Track-two diplomacy

Examples

Sources

• Montville, J. (1991). "Track Two Diplomacy: The Arrow and the Olive Branch." The Psychodynamics of International Relations, 2.
• Montville, J. V. (2006). "Track two diplomacy: The work of healing history." Whitehead J. Dipl. & Int'l Rel., 7, 15.
• Kaye, D. D. (2007). Talking to the enemy: Track two diplomacy in the Middle East and South Asia
• Diamond, L., & McDonald, J. W. (1996). Multi-Track Diplomacy: A Systems Approach to Peace. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press.

June 12, 1994

Examples

May 1, 1960

With the United States and North Korea on the brink of a nuclear crisis, former President Jimmy Carter journeys to Pyongyang to extract Kim Il Sung’s promise to halt his nuclear program.

An American U-2 spy plane in Soviet airspace is shot down, leading to a full-blown Cold War diplomatic crisis. President Dwight Eisenhower’s friend Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday Review, convenes a gathering of unofficial American and Soviet delegations at Dartmouth College.

Limitations of Track Two Diplomacy

• Limited ability to influence foreign policy and political power structures
• Long period of time to yield results.
• Limited ability to influence change at the war stage of a conflict.
• Not enough resources for sustained leverage during negotiations and the implementation of agreements
• Ineffective in authoritarian regimes

Unofficial Interventions with Unofficial Actors

'Non-state actors' or professional non-governmental conflict resolution practitioners and theorists can include:

• academics,
• religious leaders
• retired senior officials
• NGO officials

Track two diplomacy

Strengths of Track Two Diplomacy

• not a substitute for track one diplomacy
• assists official actors to manage and resolve conflicts
• explores possible solutions derived from the public view
• is used without the requirements of formal negotiation or bargaining for advantage.

Public diplomacy

• The communication with and dissemination of propaganda to foreign public to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence

• Government-sponsored programs intended to inform or influence public opinion in other countries

- Actors can express their own viewpoints on issues without any political or constitutional power

- Actors do not have the fear of losing constituencies

- The socially, economically, and politically disenfranchised groups have a platform to air their views on how peace can be achieved

- Effective at the pre-violent conflict, post violent conflict stages; for violent conflict prevention and post-conflict peacebuilding.

- Involves grassroots and middle leadership who are in direct contact with the conflict

Track Two Diplomacy

The term was coined by Joseph V. Montville in "Foreign Policy According to Freud" (1981).

Track-two policy is an unofficial, informal interaction between members of adversary groups or nations that aim to develop strategies, to influence public opinion, organize human and material resources in ways that might help resolve their conflict.

Joseph V. Montville

Track-two diplomacy

Made by Chsherbakova Svetlana