Diplomacy from below

Thesis

Vietnamese fishermen exhibit what I call diplomacy from below in their resistance to a state-sponsored kidnapping network in the South China Sea. The fishermen’s resistance is dual: against the Vietnamese and Chinese governments. Once arrested and kidnapped on the sea by Chinese state-sponsored militia, the Vietnamese Government insufficently supports rescue operations and does not engage in high-level talks with the kidnappers. Nor does the Vietnamese Government provide sufficient financial support to cover ransom demands. This is contrary to some more progressive state practices internationally. Chinese economic influence has a great effect on Vietnamese fishermen and on the Vietnamese Government response and coverage of kidnappings in media and international fora.

Traditional diplomacy scholarship (Track 1, club diplomacy) only involves states representatives and has not studied subaltern negotiation with foreign government. Yet, given the vacuum of traditional diplomacy on behalf of the Vietnamese Government, the Vietnamese fishermen and their families have to be the autonomous demiurgic of their rescue operations, negotiation and communication, with a wide array of ostensibly state and foreign governmental actors. This is diplomacy from below.

First, diplomacy from below has an effect on the top level and creates an equilibrium process (in the case of a small country with an authoritarian regime, and foreign malign intervention). The theory also predicts a cycle. Second, regime type (democracy, hybrid, or autocracy) has an effect on diplomacy from below. Third, the type of intervention (in support of elites or subalterns) from foreign states respectively encourages or discourages diplomacy from below.

This thesis contributes to the existing scholarship in several ways. First, by looking both at the effect of the bottom level, the Vietnamese fishermen, to the international political environment of the South China Sea Conflict and the effect of that political environment on the Vietnamese fishermen. Second, by adding nuance to the social movements and diplomacy scholarship by introducing the theory of diplomacy from below, informed by Antonio Gramsci’s concept of subalternity ([1891-1937]1988) and James Scott’s theory of ‘everyday resistance’ (1985). Third, by highlighting human rights abuses, legal fictions and the denial of justice to non-state actors who are impeded from such access by their own governments, suggesting the need for a normative rechallenging of the legal definition of piracy to include that which is state-sponsored.

Authors: Bernini, E

• Alternative title: Resistance of Vietnamese fishermen on Ly Son Island, 2002-2016
• Type of award: MPhil
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford