Barston, R. P. Modern Diplomacy

Modern diplomacy has changed greatly in recent years. Those involved in it now include not only those officially responsible but also an ever-increasing range of other people and interests, both national and international. There has also been an equivalent increase in the variety, as well as the actual amount, of diplomatic activity. The diplomatic agenda has therefore been correspondingly broadened.

Those involved in diplomacy now need to be familiar with an ever-widening range of special issues - whether it be civil aviation agreements, the complexities of multilateral debt management, the international regulation of telecommunications, or the problems of offshore maritime rights. At the same time, the increasing internationalism of modern economic and technological activity is posing fundamental new threats to states, faced with such unprecedented problems as international financial fraud, trans-frontier data flows, and international pollution. While bilateral diplomacy continues to be a central diplomatic activity, the enormous growth of multilateral diplomacy, much of it of a technical kind, reflects this significant changes in the modern world.

R.P. Barston explores the range, changing character and implications of modern diplomacy in this analytical survey. Among the key issues, he examines in detail are the organization of foreign ministries; diplomatic correspondence; changing diplomatic styles at methods; and negotiations. He goes on to discuss the main problems confronting modern diplomacy through an examination of three crucial areas: international financial relations (in which he focuses on the role of the IMF); trade and diplomacy (including GATT and UNCTAD); and the diplomacy of security. Treaties and international agreements from the core of the final chapters.

Thoughtful, thorough and up-to-date „Modern Diplomacy” is designed for students of international relations and foreign policy analysis, and will be useful supplementary reading for the courses of international law and international economics. It will also be valuable to all those professionally involved with the subject, whether diplomats themselves or lawyers, bankers, journalists or politicians.