Roma Diplomacy

Roma Diplomacy is an anthology of papers written or inspired by the DiploFoundation's 2005?2006 Roma Diplomacy project, aimed at facilitating the creation of Roma ?public diplomats? with the ability to bridge the gap between Roma civil society and governments/European Union institutions. The papers in this volume cover a wide range of topics'from a consideration of what the term Roma Diplomacy means to research aimed at promoting awareness of the situation of Roma in different regions and countries. Many of the papers offer recommendations for policymakers, providing a strong starting point for the emergence of a Roma ?think tank, ? one of the long-term goals of the Roma Diplomacy project.

The Roman world was fundamentally a face-to-face culture, where it was expected that communication and negotiations would be done in person. This can be seen in Romea (TM)s contacts with other cities, states, and kingdoms a " whether dependent, independent, friendly or hostile a " and in the development of a diplomatic habit with its own rhythms and protocols that coalesced into a self-sustaining system of communication. This volume of papers offers ten perspectives on the way in which ambassadors, embassies, and the institutional apparatuses supporting them contributed to Roman rule. Understanding Roman diplomatic practices illuminates not only questions about Romea (TM)s evolution as a Mediterranean power, but can also shed light on a wide variety of historical and cultural trends. Contributors are: Sheila L. Ager, Alexander Yakobson, Filippo Battistoni, James B. Rives, Jean-Louis Ferrary, Martin Jehne, T. Corey Brennan, Werner Eck, and Rudolf Haensch.

The first comprehensive study of Renaissance diplomacy for sixty years, focusing on Europe's most important political centre, Rome, between 1450 and 1530.

So many books, monographs and articles have been written around the "Roman Question" that a word of explanation or even of apology for the present study may be called for. Before as well as after 1929, the year in which the Lateran Treaty declared resolved the conflict which had divided Italy and the Papacy for nearly sixty years, professors and their students in a dozen lands have one after the other committed to the learned world their particular analysis of the international position of the Papacy. The variety of opinions which can be found in these studies is itself a remarkable testimony to the unique cha racter of the Holy See in the modern organization of international society. Even today, more than two decades after the dispute between the Quirinal and the Vatican had been finally resolved, it cannot be said that perfect uniformity of views yet prevails among writers in international law. Even today, when partisan passions have had time to cool and to leave the court clear for objective studies, there are many questions that cannot be adequately explained by any of the conventional criteria. Perhaps, indeed, the reason for the apparent futility of many of these writings has been the belief that the Papacy could really be forced into everyone of the categories developed by modern international law.

Diplomacy has never been a politically-neutral research field, even when it was confined to merely reconstructing the backgrounds of wars and revolutions. In the nineteenth century, diplomacy was integral to the grand narrative of the building of the modern 'nation-State'. This is the first overall study of diplomacy in Early Renaissance Italy since Garrett Mattingly's pioneering work in 1955. It offers an innovative approach to the theme of Renaissance diplomacy, sidestepping the classic dichotomy between medieval and early modern, and re-considering the whole diplomatic process without reducing it to the 'grand narrative' of the birth of resident embassies. Communication and Conflict situates and explains the growth of diplomatic activity from a series of perspectives - political and institutional, cognitive and linguistic, material and spatial - and thus offers a highly sophisticated and persuasive account of causation, change, and impact in respect of a major political and cultural form. The volume also provides the most complete account to date of how it was that specifically Italian forms of diplomacy came to play such a central role, not only in the development of international relations at the European level, but also in the spread and application of humanism and of the new modes of political thinking and political discussion associated with the generations of Machiavelli and Guicciardini.

In this bold new interpretation of the origins of ancient Rome's overseas empire, Dr Burton charts the impact of the psychology, language and gestures associated with the Roman concept of amicitia, or 'friendship'. The book challenges the prevailing orthodox Cold War-era realist interpretation of Roman imperialism and argues that language and ideals contributed just as much to Roman empire-building as military muscle. Using a constructivist theoretical framework drawn from international relations, Dr Burton replaces the modern scholarly fiction of a Roman empire built on networks of foreign clients and client-states with an interpretation grounded firmly in the discursive habits of the ancient texts themselves. The results better account for the peculiar rhythms of Rome's earliest period of overseas expansion - brief periods of vigorous military and diplomatic activity, such as the rolling back of Seleucid power in Asia Minor and Greece in 192–188 BC, followed by long periods of inactivity.