Diplomatic History

Diplomatic History

episodes

Interviews with scholars of diplomatic history about their new books.

Robert D. Kaplan, "The Loom of Time: Between Empire and Anarchy, from the Mediterranean to China" (Random House, 2023)

April 11, 2024

The Loom of Time

Robert D. Kaplan
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

The Middle East remains one of the world’s most complicated, thorny—and, uncharitably, unstable—parts of the world, as countless headlines make clear.…

Traian Sandu, "Ceausescu: The Ambiguous Dictator" (Perrin, 2023)

April 10, 2024

Ceausescu

Traian Sandu
Hosted by Roland Clark

Today I talked to Traian Sandu about his book Ceausescu: Le dictateur ambigu (Perrin, 2023). Born in January 1918, Nicolae Ceauşescu began his appre…

Louis Howard Porter, "Reds in Blue: UNESCO, World Governance, and the Soviet Internationalist Imagination" (Oxford UP, 2023)

April 4, 2024

Reds in Blue

Louis Howard Porter
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Before Josef Stalin's death in 1953, the USSR had, at best, an ambivalent relationship with noncommunist international organisations. Although it had …

Matthieu Grandpierron, "Nostalgic Virility as a Cause of War: How Leaders of Great Powers Cope with Status Decline" (McGill-Queen's Press, 2024)

April 2, 2024

Nostalgic Virility as a Cause of War

Matthieu Grandpierron
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Why do great powers go to war? Why are non-violent, diplomatic options not prioritised? Nostalgic Virility as a Cause of War: How Leaders of Great Pow…

Yuliya Zabyelina, "Between Immunity and Impunity: External Accountability of Political Elites for Transnational Crime" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

March 31, 2024

Between Immunity and Impunity

Yuliya Zabyelina
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

How do top-level public officials take advantage of immunity from foreign jurisdiction afforded to them by international law? How does the immunity en…

David Veevers, "The Great Defiance: How the World Took on the British Empire" (Ebury Press, 2023)

March 28, 2024

The Great Defiance

David Veevers
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

It’s very easy to study the history of the British Empire from the perspective of, well, the British–and to extend the early 20th century version of t…

William Bain, "Political Theology of International Order" (Oxford UP, 2020)

March 26, 2024

Political Theology of International Order

William Bain

Is contemporary international order truly a secular arrangement? Theorists of international relations typically adhere to a narrative that portrays th…

Emily Conroy-Krutz, "Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations" (Cornell UP, 2024)

March 24, 2024

Missionary Diplomacy

Emily Conroy-Krutz
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations (Cornell University Press, 2024) illuminates the crucial place of rel…

George S. Takach, "Cold War 2.0: Artificial Intelligence in the New Battle between China, Russia, and America" (Pegasus Book, 2024)

March 24, 2024

Cold War 2.0

George S. Takach
Hosted by AJ Woodhams

A vivid, thoughtful examination of how technological innovation—especially AI—is shaping the tensions between democracy and autocracy during the new C…

Marc-William Palen, "Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World" (Princeton UP, 2024)

March 23, 2024

Pax Economica

Marc-William Palen
Hosted by Thomas Kingston

A new economic history which uncovers the forgotten left-wing, anti-imperial, pacifist origins of economic cosmopolitanism and free trade from the mid…

Patryk I. Labuda, "International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability" (Oxford UP, 2023)

March 22, 2024

International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability

Patryk I. Labuda
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the 1990s, the promise of justice for atrocity crimes was associated with the revival of international criminal tribunals (ICTs). More recently, ho…

Eileen Kane et al., "Russian-Arab Worlds: A Documentary History" (Oxford UP, 2023)

March 20, 2024

Russian-Arab Worlds

Eileen Kane, Masha Kirasirova, and Margaret Litvin
Hosted by Tugrul Mende

The roots of the Arab world’s current Russian entanglements reach deep into the tsarist and Soviet periods. To explore those entanglements, Russian-Ar…

Yaacov Nir, "Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949) (Cambridge Scholars, 2024)

March 19, 2024

Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949).

Yaacov Nir
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Yaacov Nir's Establishment and History of the Cyprus Detention Camps for Jewish Refugees (1946-1949) (Cambridge Scholars, 2024) explores the nature of…

Rachel Blumenthal, "Right to Reparations: The Claims Conference and Holocaust Survivors, 1951–1964" (Lexington, 2021)

March 18, 2024

Right to Reparations

Rachel Blumenthal

Right to Reparations: The Claims Conference and Holocaust Survivors, 1951–1964 (Lexington, 2021) examines the early years of the Claims Conference, th…

Stephanie Chasin, "British Jews and Imperial Service: Nationalism, Pan-Islamism and Zionism in Mandate Palestine and Colonial India" (I. B. Tauris, 2023)

March 17, 2024

British Jews and Imperial Service

Stephanie Chasin
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the wake of the devastating WWI, three Jews headed the most valuable territory in the British Empire in addition to a strategically important new a…

Ruth A. Morgan, "Climate Change and International History: Climate Diplomacy in the Global North and South Since 1950" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

March 16, 2024

Climate Change and International History

Ruth A. Morgan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Exploring how climate change has configured the international arena since the 1950s, Climate Change and International History: Negotiating Science, Gl…

Andrew J. Kirkendall, "Hemispheric Alliances: Liberal Democrats and Cold War Latin America" (UNC Press, 2022)

March 16, 2024

Hemispheric Alliances

Andrew J. Kirkendall
Hosted by Ethan Fredrick

Hemispheric foreign policy has waxed and waned since the Mexican War, and the Cold War presented both extraordinary promises and dangerous threats to …

Alina Nychyk, "Ukraine Vis-à-Vis Russia and the EU: Misperceptions of Foreign Challenges in Times of War, 2014-2015" (Ibidem Press, 2023)

March 16, 2024

Ukraine Vis-à-Vis Russia and the EU

Alina Nychyk
Hosted by John Vsetecka

Ukraine Vis-à-Vis Russia and the EU: Misperceptions of Foreign Challenges in Times of War, 2014-2015 (Ibidem Press, 2023) investigates the making of U…

On America’s Blind Spot Towards the Palestinians: A Discussion with author Khaled Elgindy

March 9, 2024

On America’s Blind Spot Towards the Palestinians

Khaled Elgindy
Hosted by Paul Starobin

In their handling of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process over the decades, U.S. officials have displayed a “systemic blind spot” by alleviating pres…

Priyasha Saksena, "Sovereignty, International Law, and the Princely States of Colonial South Asia" (Oxford UP, 2023)

March 7, 2024

Sovereignty, International Law, and the Princely States of Colonial South Asia

Priyasha Saksena
Hosted by Alex Batesmith

In Sovereignty, International Law, and the Princely States of Colonial South Asia (Oxford UP, 2023), Dr Priyasha Saksena interrogates the centuries-ol…