Just Greasing the Wheels? Mediating Difference or the Evasion of Power and Responsibility in Diplomacy (original) (raw)
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Diplomacy and the Making of World Politics
This chapter explores the relationship between humanitarian actors and diplomats by comparing their relationship in institutional and practical terms. I argue that while diplomacy is defined by a thin culture (held together by the fact that states are particular and different), humanitarian action is defined by a thick culture (held together by shared substantive values). I explore how diplomacy forms an infrastructure that shapes what non-state actors are and what they do, as when they negotiate with states on behalf of suffering individuals, or when they collect and use information to advance particular interests. Finally, I explore how diplomacy reproduces states as naturalized venues for political action and mobilization, even when – as in humanitarian crises – the very capacity of states as sovereign agents are in question.
Theorizing Diplomacy and Diplomats on Their Own Terms
International Studies Review, 2011
Diplomatic Theory of International Relations. By Paul Sharp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 339 pp., 90.00hardcover(ISBN−13:978−0−521−76026−3),90.00 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-0-521-76026-3), 90.00hardcover(ISBN−13:978−0−521−76026−3),32.99 paperback (ISBN-13: 978-0-521-75755-3). Sharp's basic thesis in Diplomatic Theory of International Relations is that it is possible to identify a specifically diplomatic tradition of thinking, or theory, about international relations, one that contributes to international relations in particular and to human relations in general. Sharp grounds this unconventional notion of diplomatic theory, which is more tacit than explicit, in the leading ideas of diplomats and those who study them, arguing that it arises from “what diplomats themselves have had to say about international relations” (p. 7). In other words, diplomatic theory is “a coherent and distinctive set of propositions about international relations” (p. 7) that emerges organically from the diaries, histories, and memoirs of diplomats. In developing his thesis, Sharp challenges the supremacy of state-based realism. He also deals with the enduring problem that, even for students of international relations, diplomacy and diplomats remain something of a mystery, one that is compounded by the paradoxical inability of diplomats to “provide much insight into how and why diplomacy works” (p. 2). Sharp, however, chooses not to explicate and demystify diplomacy and diplomats by seeking easy solutions in universal claims. Rather, he chooses an unorthodox path, inviting us to consider the limits and complexities inherent in thinking and acting diplomatically. In Part One, Sharp&#;s theoretical framework draws directly on English School theory and method, with assessments of how diplomacy and diplomats …
International Negotiation, 2021
This article draws on interviews with 198 state ambassadors and applies an interpretiv-ist lens to provide a more nuanced conceptualization of diplomacy. In doing so, we seek to project a closer fit between scholarly definitions of the term and how diplomacy is understood by practitioners. We contribute to the literature by proposing a more refined understanding of the term, presented here as five distinct (though not mutually exclusive) 'meanings' of diplomacy: (1) The actors taking part in modern diplomacy; (2) the objectives of diplomacy; (3) the mechanisms of diplomacy; (4) diplomacy as a skill; and (5) diplomacy as a profession. We find that drawing on the full range of the diplomatic experience is particularly important given the growing challenges to negotiation as the primary agency of diplomacy.
This essay will address the question ‘what is diplomacy?’ by examining it through three linked themes, expressed as pairs of conceptual opposites, that I have chosen for their recurring presence in the theoretical literature. They are, in order, exclusion and inclusion, accountability and autonomy, and faith and common sense. The first, and keynote, theme explores how diplomacy as a social and political practice is shaped by the various types of exclusion in which it is implicated, with a particular emphasis on its relationship to elites. The second extends this discussion, by way of an examination of ‘anti-diplomacy’ to investigate what these exclusions could mean for diplomatic institutions in the present. My third section focuses on the other side of the coin – inclusion – and attempts to come to grips with the issue of whether a ‘diplomatic understanding’ of international relations can lay claim to a moral foundation with universal appeal. I will not venture to answer the over-arching question with a comprehensive definition of my own – I have allowed myself to be guided by James Der Derian’s formulation of diplomacy as “the mediation of estranged peoples organised into states which interact in a system”. Instead, I will try to offer a characterisation of diplomacy as limned by my chosen themes and the negative space around them. Also absent here is much consideration of the technical and operational aspects of diplomacy. Rather, I will follow the tone of many theoretical authors by adopting a historical point of view. It is perhaps owing to this source material that the relationship between diplomacy and religion asserts itself as a secondary thread in what follows.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. Contents Acknowledgments vii Preface ix 3 Institutionalization and Ritualization Institutionalization Ritualization Shared symbols and references: diplomatic protocol Reciprocity, precedence and diplomatic immunity Diplomatic ranks Concluding remarks 4 Communication Language Gathering information Transmitting information: diplomatic signaling Negotiation Verbal and nonverbal communication Private and public communication Technological development Concluding remarks v vi Contents 5 Diplomatic Representation Behavior: acting for others Status: standing for others Concluding remarks The Reproduction of International Society Reproduction of premodern international societies 121 Reproduction of the modern society of states Concluding remarks 7 Diplomacy and Changing Polities Philip, Alexander and the Greek community Religious vs. secular polities in the Early Middle Ages 143 The European Union Concluding remarks Conclusions Notes Index Preface It seems very difficult to theorize about diplomacy. Those of a historical bent will suggest that there is nothing new to say in these terms, while practitioners may doubt the utility of theorizing in general. As a result, and as Jönnson and Hall note, the study of diplomacy has been marginalized within International Relations (IR). Given diplomacy's importance to what goes on, in the world, and an understanding of it, this marginalization has been a surprising, bordering on scandalous, state of affairs. Scholars of International Relations, therefore, owe a great debt to Christer Jönsson and Martin Hall. In providing us with Essence of Diplomacy, they have produced a path-breaking work which employs the best of the sociological theory which is at long-last percolating into mainstream academic IR to demonstrate diplomacy's importance. So long as the human condition is governed by pluralist, rather than solidarist, conceptions of who we are and how we live, then relations between separate groups will remain. These relations must involve communication, representation and reproduction. The modalities of these three elements may change over time and by place. In themselves, however, they are the essential elements of diplomacy and point to the way in which diplomacy, itself, is an essential element in international relations. After this book, practitioners and historians will no longer be able to ignore the benefits, at least, of international theorizing, and IR scholars will no longer be able to ignore diplomacy's centrality to nearly everything in which they are interested. Indeed, a rich research agenda of empirical studies is now needed to explore the full implications of Jönsson and Hall's argument.
Diplomatic ambiguity: from the power-centric practice to a reasoned theory (2005 Polemos)
hrcak.srce.hr
The author proposes a theoretical guide for a practice-oriented analysis of diplomatic ambiguity. Based primarily on both the comments by classical diplomatic theorists and his own historical interpretation of the use of diplomatic ambiguity during the Rambouillet negotiations on the status of Kosovo/a, he offers a reconstruction of the power-centric view of diplomatic ambiguity that has been, as he demonstrates, implicitly endorsed by the key actors of the Rambouillet negotiating process. He claims that, though such a view can give one some insight into contingent historical developments and help one understand some cases of diplomatic practice, it suffers from several flaws that make it an unlikely candidate for a viable and comprehensive theory of diplomatic ambiguity. Furthermore the author presents, in a rudimentary and preliminary form, an alternative, more reasoned view of diplomatic ambiguity that is, on the one hand, language-centric and non-legalistic, and, on the other, sufficiently responsive to doxatic/cognitive aspects of ambiguity and also consistent with Der Derians concept of diplomacy as mediation of estrangement.