Towards pluriversal diplomacy: exploring the figure of the diplomat through First Nations encounters

This paper responds to the 2023 special edition of this journal on Indigenous Diplomacy, taking seriously its provocation that Indigenous Diplomacy has the potential to disrupt dominant understandings of diplomacy as a formalised and state-based practice. We argue that this disruption requires making visible the Westphalian foundations of IR that render alternative forms of political relation not simply different, but illegible. Drawing on pluriversal thinking as a counter-frame, and from our experiences working in First Nations contexts in northern Australia, we explore what becomes visible in these encounters when viewed through a diplomatic lens. We use narrative accounts to render inter-institutional situations where knowers from different traditions interact, interpreting them through the conceptual persona of the diplomat. We identify caution, quietude, and deference as key elements of the diplomat's repertoire in these fragile yet generative spaces. We contend that what happens in these spaces is not locally contained, and that its implications reverberate outward for Australia's understanding of itself, for its relationships with First Nations peoples and the region, and for IR and diplomacy more broadly. We offer this piece as a disruptive contribution, encouraging a broadening of strategic imagination in the way the special edition calls for.