Diplomatic Practice, former Ambassador Ernest Petrič similarly stresses the predominant influence of personal and character qualities on the practice of diplomatic decision-making, and criticises the misconception of a purely reason-oriented diplomatic state of affairs.47
VI. SYNTHESIS OF IDEAS: TRANSFORMING NORMS
AND THE OTHER'S MORAL SPACE
VVAlthough Frost’s Constitutive Theory accurately represents a world of hierarchical and normative diplomatic relations, Strategic Moral Diplomacy accurately supposes that normative political ethics are subject to transformation through negotiation, due to their nature as subjective and largely self-constructed ideas.48 The past decade of international relations developments can attest to the rapidly shifting nature of legitimately-perceived normative codes, with the declared illegality of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq49reigning in the evolution of “pre-emptive” defense as a legitimate policy of action, and the successes of NATO military intervention in the Libyan Civil War of 2011 solidifying the “responsibility to protect” as a growing new development within the realm of accepted international affairs doctrine.50
VVMore importantly, Strategic Moral Diplomacy offers a refreshing and intuitive approach to engaging in the amorphous development of these and other novel norms and rituals. In 21st Century Diplomacy: A Practitioner’s Guide, former Ambassador Kishan S. Rana, calls for a new paradigm of inter-state relations based on mutual recognition of differing systems of action and thought. He warns that: “Familiarity with one’s own system lulls one into thinking that others use similar methods; in crisis it may be dangerous for one to assume that others act in the same way as oneself.” [1] Strategic Moral Diplomacy’s core idea—that of examining the perspective of the Other before the consideration of one’s own standpoint[2]—remains central in addressing these concerns of mutual recognition in the context of a modern and sustainable diplomatic practice.
8847. Ernest Petric, Foreign Policy: From conception to diplomatic practice (Leiden/Boston, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2013), p. 82.
8848. Boyd-Judson, Strategic Moral Diplomacy: Understanding the Enemy’s Moral Universe, p. 21.
8849. Julian Borger and Ewen MacAskill, “Iraq war was illegal and breached UN charter, says Annan,” The Guardian, September 16, 2004, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/16/iraq.iraq.
8850. Ivo H. Daalder, and James Stavridis, “NATO’s Success in Libya,” The New York Times, October 30, 2011. URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/opinion/31iht-eddaalder31.html?_r=2&.
44