Special Missions

Abstract

Special missions are missions sent abroad to conduct diplomacy with a limited purpose and usually for a limited time. Led by special envoys, their employment was the normal manner of conducting foreign relations until resident diplomacy began to take root during the late fifteenth century. Advances in air travel led to their resurgence in the anxious days preceding and following the outbreak of World War II, and, since then, it has been unstoppable. Special missions are a feature of normal diplomatic relationships, but they are particularly valuable to the diplomacy between hostile states, not least in breaking the ice between them — as when American National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger flew secretly to Beijing, capital of the PRC, in July 1971. What are the advantages of special missions used in the absence of diplomatic relations? How are they variously composed? When should they be sent in public, and when in secret?