2. Diplomacy of the American Revolution

‘Diplomacy of the American Revolution’ considers the United States' battle for independence and the diplomatic efforts required to reach agreement with Great Britain. In order to win independence, the United States had found it necessary to involve itself in the international rivalries and politics of Europe. The negotiations between the US peace commissioners — John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay — and the Comte de Vergennes, the French Foreign Minister, the Earl of Shelburne, Richard Oswald, and the Spanish are worth examining at this point. A number of key treaties were signed during the negotiations, including the 1778 Treaty of Amity and Commerce and Treaty of Alliance between America and France.

3. Diplomatic origins of the Great War and Versailles

‘Diplomatic origins of the Great War and Versailles’ looks at the diplomatic origins of the Great War and its aftermath Versailles, which carried away five empires and an entire generation of young men. Based on Europe’s rival alliances and age-old ambitions, the Great Powers found themselves engulfed in war that began with the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo, 28 June 1914. A case can be made that the Treaty of Versailles, with its emphasis on German war guilt and reparations, achieved the exact opposite of what the diplomats set out to do, inexorably, tragically, laying the groundwork for the next, more horrible world war.

1. Evolution of diplomacy

‘The evolution of dimplomacy’ looks briefly at the evolution of modern diplomacy, focusing on diplomats and what they do, paying attention to the art of treaty-making. A case can be made that treaties of international peace and cooperation comprise nothing less than the diplomatic landscape of human history, from the benchmark European treaties of the Congress of Vienna (1815), Brest-Litovsk (1918), and Versailles (1919) to the milestone events such as the Covenant of the League of Nations (1919), the United Nations Charter (1948), and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949).

6. Diplomacy in the age of globalization

‘Diplomacy in the age of globalization’ discusses the diplomatic challenges faced by globalization. The diplomacy of the global economic system ranges from the activities of transnational corporations to the interventions of global economic intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), particularly the World Trade Organization. These all have important diplomatic webs that operate both within and outside the traditional diplomatic system. This is also true of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which play a significant role in filling service gaps in the provision of education, health and welfare, disaster relief, and small-scale infrastructure development left by governments with insufficient resources or insufficient political will.

5. George W. Bush and the Iraq War

‘George W. Bush and the Iraq War’ looks at the diplomacy of George W. Bush in the run up to the Iraq War, which marked the triumph of the militarization of American diplomacy and an era of endless wars. With UK support, and despite United Nations warnings, in 2003 Bush approved the airstrikes that preceded the invasion of Iraq in March that year. The war with Iraq lasted just over a month. George W. Bush finally got the war he wanted; the regime change he wanted. And he got his way. The militarization of American diplomacy had been achieved and a war of choice had inaugurated an era of endless wars.

4. The night Stalin and Churchill divided Europe

‘The night Stalin and Churchill divided Europe’ discusses the important meeting between Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill in Moscow on 9 October 1944, when they agreed a plan for the Balkan region. The diplomatic efforts of the latter stages of World War II are described with the negotiations between the Three Powers — Stalin's Russia, Churchill's Great Britain, and Franklin .D. Roosevelt's United States. FDR and Churchill understood that the needed Soviet victories would come with a price. They never contested the Soviet annexations under the Nazi–Soviet Pact. Nor did Roosevelt ever seriously challenge the personal diplomacy of Churchill and Stalin to divide Eastern Europe into spheres of influence.