attempt to resolve any pressing global political crises.7
VVWithin this context, the following exposition will critically analyse and contrast both Boyd-Judson’s theory of Strategic Moral Diplomacy, as well as Frost’s Constitutive Theory of International Relations, cutting through academic misperceptions where they exist, while outlining accurate aspects of both theories - justified through lived and historical accounts of international relations. Theories will be analysed through a comparative framework, concluding with a synthesised and fuller account of diplomatic relations and crisis management in the modern era.
II. GLOBAL ETHICS AND CONSTITUTIVE THEORY
VVCentral to Frost’s Constitutive Theory of International Relations is the belief that political actors define each other’s positions in the world through the mutual recognition of each other as legitimate actors.8 In a multilateral world with a strong and organised civil society - both at the level of the domestic nation-state, and at the level of the international community - political power is drawn from authority and legitimacy. Consequently, political actors find themselves in constant pursuit of legitimacy, vis-à-vis a globally asserted normative standard established by global civil society (GCS) and the society of sovereign states (SOSS).9 According to Frost, this universal set of norms and ethical practices - although extant in a constant state of flux due to its construction and affirmation by legitimate political actors - is manifest through the powers and limitations of international law.10 In order to maintain legitimacy in the eyes of domestic citizens and before the GCS, states are forced to defend their policies and policy actions - both at home and abroad - as eth
8887. 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.
8888. Frost, Global Ethics: Anarchy, Freedom, and International Relations, p. 27.
8889. Ibid., p. 25.
8810. ibid. p. 31
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