Jozef Bátora is Associate Professor, Director and Jean Monnet Chair at the Institute of European Studies and International Relations, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. Nik Hynek is Associate Professor at the Metropolitan University Prague, Comenius University in Bratislava and Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic.

"This study of the nature and dynamics of the modern diplomatic order makes several surprising and interesting moves. Analytically by combining such strange bed-fellows as organization theory, oriented institutionalism and Eisenstadt's research program on comparative liminality, and empirically by focusing on three fringe players, a newcomer (the European Union) and two old enities (the Holy See and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta). The result [provides] new insights into diplomacy as an institutionalized, composite order, the interdependence between continuity and change, as well as the role of institutions in political life." - Johan P. Olsen, University of Oslo, Norway "This bringing of neo-institutional theory to diplomacy is long overdue, and is the more commendable for relying on case-studies of how hegemonic set-ups are contested. Yet another step in the rapid professionalisation of diplomacy studies." - Iver B. Neumann, London School of Economics, UK

• Introduction 1. Social Scientific Conceptualizations of Diplomacy 2. Diplomacy as an Institution Embedded in Environments, Structures and Practices 3. Studying Liminality and Fringe Players in the Modern Diplomatic Order 4. The Holy See: Global Borderless Sovereignty and Double-Hatted Diplomats 5. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Extraordinary Resilience Meets the Chance 6. The European Union: Bending the Rules to Fit In 7. Conclusion - Liminality, Co-Existing Diplomatic Orders and the 'New' Diplomatic Heteronomy