B. Hocking - Böcker

While diplomacy is a well-established topic for study, global governance is a relatively new arrival to the conceptual landscape of international relations. At first glance the two exist in separate worlds. This book examines the relationship between these two concepts for the first time in a comprehensive manner.

In seeking to test the conventional wisdom that foreign ministries are "in decline", the contributors to this book examine the role and status of foreign ministries in 12 countries together with their place within the European Union. Information on the response of the foreign policy machinery to change at both the domestic and international levels is provided as are insights into the linkages between foreign policy and the mechanisms through which it is conducted. This book should be of interest to those concerned with foreign policy making in the post-cold war era.

Accompanying the oft-noted globalisation of international relations, there is an equally significant trend towards 'localisation' as a range of subnational constituencies and the authorities that represent them respond to externally-generated pressures on the one hand, and seek to exploit enhanced opportunities to operate in the international arena on the other. The book examines these developments in the context of the growing international involvement of the non-central governments within federal states. Employing a number of case studies, it argues that the significance of these developments can best be understood as one facet of an increasingly complex, multilayered, diplomacy as national policy makers are forced to negotiate simultaneously with domestic and foreign interests in the pursuit of policy objectives.

While diplomacy is a well-established topic for study, global governance is a relatively new arrival to the conceptual landscape of international relations. At first glance the two exist in separate worlds. This book examines the relationship between these two concepts for the first time in a comprehensive manner.

What role, if any, does the foreign ministry perform in contemporary world politics? Is the argument that it is in a state of terminal decline accurate or rooted in only partial understandings of its changing character? "Foreign Ministries in the European Union" explores this theme in the context of the EU where foreign ministry has played a key role in the development of integration but where its role is increasingly questioned. The contributors examine the foreign ministry in thirteen member states and draw conclusions that challenge some conventional wisdoms.