Diplomatic rank
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Traditional diplomacy
Until the early 19th Century, each European nation had its own system of diplomatic rank. The relative ranks of diplomats from different nations had been a source of considerable dispute, made more so by the insistence of major nations to have their diplomats ranked higher than those of minor nations, to be reflected in table seatings etc..
In an attempt to resolve the problem, the Congress of Vienna of 1815 formally established an international system of diplomatic ranks. The four ranks within the system were:
1. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, or simply Ambassador. A diplomatic mission headed by an ambassador would be known as an Embassy. Equivalent, and in some traditions primus inter pares, is the Papal nuncio
2. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, or simply Envoy. A diplomatic mission headed by an envoy would be called a Legation.
3. Minister Resident, or simply Minister. A diplomatic mission headed by a minister resident would also be called a Legation.
4. Chargé d'affaires, or simply Chargé. As the French title suggests, a chargé d'affaires would be in charge of an embassy's or a legation's affairs in the (usually temporary) absence of a more senior diplomat.
Of the four diplomatic ranks, only the ambassador represents the head of state (rather than the government as is the case for the other ranks); originally only the ambassador was entitled to use the honorary title "His/Her Excellency".
As it turned out, this system of diplomatic rank did nothing to solve the problem of the nations' precedence. The appropriate diplomatic ranks used would be determined by the precedence among the nations; thus the exchanges of ambassadors (the highest diplomatic rank) would be reserved among major nations. In contrast, a major nation would probably send just an envoy to a minor nation, who in return would send an envoy to the major nation. As a result, the United States did not use the rank of ambassador until the end of the 19th Century.
At each posting (usually the national capital) one of the diplomats is recognized as the one in line -in practice rather a protocoloary honor- to act as spokesperson for all, known as dean of the corps diplomatique (often by seniority, in some catholic nations ex officio the papal nuncio) or Marshall of diplomacy
By the end of World War II, it was no longer considered acceptable to treat some nations as inferior to others. Consequently the use of the ranks of envoy and minister resident for legation chiefs gradually ceased.
In modern diplomatic practice there are a number of diplomatic ranks below Ambassador. These are in terms of rank:
- Ambassador
- Minister
- Minister-counselor (where there are several Ministers in a single Embassy, the most senior of which is simply Minister and the others the lesser rank)
- Counselor
- First Secretary
- Second Secretary
- Third Secretary
- Attaché
Consular career
There are also consular ranks for officials serving in a consular post or carrying out strictly consular duties within the 'consular section' of a diplomatic post, with a rather similar, but formally non-diplomatic status (this allows a wider application, being less politically sensitive, of services rendered to private citizens, enterprises etc.). These are:
-
- Consul-General
- Consul
- Vice-consul
- Honorary Consul
Multilateral diplomacy
Furthermore, outside this traditional pattern of bilateral diplomacy, as a rule on a permanent residency basis (though sometimes doubling elsewhere), certain ranks and positions were created specifically for multilateral diplomacy:
- a permanent representative is the equivalent of an ambassador, normally of that rank, but accredited to an international body (mainly by member - and possibly observer states), not to a head of state
- a special ambassador is a government's specialist diplomat in a particular field, often traveling around the globe
- the U.S. Trade Representative is a diplomat of cabinet rank, in charge of US delegations in multilateral trade negotiations (since 1962)
- the UN Secretary general personally mandates Special Envoys for a particular field, e.g. Africa's long-term AIDS-problem, or ad hoc as for a (civil) war zone
- the EU appoints various Special representatives ad hoc, e.g. in 2005 for the violent repression of political unrest in post-soviet Uzbekistan
