What is it about?
This is a critical introduction to the Forum "Strategic Functions of Future Diplomacy". I discuss some of the constraints and contextual factors affecting foreign policy planning and I highlight issues related to planning not mentioned in the contributions to the Forum. First, the gaze of foreign policy planners is outwards, directed at world events, but the domestic bureaucratic, policy and societal contexts equally impact on their scope for manoeuvre. I also note that foreign policy planning is showing greater sensitivity to the small picture of practitioners' attitudes, behaviour, and skills.
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Why is it important?
Planners need to act in defence of diplomacy itself, as its institutions and practice seem to be under deliberate attack. The shifting global power balance makes it moreover important to think harder about about diplomacy in a competitive and transactional space. It makes the discussion of the strategic functions of diplomacy urgent, and that is precisely what this Forum is doing, with two reflective practitioners' essays by the Policy Planning Directors of the French and Dutch Foreign Ministries.
Perspectives
I am glad to see such excellent essays by professionals in our academic journal. Diversity of authorship, in all sorts of ways, is important to get a more comprehensive understanding of diplomacy that is reflective of multiple views and perspectives across the world.
Jan Melissen
Leiden University and University of Antwerp
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Strategic Functions of Future Diplomacy, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, November 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/1871191x-20241574.
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