Contested States, Hybrid Diplomatic Practices and the Everyday Quest for Recognition
Bouris, D; Fernandez-Molina, I
Date: 5 June 2018
Article
Journal
International Political Sociology
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP) for International Studies Association
Publisher DOI
Abstract
This article examines contested state diplomatic practices with the aim to challenge
structural legal-institutional accounts of these actors’ international engagement, which
are unsatisfactory in explaining change and acknowledging their agency. Considering
contested states as liminal international actors, their diplomatic practices ...
This article examines contested state diplomatic practices with the aim to challenge
structural legal-institutional accounts of these actors’ international engagement, which
are unsatisfactory in explaining change and acknowledging their agency. Considering
contested states as liminal international actors, their diplomatic practices stand out for
their hybridity in transcending the state vs. non-state diplomacy dichotomy as well as
their structure-generating properties in enabling social forms of international recognition
– absent legal recognition. The concept is empirically applied to examine the everyday
interaction between the representatives of Palestine and Western Sahara and the EU
institutions in Brussels. It is argued that there has been a renewal and expansion of the
Palestinian and Sahrawi repertoires of diplomatic practices vis-à-vis the EU, which has
entailed growing hybridisation. Innovation originated in more “transformative”
diplomatic practices capitalising on the contested states’ own political inbetweenness,
which established relations that contributed to constituting and endogenously
empowering them in the Brussels milieu. The way was thus paved for more
“reproductive” diplomatic practices that mimic traditional state diplomacy to gain
prominence. The impact achieved on “high politics” demonstrates how bottom-up
practice-led change may allow contested states to compensate for their meagre material
capabilities and punch above their structural weight in international politics.
Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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