Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T10:24:22.233Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hierarchy in practice: Multilateral diplomacy and the governance of international security

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2016

Vincent Pouliot
Vincent Pouliot*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar, McGill University
*
* Correspondence to: Vincent Pouliot, Department of Political Science, McGill University, Leacock Building, Room 414, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal QC, Canada, H3A 2T7. Author’s email: vincent.pouliot@mcgill.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In today’s world, a significant portion of international security politics is conducted through multilateral channels, often from the halls of international organisations such as the United Nations or NATO. This article theorises and empirically documents the production, reproduction, and contestation of local diplomatic hierarchies that practitioners often call ‘international pecking orders’. According to conventional wisdom in IR, the sources of international hierarchies are primarily structural, stemming from the interstate distribution of (material) capabilities. Yet the growing prevalence of multilateral diplomacy in the governance of international security generates distinctive forms of social stratification organised around a struggle for diplomatic competence. As they pursue their instructions and manage security politics, state representatives posted to international organisations make use of the opportunities and constraints of a given situation and compete for rank through the display of practical know-how. The article illustrates this process by looking at how a key set of multilateral practices lend themselves to pecking order dynamics, from esprit de corps to reporting through brokering. By taking the multilateralisation of security politics seriously, the article shows that international hierarchy, far from an unobservable reality, is actually part of parcel of each and every practice that makes the world go round.

Keywords

International HierarchyMultilateral DiplomacyPractice TheoryGovernance of International Security
Type
Research Article
Information
European Journal of International Security , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 5 - 26
Copyright
© British International Studies Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Ruggie, John Gerard, ‘Multilateralism: the anatomy of an institution’, International Organization, 46:3 (1992), pp. 561–598CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Reus-Smit, Christian, The Moral Purpose of the State: Culture, Social Identity, and Institutional Rationality in International Relations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999)Google Scholar; Mitzen, Jennifer, Power in Concert: The Nineteenth-Century Origins of Global Governance (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pouliot, Vincent and Thérien, Jean-Philippe, ‘The politics of inclusion: Changing patterns in the global governance of international security’, Review of International Studies, 41:2 (2015), pp. 211–237CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Kleiner, Jürgen, Diplomatic Practice: Between Tradition and Innovation (Singapore: World Scientific, 2010), p. 306Google Scholar.

3 Ikenberry, G. John, After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order After Major Wars (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001)Google Scholar.

4 Thompson, Alexander, Channels of Power: The UN Security Council and U.S. Statecraft in Iraq (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009)Google Scholar; Voeten, Erik, ‘The political origins of the UN Security Council’s ability to legitimize the use of force’, International Organization, 59:3 (2005), pp. 527–557CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Johnstone, Ian, ‘Security council deliberations: the power of the better argument’, European Journal of International Law, 14:3 (2003), pp. 437–480CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 Adler-Nissen, Rebecca, ‘Symbolic power in European diplomacy: the struggle between national foreign services and the EU’s external action service’, Review of International Studies, 40:4 (2014), pp. 657–681CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Johnston, Alastair I., Social States: China in International Institutions, 1980–2000 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Hurd, Ian, After Anarchy: Legitimacy and Power in the United Nations Security Council (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007)Google Scholar.

9 Ross, Carne, Independent Diplomat: Dispatches from an Unaccountable Elite (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007), p. 5Google Scholar.

10 Ibid., p. 7.

11 See, among others, Clark, Ian, The Hierarchy of States: Reform and Resistance in the International Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cooley, Alexander, Logics of Hierarchy: The Organization of Empires, States, and Military Occupations (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005)Google Scholar; Goh, Evelyn, The Struggle for Order: Hegemony, Hierarchy, and Transition in Post-Cold War East Asia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hobson, John M. and Sharman, J. C., ‘The enduring place of hierarchy in world politics: Tracing the social logics of hierarchy and political change’, European Journal of International Relations, 11:1 (2005), pp. 63–98Google Scholar; Kang, David C., ‘The theoretical roots of hierarchy in International Relations’, Australian Journal of International Affairs, 58:3 (2004), pp. 337–352Google Scholar; Lake, David A., Hierarchy in International Relations (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009)Google Scholar; Sharman, J. C., ‘International hierarchies and contemporary imperial governance: a tale of three kingdoms’, European Journal of International Relations, 19:2 (2013), pp. 189–207CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Towns, Ann E., ‘Norms and social hierarchies: Understanding international policy diffusion “from below”’, International Organization, 66:2 (2012), pp. 179–209CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Tallberg, Jonas, Leadership and Negotiation in the European Union (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Ikenberry, After Victory, p. 4.

14 Ruggie, ‘Multilateralism’, p. 571.

15 Quoted in Placidi, Delphine, ‘La transformation des pratiques diplomatiques nationales’, in Bertrand Badie and Guillaume Devin (eds), Le multilatéralisme: Nouvelles formes de l’action internationale (Paris: La Découverte, 2007), p. 100Google Scholar (author’s translation).

16 Kahler, Miles, ‘Multilateralism with small and large numbers’, in John G. Ruggie (ed.), Multilateralism Matters: The Theory and Praxis of an Institutional Form (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1993), p. 295Google Scholar.

17 Ikenberry, After Victory.

18 Finnemore, Martha, ‘Fights about rules: the role of efficacy and power in changing multilateralism’, Review of International Studies, 31 (2005), p. 195Google Scholar.

19 Keohane, Robert O., ‘The contingent legitimacy of multilateralism’, in Edward Newman, Ramesh C. Thakur, and John Tirman (eds), Multilateralism Under Challenge? Power, International Order, and Structural Change (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2006), p. 60Google Scholar.

20 Stone, Randall W., Controlling Institutions: International Organizations and the Global Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Ibid., p. 48.

22 Kleine, Mareike, Informal Governance in the European Union: How Governments Make International Organizations Work (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013), p. xiCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Ibid., p. 3.

24 Donnelly, Jack, ‘The differentiation of international societies: an approach to structural international theory’, European Journal of International Relations, 18:1 (2012), pp. 151–176Google Scholar.

25 Reus-Smit, The Moral Purpose of the State; Pouliot, Vincent, ‘Setting status in stone: the negotiation of international institutional privileges’, in T. V. Paul, Deborah Welch Larson, and William C. Wohlforth (eds), Status in World Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 192–216CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Steinberg, Richard H., ‘In the shadow of law or power? Consensus-based bargaining and outcomes in the GATT/WTO’, International Organization, 56:2 (2002), p. 347CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Nye, Joseph S., Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power (New York: Basic Books, 1990)Google Scholar.

28 , Steinberg, ‘In the shadow of law or power?’, p. 355Google Scholar.

29 Ibid., pp. 355–6.

30 Stone, , Controlling Institutions, p. 21Google Scholar.

31 A key exception here, of course, would be Schelling’s works, which show how the skillful manipulation of commitment – including through skillful diplomacy – may increase one’s leverage in a bargaining situation; Schelling, Thomas C., The Strategy of Conflict (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980 [orig. pub. 1960])Google Scholar.

32 Cox, Robert W. and Jacobson, Harold K., The Anatomy of Influence: Decision-Making in International Organization (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973), p. 371Google Scholar.

33 Ibid., p. 410.

34 Nye in ibid., p. 358.

35 Adler, Emanuel and Pouliot, Vincent, ‘International practices’, International Theory, 3:1 (2011), pp. 1–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On international practice theory, see also Bueger, Christian and Gadinger, Frank, International Practice Theory: New Perspectives (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)Google Scholar. On diplomacy as practice, see also Adler, Emanuel, ‘The spread of security communities: Communities of practice, self-restraint, and NATO’s post – Cold War transformation’, European Journal of International Relations, 14:2 (2008), pp. 195–230CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Adler-Nissen, Rebecca, Opting Out of the European Union: Diplomacy, Sovereignty and European Integration (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bicchi, Federica, ‘The EU as a community of practice: Foreign policy communications in the COREU network’, Journal of European Public Policy, 18:8 (2011), pp. 1115–1132CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Davis Cross, Mai’a K., Security Integration in Europe: How Knowledge-Based Networks are Transforming the European Union (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Faizullaev, Alisher, ‘Diplomacy and symbolism’, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 8:2 (2013), pp. 91–114CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gheciu, Alexandra, Securing Civilization? The EU, NATO and the OSCE in the Post-9/11 World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kuus, Merje, Geopolitics and Expertise: Knowledge and Authority in European Diplomacy (Chichester: Wiley, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mérand, Frédéric, ‘Pierre Bourdieu and the birth of European defense’, Security Studies, 19:2 (2010), pp. 342–374CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Navari, Cornelia, ‘The concept of practice in the English School’, European Journal of International Relations, 17:4 (2011), pp. 611–630CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Neumann, Iver B., ‘Returning practice to the linguistic turn: the case of diplomacy’, Millennium, 31:3 (2002), pp. 627–651CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Neumann, Iver B., At Home with the Diplomats: Inside a European Foreign Ministry (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pouliot, Vincent, International Security in Practice: The Politics of NATO-Russia Diplomacy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; VPouliot, incent and Cornut, Jérémie, ‘Practice theory and the study of diplomacy: a research agenda’, Cooperation and Conflict, 50:3 (2015), pp. 297–315CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Sending, Ole Jacob, Pouliot, Vincent, and Neumann, Iver B. (eds), Diplomacy and the Making of World Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 Swidler, Ann, ‘What anchors cultural practices’, in Theodore Schatzki, K. Knorr-Cetina, and Eike von Savigny (eds), The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory (London: Routledge, 2001), p. 85Google Scholar.

37 Goffman, Erving, ‘The interaction order: American sociological association, 1982 Presidential Address’, American Sociological Review, 48:1 (1983), pp. 1–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 Goffman, Erving, Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1967), pp. 33–34Google Scholar.

39 Goffman, ‘The interaction order’, p. 2.

40 Mouzelis, Nicos, ‘The interaction order and the micro-macro distinction’, Sociological Theory, 10:1 (1992), p. 122CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 Wendt, Alexander, Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 Goffman, ‘The interaction order’, p. 11.

43 Neumann, ‘Returning practice to the linguistic turn’.

44 Adler and Pouliot, ‘International practices’.

45 Bourdieu, Pierre, Méditations pascaliennes (Paris: Seuil, 2003 [orig. pub. 1997]), p. 346Google Scholar.

46 Bourdieu, Pierre, The Logic of Practice (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990), p. 136Google Scholar.

47 Ibid., p. 107. See also Duvall, Raymond D. and Chowdhury, Arjun, 'Practices of theory', in Emanuel Adler and Vincent Pouliot (eds), International Practices (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 335–354CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

48 Space is too scarce to reflect extensively on the merits and limits of interviewing as a research technique. Elsewhere, I discuss at length the ways in which I seek to control for post hoc rationalisation and self-aggrandising narratives, primarily by turning interviewees into participant observers of their own colleagues as well as by focusing on negotiations ongoing at the time of interview. See especially Pouliot, Vincent, ‘Methodology: Putting practice theory into practice’, in Rebecca Adler-Nissen (ed.), Bourdieu in International Relations: Rethinking Key Concepts in IR (London: Routledge, 2012), pp. 50–52Google Scholar; Pouliot, Vincent, International Pecking Orders: The Politics and Practice of Multilateral Diplomacy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, appendix. For useful methodological discussions on the matter by IR practice scholars, see also Adler-Nissen, Opting Out, appendix; Autesserre, Séverine, Peaceland: Conflict Resolution and the Everyday Politics of International Intervention (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, appendix; Bueger, and Gadinger, , International Practice Theory, ch. 5Google Scholar; and Kuus, Geopolitics and Expertise, pp. 46–58.

49 Thuysbaert, Prosper, L’art de la diplomatie multilatérale (Brussels: Vander, 1994), p. 34Google Scholar. See also Adler-Nissen, Opting Out.

50 Thuysbaert, L’art, p. 65.

51 Ibid., p. 37.

52 Ambrosetti, David, Normes et rivalités diplomatiques à l’ONU: Le Conseil de Sécurité en audience (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2009), p. 31CrossRefGoogle Scholar, author’s translation.

53 EAppathurai, . R., ‘Permanent missions in New York’, in Geoff R. Berridge and Anthony Jennings (eds), Diplomacy at the UN (London: Macmillan, 1985), p. 101Google Scholar.

54 Mitzen, Power in Concert.

55 Schia, Niels Nagelhus, ‘Being part of the parade – “going native” in the United Nations Security Council’, Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 36:1 (2013), p. 140CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 de Neuilly, Yves Buchet, ‘Devenir diplomate multilatéral: Le sens pratique des calculs appropriés’, Cultures et conflits, 75 (2009), pp. 89–90Google Scholar.

57 Ibid., p. 78.

58 Adler-Nissen, Rebecca and Pouliot, Vincent, ‘Power in practice: Negotiating the international intervention in Libya’, European Journal of International Relations, 20:4 (2014), pp. 889–911CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 Thuysbaert, L’art, pp. 66–7.

60 Bosco, David L., Five to Rule Them All: The UN Security Council and the Making of the Modern World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 179Google Scholar.

61 Devin, Guillaume, ‘Paroles de diplomates: Comment les négociations multilatérales changent la diplomatie’, in Franck Petiteville and Delphine Placidi-Frot (eds), Négociations internationales (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 2013), pp. 87–88Google Scholar, author’s translation.

62 Appathurai, ‘Permanent missions in New York’, p. 100.

63 Ekengren, Magnus, The Time of European Governance (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002)Google Scholar.

64 Buchet de Neuilly, ‘Devenir diplomate multilatéral’, pp. 81–91.

65 Davis Cross, Security Integration in Europe, p. 109.

66 JLewis, effrey, ‘The Janus Face of Brussels: Socialization and everyday decision making in the European Union’, International Organization, 59:4 (2005), p. 951CrossRefGoogle Scholar. COREPER stands for the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the European Union.

67 Davis Cross, Security Integration in Europe, p. 91.

68 Appathurai, ‘Permanent missions in New York’, p. 100.

69 Blair, Alasdair, ‘Permanent representations to the European Union’, Diplomacy and Statecraft, 12:3 (2001), p. 149CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 de Neuilly, Yves Buchet, ‘Sous l’emprise de la présidence: Déplacements structurels, construction des intérêts et stratégies des diplomates au Conseil’, Politique européenne, 35 (2011), p. 93Google Scholar.

71 Nyerges, Janos, ‘How to negotiate?’, in Marcel A. Boisard, Evgeny Chossudovsky, and Jacques Lemoine (eds), Multilateral Diplomacy: The United Nations System at Geneva (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1998), p. 178Google Scholar.

72 Karns, Margaret P. and Mingst, Karen A., ‘International organizations and diplomacy’, in Andrew F. Cooper, Jorge Heine, and Ramesh C. Thakur (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Modern Diplomacy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), p. 147Google Scholar.

73 Laatikainen, Katie V., ‘Group Politics at the UN: Conceptual Considerations’, Paper presented at the 2012 BISA/ISA Conference, Edinburg, UK (June 2012)Google Scholar.

74 Devin, ‘Paroles de diplomates’, p. 93, author’s translation.

75 Ambrosetti, David, ‘The diplomatic lead in the United Nations Security Council and local actors’ violence: the changing terms of a social position’, African Security, 5:2 (2012), p. 68CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

76 Appathurai, ‘Permanent missions in New York’, p. 103.

77 Zartman, I. William, ‘Introduction: Two’s company and more’s a crowd: the complexities of multilateral negotiation’, in I. William Zartman (ed.), International Multilateral Negotiation: Approaches to the Management of Complexity (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994), pp. 1–10Google Scholar.

78 Schia, ‘Being part of the parade’.

79 Lake, Hierarchy in International Relations, p. 166.

80 Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics, p. 150.

81 Goffman quoted in Lemert, Charles and Branaman, Ann (eds), The Goffman Reader (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1997), p. 220Google Scholar.

82 Lake, Hierarchy in International Relations, p. 76.