Diplomacy, agency, and the logic of improvisation and virtuosity in practice

Abstract

Immersed in the flow of activities, diplomats and other international practitioners are simultaneously influenced by past experiences and constantly innovating in response to situations that are never exactly the same. The conceptual tools of International Relations scholars must be capable of capturing this practical reality. To that end, I introduce in this article a relational approach to agency that can make sense of practitioners’ innovative ways of doing things in practice. Practice theorists in IR often emphasize hierarchies, struggle, and the role of habitus in shaping practices. Both building on and departing from them, I dig into the logic of practical sense and discuss Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of regulated improvisations, virtuosos/amateurs, and illusio to grasp agency in practice. I develop the idea that international actors are primarily practical and put improvisations and virtuosity — rather than rationality, cognitive processes, emotions, norm-compliance, path-dependency or even habits/habitus — in the foreground. I contend that this approach holds broader promise for the analysis of international politics than existing conceptions. We have much to gain by focusing on how international practitioners in their local contexts actually improvise in the moment. These improvisations in specific sites are constitutive of the ‘big picture’ of international politics. I take diplomatic practices in embassies and in permanent representations as an illustration.

Transnistria’s Order of Friendship: Legitimacy Through Diplomatic Practice

“…Secondly, state awards, despite their pedigree and ubiquity, have never received focused attention in International Relations scholarship. This research demonstrates how an obscure political instrument can reveal underlying governmental strategies in interactions with foreign publics, thus contributing to a greater understanding of the 'making of world politics' through diplomatic practices (Adler-Nissen 2008;Bueger & Gadinger 2015;Sending et al 2015;Bouris & Fernández-Molina 2018;Cornut 2018).…”

Gendering the practice turn in diplomacy

“…(Schmalz, quoted in Satow, 1922: 202;Satow's translation) The improvisational, social nature of diplomacy strongly resembles the definition of metis discussed above. Diplomatic virtuosity emerges when a diplomat not only knows rules intuitively but understands how to improvise and which tactics to deploy at what time (Cornut, 2017). Diplomatic skill develops through apprenticeship, rather than formal training (although this does exist).…”

“…Diplomatic skill develops through apprenticeship, rather than formal training (although this does exist). Amateurs are more likely to follow rules rigidly and are less able to further their political ends (Cornut, 2017). For example, Special Envoys of the United Nations often describe their work in terms of an 'art' in managing relationships with conflict parties.…”

“…Work that examines representational and analytical practices at embassies and permanent missions helps to fill in the picture of the everyday work of diplomats (Cornut, 2015;Neumann, 2012Neumann, , 2013. Scholars also examine what constitutes competent diplomatic practice and sources of symbolic power (Adler-Nissen and Pouliot, 2014;Cornut, 2017;Kuus, 2015). They examine how new practitioners (such as civil society) learn to improvise within existing rules in venues such as the Security Council (Bode, 2018;Cook, 2018) and how Indigenous diplomats are constrained by and push the boundaries of diplomatic decorum (McConnell, 2018).…”

How can we criticize international practices?

“…Pragmatic critique, by contrast, regards social research as one practice among many and thus does not accord any a priori privileged status to the knowledge produced by social cal sociology and pragmatism, either by emphasizing the more dynamic elements within Bourdieu's own theory of practice (Cornut 2018;Leander 2011) or by complementing Bourdieu's theory with ideas from pragmatist authors like Goffman (Adler-Nissen 2014; Nair 2019). In our view, these attempts to enrich Bourdieu's theory of practice with pragmatic elements tend to end up embracing a form of pragmatic critique.…”