Preventive Diplomacy: History And Theory

Preventive diplomacy originated from the diplomatic activities in the early period of humans. It was Dag Hammarskjold, the second secretary-general of the United Nations, who first used the specific term - preventive diplomacy - officially in his annual work report in 1960. Nonetheless, the international community did not attach much importance to preventive diplomacy due to the bilateral pattern of international relations. The end of the cold war promoted the development of preventive diplomacy. Secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali issued Peace Agenda in 1992, which represented the renaissance of preventive diplomacy. And now preventive diplomacy has been enlarged both in terms of connotation and denotation.As a result of different interests of nations and different background of scholars, there is not yet a universal concept of preventive diplomacy. The writer argues that preventive diplomacy differs other forms of diplomacy such as normal diplomacy, war diplomacy and developmentalist diplomacy. Preventive diplomacy aims to preventive large-scale deadly conflict through diplomatic measure(s) in a region of relatively high potential violence. However, preventive diplomacy cannot be used as a tool to intervene into the internal affairs of other nations.The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) has primarily formed its own preventive diplomacy with Asia-Pacific features. ARF is coming into the stage of preventive diplomacy from that of confidence building measures. Nevertheless, the preventive diplomacy of ARF lacks the foundation of international law. Rule of preventive diplomacy set by ARF does not meet the needs of preventive diplomacy practice, ARF members are still debating on the issues such as principles and institutionalization. The preventive diplomacy of ARF will make progress step by step with struggles of its members.China has made contributions to preventive diplomacy in its own practice, but China has not yet a clear understanding of preventive diplomacy. China is facing the challenges in the fields of conceptual hegemony, sovereignty and non-interference principle, Taiwan problem and territorial disputes. As the "peaceful rising" has been taken as a national strategy, China should use the opportunities brought about by preventive diplomacy and make more contributions to the world peace.