European Diplomacy in a Changing World — Iver B. Neumann

4. 9. 2024

This episode of The IR thinker explores the evolving practice of European diplomacy with Professor Iver B. Neumann, focusing on how the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as internal EU divisions, reshape diplomatic resources, priorities and strategies. The conversation examines the role and competences of the European External Action Service, debates over strengthening EU diplomacy, the influence of public opinion and media, and how different theoretical traditions inform contemporary diplomatic practice and its perceived Eurocentrism.

Iver B. Neumann

Professor Iver B. Neumann is a Norwegian political scientist and social anthropologist and Director of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo. A former Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, he has also held senior positions at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and teaches International Relations at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. His research focuses on how polities relate to one another across time and space, drawing on continental social theory and empirical work on Russian and Norwegian foreign policy and, increasingly, archaeology.

Publications:

Diplomaten som helt: Fridtjof Nansen

Returning Practice to the Linguistic Turn: The Case of Diplomacy

At Home with the Diplomats: Inside a European Foreign Ministry

Diplomatic tenses: A social evolutionary perspective on diplomacy

Content

00:00 - Introduction
02:36 - Impact of the Israeli-Gaza Conflict and the War in Ukraine on European Diplomatic Resources
09:31 - Assessment of European Diplomatic Evolution
12:38 - Internal Divisions within European Diplomacy
18:04 - Competences of the European External Action Service (EEAS)
20:01 - Debate on Strengthening the EEAS
24:46 - Public Opinion and Its Influence on European Diplomacy
28:50 - Role of Media in Shaping Diplomatic Discourse
33:44 - European Diplomacy and Its Engagement with the Middle East
35:09 - EU Diplomacy and the Recognition of a Palestinian State
37:23 - Critiques of EU Diplomacy from Non-European Nations
39:32 - Diplomacy as Practice vs. Diplomacy as Foreign Policy
42:40 - Diplomacy and Theoretical Frameworks
50:28 - Influence of Realist, Liberal, and Constructivist Paradigms on Diplomacy
53:06 - Is Diplomacy a Eurocentric Notion? Myth or Reality?
57:08 - Prominent Schools of Diplomacy
58:36 - Distinctive Features of Norwegian Diplomacy