Introducing: The Hague Diplomacy Blog
Welcome to the newly launched The Hague Diplomacy Blog! It is our aim to publish 10 blogs per year and we are very pleased that Ilan Manor has now joined our online team as HJD Blog Editor. We will solicit blogs and we also invite authors to make their own pitch, addressing new themes and perspectives, and kicking off fresh debates. Send your proposal of maximum 300 words to ilan.manor@stx.ox.ac.uk.
The short pieces that we have in mind will stimulate debate on the diplomatic aspects of international politics. The blog will host both policy makers and scholars, established academic and early career researchers, all eager to discuss the various ways in which diplomacy shapes international politics, diplomatic innovation in fast-changing political and social contexts and, among other things, the intersection of technology and diplomacy.
The HJD blog will correspond with articles published in The Hague Journal of Diplomacy. As such, we imagine that it will feature five types of blog posts. First, we especially welcome pieces that examine and debate the relationship between scholarly work, diplomacy as a practice, and the ‘real world’ of international politics. The second type of posts will be authored by scholars who have contributed to HJD, i.e. the journal, and who wish to discuss the relevance of their work with a broader community of scholars and practitioners. Guest editors of special issues may write a third category. These blogs will reflect on a special’s main theme and its contribution to the study of diplomacy. The fourth, we suggest, could include posts in which academics, practitioners and thought leaders will comment on articles featured in HJD. These pieces may debate the relevance of a given article, its contribution to a specific line of academic inquiry or the need for additional scholarly work on a certain topic. Lastly, HJD blog posts do not shy away from theory and may reflect on how an article’s contribution advances an important theoretical line of research and intellectual engagement with other disciplines.
We will publish the inaugural HJD blog in November, on the eve of HJD’s 15th anniversary in 2020. Andrew F Cooper will critically examine populism’s challenges to diplomacy, followed by blogs on the manner in which digital platforms empower Ambassadors, the role of images in diplomatic crises, and how neuroscience can inform diplomacy. And there will be much more. Blogs have become popular mediums through which academics may report their latest findings. Yet we hope to achieve more than this. We strive to trigger debates, introduce new concepts, explore innovative methodologies, identify novel topics of academic inquiry and bring the academic work of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy to a wider audience.
Paul Sharp and Jan Melissen - Co-editors