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The book "Old and New Insights on the History of Intelligence and Diplomacy in the Balkans" is a valuable contribution to the scholarly literature on the Balkan Peninsula's troubled history. The editors explore the intersection of intelligence and diplomacy through carefully selected case studies, shedding light on the role of intelligence in shaping policy and international relations. The book focuses on the Balkans, highlighting the region's rich contributions to the history of intelligence and diplomacy. It also discusses the potential for further research in this field, including a possible second volume on Russian-Soviet operations in the Balkans and the establishment of a "Balkan network for intelligence and diplomatic history." [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Revista de Historia (07169108) is the property of Universidad de Concepcion and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper aims to present initial theoretical and methodological reflections on the uses of the concept of science diplomacy in the history of sciences field, whose results have been promising. In the first section, it presents the main definitions and problematisation of the concept of science diplomacy, a term recently created in the vocabulary of international relations, but an ancient practice from both the diplomatic and the scientific fields. Then, it presents the uses of this concept in the historiography of sciences, by commenting on the literature published between 2020 and 2021 in international relations, contemporary history, and history of sciences journals. The third part presents some comments on research experiences in the history of science diplomacy in Brazil, aiming to be helpful in the elaboration of future research dedicated to analysing the relationships between science and diplomacy from a historical perspective. Also, it presents suggestions on which archives could be visited, the documentary typology to be collected, the modes of analysing the sources, and the care to be taken in the stage of writing the historical narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helen McCarthy's 2009 article, 'Petticoat Diplomacy: The Admission of Women to the British Foreign Service, c.1919-1946,' challenges the traditional narrative of British diplomacy as an elitist and male-dominated institution. McCarthy reframes the debate over the admission of women to the Foreign Office as a complex intersection of political, gendered, and social forces. Her work has had a significant impact on historical scholarship by encouraging a re-centering of female voices in diplomatic history and highlighting the need for further research on marginalized voices, including race. McCarthy's article also potentially influenced policy by contributing to the diversification of the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office. The article concludes by noting the progress made in increasing the representation of women in the Foreign Service, but also acknowledges that barriers to gender equality persist. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Obnovljeni zivot is the property of University of Zagreb, Society of Jesus and Faculty of Philosophy & Religious Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Setting the stage for the special forum, this introduction points to the centrality of science diplomacy activities within many current foreign policy concepts around the world. It also points to the lack of historical perspective within many current academic debates about science diplomacy. Suggesting the value of such a perspective, the introduction then draws attention to a number of fruitful contributions that histories of science diplomacy may make to contemporary history. These include: a better understanding of how entanglements between science, foreign policy, and international relations evolved over the twentieth century; a refined understanding of the workings of foreign relations and diplomacy that sheds light on the role of science as an arena of foreign relations; new insights into the Cold War; a globalizing of perspectives in the writing of contemporary history; a new international focus on widely under-researched actors like universities, science movements, science organizations, and science academies; a focus on new themes that range from global environmental problems to issues like cultural heritage. The remainder of the introduction then delineates some of the shared assumptions and findings of the essays and then briefly introduces each contribution to the special section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of Indian diplomacy conceptualises diplomacy racially—as invented by the West—and restrictively—to offence. This is 'analytic-violence' and it explains the berating of Indians for mimicking diplomacy incorrectly or unthinkingly, and the deleting, dismissing, or denigrating, of diplomatic practices contradicting history's conception. To relieve history from these offences, a new method is presented, 'Producer-Centred Research' (PCR). Initiating with abduction, an insight into a problem—in this case Indian diplomacy's compromised historicisation—PCR solves it by converting history's racist rationality into 'rationalities'. The plurality renders rationality one of many, permitting PCR's searching for rationalities not as a function of rationality but robust practices explicable in producer's terms. Doing so is exegesis. It reveals India's nuclear diplomacy as unique, for being organised by defence, not offence. Moreover, offence's premise of security as exceeding opponent's hostility renders it chimerical for such a security is, paradoxically, reliant on expanding arsenals. Additionally, doing so is a response to opponents. This fragments sovereignty and abdicates control for one is dependent on opponent's choices. Defence, however, does not instigate opponents and so really delivers security by minimising arsenals since offence is eschewed. Doing so is not a response to opponents and so maintains sovereignty and retains control by denying others the right to offense. The cost of defence is courage, for instance, choosing to live in the shadow of nuclear annihilation. Exegesis discloses Balakot as a shift from defence to offence, so to relieve the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) leadership of having to be courageous. The intensity of the intention to discard courage is apparent in the price the BJP paid. This included equating India with Pakistan, permitting it to escalate the conflict, and so imperiling all humanity in a manner beyond history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an analytical study of a group of earls in diplomatic processes in the mid fourteenth century, within a wider framework of diplomatic relations and political thinking on the role of the earls as important counsellors of the king. It aims to bridge a historiographical divide between diplomatic history and the history of the nobility in domestic political structures by demonstrating how the traditional role of the earls as the king's foremost counsellors was integrated into the diplomatic processes which accompanied the onset of the Hundred Years' War. It explores a pivotal aspect of the public lives of the fourteenth-century nobility, integrates their diplomatic service into the history of medieval diplomacy and highlights the middle years of the fourteenth century as a crucial period of intensifying aristocratic diplomatic service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annals of the Croatian Political Science Association / Anali Hrvatskog Politoloskog Drustva is the property of Croatian Political Science Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 1825, France recognized its former colony Haiti's independence, ending an over twenty-year struggle for the black republic to obtain legal recognition as a sovereign state but saddling it with a financial indemnity that crippled its economy. This article argues that France's formal recognition of the republic gave Haiti an important advantage to defend its sovereignty as a legitimate nation, as well as its political union with Santo Domingo in 1822. In doing so, the study brings together two bodies of literature that rarely speak to one another: nineteenth-century Haitian diplomatic history and works treating Dominicans' experience under Haitian rule. This article will focus on the aftermath of French recognition of Haitian independence that affected British commercial negotiations with Haiti. Finally, it will examine how Haiti's recognized independence forced the Spanish to enter diplomatic talks with the Haitians over sovereignty and rule in Santo Domingo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Modern Turkish History Studies / Çagdas Türkiye Tarihi Arastirmalari Dergisi is the property of Journal of Modern Turkish History Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article is devoted to professor Piotr Wandycz's (1923-2017) work in the field of history of diplomacy. The author tries to reexamine his main arguments and conceptions. Wandycz was first of all the historian of French-Polish-Czechoslovak and Soviet-Polish relations in the inter-war era, but not only. His major contribution to historiography was made in the research on Polish foreign policy (1919--1939). Wandycz's thesis that the Polish policy of balance between Germany and Soviet Russia had no real strategic alternative seems to be one of the most convincing interpretations of the inter-war Poland's diplomacy. The geopolitical situation of the reconstructed Poland was highly unfavorable. and Wandycz was convinced of it more than any other historian in the West. Working on international relations in the inter-war Europe, he preferred rather multilateralism than bilateralism. In his studies we can find more empathy for more moderate Polish ministers of foreign affairs like Aleksander Skrzyński (1922-1926) or August Zaleski (1926-1932) than Józef Beck (1932-1939). Wandycz's excellent works require the special attention of historians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Turkey's wartime diplomacy between the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and Hitler's unleashing of Operation Barbarossa. Rather than a survey of Turkish foreign policy as a whole, it takes a critical episode from July 1940 as a case study that – when put in context – reveals how fear of Nazi power and even greater fear of the Soviet Union created in Turkey a complex view of a desired outcome from the Second World War. Juxtaposing archival materials in Turkish, Russian, German, and English, I draw heavily on the hitherto untapped holdings of the Turkish Diplomatic Archives (TDA). Overall, this article demonstrates both the breadth and limits of Nazi Germany's sweeping efforts to orchestrate anti-Soviet propaganda in Turkey; efforts that helped end interwar Soviet-Turkish cooperation. Against previously established notions in historiography that depict Soviet-Turkish relations as naturally hostile and inherently destabilizing, this article documents how the Nazi–Soviet Pact played a key role in their worsening bilateral affairs between 1939 and 1941. The argument, then, is in keeping with newer literature on the Second World War that has begun to compensate for earlier accounts that overlooked neutral powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistan China's diplomatic ties and the joint venture of the new Silk Road project by China is first great step of diplomacy, and free trade route, which has been prominent in the media from around the world. China and Pakistan trade and industry passage seemed to be the basic in cooperation regarding environment. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor CPEC had been turning into a new chapter in the history of diplomacy friendship. This research explains content analysis to obtain information related to the role of media in forming public perception. The content of the editorials of four international newspapers had been taken. The researcher brought out themes from these editorials and compared its language and discussions made by the authors. These newspapers consisted of daily Dawn from Pakistani print media, "The Times of India" a highly read newspaper from India, The New York Times a renowned newspaper from USA and China Daily editorials were selected for examining the connotations of the message conveyed to the public. The data obtained by the said sources and evidence were taken from the editorials and then it were framed in the content analysis. The findings presented issues relating to the entire pact because of the political scenario. The research recommends using more strategically sound monitoring of the mass media in these countries so that the involvement of the public opinion may be implemented for the plan at a broader scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Universitaria de Historia Militar (RUHM) is the property of Centro de Estudios de la Guerra and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Problems / Problemos is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This analysis suggests nation branding" as a useful category for the study of international relations and international history. In the past 15 years, entrepreneurs have invented nation branding as something new and modern, and governments the world over have signed up for cost-intensive campaigns to brand their countries' images abroad. However, practices of nation branding have been around much longer. Indeed, the history of nation branding avant la lettre needs writing. That history provides a major encasement for the multitude of individual studies dedicated to soft power, public diplomacy, and cultural relations across time and space. This analysis looks first the at current experts and discourses on nation branding. Second, it sketches nation branding's emergence from the end of the early modern period to the present. Third, it suggests a number of historical examples to inspire future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the sixteenth century Genoa became a significant ally of the Habsburg Empire. Shared political, commercial, financial, and strategic factors tied the Genoese patricians firmly to Spain. However, their alliance was by no means permanent. The relations between the Genoese and the Spanish crown were not without tensions and conflict. In the mid-sixteenth century, the combination of various factors set the stage for Genoa to reconfigure its alliances in the Mediterranean. Having fallen victim to the Habsburg and Valois conflict and being torn between the two, Genoa was forced to resort to an alternative imperial power, the Ottoman Empire, to protect its integrity and independence, as well as to engage in the Levant trade. This article focuses on this moment of crisis in Genoa and analyzes how it led the Genoese to consider shifting their alliance from the Habsburgs to the Ottomans, who were the former's most compelling rival in the Mediterranean. Although the Genoese endeavor ultimately ended in failure, the idea of a potential alliance with the Ottomans and the efforts Genoa invested in its diplomatic negotiations provides insight into the strategies a small state used to survive at a time when imperial rivalry over the Mediterranean was escalating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Emotions shouldn`t be neglected, but rather taken seriously in order to understand better the complexity of political, and socio-cultural processes that they have generated. The study of emotions in the field of diplomacy is particularly promising, but requires precise definition of the term, explanation of the methodological approach and qualifications concerning the research possibilities that depend upon the nature of the archival sources. The goal of this article is to analyze how words used to signify emotions, which could be signified as negative, shaped practical decisions within certain socio-political and cultural contexts; in other words to demonstrate an active role of emotions in shaping and conducting practical diplomatic decisions. The study aims to underpin the reciprocal relations between emotions and actions illustrated by two case studies from the late medieval Ragusan history. The sources of an interest are preserved in the State archive in Dubrovnik, in the archival seria Lettere di Levante, which, among others, contains the instructions written by the city authorities to their envoys. Despite the fact that the instructions were a product of a long and sober-minded discussions, and therefore they aren`t usually abundant with words used to express certain emotions in them, places where those expressions appear are quite significant and can tell us more about how emotions were used as a tool of cognitive processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of E-Journal of Portuguese History is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article explores a hitherto unexamined chapter of German Cold War politics: West Germany's relations with Indonesia between 1955 and 1965. Indonesia was a peculiar case, as in the late 1950s and early 1960s, President Sukarno turned his country into a radical champion of 'anti-imperialism'. This included actions directed against the Netherlands, Britain, Malaysia, and the United States. As part of a comprehensive strategy to isolate East Germany in the 'Third World', West German diplomacy nevertheless tried to maintain solid relations with Sukarno's increasingly unpredictable Indonesia, even if that meant undermining the position of Western allies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using documentary evidence from China, France, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the United States, this paper develops a history of the Third World through historical inquiry into the origins and activities of the Colombo Powers. As the five host nations of the 1955 Asian-African Conference in Bandung, the Colombo Powers worked to realise a new vision of Asia that integrated the outer reaches of the mainland on the basis of ancient geographical ties and a cosmopolitan international order. Most importantly, they sought to reclaim Asian agency in the international negotiations on the Korean and Indochina conflict and spread resistance to collective security pacts in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will study the USA-China relations through the lens of the Yin Yang school of thought to evaluate whether the Panda Diplomacy of the Chinese government is an effective identifier to .garnering positive relations with the US government and its people. Evaluation will be done through studying the political, economic and socio-cultural relations of China and USA, utilizing various forms of information such as news articles, journal articles, statistics and graphs. The main scope of the paper will be on USA and China's relations since the two states have a long history when it comes to diplomacy and at the same time a rich history in Panda Diplomacy as the United States currently owns the highest amount of loaned Pandas which is 12. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty this study deals with the historical development of Franco-German relations in the 20th century. The focus is on the historical models of rapprochement between the two nations. The author presents in detail the possibilities for cooperation in the interwar years (with a special focus on civil integration). This period may be considered one of the most intensive periods of the French-German reconciliation. Bases that the parties could build on after 1945 were founded as the ideas were similar. Following the successes of the large-scale policy, numerous other very important steps were needed to minimise mutual mistrust in the peoples of the two states. This led to a large number of various organisations and cooperations. The patterns presented here greatly influenced communication after 1945. In the second part of the study the author presents the origin and effect of the Élysée Treaty with some new aspects of the history of diplomacy. Of the numerous new initiatives, the author focuses primarily on civil ones. The great innovation brought about by the treaty, however, was the strong involvement of the civil societies of both countries, particularly in education, research, culture and youth exchanges. As a result of historical cooperation "Erbfeinde" (hereditary enemies) have become "Erbfreunde" (hereditary friends) within the European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tiempos Modernos is the property of Tiempos Modernos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Association of Reserve and Retired Military Diplomats „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” (ARRMD) represents a voluntary association of the officers in reserve or retirement that have deployed or supported directly or through related actions the military diplomatic activity of knowing the armed forces of other states and promoting and developing the relations of the Romanian Armed Forces with them. The purpose of ARRMD is to promote the traditions of the military diplomacy activity and the history of the military intelligence service of the Romanian Armed Forces in the spirit of the assumed foreign exchange, the cultivation of the civic values specific to the rule of law, the promotion of the fundamental values of democracy, of the national interests and of the Romanian Armed Forces, the development of relations with civil society for the benefits of its members. The ARRMD members participate in educational, cultural, commemorative activities organized by central and local authorities. Also, the members of ARRMD support various projects and actions of the structures of the Ministry of National Defense. The activity of ARRMD is carried out under the slogan „Homeland-Honor- Tradition”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Zambia's engagement with the Middle East conflict from 1964–73 as a window into the political strategies and ideological ambitions of Kaunda's government in the first decade of independence. At the start of independence, Kaunda's domestic agenda led him to establish ties with Israel and to advance a program for cooperative development based on Israeli technical assistance. However, broader international concerns, filtered through the struggle against white minority regimes in southern Africa, ultimately led Kaunda to embrace a leadership role in international protests against Israel's policies towards its neighboring states. Zambia's foray into Middle East diplomacy in the first decade of independence enables a focused examination of Kaunda's presence in the international arena, while also revealing the compromises he made in the face of conflicting interests. Zambia's role in the Middle East conflict highlights this era as a time of confidence and claim-making by African leaders, but also one of concessions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The essay investigates the diplomatic relationships between the apostolic See and the Kingdoms of Spain, during the pontificate of Paul V Borghese, with a particular focus on the 1611-1617 period. In those years, the intolerance of the pope and the cardinal nephew, Scipione Borghese, towards Francisco de Castro, the Spanish ambassador in Rome, was growing firmly. The papal family was worried about the excessive closeness of the ambassador's family (the Lemos) with the former cardinal nephew Pietro Aldobrandini, who was considered their enemy. The Borgheses also condemned the ambassador's policy, who, in cooperation with his brother, Fernando de Lemos, viceroy of Naples, was believed to pursue his personal interests in order to strengthen their presence in Italy, also known as the Lemos' own «Neapolitan Empire». This situation was the cause of the origin of a real obsession for the Borgheses, so that they requested the substitution of Castro with a more favorably disposed ambassador, in order to protect their political success. As a consequence, the request became a conditio sine qua non that strongly influenced other negotiations between the courts of Rome and Madrid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion that the United States threatened to invade the Canadian colonies after the Civil War persists to this day. Alleged British and Canadian support for the Confederate States angered Washington so much that Canadians feared military action. This menace started the Confederation movement that created the Dominion in 1867. This article argues otherwise by pointing to the careful diplomacy during the war—and rapid changes afterwards—each worked against the threat of a war. Tensions rose and fell with events such as the Trent Affair of 1861 and the St. Albans Raid of 1864, but each country otherwise sought to avoid trouble. Neither side deployed troops to the border during the war. After Appomattox, Union soldiers headed north but only to return home. Demobilization, combined with military deployments to the former Confederacy and the West, and resolute diplomacy afterwards, further prevented conflict. Not even the Fenian raids of 1866 and 1870 could disturb the peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common tendency within the field of political history is that the history of diplomacy starts with the 15. Century Italian city-states. This tendency is not only wrong, but also reductionist and Western-centric. In fact, historic research reveals that there were intense diplomatic relations among international actors in the First Era where power asymmetry was also not as vivid as we tend to believe. Thus, by providing the reader with the First-Age diplomatic relations and activities, the purpose of this article is to fill the gap resulting from lack of information about the history of diplomacy so that diplomacy could be more correctly analyzed and understood within its historic roots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Halvard Leira and Benjamin de Carvalho, the decision of European states to establish consulships in foreign ports was responsible for the intertwinement of diplomacy and privateering at the end of the seventeenth century. Based on a case study – the arrest of Swedish prizes in the Netherlands in 1644 – this contribution will explain that the connection of diplomacy, privateering and prize law existed long before states appointed consuls to control the activities of their own privateers. Already in the first half of the seventeenth century, the state’s direction of foreign policy, the activities of diplomats and military and political developments decided the outcome of prize cases. Governments always had to make compromises between the implementation of prize law and the maintenance of their political interests. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On September 1973, the Weu Assembly reintroduced the debate on aeronautical cooperation between the European countries highlighting the benefits engendered by industrial harmonization. Alessandro Pagni, director of external relations of Aeritalia, agreed with the proactive approach of the Weu and the European aeronautical industries, with a caveat: Italian industry did not want to compete against the American one, but to cooperate with and to benefit from, its leading position in the global market. Thus, the Italian Parliament enacted the so-called "Legge Crociani" which funded the aeronautical production in cooperation with Boeing. This essay surveys the role of the Italian delegates and their link with the Italian foreign policy choices. Specifically, it analyses the technician's attitude towards the debate on European cooperation in the aeronautic industry field aiming to illustrate the influence that experts have in shaping foreign and industrial policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the rapid and dramatic shifts in position, perception, and possibility that characterized the onset of colonialism in the Maghrib. The focus is on a small, interrelated group of families of Algiers notables. Their heads, the merchant and state servant Ḥamdān ibn ʿUthmān Khoja and the banker and businessman Aḥmad Bū Ḍarba, played important roles in attempting to negotiate an accommodation with the French occupiers between 1830 and 1833. By 1836, they found themselves pushed out, both politically and physically, from the cité (both physical and symbolic) that they had, until then, imagined themselves as sharing on equal terms with interlocutors on the other shore of the Mediterranean. Closing down their possibilities of dialogue can be seen as the first, decisive step in the emergence of French definitions of a "monologic," exclusively European articulation of the meaning of modernity in North Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Defence diplomacy” is a relatively new term developed in response to the post-Cold War demand for new international missions and functions carried out by the armed forces. It should not be understood as a kind of traditional “military diplomacy plus.” In the absence of a broadly accepted definition of “defence diplomacy,” countries try to adapt it to the needs of their own security policy. In Poland, the term appears only in journalism; there is no precise reference to any foreign and security policy documents. The main goal of defense diplomacy is to co-design and implement state security policy and to establish stable international relations in the field of defense. Conceptualising defence diplomacy is the starting point for understanding its role as one of the most important instruments of foreign and security policy in modern countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the aim of this special issue is to show practice approaches at work in the case of European diplomacy, this introduction provides readers with a hands-on sense of where the conversation about practices and European diplomacy currently stands. By introducing the key terms and overviewing the literature, the article contextualises the guiding questions of the special issue. It starts by reviewing how practice approaches have evolved in IR debates. It then describes European diplomacy’s nuts and bolts in a post-Lisbon setting. It continues by focusing on specific practices and analytical mechanisms that contribute to understand European diplomacy’s transformations and the role of security. While the debate about practices goes beyond the case of diplomacy, the latter has become a showcase for the former and this special issue continues the debate on practices and diplomacy by zooming in on the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Between 1945 and 1946 in Bulgaria the conditions had been created to set up the new Communist regime. In those years, at the end of the war, the National Front was in power, a so called pluralist alliance. Other parties wanted to oppose to the incoming regime, but the situation (with the Soviet Army in the Country) did not permit to succeed. In a short lapse of time all opposition was whipped out, also by use of violence. This picture emerges clearly (among other sources) from the Italian diplomatic documentation, which enlargens the knowledge of that Bulgarian political experience also by a comparative analysis of the national and international historiography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the nineteenth century, Renaissance Italy has been on the front line of diplomatic research, mainly providing excellent case-studies for the theory associating the beginnings of permanent diplomacy and the emergence of resident ambassadors with the process of state-building. More than a century later, however, the most recent research is moving away from diplomacy as an institutional tool of power, and is increasingly looking at it as a flexible political activity in which a full range of dynamics until now mostly considered separately - negotiation, information- gathering, representation, and communication - interacted in a process intimately linked to political and cultural transformations of power and authority. In such a revision, the analysis of the writing practices and habits of the professionals of written communication involved in diplomatic interactions has been paramount. My paper will therefore focus on the role of recent paleographical and diplomatistic research in the renewal of late medieval and early Renaissance Italian diplomatic history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early modern diplomatic negotiation was conducted primarily through face-to-face encounters dominated by the oral medium, generally known as audiences. Yet ambassadors were very keen to take written records of the words spoken by themselves and their counterparts. This article considers the role of oral exchange in diplomatic audiences and the reasons why participants were so interested in recording and filing reports of those exchanges. This article begins with an analysis of diplomatic dispatches, the genre that has attracted most scholarship so far, but then goes on to trace the recording of audiences on the part of hosting sovereigns and their chanceries and secretaries. The article compares three examples: the transcripts of ambassadors’ speeches by fifteenth-century Florentine chancellors, the diaries of papal masters of ceremonies in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and, the most detailed example of audience records, the Esposizioni archive of thousands of ambassadorial speeches, replies and subsequent conversation, assembled by secretaries of the Venetian republic from the mid-sixteenth century onwards. These examples enable us to perceive oral culture in unexpected settings. Moreover, the Venetian case constitutes a typical example of archival transformation: an increase in quantity accompanied by a substantial and conscious improvement in preservation methods and retrieval tools. In order to explain this transformation, this article traces the uses that were intended and made of the records at the time, not just to report on current, but to inform future negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A turning point in European administrative and documentary practices was traditionally associated, most famously by Robert-Henri Bautier, with the monarchies of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. By summarizing previous research in this field, as well as by using both published and unpublished sources, this article intends to underline an earlier process of transition connected to the development of significant new techniques for the production and preservation of documents in Renaissance Italian city-states. Focusing on the important case of Florence, the administrative uses of records connected to government, diplomacy and military needs will be discussed, and evidence will be provided that such documentary practices accelerated significantly during the so-called Italian Wars (from 1494 onwards). A particular reason of interest for Florence at this time is that a major role in the production and storage of a large quantity of state papers was played by Niccolò Machiavelli, one of the outstanding political thinkers of the age. This was especially true in connection to the new militia which he himself created in 1506. By stressing the role of information management and the importance of correspondence networks at a time of war and crisis, this article also contributes to recent scholarship which has focused on the growth of public records relating to diplomacy in Italy during the second half of the fifteenth century, as well as to a recent field of historiography which has lately gained importance: namely the ‘documentary history of institutions’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]