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.

Der derzeitige Trend zur Ethisierung wissenschaftlicher Fragen sollte nicht fur selbstverstandlich genommen werden. Zwar geht der aktuelle Impuls von den Biowissenschaften aus, womoglich ubergeht er aber die Bedurfnisse und Eigenheiten anderer Disziplinen. Im vorliegenden Buch wird nach den Pramissen der derzeitigen Diskussion und ihrer Generalisierbarkeit gefragt: Ist es richtig, dass die aktuellen Fortschritte in den Lebenswissenschaften mit dem herkommlichen ethischen Instrumentarium nicht mehr bewaltigbar sind? Besteht in anderen Wissenschaften ein vergleichbarer Normierungsbedarf? Auch Kommerzialisierung und Privatisierung von Wissen und Wissenschaft scheinen das hergebrachte ethische Selbstverstandnis ganzer Facher auf den Prufstand zu stellen. Die Beitrage des interdisziplinar konzipierten Bandes unterziehen das Thema systematisch immer wieder unkonventionellen Perspektivenwechseln. Von der Ethik des einzelnen Forschers zu der Ethik einer Gruppe, von der Geschichte ethischer Standards zu den gegenwartigen Normen, von disziplinubergreifenden Fragen zu spezifisch disziplinaren Problemen."

Seckendorff's ATeutsche RedenA of 1691 and the outline of his ideas on natural law published with them are a uniquely eloquent testimony of German Baroque culture. Seckendorff was the only 17th century aristocratic practitioner of courtly and political life to publish a number of his speeches in book form during his own lifetime and to supplement them with a theoretical superstructure substantiating his practical convictions. The text is centrally concerned with the connection between civilization and language culture and the dependence of public speaking on the nature of the state. Seckendorff's unfinished outline of natural law betokens the critical engagement with the rise of secular natural law by a genuinely significant theoretician on the essential issues posed by government and administration.

'Peace' is often simplistically assumed to be war's opposite, and as such is not examined closely or critically idealized in the literature of peace studies, its crucial role in the justification of war is often overlooked. Starting from a critical view that the value of 'restoring peace' or 'keeping peace' is, and has been, regularly used as a pretext for military intervention, this book traces the conceptual history of peace in nineteenth century legal and political practice. It explores the role of the value of peace in shaping the public rhetoric and legitimizing action in general international relations, international law, international trade, colonialism, and armed conflict. Departing from the assumption that there is no peace as such, nor can there be, it examines the contradictory visions of peace that arise from conflict. These conflicting and antagonistic visions of peace are each linked to a set of motivations and interests as well as to a certain vision of legitimacy within the international realm. Each of them inevitably conveys the image of a specific enemy that has to be crushed in order to peace being installed. This book highlights the contradictions and paradoxes in nineteenth century discourses and practices of peace, particularly in Europe.