WELCOME

 
Formerly a university teacher, I am now a freelance writer specialising in the theory and practice of diplomacy from the earliest times until the present. As well as hoping to encourage the study of diplomacy, this site provides periodic updating of two of my books.


Diplomacy: Theory and Practice
Online updating3rd edn, (Palgrave-Macmillan: Basingstoke and New York, 2005)
ISBN 1-4039-9311-4 (pbk)

'Highly recommended' reading for employees of all US foreign affairs agencies

CLICK HERE FOR ONLINE UPDATING
Most recent update: 10 July 2009

A Dictionary of Diplomacy
Online updating(with Alan James), 2nd edn
(Palgrave-Macmillan: Basingstoke and New York, 2003)
ISBN 1-4039-1536-9 (pbk)

CLICK HERE FOR ONLINE UPDATING
Most recent update: 21 July 2008


To enable regular visitors to identify new material, the latest updates are entered in red.

 
NEWS AND VIEWS

New book published !

British Diplomacy in Turkey, 1583 to the presentMy latest book, British Diplomacy in Turkey, 1583 to the present: A study in the evolution of the resident embassy, has just been published by Martinus Nijhoff of Leiden. Read more about this here.
[06 November 2009]

Latest book review

Christopher Baxter and Andrew Stewart (eds), Diplomats at War: British and Commonwealth diplomacy in wartime
[review]
[24 November 2009]

Foreign language translations

Diplomacy: Theory and Practice [Chinese edition]My textbook, Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, is available in Chinese, translated by Dr Pang Zhongying, Director of the Institute of Global Issues at Nankai University and published by Peking University Press (PUP); in Croatian, translated by Ksenija JuriÅ¡ic and published in the Political Thought Series (Biblioteka Politicka Misao) of the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Zagreb; and in Greek, published by Editions Tourikis. Translations into Serbian, Albanian, and Macedonian are in the pipeline.
[01 July 2009]

Diplomatic Theory from Machiavelli to Kissinger [Croation edition]Diplomatic Theory from Machiavelli to Kissinger was published in Croatian by Biblioteka Politicka Misao in October 2005, and is also to be published in Albanian by Libraria 'Dukagjini'.
 

 A Dictionary of Diplomacy was published in Chinese by Peking University Press in May 2008, and

 

Diplomatic Classics: Selected texts from Commynes to Vattel was published in English by Peking University Press in 2009.
 

Malgorzata van de Westelaken, Foreign Rights Consultant of Palgrave-Macmillan, would be pleased to hear from anyone interested in undertaking or promoting translations of these works into other languages.
[01 July 2009]

New edition of Diplomacy forthcoming!

Diplomacy: Theory and Practice [4th edition]Palgrave Macmillan are hoping to publish the fourth edition of my textbook, Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, at the end of January 2010 so that it will be on display at the ISA Conference in New Orleans in the third week of February. This edition has not only been updated but also reorganized and expanded. I have added a whole new part on diplomacy without diplomatic relations, inspired in part by my earlier book Talking to the Enemy (Macmillan, 1994), and new chapters on following up agreements, consulates, public diplomacy, and special missions.
[06 November 2009]

Italian visitors!

Italian visitorsI am pleased to announce that Formare alle professioni: Diplomatici e politici, a collection of essays edited by Arianna Aris Rota of the University of Pavia, is now published. I have a piece in this (translated into Italian by Arianna) on the British tradition in diplomatic training.
[06 November 2009]

‘Credible Public Diplomacy’

Alan Henrikson has kindly drawn to my attention a Special Edition of The Fletcher Forum on World Affairs containing a series of articles under this heading, many of which derived from the Edward R. Murrow 100th Anniversary Memorial Conference at the Fletcher School. Read them here. Although I dislike the term ‘public diplomacy’ used as it is here, and take a swipe at it in a forthcoming publication, ‘a rose by any other name would smell as sweet ...’.
[15 July 2009]

Need an MA dissertation or PhD thesis topic?

As regular visitors will know, I have a page on this site called Postgraduate research required on contemporary diplomacy. This has proved one of the most popular pages, so I have just overhauled and expanded it. However, I should add two cautions. First, the list of topics is not meant to be exhaustive: it is just a list of topics that have occurred to me as being under or poorly researched. Secondly, there is of course always room for a fresh (‘revisionist’) look at topics which may seem adequately or even ‘over researched’. After all, knowledge advances via the constant challenging of conventional wisdom, either on internal grounds or in the light of newly discovered source material – or, more usually, both.
[12 October 2007]



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This site was originally designed by Simon Kear