Rethinking the State/Non-State Binary: Gibraltar and the Grace 1 incident

Keywords: Foreign policy, sovereignty, geopolitics, state theory, assemblage
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 41

Abstract

Traditionally, states are understood as the only actors capable of foreign policies, with the ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) as an imagined black box in which calculation occurs. Certainly, this is an idea that has been maintained in the recent constitutional arrangements for the British Overseas Territories (OTs), where foreign policy is a competency retained by the United Kingdom (with most other elements delegated to the OT Governments). However, in practice this state/non-state distinction is not maintained. To illustrate this point, this paper sketches out an example of foreign policy made in the absence of an MFA entirely: Gibraltar’s 2019 intervention in the Grace 1 controversy.