I. THE LIMITATIONS OF THEORY AND COLLABORATIVE
SOLUTIONS FOR NEW DIPLOMACY
VVIn order to be of interest to political actors and diplomats, effective academic theories of international relations need to work collaboratively - within the scope of practical wisdom - in order to form complete descriptions of the world today.1 The failure of academic research traditions in cultivating a co-operative spirit amongst each other has led to the creation of many divided, and perilously partial theories of diplomatic management and crisis resolution. Consequently, very few provide insight into the practical world of diplomacy and international relations - diverting “professional debate from the substance of world politics to first principles.”2 The theory of Strategic Moral Diplomacy formed by Professor Lyn Boyd-Judson,3 as well as the Constitutive Theory of International Relations envisioned by Professor Mervyn Frost4 are two notable exceptions. While neither theory provides a complete description of the workings of contemporary diplomacy, both deliver expressive accounts of “real-world patterns”5 and provide pragmatic solutions to contemporary diplomatic problems. Both can also be interpreted as responses to the increasingly urgent call for a new and “sustainable diplomacy that keeps alive the hope of mediating difference” in a multipolar and increasingly sectarian 21st century,6 where the aged geopolitical tactics of coercion cannot reasonably attempt to resolve any
8881. David A. Lake, “Why “isms” Are Evil: Theory, Epistemology, and Academic Sects as Impediments to Understanding and Progress,” in International Studies Quarterly, 2011, vol. 55, p. 472.
8882. Ibid., p. 471.
8883. In: Lyn Boyd-Judson, Strategic Moral Diplomacy: Understanding the Enemy’s Moral Universe (Kumarian Press, 2011).
8884. In: Mervyn Frost, Global Ethics: Anarchy, Freedom, and International Relations (New York: Routledge, 2009); Mervyn Frost, Ethics in International Relations: A Constitutive Theory (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996).
8885. Lake, “Why “isms” Are Evil: Theory, Epistemology, and Academic Sects as Impediments to Understanding and Progress,” p. 472.
8886. Costas M. Constantinou and James Der Derian, “Introduction: Sustaining global hope: sovereignty, power and the transformation of Diplomacy”, in Sustainable Diplomacies, ed. Costas M. Constantinou and James Der Derian, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), p. 8.
36