This volume's focus on establishing a direct exchange between History
and International Relations is unique in the contemporary literature on
international institutions. While there have been attempts in both disciplines
to engage with the other and to integrate their respective insights, a direct,
focused exchange on core issues of international institutional development has
rarely taken place.
The volume takes this lacuna as a starting point. The structure of the
volume is strictly symmetrical. In each of the four main sections, one
historian and one IR scholar elaborate their views on one of four main aspects
of conference diplomacy: inclusion/exclusion, effectiveness, legitimacy, and
international order. This approach allows the authors to tackle the more general role of
institutions in international order in a long-term historical perspective. The
diagnosed crisis of contemporary, liberal order appears in a different light
when viewed before the background of continuity and change in the past 200
years. This book has the potential to become essential reading for scholars
and practitioners alike.
