Silent Statecraft

Abstract

In addition to negotiation, nonverbal signaling plays a large part in diplomacy. One such nonverbal technique is diplomatic revocation, in which a sending state summons its ambassador from a receiving state. Such an act has strategic value and can be used to discourage politically reprehensible acts in the receiving state, or further delegitimize its leaders or government to the international community, especially when accompanied by other sanctions or a comprehensive political agenda. Other times, revocation is reactionary, as in the cases of recalling an ambassador for poor conduct or as a precautionary measure against dwindling security conditions in the host state. In consulting scholarly work on the nonverbal dynamics of diplomacy and using an original dataset of over 1,000 instances of diplomatic revocation, this thesis examines the efficacy of diplomatic sanctions and concludes that 53% of diplomatic revocations are not intended as politically persuasive tools.