While international historians and policy practitioners regularly highlight the utility of multilateral diplomacy as a quintessential “strategy of the weak,” International Relations (IR) scholars have generally downplayed the impact of diplomatic choices. The tools within IR theory to assess the impact of diplomacy remain underdeveloped, contributing to an inability to account for a highly proximate source of international influence. This article argues for a theoretical reengagement with the subject of multilateral diplomacy and, using insights from Social Network Analysis, develops a Diplomatic Impact Framework. Building on the novel concept of replaceability, the article contributes theoretically to the literature on diplomacy, as well as on small and middle powers. This framework captures the fundamentally relational character of diplomacy, isolating analytically this form of structural power from the influence conferred by superior material or institutional resources. Drawing extensively on a multinational collection of diplomatic documents and first-hand accounts, this multidisciplinary article probes the plausibility of the framework through a detailed comparative case study of Canada’s diplomatic influence at the United Nations General Assembly throughout two international security crises: the Korean War and the Suez Crisis.

尽管国际历史学家和政策实践者经常强调多边外交作为典型的“弱者战略”的效用，但国际关系学者普遍淡化了外交选择的影响。国际关系理论中评估外交影响的工具仍然不发达，导致无法解释国际影响力的高度直接来源。本文主张在理论上重新探讨多边外交主题，并利用社交网络分析的见解，开发了一个外交影响框架。本文以可替代性的新颖概念为基础，从理论上为外交以及中小强国的文献做出了贡献。这一框架抓住了外交的根本关系特征，分析地将这种形式的结构性权力与优越的物质或制度资源所赋予的影响分开。这篇多学科文章广泛借鉴了多国收集的外交文件和第一手资料，通过对加拿大在联合国大会两次国际安全危机中的外交影响力的详细比较案例研究，探讨了该框架的合理性：朝鲜战争和朝鲜战争。苏伊士运河危机。