The InterDependent

A new mediation service, the Independent Diplomat, appeared on the international scene in 2004, providing advice to governments and political groups who adhere to democratic principles. One of its most recent projects, for example, was helping South Sudan to establish itself as a new country.

UNA-USA’s InterDependent magazine interviewed the group’s founder, Carne Ross, a former British diplomat at the United Nations, about this work and his organization’s evolution.

Q: Can you describe the Independent Diplomat and what it does?

A: It's a nonprofit organization, comprised mostly of former diplomats and international lawyers. We advise governments, countries and political groups on their diplomacy, and the people we advise are in some way marginalized from the international discussion of their country or their issue.

A classic example of our work was advising South Sudan before it became independent. There were a lot of international meetings about Sudan and the process of self-determination for the south, and invariably South Sudan's democratically elected government was not invited to those discussions, whereas the Republic of Sudan was invited.

There were very good protocol and political reasons for that, but it meant that the people most affected were actually not in the negotiation; they were not in the Security Council, for instance, when Sudan was being discussed. It's precisely that circumstance that the Independent Diplomat was set up to remedy, and it dates back to my time on the Security Council with the British delegation where, I'm afraid to say, almost all the time the people who were most affected by our decisions were not in the room when we made those decisions. That seemed to me not only unfair but also made for bad decisions, because if you don't include the people who are most affected in the negotiations, how do you expect them to accept the results of that negotiation?

So we advise countries and governments about the diplomacy that is affecting them; we tell them what's going on; we analyze the information we collect from diplomatic centers all over the world; and we share that analysis with our clients. On the basis of that analysis, we advise them about how best to insert their own views into these international processes.

Q: Can you elaborate on the timing of the Independent Diplomat’s inception?

A: I founded it in 2004, after I resigned from the British Foreign Office over the Iraq war.

Q: Is the Independent Diplomat the first of its kind?

A: There are Washington lobbying firms, law firms, which offer advice to countries or governments in some areas of diplomacy, particularly relations with the U.S. government, but we try to offer a global service, covering all the diplomacy about a particular issue. Somaliland, for instance, is a client. Somaliland is discussed - Somalia, to be precise - at the UN, at the European Union, the African Union and elsewhere. So we try to monitor all of those places for what is being said about Somaliland, which is a legitimate actor, democratically elected and peaceful state in the north of Somalia that wishes to be recognized as a separate state.

Q: What is the difference between the Independent Diplomat and a lobbying group?

A: We don't lobby. We don't go see interlocutors and transmit the wishes of our clients. Our clients do that, they are their own best advocates.

Q: So you advise but you don't plead for your clients?

A: We advise them on how to present their case themselves. Another big difference is we don't advise companies. And we're very discriminating about who we take on. We only take on those who are seriously disadvantaged; that's the whole point of the Independent Diplomat, and that's why our supporters give us funds. Our funding is an interesting hybrid model: all our clients pay some fees for our work, and we expect them to show a commitment to what we're doing for them. . . . But some clients are among the poorest countries in the world and they cannot possibly afford what it costs to run Independent Diplomat, so we seek philanthropic funding to make up that difference. We have funding from various big foundations, some individuals and one or two governments.

Carne Ross, the founder of the Independent Diplomat, which works on behalf of poor countries and borderline entities in negotiations.

Q: Besides Somaliland, who are your other clients?

A: We advise Moldova on their relationship with the European Union. For several years, we advised Croatia on their accession to the EU. Croatia was ably pursuing its own accession; the advice we gave was a thin gloss on what they were doing. But one of the interesting things I've discovered is that although we say to all of our interlocutors that we are advising our clients, people will tell us things that they won't tell our clients. . . . It's just a strange fact of human nature. So we're able to collect political intelligence for our clients that they would not be able to get themselves. We also advise the Polisario Front in Western Sahara. We advise the Republic of the Marshall Islands on climate change negotiations.

What is important is that we will help only countries that are committed to democracy, human rights and international law and are not using violence unlawfully, and that is quite a high standard and it's a standard we take very seriously. We have a three-step process to assess that, and it's continually reassessed during the life of our projects. Obviously, with some clients it's a more difficult judgment than others, but what we take seriously is the direction of travel: are they basically improving, committed to improvement on these ethical standards; if they're not, we will withdraw our assistance.

Q. What kind of information was conveyed to you but not to your client?

A. One client went to the Security Council to complain about the behavior of a neighbor. Afterward, many members told us privately that our client didn’t do itself a favor by bringing the issue to the council.

Q: Do you have staff elsewhere?

A: We have an office in Brussels and in London. The Brussels office is focused on the EU. We specialize in offering help to states that are seeking to improve their relations with the EU, including possible membership, which has got much harder in the last few years.

Q: How many people do you employ?

A: Twelve globally, including seven in New York. We also have consultants.

Q: Are you comparable to mercenary diplomats?

A: No, we have real ethical standards. . . . I set up the Independent Diplomat to help those who are most disadvantaged, not to help those who would simply pay. And that is why I think we have such a lot of supporters. We have a really wonderful advisory council composed of quite senior and respected figures in diplomacy, like Tom Pickering, Kieran Prendergast, Gareth Evans. They would not help a purely commercial entity. They help us because the Independent Diplomat is advising some of the most marginalized people in the world.