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 This archive, which at the time was uncatalogued, was transferred under Trust Deed from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to the University of Leicester in September 1995. It consists of 217 boxes of papers, most of which are diplomatic lists. The archive was built up in consequence of a standing instruction to British diplomatic and consular missions to send to London one copy of the local list as soon as it had been replaced by a new edition.
In 1999, thanks to the generosity of then Head of the Department of Politics, Professor John Young, funding was provided for the cataloguing of the archive and this was completed in August by Ms. Catherine Berridge. Thanks are also due to the Group on Diplomacy of the
British International Studies Association, and in particular to its
Convenor, Dr Lorna Lloyd, for raising the money to put the catalogue on the
web. As a result - and despite gaps - the archive is now an extremely useful resource both for diplomatic historians and for historians of diplomacy. For the former, the precise details on the staff of particular missions at particular times which the lists provide is, for example, a good starting point in the search for relevant memoirs and private papers. As for the latter, they reveal many things, especially when compared over time: for example, shifts in the emphasis of the work of missions; the rise of new diplomatic institutions such as the interests section; changes in the importance attached to service attachés judged by the size of the 'defence sections' of embassies and the ranks of those attached to them; and so on.
The archive is now located in the External Store of the University of Leicester Library.
To arrange to view the archive, please contact:
Special Collections Enquiries
University of Leicester Library,
PO Box 248,
University Road,
Leicester.
LE1 9QD
Tel: +44 (0)116 252 2056
Fax: +44 (0)116 252 2066
Email: specialcollections@le.ac.uk
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Diplomatic List
The list maintained and (usually) published periodically by a receiving state which gives the names of those who, being members of *resident or *non-resident diplomatic missions, enjoy *diplomatic status within that state. The names are grouped by mission, missions being listed on an alphabetical basis.
The order in which names are listed within each mission's list is indicative of the order of *precedence, within that mission, of its named *diplomatic agents. That order is entirely a matter for the sending state, as is the designation of the agents. (The receiving state, however, determines the general format of the overall list.) When, as is often the case, the agents at a particular mission are members not just of the sending state's *foreign ministry but also of various other government departments, determining the mission's order of precedence can be a matter of controversy, between both the individuals and the departments concerned.
Should internal dissension within a state result in more than one diplomatic mission being sent to a second state, each claiming to represent the first state, the receiving state must decide which it regards as legitimate. Its decision will be reflected in its diplomatic list. If, however, it wishes to prevaricate but does not wish to acknowledge that fact, it may decline to publish a new diplomatic list until the matter has been resolved. This unusual state of affairs occurred in the Soviet Union in the early 1970s, when two embassies from Cambodia appeared in Moscow. (During this period an unofficial list was produced by the wife of a journalist!)
An international organisations to which *permanent missions have been sent by member states may publish its own list of the members of such missions. However, although those individuals will be in receipt of certain privileges and immunities they are not, formally speaking, regarded as enjoying 'diplomatic' status. This is likely to be reflected in the title of the organisation's list. The UN, for example, calls its list, 'Permanent Missions to the United Nations'.
from the Dictionary of Diplomacy by G. R. Berridge and Alan James, published by Macmillan (London), 2000.
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