Book

Diplomatica: A Journal of Diplomacy and Society. Vol. 1 issue 2

Diplomatica: A Journal of Diplomacy and Society addresses the broad range of work being done across the social sciences and the humanities that takes diplomacy as its focus of investigation.

Author: Monika Baar, Paul van Trigt, Sam de Schutter
Date: 01 December 2019

The journal explores and investigates diplomacy as an extension of social interests, forces, and environments. It is multidisciplinary, providing a space to unite perspectives from diplomatic history (humanities) and diplomatic studies (social sciences) in particular. It is interdisciplinary, expanding beyond its disciplinary foundation of history to enrich historical perspectives with innovative analyses from other disciplines. It seeks to broaden the study of diplomacy temporally, contributing to a re-appraisal of diplomacy across the modern and early modern eras and beyond, in this way bridging temporal divides and introducing debate between scholars of different periodizations. It is determinedly global in orientation, providing a space for inter-regional comparisons. The journal is published in cooperation with the New Diplomatic History (NDH) Network.

Diplomatica seeks to merge diplomatic history and diplomatic studies through three main approaches:
1. Habitat: Exploring the multiple identities, behaviors, rituals, and belief systems of diplomats and how they change according to time, place, and space;
2. Actors: Challenging the centrality of the nation-state as the principal actor framing an understanding of what diplomacy is by focusing equally on the role of non-state actors;
3. Disciplines: Introducing appropriate methodologies from the social sciences, such as prosopography, network analysis, gender studies, economics, geography, and communications, in order to broaden the analytical study of diplomatic habitats, actors, and interactions through time.

Broadly speaking, Diplomatica covers the study of diplomatic process more than the study of diplomatic product. It questions, investigates, and explores allaspects of the diplomatic world, from interactions between the professionally diplomatic and the non-diplomatic to the arrangement of summits and banquets, the architecture of ministries and residences, and the identities, roles, practices, and networks of envoys, policy entrepreneurs, salonnières, and all other private and quasi-private individuals who affect the course of diplomacy.

Contents: Volume 1 (2019): Issue 2 (Dec 2019)

Volume 1, No. 2

Introduction. Scripts for a New Stage: United Nations’ Observances and New Perspectives on Diplomatic History - Paul van Trigt

Articles

unhcr’s Shifting Frames in the Social Construction of Disabled Refugees: Two Case Studies on the Organization’s Work During the World Refugee Year (1959–1960) and the International Year of Disabled Persons (1981) - Veronika Flegar
From Tehran to Helsinki: the International Year of Human Rights 1968 and State Socialist Eastern Europe - Ned Richardson-Little
1979: a Year of the Child, but Not of Children’s Human Rights - Linde Lindkvist
A Global Approach to Local Problems? How to Write a Longer, Deeper, and Wider History of the International Year of Disabled Persons in Kenya - Sam de Schutter
Science Diplomacy and the Making of the United Nations International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction - Lukas Schemper
International Days at the United Nations: Expanding the Scope of Diplomatic Histories - Monika Baár

Review Essay

A Renewal of Diplomatic History or the Continuation of Old Trends? Selected Readings from the French-speaking Field of International History - Louis Clerc

Book Reviews

Robert F. Trager. Diplomacy: Communication and the Origins of International Order --- Alexandros Nafpliotis
James Crossland. War, Law and Humanity: The Campaign to Control Warfare, 1853–1914 --- Benjamin Coates
Hideaki Kami. Diplomacy Meets Migration: US Relations with Cuba during the Cold War --- Jorrit van den Berk
David Macfadyen, Michael Davies, Marilyn Carr and John Burley. Eric Drummond and his Legacies. The League of Nations and the Beginnings of Global Governance --- Karen Gram-Skjoldager
Anne Reinhardt. Navigating Semi-Colonialism: Shipping, Sovereignty, and Nation-Building in China, 1860–1937 --- Maartje Abbenhuis
Frédéric Ramel and Cécile Prévost-Thomas, eds. International Relations, Music and Diplomacy, Sounds and Voices on the International Stage --- Nur Bilge Criss
Steffen Bay Rasmussen. The Ideas and Practices of the European Union’s Structural Antidiplomacy: An Unstable Equilibrium --- Roberto Duran
Deep K Datta-Ray. The Making of Indian Foreign Policy: A Critique of Eurocentrism --- Thomas Gidney
Tracey A. Sowerby and Jan Hennings, eds. Practices of Diplomacy in the Early Modern World c. 1410–1800 --- Isabella Lazzarini