By Tom Cargill, Wilton Park CEO, and Olivier Evans, Principal of His Majesty’s Diplomatic Service College
Since the 19th century, professionalised ministries of foreign affairs have largely been the accepted bureaucratic mechanisms via which countries’ routine foreign affairs have been formally conducted – both with each other and with the proliferating mini and multilateral bodies which have emerged over the past long century.
Various challenges and challengers have emerged to this MFA led model, and there is a healthy literature on the extent to which various MFAs, including the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), have exercised actual agency or influence compared to other parts of government. Various enquiries and reports at moments of perceived crisis or failure have examined this question in different countries and at different times, but overall it has been accepted that MFAs are required, at the very least as necessary bureaucratic clearing mechanisms for routine diplomatic process, and at best as curators of national engagement with international issues.
Today this question is alive again, and facing many if not all countries simultaneously, whether they are engaging with it or not. This time however, the drivers are as global and local as they are national, with four key reasons standing out:
- Multilateralism is in crisis. Many existing multilateral bodies are facing crises of funding, purpose, leadership or all three, and new bodies – formal, informal or somewhere in between – are emerging to manage a world that is transforming quickly and unpredictably. Not all these bodies are mutually compatible or even supportive of common interests. MFAs require new skills and ways of working to engage with, understand and shape this new world order and its key stakeholders.
- Domestic and international issues are collapsing ever more into each other. Historically, many MFAs have tended to be treated, and to think of themselves, as distinct and somewhat apart from the rest of domestic government bureaucracy. An understanding of domestic issues has often been assumed rather than required, trained or recruited for by MFAs. This is particularly true of financial, business and economic skills, which have been increasingly central to foreign affairs and yet have increasingly dominated finance ministries and heads of government rather than being embraced by MFAs. Terms of service and opportunities for advancement often differ for domestic and foreign policy diplomatic roles. To the extent that it ever made sense, it no longer does, but this culture of difference is pervasive and sticky.
- The rise of city, substate and non-state diplomacy. Cities and larger regions have long had international presence distinct from their nation state, but the rise of global cities, uncertainty at national level, the fusing of international and domestic issues described above, and a renewed push to devolve power closer to local people, has led to some regions within nation states developing more ambitious international relations. Large companies and wealthy individuals are also increasingly assertive internationally. This can represent a real challenge to MFAs, who have traditionally been the jealous guardians of nation states’ reserved rights to exercise foreign policy. Understanding, let alone engaging with such complex nationwide variations in capacity, ambition and priorities requires skills and aptitudes in some cases very different to the traditional diplomat’s toolkit.
- Technology is changing some of the fundamentals of how international diplomacy works. The experience of remote working over the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated the value, but also the limitations, of virtual engagement. The use of messaging apps has sped up interaction, but understanding and analysis has fallen behind and not widely benefited from technical support. For deep relationship building and negotiation of the type essential to develop and maintain trusted relationships on complex issues, diplomacy will remain a contact sport requiring in-person engagement. Yet much routine work can take place remotely and increasingly supported by AI. The effective use of cutting-edge technology is also becoming a key differentiator for those countries seeking to be at the top table of diplomacy, trade and military might, where physical and economic size may not necessarily deliver a straight line through to global influence. Maximising the use of such technologies will require a very different skillset to those historically recruited for in MFAs.
There are other factors shaping MFA reform efforts too. Cost is a big issue, particularly in those countries facing low growth or austerity. Related cuts to international development are also a significant factor, as much of the bureaucracy and skills required to disburse and manage aid programmes are no longer required, and are being replaced in some cases by expertise in more blended financial mechanisms to support growth and investment in less developed countries.
Some countries are ahead of others in recognising these changes and undertaking the deep and difficult reform required to reposition for a new era of challenges. There is no one size fits all and most efforts have come with pain and considerable lessons learnt. Learning from each other is key, and this is where both Wilton Park and His Majesty’s Diplomatic Service College, as part of the FCDO, are providing ever more crucial facilitation, experience and access to comparative insights and expertise, via the Global Network Programme, Global Impact Group, and other new networks.
The fundamental shifts in global power we are seeing play out have arguably been emerging for decades or longer. As these trends collide, we experience them as crises. MFAs, and countries which seek to understand and respond, will be better prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow on behalf of our taxpayers. The FCDO, for all its imperfections, has started this difficult journey early to ensure the UK, and its allies, remain as well positioned internationally today as at any time in our history. The next step is to more actively convene a sharing of experience and learning between MFAs; making them more effective, compatible and mutually supportive for collective success.