This innovative new book argues that diplomacy, which emerged out of the French Revolution, has become one of the central Ideological State Apparatuses of the modern democratic nation-state. The book is divided into four thematic parts. The first presents the central concepts and theoretical perspectives derived from the work of Slavoj Žižek, focusing on his understanding of politics, ideology, and the core of the conceptual apparatus of Lacanian psychoanalysis. There then follow three parts treating diplomacy as archi-politics, ultra-politics, and post-politics, respectively highlighting three eras of the modern history of diplomacy from the French Revolution until today. The first part takes on the question of the creation of the term ‘diplomacy’, which took place during the time of the French Revolution. The second part begins with the effects on diplomacy arising from the horrors of the two World Wars. Finally, the third part covers another major shift in Western diplomacy during the last century, the fall of the Soviet Union, and how this transformation shows itself in the field of Diplomacy Studies. The book argues that diplomacy’s primary task is not to be understood as negotiating peace between warring parties, but rather to reproduce the myth of the state’s unity by repressing its fundamental inconsistencies. This book will be of much interest to students of diplomacy studies, political theory, philosophy, and International Relations.

During the premodern period, Japan had significant political, economic and cultural relations with Korea. This book purports that this period, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, was the formative stage of the East Asian diplomacy and ideology which laid the foundations for foreign relations between these two countries in the modern period. The book also investigates how Japan's and Korea's political and diplomatic ideologies emerged as a nascent form of nationalism which scholars have not previously clarified.

No region of the world has been more affected by the various movements of the twentieth century than East Central Europe. Broadly defined as comprising the historic territories of the Czechs, Hungarians, Poles, and Slovaks, East Central Europe has been shaped by the interaction of politics, ideology, and diplomacy, especially by the policies of the Great Powers towards the east of Europe. This book addresses Czech politics in Moravia and Czech politics in Bohemia in the nineteenth century, the international politics of relief during World War I, the Morgenthau Mission and the Polish Pogroms of 1919, the Hitler-Stalin Pact and its influence on Poland in 1939, Hungarian-Americans during World War II, and Polish-East German relations after World War II. Contributors: Bruce Garver, M. B. B. Biskupski, Neal Pease, William L. Blackwood, Anna M. Cienciala, Steven Bela Vardy, and Douglas Selvage. M. B. B. Biskupski is Professor of History at Central Connecticut State University.

Winner, 2023 Joseph Fletcher Prize for Best Edited Book in Historical International Relations, History Section, International Studies Association Ideology drives American foreign policy in ways seen and unseen. Racialized notions of subjecthood and civilization underlay the political revolution of eighteenth-century white colonizers; neoconservatism, neoliberalism, and unilateralism propelled the post–Cold War United States to unleash catastrophe in the Middle East. Ideologies order and explain the world, project the illusion of controllable outcomes, and often explain success and failure. How does the history of U.S. foreign relations appear differently when viewed through the lens of ideology? This book explores the ideological landscape of international relations from the colonial era to the present. Contributors examine ideologies developed to justify—or resist—white settler colonialism and free-trade imperialism, and they discuss the role of nationalism in immigration policy. The book reveals new insights on the role of ideas at the intersection of U.S. foreign and domestic policy and politics. It shows how the ideals coded as “civilization,” “freedom,” and “democracy” legitimized U.S. military interventions and enabled foreign leaders to turn American power to their benefit. The book traces the ideological struggle over competing visions of democracy and of American democracy’s place in the world and in history. It highlights sources beyond the realm of traditional diplomatic history, including nonstate actors and historically marginalized voices. Featuring the foremost specialists as well as rising stars, this book offers a foundational statement on the intellectual history of U.S. foreign policy.

During the premodern period, Japan had significant political, economic and cultural relations with Korea. This book purports that this period, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, was the formative stage of the East Asian diplomacy and ideology which laid the foundations for foreign relations between these two countries in the modern period. The book also investigates how Japan's and Korea's political and diplomatic ideologies emerged as a nascent form of nationalism which scholars have not previously clarified.