Abstract
In spite of being criticised as ‘talking shops’ and easily replaced by technological innovations, dialogues – defined as face-to-face interactions in an institutionalised framework – remain a staple of international politics. While prevailing accounts have shown that dialogues help states advance their quest for security and profit, the key role dialogues play in the quest for recognition has been overlooked and remains undertheorised. Emphasising the socio-psychological need for ontological security, this article argues that institutions relentlessly engage in dialogues because it allows them to seek, gain and anchor the recognition of their identity. The significance for international relations is illustrated through the emblematic case of the European Union–US dialogues, specifically the Transatlantic Legislators’ Dialogue. The multi-method qualitative analysis based on original interviews, participant observations, visuals and official documents demonstrates how the European Union exploits these dialogues with its ‘Significant Other’ to seek, gain and anchor the recognition of its complex institutional identity.
Highlights
Every day brings news of another diplomatic meeting held somewhere in the world involving representatives of states and/or international institutions
To illustrate how dialogues are used to seek recognition of institutional identity, we focus on the European Union (EU) as it has set up an entire ‘dialogue system’ (Monar, 1997: 272), becoming one of the international actors conducting the highest number of diplomatic dialogues
This article has shown that dialogical interactions serve to anchor institutional identity by enabling recognition processes to unfold
Summary
Every day brings news of another diplomatic meeting held somewhere in the world involving representatives of states and/or international institutions. The threefold process of recognition of institutional identity through dialogue We map three stages in the recognition process of institutional identity through dialogue: seeking recognition by projecting different dimensions of identity (relevance and distinctiveness), gaining recognition in the case of a perceived match between one’s selfimage and the treatment received, and anchoring recognition through the enactment of visual, discursive and practical anchors These stages roughly overlap with key moments of the dialogue: first, ‘the entry to the room’, including the preparation; second, ‘the interaction within the room’, corresponding to the bulk of the dialogue in which participants experience the relationship; and third, ‘the leaving of the room’, whereby symbolic elements are projected to the world allowing the recognition of identity to be anchored and celebrated outside the room. The misrecognised actor must reposition itself and engage in various strategies to seek further the recognition of its identity (Greve, 2018; Ringmar, 2012)
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