How did cultural diversity become a buzzword fraught with transatlantic tension? And what do the controversies around it reveal about the mechanisms of contemporary policymaking? The book seeks to answer these questions through an empirically compelling and theoretically sophisticated analysis of the negotiations producing the recent UNESCO convention on cultural diversity. In an ethnographic approach to practices of framing the policy issue at hand, negotiating an authoritative text, mobilizing support and organizing legitimate representation the author highlights the deployment of technologies of power and the production of hegemonic knowledge on cultural diversity. The resulting insights into the effects of path dependency, temporal conditions and diplomatic embodiment make this book a highly original contribution to an emerging anthropology of contemporary statehood and global governance. Written in an accessible way, it offers a valuable change of perspective to scholars and practitioners of International Relations.