Narrative practice in international politics and diplomacy: the case of the Crimean crisis

Faizullaev, Alisher; Cornut, Jérémie

doi:10.1057/jird.2016.6

Cited by 51 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…As a consequence, successful actions and interactions in the multilateral arena require the building and presenting of coherent international law-oriented discourses. Diplomats try to convince other diplomats and international actors about the legality and legitimacy of their claims in attempts to ensure their narrative wins (Faizullaev and Cornut, 2017).…”

Section: Diplomats’ Improvisations In International Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Cornut

2017

European Journal of International Relations

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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.

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Section: Diplomats’ Improvisations In International Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Cornut

2017

European Journal of International Relations

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“…Thanks to them, frontline diplomats are able to engage more broadly and more efficiently with foreign civil society and create an attractive image of their country. 86 They value these practices for the tools and the aid they provide to mass communications, such as the speed that news can be shared on social media platforms and the audience they can reach. The US embassy in Moscow tried to move quickly and responded as soon as possible to breaking news and/or events, with some of McFaul's tweets reaching an estimated half-million people in the 24-hour news cycle.…”

Section: How Do These Activities Transform Traditional Modes Of Operamentioning

confidence: 99%

The changing practices of frontline diplomacy: New directions for inquiry

Cooper

Cornut

2018

Rev. Int. Stud.

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This article develops the concept of ‘frontline diplomacy’ – what practitioners referring to work in embassies, consulates, and permanent representation as ‘the field’ –, defined here as all diplomats’ activities taking place away from headquarters. IR scholarship tends to focus on Ministries of Foreign Affairs located in capitals. On the contrary, building on the practice turn in IR, we first show that international politics emerge from frontline practices. Adding to criticism against the practice turn, we then explain that it has missed important transformations occurring in frontline diplomacy because it tends to privilege stability over change. We finally discuss two innovations in frontline practices: the action of Sherpas in G20 summits following the 2008 crisis and the use of Twitter by US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul (2012–14). For each we answer three questions: How do these activities transform traditional modes of operation? How are non-state actors involved in them? What do they tell about transformation of global politics? Because diplomatic practices at the frontlines epitomise international politics, these new directions for inquiry contribute substantively to IR scholarship. At the theoretical level, they enrich the continuing encounter between IR and diplomatic studies through practice theory and help to understand change in practice.

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“…Recasting narratives as "games" played out among different narrators and their audiences as opposed to "stories" complicates constructivism's methodological default setting as well as its understanding with an agent-structure co-constitution (Büger & Gadinger, 2014, pp. 37-40; e.g., see Faizullaev & Cornut, 2016). To the extent that such games can and do negotiate international social order, it then becomes an imperative to revisit, theoretically and empirically, not only the conditions of identity formation, but also the reigning understanding of power in world politics (cf.…”

Section: What Next?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Identity and Foreign Policy (ORE Politics)

Vučetić¹

2018

Preprint

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Identity has come to figure prominently in the study of foreign policy since the 1990s when it was first introduced by constructivist theorists in International Relations. Consensus on what identity is and what it does in relation to foreign policy does not exist and is unlikely to be ever forged. Some scholars investigate state identity—how it informs and shapes foreign policy processes while simultaneously being informed and shaped by international structures. Others use the concept of identification to examine what foreign policy means for the constitution of modern political subjectivities. Still others seek to bring together constructivist identity scholarship together with more established approaches in Foreign Policy Analysis. This article considers the contextual emergence and evolution of the “identity and foreign policy” scholarship in its many different and differing streams. The large volume of literature produced on this subject over the past two and a half decade defies an easy summary of its theoretical and empirical contributions, but an overview of the main controversies and debates should provide the reader with a solid foundation for further research.

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Narrative practice in international politics and diplomacy: the case of the Crimean crisis

Cited by 51 publications

References 40 publications

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

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

The changing practices of frontline diplomacy: New directions for inquiry

Identity and Foreign Policy (ORE Politics)

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