New Diplomacy (STG-MA-M7-NDI23)

STG-MA-M7-NDI23

Description

This course addresses and analyses an evolving domain of public service where civil servants are increasingly being asked to interact with their counterparts overseas or who are undertaking specific transnational policy activities.  This kind of activity – sometimes called multistakeholder diplomacy – is no longer monopolised by Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs). Public officials in departments of Health, Education, Energy or Environment or in other government agencies are increasingly engaged in governance activities off-shore, in international negotiations and standard setting, or partnering with non-state actors in quasi-official initiatives in regional or transnational policy coordination.  

“’New diplomacy’ is … associated broadly with the expansion of what is considered ‘diplomacy’ as such; on the other hand it refers more narrowly to a new way of conducting diplomacy, directed at populations rather than states. All told ‘new diplomacy’ covers ever more conceptual ground, with the common denominator being a reduced state-centricity. And, it should be added, both analytically and in policy terms, a recurring trend is reference to hybridity, how ‘old’ and ‘new’ forms of diplomacy coexist and reinforce one another ” (Halvard Leira, 2018). 

The course is of interest to those students who anticipate working in non-MFA public or private agencies that are drawn into diplomatic affairs.