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Foreign Ministries Old and New

Diplomacy is an old and flexible profession. A Sumerian clay nail of about 2400 BC mentions a 'brotherhood agreement' between the rulers of two city-states.' Our own practices evolve from those of ancient Greece, Rome, and Byzantium; our foreign ministries and diplomatic services from the chanceries of renaissance Italy. But throughout the ages, the peaceful management of interstate relations has changed in accordance with the needs of the states concerned and with the international environment in which these states have operated. The student of modern diplomacy will start with a study of the state, for the functions and the tools of the diplomat have been shaped by the history, structure, resources, and requirements of the sovereign state. He will also study the parallel development of regularized forms of international behaviour the international state 'system' which have endured and expanded despite reverses and major disruptions. Though historians may date the beginnings of our own system from the Peace of Westphalia or the Congress of Vienna, no state today can ignore its existence or disregard totally its conventions. Just as the state has dramatically altered in the last hundred years, so have the means of managing foreign relations. The growth in the number and diversity of states has been matched by a parallel proliferation in the forms of peaceful international intercourse. This dual character of all diplomatic activity creates very spe-