KSR Diplomacy Diary: 3. Foreign Ministries

1. Foreign Ministries We turn to be the contemporary foreign ministry tasks. Some 50 years back it handled contacts with the external world, on behalf of other ministries and agencies. That gatekeeper role is gone; it has become a coordinator, as explained earlier; this means harmonizing with them, and adding value to their agendas. What are its main tasks? First, it manages diplomacy. It is the prime actor on political diplomacy, and as the lead role, supervised by the office of the head of government. It works with other ministries (finance, foreign trade, industry) on economic diplomacy. Similarly, with public diplomacy it has a seat at the decision table, but it is the information, and communication ministries, media agencies and even the tourism ministry that mainly handle the country image and public communication. On consular and diaspora work, it is again the prime agency, helping citizens when they travel or work abroad, and engages diaspora is for the benefit of the home country. It also manages functional units, such as the legal and treaties division, the historical unit, and policy planning. Second, the foreign ministry’s only real resource are its diplomats and staff; human resource management is crucial. This includes assessing performance, handling the promotions, and dealing with grievances. Increasingly, the training function becomes vital, as lifelong training is today’s norm. Third, knowledge management is another key task, understanding how foreign countries, and ‘mining’ the memory banks of diplomats. No less important is the internal ‘intranet’ that securely connects the entire diplomatic network.