Diplomacy and Intelligence in the Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean World examines the activities of diplomats in the expansion of their home country's informal imperial ambitions. Taking a comparative approach, the book combines a focus on the extension of the informal British Empire with an exploration of the imperial ambitions of other states, such as France, Austro-Hungary and Japan. The authors combine approaches from diplomatic history, intelligence history and microhistory in order to give new insights into the Mediterranean as a 'contested space' between competing informal empires. This study will be of great interest to anyone interested in the history of the Mediterranean region during the 19th century.

The first systematic analysis of American proconsular leadership from the Spanish-American War to the present.

The lives and careers of Sir Charles Stewart and his brother Lord Castlereagh take in a grand stage, from Britain and Ireland to the kingdoms and empires of western and central Europe. Throughout his life Stewart played a key role in shaping Europe: his is a Regency drama beyond anything imagined by Jane Austen: warfare, diplomacy, affairs, royal scandal, a romantic and brilliant marriage, and a brother's suicide. Stewart was at the heart of some of history's greatest events which took him from the bloodiest actions of the Napoleonic Wars to the palaces of Europe's ruling dynasties. For an all too brief period, Stewart blazed across the battlefields and chancelleries of Europe, enjoying a meteoric rise to the highest positions and influence, in a career indelibly linked to his brother's and one which is virtually unique. Stewart even found time to enjoy his share of scandal, from affairs and parties in Vienna to running a spy network which aimed to charge a Princess of Wales with adultery. Reider Payne's book is international in its scope and ambitions: with Stewart's military and diplomatic theatre of operations including Portugal, Spain, Prussia, Saxony, France, Austria and the Austrian territories in Italy. Stewart sat at the heart of the intrigues and social circles of Regency England, and his life story offers an unrivalled viewpoint into the competing claims and demands of Europe's courts.

“Social Networking” in South-Eastern Europe in the 15th–19th centuries exhibits specific characteristics: the Ottomans and the Habsburgs, for example, each have their pattern of building and using social networks, with the “Third South-Eastern Europe”, i.e., the vassal principalities in the Balkans and the re-created national states, staying closer in the Ottoman pattern. It seems that the Muslim-Oriental social traditions established in the Balkans during Ottoman rule had a clear impact on the building of networks and the exercising of social influence. The specific regional practices, once established, were very hard to overcome or to replace by other patterns of social networking. These practices, however, could easily interact in border areas with one other, giving the inhabitants on both sides of the frontier the possibility of living a socially amphibious life, at least in terms of Social Networking.

Focusing on travel images and cross-cultural exchange, examines interactions between the Ottoman Empire and Europeans from 1774 to 1839, highlighting mutual dependence and reciprocity.

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

Offering an alternative and a complement to existing histories of diplomacy, this book discusses change in the form of 'tipping points', which it understands as the culmination of long-term trends. The book concludes by identifying the future of diplomacy as a struggle between state-to-state based diplomacy and diplomacy as networked global governance.