Secret diplomacy
Name(s):
Back-channel diplomacy
Incidence
In 1993 the UK government was obliged to admit to having had secret contacts with the Irish Republican Army, despite having long denied that such contacts would ever take place, despite evidence to the contrary. In consequence the government was accused of double-dealing and deliberate barefaced lying.
In 1994, while the Clinton administration was publicly defending the UN embargo against Bosnia, the USA secretly approved shipments of arms from Iran to Bosnia, and concealed this from Congress.
Counter-claim
1. As illustrated by the final stages in the negotiation of the Middle East peace agreement in 1993, the secret diplomacy facilitated by Norway avoided the destabilizing effects of excessive media coverage which had previously jeopardized the negotiation process.
2. Secret diplomacy has legitimate uses as when Henry Kissinger prepared the historic first visit of Richard Nixon to china.
Broader
Value(s)
Type
(F) Fuzzy exceptional problems