| Summary/Abstract |
This contribution to the Forum argues the research agenda on diplomacy has to be recalibrated: with a greater focus on how diplomacy is challenged domestically. This turbulence is intertwined with the rise of populism not from the periphery as largely featured in the past, but in the countries at the core of the international system, most noticeable in the Brexit campaign in Britain and the Donald Trump Administration in the United States. The challenge posed is that diplomacy – no less than other institutions – traditionally viewed positively as providing continuity and stability in terms of the national interest and identity has increasingly been stigmatized. Although distinctive national features cannot be ignored, a common feature in terms of generic cause and effect is an association with the concept of disintermediation highlighting a separation of diplomats not only from other components of governmental bureaucracy but citizens at large. The effect of disintermediation is more pervasive because of the use of social media and other means of going around established institutions. In addressing th is serious challenge, the research agenda must extend to comprehensive options for organisational maintenance in which the institution and operational machinery of diplomacy is re-directed towards delivery in the service of citizens.
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