The Transformation of Foreign Policy: Drawing and Managing Boundaries from Antiquity to the Present

The study of foreign policy is usually concerned with the interaction of states, and thus with governance structures which emerged either with the so-called 'Westphalian system' or in the course of the 18th century: diplomacy and international law. As a result, examining foreign policy in earlier periods involves conceptual and terminological difficulties, which echo current debates on 'post-national' foreign policy actors like the European Union or global cities. This volume argues that a novel understanding of what constitutes foreign policy may offer a way out of this problem. It considers foreign policy as the outcome of processes that make some boundaries different from others, and set those that separate communities in an internal space apart from those that mark foreignness. The creation of such boundaries, which can be observed at all times, designates specific actors - which can be, but do not have to be, 'states' - as capable of engaging in foreign policy. As such boundaries are likely to be contested, they are unlikely to provide either a single or a simple distinction between 'insides' and 'outsides'. In this view, multiple layers of foreign-policy actors with different characteristics appear less as a modern development and more as a perennial aspect of foreign policy. In a broad perspective stretching from early Greek polities to present-day global cities, the volume offers a theoretical and empirical presentation of this concept by political scientists, jurists, and historians.

Table of Contents:
1: Andreas Fahrmeir, Gunther Hellmann and Milo%s Vec: Introduction Part I: Theorizing Foreign Policy: Actorhood and Boundaries 2: Gunther Hellman, Andreas Fahrmeir, and Milo%s Vec: The Transformation of Foreign Policy: Legal Framework,Historiography, and Theory 3: Gunther Hellmann: Foreign Policy: Concept, Vocabulary, and Practice 4: Milo%s Vec: Inside/Outside(s): Conceptualizations, Criteria, and Functions of a Dichotomy in 19th-Century International Legal Doctrine Part II: The Governance of Intercommunal Relations in Antiquity 5: Hans Beck: Between Demarcation and Integration: The Context of Foreign Policy in Ancient Greece 6: Hartmut Leppin: Aspects of the Christianisation of Foreign Policy in Late Antiquity: The Impact of Religious Universalism Part III: Uncertainty and Transition within the "Westphalian System": Normative Patterns and Practices between and beyond Sovereign States 7: Andreas Fahrmeir: Fragile Boundaries and Personal Actors: The Nineteenth Century as a Period of Transformation 8: Luigi Nuzzo: Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Legal History: International Law, Foreign Policy and the Construction of a Legal Order 9: Verena Steller: Back to the Future: Rediscovery of Diplomatic Conduct and the Moment of Foreign Policy Transformation: Diplomacy between Versailles and Locarno, 1919-25 Part IV: Alternative Authorities in Intercommunal Relations and International Law 10: Janne E. Nijman: Renaissance of the City as Global Actor: The Role of Foreign Policy and International Law Practices in the Construction of Cities as Global Actors 11: Christer Jönsson: States Only?: The Evolution of Diplomacy 12: Paul Sharp: Domestic Public Diplomacy, Domestic Diplomacy, and Domestic Foreign Policy Part V: Conclusions 13: Gunther Hellman, Andreas Fahrmeir, and Milo%s Vec: The Multiple and Changing Purposes of Foreign Policy

About the Author :
Gunther Hellmann is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Social Sciences and Principal Investigator in the Centre of Excellence 'Formation of Normative Orders', both at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. His research interests are in the fields of foreign policy analysis, especially German and European foreign policy, international security, esp. transatlantic and European security, and international relations theory. He is one of the editors of Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen (ZIB).; Andreas Fahrmeir is Professor of Modern History at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. He is a principal investigator with the 'Normative Orders' research cluster and co-editor of the Historische Zeitschrift.; Milo%s Vec is Professor of Legal and Constitutional History at the University of Vienna. He is co-editor with Thomas Hippler of Paradoxes of Peace in Nineteenth Century Europe (OUP, 2015).

Review :
By understanding foreign policy as boundary-producing practices, The Transformation of Foreign Policy is a welcome contribution to move Foreign Policy Analysis beyond the study of decision-making processes. This take asks for a more historical perspective, covering the delimitation of social spaces across time from well before the Westphalian system, as in the early Greek and Medieval polities. It also invites for a reflexive analysis of these historical practices in their production of political, legal, civilizational and also racial lines. The volume shows ways of, and makes a persuasive call for, redrawing the contours of International Relations with historical and legal expertise. As the European Union wrestles with borders, and the question of what is foreign and what is domestic policy becomes blurred, this book could not be more timely. It moves from the present to the past, and back again, taking in the Treaties of Westphalia and the migrant crisis of today. Never before have history and political science been more relevant and more needed. An inspiring and extremely useful volume on the history and historicity of foreign policy by some of Europes keenest authorities on the limits of the state and sovereignty. Legal scholars, political scientists, and IR specialists will all benefit from the historical turn that leads the authors of these essays to survey and dissect the transformations in conceptions and applications of foreign policy and diplomacy, from ancient Greece to the contemporary world.