Understanding International Diplomacy ─ Theory, Practice and Ethics

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of international diplomacy, covering both theory and practice. This second edition has been revised and updated, with new material on such key contemporary issues as Syria, Ukraine, migration and the South China Sea.

The text summarises and discusses the major trends in the field of diplomacy, providing an innovative theoretical approach to understanding diplomacy not as a collection of practices or a set of historical traditions, but as a form of institutionalised communication through which authorized representatives produce, manage and distribute public goods. The book:

• Traces the evolution of diplomacy from its beginnings in ancient Egypt, Greece and China to our current age of global diplomacy.
• Examines theoretical explanations about how diplomats take decisions, make relations and shape the world.
• Discusses normative approaches to how diplomacy ought to adapt itself to the 21st century, help re-make states and assist the peaceful evolution of international order.

In sum, Understanding International Diplomacy provides an up-to-date, accessible and authoritative overview of how diplomacy works and, indeed, ought to work in a globalized world.

This new textbook will be essential reading for students of international diplomacy, and highly recommended for students of crisis negotiation, international organisations, foreign policy and IR in general.

Corneliu Bjola is Associate Professor in Diplomatic Studies at the University of Oxford. He has authored or edited six books, including the recent co-edited volumes on Countering Online Propaganda and Violent Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy (with J. Pamment), Secret Diplomacy: Concepts, Contexts and Cases (with S. Murray) and Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice (with M. Holmes).

Markus Kornprobst is Professor of International Relations at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. He is the author of Irredentism in International Politics and co-editor of Metaphors of Globalization and Arguing Global Governance.