Territories: A Trans-Cultural Journal of Regional Studies

The combination of the fields of study of gastronomy and diplomacy is generating a number of highly valuable academic works that cover multiple dimensions of knowledge and social spheres. However, the potential of gastrodiplomacy to explore conflict (or the possibility of it) has not been fully explored. This article aims to fill this gap by complementing the concept of gastrodiplomacy with that of gastrology. In this way, it aims to consider the relationship between gastronomy, diplomacy and conflict, understanding the latter as the conflict zones that emerge between communities, identities, worldviews or even different ways of understanding the value and uses of gastronomy. Based on this analysis, and assuming that gastronomy is part of every culture and, therefore, is open to a multiplicity of meanings giving rise to ambivalences, paradoxes and tensions, it will be argued that gastronomy (and gastrodiplomacy) as a tool, practice and discourse of mediation (and expansion) of estrangement tends to oscillate between the ordinary, the sublime and the grotesque. To this end, the article will refer to violent conflicts between minority and majority national groups. The aim is not to analyse each case in depth, but rather to explore the interrelationship between diplomacy and gastronomy and these conflicts. In doing so, the article will contribute to a better understanding of the potential of gastronomy and diplomacy to think about and work on difference, estrangement and conflict.