International Economic Diplomacy: Mutations in Post-modern Times

This paper discusses the mutations of economic diplomacy in a post-modern environment where traditional state-to-state diplomacy is being fragmented and made more complex due to the participation in international economic relations of a growing number of non-state actors and an increasing number of other government ministries. Non-state actors like Business Diplomats and Transnational economic NGO Diplomats, with their multitude of transborder alliances, and pressure groups have added to the traditional domain of economic diplomacy a "supraterritorial relations" component thereby partially undermining the sovereignty of states in conducting international economic relations. At the same time, faced with globalisation and competition for foreign direct investment as well as with the growing influence of international economic standard setting organisations (WTO, ITU, ILO etc), many countries have come to expect that diplomats specialised in Economic Diplomacy and Commercial Diplomacy more effectively serve their national interests in the economic and business spheres. The authors suggest that the Ministries of Foreign Affairs need to expand their institutional capabilities in dealing with non-state actors and other government ministries and learn to manage the multiple boundaries of today?s complex economic and political realities.