The Diplomatic Corps

Abstract

The diplomatic corps, the community of diplomats in each capital who, despite their different nationalities, nevertheless share a sense of occupational solidarity, emerged as a recognised institution in the eighteenth century.¹ It has its own rules of procedure. One of these, for example, which some find wearying,² is that visits should be exchanged between newly arrived ambassadors and established ones. Another is that the longest-serving member in the community should be its doyen, the ambassador charged with acting as spokesman to the receiving government on matters of common interest. (The exception to this is the rule that in Catholic countries the papal nuncio takes precedence, irrespective of his length of service in any particular capital. This is why papal diplomats of ambassador-equivalent status are now given a different title —‘pro-nuncio’ — when appointed to non-Catholic countries such as the United States.) As Wood and Serres sum up, ‘this corps assures, collectively, the protection of its members and the defence of its privileges’.³ It is now to be found at the seat of international organisations as well as at the seat of national governments.