The Transformation of Foreign Policy
Drawing and Managing Boundaries from Antiquity to the Present
Miloš Vec editor Gunther Hellmann editor Andreas Fahrmeir editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:21st Jul '16
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
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.
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 Europes 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 *
ISBN: 9780198783862
Dimensions: 241mm x 168mm x 24mm
Weight: 590g
318 pages