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Commonwealth Conferences as Diplomatic Spaces

Commonwealth Conferences as Diplomatic Spaces . Ruth Craggs, Department of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, University of Hull r.craggs@hull.ac.uk. ASEASUK-ECAF Visiting Fellowship. Commonwealth Oral History Project quiet diplomacy and invisibility

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Commonwealth Conferences as Diplomatic Spaces

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  1. Commonwealth Conferences as Diplomatic Spaces Ruth Craggs, Department of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, University of Hull r.craggs@hull.ac.uk ASEASUK-ECAF Visiting Fellowship

  2. Commonwealth Oral History Project • quiet diplomacy and invisibility • How to measure and evaluate contributions? • Commonwealth conferences

  3. Workshop themes • Conferences offer particular sorts of spaces for public and private diplomacy. One of the questions posed was how does space shape the formation of diplomatic consensus? • Conferences are moments and spaces where people are brought together –on the assumption that spatiality is integral to any practice of ameliorating estrangement between different groups. The performances of conference participantsas part of the making of diplomacy and post-colonial geopolitics.

  4. 1.The importance of conference location

  5. 2. Hospitality, distance, and performance

  6. ‘President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and Mrs Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister of the United Kingdom take steps towards closer Anglo - Zambian relations at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Lusaka, Zambia, 1979.’ Commonwealth Secretariat Image Library

  7. Clockwise from top: Newsweek, Time Magazine, Zambia Daily Mail, Times of Zambia

  8. Conclusions • Private and public, visible and invisible spaces, as well as geographical location important in diplomacy. • Hospitality, and hosting important dimensions. • Performances (spectacular and everyday) as constitutive parts of geopolitical practice, not masks for real politics. • Conferences an important arena for these performances.

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