By investigating the evolution of membership in the G8 and G20 this research studies the inclusion and exclusion of actors – state and non-state alike – in diplomatic environments and policy communities. The argument advanced here is that diplomacy is best understood as being conducted in an environment in which processes of social closure are at work which create a stratified order of members with differing degrees and types of membership. Adapting a neo-Weberian social closure framework, this research constructs a typology of closure rules according to which membership is governed, arguing that the shift from “club” to “networked” diplomacy broadly involves a shift in emphasis from legitimist to functionalist logics of closure.
