Diplomacy's Value: Creating Security in 1920s Europe and the Contemporary Middle East
Brian C. Rathbun
Abstract
What is the value of diplomacy? How does it affect the course of foreign affairs independent of the distribution of power and foreign policy interests? Theories of international relations too often implicitly reduce the dynamics and outcomes of diplomacy to structural factors rather than the subtle qualities of negotiation. If diplomacy is an independent effect on the conduct of world politics, it has to add value, and we have to be able to show what that value is. This book sets forth a comprehensive theory of diplomacy, based on understanding that political leaders have distinct diplomatic s ... More
What is the value of diplomacy? How does it affect the course of foreign affairs independent of the distribution of power and foreign policy interests? Theories of international relations too often implicitly reduce the dynamics and outcomes of diplomacy to structural factors rather than the subtle qualities of negotiation. If diplomacy is an independent effect on the conduct of world politics, it has to add value, and we have to be able to show what that value is. This book sets forth a comprehensive theory of diplomacy, based on understanding that political leaders have distinct diplomatic styles—coercive bargaining, reasoned dialogue, and pragmatic statecraft. Drawing on work in the psychology of negotiation, the book explains how diplomatic styles are a function of the psychological attributes of leaders and the party coalitions they represent. The combination of these styles creates a certain spirit of negotiation that facilitates or obstructs agreement. The book applies the argument to relations among France, Germany, and Great Britain during the 1920s as well as Palestinian–Israeli negotiations since the 1990s. The book shows how different diplomatic styles can successfully resolve apparently intractable dilemmas and equally, how they can thwart agreements that were seemingly within reach.
Keywords:
diplomacy,
foreign affairs,
negotiation,
coercive bargaining,
reasoned dialogue,
pragmatic statecraft,
Palestinian–Israeli negotiations
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780801453182 |
| Published to Cornell Scholarship Online: August 2016 |
DOI:10.7591/cornell/9780801453182.001.0001 |
