The Transformation of Foreign Policy: Drawing and Managing Boundaries from Antiquity to the Present

by Gunther Hellmann (Editor), Andreas Fahrmeir (Editor), Milos Vec (Editor)

Overview

The study of foreign policy is usually concerned with the interaction of states, and thus with governance structures which emerged either with the so-called 'Westphalian system' or in the course of the 18th century: diplomacy and international law. As a result, examining foreign policy in earlier periods involves conceptual and terminological difficulties, which echo current debates on 'post-national' foreign policy actors like the European Union or global cities. This volume argues that a novel understanding of what constitutes foreign policy may offer a way out of this problem. It considers foreign policy as the outcome of processes that make some boundaries different from others, and set those that separate communities in an internal space apart from those that mark foreignness. The creation of such boundaries, which can be observed at all times, designates specific actors - which can be, but do not have to be, 'states' - as capable of engaging in foreign policy. As such boundaries are likely to be contested, they are unlikely to provide either a single or a simple distinction between 'insides' and 'outsides'. In this view, multiple layers of foreign-policy actors with different characteristics appear less as a modern development and more as a perennial aspect of foreign policy. In a broad perspective stretching from early Greek polities to present-day global cities, the volume offers a theoretical and empirical presentation of this concept by political scientists, jurists, and historians.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198783862
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/21/2016
Pages:	318
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Gunther Hellmann is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Social Sciences and Principal Investigator in the Centre of Excellence 'Formation of Normative Orders', both at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. His research interests are in the fields of foreign policy analysis, especially German and European foreign policy, international security, esp. transatlantic and European security, and international relations theory. He is one of the editors of Zeitschrift fur Internationale Beziehungen (ZIB).

Andreas Fahrmeir is Professor of Modern History at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. He is a principal investigator with the 'Normative Orders' research cluster and co-editor of the Historische Zeitschrift.

Miloš Vec is Professor of Legal and Constitutional History at the University of Vienna. He is co-editor with Thomas Hippler of Paradoxes of Peace in Nineteenth Century Europe (OUP, 2015).

Table of Contents

Contents
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors

1. Introduction
—Andreas Fahrmeir, Gunther Hellmann, and Miloš Vec

Part I. Theorizing Foreign Policy: Actorhood and Boundaries

2. The Transformation of Foreign Policy: Legal Framework, Historiography, Theory
—Gunther Hellmann, Andreas Fahrmeir, and Miloš Vec

3. Foreign Policy: Concept, Vocabulary, and Practice
—Gunther Hellmann

4. Inside/Outside(s): Conceptualizations, Criteria, and Functions of a Dichotomy in Nineteenth-Century International Legal Doctrine
Miloš Vec

Part II. The Governance of Intercommunal Relations in Antiquity

5. Between Demarcation and Integration: The Context of Foreign Policy in Ancient Greece
—Hans Beck

6. Aspects of the Christianization of Foreign Policy in Late Antiquity: The Impact of Religious Universalism
—Hartmut Leppin

Part III. Uncertainty and Transition within the "Westphalian System": Normative Patterns and Practices between and beyond Sovereign States

7. Fragile Boundaries and Personal Actors: The Nineteenth Century as a Period of Transformation
—Andreas Fahrmeir

8. Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Legal History: International Law, Foreign Policy, and the Construction of a Legal Order
—Luigi Nuzzo

9. Back to the Future: Rediscovery of Diplomatic Conduct and the Moment of Foreign Policy Transformation-Diplomacy between Versailles and Locarno, 1919-25
—Verena Steller

Part IV. Alternative Authorities in Intercommunal Relations and International Law

10. Renaissance of the City as Global Actor: The Role of Foreign Policy and International Law Practices in the Construction of Cities as Global Actors
—Janne E. Nijman

11. States Only? The Evolution of Diplomacy
—Christer Jönsson

12. Domestic Public Diplomacy, Domestic Diplomacy, and Domestic Foreign Policy
—Paul Sharp

Part V. Conclusions

13. The Multiple and Changing Purposes of Foreign Policy
—Gunther Hellmann, Andreas Fahrmeir, and Miloš Vec

Index

Editorial Reviews

"By understanding foreign policy as boundary-producing practices, The Transformation of Foreign Policy is a welcome contribution to move Foreign Policy Analysis beyond the study of decision-making processes. This take asks for a more historical perspective, covering the delimitation of social spaces across time from well before the Westphalian system, as in the early Greek and Medieval polities. It also invites for a reflexive analysis of these historical practices in their production of political, legal, civilizational and also racial lines. The volume shows ways of, and makes a persuasive call for, redrawing the contours of International Relations with historical and legal expertise."
—Stefano Guzzini, Danish Institute for International Studies, Uppsala University, and PUC-Rio de Janeiro

"As the European Union wrestles with borders, and the question of what is foreign and what is domestic policy becomes blurred, this book could not be more timely. It moves from the present to the past, and back again, taking in the Treaties of Westphalia and the migrant crisis of today. Never before have history and political science been more relevant and more needed."
—Brendan Simms, Professor in the History of International Relations, University of Cambridge

"An inspiring and extremely useful volume on the history and historicity of 'foreign policy' by some of Europe's keenest authorities on the limits of the state and sovereignty. Legal scholars, political scientists, and IR specialists will all benefit from the historical turn that leads the authors of these essays to survey and dissect the transformations in conceptions and applications of 'foreign policy' and diplomacy, from ancient Greece to the contemporary world."
—Glenda Sluga, ARC Laureate Fellow and Professor of International History, FAHA, University of Sydney

From the Publisher