Non-state Diplomacy Research Articles

Економізація зовнішньої політики незалежної України

The article reveals the essential characteristics of the economization of Ukraine’s foreign policy, the stages of its formation. It turns out that the world’s leading countries have a long history of foreign policy economization, which is based on the postulate of ensuring economic growth and promoting prosperity as its main goal. The formation of the principles of economic policy of foreign institutions of Ukraine is a combination of Soviet traditions and patterns of world practice. Emphasis is placed on the negative impact of the multi-vector foreign policy of Ukraine’s main actors on its economization. It is argued that economic diplomacy is in a constant process of reform, which is not always consistent, which negatively affects its effectiveness. Attention is focused on the importance of Ukraine’s cooperation with international organizations in the context of the armed conflict in the East and the sharp reduction of export-import operations with Russia. The problems of functioning of the institute of economic diplomacy are covered: the presence of competition of foreign policy and foreign economic departments of Ukraine, the absence of diplomats – qualified managers of foreign economic activity, lack of funding, staff reduction.It is concluded that in the context of globalization the role of the social function of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and its diplomatic corps, which is to provide information and legal protection of Ukrainian citizens abroad, is growing. It is necessary to actively create the institution of "non-state diplomacy". Foreign economic institutions need to provide maximum assistance to exporters of high valueadded products. The pro-government circles of Ukraine do not always have the understanding or desire to understand that the powerful economic component of our state’s foreign policy and the effective economic diplomacy that embodies it are a significant contribution to the power of Ukraine’s economy and its national security. The issue of the separation of functions of pro-government institutions remains largely unresolved, primarily with regard to the powers of the administration / office of the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ukraine’s successful export expansion should be based on more fundamental systemic tools than the adopted Export Strategy. There is an urgent need not only to preserve but also to improve the overall foreign policy strategy, to strengthen its priorities and basic principles. &nbsp

Rebel diplomacy and digital communication: public diplomacy in the Sahel

Abstract Most research on social media as a tool for public diplomacy focuses on its use by recognized international actors to advance their national interest and reputation, deliver foreign policy objectives or promote their global interests. This article highlights the need for paying more attention to non-state diplomacy in conflict situations outside the western world. We examine how rebel groups use new media to enhance their communications, and what the motivations behind this are. Our public diplomacy perspective helps convey the scope of rebel communications with external actors and provides insights for policy-makers seeking to ascertain the nature, intentions and capacities of myriad rebel groups. Our focus is on the Sahel region, where numerous such groups vying for international attention and support make use of multiple social media channels. We analyse two groups in Mali: the MNLA, a Tuareg secessionist group; and Ansar Dine, a Salafist insurgency with ties to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Our qualitative analysis of Ansar Dine and MNLA communications on several digital platforms helps identify these African rebel groups' international and local framing activities. Rebel groups use public diplomacy nimbly and pragmatically. The digital age has fundamentally changed which stakeholders such groups can reach, and we suggest that social media increase the power they are able to carve out for themselves on the international stage.

Introduction: Non-state Diplomacy from Non-Western Perspectives

Introduction: Non-state Diplomacy from Non-Western Perspectives

Non-state Diplomacy Challenges to Authoritarian States: The Open Russia Movement

Summary While some scholars assert that non-state actors (NSAs) can be considered as public diplomacy agents in their own right, others argue that NSAs’ work only supplements a state’s public diplomacy efforts. Both groups of scholars, however, focus on collaboration between states and NSAs. This article draws attention to the situations in which transnational NSAs challenge their respective states. Using the transnational movement Open Russia as a case study and drawing on Robert Kelley’s conceptualization of the diplomatic capabilities of NSAs as manifesting themselves in such actions as disruption, agenda-setting, mobilizing and gatekeeping, this article explores the power interplay between Open Russia and its domestic and foreign constituencies. By analysing the potential and the limits of Open Russia’s diplomatic capabilities, the article expands the discussion about NSAs’ role in public diplomacy.

The Model Arctic Council: Simulated Negotiations as Pedagogy and Embodied Diplomacy

ABSTRACTThis article draws on the perspectives of students and organizers involved in recent iterations of the Model Arctic Council (MAC), an experiential learning simulation designed to expand students’ knowledge and understanding of the Arctic and its governance. While much of the discourse related to simulations such as the MAC emphasizes its pedagogical and networking benefits, this article leverages participant-based ethnography to argue that the MAC also affects multi-track diplomatic outcomes in addition to serving as a site for diplomatic engagement. Applying an interpretive approach driven by the onset of practice-tracing in international relations, we demonstrate that the MAC both produces and constitutes diplomacy. Such a reimagination elevates the diplomacy of non-state actors and exposes false binaries between state diplomacy and non-state diplomacy.

Contested States, Hybrid Diplomatic Practices, and the Everyday Quest for Recognition

This article examines the diplomatic practices of contested states with the aim to challenge structural legal-institutional accounts of these actors’ international engagement, which are unsatisfactory in explaining change and acknowledging their agency. Considering contested states as liminal international actors, their diplomatic practices stand out for their hybridity in transcending the state versus nonstate diplomacy dichotomy, as well as for their structure-generating properties in enabling social forms of international recognition—absent legal recognition. The concept is empirically applied to examine the everyday interaction between the representatives of Palestine and Western Sahara and the European Union (EU)’s institutions in Brussels. It is argued that there has been a renewal and expansion of the Palestinian and Sahrawi repertoires of diplomatic practices vis-a-vis the EU, which has entailed growing hybridization. Innovation originated in more “transformative” diplomatic practices capitalizing on the contested states’ own political in-between-ness, which established relations that contributed to constituting and endogenously empowering them in the Brussels milieu. The way was thus paved for more “reproductive” diplomatic practices that mimic traditional state diplomacy to gain prominence. The impact achieved on “high politics” demonstrates how bottom-up practice-led change may allow contested states to compensate for their meagre material capabilities and punch above their structural weight in international politics.

Introduction: Mapping the Complex Parliamentary Field of the Mediterranean—How Many Actors?

Following the end of the Cold War and the appearance of globalization and new forms of regionalization, new actors have emerged in world politics and changed the traditional practice of diplomacy. New forms of diplomacy range from economic diplomacy to paradiplomacy, cultural diplomacy, or even celebrity diplomacy. Parliamentary diplomacy has also developed its influence in this new world, and there is now a clear “parliamentarization” of world politics. This phenomenon resulted from democratization, globalization, regionalization, and technological developments. There are now three different perspectives on diplomacy: statist (the state speaks with one voice), globalist (the growth of nonstate diplomacy), and postglobalist (combining both state-centric and multicentric realities). This essay falls clearly within the last of these three possibilities. It focuses on the growth of parliamentary diplomacy in the Mediterranean Basin.