Engaging Global Civil Society: Shifting Normative Frameworks, Moral Diplomacy, & the Future of International Relations

The following exposition outlines a synthesized account of diplomatic relations in the 21st century, highlighting the crucial importance of engaging the Global Civil Society (NGOs and civil society) in an age of global communication, and stressing the importance of the development of a new system of diplomacy, drawing upon the best elements of existent theories. A comparative qualitative framework of analysis—cross-referencing historical cases, political psychology, as well as the writings of diplomatic practitioners—synthesizes the most accurate elements of two contemporary theories of international relations: Lyn Boyd-Judson’s Strategic Moral Diplomacy, and Mervyn Frost’s Constitutive Theory of International Relations. The paper concludes with the application of this new variant of Strategic Moral Diplomacy to contemporary political developments and crises, including United States and Pakistani negotiations with Taliban militants over peaceful disengagement, U.S.-Russian negotiations over nuclear non-proliferation, the development of international legal norms for cyber-security, and U.S. and E.U. negotiations with Russia over the Ukraine crisis