ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the problem of protecting diplomatic premises and personnel against violence, as a problem of international community policy. The dispute-settlement provisions contained in some of the existing treaties, as applicable to the security of diplomats' problem, are a form of secondary inducement vis-a-vis parties to the treaty, and in some cases are rather strongly formulated. The greatest danger, that violence against diplomats will become a phenomenon which increasingly feeds on itself, is in the realm of private acts of political violence. The least that can be said is that, in the perpetrator's calculus of costs and benefits, violence against diplomats would appear to present a very attractive option relative to some other forms. During the seventies, there were a number of major efforts to build a stronger political consensus and tighten the international legal obligations of states in respect of apprehending and punishing perpetrators of violence against diplomats or other official international representatives.
