Inglês — CACD 2003

It has become clear that preventive diplomacy is only one of a class of actions that can be taken to prevent disputes from turning into armed conflict. Others in this class are preventive deployment of military and(or) police personnel; preventive humanitarian action, for example, to manage and resolve a refugee situation in a sensitive frontier area; and preventive peace-building, which itself comprises an extensive menu of possible actions in the political, economic and social fields, applicable especially to possible internal conflicts.

All these preventive actions share the following characteristics: they all depend on early warning that the risk of conflict exists; they require information about the causes and likely nature of the potential conflict so that the appropriate preventive action can be identified; and they require the consent of the party or parties within whose jurisdiction the preventive action is to take place.

The element of timing is crucial. The potential conflict should be ripe for the preventive action proposed. Timing is also an important consideration in peace-making and peace-keeping. The prevention, control and resolution of a conflict is like the prevention, control and cure of a disease. If treatment is prescribed at the wrong moment in the evolution of a disease, the patient does not improve, and the credibility of both the treatment and the physician who prescribed it is compromised.

Internet: <http://www.un.org/Docs/SG/SG-Rpt/ch4b.htm> (with adaptations).

Diplomacy, the conduct of inter-state relations, is an old business, and has remained surprisingly constant across three millennia and five continents. Despite vast changes in its social and economic context, its goals and methods have remained strikingly similar over time, so as the shape of the character of the people active in it.

Perpetually, it has the same core activities: representation, negotiation, observation, reporting, analysis and policy advice. Its meat and drink is politics, trade promotion, economic relations, and consular protection. But nowadays, its scope has widened to cover the whole range of government business in a global society.

The diplomat operates in a field of tensions, between war and peace, depending on the relations between the sending and receiving state. He must be adaptable to both. Psychologically, he is always located somewhere along this spectrum, part man of peace, seeking a productive balance of interests, part man of power, seeking national advantage in the global struggle.

He is by nature ambiguous: a voyager between two worlds, an interpreter between alien cultures, a man who can see both points of view and find common ground. He is a front-line officer who risks being shot in the chest or in the back.

Internet: <http://www.diplomat21.com/diplomacy/necessity.htm> (with adaptations).

Based on text I, judge the following items.

Diplomacy, the conduct of inter-state relations, is an old business, and has remained surprisingly constant across three millennia and five continents. Despite vast changes in its social and economic context, its goals and methods have remained strikingly similar over time, so as the shape of the character of the people active in it.

Perpetually, it has the same core activities: representation, negotiation, observation, reporting, analysis and policy advice. Its meat and drink is politics, trade promotion, economic relations, and consular protection. But nowadays, its scope has widened to cover the whole range of government business in a global society.

The diplomat operates in a field of tensions, between war and peace, depending on the relations between the sending and receiving state. He must be adaptable to both. Psychologically, he is always located somewhere along this spectrum, part man of peace, seeking a productive balance of interests, part man of power, seeking national advantage in the global struggle.

He is by nature ambiguous: a voyager between two worlds, an interpreter between alien cultures, a man who can see both points of view and find common ground. He is a front-line officer who risks being shot in the chest or in the back.

Internet: <http://www.diplomat21.com/diplomacy/necessity.htm> (with adaptations).