Title: Old habits die hard? Diplomacy at the World Trade Organisation and the 'new diplomatic studies paradigm'

Authors: Geoffrey Allen Pigman; Brendan Vickers

Addresses: Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa. ' Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa

Abstract: In an age of transnational firms, global civil society organisations and multilateral institutions of global governance, the traditional approach to understanding diplomacy as consisting of a dialogue between representatives of nation-state governments conducted largely behind closed doors is no longer sufficient. Yet an initial examination of the practice of contemporary international trade diplomacy questions the extent to which this new paradigm applies. Arguably, trade diplomacy continues to consist primarily of private negotiations between government trade ministry officials, and business and civil society interests are still mediated and represented, for the most part, by government diplomats. Seeking to discover to what degree diplomatic representation and communication on trade issues have really changed, this article examines the international trade diplomacy of public and private interests, in particular with consideration to the impact of the World Trade Organisation.

Keywords: international trade; Doha Development Round; Doha Development Agenda; trade negotiations; World Trade Organization; WTO; new diplomatic studies paradigm; government ministries; foreign affairs; public diplomacy; civil society organisations; Pascal Lamy; transnational corporations; TNCs; global organisations; multilateral institutions; global governance; nation-state governments; private negotiations; government officials; ministry officials; trade ministries; government diplomats; business interests; mediation; diplomatic representation; diplomatic communication; trade issues; public interests; private interests; economy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDIPE.2012.049941

International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy, 2012 Vol.1 No.1, pp.19 - 41

Received: 05 Mar 2012
Accepted: 22 Jun 2012
Published online: 11 Aug 2014 *

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