Preliminary communication
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CROATIAN FOREIGN SERVICE AND SOME OPEN QUESTIONS
Zoran Pičuljan
; Embassy of the Czech Republic
Abstract
The foreign service, working trough the Ministry of Foreign Affair s as the central part and the diplomatic missions and consular offices as the parts abroad, is the basic bearer of diplomatic activities, The developmental processes and perspectives of the service could be best observed trough an analysis of its organizational,functional, personal and administrative dimensions. By that, because of the nature of this activity which is founded on communications, the stress is being put on a personal dimension.Croatian foreign service has during its rather short existence developed trough the three stages, which might be approximately temporary located from 1990 to 1993 (first stage);from 1993 to 1998 (second stage) and the present (third stage). Trough the developmental stages the aims of the state policies and by that also the Organization of the service and the methods in its use has changed. Hierarchical organizational model has been ever more supplemented by the necessary cooperation with the bodies o f state administration and other institutions, by which the expert and professional methods gain the priority over the others. The present state of the service is characterized by “a classic” Organization of the central part trough the administrations as the basic organizational units which perform the activities of political and economic bilateral and multilateral nature, consular activities, education and the supportive and control System activities. The diplomatic network has been ramified, and it is made of 74 diplomatic missions and consular Offices. Over 1.000 diplomats, officials and employees work in the service.
The scope of the service, because of the war situation and the difficult circumstances of its creation, division on the central and the parts abroad, the nature of diplomatic business and the demands from the international environment, open various. Problems, of a greater or smaller intensity, in every single dimension of the service. In the organizational part the service should be adapted to the continuously voluminous tasks connected to the neighboring countries, and particularly important is an adaptation in the organizational and functional dimension to the complex and long lasting tasks arising from the approach to the European Union. Decentralization of decision making, especially in the expert questions, would contribute to the efficiency of the administrative mechanisms. Those problems, just as almost all others emphasize the importance o f a personal dimension. Respect and sharpening of the adopted standards of proceedings and the requirements for development o f a diplomatic career, and the accommodation of the personal structure of the diplomatic network are presuppositions for a realization of the key commitment - a professionalization of the foreign service.
Therefore, for further modernization it seems necessary, according to the expert criteria, to carry on a review o f the Croatian Foreign Service.
Keywords
foreign service; professionalization; dimensions of the service
Hrčak ID:
197692
URI
Publication date:
8.9.1999.
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