Conference Diplomacy and International Order

Shrouded in myth and anecdote, diplomatic conferences are a place where old orders perish and new ones are born. They often stand for new beginnings and innovation in international politics. Frequently, they are not only a place where a new order is proclaimed, but in fact themselves contribute to the institutionalization of this new order. This is because conferences link political practice and institutional structure and thereby themselves can become the heart of a new political order. This introduction summarizes the state of research on conference diplomacy and provides a simple typology to demonstrate its diversity before briefly introducing the individual contributions of our book.