ABSTRACT
In this chapter I wish to examine the relation between diplomacy and the power of the states which conduct the dialogue. Inside a state, as we saw in the last chapters, there are laws and governmental instructions; there is a general disposition of the subjects or citizens to obey these; and machinery for their enforcement where they are disobeyed. In the international arena, where there is no common government to speak or act with this generally recognized authority, states speak with such authority as their ability and willingness to act may give them. Such ability and willingness derive ultimately from their power. This is the case both when they speak individually and when they speak in association with other states in the system. The extent to which one state can persuade another to act or refrain from acting in a certain way depends on the power which each of them commands, including the will to use it, and the extent to which other states support them-that is, lend their power to one side or the other. In the last resort an individual state, or a group of states acting together, or perhaps the collectivity of states acting in the name of international society itself, may use economic pressure and finally military force to make another state behave in a certain way. That is why in the earlier period of the European states system, war was called the ultimate argument, the ultimate reasoning, of kings. But force is only the ultimate resort. Until that extreme point is reached, or at least until a state resorts to economic sanctions, its ability to persuade others will depend not on its power in any absolute and quantified sense, but on how other states perceive its power and its will to use it. Diplomatic persuasion is therefore not a matter of mathematical calculation; it is not an exact science; it remains a matter of human skills and judgements.
