The Interpersonal and the International: Development, Volunteering and Grassroots Diplomacy in the 1960s

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Interpersonal and the International: Development, Volunteering and Grassroots Diplomacy in the 1960s

AU - Sobocinska, Agnieszka

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the Australian Research Council. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - This article examines the vexed nature of grassroots diplomacy by tracing the experiences and management of volunteers working in Asia and Africa with Britain’s Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and the United States Peace Corps during the 1960s. Development volunteering blurred the divide between individual bodies and the body politic and rendered the interpersonal relationships of otherwise ordinary individuals into a form of diplomatic encounter. In theory, grassroots diplomacy encouraged positive cross-cultural encounters and overt displays of international friendship. In practice, however, grassroots diplomacy also provided a space for ongoing international tensions around race, development, and neocolonialism to be contested. This article argues that the quotidian behaviour of Western volunteers provided a site of rupture through which alternative discourses and political positions could be advanced, especially by activists in Africa and Asia without access to conventional diplomatic channels. Although grassroots diplomacy was a celebrated ideal in the context of the Cold War and decolonisation, in practice non-elite agency in international relations came to be increasingly regulated by states and non-governmental organisations concerned with defending their nation’s reputation. It could also have serious impacts for individuals whose personal lives were derailed by international incidents.

AB - This article examines the vexed nature of grassroots diplomacy by tracing the experiences and management of volunteers working in Asia and Africa with Britain’s Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and the United States Peace Corps during the 1960s. Development volunteering blurred the divide between individual bodies and the body politic and rendered the interpersonal relationships of otherwise ordinary individuals into a form of diplomatic encounter. In theory, grassroots diplomacy encouraged positive cross-cultural encounters and overt displays of international friendship. In practice, however, grassroots diplomacy also provided a space for ongoing international tensions around race, development, and neocolonialism to be contested. This article argues that the quotidian behaviour of Western volunteers provided a site of rupture through which alternative discourses and political positions could be advanced, especially by activists in Africa and Asia without access to conventional diplomatic channels. Although grassroots diplomacy was a celebrated ideal in the context of the Cold War and decolonisation, in practice non-elite agency in international relations came to be increasingly regulated by states and non-governmental organisations concerned with defending their nation’s reputation. It could also have serious impacts for individuals whose personal lives were derailed by international incidents.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85168377041&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/07075332.2023.2245852

DO - 10.1080/07075332.2023.2245852

M3 - Article

SN - 0707-5332

VL - 45

SP - 903

EP - 918

JO - INTERNATIONAL HISTORY REVIEW

JF - INTERNATIONAL HISTORY REVIEW

IS - 6

ER -