Mimicking state diplomacy: The legitimizing strategies of unofficial diplomacies

Diplomacy and recognition play central roles in the conventional conferral of state legitimacy and functioning of the inter-state system. In broadening the diplomatic frame by stepping outside the conventional state-system, this paper brings a poststructuralist and performative toolkit to mimetic diplomatic practices. Adapting Bhabha’s notion of mimicry to diplomatic discourse, it demonstrates how non-state diplomacies draw on, mimic and intervene in the realm of formal political action in ways which both promote ‘official’ state diplomacy as an ideal and dilute its distinction from other, ‘unofficial’ diplomacies. In thereby examining the enactment of international diplomacy in unexpected spaces, this paper brings together three empirical studies: a Government-in-Exile, a religious community and micropatrias (self-declared parodic nations). In each of these cases, attention focuses on: discourses of recognition; sovereignty and legitimacy; the diplomatic relationships fostered and institutions of diplomacy constructed; and the strategic position of such diplomacy vis-à-vis the conventional state-system. Unpacking the relationship between legitimacy, recognition and diplomacy and exploring the tension between state-centric and non-state diplomatic practices, this paper foregrounds the points of connection between the official and the unofficial. As a result, this paper expands the analytical gaze of diplomacy studies while incorporating lessons from the margins into our understandings of legitimacy, recognition, statecraft and sovereignty.     

Diplomacy and audit: Technologies of knowledge in Europe

This article investigates diplomatic knowledge production in Europe—mostly in European Union institutions but also in the member states—to probe the role of audit culture in that professional field. Diplomatic knowledge refers to the knowledge about places that is produced by career diplomats; audit culture refers to a form of regulatory power that shapes thought and action through the continuous application of measurable standards. Empirically, the analysis draws from nearly one hundred interviews with policy professionals, mostly but not exclusively in Brussels, to examine the play of qualitative and intangible skills in diplomatic work. Conceptually, it foregrounds the growing impact of audit in that sphere. I observe the narratives of efficiency, economy, and flexibility in European diplomacy, and I highlight tensions around the value of different forms of knowledge in the profession. By foregrounding the intellectual and creative facets of diplomatic work and by examining the impact of audit culture on the profession, the article helps us understand how diplomats produce knowledge about the world. It thereby enriches geographical scholarship on geopolitical knowledge and policy processes.     

The global migration of everyday life: Investigating the practice memories of Australian migrants

Social practice theories provide a unique platform for understanding how everyday practices become globalised through migration, spreading from one place to another, replacing local, often more sustainable, variations. Set in the context of the spreading of resource-intensive practices such as multiple daily showers, we explore the movement and migration of domestic practices, acknowledging that they are constantly shifting from one relatively stable form to another. Drawing on the phenomenon of human migration where, for various reasons, people move from one country to another, we argue that migrants ‘carry’ practices which can ‘travel’ between and across cultures, generations and living arrangements. People who migrate from one place to another are exposed to a greater range of practices than other more sedentary populations. On encountering new practices in the destination country, we propose the practices carried by migrants are subject to various forms of integration, disintegration and transferral across generations. Borrowing the idea of muscle memory from the biophysical sciences, we introduce ‘practice memory’ to explain how some practices thought to be ‘dead’ can be resurrected with relative ease. We also suggest that practice memory may explain how some practices can be performed in new contexts despite a person never having performed them before. We conclude by reflecting on how understanding these migratory processes, and the role of practice memory within them, offer new insights into how practices move and migrate from one time–space to another.     

The pattern of diplomatic sanctions against South Africa 1948–1994

South Africa was the object of a concerted international campaign of diplomatic isolation against the policy of apartheid during the era of National Party rule between 1948 and 1994. Part of the isolation was self-inflicted with the rejection of states with communist governments or the presence of African diplomats. South Africa became one of the international pariah states. The country therefore maintained only a small foreign service, which was spatially concentrated, notably in western Europe and North America. Attempts to expand diplomatic contacts before 1990 were limited mainly to Latin America as the foreign response was essentially hostile. The end of the Cold War enabled South Africa to extend its representation abroad, particularly in eastern Europe, but the majority of African and Asian states only established formal ties with the country following the first universal franchise elections and the installation of President Nelson Mandela as the first African head of state in May 1994.     

Wave of peace? Tsunami disaster diplomacy in Aceh, Indonesia

This paper uses the disaster diplomacy framework to address the impact of the 26 December 2004 tsunami disaster on the decades-long conflict between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Government of Indonesia. This framework enables the identification of a micro-factors of great importance in securing momentum for the peace talks. These factors include informal networks being created, plus disaster relief and diplomacy occurring at multiple levels through multi-way processes and the position of GAM dedicated to reconstruction activities. This paper further shows that, in the case of Aceh, the disaster had a deep influence on the peace talks between GAM and the Indonesian government and on the eventual implementation of the peace agreement reached. However, the tsunami disaster should not be considered the sole vector of peace in Aceh, but as a powerful catalyst in diplomatic talks, since negotiation between both sides were ongoing before the disaster and were favoured by recent changes in the political environment. Twenty-eight months after the tsunami catastrophe, it is actually non-disaster and internal political factors which are likely to have a more significant impact on the long-term resolution of the Aceh conflict. One important outcome is that it appears that the slow, unequal and often poor reconstruction process is not hindering, or even threatening, the peace process because tsunami disaster related factors are less important for peace than non-tsunami disaster related factors, findings in line with previous disaster diplomacy case studies.     

Earth's tectonic history revisited in the light of episodic misfits between plate network and mantle convection

Episodic plate reorganisations abruptly change plate boundary configurations. To illustrate their role, we review the plate reorganisations that appear in the present-day oceans and in the reconstructed Tethys ocean. These time periods cover the dispersal of the Pangea super-continent and the collisions with Eurasia that foreshadow a new super-continent. Plate reorganisations have played a fundamental role in the tectonic history of the Earth, being responsible for continental break-up and, after oceanic spreading, for continental collisions. As a result, they governed the formation and dispersal of super-continents. We observe a bulk polarity in plate motion that governs continental collision and the opposite bulk polarity in plate reorganisation that governs continental break-up. Such opposite polarities show in the tectonic history that we follow since the 550 Ma formation of the Gondwana super-continent.In order to decipher the rules that govern plate reorganisation, we investigate the distribution of spreading and subduction that derives from the current plate motion. We observe a mismatch between the evolution tendency of the plate boundary network and convection in the deep mantle. The actual network of plate boundaries illustrates a compromise between the two. Based on the opposite polarities in plate motion and plate reorganisation, we propose that this compromise is maintained by plate reorganisations that counterbalance free evolution of the network in abruptly changing its boundaries. We propose that plate reorganisations are basically caused by the mismatch between the free evolution of the plate boundary network and the current convection pattern in the deep mantle.Evidence on Proterozoic rifting and continent collisions allows dating the oldest known plate reorganisation around 2 Ga, which is the age of the oldest known super-continent. Based on the geology of the Archean before 3 Ga, mantle convection appears limited under a greenstone cover and different from the current mantle convection. The distribution of the diapiric granitoids that intrude this cover points to a honeycomb convection centred on downwelling sites separated by diffuse upwelling, which fits the theory on the early Earth mantle convection when plates did not cover the globe. We propose that the plate reorganisation regime appeared sometime between 3 and 2 Ga.     

Geographies of security and statehood in Norway’s ‘Battle of the North’

In this paper, we explore how ‘peak oil’ anxieties are woven into the spaces and practices of the state in Norway and the consequences of this for environmental justice and the public sphere more widely. We focus in particular on an ongoing struggle over access to hydrocarbon deposits in the Norwegian Arctic, the so-called ‘Battle of the North’. We use this dispute to highlight three wider theoretical points regarding (i) the continuing relevance of the state in the governing of nature-society relations, (ii) the increasingly fragmented and fluid nature of state space, and (iii) the significance of ‘security’ as a term around which social, economic and environmental tensions pivot. The paper concludes by reflecting on current efforts to prevent new oil activities in the north of Norway.     

From polygons to politics: Everyday practice and environmental governance in Veracruz,Mexico

This article argues that everyday practices can matter as much as organized social movements or outright resistance in environmental governance outcomes. While governance has become an important analytical category for understanding the institutional and epistemological systems through which resources are accessed and managed, existing characterizations of environmental governance are based on organized social movements and/or institutional re-scalings. This research reveals how state strategies to govern resources and reorder space were thwarted by the everyday practices of both farmers and state actors. Using a case study from a historic coffee-producing region in Veracruz, Mexico, this article presents ethnographic data to demonstrate how government attempts to control the environment are bound together in mutually constitutive processes of transformation with the actual places, peoples, and practices that make up the landscape.     

Does the Internet encourage people to move? Investigating Swedish young adults’ internal migration experiences and plans

The Internet offers personalized and constantly updated information about opportunities and facilities at places far away. It stimulates distant personal contact and interaction via social media. Attention is thus increasingly being paid to the relationships between Internet use and traditional, physical forms of spatial interaction and movement. This paper explores possible associations between Internet use and internal migration, based on a 2009 survey of 750 young adults in Sweden. We explore Internet-based information seeking practices associated with actual migration experiences and with current plans to move to another place. Results indicate that many recent movers believed that the Internet influenced and facilitated their decision to move, and somewhat influenced their choice of destination. Many have also developed Internet-based communication practices that involve plans to migrate in the near future. Results suggest that the Internet reinforces intentions to move for a sizeable group, and also affects their migration motives.     

A reconsideration of the Afrocentric principle in Nigeria’s foreign policy framework

One of the principles guiding the conduct of Nigeria’s foreign policy is Afrocentrism. The concept of Nigeria’s Afrocentric policy embodies two intertwined ideas. First, it is designed to advance the interest and wellbeing of African countries through different intra and extra-African diplomatic channels. Second, the reason for embracing a representative function on behalf of Africa in global forums and the enormous sacrifices undertaken in the process is to enhance Nigeria’s status as Africa’s undisputed leader. The exploits and sacrifices in the pursuit of the policy notwithstanding, Nigeria has had to endure some disappointments and inconveniences. Going forward, this article contends that the philosophies underlying the policy must be reconsidered. In the uncertain world of diplomacy where empathy and benevolence are not always rewarded, Nigeria must embrace an ‘imperialistic’ agenda in its foreign policy calculations towards Africa.

     

‘Marketing quality’ in the food sector: Towards a critical engagement with the ‘quality turn’ in wine

Our review explores the role of quality conventions that have emerged since the 'quality turn' in the food sector. By examining how the 'quality turn' contributes to transforming the wine sector, it asks whether the labeling systems seek to certify the quality of productive practices (informative function) or are intended to create imaginaries of quality as a differentiated business market strategy (symbolic function). After discussing relevant literature in geography and related fields, this review uses two emblematic examples from the wine sector to argue for the need to move beyond the marketing of quality to deepen the analysis and understanding of quality. This analytic insight questions the viability and usefulness of quality conventions aimed at differentiation, territorial development, with a focus on markets with high added value, and argues for the need to open new lines of research and policy in this sphere.     

Articulating an Indian diaspora in South Africa: The Consulate General of India,diaspora associations and practices of collaboration

Engagements between sending states and their diasporas have come under increasing critical scrutiny. Whilst political geographers have driven critical analysis of national level policies, debates have largely overlooked the broader range of actors, transactions and practices involved in implementing national policies in a geohistorically diverse array of diasporic contexts and settings. Over the last decade, the Indian government has invested significant resources in overseas diplomatic missions, consulates and high commissions to administer its diaspora outreach strategies. This paper examines the role of the Consulate General of India (CGI) in Durban, South Africa, focusing in particular on the networks of agents, associations, groups and political actors involved in collaborating with the CGI Durban in diaspora outreach practices. This paper draws on two periods of fieldwork in Durban between 2004 and 2005 and was supplemented by ongoing visual and textual analysis of news articles, promotional material, reports and websites. Using the concept of articulation, the paper highlights the discursive and performative practices involved in bringing together the agendas of the GOI with those of South African Indian diaspora associations through the outreach practices of the CGI in Durban. It argues that articulatory practices are essential to resolving some of the subjective and embodied dilemmas and contestations of belonging inherent in South African Indians’ participation in diaspora outreach initiatives. Investigating how articulation contributes to drawing diverse and even competing agendas together makes room for further understanding the ways in which diaspora outreach practices can travel across a wide network, and the diverse agencies that can become catalysed in the process.     

Accumulation by securitization: Commercial poaching,neoliberal conservation,and the creation of new wildlife frontiers

Part of a broader interest in the escalating securitization of conservation practice, scholars are beginning to take note of an emerging relationship between conservation–securitization, capital accumulation, and dispossession. We develop the concept of accumulation by securitization to better grasp this trend, positioning it in the critical literatures on neoliberal conservation, green grabbing, and conservation-security. The concept captures the ways in which capital accumulation, often tied to land and resource enclosure, is enabled by practices and logics of security. Security logics, moreover, increasingly provoke the dispossession of vulnerable communities, thereby enabling accumulation. We ground the concept by turning to the Greater Lebombo Conservancy (GLC) in the Mozambican borderlands. This is a new privately-held conservancy built as a securitized buffer zone to obstruct the movement of commercial rhino poachers into South Africa’s adjacent Kruger National Park. We show how wildlife tourism-related accumulation here is enabled by, and in some ways contingent upon, the GLC’s success in curbing poaching incursions, and, relatedly, how security concerns become the grounds upon which resident communities are displaced. In terms of the latter, we suggest security provides a troubling, depoliticized alibi for dispossession. Like broader neoliberal conservation and green grabbing, we illustrate how accumulation by securitization plays out within complex new networks of state and private actors. Yet these significantly expand to include including security actors and others motivated by security concerns.     

Rethinking multi-level governance in a changing European union: why metageography and territoriality matter

The literature on multi-level governance in Europe offers important insights into the institutional character of emerging spaces of political practice and the ways in which they are part of a politics of scale that has been unleashed in the wake of neo-liberal reform. What is less clear is the extent to which new multi-level governance arrangements are moving Europe beyond a political geography rooted in the Westphalian state system. This paper argues that a deepened understanding of the possibilities and limitations of multi-level governance requires consideration of the emerging territorial arrangements and practices that are shaping how things are organized on the ground and how people conceptualize Europe as a geographical construct. Focusing on questions of territoriality and metageography can offer insights into the socio-political significance of multi-level governance while directing attention to developments that have the potential to undermine dominant political-territorial framings of Europe.     

The etiquette of state-building and modernisation in dependent states: performing stateness and the normalisation of separate development in South Africa

The paper reflects upon the continuing allure of state-building and modernisation in peripheral, `new' states and regions. The central argument is to suggest that our understanding of the conflicts surrounding `nation-building' can be improved upon by looking at one of the most powerful symbols of the neo-colonial, economic and institutional dependency and territorial artificiality of the `nation-state'- the South African Bantustan. As enforced state-hood projects, their `newness' and illegality in the eyes of the international community suggest that the Bantustans provide a particularly striking evocation of both the limits of state-building and, above all, the significance of recognition for `newer' states. Efforts to overturn the illegal status and non-recognition of one `independent' Bantustan, namely Bophuthatswana, therefore, illustrate what are widely held to be the modern attributes and evolutionary etiquette (`growth', `building', `development') that need to be `performed' in order to legitimise or normalise a state internationally. To be given a `voice' internationally, states are seemingly required to enact state-hood and sovereignty through a range of normalising rituals associated with state-building. In this case- study, strategies promoting neo-liberal development policies and also clandestine diplomatic and economic manoeuvres were believed by the regime to deliver international recognition. Directed at locating Bophuthatswana within its place in the world, these strenuous efforts also show how crude territorial `divide and rule' tactics alone were not responsible for underpinning the apartheid project. Rather, spaces were provided for discourses and practices of state-led `national' development in the Bantustan periphery. Thought to deliver normality for the renegade Bophuthatswana state, these international and local policies exacerbated and induced further a range of crises at the heart of the Bantustan strategy and apartheid modernisation more generally. These debilitating, and in Bophuthatswana's case, disastrous, tensions between the internal and external realms of state-building point to a more general need to rethink alternatives both to neo-liberalism as well as the rituals associated with state- building.     

Has river rehabilitation begun? Social perspectives from the Upper Hunter catchment, New South Wales, Australia

Recognition of the degraded state of rivers across the world has prompted the development of management programmes which promote river repair through rehabilitation practices. Efforts to date have emphasised concerns for biophysical attributes of rivers to the relative exclusion of socio-cultural values. Ultimately, the process of river repair must move beyond this technical focus and incorporate collective societal engagement, participation and ownership. However, the inherent complexities of informing and managing this process limit the prospects that engagement will be translated into an effective and sustained practice. This qualitative case study research analyses the community’s knowledge, views and opinions regarding geomorphic river change and river works projects undertaken in the Upper Hunter catchment, New South Wales, Australia. The responses and views expressed by the participants highlight how ineffective communication and limited understanding of past river work practices has inhibited the connection and ownership between the people and their river. Essentially, historical river management was viewed as a technical process that failed to incorporate social values and aspirations, and which gave inadequate consideration to local knowledge and experience. Participants identified the need to address both diversity and commonality in vision-building and the need for greater confidence and transparency in river science and management. In light of these responses, this paper argues for the adoption of a geo-social, transdisciplinary approach to river rehabilitation.     

Religion and governmentality: Understanding governance in urban Brazil

In this paper I argue that geographies of religion are fundamental to understanding governance and social order in contemporary urban space. More specifically, I show how Foucault’s notion of governmentality characterizes regimes of power beyond the state apparatus, positing that religion and churches also produce and maintain the knowledges, truths, and social order associated with governmentality and self-regulated governance. By considering the geography of religion literature within the context of Foucualt’s work, I illustrate the importance of religious and spiritual practices to contemporary urban space, and the roles they play in producing and maintaining governance and socio-political order. My purpose is not to suggest that governmentality has been misapplied as a theoretical tool for understanding the state and political power, but to show how the term actually describes power more generally, including spiritual moments in addition to political ones. Drawing from my case study in Fortaleza, Brazil, I substantiate my theoretical argument using empirical examples, showing how governmentality is produced through religion and churches and the relationship between spiritual practices and governance in everyday space.     

New spaces,ordinary practices: Circulating and sharing within diverse economies of provisioning

This article draws upon two distinct UK case studies to explore how alternative modes of provisioning employ ordinary practices of sharing and circularity. Speaking to debates about alterity, diverse economies (Gibson-Graham, 2008) and emerging literature on the circular and shared economy, these two small and informal based models, one food based, the other clothing, are put forward as examples of the vast array of contemporary ‘alternative’ forms of consumption and provisioning taking place across the UK. The article illuminates how diverse economies are ‘made material’ through their materials and practices. In doing so I make three key arguments: firstly, and overall, that studying materiality is one way to illuminate these new and emerging spaces of provisioning, highlighting their practices, intimacies and ambiguities. Secondly, this material focus illustrates how the practices of provisioning – in particular, sharing and circulating - are not new, but are instead organised in original and novel ways; and this has wider implications for contemporary debates on circular and shared economy. Thirdly, that the materials of provisioning can be both beneficial and troublesome to provisioning organisations’ practices of circulating and sharing and the extent to which they tackle issues of social exclusion, financial hardship and sustainable resource use.     

Ethical consumption: Uncovering personal meanings and negotiation strategies

The purpose of this paper is to examine how individuals define ethical consumption (EC) and then how they negotiate ethical consumption as they move from one country to another. The authors explore these questions by reporting on and interpreting the evolution of their understanding of EC and their own ethical consumption behavior, the EC practices that have endured over time and national contexts, the tensions they encountered in maintaining EC practices in these transitions and the adaptive strategies they used to manage those tensions. While there has been research on the tensions faced by individuals practicing EC, there has been a paucity of research investigating those tensions from a cross-country and longitudinal perspective. Moreover, although several studies have focused on EC purchase practices of specific goods (e.g., athletic shoes, fair-trade commodities), none has considered this question in the context of purchases of basic needs categories – food, water, energy, transportation and housing. Each of the three authors has been able to maintain his or her own personal consumption ethic in spite of living in different countries. Whenever consumption practices emanate from, and are imbedded within, a strong ethical framework of values that informs EC, each was able to make the necessary adjustments to overcome the obstacles and points of resistance across countries. Even in those situations involving considerable inconvenience and discomfort, each used adaptive strategies that allowed retention of their consumption practices. Among those strategies employed by the authors were choice of community in which to live, self-regulation and self-reliance.