Event Date: 8 – 9 November 2013
Unrecognised Nations and Peoples Organisation
Laan van Meerdervoort 70
2517 AN The Hague
The Netherlands
Alternative Cultures of Diplomacy
Part of the Diplomatic Cultures Research Network (AH/J013900/1)
Shifting attention beyond diplomacy as the domain of states alone, the final workshop will explore a series of alternative cultures and spaces of diplomacy which disrupt the national/international binary that is central to conventional theorisations. Issues of the diplomacy of indigenous communities, the ‘paradiplomacy’ of sub-national governments and the diplomatic practices of non-state polities are attracting increasing academic attention and this workshop will bring together a range of academics and diplomatic practitioners engaged with such margins of the inter-state system. The workshop will examine how diplomatic cosmopolitanism is translated and appropriated beyond traditional spaces of diplomacy, and how this mimicking of official diplomatic discourses in turn informs the norms and mechanisms of more conventional statecraft.
Workshop Schedule:
Friday 8th November
Welcome by Dr Jason Dittmer and Dr Fiona McConnell:
Introductions:
Keynote 1 – Professor Virginie Mamadouh – Para- diplomacy: the (transnational) relations between cities, regions and other sub-state political entities
AUDIO HERE
Keynote 2 – Dr Jessica Shadian – Alternative diplomacies and the Inuit Circumpolar Council
AUDIO HERE
Agenda-setting in diplomacy I
AUDIO HERE
Agenda-setting in diplomacy II
AUDIO HERE
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Saturday 9 November
Keynote 3 – Professor Noé Cornago – (Para)diplomatic cultures: old and new
AUDIO HERE
Introduction to UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization), the conference host:
Contemporary concerns and issues in diplomacy:
Questions to be addressed:
1. How does a diplomatic service add value in light of increased competition from non-diplomats/other actors, e.g. journalists and consultants?
Group answer:
2. How do – and how can – traditional, recognised states engage with disengaged political actors such as unrecognised states and states with under-resourced diplomatic services. How can conventional diplomatic services understand the sort of advice these actors are being given?
Group answer:
3. Should diplomatic services have a structured approach with private diplomatic actors? If so, how should diplomatic services engage with these actors? Do diplomatic services currently get in the way and how can they facilitate?
Group answer:
4. Should states be concerned about the rise of citizen diplomacy? Should the state look to citizen diplomacy when normal avenues fail? Or does citizen diplomacy work because of its perceived independence?
Group answer:
5. In what circumstances is it in the interests of diplomatic services to facilitate people/people; NGO/NGO etc contacts between their state and third countries?
Group answer:
Reflections and final discussion:
I. Translating Diplomatic Cultures February 2013
II. Spaces of Diplomacy June 2013
III. Alternative Cultures of Diplomacy November 2013
