This encyclopedic-style guide to international relations and diplomacy consists of 900 entries, arranged broadly by key concepts, such as diplomatic relations; diplomatic agreements; force and diplomacy; doctrines; policies and tactics, etc. moving from the general and structural issues of the global system to more detailed events, crises and war. The editors draw together a large quantity of background and contextual information on the evolution and functioning of the global international system in one volume. It covers the time period from the Vienna Congress in 1815 to the present.

An invaluable guide to international relations and diplomacy, covering the international system, crises and meetings, policies and doctrines, force and diplomacy, common international space and diplomatic relations.

This guide is designed to make it easy for students of every kind to access the necessary historical and contemporary information to help with their study of the evolution and current functioning of the international and global system. It provides information about the institutions, mechanisms and practices which support the conduct of international and global affairs....

Historical knowledge in its various forms - learned, observed and experienced - is one of the principal intellectual resources available to politicians and the officials who serve them. These policy communities habitually, though sometimes naively, inexpertly and misleadingly, use history in the crafting of policy. In this book the question of whether politicians use history wisely and judiciously is posed about those who inhabit the Kremlin as well as the White House.

The question has several dimensions which are examined here in a series of original essays. Is historically based...