Diplomatic illness
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Diplomatic illness is the practice amongst diplomats and
government minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, ...
s of feigning
illness A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...
, or another debilitating condition, to avoid engaging in diplomatic or social engagements. The excuse of ill-health is designed to avoid formally offending the host or other parties. The term also refers to the period during which the "diplomatic illness" is claimed to persist.


Examples

* General John J. Pershing, on his return in 1926 from unsuccessful negotiations between Peru, Bolivia and Chile and suffering from ill-health, was stated by his critics to have a "diplomatic illness". * During the Communist takeover in
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
in 1948, foreign minister
Jan Masaryk Jan Garrigue Masaryk (14 September 1886 – 10 March 1948) was a Czech diplomat and politician who served as the Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia from 1940 to 1948. American journalist John Gunther described Masaryk as "a brave, honest, turbul ...
was thought to have a "diplomatic illness", as he stayed out of touch with many of his former foreign contacts. * American political activist
Lyndon LaRouche Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspira ...
writes in his autobiography "The Power of Reason" that in 1975 the Iraqi ambassador to Paris, after a meeting, telephoned to advise him to contract a "diplomatic illness" rather than attend a seminar as had been arranged. The ambassador explained that LaRouche appeared to be under surveillance. * A temporary absence of
Bosnian Serb The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sr-Cyrl, Срби у Босни и Херцеговини, Srbi u Bosni i Hercegovini) are one of the three constitutive nations (state-forming nations) of the country, predominantly residing in the politi ...
leader
Ratko Mladic Ratko (Cyrillic script: Ратко) is a male given name of Slavic origin. It is a diminutive form of the names Ratibor and Ratimir. Notable people *Ratko Čolić (1918–1999), Serbian footballer * Ratko Dautovski, Macedonian percussionist, ...
, at a time in 1995 when Bosnian Serb forces were withdrawing near Sarajevo under an agreement with
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
, was ascribed by some sources to "diplomatic illness". *
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
, the then leader of the
Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, was sometimes claimed to be invoking "diplomatic illness". One occasion was in 1994 on the outbreak of the First Chechen War; another coincided with a 1998 summit meeting of the
Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010. ...
, and another was in 1999 when he was due to sign a treaty with
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...
ian leader
Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (as transliterated from Russian; also transliterated from Belarusian as Alyaksand(a)r Ryhoravich Lukashenka;, ; rus, Александр Григорьевич Лукашенко, Aleksandr Grigoryevich Luk ...
. The allegations were dubious, as Yeltsin suffered from repeated genuine bouts of ill-health. * Polish leader
Lech Kaczyński Lech Aleksander Kaczyński (; 18 June 194910 April 2010) was a Polish politician who served as the city mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 2005, and as President of Poland from 2005 until his death in 2010. Before his tenure as president, he pre ...
cited illness to avoid a
Weimar Triangle The "Weimar Triangle" is, loosely, a grouping of France, Germany, and Poland. The group is intended to promote co-operation between the three countries in crisis zones. It exists mostly in the form of summit meetings between the leaders of these ...
meeting in the wake of a diplomatic dispute with
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
in 2006. * In December 2012 Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senat ...
cited a virus infection and concussion as reason not to appear before Congress in connection with the September
terrorist attack Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. Clinton had been scheduled to respond to questions about whether security failures were to blame for the attack.
John R. Bolton John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948) is an American attorney, diplomat, Republican consultant, and political commentator. He served as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, and as the 26th United Stat ...
, former ambassador to the United Nations, described this as a "diplomatic illness", and Republican representative Allen West termed it as "Benghazi flu". The effects of concussion were later confirmed in hospital tests and Clinton gave her testimony the following month. Rubin, Jennifer
"Clinton'showstopper at Benghazi Hearings (Posted 2013-01-24 00:35:02); Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate Testimony on Benghazi, Libya, Certainly Was Interesting."
The Washington Post. January 24, 2013. Retrieved August 30, 2016, from HighBeam Research.


Related terms

* William Gladstone referred to a "diplomatic cold" as an alternative to declining a social engagement outright. * Neville Chamberlain is reported to have contracted "diplomatic gout" in 1938. *
Polite fiction A polite fiction is a social scenario in which all participants are aware of a truth, but pretend to believe in some alternative version of events to avoid conflict or embarrassment. Polite fictions are closely related to euphemism, in which a word ...


Footnotes

{{Diplomacy Diplomacy Human diseases and disorders