Sherpa

Sherpa (pronounced sher-puh or shur-puh)

(1) A member of a people of Tibetan stock (thought ultimately of Mongolian origin) living on the southern slopes of the Nepalese Himalayas, noted as mountaineers and well-known for their frequent service as porters on mountain-climbing expeditions.

(2) The Southern Tibetan language of the Sherpa people.

(3) An official (chosen by or allocated to a government representative or delegate at a summit meeting or conference) who assists with preparation and related matters.

(5) A native inhabitant of a region, employed by visiting journalists, NGO (non-government organization) employees etc to assist  in resolving local administrative and other difficulties (also sometimes called "fixers").

(5) A synthetic fabric with a long, thick pile, in the style of faux fur, lambs wool or fleece and often used in cold climates to line coats or jackets.

1847: An adoption of colonial English, under the Raj, from the Tibetan Sherpa, literally "dweller in an eastern country".  Sherpa is a verb, noun & proper noun; the two noun plural forms are being Sherpas, (especially collectively) & Sherpa,  all forms capitalized or not depending on context.  When used in the context of summit meetings and such, sherpa is sometimes used as a verb but some insist this remains irregular.

Lunch at the G7 Summit hosted in 1982 by François Mitterrand (1916–1996; President of France 1981-1995) at the Palace of Versailles.

The origin of the use of sherpa in international diplomacy dates from the mid 1970s.  Not alone in his feelings, French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (1926–2020; President of France 1974-1981) was finding international meetings increasingly too formal and bureaucratic and decided what was needed was a smaller aggregation consisting essentially of those who mattered.  From this idea emerged the G5, seen originally as a kind of informal fireside chat among the leaders of France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US, the membership mirroring that of the Group of Five (finance ministers) which had coalesced in the aftermath of the disruptions caused by the first oil shock in 1973-1974.  Italy was quickly added to the formation to create a group of six and, a couple of years later, Canada joined, this formation enduring to this day as the Group of Seven (G7).  Russia was added in 1997 (creating the G8) but expelled in 2014 when Moscow began it's military adventures in the Crimea.  In many of the early meetings at Versailles the heads of government were often accompanied by only a single advisor and they came to be called "sherpas", an allusion to the idea of mountain guides marking the way through strange surroundings.   

Lindsay Lohan in sherpa-lined jacket, Falling for Christmas (Netflix, 2022).

Counter-intuitively, the attraction of the gathering was that it was vested with no formal powers which, paradoxically appears to have made it work rather better as a decision-making apparatus.  Being informal and thus smaller, without the usual array of advisors and experts, it was also more nimble, the original vision being a single high-level official from each country preparing the summit by negotiating on behalf of the head of government.  This was the birth of the sherpa, the metaphor well-borrowed because just as Sherpas of the Himalayas use their familiarity with the technically difficult terrain of the mountains to assist the better-known climbers on their summit ascents, so their G7 counterparts carry the discussions to just short of the summit so their heads of government can plant the flags on the peak.  Historically, the sherpa was meant to be so low-profile as to be almost unknown by most in the general public except the real political junkies.

In recent years, there have been changes, the entourages have grown and the awareness of the sherpa process has risen, especially as the G7 focused increasingly on issues of international development, thus becoming a target for the professional lobbyists attached to the NGOs which feed of the processes.  Nevertheless, the sherpas continue to try to resolve as much contentious material ahead of time, reputedly even drafting the final communiqués well in advance of the meetings beginning.  Despite the changes, more than one Sherpa has noted the G7 in many ways still reflect the original ideal of an intimate conversation whereas the G20 meetings with the phalanxes of aides and representatives of many institutions is by comparison a huge structure of stage-management.

Tony Blair (b 1953; UK prime-minister 1997-2007) & Alastair Campbell (b 1957; variously spokesman, campaign director, press secretary and director of communications for Labour Party (1994-2005) & Tony Blair 

It’s an unusual role in that many more are qualified for the job than are suitable to fulfill it given it simultaneously demands both the skills and knowledge of a politician yet needs someone who prefers not to be in the spotlight.  Inevitably some sherpas do become well-known, sometimes by design and sometimes not.  Alastair Campbell often acted as sherpa for Tony Blair and he noted in his diary that the nature of the sherpa’s role was to “…get all of the shit, none of the glory, and you spend a lot of the time taking seriously people you despise.  You would not be human if that did not make you angry.”