---
title: "Practice of Diplomacy: Missions & Negotiation"
description: "Master the legal architecture of diplomatic missions, the Vienna regime on privileges and protocol, and the mechanics of negotiation for career exams."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/lessons/exam-diplomacy-statecraft-the-practice-of-diplomacy-missions-protocol-negotiation"
---

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The practice of diplomacy: missions, protocol, negotiation

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# The practice of diplomacy: missions, protocol, negotiation

The legal architecture of diplomatic missions, the Vienna regime on privileges and protocol, and the mechanics of negotiation for career-track exams.

## The treaty backbone: the Vienna Conventions

The modern practice of diplomacy rests on two codifying treaties drafted by the International Law Commission and adopted at Vienna. The **Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR), concluded 18 April 1961 and in force 24 April 1964**, governs permanent diplomatic missions. The **Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR), concluded 24 April 1963 and in force 19 March 1967**, governs consular posts. A candidate must keep these distinct: a mission conducts political representation and negotiation; a consulate handles nationals, visas, and commercial work, and its officers enjoy only functional (official-acts) immunity.

## Functions of a mission

**VCDR Article 3** enumerates the five classic functions of a diplomatic mission: representing the sending State; protecting its interests and those of its nationals within limits of international law; negotiating with the receiving State; ascertaining by lawful means conditions and developments and reporting to the sending government; and promoting friendly relations and developing economic, cultural, and scientific links. These functions map onto the daily work of an embassy's political, economic, public-diplomacy, and consular sections.

## Establishment, agrément and persona non grata

Diplomatic relations and the establishment of permanent missions proceed **by mutual consent (VCDR Article 2)**. Before a head of mission is posted, the receiving State must grant **agrément (Article 4)**; it may refuse without giving reasons. Classes of heads of mission are fixed by **Article 14**: ambassadors and nuncios accredited to heads of State; envoys and ministers; and chargés d'affaires accredited to foreign ministers. Precedence within each class runs from the date of presentation of credentials (**Article 16**), the durable legacy of the **Congress of Vienna's Règlement of 19 March 1815**, which abolished precedence quarrels by rank-and-date.

The receiving State's principal sanction is **declaration of persona non grata (Article 9)**: it may at any time, without explanation, declare a diplomat unacceptable, whereupon the sending State must recall the person. Mass PNG expulsions are a recognised instrument of statecraft — the United Kingdom expelled 23 Russian diplomats after the **Salisbury Novichok poisoning of March 2018**, triggering coordinated expulsions of over 150 Russian officials by allied States.

## Inviolability and immunity

The **mission premises are inviolable (Article 22)**: agents of the receiving State may not enter without consent, and the State has a special duty to protect them — the duty whose breach the ICJ condemned in *United States Diplomatic and Consular Staff in Tehran (Iran)*, judgment of 24 May 1980. The **diplomatic bag may not be opened or detained (Article 27)**. A diplomatic agent enjoys **personal inviolability (Article 29)** and full **immunity from criminal jurisdiction (Article 31)**, immunity that belongs to the sending State and may be **waived only by it (Article 32)**.

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