Citation

Kleistra Y, Van Willigen N. Evaluation (Sage) 2010; 16(2): 119-135.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1356389009360476

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article presents a model to evaluate national diplomatic interventions in multilateral decision-making arenas. The performance-driven evaluation model that is commonly used in new public management settings does not do justice to the trade of diplomacy as a distinctive profession. This article argues that when evaluating diplomatic interventions in multilateral settings the process-driven nature of decision-making must be taken into account. This is undertaken, first, by using the barrier model as a heuristic tool to reconstruct diplomatic interventions in an international decision-making process. Second, a set of evaluation criteria is developed which both meets the evaluation standards of new public management and which does justice to the complex environment in which diplomats operate. The article ends with an illustration of how the model has been applied in the specific case of Dutch diplomatic interventions regarding the negotiations on explosive remnants of war in the Convention for Certain Conventional Weapons.