Israel's relations with the European Union stretch back to the early days of the European Community and the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. From that point onward, Israel and Europe have developed an increasingly strong network of political, economic, scientific, and cultural ties. These relations have, however, consisted of a number of conflicting trends. Indeed, even while the EU has become Israel's most important trading partner, the political relationship has been marked by disappointment, frustration, and, at times, even anger. Israel and the European Union: A Documentary History, by Sharon Pardo and Joel Peters, traces the history of these complex relations by bringing together over two hundred documents in one volume. The documents contained in this book are divided into five time periods: i) 1957-1966, Israel Looks to Europe; ii) 1967-1979, Between War and Peace; iii) 1980-1991, From Venice to Madrid; iv) 1992-2003, From Oslo to Barcelona; and v) 2004-2011, A Renaissance Cut Short?. Each section is preceded by a short essay outlining the major themes of Israeli-European Relations during those years. The authors have not added any commentary to the documents themselves and instead have allowed the documents to speak for themselves. The aim of this book is to offer a public record for future researchers and students of the dynamics of European-Israeli relations-as well as of Europe's relationship with the Middle East-over the past fifty years. Israel and the European Union is designed to serve as a companion volume to Pardo and Peters' Uneasy Neighbors: Israel and the European Union (Lexington Books, 2010).

History has shown that diplomacy is one of the best ways to protect the United States and the American people. The State Department uses diplomacy with other nations to successfully deal with many challenges that cross national boundaries and affect us here in the United States, including: *Terrorism; *The threat of weapons of mass destruction; *HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases; *Illegal drug trafficking and crime; *Humanitarian needs of migrants and refugees; and *Environmental degradation. Americans at home and abroad face threats to their physical and economic well-being. The State Department protects our nation, its people, and our prosperity. Understanding the Department of State looks at the main current issues it faces around the globe from relations with Russia and China to the civil war in Iraq and the growing threat from the Islamic State and other terrorist groups. The book also has brief biographies of all the Secretaries of State from Thomas Jefferson, the first to hold the position in 1790, to John Kerry, the current incumbent. The book also contains: *A detailed history of the role of the State Department over the last 250 years and how it shaped both the United States and the rest of the world. *A list and bios of all U.S. Secretaries of State *A list of the major global issues which are the State Department's current focus of attention. About the Series: The Cabinet Series looks at the major departments in the Federal Government explaining why they were created and the responsibilities of each agency and how they conduct their daily business at home and abroad. It helps to explain what federal agencies do and how they affect the lives of citizens.

Winner of the 2013 Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title Battleground Africa traces the Congo Crisis from post-World War II decolonization efforts through Mobutu's second coup in 1965 from a radically new vantage point. Drawing on recently opened archives in Russia and the United States, and to a lesser extent Germany and Belgium, Lisa Namikas addresses the crisis from the perspectives of the two superpowers and explains with superb clarity the complex web of allies, clients, and neutral states influencing U.S.-Soviet competition. Unlike any other work, Battleground Africa looks at events leading up to independence, then considers the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the series of U.N.-supported constitutional negotiations, and the crises of 1964 and 1965. Finding that the U.S. and the USSR each wanted to avoid a major confrontation, but also misunderstood its opponent's goals and wanted to avoid looking weak or losing its political standing in Africa, Namikas argues that a series of exaggerations and misjudgements helped to militarize the crisis, and ultimately, helped militarize the Cold War on the continent.

What do diplomats actually do? That is what this text seeks to answer by describing the various stages of a typical diplomat's career. The book follows a fictional diplomat from his application to join the national diplomatic service through different postings at home and overseas, culminating with his appointment as ambassador and retirement. Each chapter contains case studies, based on the author's thirty year experience as a diplomat, Ambassador, and High Commissioner. These illustrate such key issues as the role of the diplomat during emergency crises or working as part of a national delegation to a permanent conference as the United Nations. Rigorously academic in its coverage yet extremely lively and engaging, this unique work will serve as a primer to any students and junior diplomats wishing to grasp what the practice of diplomacy is actually like.

Written in a lively and readable style by the world's leading authority on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and US-European relations, Defense of the West is the history of a transatlantic security relationship that has endured for over seventy years. This latest edition of a classic work looks at how developments inside NATO and European Union member states affect their ability to defend against external threats while preserving Western values, in the era of Trump and Brexit. Sloan frankly addresses the failures and shortcomings of Western institutions and member states. But the book emphasizes the continuing importance of value-based transatlantic security cooperation as a vital element of the defense and foreign policies of NATO and EU member states. At a time of heightened tension and political turmoil, at home and abroad, Stan Sloan's lucid and far-sighted analysis is more necessary than ever. -- .

This is the untold story of how some of Germany's top aristocrats contributed to Hitler's secret diplomacy during the Third Reich, providing a direct line to their influential contacts and relations across Europe - especially in Britain, where their contacts included the press baron and Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere and the future King Edward VIII. Using previously unexplored sources from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and the USA, Karina Urbach unravels the story of top-level go-betweens such as the Duke of Coburg, grandson of Queen Victoria, and the seductive Stephanie von Hohenlohe, who rose from a life of poverty in Vienna to become a princess and an intimate of Adolf Hitler. As Urbach shows, Coburg and other senior aristocrats were tasked with some of Germany's most secret foreign policy missions from the First World War onwards, culminating in their role as Hitler's trusted go-betweens, as he readied Germany for conflict during the 1930s - and later, in the Second World War. Tracing what became of these high-level go-betweens in the years after the Nazi collapse in 1945 - from prominent media careers to sunny retirements in Marbella - the book concludes with an assessment of their overall significance in the foreign policy of the Third Reich.

This book provides an introduction to the theory and practice of diplomacy and its vital role in an era of increasing international uncertainty. The work employs a distinctive "diplomatic perspective" on international relations and argues that the experience of conducting diplomacy gives rise to a set of priorities: first, the peaceful resolution of disputes; second, the avoidance of unwanted conflict; and, third, the minimization of the intensity of violent conflict where it has become unavoidable. It argues that changes in the international system require a shift in priorities from the diplomacy of problem-solving by building institutionalized cooperation, to the diplomacy of managing relationships between people. Divided into three sections, the first examines what is meant when we talk about diplomacy, why we need diplomats, and the operations of the modern diplomatic system of states. The second discusses the "three bads," about which people generally worry: bad leaders, bad media, and bad followers. The idea of "bad" is considered in terms of the moral character, professional competence, and the consequences of what people do for us. The final section discusses diplomacy and bad diplomats, reviewing what people can do to help themselves and the professionals be good diplomats. This book is intended as a primary text for courses in international diplomacy and as a supplementary text for courses on contemporary issues in international relations.

In this new Brookings Marshall Paper, Michael O'Hanlon argues that now is the time for Western nations to negotiate a new security architecture for neutral countries in eastern Europe to stabilize the region and reduce the risks of war with Russia. He believes NATO expansion has gone far enough. The core concept of this new security architecture would be one of permanent neutrality. The countries in question collectively make a broken-up arc, from Europe's far north to its south: Finland and Sweden; Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus; Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan; and finally Cyprus plus Serbia, as well as possibly several other Balkan states. Discussion on the new framework should begin within NATO, followed by deliberation with the neutral countries themselves, and then formal negotiations with Russia. The new security architecture would require that Russia, like NATO, commit to help uphold the security of Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, and other states in the region. Russia would have to withdraw its troops from those countries in a verifiable manner; after that, corresponding sanctions on Russia would be lifted. The neutral countries would retain their rights to participate in multilateral security operations on a scale comparable to what has been the case in the past, including even those operations that might be led by NATO. They could think of and describe themselves as Western states (or anything else, for that matter). If the European Union and they so wished in the future, they could join the EU. They would have complete sovereignty and self-determination in every sense of the word. But NATO would decide not to invite them into the alliance as members. Ideally, these nations would endorse and promote this concept themselves as a more practical way to ensure their security than the current situation or any other plausible alternative.

Drawing on Iran's history and its relations with great powers and regional neighbours, this book addresses the question of how much continuity and/or change there is in Iranian international relations since the Iranian revolution. Iran has often been at the centre of the political debate on both the Gulf region and the transatlantic relations. Following the Trump administration's withdrawal from the Viennese nuclear agreement in May 2018 signed by the five permanent members of the UN-Security Council, the relationship between Iran and the world entered a new phase. With high expectations within Iran for improved relations with Europe, the this book calls for a new and innovative approach to be undertaken by the Iranian leadership towards the US, Europe and Asia if Iran is to find a role for itself within regional and international structures. Exploring power relations, negotiations, the role of international institutions and international law, the contributors consider the relations among central powers that influence Iran's internal and external affairs; and examine Iran's domestic motives and role in the local and regional context. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Politics, International Relations, Iranian Politics, Iranian Foreign Policy. It may also provide insights for policymakers, journalists, and the military.

Nations, even the most powerful, cannot cope by themselves with many of the problems confronting them. Collective efforts are needed, and diplomacy is a key element in this process. This text examines how diplomacy serves global governance, how the diverse international actors use it, and what it accomplishes. The focus is on diplomatic practice, looking at the diverse methods used by the international actors involved and how they contribute to its effectiveness. The first section examines how various levels of international actors practice diplomacy. Nation states are still key actors and they use many methods in embassies, international conferences, international organizations, summit meetings, and more. International organizations are both a forum for multilateral diplomacy and a major set of international actors still growing in significance for global governance diplomacy. In addition, a multiplicity of regional or limited membership institutions play a role in global governance. At the transnational level, there is the increasing role of civil society institutions and nongovernmental organizations in international affairs. This is where a new kind of international actors is found, unevenly contributing to global governance diplomacy beyond the control of public authorities. The second section explores the functional level, looking at how diplomacy operates in five areas of global governance: peace and security, economic governance, social issues, human rights, and environmental protection. Each of these presents different challenges for global governance diplomacy and requires the development of different diplomatic strategies and new techniques. Some of the issues are more amenable to global governance while others, such as the eradication of global poverty remain fairly intractable. The text extends beyond the usual description of diplomatic apparatus and dynamics to explore "diplomacy at work" in specific, current policy areas that are very relevant to the present debates in international politics.

The conventional wisdom, based on realist premises, is that nuclear weapons are an irreversible reality in South Asia, and that efforts to denuclearize the subcontinent are a futile endeavor. As a result, real nuclear arms control in South Asia remains elusive and scholars continue focusing their efforts on how to achieve crisis stability and deterrence stability in future Indo-Pakistani confrontations. However, they tend to analyze India and Pakistan's nuclear diplomacy as if the nuclear competition occurred in complete isolation from the changing dynamics of the international social environment. Using a constructivist model, this study brings nuclear arms control and disarmament back into the debates on the future of Indo-Pakistani relations. Constructivism recognizes the independent impact of international norms, such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Norm (NNPN), on India and Pakistan's nuclear behavior. Even though the NNPN does not legally bind them, it is reinforced at the global level, and may lead the South Asian rivals to move in the direction of nuclear arms control and disarmament, thus reducing the costs, dangers, and risks of an eternal strategic rivalry. After examining the main tenets of constructivism in international relations, the works delves into the proliferation debate, discussing nuclear reversal and U.S. policy toward the subcontinent since the G. W. Bush administration. It looks at the prospects for nuclear arms control and disarmament in South Asia after the U.S.-India nuclear deal of 2008, and the nuclear abolitionist wave during the first Obama administration. It concludes with the contribution of social constructivism to understanding how changes in the India-Pakistan nuclear status quo can happen.

Can China and the United States bridge their political differences? Are those differences as large as conventional wisdom suggests? Thirty years after formal U.S.-Chinese diplomatic relations were established, A Bridge Too Far? addresses these essential questions by bridging the academic divide separating scholars who study these countries from Chinese and Western political science perspectives. Rather than bringing together China specialists exclusively, then, this book allows a broad range of scholars using Western analytical tools to examine Chinese politics and political theory in relation to the United States. It also allows Chinese scholars to examine specific policy areas related to countries and thereby confirm or contest the broader analysis offered by their outsider counterparts. Some of the contributors are Chinese specialists, a number having played key roles as advisors to the central government, others students of American politics, and stilll others political economists or political theorists who are not involved directly in area studies. Finally, some are academically trained but work in China in the area of environmental regulation or are legal advisors for state-owned businesses. In all, the contributors bring extensive experience with China, and all see commonalities beneath the obvious and deep differences between the two nations. Emerging from an ongoing face-to-face dialog, the book unites this unusual group to uncover genuine areas of overlap between the politics of the two nations without diminishing the very real distance separating them. The essays included discuss topics such as China's democratic prospects and the rise of local village elections, the role of interest groups, Chinese political and legal reforms and developments regarding intellectual property rights and environmental regulation, Western and Chinese political philosophy, and Sino-American foreign policy interactions.

Nations, even the most powerful, cannot cope by themselves with many of the problems confronting them. Collective efforts are needed, and diplomacy is a key element in this process. This text examines how diplomacy serves global governance, how the diverse international actors use it, and what it accomplishes. The focus is on diplomatic practice, looking at the diverse methods used by the international actors involved and how they contribute to its effectiveness. The first section examines how various levels of international actors practice diplomacy. Nation states are still key actors and they use many methods in embassies, international conferences, international organizations, summit meetings, and more. International organizations are both a forum for multilateral diplomacy and a major set of international actors still growing in significance for global governance diplomacy. In addition, a multiplicity of regional or limited membership institutions play a role in global governance. At the transnational level, there is the increasing role of civil society institutions and nongovernmental organizations in international affairs. This is where a new kind of international actors is found, unevenly contributing to global governance diplomacy beyond the control of public authorities. The second section explores the functional level, looking at how diplomacy operates in five areas of global governance: peace and security, economic governance, social issues, human rights, and environmental protection. Each of these presents different challenges for global governance diplomacy and requires the development of different diplomatic strategies and new techniques. Some of the issues are more amenable to global governance while others, such as the eradication of global poverty remain fairly intractable. The text extends beyond the usual description of diplomatic apparatus and dynamics to explore "diplomacy at work" in specific, current policy areas that are very relevant to the present debates in international politics.

Contemporary, thoughtful and extensively illustrated, Modern Diplomacy examines a broad range of current diplomatic practice. This leading and widely used book - now in its fifth edition - equips students with a detailed analysis of important international issues that reflect and impact upon diplomacy and its relations. The subject is brought to life through case studies and examples which highlight the working of contemporary diplomacy within the international political arena. Organised around five broad topic areas, including the nature of diplomacy, diplomatic methods, negotiation, the operation of diplomacy in specific areas and international conflict, the book covers all major topic areas of contemporary diplomacy. New features for this edition: Developments in diplomatic practice Strategies in diplomacy International trade, geopolitics and agreements Diplomacy of new regional organisations and groupings Developing country diplomacy Non-traditional diplomacy New concepts - parallel and counter diplomacy New case studies include: the Paris Climate Agreement, Brexit, international finance and trade agreements, and the UN security forces. Modern Diplomacy is essential reading for students and practitioners of international relations, foreign policy, international law, international political economy, international economics, the Foreign Services Institutes and the National Diplomatic Academies.

Because of their historical roles and politico-economic significance in contemporary international politics, Iran and China have perpetually been in the crosshairs of both policy circles and interested observers in almost every other part of the world. Crucial interactions touching upon any aspect of Tehran-Beijing ties, from diplomatic and military links to economic and cultural connections, have especially been in the limelight of such riveting inquisitiveness which has often given rise to a flurry of rash comments, sensational claims, and impetuous conclusions. But a detached probe into critical developments involving Iran and China, however, elucidates this rather inconvenient eventuality that the relations between the two important countries are not essentially based on pivotal principles and clear-cut commitments, nor do their ties really rest on tenuous thoughts and flimsy foundations devoid of any common interests in short term or well-conceived objectives in long run. In the same way, the two political systems in Tehran and Beijing may ultimately end up each contributing to a separate pole of power regionally and internationally rather than moving faithfully and steadfastly in lockstep with what it requires them to truly materialize their more recent aspiration and design to move toward achieving a very close strategic partnership.

This book presents a cultural history of European integration. It revisits the European Community's postwar origins through the lens of symbolic representation and so reveals a hitherto unknown side to Europe's notorious technocrats. They were not simply administrators: they were skillful marketing experts, clever spin doctors, and talented stage directors. After all, what made the European Community stand out among the multitude of postwar European organizations? This book argues that it was not so much its vaunted supranationalism, nor its economic significance; it was its self-proclaimed role as torchbearer of European unity. Combining archival research with media analysis, The Symbolic Politics of European Integration reviews Europe's early parliaments, its early diplomacy, and its long search for "capital cities," from Strasbourg to Brussels. It tells the story of the political theater that staged an enterprise of technocrats as the embodiment of a Europe united in peace and prosperity. This book is an invaluable resource for historians of postwar Europe, as well as for analysts of today's EU, who seek to understand how coal, steel, and tariffs became the stuff the European dream was made of.

Hand-Off details the Bush administration's national security and foreign policy as described at the time in then-classified Transition Memoranda prepared by the National Security Council experts who advised President Bush. Thirty of these Transition Memoranda, newly declassified and here made public for the first time, provide a detailed, comprehensive, and first-hand look at the foreign policy the Bush administration turned over to President Obama. In a postscript to each memorandum, these same experts now in hindsight take a remarkably self- critical look at that Bush foreign policy legacy after more than a dozen years of watching subsequent administrations attempt to deal with the same vexing agenda of threats and opportunities-- China, Russia, Iran, the Middle East, terrorism, proliferation, cyber, pandemics, and climate change--an agenda that still dominates America's national security and foreign policy. Hand-Off will be an invaluable resource for scholars, students, policy analysts, and general readers seeking to understand afresh the Bush administration's foreign policy, particularly in view of the records of the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations.

In recent years, significant attention has focused upon the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear ambitions, and the threat they pose to the United States and the West. Far less well understood, however, has been the phenomenon of Iran's regional advance in America's own Hemisphere-an intrusion that has both foreign policy and national security implications for the United States and its allies. In this collection, noted specialists and regional experts examine the various facets of Iran's contemporary presence in Central and South America, and detail what the Islamic Republic's growing geopolitical footprint south of the U.S. border signifies, both for Iran and for the United States.

This volume is a comprehensive overview of the various methods used in contemporary diplomatic practice. It incorporates the traditional modes of diplomacy and explains how these modes have evolved to deal with a burgeoning international community of state and non-state actors, the information and communications revolution and the changing profile of global conflict. The pursuit of "development diplomacy" is an integral part of the project, with due attention to the fault-lines, microcosms of power-politics and rapid evolution within the society of states that make up the Global South. All chapters are extensively illustrated with recent case examples from across the world.

From cooperation to a new cold war: is this the future for today's two great powers?. U.S. policy toward China is at an inflection point. For more than a generation, since the 1970s, a near-consensus view in the United States supported engagement with China, with the aim of integrating China into the U.S.-led international order. By the latter part of the 2010s, that consensus had collapsed as a much more powerful and increasingly assertive China was seen as a strategic rival to theUnited States. How the two countries tackle issues affecting the most important bilateral relationship in the world will significantly shape overall international relations for years to come.In this timely book, leading scholars of U.S.-China relations and China's foreign policy address recent changes in American assessments of China's capabilities and intentions and consider potential risks to international security, the significance of a shifting international distribution of power, problems of misperception, and the risk of conflicts. China's military modernization, its advancing technology, and its Belt and Road Initiative, as well as regional concerns, such as the South China Sea disputes, relations with Japan, and tensions on the Korean Peninsula, receive special focus.

Terrorism: Documents of International and Local Control is a hardbound series that provides primary-source documents on the worldwide counter-terrorism effort. Chief among the documents collected are transcripts of Congressional and Parliamentary testimony, reports by quasi-governmental organizations, and case law covering issues related to terrorism. The series also includes a subject index and other indices that guide the user through this complex area of the law. Overall, the series keeps users up to date on the panoply of terrorism issues now facing the U.S. and the world. Use of Contractors in the War Against Terrorists explores the controversial issue of defense contractors. In selecting documents for this volume and in writing expert commentary for it, General Editor Lovelace has focused almost entirely on the current U.S. military's use of contractors in Iraq. Although other books have addressed the problem of military contracting, this volume constitutes a rare combination of primary material and new commentary on this developing issue.

The eruption in the early 1990s of highly visible humanitarian crises and exceedingly bloody civil wars in the Horn of Africa, imploding Yugoslavia, and Rwanda, set in motion a trend towards third party intervention in communal conflict in areas as far apart as the Balkans and East Timor. However haltingly and selectively, that trend towards extra-systemic means of managing ethnic and national conflict is still discernible, motivated as it was in the 1990s by the inability of in-house accommodation methods to resolve ethno-political conflicts peacefully and the tendency of such conflicts to spill into the international system in the form of massive refugee flows, regional instability, and failed states hosting criminal and terrorist elements. In its various forms, third party intervention has become a fixed part of the current international system Our book examines the various forms in which that intervention occurs, from the least intrusive and costly forms of third party activity to the most intrusive and expensive endeavors. More specifically, organized in the form of overview essays followed by case studies that explore the utility and limitations, successes and failures of various forms of third party activity in managing conflict, the book begins by examining diplomatic intervention and then proceeds to cover, in turn, legal, economic, and military instruments of conflict management before concluding with a section on political tutelage arrangements and nation/capacity building operations. The chapters themselves are authored by a mix of contributors drawn from relevant disciplines, both senior and younger scholars, academics and practitioners, and North Americans and Europeans. All treat a common theme but no attempt was made to solicit work from contributors with a common orientation towards the value of third party intervention. Nor were the authors straight-jacketed with heavy content guidelines from the editors. Their essays validate the value of this approach. Far from being chaotic in nature, they generally supplement one another, while offering opposing viewpoints on the overall topic; for example, our Italian contributor who specializes in non-government organizations offers a chapter illustrating their utility under certain conditions, whereas the chapter from an Afghan practitioner notes the downside of too much reliance on NGOs in nation-building operations. The essays also cover topics not often treated, and are written from the viewpoint of those on the ground. The chapter on creating a police force in post-Dayton Bosnia-Herzegovina, for example, reads much like a diary from the American colonel who was sent to Bosnia in early 1996 charged with that task.

Previous researches examine how transnational ethnic ties impact the relationship between host states and diaspora and why states and ethnic minorities in the diaspora may occasionally support violent rebel organizations in the homeland. However, these previous studies do not really consider the relationships among co-ethnic organizations without a homeland government. This book tackles the following important questions: How and when do co-ethnic Kurdish organizations provide open support for each other during conflict-peace cycle events? Moreover, do external threats impact the relationship among co-ethnic organizations? The aim of this research is to identify the causal factors that influence the transnational networks between Kurdish organizations. Research findings reveal that political rationality and external threats seem to be stronger predictors of political behavior than ethnic ties in the Kurdish case. This study helps scholars and policy makers to evaluate the impact of transnational networks between co-ethnic Kurdish organizations in cases of civil war, which may play a crucial role in the escalation and de-escalation of international conflicts. In addition, this research helps to understand the role of co-ethnic organizations in building sustainable peace in areas of conflict.

Although the concept of public diplomacy has been part of America's wartime strategy as far back as the Revolutionary War, the term itself is relatively new. In the wake of the events of September 11 and the ensuing War on Terror, there has been an increasing awareness of the negative global image of the United States and intense concern over how communication may be used to improve that image. Within that context, the concept and term public diplomacy have become more notable among practitioners and the American public. Yet public diplomacy has mostly been neglected by scholars and only recently begun to attract academic attention. This volume of The ANNALS commences the first collection of scholarly articles focusing on public diplomacy--the practice through which international actors attempt to advance the ends of policy by engaging with foreign publics--and examines it as an international phenomenon and an important component of statecraft. Most of the papers of this compelling volume sprang from the Center on Public Diplomacy, at the University of Southern California, which launched the first master's degree program in public diplomacy. Although many of the authors provide practitioner experiences to their work, they write from the perspective of academic disciplines. The opening section provides a solid foundation for the theoretical understanding of public diplomacy, with six papers written from a variety of disciplines, including communication, international relations, history, and politics. Next, the focus turns to how practitioners implement public diplomacy. By studying the popular tools of public diplomacy, the second section considers the roles of place branding, international broadcasting, and exchange programs. Although grounded in American scholarship, this volume acknowledges that the concept of public diplomacy is international. Featuring case studies that stretch beyond the United States to Venezuela, Cuba, and China, the final section provides an international composition of the role public diplomacy. Researchers, students, and practitioners alike will find this leading-edge collection of articles to inspire future debate, research, and inquiry in a field of study that is ripe for growth.

Strange Allies examines three intersecting themes of fundamental importance to the international history of the period between the two world wars. First, and most broadly, it is a study of the international history of the pivotal 'hinge years', running from the onset of the Depression in late 1929 to the Nazi capture of power in Germany in early 1933. The second theme is the strategic relationship between Britain and France, the critical dynamic in the management of global and European international relations during this time of great fluidity and uncertainty. The most contentious and intractable issue that divided the two countries was the pursuit of international disarmament, which forms the third theme of the book. Strange Allies is based upon extensive research in British and French archives, as well as in the archives of the League of Nations in Geneva. The book's focus on 1929-31 in particular makes a major contribution to the international history of the interwar period by re-examining the security and strategic policies of the second Labour government in Britain and of foreign minister Aristide Briand in the post-Locarno years in France. For 1931-33, the book looks at the impact of the great financial and economic crisis of 1931 on security and disarmament planning in Britain and France. It then considers the impact of the Anglo-French relationship on the instability of Europe and on the failure of the World Disarmament Conference. This book is the first detailed study of the Anglo-French relationship during a critical period which saw a reshaping of the boundaries of global security. Although the Anglo-French alliance is rightly seen to be pivotal to both the initial phase of implementing the Versailles settlement of 1919 and the efforts to contain Hitler and protect Europe after 1936, Strange Allies demonstrates the degree to which these states' conflicting views of security were central to international relations in the years leading up to Hitler's accession to power.