Introduction: Non-state Diplomacy from Non-Western Perspectives

The primary ambition of this special issue of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy1 is to approach a certain segment of the diplomatic universe that has been heretofore overlooked, and yet one could argue it is also more than ever pertinent 1 Acknowledgements: This special issue of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy evolved with the assistance, support and encouragement of many distinguished academics.First and foremost, we take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to Professor Rhonda Zaharna.Her contribution to the development of this project is truly invaluable.She has patiently followed, advised and shaped the development trajectory of this special issue with her brilliant insights and suggestions at all stages, from initial abstract reviews to the final polishing of contributing articles.We would also like to thank Professor Jan Melissen, first for supporting the idea of this issue back in 2017, and then for investing his expertise, time and commitment to transform this idea into an exciting publication journey, all the way to its fruition.We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of all the anonymous reviewers, whose expertise in specific geographic areas has been instrumental in achieving the high quality of contributions collected herein.Finally, it is worth mentioning that the whole project would not have happened if Professor Nick Cull had not encouraged Dr Grincheva to pursue her ideas on non-Western non-state diplomacy by organising a panel for the 2017 International Communication Association (ICA) Conference.The initial call for presentations that resulted in more than 20 abstracts arriving from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America proved that the project is relevant and, even, urgent.As pleased as we are with the results, we also hope that this marks the beginning of a new phase of knowledge focusing on non-state diplomacy to illuminate pathways for future research.We are very grateful to everyone who helped us to take this important step forwards, to better understand such a phenomenon as non-state diplomacy.