Economic Diplomacy

Economic Diplomacy is an international, interdisciplinary, Diamond Open Access journal examining how states, international organisations, firms, and other actors use economic relationships, instruments, and negotiations to pursue public and strategic objectives. The journal provides a forum for rigorous scholarship at the intersection of international political economy, international relations, diplomatic studies, economics, business, law, history, and political geography.

The journal’s central aim is to advance the study and practice of economic diplomacy while strengthening dialogue between academic researchers, policymakers, diplomats, business leaders, and other practitioners. It welcomes work that develops theory, provides systematic empirical analysis, evaluates policy, or draws analytically grounded lessons from professional practice.

Topics within the journal’s scope include, but are not limited to:

• the concepts, theories, history, methods, and practice of economic diplomacy;
• economic statecraft, geoeconomics, coercive economic measures, sanctions, export controls, and strategic trade policy;
• trade, investment, finance, monetary relations, development cooperation, aid, and sovereign economic policy as instruments of international influence;
• economic security, industrial policy, supply-chain resilience, critical minerals, energy, infrastructure, connectivity, technology, and the digital economy;
• commercial and business diplomacy, corporate political activity, public–private relations, and the international role of firms and business associations;
• bilateral, regional, plurilateral, and multilateral economic negotiations, institutions, and agreements;
• the economic diplomacy of major powers, middle powers, small states, emerging economies, and actors in the Global South;
• strategic autonomy, agency, hedging, multivector foreign policy, and responses to economic dependence or asymmetric interdependence;
• climate, sustainability, health, migration, food security, and other transnational challenges with a substantial economic-diplomatic dimension; and
• the relationship between economic diplomacy, geopolitics, international law, domestic politics, and business strategy.

Economic Diplomacy welcomes qualitative, quantitative, mixed-method, comparative, historical, legal, and conceptual research. Single-country or single-case studies are welcome when they address a clearly defined analytical question and demonstrate wider relevance. The journal also encourages cross-regional comparison, interdisciplinary approaches, and scholarship from or about underrepresented regions.

The journal publishes original research articles, review articles, conceptual and methodological contributions, policy analyses, and short communications. It may also publish clearly labelled, editorially reviewed non-research formats—including commentaries, interviews, practitioner reflections, book reviews, and contributions to “Joining the Conversation”. Research articles undergo external double-anonymous peer review in accordance with the journal’s Peer Review Policy; non-research formats are assessed through the editorial process appropriate to their stated category.

Submissions should make an identifiable contribution to the study or practice of economic diplomacy. Manuscripts that are purely descriptive, or that address economics, business, law, or international relations without a substantive economic-diplomatic dimension, may be considered outside the journal’s scope.

Last updated: July 2026