Abstract
The Middle East crisis is strongly challenging the principles of classical diplomacy, which this paper has identified as a ‘Bismarckian diplomacy’. The Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan conflicts are bearing upon international relations, in a way that highlights the inefficiencies of a diplomatic orientation centred on power and military force. These transformations shed lights on the roots of Bismarckian diplomacy and its main components; they make clear its Weberian affinities and the controversial distinction between a Weberian approach to International Relations and its ‘Durkheimian challenge’. This paper will delineate the main features of this new ‘Durkheimian diplomacy’, its social orientation, and the emphasis it confers on the social dimension of conflicts in the Middle East.
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Notes
With the expression ‘the Muslim state’, we refer here to states that function in the context of Muslim, and in particular Arab, societies.
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