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A term which may be used for an individual charged with a specific diplomatic task by his or her head of state or government. US presidents have often used personal representatives – or ‘personal envoys’ – to minimize congressional interference in their conduct of foreign policy. (Under the constitution the president can only appoint special envoys as officers of the government with the prior ‘advice and consent of the Senate’.) Such agents are usually not, therefore, ‘personal’ in the sense of being chosen because of any intimate personal relationship which they have with him, though they may be. US presidents can give any rank or title to a personal representative or, as with Harry Hopkins, who was employed in highly sensitive matters by President Roosevelt during the Second World War and was his intimate, none at all. The UN Secretary-General may also appoint a personal representative, perhaps to observe a critical situation, to assist in the attempt at its alleviation, or to head a peacekeeping operation or a peacemaking mission. Such an individual is likely, in UN terms, to be less senior than a special representative (sense 1), but senior to a representative. See also roving ambassador; special mission. |
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