Diplomatic Relations

2002-2024 | 22 years

In this episode, President Bartlet and the Joint Chiefs are trying to decide how to deal with Abdul Shareef, a Qumari ambassador who is secretly a terrorist plotting to attack the US. The problem is that as an ambassador to the United States Shareef has diplomatic immunity, meaning that he can not be arrested. In the end, they chose to take covert action outside of US borders, subverting diplomatic immunity and killing Shareef.

This is not the only time The West Wing touches on the complexities of international relations. In “The Warfare of Genghis Kahn”, Leo and Nancy have to meet the Iranian ambassador at the Swiss embassy since the Swiss are seen as a neutral party and their embassy is seen as a safe place for the ambassador. The reason embassies often act as safe spaces for fugitives is that the land they inhabit is technically the territory of the country that owns the embassy. Because it is their sovereign territory, other countries can’t legally enter the embassy and make arrests there, the same way they can’t legally cross borders into another country to enforce their own laws there.

This topic of international law is currently relevant because last Friday night, Ecuadorian authorities invaded the Mexican embassy to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas who had been seeking asylum there since December. After this action, which Mexico called a “violation of the Vienna Convention”, the country broke off diplomatic relations with Ecuador. Mexico is planning on filing a case against Ecuador for breaching International law in the International Court of Justice following this incident.

In the episode, President Bartlet is afraid of breaking diplomatic immunity because it is a “slippery slope”. The worry is that if he breaks diplomatic immunity, there is nothing to stop other countries from breaking diplomatic immunity and arresting American diplomats. This is why the international community has been so outraged by Ecuadorian officials invading the Mexican embassy. By breaking these norms Ecuador is saying that the rights of all the embassies and diplomats in their country could potentially be up for grabs. It is also hypocritical, given that Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, was an asylee in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for seven years, yet British Law Enforcement never broke diplomatic relations and invaded the embassy to retrieve him.