3. Diplomacy within States?

Abstract

This chapter explores the possible implications of social pluralism, domestic complexity, and territorial continuities for a better understanding of the contemporary challenges of diplomacy. It advances the opportunity of a new understanding of diplomatic culture inspired in contemporary discussions on 'agonistic pluralism'. The problem of the political community is at the core of the theory of constitutional law, giving force to the changing notions of constituent power. The more paradiplomacy replicates conventional diplomatic methods and forms, the less differential value and transformative potential it will have as an innovative means to approach the social, cultural, economic or environmental problems associated with the complexities of contemporary global political life. The chapter analyzes some diplomatic practices currently in progress in the Andean region, in that they eloquently reveal both the remote sources of that pluralism as well as its possible treatment, through a new understanding of diplomatic culture, as 'agonistic respect'.Keywords:agonistic pluralism; Andean region; diplomacy; paradiplomacy; political community; social pluralism