Telecommunications and Its Impact on Modern Diplomacy

Introduction to Telecommunications

Telecommunications is the science and technology of communications at a distance by electronic transmission of impulses—as by telegraph, cable, telephone, radio, or television (Lexico Publishing Group 2005). Up to the 1800s, information was sent through pigeons, horse-driven couriers, and visual systems based on observation of flags, lanterns, heliographs, and semaphore signals (Caslon 2005). These methods proved difficult to perform and were often subject to natural conditions, which interrupted transmissions during bad weather or animal movements.

Experts believe that the current Information Age began in 1844 with the invention of the telegraph by Samuel Finley Morse, which sharply separated the speed of information from the slowness of human travel (John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid 2000, as quoted in Caslon). Morse first demonstrated his telegraph in Congress in 1837 and gained funding to construct an experimental line between Washington and Baltimore. By the 1860s, all advanced economies used telegraph networks, and electronic communication became the basis for the growth of major businesses and new financial markets, which in turn affected the conduct of war and peacetime diplomacy.

In the early twentieth century, the International Telegraph Union and the Radiotelegraphy Union entered into an agreement to encourage and regulate these new international communication technologies. Later in the century, Alexander Graham Bell and associates invented the telephone, which stimulated speculative changes and corporate restructuring. By 1892, there were 240,000 telephones installed and in use in the United States, increasing to 3.13 million Bell system telephones and 2.98 million independent telephone companies by 1907 (Caslon).

The Telegraph and Early Diplomatic Change

The introduction of electric telegraphy substantially changed the conduct of diplomacy in the nineteenth century (Bureau of Public Affairs 2001). Telegraphy converted messages into electric impulses that traveled instantaneously by wire to distant receivers, where they were converted into readable texts. It was already being used by European foreign ministries in the early 1850s, but it first became an important tool in US diplomacy after the successful sending of a transatlantic cable in 1866.

The most essential feature of the telegraph was its speed: messages traveled like lightning across continents and oceans and became available within hours of sending, despite the time needed for coding and handling. Policymakers found it quite useful for swiftly responding to crises at a distance—situations about which, in previous periods, they would have remained ignorant for weeks. But this very speed also placed pressure on political leaders, because the same message reached the media and the public just as quickly. It challenged foreign ministries that had often used delay as a tool in confronting international crises, relying on long pauses in earlier forms of communication to allow tempers to cool and to pursue careful, methodical, and more creative approaches to problem situations.

Telegraphy also centralized the work of foreign ministers (Bureau of Public Affairs 2001). Before these rapid technologies, foreign ministers could spend months away from their central superiors, during which time they had to exercise considerable power—even acting as policymakers—because they had to make pressing decisions before they could receive instruction. The introduction of the telegraph reduced the independence of diplomats along with their prestige and reputation. When instructions came slowly, diplomats exercised some autonomy over difficult situations; the telegraph shortened that window and reduced the chances of rendering major wrong decisions. Foreign policy is a high-risk endeavor in which any miscalculation can lead to disaster—whether war or diplomatic defeat—and so foreign ministers must exercise extreme caution.

Nevertheless, foreign ministers adapted to the telegraph. In 1859, Britain's Foreign Office assigned resident clerks to handle telegrams after business hours. The US Department of State established a telegraph office in 1866 following its first successful transatlantic transmission. Diplomats learned to write concisely to reduce telegraph costs and used codes to protect the contents of their messages from spies. New technologies in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries—such as networked computers and fiber optic cables—eventually took the telegraph's place in diplomacy. But it was telegraphy that first introduced the high-speed era of electricity into diplomatic practice (Bureau of Public Affairs 2001).

Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Communications

Disadvantages associated with the use of the telegraph and telephone included damaging physical effects such as baldness, reduced potency, increased blood pressure, anemia, sterility, and neurasthenia; risk of exposure to magnetic rays, electrocution, and unusual psychological experiences; social erosion; lazy thinking habits; weakened national moral fiber; criminal activity; psychological addiction; and poor grammar (Caslon 2005). Telecom operators also confronted difficulties such as disconnections, deception, and betrayal.

Beyond the phenomenon of speed of transmission, electronic communications are also versatile, accurate, and capable of sending virtually simultaneous feedback (Revision-Notes 2003). The facsimile machine, or fax, can send text, numbers, graphics, artwork, and photographs together in a single transmission. These communications convey accurate data while instantaneously reading and checking electronic circuits that operate between sending and receiving equipment during high-speed transmission. Computerized telecommunications allow virtually simultaneous information exchange and responses. Their major disadvantages include an increasing volume of information that personnel are unable to absorb, costs of development and hardware investments, legal implications, and emotional distress over the irretrievable loss of sent data.

Diplomacy in the Information Age

One additional method of internal electronic communication is video conferencing. This is an interactive tool that uses video, computing, and communication technologies to allow people in different locations to meet face-to-face and accomplish what those meeting in the same room can (Revision-Notes 2003).

Diplomacy involves verbal discussion with the intent of influencing and transmitting a position or negotiating on a particular issue or situation for a mutually acceptable result (Brahm 2003). Many call diplomacy an art because it is a blending of empathy, persuasion, bluster, and cajoling. Diplomacy was originally a method of conducting interstate relations—consisting of discussions and negotiations between heads of state or their representatives—for the purpose of serving national interests. Most observers recognize that these efforts are not always sincere, but that they are always aimed at keeping channels of communication open, especially in disputes and violent situations. Modern diplomacy is more complicated, involving intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as recent developments in the globalization of communication and transportation.

Routine diplomacy consists of interaction among state and official actors in an official capacity, with the authority to act on behalf of the state or IGO they represent (Brahm 2003). This form has been called Track I diplomacy, in which issues do not reach crisis level. The state or entity represented may have interests in a particular dispute or situation and wishes to incline the other party to favor it. Usually, third parties get involved in discussions with the common aim of reaching a resolution or keeping communications open. Track II diplomacy takes over when Track I fails.