Diplomatic and Political Interpreting Explained

205 Pages·19.128 MB·English

by  Mira Kadrić, Sylvi Rennert, Christina Schäffner, Peter Krois

Diplomatic and Political

Interpreting Explained
The role of the interpreter at international meetings of politicians and
diplomats is a critical one. This book examines the history of diplomacy and
diplomatic interpreting as well as the rules and realities of modern diplomatic
relations. Building on interviews with interpreters, diplomats, and politicians,
it examines language as a tool of diplomatic and political communication, the
role of interpreters in diplomacy, and the different forms of interaction and
communicative behaviour interpreters face and exhibit.
The book covers the different ways in which interpreters manage informa-
tion, expressiveness, and interaction, and what diplomats think about them.
Each chapter presents key concepts and definitions; examples from existing lit-
erature are combined with interviews conducted with professional interpreters,
as well as seasoned diplomats and politicians, to illustrate their relevance in
interpreting practice. With activities for group work and self- study, including
analysis and discussion of real-l ife interpreted diplomatic or political events,
this book offers a range of interpreting exercises that encourage students to
apply the different strategies discussed.
Weaving together the voices of interpreters, diplomats, and politicians
with a systematic look at the theory and practice of interpreting in diplo-
matic settings, this is not only an essential textbook for students and educators
of interpreting but will also be of interest to professional interpreters and
students and scholars of politics and international relations.
Additional resources are available on the Routledge Translation Studies
Portal: http:// routledgetranslationstudiesportal.com.
Mira Kadrić is Professor of Interpreting Studies and Didactics of Translation
at the University of Vienna, Austria. She has published widely on interpreting
in political, diplomatic, court, and public service contexts, on interpreting and
translation didactics, and on law, and has extensive experience as an inter-
preter in the above contexts.
Sylvi Rennert is a postdoctoral researcher and senior lecturer at the University
of Vienna, Austria. Her research interests are dialogue interpreting, interpreting
quality, and didactics. As an interpreter, she has experience working in diplo-
matic and political, public service, and conference contexts.
Christina Schäffner is Professor Emerita at Aston University, Birmingham,
United Kingdom. Her main research interests are political discourse in trans-
lation and interpreting, news translation, metaphor in translation, and trans-
lation didactics, and she has published widely on these topics.
Translation Practices Explained

Series Editor: Kelly Washbourne
Translation Practices Explained is a series of coursebooks designed to
help self-l earners and students on translation and interpreting courses.
Each volume focuses on a specific aspect of professional translation
and interpreting practice, usually corresponding to courses available
in translator- and interpreter-t raining institutions. The authors are
practicing translators, interpreters, and/ or translator or interpreter
trainers. Although specialists, they explain their professional insights
in a manner accessible to the wider learning public.
Each volume includes activities and exercises designed to help
learners consolidate their knowledge, while updated reading lists and
website addresses will also help individual learners gain further insight
into the realities of professional practice.
Most recent titles in the series:
A Project- Based Approach to Translation Technology
Rosemary Mitchell- Schuitevoerder
Translating Promotional and Advertising Texts 2e
Ira Torresi
Subtitling
Concepts and Practices
Jorge Díaz Cintas and Aline Remael
Diplomatic and Political Interpreting Explained
Mira Kadrić, Sylvi Rennert, and Christina Schäffner
For more information on any of these and other titles, or to order,
please go to www.routledge.com/ Translation- Practices- Explained/
book- series/ TPE
Additional resources for Translation and Interpreting Studies are avail-
able on the Routledge Translation Studies Portal: http:// routledgetran
slationstudiesportal.com/
Diplomatic

and Political
Interpreting
Explained
Mira Kadrić, Sylvi Rennert,

and Christina Schäffner

with an introduction by Peter Krois
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Mira Kadrić, Sylvi Rennert, Christina Schäffner; introduction, Peter Krois
The right of Mira Kadrić, Sylvi Rennert, and Christina Schäffner to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without
intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Kadrić, Mira, author. | Rennert, Sylvi, author. | Schäffner, Christina, author.
Title: Diplomatic and political interpreting explained / Mira Kadrić,
Sylvi Rennert, Christina Schäffner; an introduction by Peter Krois.
Description: London; New York: Routledge 2021. |
Series: Translation practices explained |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021004596 |
Subjects: LCSH: Communication in international relations. |
Diplomacy–Translating. | International relations–Translating. |
Translating and interpreting–Political aspects.
Classification: LCC P96.I53 K34 2021 | DDC 418/.02–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021004596
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 40924- 1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 40923- 4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 80989- 8 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Newgen Publishing UK
Contents

About this book vii
Chapter 1: Politics and diplomacy then and now: Introduction
by Peter Krois 1
1.1 Diplomacy throughout history 1
1.2 Development of international law 2
1.3 Development of international organisations 4
1.4 New challenges and developments 7
1.5 Politics and diplomacy: Responsibilities and
requirements 10
Study activities 14
Sources and further reading 14
Chapter 2: Interpreting in politics and diplomacy 18
2.1 The relevance of interpreting in politics and
diplomacy 19
2.2 Institutionalisation of diplomatic relations 21
2.3 Contexts of communication and interpreting 23
2.4 Language and communicative behaviour 30
2.5 Text, communication, and interaction 32
2.6 Interpreter alignment 34
Study activities 37
Sources and further reading 38
Chapter 3: Communication between conventions and creativity 42
3.1 Language as a tool and a symbol 42
3.2 Political communication and choice of
language 47
3.3 Political speeches for different
purposes: Informative, expressive, appellative 50
3.4 Comprehension and construction of meaning 56
3.5 Interpreters’ (in)visibility 59
3.6 Precision and meaning 62
Study activities 66
Sources and further reading 67
vi Contents
Chapter 4: Managing information: Ways of rendition and
degrees of involvement 73
4.1 Expectations, rules, and exceptions 73
4.2 Explicitation 78
4.3 Modification 83
4.4 Reduction 91
4.5 Interposition 95
4.6 Methods and approaches 103
Study activities 107
Sources and further reading 109
Chapter 5: Managing expressiveness and interaction: Ways of
rendition and degrees of involvement 112
5.1 Dimensions of expressiveness 112
5.2 Emotions and style 116
5.3 Expression 118
5.4 Moderation 128
5.5 Coordination 130
5.6 Mediation 132
5.7 Possibilities and limits 136
Study activities 138
Sources and further reading 140
Chapter 6: Interpreting as a situated practice 143
6.1 Qualifications and skills 143
6.2 Conditions and constraints 148
6.3 Briefing and team alignment 151
6.4 Trust and confidentiality 157
6.5 Interpreters in diplomatic mission 163
6.6 Ethics and responsibility 166
Study activities 169
Sources and further reading 170
Chapter 7: Political and diplomatic interpreting: Strategies
and developments 174
7.1 Interpreting in political and diplomatic
settings as a “tightrope walk” 174
7.2 Impartiality versus multipartiality 175
7.3 Interpreting in a changing landscape 178
Glossary 183
Index 188
About this book

This book provides a glimpse into the world of politics and diplomacy
from the perspectives of diplomats, politicians, and interpreters. All of
them are participants in interpreted communicative situations, albeit
with different statuses and roles.
In contrast to other forms of interpreting, interpreting in political
and diplomatic contexts has an exclusive, high-p rofile image due to
the involvement of high-r anking individuals from the fields of politics
and diplomacy and the potential impact of communicative interaction
in these domains, such as peace negotiations, whose outcome is visible
and of consequence to large audiences. Training and research interest
in this interpreting setting is starting to grow. A reason for the lack of
(empirical) research in particular is that it is difficult to gain access to
this domain of interpreting to obtain reliable data. Political and diplo-
matic negotiations are usually confidential and the parties involved are
very reluctant to share any information about their process. The details
of such negotiations are expected to not be made public and, conse-
quently, anything related to interpreting them is also only addressed
cautiously. Moreover, the already great confidentiality with which
interpreters treat the information they are privy to in the course of
their work becomes even more pronounced when dealing with sensi-
tive or classified topics. Nevertheless, a number of reports, documents,
interpreters’ memoirs, and research papers have been published over
the years that make it possible to gain some insight into the character-
istic features, expectations and requirements, as well as the contexts
and conditions of interpreting in political and diplomatic settings.
This book looks at the relevance of interpreting for politics and dip-
lomacy and the ways these professions interact and work together.
It starts with a short presentation of its history, illustrating the role
of interpreting in world politics and diplomacy with some examples.
The information gathered for this book comes from literature (espe-
cially interpreters’ memoirs) and from interviews conducted with
20 diplomats, politicians, and interpreters who have many years of
experience working for governments and international organisations,
as well as the authors’ own experience and reflection as researchers,
educators, or interpreters.
viii About this book
The focus of the book is on interpreting at official high-l evel bilat-
eral meetings and multilateral diplomatic negotiations between
representatives of several countries. Both the content and the expres-
sive dimension of interpreted political and diplomatic communica-
tive interaction is addressed in a systematic way. The experiences of
politicians, diplomats, and interpreters are woven through the entire
book. In the introductory chapter to this book, the Austrian diplomat
Peter Krois gives a short overview of the historical development of
diplomacy and describes the current situation of international politics
and diplomacy.
The following chapters cover types and contexts of communica-
tive interaction (Chapter 2) and the characteristic features of com-
munication in politics and diplomacy (Chapter 3). The largest part
of the book is devoted to the question of how interpreters manage
information (Chapter 4), expressiveness and interaction (Chapter
5), and their degree of involvement in doing so. The final chapters
(6 and 7) address both practicalities of preparing for assignments,
working together as a team, and requirements of the interpreting
brief, as well as overarching themes of interpreters’ independence,
ethics and responsibility, and (multi)partiality in political and dip-
lomatic interpreting.
We interviewed 14 diplomats, politicians, and interpreters for this
edition of the book, and also used six interviews with interpreters
from a previously published German- language manual on which this
book is based.
The six diplomats and two politicians interviewed all had many
decades of experience. The diplomats were from a number of coun-
tries in Europe and the Americas and had done multiple tours abroad
with postings at bilateral embassies in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the
Americas, as well as at multilateral organisations in Brussels, Geneva,
New York, and Vienna. They all spoke at least two foreign languages,
although most diplomats spoke many more, often trying to become
at least conversant in the languages of all countries they were posted
in. Despite this, they had extensive experience with consecutive and
simultaneous interpreting in bilateral and multilateral settings. The
politicians also were very familiar with international cooperation and
interpreting; one had been a politician at the local, national, and inter-
national level, serving, among other positions, as minister of justice
and Member of the European Parliament, while the other had been
the mayor of a capital that is host to several multilateral organisations
for over two decades and had served as president of the Council of
European Municipalities and Regions. His experiences are a good
example of city diplomacy; as cities take on an increasingly active
role in global developments and cooperate internationally in a wide
range of matters, they have their own “foreign policy,” bilateral and
About this book ix
multilateral meetings, and, as in this case, their own interpreting and
translation departments.
In the interviews, we focused on how diplomats and politicians used
language(s) in different communication settings and their experience
with interpreted interaction. We were interested in learning of their
expectations and experiences regarding both difficult and successfully
interpreted communicative situations.
Most interpreters interviewed have between 20 and 40 years of
professional experience (with one outlier with five years of experi-
ence) in which they had worked with politicians and diplomats from
various countries – some as freelancers, others as staff interpreters.
The working languages of the interpreters interviewed are Arabic,
Bulgarian, Chinese, English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian,
and Spanish. These languages are either their A language, i.e., the
mother tongue or the language they speak best according to the clas-
sification of the International Association of Conference Interpreters
(AIIC), or their B language, i.e., an active language in which the inter-
preter is perfectly fluent, but which is not a mother tongue. Many of
the interpreters interviewed are members of the AIIC and have been
working for embassies, ministries, and at state visits as well as for
international organisations such as the United Nations (UN) and the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) or major
European institutions such as the Organization for Security and Co-
operation in Europe (OSCE) or the European Union (EU) Agency for
Fundamental Rights (FRA). In short, they have an extraordinarily high
level of expertise in interpreting in political and diplomatic settings.
We were interested in learning about their experiences in interpreting
in this area. We wanted to see how they manage their job, how
they behave when faced with specific issues – e.g., regarding infor-
mation, emotions, speakers’ behaviour, ethical aspects, situational
constraints – and how they see their own role as an interpreter. We
were also interested in their interaction with diplomats and embassy
staff as well as cooperation with their counterparts, i.e., interpreters
working for the other communicative party whom they get to know
at assignments at which the interpreters are members of the respective
delegations.
We are aware of potential shortcomings of interviews as a method
(e.g., memory errors, reluctance to disclose information, and acquies-
cence bias, i.e., the desire to provide answers the interviewer presum-
ably wants to hear). In view of this, we informed the interpreters that
they should share with us only information they wanted to share, thus
alleviating potential conflicts. Neither the diplomats and politicians
nor the interpreters interviewed shared any confidential information,
but examples have in some cases been generalised to avoid directly
identifying our interview partners.