The present volume aims at outlining a new field of research with regard to the history of diplomacy: the material culture of diplomatic interaction in early modern and modern times. The material culture of diplomacy includes all practices in foreign policy communication in which single artifacts, samples of artifacts, or else the whole material setting of diplomatic interaction is supposed to be constitutive for creating an intended effect in terms of diplomatic objectives. The chapters of this volume focus on intercultural diplomacy in different regions of the world wherein diplomatic actors of various kinds might have been confronted by a whole universe of unfamiliar artifacts and artifact-related practices. Most of them concentrate on gift giving as a diplomatic practice that offers multiple insights in the complex dynamics of diplomatic relations between representatives of culturally highly diverse political entities. In doing so, they gainfully apply different theoretical approaches of material culture as an interdisciplinary field of study to the investigation of diplomatic cultures across the globe. As a result, it becomes obvious that future research into the history of diplomacy should take into account material practices much more thoroughly than has been done before.

This anthology explores the role that art and material goods played in diplomatic relations and political exchanges between Asia, Africa, and Europe in the early modern world. The authors challenge the idea that there was a European primacy in the practice of gift giving through a wide panoramic review of imperial encounters between Europeans (including the Portuguese, French, Dutch, and English) and Asian empires (including Ottoman, Persian, Mughal, Sri Lankan, Chinese, and Japanese cases). They examine how those exchanges influenced the global production and circulation of art and material culture, and explore the types of gifts exchanged, the chosen materials, and the manner of their presentation. Global Gifts establishes new parameters for the study of the material and aesthetic culture of Eurasian relations before 1800, exploring the meaning of artistic objects in global diplomacy and the existence of economic and aesthetic values mutually intelligible across cultural boundaries.

The present volume aims at outlining a new field of research with regard to the history of diplomacy: the material culture of diplomatic interaction in early modern and modern times. The material culture of diplomacy includes all practices in foreign policy communication in which single artifacts, samples of artifacts, or else the whole material setting of diplomatic interaction is supposed to be constitutive for creating an intended effect in terms of diplomatic objectives. The chapters of this volume focus on intercultural diplomacy in different regions of the world wherein diplomatic actors of various kinds might have been confronted by a whole universe of unfamiliar artifacts and artifact-related practices. Most of them concentrate on gift giving as a diplomatic practice that offers multiple insights in the complex dynamics of diplomatic relations between representatives of culturally highly diverse political entities. In doing so, they gainfully apply different theoretical approaches of material culture as an interdisciplinary field of study to the investigation of diplomatic cultures across the globe. As a result, it becomes obvious that future research into the history of diplomacy should take into account material practices much more thoroughly than has been done before.

Practices of Diplomacy in the Early Modern World offers a new intervention in the ongoing reassessment of early modern international relations. The volume addresses three key interlocking themes: who and what could claim diplomatic agency and in what circumstances; the social and cultural contexts in which diplomacy was practised; and the role of material culture in diplomatic exchange. Cumulatively, the essays by virtue of their broad geographical and chronological range further our understanding of the development of diplomatic phenomena in world history and contribute to wider debates about the nature of cross-cultural encounters and the commensurability of different political cultures.

Famed historian's definitive history of the origins of diplomacy, tracing the diplomat's role as it emerged in the Italian city-states and spread northward in the 16th and 17th centuries.

This interdisciplinary volume explores core emerging themes in the study of early modern literary-diplomatic relations, developing essential methods of analysis and theoretical approaches that will shape future research in the field. Contributions focus on three intimately related areas: the impact of diplomatic protocol on literary production; the role of texts in diplomatic practice, particularly those that operated as 'textual ambassadors'; and the impact of changes in the literary sphere on diplomatic culture. The literary sphere held such a central place because it gave diplomats the tools to negotiate the pervasive ambiguities of diplomacy; simultaneously literary depictions of diplomacy and international law provided genre-shaped places for cultural reflection on the rapidly changing and expanding diplomatic sphere. Translations exemplify the potential of literary texts both to provoke competition and to promote cultural convergence between political communities, revealing the existence of diplomatic third spaces in which ritual, symbolic, or written conventions and semantics converged despite particular oppositions and differences. The increasing public consumption of diplomatic material in Europe illuminates diplomatic and literary communities, and exposes the translocal, as well as the transnational, geographies of literary-diplomatic exchanges. Diplomatic texts possessed symbolic capital. They were produced, archived, and even redeployed in creative tension with the social and ceremonial worlds that produced them. Appreciating the generic conventions of specific types of diplomatic texts can radically reshape our interpretation of diplomatic encounters, just as exploring the afterlives of diplomatic records can transform our appreciation of the histories and literatures they inspired.

This volume explores the interrelation of international relations, music, and diplomacy from a multidisciplinary perspective. Throughout history, diplomats have gathered for musical events, and musicians have served as national representatives. Whatever political unit is under consideration (city-states, empires, nation-states), music has proven to be a component of diplomacy, its ceremonies, and its strategies. Following the recent acoustic turn in IR theory, the authors explore the notion of “musical diplomacies” and ask whether and how it differs from other types of cultural diplomacy. Accordingly, sounds and voices are dealt with in acoustic terms but are not restricted to music per se, also taking into consideration the voices (speech) of musicians in the international arena. Read an interview with the editors here: https://www.sciencespo.fr/ceri/en/content/international-relations-music-and-diplomacy-sounds-and-voices-international-stage