Description
In 2007, Iver Neumann published the article “’A Speech That the Entire Ministry May Stand for or’: Why Diplomats Never Produce Anything New”. There, Neumann argues that working routines and practices result in a high level of cohesion within the diplomatic corps; consequently, changes are to be initiated by politicians, not by diplomats themselves. After Jair Bolsonaro’s took office as Brazilian president (2019), the right-wing orientation of the government indeed changed the course of Brazilian diplomacy, supporting Neumann’s claims. However, the official discourse did not follow the change in practices: the new foreign minister, Ernesto Araújo, has reaffirmed his loyalty to Brazilian diplomatic tradition. In this article, I argue that such disconnection – new practices, same discourses – is a result of the mythical quality of the diplomatic discourse: it is a ‘second-order semiological system’ (Bathes, 2002). Relying on discourse analysis, I show how diplomats repeatedly have resignfied ideas such as ‘tradition’ and ‘autonomy’ in the last decades through changing the signifying attached to these commonly used terms over time. To study diplomacy as myth construction can shed light on the cracks of the diplomatic temple, advancing the understanding of diplomatic practices.
