Book Review: Other Areas: On the Fringes of Diplomacy: Influences on British Foreign Policy, 1800–1945

DOI10.1111/1478-9302.12016_45
Published date01 May 2013
Date01 May 2013
Subject MatterBook Review
world zombie outbreak.The challenge of this book is
the depth in which each theory is explored.While it is
written as a brief introduction and targeted at the
neophyte to international relations theory, it often has
to make editorial decisions that give short shrift to the
explored theories. For instance, in the nine-page
chapter on domestic politics, Drezner gives paragraphs
to the President, Congress, public opinion, interest
groups, defence contractors and hindrances to policy
implementation. Each topic he presents in that chapter
could have stood alone as its own chapter. Overall,this
is an accessible f‌irst introduction for students unfamiliar
with the philosophical side of international relations.
Christopher Housenick
(Arkansas Tech University)
On the Fringes of Diplomacy: Inf‌luences on
British Foreign Policy, 1800–1945 by John Fisher
and Anthony Best (eds). Farnham: Ashgate, 2011.
306pp., £70.00, ISBN 978 1 4094 0119 3
This volume is a collection of essays examining how
individuals, for the most part not members of the
country’s diplomatic corps, have nonetheless played an
important role in the formation of British foreign
policy; or, if they were diplomats, how that inf‌luence
was exercised through parallel networks of personal
contacts. The editors argue at the outset that ‘the
conduct of British foreign policy can be better under-
stood by looking at a broad range of actors other than
the “usual suspect” ’ (p. 1).The reader will quickly f‌ind
him or herself in agreement, as each of the chapters
provides evidence that foreign policy making, in the
cases reviewed, has been far from linear. The charac-
terisation that Paul Kennedy laid to rest some years ago
in his Realities behind Diplomacy clearly informs these
studies. The individuals who have drawn the attention
of this volume’s authors range from those already
known to historians, such as Lady Derby, Sir James
Rennell Rodd and John Buchan (LordTweedsmuir),to
the comparatively unknown (e.g.Armenius Vambery).
In any collection of essays, a reader’s attention will
naturally be drawn to certain topics over others.This
volume is no exception to that rule. However, most of
the chapters are both very interesting and insightful.
The chapter on the role of the press in Lord Palmer-
ston’s foreign policy is a case in point, as is the study of
the embassy of Rodd in Rome before and during the
First World War. Both pieces reveal an acute under-
standing of the political environment within which
foreign policy was made and highlight the inf‌luence of
private channels on Whitehall’s foreign policy. The
chapters on Anglican missionaries Vincent Kraft, Sir
Eric Phipps and John Buchan further reinforce the
editors’ thesis that, in some cases, that inf‌luence can be
considerable, and directly impacts upon the course of
global affairs. But even in those chapters where the
people being studied seem less central to the history of
the time, the reader will recognise the importance of
studying those characters for what they tell us about
foreign policy making.
This is a useful set of essays for anyone interested in
the history of international relations. The case studies
that are presented offer a wide variety of examples
where the documentary evidence can only tell part of
the story. Works such as this highlight the incredible
richness of the f‌ield, but also shine a light on possible
topics for future research.
Ben Lombardi
(Defence Research and Development, Canada)
International Law, Inter national Relations and
Global Governance by Charlotte Ku. Oxford:
Routledge, 2012. 232pp., £25.99, ISBN 978 0 415
77873 2
This new treatment of the intersection(s) of the aca-
demic disciplines of international relations (IR) and
international law (IL) appears in the ever-expanding
‘Global Institutions’ series.The book presents a histori-
cally rich account of international organisations and the
emergence in the mid-to-late twentieth century of
global governance, presented as a ref‌lection of techno-
logical shifts, the pluralisation of global politics and the
rise of demands for global participatory politics, culmi-
nating in the Responsibility to Protect and the politics
of intervention in the new millennium.
Charlotte Ku discusses these issues in a form that is
in part an extended review of the state of the two
disciplines, in part an exploration of the problems of
contemporary global governance and in part a nuanced
historicisation of these contemporary issues, including
the plight of the sovereign state.There is much of value
in this book, from its careful integration of history and
analysis to the author’s clear command of the develop-
ment of IL as an analytical discipline.The str ucture of
254 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
© 2013 TheAuthors. Political Studies Review © 2013 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2013, 11(2)

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT