Diplomacy is not only a technique of foreign policy implementation, but also an instrument by which other techniques-military and economic- can be successfully deployed. Discuss the significance of diplomacy in the conduct of foreign relations. (1994)
Diplomacy is the management of relations between states by negotiation. Hans J. Morgenthau ranked the quality of diplomacy as the most important, if most unstable, element of national power: it is to national power in peace what strategy and tactics are to it in war, because it combines the other elements into effect. The statement makes a stronger claim still: diplomacy is not one instrument beside force and economics but the medium through which they work.
Diplomacy as a technique of implementation
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) lists the core functions:
- Representation: speaking authoritatively for the state.
- Negotiation: reconciling differing interests by give and take, converting conflicting interests into complementary ones.
- Reporting: assessing a foreign society’s intentions and capabilities.
- Protection and promotion: safeguarding nationals and advancing trade, investment and culture.
It is the oldest and cheapest instrument, and the only one that can be applied and withdrawn without loss.
Diplomacy as the enabler of other techniques
Kautilya’s four upayas (sama, dana, bheda, danda) already treated conciliation, gifts, division and force as a sequence managed by statecraft.
- Military power needs diplomacy. Alliances, basing rights and coalitions are negotiated; wars end only through settlements, since force changes facts on the ground, not relationships. Thomas C. Schelling’s coercive bargaining depends on making threats legible. After Operation Sindoor (May 2025), India sent seven all-party delegations to 32 countries and the European Union to explain its use of force and isolate cross-border terrorism.
- Economic power needs diplomacy. Sanctions without a coalition leak, and sanctions without a stated exit cannot change behaviour. Trade leverage is cashed only through agreements: the India–US interim understanding of February 2026 cut the US tariff on Indian goods to 18 per cent from the 50 per cent imposed in August 2025.
- Economic security needs diplomacy. When Iran restricted passage through Hormuz from March 2026, India, which had drawn about 45 per cent of its crude through the strait, leaned on what it called its “41-plus suppliers”, a supplier base built by energy diplomacy.
- Soft power needs diplomacy. Vaccine Maitri, the International Day of Yoga and the ITEC programme turn attraction into goodwill only when channelled by missions.
Significance in contemporary foreign relations
- Rule-shaping: the New Delhi Declaration of the BRICS summit (12–13 September 2026) on IMF, World Bank and WTO reform shows diplomacy shaping rules, not only bilateral outcomes.
- Managing rivalry and coercion: the October 2024 India–China patrolling arrangement emerged from years of boundary talks, and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar took India’s concerns over the new US Russian-oil tariff law to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in September 2026.
- Strategic autonomy: Jaishankar described India’s approach in November 2019 as building “convergences and issue-based arrangements” with rival powers at once, a posture developed in The India Way (2020) that only diplomacy can sustain.
Limits
- Realists from Edward Hallett Carr onwards note that diplomacy reflects the power behind it; skill cannot substitute for capability indefinitely.
- Marxist and dependency critics see diplomacy among unequal states as a vehicle for the stronger party’s interests.
- Personalised summitry and media exposure can turn negotiation into posturing.
Conclusion
Diplomacy is both an instrument and the medium of all instruments: force and wealth deliver political results only when diplomacy makes them intelligible, assembles coalitions behind them and supplies an exit. Its significance rises with interdependence and nuclear risk, though it remains bounded by the capability it represents.