Diplomacy Theory & Practice

The series was launched in 1994. Its chief purpose is to encourage original scholarship on the theory and practice of international diplomancy, including its legal regulation. The interests of the series thus embrace such diplomatic functions as signalling, negotiation and consular work, and methods such as summitry and the multilateral conference. Whilst it has a sharp focus on diplomacy at the expense of foreign policy, therefore, the series has no prejudice as to historical period or approach. It also aims to include manuals on protocol and other aspects of diplomatic practice which will be of immediate, day-to-day relevance to professional diplomats. A final ambition is to reprint inaccessible classic works on diplomacy. This book deals comprehensively with diplomacy narrowly conceived, that is, as the conduct of relations between sovereign states through the medium of officials based at home or abroad. It is not, like some, a book on 'diplomacy;' nor is it, like others, a book on the British Diplomatic Service disguised as a book on diplomacy in general. It is a book on the processes and procedures of the diplomatic art that focuses chiefly on the recent past but is rooted in history, and it draws on evidence and examples from across the world. It is the only general textbook on diplomacy that has a major emphasis on negotiation (the most important function of diplomats), as well as a major chapter on unconventional diplomatic methods.