CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 02/2018

LE MONDE ESSAY
Networks of Diplomats, Networks
of the World
MARKUS KORNPROBST
holds a M.A. in Political
Studies of the University of
Cape Town and a Ph.D. in
Political Science of the
University of Toronto. Since
2009, he is Professor and
Chair of Political Science
and International Relations
at the Vienna School of
International Studies. His
research and teaching
interests are: International
Peace and Security;
International Relations
Theory; Political Agency and
Practical Reason;
Governance and Diplomacy;
Nuclear Non-proliferation;
Crisis Management;
European Politics and
African Politics.
da-vienna.ac.at
Diplomacy has penetrated more and more issue areas, including human rights,
development, environment, health and migration.
Andrew Schoultz’s painting “Crisis“ boasts
many colourful lines on a black and grey
background. Some of these are symmetrical
and span the entire painting, almost like frames.
Others are broken and look much more chaotic.
They are reminiscent of whirlwinds that threaten to
sweep everything into a dark hole. I suppose that this
painting captures quite well how many of us think
about international politics in our days: hoping for
order, being bewildered by complexity, and perceiving
increasing chaos. Albert-László Barabási sums
this up very well: ‘We are surrounded by systems that
are hopelessly complicated.’
But ‘hopelessly complicated’ is a poor guide for
action. More and more scientists, Barabási very
much included, attempt to get at this complexity by
relying on a metaphor, i.e. the network. Simply put, a
network consists of nodes and ties. Seen through this
lens, the internet is about webpages (nodes) and hyperlinks
(ties), a power grid about generators (nodes)
and transmission lines (ties), and so on. Social
scientists, too, write about networks. Organizations
are networks in which individuals are linked together
by their daily interaction. Communication
networks are constituted by channels of communication
connecting actors. The small world phenomenon
is a particularly interesting finding. In its popularised
form, for instance the play Six Degrees of
Separation by John Guare, it postulates that linkages
from any person in the world to any other one, are at
most six steps away.
Juxtapose these insights from network theory to
simplistic views of diplomacy as they often prevail in
the media, among political elites and even in academia.
There is the assumption that just a few militarily
powerful states matter. When it comes to these few
states, it is only their leaders that have agency. And, if
the world is lucky, these leaders succeed to reach
some kind of agreement behind closed doors about
how to manage a crisis, resolve a conflict, and keep
international order afloat.
To be sure, this simplistic view of diplomacy as
statecraft of the powerful is not entirely wrong. During
a major military crisis when war and peace are
at stake, the leaders of militarily powerful states tend
to have plenty of agency. But there is much more to
diplomacy than acute military crises.
The last decades have witnessed a proliferation of
diplomatic actors, issues and processes. It is no longer
just state representatives that populate the diplomatic
stage. There are business and citizen diplomats,
celebrity and science diplomats, music and
sports diplomats, and so on. Diplomacy has penetrated
more and more issue areas, including human
rights, development, environment, health and migration.
Diplomatic interaction patterns range from
coercive diplomacy via bargaining to deliberation.
More or less strategic forms of deliberation potentially
reach deep. They do not just affect decisions and
actions but even the understandings upon which
such decisions and actions are based.
Diplomatic actors spin more and more networks
with more and more actors, using more and more
differentiated modes of communication and aiming
to control, steer, foster or even eliminate more and
more networks other than diplomatic ones. To give
just a few examples, diplomatic networks attempt to
understand and do away with networks that constitute
pandemics and international terrorism as much
as they seek to grasp and foster global finance and
trade networks for their advantage. Words such as
‘understand’ and ‘grasp’ are to be taken seriously in
this context. Given the complexities of all of these
networks – diplomatic and non-diplomatic – sense
making has become an ever more important challenge
for diplomacy.
Diplomacy has survived and remained functional
to this present day because it has always succeeded to
reinvent itself. It seems to me that we have again
reached a point where such reinvention is necessary
(and, indeed, has already begun). There are at least
five reasons for drawing from the network metaphor
to reflect about adaptations of diplomacy: First, thinking
about network diplomacy cautions against assumptions
that big events always have big causes.
Networks may fall prey to cascading failures. The
origins of these failures can be small and locally
highly limited. But these origins then cascade,
causing a major system failure.
Second, the network metaphor encourages us to
think more carefully about power. There is power in
having ties. Note that it is not to be taken for granted
that the state with the most military capabilities is
also always the state with the most ties. Ties always
have to be fostered. This ranges from more tangible
dimensions, for example taking advantage of technological
innovations, to more intangible ones such as
PHOTO: DIPLOMATISCHE AKADEMIE WIEN/PILO PICHLER
keeping up one’s authority and appeal.
Third, the network metaphor reminds us that
today’s diplomacy requires taking a host of different
actors seriously. It is not just ties from foreign ministry
to foreign ministry that count. Other ministries
and agencies, representatives of international organizations
and non-governmental actors (profit and
non-profit) matter a great deal, too. They also
amount to important nodes in the network; having
ties to them multiplies opportunities to leave a mark.
Fourth, the metaphor makes us think harder
about what ties are to be put to use and how. It is, for
instance, no coincidence that science diplomacy has
become a buzzword. Expert knowledge moulds our
grasp of the world. Having ready access to it and
being able to diffuse it to a broader audience yields
opportunities to exert influence.
Fifth, the pace of network diplomacy is different.
Once diplomats use windows of opportunity skilfully,
initiatives can generate a velocity that is not found
in traditional forms of diplomacy. This is tied to the
small world effect. Networks can be put to use
quickly to achieve a major – even global – reach.
Diplomacy thus understood is anything but exclusive.
It presupposes active state institutions as
much as active civil society actors. It requires actors
that do not shy away from acquiring knowledge that
transcends academic disciplines as well as skills sets.
And, perhaps most of all, it cannot work without actors
who are willing to enter more open forms of
communication. We’ll always disagree upon many
things. Contestation is, to a considerable extent, the
name of the game. But we also have a lot to figure out
together.
BOOKTIP
Understanding International Diplomacy
Theory, Practice and Ethics, 2nd Edition
Markus Kornprobst
First published in 2013, this book provides a comprehensive
introduction to the study of international diplomacy, covering
both theory and practice. This second edition has been revised
and updated, with new material
on such key contemporary issues
as Syria, Ukraine, migration and
the South China Sea.
Routledge, ISBN : 978113871734
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Cercle Diplomatique 2/2018