Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics: Online-First ArticlesCapturing power in diplomatic language use
The case of a closed-door mediatory negotiation and its aftermath during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia
In this study we capture power dynamics in diplomacy from a pragmatic angle, by examining a closed-door diplomatic
mediatory negotiation and its aftermath. We first analyse the transcript of a mediation session between representatives of Slovenia and
Croatia and a European Economic Community (EEC) delegation during the breakup of Yugoslavia. While the EEC representatives officially acted
as mediators, they had earlier secretly agreed with the Yugoslav side to keep Yugoslavia intact. Second, we examine the transcript of a
meeting between Slovenian politicians shortly after the mediation session. Studying these two datasets helps us to capture how power
manifests itself in the mediatory negotiation studied, and how it is judged by the powerless afterwards. Focusing on language behaviour in
the two datasets provides insight into the presence of power in a diplomatic situation where it should in theory not be played out. We use
speech acts to analyse our data.
Keywords: diplomatic mediation, negotiation, power, speech acts, Yugoslavia
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Review of literature
- 3.Data and methodology
- 3.1Historical background
- 3.2Data
- 3.3Methodology
- 4.Results and discussion
- 4.1First dataset
- 4.1.1Tells and Opines
- 4.1.2Requests
- 4.1.3Willings
- 4.1.4Summary of our analysis of dataset one
- 4.2Second dataset
- 4.2.1Opines
- 4.2.2Tells
- 4.2.3Justify-s
- 4.2.4Requests (for information)
- 4.2.5Summary of our analysis of dataset two
- 4.1First dataset
- 5.Discussion and conclusion
- Notes
-
References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].
Published online: 5 December 2024
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.24036.hou
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.24036.hou
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