ASTK12578U COURSE: Economic Diplomacy - The "new black" in interstate relations?

Diplomacy is changing. Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFA) everywhere are going through transformational reforms that alter their structure, their finances, their culture and their diplomatic practices. Some are talking about an identity crisis in diplomacy, others conceptualize these developments as processes of modernization.

One of the most central features of change in the world of diplomacy concerns “economic diplomacy”. Everywhere economic diplomacy is considered “the new black” in modern diplomacy. But what is it? Why has it become such a central element in diplomatic practices? Which kinds of consequences does this increased focus on economic diplomacy have for classical diplomacy and development diplomacy? How politically sustainable is the new focus on economic diplomacy and are we basically talking about a new fad that will soon disappear?

These questions, and many others, will be addressed in this summer course on “economic diplomacy”. The overall purpose is to come to a better understanding of the main problems, trends and practices in modern diplomacy. In order to achieve that objective, the course is developed in cooperation with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the lecturers will come from the diplomatic as well as the academic world.

Motivation and program

One of the consequences of the yearlong financial crisis and the following economic and debt crises is that the patterns and routines characterizing inter-state relations are undergoing radical change. More specifically, the success and failure of diplomatic relations are increasingly evaluated on economic grounds. Thus, the central question is whether diplomatic relations on the global political arena are contributing to the creation of growth and jobs on the domestic scene. In other words, “Economic Diplomacy” has become the “new black” in inter-state relations.

Economic diplomacy takes all sorts of shapes in practice. In the Export Council of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, economic diplomacy in basically a synonym for commercial diplomacy: how can the foreign service help business to increase their  exports and how can it encourage foreign direct investment? In the trade department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs economic diplomacy has a multilateral dimension: how can the foreign service best assure that multilateral free trade regimes are being established in various areas? In the development department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the challenge is to find ways to combine classical development policy with narrower commercial objectives. In the political departments of the foreign service the challenge is to combine military and other hard power instruments with the soft power of business.

Thus, the objectives of the summer course are:

• To conceptually and theoretically come to a better understanding of what economic diplomacy is, and why it has come to play such an important role in foreign policy.
• To empirically investigate how economic diplomacy works in practice in Denmark as well as on the ground in various locations of the world.
• To critically evaluate the opportunities and challenges created by this new focus on economic diplomacy for foreign policy-making in general

With a view to realizing these objectives, the summer course is thematically divided into six sections:

1. Overview of the Danish international economic relations
2. The organization of trade promotion and InvestinDenmark
3. The practical business of bilateral economic diplomacy
4. The practical business of multilateral  economic diplomacy
5. The practical business of economic diplomacy in a development contexts
6. Economic Diplomacy seen from the point of view of the Danish business community.

A guiding pedagogical principle is to combine the research-based teaching of scholars from various faculties with the practical insights from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Danish business community.

With these themes and pedagogical considerations in mind, the preliminary program for the first week takes the following form:

Preliminary program week 34 (lecturer week)

– location: Eigtveds Pakhus, Asiatisk Plads 2, 1448 København K

During week 35, individual and group supervision will be offered as a preparation of the final exam paper (location: Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, room 4.2.50)

The summer course will be executed in English and international students as well as students from other Danish universities can be enrolled. There is, in principle, a flexible upper-limit as regards the number of students that actively follow the summer course. A max of 60 persons would be ideal, though.

As regards the level of the students attending the course, preference is given to bachelor and master students. However, PhD-students with a specific interest in small-state diplomacy, international cooperation, foreign policy analysis and administrative reform can also attend.