The Impact
of Information Technology on Preparation & Support of Small
State Participation in Economic Negotiations
Prof. Dietrich Kappeler
Director
Diplomatic Studies Programme
Graduate Institute of International Studies
Presentation for the Colloquium Entitled "Diplomacy
After 2000: Small States and Negotiating Space in the New
International Trading Environment" organised by the Institute of
International Relations , UWI for the 8th
and 9th of October,1996
Contents
Introduction
1. The creation of networks
2. Access to and perusal of
materials
3. Interaction
between those involved in a negotiation
4. Preliminary exchanges and
pre-negotiations in the framework of multilateral diplomacy
5. Direct contacts among
governments and between governments and international
institutions
Concluding remarks
End Notes
Information Technology is creating an entirely new situation for small States desirous to become or remain active participants in international negotiations. So far, they were inconvenienced by difficulties in getting hold of relevant informations to prepare for such negotiations and in properly processing and analysing such information, as well as by constraints regarding available personnel resources and their proper exploitation. There were also financial constraints affecting the number and size of missions abroad and the participation of suitably composed delegations at international meetings. Information Technology is changing all this. We are going to consider successively the creation of networks, new forms of access to materials and new means for their perusal, new possibilities of interaction among persons involved in international negotiations, new possibilities of handling pre-negotiation consultations in the case of multilateral diplomacy, and the gradual emergence of direct contacts between governments and international institutions and their secretariats.
The days when computerisation was understood as meaning the
use of computers in offices for the processing of texts are past.
Computers are now linked in networks at a variety of levels.
This means that all participants in a network have simultaneous
access to available materials and that they can work jointly on
the drafting of a given document from their individual
workstations. Basic networks are integrated into major ones. Each
ministry is thus forming a network of its own. Ministries and
other independent administrations are in turn linked in a network
that should ideally encompass the whole apparatus of government.
But networking should not stop at national borders, especially
those of very small nations. In this respect, the Internet is the
ultimate form of networking, as it is completely delocalised and
decentralised. This has already led certain entities to make
their own internal network part of the Internet and thus to avoid
the need of moving in and out of the latter according to whether
one wants to interact locally or with outside partners1
. Most governments are still diffident with regard to real or
suspected dangers inherent in being linked up with the Internet.
They prefer to set up their own networks linking diplomatic
missions abroad with headquarters basically through e-mail and by
means of timed telecom contacts of limited duration whose
confidentiality is ensured by traditional scrambling devices.
Some countries have established their own networks using the
Internet approach. These are known as Intranets.
The UN system has created several networks of its own, using satellite facilities. This is particularly helpful in regions where ordinary telecommunications are difficult. The UN offers access to its networks to regional governments, including for linking up with their missions abroad. At the same time, the UN system is also linked up with the Internet, which does not compartimentalise according to existing sub-systems and thus offers global access to all facilities to anyone who has established connectivity.
2. Access to and perusal of
materials
One perennial problem of diplomatic establishments has been
easy access to required documents. In-house, archives and
libraries tended to be poorly organised. In the case of the
latter, acquisitions were haphazard because librarians relied
mainly on orders emanating from interested users. All too often
this meant that necessary texts had to be ordered first in order
to be used for the preparation of a negotiating brief. This
usually meant long and sometimes fatal delays. Access to other
local facilities such as central libraries and national archives
was equally problematic. Agents had to go to such institutions
which were often located at a considerable distance from their
offices. Access to books and especially confidential documents
was governed by complicated administrative rules that often made
it impossible to get the right materials within the required
time-frame.
Access to materials outside the country was even more
difficult, especially for small island countries. Great delays
had to be expected simply for the transport of such materials to
their destination. If a country could maintain a permanent
mission at UN headquarters and in Brussels, it might be possible
for the latter to collect urgently needed data on the spot and to
forward them by fax. But this required the availability of
competent officers, who would do the collecting, and involved
considerable expense for their transmission.
Computerisation and networking has changed all this. In-house
archives of foreign ministries are being replaced by databases on
computers. The same happens in other ministries. Written
documents can be scanned and transmitted by e-mail. Over properly
functioning networks direct access to databases is becoming
possible. Libraries offer important texts on CD-ROM and even
provide access to the database containing them to authorised
users. Academic institutions and indeed international
organisations themselves constantly increase the number of
documents and texts available in computerised form. These can be
accessed over internal networks or the Internet 2.
Just as spectacular are developments in the processing and perusal of documentary materials. One of the great problems, especially for small diplomatic establishments, is the separation of the useful from the useless in a constant flood of documents inundating the world, and the selection and comparison of those parts within long and repetitive documents which are actually needed. Much of this can be done now by the use of appropriate software programmes. Increasingly, rather than discarding a lot of possibly unnecessary documents, such programmes allow for the extraction of what is specifically needed. Hypertext facilities also allow the inclusion of annotations in a given document for the benefit of other users. As shown, even access to documents is now possible over electronic facilities, thus cutting delays, avoiding personal collection by representatives and enormously reducing transmission costs. Consultation over the Internet is possible while working on a given file, with no time interval involved.
3. Interaction
between those involved in a negotiation.
The traditional approach was to prepare a brief for
negotiators who took it along for negotiations abroad. If a
negotiation took place at home, they had the possibility to
consult with the authors of the brief over the telephone or by
going to see them. When abroad, communications problems would in
fact cut off many negotiators from their home base. If the
negotiation was to be conducted by diplomats posted abroad, they
rarely were in a position to comment on briefs in the process of
elaboration and had to adhere to them as best they could once
they got them. Hence the frequent instances where a negotiator
had to ask for a suspension of the negotiation because he lacked
proper instructions and had to obtain them from headquarters.
This might take a long time and, in multilateral negotiations,
often meant that the representative was unable at the critical
moment to formally state his country's position e.g. in a vote.
Over computer networks, interaction among those who should
participate in the preparation of a negotiating brief becomes
possible irrespective of their physical location. Only time
differentials still interfere with easy communication. Drawing up
a negotiating brief, even of great complexity, need no longer be
a matter of long exchanges of written communications, meetings of
representatives of government offices and other actors involved
in the issues, and a complex decision-making process. Drafts
appear on the monitors of all participants and can be amended in
the course of simultaneous working sessions. The only loss may be
the fact that successive versions are destroyed as a result of
being worked over until the final text is agreed on. But this can
be remedied by the simple means of saving successive versions
separately from the amended text. Where corresponding financial
means are available, mute briefing sessions in the form of
textual exchanges on the monitors can be replaced with
interactive audio-visual sessions.
In the course of a given negotiation, wherever it may take place, constant contact with the home base can be maintained over networks and briefs can be adjusted easily as the negotiation progresses. Individual negotiators who find themselves in places where no mission of their country exists can communicate with the home base from their hotel room, over telephone lines or, where access to the Internet is possible, over the latter. This means that not only during the preparatory period but throughout the actual negotiation the negotiators and the concerned offices at home can interact on a basis of equality in determining negotiating strategies and tactics and in adjusting negotiating goals.
4. Preliminary exchanges and
pre-negotiations in the framework of multilateral diplomacy.
Such exchanges and pre-negotiations may be bilateral or
multilateral in a limited framework, e.g. the Commonwealth
Caribbean. For bilateral contacts, so far one side had to send
someone to meet the other. Today, electronic contact may replace
this. Much depends on the level of available facilities. The
ideal solution of interactive audiovisual contacts is not
available in most cases. But online exchanges in textual form can
replace this to some extent and would at least be preferable to
no contacts or only exchanges of written messages over the fax.
Multilateral contacts of a preliminary nature are more
difficult to organize in the absence of audiovisual interface
facilities for all involved. But even here conference on-line
contacts in textual form could be used, at least to deal with
minor matters.
In the case of ACP-EU negotiations, preliminary contacts so far required briefing permanent representatives in Brussels, who would then attempt to set up a joint negotiating platform. If they failed, they had to report back to headquarters, wait for a reaction from there, and then meet again. As a first stage to more efficiency, one might imagine that at each meeting the representatives would be in online contact with their headquarters, thus allowing the latter to react quickly whenever this would be required. Time differentials may make this a bit awkward for member countries situated in the Pacific, but sacrificing a night's sleep for more effective action may still prove to be a viable choice.
5. Direct contacts among
governments and between governments and international
institutions
Such possibilities are of particular importance for very small
countries with a limited diplomatic establishment. In the past
there have been examples of heads of State and responsible
ministers, or even high officials, communicating directly over
the telephone. This was resented by administrations in general
and diplomatic missions in particular, as more often than not no
records were kept of such communications, nor was anyone informed
of them in some instances.
International networks and particularly the Internet nowadays
offer the possibility of direct contacts of a more sophisticated
nature. First of all, written messages can be conveyed directly
to the computer of their destinatary. Copies of such exchanges
will remain at both ends and usually be accessible to all offices
involved in the transaction. This may not always suffice, as no
face-to-face personal contacts are involved and thus any form of
unofficial conversations that often provide the basis of
negotiating breakthroughs is excluded. For countries which can
afford audio-visual equipment for interactive contacts, a degree
of personal involvement will become possible again. But off-the-
record exchanges will remain a problem. This is why a degree of
traditional diplomacy will always be needed when it comes to the
building of good human relationships and to their exploitation
for informal exchanges.
As regards contacts between small countries and international
institutions, the impact of Information Technology will be even
greater. The problem of transmission of documents was already
mentioned. Over networks, documents in hypertext format can be
consulted and only what is really needed will then be copied and
stored. Reports of innumerable meetings can also be consulted and
those parts which are really useful can be copied and stored. It
is easy to see that this will greatly enhance, and possibly even
make only possible for very small countries, the constant
involvement in developments within the framework of free trade
areas that is normally required.
One of the essential tasks of diplomats accredited to
international organisations is to cultivate relationships at
secretariat level in order to feed their country's concerns into
the preparatory work which will lead to the working documents to
be considered at the actual negotiation. In the same way advance
notice can be obtained of incipient developments affecting the
interests of a country. Human relationships cannot easily be
cultivated over the Internet, but it will be possible to identify
those who are working on the issues of concern to the country in
question and to provide them with the desired inputs, or those in
a position to provide advance information over the network.
For the time being, personal attendance at important meetings will still be required if the sending country's views are to be put across and contacts are to be made for the purpose of lobbying in favour of those views. At smaller gatherings, the submission of views through electronic approaches may suffice or at least represent the only alternative to not participating at all. If a sufficient number of small countries would advocate this, it might be possible to envisage online consultations in textual form. At a later stage, presence over interactive audio- visual media might become an acceptable alternative for personal appearance of delegates. Already today, casting a distance vote is easily feasible from a technical point of view. Whether it would also satisfy existing rules of procedure is another matter.
Most of the points made in this contribution concern the impact of Information Technology on negotiating capacity and procedures in general. But as the selected examples show, this impact will be of particular importance in the field of trade negotiations. As the number of institutions involved at global, regional and subregional levels and the complexity of issues to be handled increase, reliance on traditional methods would practically exclude small countries from even following properly what is going on, let alone participating actively in that process. The contributions that follow this overview are likely to make this abundantly clear. Contrary to a widespread opinion, computerisation is not a very expensive process, especially where small governmental entities are involved. Communication over the Internet is practically free. All this means that the countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean should as eagerly embrace these new possibilities as did Malta. The Institute of International Relations is now equipped with the means of assisting them in such endeavours 3 . It is suggested, that these computerisation programmes include from the outset the linking up with regional institutions such as CARICOM and the OECS. This would most likely result in a quantum jump of the region's ability to influence events and decisions wherever its fundamental interests are affected.
1. The Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies, which has
done much pioneering work in the field of IT applications in
diplomacy, has incorporated its LAN into the Internet thanks to
the availability of a 24 hour connectivity. Its students can
therefore work as groups on a given project while constantly
searching over the Internet for suitable inputs.
2. In relation with the computerisation of the Foreign
Ministry of Malta, which is entrusted to it, the Unit for IT
Applications in Diplomacy at the Mediterranean Academy of
Diplomatic Studies has assembled a database of more than 2000
legal documents, which can be accessed over http://www.diplomacy.edu.
3. Under a programme financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, institutions associated under the Diplomatic Studies Programmes (Geneva, Trinidad, Yaoundé, Nairobi, Malta) are linked in a network using the Internet and equipped to assist foreign ministries in drawing up and implementing programmes for their computerization. In this last regard, the action of the 5 institutions is supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat, which has become associated with the programme through its COMNET-IT facility.
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