The Changing Nature of Diplomatic Practices

Abstract

The aim of this panel is to contribute to the ongoing reflection on changing diplomatic practices. In the field of International Relations, diplomatic studies have long remained the realm of detailed descriptive accounts offered by scholars and practitioners. While some of these accounts have purported to defend an old-style, Realpolitik-like view of diplomacy, most have conversely highlighted how diplomacy has developed into many new forms in the context of globalization and multi-level governance. That being said, these macroscopic accounts of diplomacy tell us little about how diplomats themselves envision the changes in their profession. This issue has however gained momentum over the past ten years, following the introduction of the so-called “practice turn” in IR by scholars such as Iver Neumann, Emanuel Adler and Vincent Pouliot. In this perspective, diplomacy is understood as an institution that encompasses a set of practical, inarticulate social skills enacted and re-enacted by internationally recognized representatives of internationally recognized entities. Diplomacy is a particularly structured and hierarchical order, which is made up of numerous rules, know-hows, symbols, etc. It is a stable institution, which begs the questions of how it confronts the issue of change in the international political environment. All four papers in this panel share a commitment to the concepts and methods of the practice turn in IR, and they all raise this issue of diplomatic practices in the face of a changing environment. This is done by addressing two questions that cut across the different papers: 1) How can we conceptualize and operationalize change in the diplomatic field and diplomatic practices?; 2) How does the nature of diplomatic work change and how do these changes manifest themselves empirically? All four papers present original and first-hand empirical material drawn from ongoing research and extensive fieldwork interviews with practitioners.

Title	Details
A Changing Diplomatic Service? Professional Identity and Boundary Work in the United States Foreign Service	View Paper Details
How do Diplomatic Practices Change?	View Paper Details
A Second-order Diplomacy? The European Union in Third Countries	View Paper Details
Change, Identity and Diplomatic Knowledge Work at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs	View Paper Details