is a very valuable and necessary ability.

It's also very important to know when to act and how to do it, being creative and finding solutions a narrow minded person would not find is very important as the scenarios where they are performing are not always "normal" or "common". Once he or she knows where to act, it's important to be patient and wait for the perfect place and moment and perseverant. The best deal will not always appear in the first meeting with the other party, having the ability to continue with the talks and don't give up, trusting that he is doing the right thing, which will be the right thing if he is skilled enough, and getting stick with it. Also having the creativity, as said before, to find new ways when perseverance alone is not enough.


This can be a good representative sometimes, but let's not get too simplistic

We have been talking about speaking, negotiating, dialoguing... a lot of situations where having a good credibility is crucial. Maybe having credibility is more a matter of a status than an ability itself, but it's definitely a characteristic a diplomat needs. If he is not able to have a good credibility because of others behaviours, he might at least look honest enough personally, because when there's no trust between the parties it's really hard to reach agreements.

The last but not least, a diplomat should be able to sell his treaties and ideas to his President and to the people he is actually working for. Being carried out is a necessary condition for a plan to be good enough. Otherwise you might have great ideas that won’t see the light because you have not been able to either convince your people if you are in a democracy or to convince your President or boss if you are not the ultimate decision-taker.

Also, selling your ideas to the other party is important. I don’t consider telling lies a good practice in the long run. It can work in a concrete situation, but it only harms your credibility and in some aspects your country’s one also, so knowing when and how to lie is also a good skill, but a very dangerous tool.

This one is a dangerous characteristic, because if he is good at doing this, but not good at the rest of things, he might be leading you to a not desired outcome.

This is obviously an opinion article, we are not talking about science, I would love if you wanted to share different opinions in the comments as we are all going to get benefits from new perspectives

Also, this was an essay I had to do for a course and not all the ideas are originally mine. I adapted it a bit to eRep as I saw it relevant to the current moment we are living. I hope you have enjoyed it, I did enjoy writing it.

Also, I want to use this article in contest: https://www.erepublik.com/en/article/special-edition-vice-president-announces-writing-contest-2605653/1/20