Conference Diplomacy and the Future of International Order

The present volume addresses conference diplomacy as one of the most ephemeral yet undoubtedly productive institutions of organized international relations. The format itself is contested, to say the least. Without it, however, even modest steps toward stability and peace remain inconceivable. The volume assembles contributions devoted to key issues of what makes conference diplomacy successful and acceptable. Each of these issues—the question of inclusion and exclusion, the quest for effectiveness, the necessity of legitimacy, and international order—is addressed by a pair of scholars from two separate disciplines, history and political science. The basic premise is that scholarly analyses of complex phenomena in political history suffer from interdisciplinary fragmentation instead of gaining from complementary strength.