Who Gets to Be a Virtuoso? Diplomatic Competence through an Intersectional Lens
In: The Hague Journal of DiplomacySearch for other papers by Catriona Standfield in
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Summary
The practice turn in diplomatic studies has focused on how and when diplomats recognise others’ practices as competent. I argue that gendered, raced and classed power shape who is recognised as competent or virtuosic. Denial of recognition reveals how normative conceptions of competence reproduce inequalities in diplomacy. I trace the development and assessment of competence through the autobiographical narratives of Dame Margaret Joan Anstee, a British diplomat, diplomatic wife, international civil servant and then UN special representative in Angola in the 1990s. I find that developing social capital through education was key to allowing Anstee to transcend her working-class origins and enter the upper-class milieu of the post-World War II British Foreign Office. However, as the UN’s first female head of a peacekeeping mission, she struggled to be recognised as a competent actor, even as she took what could be seen as virtuosic action to resource the failing mission.
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Who Gets to Be a Virtuoso? Diplomatic Competence through an Intersectional Lens
In: The Hague Journal of DiplomacySearch for other papers by Catriona Standfield in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Summary
The practice turn in diplomatic studies has focused on how and when diplomats recognise others’ practices as competent. I argue that gendered, raced and classed power shape who is recognised as competent or virtuosic. Denial of recognition reveals how normative conceptions of competence reproduce inequalities in diplomacy. I trace the development and assessment of competence through the autobiographical narratives of Dame Margaret Joan Anstee, a British diplomat, diplomatic wife, international civil servant and then UN special representative in Angola in the 1990s. I find that developing social capital through education was key to allowing Anstee to transcend her working-class origins and enter the upper-class milieu of the post-World War II British Foreign Office. However, as the UN’s first female head of a peacekeeping mission, she struggled to be recognised as a competent actor, even as she took what could be seen as virtuosic action to resource the failing mission.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1375 | 370 | 28 |
| Full Text Views | 190 | 42 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 452 | 101 | 4 |
