Special Issue on: "Economy, Diplomacy and Human Rights: New Threats or Opportunities"

Guest Editor:
Dr. Matej Avbelj, Graduate School of Government and European Studies, Slovenia

Recent years have witnessed a significant shift in the form and content of the exercise of external affairs. The traditional model of sovereign state diplomacy – marked by hierarchy, relative rigidity and costliness stemming, inter alia, from the customary and conventional constraints of law and politics of diplomacy – has been undergoing a major transformation. A monist approach to diplomacy, whereby all diplomatic functions derive from, are exercised and return back to the sovereign organs of state, has been gradually supplemented, if not replaced, by a pluralist approach.

The diplomatic functions of the state have now become disaggregated and are no longer exercised only by public but also by private bodies, or at least in co-operation with them. The private economic actors, corporations and their representatives, NGOs and civil society have thus become involved not only in influencing, but also in framing and conducting a foreign policy of state following the latter’s explicit or implicit authorisation thereof. This is potentially paving the way to a more flexible, responsive, context-sensitive, targeted model of diplomacy.

It is against this well-known background narrative of the rise of economic diplomacy that the present call for papers focuses on a much less explored issue inside it. This is the relationship between economic interests, modern diplomacy and the protection of human rights.

We would like to invite potential contributors to take the above-described trend in the evolution of state diplomacy from the monist to the pluralist model – economic diplomacy being the latter’s best exemplification – as a stepping stone for a discussion of the following and related questions. Theoretical, research and case study papers are welcome.

Subject Coverage

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

What is the rapport between the foreign policy of a state and global human rights protection?
How, if at all, does the economisation and/or privatisation of state diplomacy affect global human rights protection regimes?
Are we expected to see the traditionally instrumentalist role of human rights in the foreign policy of a state exacerbated, or will that trend rather be reversed?
Will human rights protection, also under the influence of a broader set of diplomatic non-statist actors, finally become a genuine end in and of itself?
Do the answers to these questions differ between the states and regions of the world? How?
Economic crisis and human rights?
What are the particular perils for human rights protection stemming from the strengthening of the economic diplomacy that ought to be avoided?
What are, in contrast, the advantages that ought to be fostered and exploited?

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper was not originally copyrighted and if it has been completely re-written).

All papers are refereed through a peer review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Author Guidelines page.