From Government to Governance: Transition to a New Diplomacy

Abstract

Are diplomacy and governance indeed ‘worlds apart’? Certainly, as the introduction to this book indicates, researchers on the two subjects have tended to plough separate furrows. The conference series that gave rise to the present volume forged a rare encounter between otherwise discrete academic endeavours and quickly made plain that dialogue between these two academic circles was overdue. Studies of diplomacy and investigations of governance have much to offer each other in contemporary political research. On the one hand, accounts of diplomacy can suitably be adjusted in the light of recent shifts in the contours of governance. On the other hand, accounts of governance need better to address the role of generic diplomatic processes such as representation, communication and negotiation among regulatory entities.