ABSTRACT
The sixth and final axiom of the historical imagination is that we should give expression to a changing diplomatic culture through new frameworks of engagement. The art of diplomacy has become more difficult in the 21st century for reasons that include the disempowerment of the nation state (as a result of climate change, new technologies, and other factors), the rapidity of change (the rise of Africa, the strength of Asian economies), short ‘electoral cycles’, and the impact of social media. Most states are committed, like the European Union, to ‘a rules-based global order with multilateralism as its key principle and the United Nations at its core’. In this perspective, initiatives in the realm of process can signal a political intention to enable more creative modes of diplomatic interaction, overcoming the ‘existential mistrust’ identified by Martin Buber many years ago as the main barrier to global diplomacy. Specifically, international organisations should use their convening power to bring about new multilayered negotiating processes, to which the representatives or nominees of religions would be invited under carefully prepared ‘rules of engagement’. These new processes will underpin the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and complement the pressing day-to-day negotiations that currently take place in a range of diplomatic settings. The key parameters for this additional and innovative values-led dimension to global diplomacy include government ‘investment’ in any such process, a comprehensive agenda, a regional scope, a slow rhythm, multi-polarity and ‘transversality’, good organisation, strategies to ensure accessibility, regular reviews of progress, and a clear vision of the diplomatic ‘product’ or outcome, namely, a combination of (i) the gradual definition of new criteria or points of agreement to govern the conduct of international relations; and (ii) confidence-building measures with demonstrative value in the perspective of a future ‘age of sharing’ at the global level.
