History Main / DiplomaticBackChannel

** Elim Garak, a politically exiled Cardassian who lives on Deep Space Nine, plays a vital role when the Cardassians decide to ally with the Dominion during the Dominion Wars. The Klingons decide they will attack Cardassia Prime. The Starfleet officers on [=DS9=] know this would be disastrous, but are told by Starfleet Command that they can not inform the Cardassian government as the Klingons are an allied planet and Cardassia is not. If they warn Cardassia, the Klingons will likely leave the Federation. To get around this, Sisko summons Garak, Cardassian Intelligence officer turned tailor, to fit him for a new suit. While Garak takes measurements, Sisko and his commanding officers discuss all the pertinent details of the impending invasion. The next scene immediately cuts to Garak on a call with Gul Dukat, the military leader of Cardassia.

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': In the early days of space travel, Earth was considered a neutral party as they had not been apart of galactic politics long enough to have biases. As such Captain Archer often found himself arbitrating disputes between long conflicting parties, particularly between the Tellarites, Andorians, and Vulcans with his only goal being establishing Earth as a good neighbor and a willing ally. He does such a good job that Earth, Teller Prime, Andoria, and Vulcan will eventually be the founding members of the [[FictionalUnitedNations United Federation of Planets.]]

** The term gained prominence with respect to Henry Kissenger's efforts to mediate talks between Israel and its Arab neighbors (chiefly Egypt and Syria) to end the Yom Kippur War, all of whom refused to recognize Israel diplomatically during his time as US Secretary of State under Richard Nixon. Shuttle talks between Egypt and Israel continued under Jimmy Carter and culminated with the Camp David Accords which laid the foundations for a peace treaty and diplomatic recognition between the two countries.

* ''Series/NCIS'': In season 7 episode "Endgame" a rogue North Korean assassin named Lee Wuan Kai is killing North Koreans connected to the torture she experienced as a child while these people are in the USA. North Korea uses a back channel through another country to inform the USA she is acting on her own and not on their orders. They don't want to risk escalation of tensions between them and the USA.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': After the mission on Tuchanka, [[spoiler: if you cured the genophage, Dalatrass Linron is most displeased and refuses to commit Salarian forces to the war against the Reapers. The Salarian Special Tasks Groups, however, realize what the stakes are and send several back-channel messages to Admiral Hackett that when the time comes for the offensive, they will be there.]]
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In international diplomacy, there are a number of routes communications can take. There are the official channels, where national leaders, ambassadors, and other diplomats hammer out the relations between their countries. There are also lesser-known means, where messages are passed along in a way that tends to go unnoticed, allowing nations to communicate without scrutiny. These are the back channels: the clandestine, unofficial ways for nations to talk, known in diplomatic parlance as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_II_diplomacy Track II]] diplomacy, (Track I obviously being the official channels).

The reasons for using back channels are many. Sometimes, nations want to feel out another country to see how they'd respond to certain actions without committing to anything. Sometimes they just need to talk without oversight. Whatever the reason, these unofficial channels are the avenue for such discussions.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': In "[[Recap/BabylonFiveFilm01InTheBeginning In the Beginning]]", the Minbari find out that the Narn have been selling advanced weapons to Earth in the hopes of evening, at least somewhat, the enormous technological edge the Minbari have. Rather than shut it down, Delenn uses the Narns to make contact with Earth to meet and try to work out a way to end the war. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, the Centauri get wind of it and, assuming it's another arms shipment, send a ship to intercept them, killing the Minbari representative.]]

->'''Dean Rusk''': The FBI has identified this Alexander Fomin as the Soviet Resident, the KGB equivalent of one of our station chiefs. He's their highest-ranking spy in this country, and he knows John [Scali]'s a friend of mine.
->'''Ted Sorensen''': All the trademarks of a back-channel overture.
->'''Kenny O'Donnell''': Yeah, some back channel! ABC news guy, my goddamn next-door neighbor...
-->--''Film/ThirteenDays''

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* ''Film/TheSumOfAllFears'': After receiving some information on the Russian nuclear facility he and Jack were visiting, Bill Cabot explains that he has a source in the Kremlin that he talks to in order to keep the back channels open. [[spoiler:After Cabot is killed during the attack on Baltimore, this contact is revealed to be Anatoli Grushkov, who offers to keep talking to Jack, to keep the back channels open in the hopes of staving off disaster.]]
* In ''Film/NationalTreasureBookOfSecrets'', Ben Gates is trying to hunt down the titular object: a journal "by presidents, for presidents" that contains top-secret information about the United States, including the missing minutes of the Watergate tapes, notes on [[WhoShotJFK the Kennedy assassination]], and even photos from Area 51. Each U.S. President updates the book during their tenure and then chooses a new hiding place for it, so only other presidents get to see it. Officially speaking, though, the journal doesn't exist--so Agent Sadusky, Ben's ally on the FBI, talks to him during a walk (that way, they're just friends having a conversation) and confirms that it's real, but also warns that he'll never be able to get his hands on the text unless he becomes president himself. Ben, needing portions of the book to [[ClearMyName clear his family's name]], then [[EnforcedTrope enforces]] this trope by luring the current president into a secret passage at George Washington's mansion at Mount Vernon, locking the door, and speaking to him completely off the record, which technically counts as kidnapping.

* ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'': When French intelligence learns that the sinister [=OAS=] has met with an Englishman who's an ace sniper, they contact British intelligence through back channels to inquire if any ex-military Brit sharpshooters are running around doing mercenary work. The British contact mentions one Charles Calthrop as an ace rifleman that's gone missing. A further connection is made when the suspect's code name, ''Chacal'', is formed by combining the first three letters of his first and last names.

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* When Country A who doesn't have diplomatic relations with Country B wishes to send a message, they can designate Country C who does have an embassy in Country B to be their [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protecting_power protecting power]] to conduct Country A's interests on their behalf. For example, the Swiss embassy in Tehran has a special interests section for the United States when the US wants to talk to Iran; Iran has a similar arrangement to talk to the US via the Iranian Interests Section of Pakistan's embassy in Washington.

** Garak pulls the same trick in his introductory episode, arranging for Bashir to come round to his shop at just the right time to 'inadvertently' overhear two Klingon renegades conspiring to sell a WeaponOfMassDestruction to a Bajoran terrorist who's been given asylum on Deep Space Nine. When Bashir wonders why his involvement was necessary as opposed to the Cardassians just telling them directly, Commander Sisko lampshades the trope.

** Alexander Haig attempted to use shuttle diplomacy to mediate between the United Kingdom and Argentina during the Falklands War.

In international diplomacy there are a number of routes communications can take, there are the official channels, where national leaders ambassadors and other diplomats hammer out the relations between their countries, but there are also lesser-known means, where messages are passed along in a way that tends to go unnoticed, allowing nations to communicate without scrutiny. These are the back channels, the clandestine, unofficial ways for nations to talk, known in diplomatic parlance as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_II_diplomacy Track II]] diplomacy, (Track I obviously being the official channels).

* ''Film/ThirteenDays'': After the looming [[UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis crisis]] has been building for several days, the Kennedy administration is approached by John Scali of [[Creator/{{ABC}} ABC News]] who has a message from Alexander Fomin, the Soviet embassy's resident legal spy. After getting the message, Jack sends Kenny O'Donnell to the FBI to see if he can dig up anything on this guy. Eventually, they figure he and [[UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev Khrushyev]] were war buddies and this is an attempt by Khrushyev to feel out a possible deal to end the crisis.

* ''Film/ThirteenDays'': After the looming [[UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis crisis]] has been building for several days, the Kennedy administration is approached by John Scali of [[Creator/{{ABC}} ABC News]] who has a message from Alexander Fomin, the Soviet embassy's resident legal spy. After getting the message, Jack sends Kenny O'Donnell to the FBI to see if he can dig up anything on this guy. Eventually, they figure he and Khrushyev were war buddies and this is an attempt by Khrushyev to feel out a possible deal to end the crisis.

** Turkey was often a major intermediary between Israel and its Arab neighbours. It did the same between Russia and Georgia after the 2008 warm, and Russia and Ukraine as of the 2022 war.

** Turkey was often a major intermediary between Israel and its Arab neighbours. It did the same between Russia and Georgia after the 2008 war.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'': After the mission on Tuchanka, [[spoiler: if you cured the genophage, Dalatrass Linron is most displeased and refuses to commit Salarian forces to the war against the Reapers. The Salarian Special Tasks Groups, however, realize what the stakes are, and send several back-channel messages to Admiral Hackett that when the time comes for the offensive, they will be there.]]

PoliticsTropes
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