About

The Global Diplomacy Index, now in its fifth iteration, is an interactive tool that maps the world’s most significant diplomatic networks. It includes 66 countries or territories in Asia, the Group of 20 (G20), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Index visualises where these countries or territories invest in diplomacy, how their global diplomatic footprints compare to each other, and how their networks have evolved over time. Ultimately, it paints a picture of where countries seek to project influence. The Index draws on five public data releases in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2024.

Methodology

The data in the 2024 Global Diplomacy Index was collected between July and November 2023. It was compiled from a combination of sources including desk research on foreign ministry websites for each of the 66 countries and territories, and direct exchanges between the Lowy Institute and the relevant ministries of foreign affairs, their embassies, and consulates. The Lowy Institute has made every effort to ensure this resource is as accurate as possible. If you have further information that will assist us, please contact us.

Included*:

• Embassies, High Commissions.
• Consulates-General and consulates, provided they are headed by a dedicated, resident head/chief of mission with accreditation in the host country. By “resident”, we mean that the head of mission is employed by the relevant jurisdiction’s foreign ministry and has been sent to the host country for the purposes of fulfilling their duties. We do not include posts headed by locally engaged staff members.
• Permanent missions or delegations to multilateral organisations (such as the UN, EU, NATO, and OECD) that operate independently of other missions and are headed by a dedicated, resident head of mission.
• Representative offices or delegations to countries/territories where there is no formal diplomatic relationship, provided they are headed by a dedicated, resident head/chief of mission posted from capital.

*The missions should also have a physical presence in the city and a permanent address.

Excluded:

• Honorary consulates.
• Consular sections of embassies (consulates or consulates-general that are located in the same city as an embassy are not counted as individual posts)*
• Consular branches or offices that are not headed by a dedicated home-based head of mission with accreditation in the host country.
• Embassies or posts that are temporarily closed.
• Permanent missions or delegations that operate as sub-sections of another post, or that do not have a dedicated, resident head of mission.
• Ambassadors to portfolios, for example ambassadors for Gender Equality or Cyber Security.
• Posts in overseas territories of the sending state.
• Trade offices that do not serve other consular or public-facing functions.

*In the 2024 release of the Index, consulates-general or consulates in the same city as an embassy of the sending state were not counted as separate posts – a change from previous years that has reduced the total post count for several countries. This change reflects that, for most countries, consular functions in capital cities are discharged as part of an embassy’s functions and staffing.

While the Index provides a useful set of datapoints as a proxy for investment in diplomacy as a dimension of statecraft, we acknowledge this has its limitations. The Index is a quantitative tool. It does not track the number of staff at each post (due to significant difficulties in obtaining this data). Nor does it measure the effectiveness of a country or territory’s diplomacy, which other tools, including the Asia Power Index, contribute to understanding.