Instruments Manchester University Press Key Studies in Diplomacy- Instruments of international order Paperback

This book explores the transformation of international relations in the first half of the twentieth century as internationalist schemes for doing world politics came to be practices and principles shared by diplomatic actors across the globe – instruments of international order.

‘This terrific book brings to bear on international history numerous insights from global history regarding sub-state actors, supranational organisations and transnational connections… A cohesive edited collection, whose preoccupation with “instruments of international order” helps us rethink how twentieth-century international relations was conceived and practiced.’
Martin Thomas, author of The End of Empires and a World Remade: A Global History of Decolonization
This book offers a new look at the transformation of international politics in the first half of the twentieth century. This period saw the democratisation of foreign policy, ambitious attempts to build lasting peace and prosperity through international organisation, the rise of public diplomacy and education in international relations, and much else. Traditionally, this story is told as the transition from a conservative ‘old’ to an idealistic ‘new’ diplomacy. The chapters in this volume complicate this overly familiar tale by showing how these new international practices and principles came to be shared by traditional diplomats and internationalist newcomers alike, blending new and old forms of diplomacy.
The book explore these hybrid diplomatic repertoires as social constructions that could serve various political ends. Bringing together both historians and theorists of international relations, it draws on a range of new archival evidence and consider understudied actors and venues, from Ethiopian diplomats and European imperial proconsuls to drug prohibitionists and the League of Nations Assembly.
Instruments of international order is an essential contribution to the origins of modern diplomacy, the history of internationalism, and the study of international order.

During the first half of the twentieth century, world politics was reshaped in pursuit of a new international order. The ideological foundations of the ‘new diplomacy’ (and its fate during the interwar period) are well known. This book instead examines the practices of internationalism and diplomacy from the First Hague Conference of 1899 to the aftermath of the Second World War. By focusing on these practices, such as disarmament regimes or public diplomacy, and their use as instruments to build international order(s), it emphasises the constructed, contested, and experimental character of what subsequently became a standard repertoire of international politics. Essays from a range of interdisciplinary scholars address well-established principles such as self-determination, and also less prominent practices such as small arms control or parliamentary inquiry. The book makes a major contribution to the growing historiography on twentieth-century internationalism.