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In Plural Diplomacies: Normative Predicaments and Functional Imperatives, Noé Cornago asserts the need to restore the long-interrupted continuity between the relevance of diplomacy as raison de système - in a world which is much more than a world of States - and its unique value as a way to mediate the many alienations experienced by individuals and social groups.

Abstract:The idea of a perfect national political community, entirely confined within the contours of a corresponding state, is one of the foundational fictions of global modernity. Its formal crystallisation in the legal grammars of the right to self-determination has been however, particularly in the post-colonial era, highly problematic and full of ambiguities. Drawing on this background, this article contends that diplomacy offers frequently a more promising venue for dealing with the challenge of political pluralism than appealing to either the unstable grammars of the right to self-determination or a reified understanding of the principle of territorial integrity of states. In so doing, firstly, the right to self-determination is critically examined. Instead of attempting to articulate its formal content, the malleability of its legal grammars and political realities, will be emphasised. Secondly, based on the discussion of a variety of historical cases, the notion of 'constituent diplomacies' will be advanced, aiming to show how the agonistic accommodation of political and territorial pluralism through diplomacy was crucial not only in the formative processes of modern sovereign states but also nowadays. Finally, this relational understanding of the historical forms of governance of political pluralism within and beyond state boundaries will be re-examined, beyond its ethno-political dimensions, through the prism of the complex interplay between the material and ideational conditions for the co-production of sovereignty in the context of new global capitalism.

Against conventional approaches that tend to minimize the importance of sub-state diplomacy, this article argues that this reality is presently undergoing a process of legal and political normalization throughout the world and deserves greater attention from both diplomatic practitioners and experts. This process, which is embedded in wider structural transformations, is driven simultaneously by two competing forces that are present in virtually all states: first, international mobilization of sub-state governments themselves, since they increasingly pursue relevant political objectives in the international field through their own methods and instruments; and second, the various attempts to limit and control that activism deployed by central governments through various legal and political instruments. After a brief discussion on the notion of normalization in critical social theory and its validity for diplomatic studies, this article examines the normalization of sub-state diplomacy through four, closely interconnected conceptual lenses: normalization as generalization; normalization as regionalization; normalization as reflective adaptation; and, finally, normalization as contentious regulation. Normalization enables the diplomatic system to operate in an increasingly complex environment while simultaneously affirming its own hierarchical structure. The limits of that normalization process, as well as its wider implications for diplomatic theory and practice, are also discussed.

"Diplomacy and Revolution" published on by Oxford University Press.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Transprofessional Diplomacy -- Abstract -- Keywords -- 1 Introduction: Understanding Diplomatic Transformation through the Profession -- 2 Genealogy: The Professionalization of Diplomacy -- 2.1 Occasional and Professional Diplomacy -- 2.2 Vocational Resources of the Diplomatic Profession -- 2.2.1 The Clergy -- 2.2.2 The Literati -- 2.2.3 The Courtier -- 2.2.4 The Jurist -- 2.3 A 'Weak' Profession? -- 3 Sociology: Diplomacy as a Distinctive and Paradoxical Profession -- 3.1 Diplomacy as a Distinctive Profession -- 3.2 Diplomacy as a Paradoxical Profession -- 4 Phenomenology: Diplomacy Transprofessionalized -- 4.1 The Proliferation of 'New' Diplomatic Actors and Their 'Professionals' -- 4.2 Promoting 'New' Diplomatic Skills: Functional Specificity and Creative Experimentation -- 4.3 Mimicking 'Old' Diplomatic Skills: Socialization and Creative Subversion -- 5 Conclusion: Diplomatic Partnerships, Hybrid Diplomacies -- List of References.

Diplomacy is no longer restricted to a single vocation nor implemented exclusively through interaction amongst official representatives. In exploring the challenges that these transformations produce, this work surveys firstly, thegenealogyof diplomacy as a profession, tracing how it changed from a civic duty into a vocation requiring training and the acquisition of specific knowledge and skills. Secondly, using the lens of thesociologyof professions, the development of diplomacy as a distinctive profession is examined, including its importance for the consolidation of the power of modern nation-states. Thirdly, it examines how the landscape of professional diplomacy is being diversified and enriched by a series of non-state actors, with their corresponding professionals, transforming thephenomenologyof contemporary diplomacy. Rather than seeing this pluralization of diplomatic actors in negative terms as thedeprofessionalization of diplomacy, we frame these trends astransprofessionalization, that is, as a productive development that reflects the expanded diplomatic space and the intensified pace of global interconnections and networks, and the new possibilities they unleash for practising diplomacy in different milieus.