Launched in April 2021 by Bloomsbury and I.B. Tauris, these books are the culmination of a collaboration with Professor Jack Spence and Dr Alastair Masser, two of my friends and colleagues from the Department of War Studies.
We are thrilled to bring together a truly fantastic collection of academics and practitioners who have shared their expertise and original research on diplomacy and International affairs. These volumes are designed for students, practitioners, and a general audience, and cover an array of themes including nuclear weapons and coercion, negotiations, climate change, identity and discourses, commercial diplomacy, emotions, non-state actors, technology, ethics and many more. We hope you enjoy them.
To mark the launch of these two volumes, we did events online with King’s College London, Yale University, the Australian Institute of International Affairs, the Global Relations Forum (Turkey), and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik (DGAP). More events to follow.
Read more below on the contents of both volumes, watch videos from the launch events, and do get in touch if you’d like to learn more about the themes and contributors.
Volume One: A New Theory and Practice of Diplomacy
Effective diplomacy remains fundamental to the conduct of international relations in the twenty-first century, as we seek to define and manage a challenging new world order peacefully.
The first volume of New Perspectives on Diplomacy examines the implications of the shifting international landscape upon how states interact with one another. Reflecting on the significant changes to the system of states over the past 50 years, including the end of the Cold War, the rise of transnational networks, challenges to borders, growth in national populism and the increasing difficulties presented to diplomats by radical transparency, the first volume presents the global context against which contemporary diplomacy is conducted.
Volume Two: Contemporary Diplomacy in Action
The second volume of New Perspectives on Diplomacy highlights the importance of diplomacy in political and military crises, featuring details of life as a diplomat, the importance of alliance building, managing failure and diplomatic negotiations with armed groups. Using regional case studies from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Russia and Asia, the second volume demonstrates that the importance of diplomacy and diplomats remains undiminished.
Launching New Perspectives on Diplomacy
As a result of the pandemic, we launched our books online with the help of Zoom. Here you can watch the launch we did, chaired by one of our contributors, Dr Flavia Gasbarri, at King’s College London.
What People Are Saying
“This excellent 2-volume set of complementary chapters written by leading experts, an authoritative covering of different approaches and sub-fields of the study of diplomacy, should be the core work underpinning any university course on diplomacy. Outstanding, both in quality and coverage.”
— Professor Beatrice Heuser, Chair of International Relations, University of Glasgow
“Both scholars and practitioners of diplomacy will find new insights in this wonderful collection, packed with surprising and productive juxtapositions and an exceptionally wide range of perspectives. Mixing theory and practice, research and reflection, and with welcome emphasis on the importance of individuals, these essays help us navigate the extraordinary challenges of diplomacy in the 21st century world.”
— Professor Barbara Keys, Durham University, UK