Mini Countries Abroad: How Embassies Work

This video was made possible thanks to Audible. Get your first audiobook for free at the link in the description. Embassies are the vehicles through which diplomacy is carried out. They are the physical manifestations of

countries

abroad

and are crucial tools in the field of international relations. These can range in size from small, such as the UK embassy in Mongolia, which has only a handful of staff, to enormous, such as the US embassy in Baghdad, a complex physically as large as Vatican City which reached a peak of 16,000 employees during the Iraq War. Large and influential

countries

will have

embassies

in almost all other countries;

The United States, for example, has diplomatic missions in every UN-recognized country in the world, except Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Do

mini

ca, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. , Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Bhutan and North Korea. On the other hand, smaller, less influential countries might have only a few

embassies

: Tuvalu, for example, only has diplomatic missions in New Zealand, Fiji, Taiwan, the European Union in Belgium and the United Nations in New York. You see, there are embassies to non-state organizations, namely the UN and the EU. You can even have embassies to UN agencies; There is an American diplomat in Rome with the lengthy title of “United States Ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies.” Even traditionally closed countries like North Korea have representation

abroad

.

The DPRK has embassies in some fairly Western countries such as Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and these three countries also have embassies in North Korea. Now, part of the way these embassies can exist in even the most different and opposing countries is due to how they are codified in international law. All UN member states except South Sudan, Palau and the Solomon Islands have signed the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. This establishes a series of laws on the operation of embassies. Perhaps the most significant and well-known is article 22: “The mission facilities will be inviolable.” Unless invited by the ambassador or his government, any representative of the host country's government (whether a police officer, a government official, a member of the military, or even a firefighter) cannot enter the embassy.

This, of course, was how Julian Assange remained in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for seven years. He entered in 2012 when he was wanted in the United Kingdom for extradition and subsequent arrest of him in Sweden. Assange remained at the embassy while his application for Ecuadorian political asylum was reviewed and, once granted, the next step would normally be to go to Ecuador. Outside the embassy, ​​however, he was waiting for the British police, so if he ever left, they would have arrested him. However, in the end, after seven years inside, it was the British police who arrested Assange when the Ecuadorians decided that Assange had overstayed his welcome and invited the police inside.

The Vienna convention also establishes some other important rules for embassies: diplomats and the embassy are exempt from all taxes in the host country; diplomats are allowed free movement through the host country; an embassy may have diplomatic couriers carrying diplomatic bags that cannot be seized or searched; diplomats are granted diplomatic immunity; diplomats' residences are also considered an extension of the embassy and cannot be accessed without permission; diplomats cannot

work

or earn income when in their host country, except at the embassy; and then there are many other even smaller rules. Now, a big misconception about embassies is that they are an embassy.

It is not, this is a chancery, the building in which an embassy is located. The “embassy” is not the building, it is the group of people who

work

inside the building. It is the group of workers who represent the country abroad. Another big misconception about embassy buildings is that they are sovereign territory of the country they represent. This is not the case. It is also not true that embassy buildings are in a state of extraterritoriality, that is, that local laws do not apply there as would be the case at the United Nations headquarters or in many foreign military bases.

In the case of embassy buildings, it is not that the laws of the host country do not apply there, it is just that many of the people who make up the embassy, ​​the diplomats, cannot be prosecuted for violating those laws and those who enforce the law, the police, cannot enter. Now, diplomats almost always follow the rules of their host country, as not doing so would be unproductive to the very nature of their job, but when they don't, this can have serious implications. For example, in April 1984, two students in Tripoli, Libya, were hanged for publicly opposing Gaddafi.

In response, a major opposition political group formed a protest outside the Libyan embassy in London. On Gaddafi's orders, an individual inside the embassy building fired into the crowd with a machine gun, wounding eleven people. One of those injured was Yvonne Fletcher, a young police officer, who later died in hospital from her injuries. Ten minutes after the shots were fired, the embassy building was surrounded by British police, preventing anyone from entering or leaving. Once the forensic autopsy confirmed that the shots were indeed coming from the embassy, ​​negotiations began. The British attempted to obtain permission to enter the embassy building.

You see, only some, but not all, of the 30 people in the building were diplomats, meaning that some, if they were found to have committed the crime, could be arrested for it. The Libyans, however, did not grant access. Therefore, after five days of surrounding the embassy, ​​the British broke diplomatic relations with Libya, giving them another week to abandon the embassy and the country. You see, this is what countries can do when diplomats misbehave. They cannot enter the embassy building, they cannot arrest diplomats, but they can expel them from their country. After this incident, diplomatic relations between the two countries were not normalized for decades and even today, in 2019, the case is still actively under investigation and an arrest may very well occur in the future.

However, embassies are usually more concerned with developing diplomacy. Typically, but not always, embassies are headed by an ambassador. Sometimes, however, there are lapses in which one is left without an ambassador for a period of time and other times, a country may choose to recall its ambassador as a sign of discontent. Now, the job of the ambassador is difficult to define. In the simplest case, an ambassador is there to represent his country, but what that entails varies greatly from person to person and position to position. There is often a perception that all ambassadors do is chat and drink, but to be honest, that's part of the job.

They are there to build and maintain relationships with those who can help their country, whether politically, economically, or otherwise. That's just part of diplomacy, which is the job of the embassy as a whole. It can be direct diplomacy, in which the ambassador could meet directly with a head of state, or soft diplomacy. Soft diplomacy can consist of things like China sending pandas to foreign zoos, the United States funding scholarships for foreign students, or France establishing a branch of the Louvre in Abu Dhabi. They are more subtle ways in which one nation can gain the public favor of another.

On a smaller scale, embassies often have a portion of staff dedicated to promoting and exhibiting their country's art and culture in the region. You will often see embassies supporting and financially sponsoring music concerts from their country, for example. Now, in addition to these ways of representing one's country, the embassy also represents its homeland through its actual building. As the public face of one country in another, you have to look good. For example, some of the most impressive and important embassies in the world are located in Washington, DC, as almost every country has a diplomatic mission there.

The Chinese embassy building was designed by the sons of I.M. Pei, a Chinese-American considered one of the world's greatest architects, and evokes the same sense of clean, contemporary grandeur and opulence common to the largest buildings of the People's Republic itself, while still adhering to the principles of Feng Shui. Just down the street is the United Arab Emirates embassy building, a perhaps even more opulent structure that clearly incorporates aspects of Islamic architecture. This building appears to have an intentional presence with its open line of sight from the street, allowing one to look in and up. Then there's this nearby section of the British Embassy complex, a structure that resembles an old English country mansion.

While countries like China and the United Arab Emirates might be more focused on boosting their modern image as newly rich nations, countries like the United Kingdom might draw more attention to their long and storied past. Then there is the whole scope of the architecture of the American embassy complexes themselves. By necessity, after countless attacks on their embassies throughout history, the architecture and design of American embassy buildings evoke security. Whether it's Berlin, Beijing, Bern or Bangkok, they all have the look of a resort. They are mostly modern and innovative designs, a conscious choice to associate these values ​​with the image of the nation, but they are still hidden behind high walls and fences.

However, there are still some, mainly in places where security is less of a concern, reflecting the previous architectural style of the US, such as the Georgian House of the US Embassy in Canberra, Australia, a building that would fit perfectly into the location of the American South. But when embassies are in certain locations, their buildings cannot simply be composite style. They have to be composed. As physical representations of countries, embassies are the clearest targets for those who want to send a message to a country. However, during wars, embassies in a country are often busier than ever. This is why, as mentioned above, the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, increased its staff to more than 16,000 people during the Iraq War.

The embassy building was built in the Green Zone, a highly fortified area along the Tigris River in Baghdad. This area, guarded by soldiers and walls more than three meters high, was and continues to be home to much of the international presence in Baghdad. This included embassies of countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, but also some companies. War is big business and the Green Zone housed small headquarters for many large international engineering, construction and private military companies contracted to assist in the war. That is to say, the Green Zone was primarily home to a large group of civilians working in Iraq, which is why it was so heavily guarded.

Given the security threat, the US embassy there was built to be completely self-sufficient. It has its own generators, its own wells, its own water filtration plant, its own sewage treatment plant, its own fire station, and it even has its own Internet link to bypass the Iraqi network. It has its own telephone network, both wired and wireless, which function practically as if they were in the United States: they use the area codes of New York and Virginia. Unlike most cities where embassy staff live in normal housing, this embassy has its own fortified apartment block. Even during the heat of war, the embassy compound had its own swimming pool, tennis courts, gym, department store, nail salon and movie theater.

To top it all off, there is a helicopter pad, which is used to ferry the ambassador and other top diplomats around the country when they don't want to face the dangers below. Diplomats who serve as part of the US embassy in Baghdad get another benefit besides the pool, tennis courts, movies and everything else: they get more money. You see, when you work in the US foreign service, and it's often similar when you work for other countries' foreign service, you basically get more money the more foreign the place you go. If you serve virtually anywhere in North America, Western Europe, Australasia, and a few other assorted countries, you won't receive any bonuses.

If you serve in a location that has extreme weather, poor quality of health care, high crime, high pollution, or has any other factors thatmakes it more difficult to live there as a foreigner, you will receive a hardship payment, which is a bonus ranging from 5% to 35%. That 5% rate includes places like Costa Rica, the Bahamas, Malta and Bulgaria, while the 35% rate is reserved for places like the Central African Republic, Somalia, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That hardship payment rate can also vary within a country. For example, if you worked at the US consulate in Dubai, you would only get a 5% bonus, while if you worked at the US embassy in Abu Dhabi, you would get 10%.

There are also some places that, well, they just don't seem that hard to live in, but they do give you hardship pay, like Ponta Delgada, Portugal, a well-known vacation destination. This is likely only included due to its isolation. In addition to hardship pay, you may also earn an additional bonus if you serve in a location that is considered dangerous. For example, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, gives you 15%, while places like Tripoli, Damascus, Kabul, Baghdad, and Juba will give you a 35% bonus. So in a place like Baghdad, you get a 70% bonus just for the difficulties and dangers you face. This is how they get people to work even in the toughest jobs without forcing them.

In addition to these two, there are also other bonuses based on factors such as high cost of living, difficulty in staffing the position, and more. Now, in the modern era, some have questioned whether embassies still have a purpose. 100 years ago they served a purpose as communication was difficult, travel was slow and therefore countries needed someone on the ground who could speak on their behalf to others at any time. However, nowadays messages can be transmitted instantly through a wide variety of media, so what's the point? Well, ambassadors are not messengers. Ambassadors are representatives. They are there not only to work for their country within the political systems, but also to promote it to the public and increase travel and trade with their country.

In fact, many argue that these small personal relationships of our world's diplomats that unite countries of hundreds of millions or billions are more important now than ever. If you want to work in the foreign service, the US Department of State has an extensive reading list of books that will help you gain the knowledge you need no matter what country you are from. One book I found quite interesting was "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcolm Gladwell. The book is about how the unconscious brain works when making decisions with very limited information. Blink, like many other books, is available as an audiobook on Audible so you can listen to it wherever and whenever you want.

I think listening to books helps me integrate a lot more and makes things like cleaning or commuting a lot more fun. Best of all, you can sign up for free at audible.com/wendover or text “wendover” to 500-500 and download Blink or any other audiobook for free, plus two free Audible originals.