Diplomatic Back Channel

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...

— Thirteen Days

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 at a formal conference, with newspaper reporters and TV camera crews watching. 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 unofficial or even clandestine ways for nations to talk, known in diplomatic parlance as Track II diplomacy, (Track I obviously being the official channels). The simplest one is in the hallways and back corridors of the conference; there's no cameras or mics and deals can be struck. Or more discreet is having a few representatives meet in a public place to discuss.

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 or TV reporters hearing. Sometimes they want to propose a secret deal and blindside a rival. Whatever the reason, these unofficial channels are the avenue for such discussions.

The means may also vary, sometimes simply one nation having their ambassador in a neutral country mention something to that government with the understanding that it will be passed along to its eventual recipient. Other means may take a friend-of-a-friend form, where a chain of mutual acquaintances from one leader to another is used.

Polar opposite of Hotline, a direct line of communication between two important people. May be a necessity if trying to get information to a Puppet King who is being manipulated with misinformation, especially if you're trying to get him to Cut His Strings. Also, in less honorable times may be used to provide foreign support for The Coup, and/or provide Plausible Deniability for all manner of doings.

Examples:

Fan Works

• A Thing of Vikings: Fishlegs agrees to Fishswill's offer of the two of them being the unofficial line of communication between Hiccup and many nobles Fishswill is in contact with due to understanding the latter's point that Berk will benefit a lot from having this line of communication.

Films — Live-Action

• In National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, 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 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 clear his family's name, then 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.
• The Sum of All Fears: 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. 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.
• Thirteen Days: After the looming crisis has been building for several days, the Kennedy administration is approached by John Scali of 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 Nikita Khrushchev were war buddies and this is an attempt by Khrushyev to feel out a possible deal to end the crisis.

Literature

• The Day of the Jackal: 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.
• Honor Harrington:
  • The creation of the Kingdom of Torch occurs during the ceasefire between the Republic of Haven and Manticore, though by this point the High Ridge government's idiotic policies are making a resumption of hostilities more and more likely. Torch, however, was created with people and resources from both star nations (and several others). This, and the fact that Torch's highest military officer is the girlfriend of Haven's best secret agent, and its new queen is the adoptive daughter of one of Manticore's best intelligence operatives, and is also good friends with a member of Manticore's royal family means it starts out with strong ties to both powers. These ties make Torch a natural back channel between the two powers, something that Queen Elizabeth III and President Prichard both have in the backs of their minds.
  • Late in the series, we learn that Beowulf and Manticore have been maintaining a "black" communications link along with their open ones, for messages that really can't be sent between a Core World of the Solarian League and an independent star monarchy due to politics ... but need to be sent anyway. Beowulf uses the link to warn Manticore about "Operation Raging Justice" — the planned invasion of Manticore by the Solarian Navy.

Live-Action TV

• Babylon 5: In "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. Unfortunately, the Centauri get wind of it and, assuming it's another arms shipment, send a ship to intercept them, killing the Minbari representative.
• Grimm: Nick who is a Grimm (a magical hunter of were-creatures) and The Wessen Council (the governing body of the were-creatures) often use Monroe and Rosalee, two wessens who have befriended Nick, as go betweens. Officially, Grimms and the Wessen Council are mortal enemies, but sometimes their interests align. Nick and the Head of the Council never communicate directly, however.
• Madam Secretary: Elizabeth and Iranian Foreign Minister Zahed Javani meet secretly several times in season one out of a mutual desire to prevent war between the US and Iran, starting in "Blame Canada" when they use a back room of the Canadian embassy in D.C. as a Truce Zone.
• 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.
• In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Several characters are used as intermediaries for information and messages when their home planet is on the outs with the Federation.
  • Commander Worf, one of the only Klingons in Starfleet, becomes vitally important when the Klingons withdraw from the Khitomer Accords amidst the tensions of the Dominion War. Using Worf's understanding of Klingon culture and his connections to active battle leaders, Sisko and Worf are able to convince Chancellor Gowron to rejoin the treaty.
  • 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.
    • 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 Weapon of Mass Destruction 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 what's going on, Commander Sisko lampshades the trope.
  • Odo, the head of DS9 security, is also a member of the changeling race, the Founders, who are instigating the Dominion War. By his mere status as a Founder, he is able to command the Jem'Hadar foot soldiers and the Vorta who see him as a god. He is also the only member of the DS9 staff that the Founders treat as an equal. At the climax of the war, Odo is instrumental in convincing the Female Changeling to surrender rather than go for a pyrrhic victory.
• Star Trek: Enterprise: In the early days of space travel, Earth was considered a neutral party as they had not been a part 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 United Federation of Planets.
• Star Trek: Discovery: President Rillak often invokes this trope. As the President of the United Federation of Planets, she has specific restraints on what she can and cannot do. More than once she has asked Michael Burnham and/or Saru to use their personal connections to massage diplomatic impasses that she cannot broach as the Federation President, particularly when dealing with Ni'Var (the combined governments of Romulus and Vulcan) and the United Earth, both of which had withdrawn from the Federation.

Video Games

• Mass Effect 3: After the mission on Tuchanka, 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.

Webcomics

• Alone, Together has the senior officers of the Imperial Fleet thwart a Special Forces operative conducting torture on Sergeant Jerom, and planning more (and worse) for Cadet Danni. The admiral knows that formal charges through the chain of command will be suppressed, but mentions "back channels" to the Imperial palace. Further, after the Emperor has conducted a purge of warhawks in his cabinet, back channel communiques offer to withdraw from contested territory (including Shem Sheka, where much of the story transpires) if the Federation is quiet about it. This back channel affair also returns Sergeant Jerom to his countrymen.

Real Life

• The SIS (British) spy Kim Philby was accused of being The Mole for the KGB (Soviets). He was exonerated, but still not completely trusted. Then he came under greater suspicion, and he had to leave the SIS, and defected to the KGB for real. The thing was, the KGB were quite suspicious that he was a Fake Defector and they didn't trust him either, which prompted Philby to regain contact with the SIS in an effort to actually become a Fake Defector. In the end, since neither side trusted him any more, they only told him things they wanted the other side to know, making him essentially a glorified messenger boy.
• Shuttle diplomacy was often used between parties not wanting to be officially together.
  • The term gained prominence with respect to Henry Kissinger'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.
  • Alexander Haig attempted to use shuttle diplomacy to mediate between the United Kingdom and Argentina during the Falklands 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, and Russia and Ukraine as of the 2022 war.
• 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 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.

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