DİPLOMASİ - Deneme Sınavı - 1

Iran is not a mediator country

The parliament

An example of a negotiation process which is used as a tactic to gain time is the talks between the government of Sri Lanka and Tamil Tigers (Weiss 2011). The fight between the government forces and Tamil Tigers, a secessionist guerrilla group, lasted more than two decades and caused thousands of casualties on both parties. The negotiations between the parties were initiated once again in early 2008, yet the failure of the process triggered a heavy assault by the government forces on Tamil Tigers in early 2009. In May 2009, the government declared victory and Tigers admitted the defeat. Later, it was understood that the government of Sri Lanka was actually using the negotiation process which was relatively calm and peaceful to prepare for a final attack to defeat the Tigers decisively and annihilate the organization.  The correct answer is C.

Obviously, state to state negotiations constitute the vast majority of all diplomatic negotiations. Interstate negotiations may be conducted on various issues. Land and sea borders, water issues (Dinar 2000), settlement of violent conflicts, trade and customs issues and other specific problems between states can be subjects of interstate diplomatic negotiations. The correct answer is E.

It should also be noted that sometimes states negotiate with political entities that they do not recognize as a sovereign state. Diplomatic negotiations with de facto states can be given examples of such interactions. For instance, the negotiations on sea borders between China and Taiwan are typical examples of this sort. Although China does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state, it did not form an obstacle for the Chinese government to contact the Taiwanese authorities directly within the context of negotiations (Saunders and Kastner 2009). The correct answer is A.

Finally, international diplomatic negotiations can include an international organization and a specific state government. Acceptance to an international organization is a typical topic for such a negotiation. Another possible subject matter for such a negotiation can be focusing on a behavior of a government which is not welcomed by international community and the international organization would initiate a process to convince that government to commit certain internationally recognized standards or principles. The nuclear negotiations between the government of Iran and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is a good example for such a negotiation that took place between a government and an authorized international organization (Sebenius and Singh 2012). The correct answer is D.

Another example of state to non-state negotiation is those taking place between governments and terror organizations and insurgency groups (Neumann 2007). For example, the negotiations between the British government and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a typical example of negotiation processes between a government and an insurgency/terrorist organization. After long talks and negotiations, in 2005, IRA was convinced to leave the guns and will continue to its actions only in legal political space. The correct answer is B.

Thirdly, sometimes international diplomatic negotiations can be among non-state actors. Such negotiation processes usually take place after multiparty civil wars (Raeymaekers et al. 2008). Such civil wars appear in weak state structure, leave destructive consequences and cause to failed-state structures. In such fragile environments, several armed groups get engage in violent conflict to fill the power vacuum. Negotiation among them usually starts following the mediation initiative by a third party. In such negotiations, parties discuss how to share power in post-conflict state-building process. Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of the former combatants constitute a major topic in a negotiation process running among insurgency groups. Peace talks initiated by ECOWAS in Liberia and Sierra Leone after protracted civil wars can be considered as good examples of negotiation processes facilitated by an international organization for the insurgency groups to discuss power-sharing in the post-conflict term (Halistoprak 2015). The correct answer is C.

What are the basic features of a mediation intervention? A giant in the mediation studies, Bercovitch goes beyond just proposing a definition and clarifies the eight characteristics of international mediation as follows (Bercovitch, 1992: 4-5):

1. Mediation is an extension and continuation of the parties’ own conflict management efforts.

2. Mediation involves the intervention of an individual, group or organization into a dispute between two or more actors.

3. Mediation is a non-coercive, non-violent and ultimately nonbinding form of intervention.

4. Mediation turns an original bilateral dispute into triadic interaction of some kind. By increasing the number of actors from two to three, mediation effects considerable structural changes and creates new focal points for an agreement.

5. A mediator enters a dispute in order to affect, change, resolve, modify or influence it in some way.

6. Mediators bring with them, consciously or otherwise, ideas, knowledge, resources and interests of their own or of the group or organization they represent. Mediators are often important actors with their own assumptions and agendas about the dispute in question. International mediators are both interested and concerned parties.

7. Mediation is a voluntary form of intervention. This means the parties retain their control over the outcome (if not always the process) of their dispute, as well as their freedom to accept or reject mediation or mediator’s proposals.

8. Mediation operates on an ad hoc basis only.

The correct answer is E.

Enforcement of diplomatic agreements is also an important topic to address. When a diplomatic agreement is signed, the final step for it to be put into practice is the ratification process. Ratification is simply the approval of an agreement by the domestic agents of a country. Ratifying body may vary depending on the regime of the signatory country. The correct answer is D.

For example, diplomatic protocols between Turkey and Armenia signed in 2009 regarding the normalization of the relations between the two countries remained inactive because neither country brought these protocols to their respective parliaments and ratified them. Recently in early 2018, Armenia declared that they cancelled the protocol unilaterally for it became obvious that both countries are not ratifying them (ABCNews, March 1, 2018).  The correct answer is C.

Diplomatic agreements may focus a wide array of issues ranging from peacemaking to visa regimes, from trade to usage of bordering rivers. We may examine several types of diplomatic agreements. One type of diplomatic agreement is multiparty treaties that regulate a general regime of a certain practice for the signatories. For instance, the set of negotiated legal documents under Schengen Agreement, which introduced a common visa regime among the EU countries and several partner countries can be considered as an example of this type. After a negotiation process, the member states to the European Union enforced this diplomatic agreement and committed to a common visa program. Later, Schengen Agreement and the visa regime regulated in it was enlarged in a manner to include several non-EU countries such as Switzerland and Norway. The correct answer is B.