Essay title: To what extent has the process of globalisation affected international diplomacy? 

Using the contribution of Iver Neumann as an initial framework of analysis, my summative essay will explore the interrelation between the process of globalisation and international diplomacy. Particular consideration will be given on how globalising changes in space, time-density, as well as internationalisation and standardisation, and integration have affected the practice and scope of international diplomacy. The essay hopes to combine scholarship of two disciplines; namely global history and international relations theory.

Starting from the Congress of Vienna, which marked the beginning of the end of the Napoleonic Wars (and is an example of ‘old diplomacy’), Neumann’s framework will be evaluated against the following periods that fellow scholars have recognised as periods globalisation, namely the early nineteen century (Bayly), late nineteenth century (Williamson and O’Rourke), post 1945, post 1973. Further analysis will be provided on where diplomacy appears to be heading. 

While the essay will not assess whether any one epoch of globalisation is correct or valid, it will consider the changes in the areas of interrelation between diplomacy and globalisation, and thus chart the changes and continuities comparatively.

However, it is anticipated that an attempt will be made to note some deficiencies in Neumann’s framework concerning causality, and whether indeed diplomacy is the subject of change, questioning the premise that there is a link between the two. 

Reading list

Anderson, Matthew S. The Rise of Modern Diplomacy, 1450–1919. New York: Longman, 1993

Barston, Ronald P. Modern Diplomacy. 3d ed. New York: Longman, 2006

Berridge, G. R., Maurice Keens-Soper, and T. G. Otte. Diplomatic Theory from Machiavelli to Kissinger. New York: Palgrave, 2001

Hamilton, Keith, and Richard Langhorne. The Practice of Diplomacy: Its Evolution, Theory and Administration. New York: Routledge, 1995

Keylor, William R. The Twentieth Century World and Beyond: An International History Since 1900. 5th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005

Kissinger, Henry. Diplomacy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994