Secret diplomacy
As secret diplomacy refers to diplomatic negotiations between states , the secret can be kept only since the 19th century .
In itself it is typical for diplomacy that it takes place non-publicly, because there is a great danger that one of the negotiating partners will lose face or the trust of other states if it becomes known what concessions he is willing to make in the event of a negotiation.
In the era of cabinet politics , secret diplomacy was therefore a matter of course. But since the French Revolution , when international treaties and war and peace are decided not by princes but by nations, preparatory propaganda has been the prerequisite for the acceptance of a treaty or a war among the population and has therefore been a common political tool.
Because secret treaties became common in the era of imperialism and it was believed that they contributed to the outbreak of the First World War , Woodrow Wilson called for a ban on secret diplomacy in his 14-point program .
Nevertheless, in many cases secrecy is still a necessary prerequisite for diplomatic success.
Examples are the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and the German Ostpolitik from 1969.
See also
literature
- Michael R. Decided to Strobe Talbott : At the highest level. The end of the cold war and the secret diplomacy of the superpowers. 1989–1991 (= ECON. ECON-Sachbuch. 26166). ECON-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-612-26166-5 .
- Thomas Marxhausen : Secret Diplomacy . In: Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism . Volume 5: Counter-public to the hegemonic apparatus. Argument-Verlag, Hamburg et al. 2001, ISBN 3-88619-435-3 , Sp. 43-48.
- Ulrich Schiller: Power out of control. Secret world politics from Khrushchev to Bush. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-351-02561-0 .
