Diplomatic conferences not only stand for new beginnings and innovation in international relations, but also contribute to the institutionalization of new orders. As the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine painfully demonstrates, such a reorganization of European relations has become inevitable. However, it is unclear what the future diplomatic processes could look like that would lead to addressing the violence and restoring a rules-based international order.
The current need to reflect on the form and function of conference diplomacy and to become aware of its challenges is the subject of the recently published volume “Conference Diplomacy and International Order: From the Congress of Vienna to the G7”. Co-edited by Sebastian Schindler (LMU Munich), Christopher Daase and Wolfgang Seibel (University of Konstanz), it focuses on the direct exchange between history and international relations. In view of the gap that has opened up following the rare attempts at a decidedly interdisciplinary debate on the core issues of international institutional development, it thus occupies a unique position in contemporary research literature.
The authors follow a strictly symmetrical structure: In each of the four main sections, one historian and one IB scholar explain their views on one of the four fundamental aspects of conference diplomacy: inclusion/exclusion, effectiveness, legitimacy and international order. This approach allows participants to analyze the overarching role of institutions in the international order from a long-term historical perspective. Against the background of continuity and change over the last 200 years, the diagnosed crisis of the current liberal order thus also appears in a different light.
Christopher Daase, Professor of International Relations at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, and PRIF’s Deputy Director, heads Research Department International Security. As a co-founder of the Arms Control Negotiation Academy (ACONA), and member of the Executive Board of the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium his research focuses on security policy as well as international institutions. His recent publications include a volume on rule in international politics published together with Nicole Deitelhoff and Antonia Witt.
Further information about the book can be found on the publisher’s website.