Japan’s Grand Strategy Saori Katada and Kei Koga, Japan’s Grand Strategy Liminal Power in an Uncertain World. Oxford Studies in Grand Strategy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2026. Pp. xviii and 283. £99. Reviewed by J…

Jeremy's review of Saori Katada and @k-since2024.bsky.social 's "Japan’s Grand Strategy Liminal Power in an Uncertain World" (OUP, 2026) discusses this "theoretical interrogation of past and present" regarding Japan's foreign policy since 1868.
newdiplomatichistory.org/japans-grand...

Federico da Montefeltro, architect of all undertakings of Ferrante: the diplomatic policy of Edward IV of York between Naples and Rome, 1474–5* Abstract. This article re-dates Federico da Montefeltro’s investiture into the Order of the Garter to early 1475 and reframes it as Aragonese-brokered dipl

A new article by @immapetito.bsky.social brings Anglo-Neapolitan diplomacy under a new light by exploring the 1475 investitute into the Order of the Garter of Federico da Montefeltro and its implications.
@shoc-vub.bsky.social @ihr.bsky.social @academic.oup.com

academic.oup.com/histres/adva...

The War that Made the Middle East Mustafa Aksakal, The War that Made the Middle East. World War One and the End of the Ottoman Empire. Princeton University Press, 2026. £28. Reviewed by Jeremy Black This vigorous book is an engaged…

In "The War that Made the Middle East. World War One and the End of the Ottoman Empire" (Princeton UP, 2026), Mustafa Aksakal argues that the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was chiefly caused by its role in WW1, a position that Jeremy Black disputes.
newdiplomatichistory.org/the-war-that...

The Eurasian Century Hal Brands, The Eurasian Century. Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World. W. W. Norton and Company, 2025. £22.99. Reviewed by Jeremy Black High marks for ambition, but lower for ac…

Jeremy offers a critical review of Hal Brands's "The Eurasian Century. Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World", by discussing the oversights of his broad-reaching conclusions on international relations.
newdiplomatichistory.org/the-eurasian...

Great Power Diplomacy A. Wess Mitchell, Great Power Diplomacy. The Skill of Statecraft from Attila the Hun to Kissinger. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2025. £30. Reviewed by Jeremy Black Blurbed on the back by …

In A. Wess Mitchell's new book, "Great Power Diplomacy. The Skill of Statecraft from Attila the Hun to Kissinger" (Princeton UP, 2025), offers several case studies of the benefits of diplomacy throughout history. A review by Jeremy Black. newdiplomatichistory.org/great-power-...

Geopolitics? Social Movement? Political Breakdown: The American Revolution J. Franklin Jameson, The American Revolution Considered as a Social Movement, 100th Anniversary Edition with a new foreword by Michael A. Blaakman and Sarah Barringer Gordon. Princeton: Princeton U…

Jeremy also reviewed the 100th anniversary edition of J. Franklin Jameson's "The American Revolution Considered as a Social Movement" (Princeton UP, 2025) and what it brings to the study of the birth of the United States. newdiplomatichistory.org/geopolitics-...

The Geopolitics of Empire Thomas Barfield, Shadow Empires. An Alternative Imperial History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023, £30.00. Reviewed by Jeremy Black The vexed nature of empire is best handled by an unde…

Book review alert: Jeremy Black reviews Thomas Barfield's "Shadow Empires. An Alternative Imperial History" (Princeton UP, 2023), in which the notion of "shadow empire" is introduced as an analytical tool to better include the peripheries. newdiplomatichistory.org/the-geopolit...

@charlottefaucher.bsky.social @charle.bsky.social

Calls for Papers 22 March 2026 Scoping ‘New Diplomatic History’ in Asia CALL FOR PROPOSALS DEADLINE: 30 March 2026 The New Diplomatic History Network (NDHN) was established in 2011 as a collaborative, i…

Drs. Charlotte Faucher and Charlotte Lerg are organising a workshop on "Diplomats in Public: Training and Practices of Media Engagement During Decolonisation and After" on 16 October on Zoom. Please send your proposals before 29 May! For more information:
newdiplomatichistory.org/calls-for-pa...

Profs. Naoko Shimazu and Tim Winter are organising a workshop on "Scoping 'New Diplomatic History' in Asia". If you are interested in discussing the possibilities of NDH in an Asian context, please send a proposal before 30 March! Details are available here:

ari.nus.edu.sg/events/diplo...

🏅 The Francesco Guicciardini Prize for Best Book in Historical International Relations
Committee: Hendrik Spruyt (Chair), Mlada Bukovansky, Maïa Pal

This year's award goes to ... 🥁

Patricia Owens for "Erased: A History of International Thought Without Men" (Princeton)

Sovereignty and Treaties as Colonial Instruments: The British Occupation of Java 1811–1815 This article examines how sovereignty and treaties functioned as colonial instruments during the British occupation of Java (1811–1815). The British East India Company imposed the language of sover...

Available open access, Gareth Knapman's 'Sovereignty and Treaties as Colonial Instruments: The British Occupation of Java 1811-1815', Jnl of Imp & Commonwealth Hist. #Skystorians

Call for Papers: Peace Movements - A Global History From the First World War until the height of the Cold War, actors from the decolonizing world sought to build connections with international peace movements. These efforts produced new networks and pr...

A new call for papers is out! The International Coalitions for Peace in the Era of Decolonization research project @unileiden.bsky.social is organising a conference on "Peace Movements - A Global History". Apply before 9 March 2026! More details at www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2026...

A white book with a black and white image featuring a coterie of women seated around a table in conversation. The book title reads 'Women and Transnational Cultural Exchange'.

It's wonderful to see advance copies of 'Women and Transnational Cultural Exchange' out in the world. I had a wonderful time editing this book with @breerob-kirk.bsky.social. More news soon on our wonderful contributors! Publication date: 19 February. @bloomsburyacademic.bsky.social

The Author’s Corner with Ronald Angelo Johnson Ronald Angelo Johnson is Ralph and Bessie Mae Lynn Endowed Chair of History and Associate Professor at Baylor University. This interview is based on his new book, Entangled Alliances: Racialized Fr…

Thankful to @johnfea1.bsky.social for great questions about *Entangled Alliances* (@cornellupress.bsky.social) in The Author’s Corner! Check out the blog post.📚⬇️

thewayofimprovement.blog/2026/01/06/t...

@superoldgranny.bsky.social
@dalecopeland.bsky.social
@ldfreedman.bsky.social

Fundamentally ahistorical | Jeremy Black | The Critic Magazine Selected rather than collected, these essays offer an interesting mélange of autobiography, reflections on others, and comments on issues that have engaged the academic and author Lawrence Freedman…

Finally, Jeremy also published a review of Lawrence Freedman's "On Strategists and Strategy" (2025) in The Critic, in which he offers caveats to praise surrounding the book, most notably its failure to address some key historical points.
thecritic.co.uk/fundamentall...

A World Safe for Commerce Dale C. Copeland, A World Safe for Commerce. American Foreign Policy from the Revolution to the Rise of China. Princeton University Press, 2024. Reviewed by Jeremy Black Many historians I am afraid…

In Dale C. Copeland's "A World Safe for Commerce. American Foreign Policy from the Revolution to the Rise of China" (2024), exploring the US's foreign policy from a realist angle.
newdiplomatichistory.org/a-world-safe...

The Sublime Post Choon Hwee Koh, The Sublime Post. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2024. Reviewed by Jeremy Black A great way to approach geopolitics and strategy is through communications, and so also with this …

Next is a review of Choon Hwee Koh's "The Sublime Post" (2024), about the Ottoman postal system and its maintenance through the ages, serving the Empire's communication needs.
newdiplomatichistory.org/the-sublime-...

Out of Hitler’s Shadow Tobias Straumann, Out of Hitler’s Shadow: Debt, Guilt and the German Economic Miracle. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025. Reviewed by Jeremy Black War and its consequences range widely, helping…

Jeremy additionally wrote four (!) book reviews. The first one is of Tobias Straumann's "Out of Hitler’s Shadow: Debt, Guilt and the German Economic Miracle" (2025), dealing with the postwar reconstruction of Germany.
newdiplomatichistory.org/out-of-hitle...

The Politics of Strategic Choice; The Strategies of Political Choice by Jeremy Black In discussing strategy there can be a misleading tendency to focus on prominent strategic thinkers but without offering due contextualisation. For the latter, in assessing strategy,…

Jeremy Black has been very active on our website (and elsewhere) in the past few months: most important is an essay published this month about the relationships between strategy and politics, in which he compares eighteenth-century Britain with today's world

newdiplomatichistory.org/the-politics...

We hope you will read the manifesto and its responses, and feel encouraged to respond with thoughts of your own. Feel free to contact us with any additional responses, to be posted on our website.

Our latest issue of #Diplomatica is out ! Volume 7.2 is here, with great contributions on topics such as Ferrante I of Naples, and Chinese literary diplomacy. It includes a debate around a manifesto for new diplomatic history written by some of our members. Check it out here: tinyurl.com/Diplomatica

With Ákos Kopper from ELTE University, we have a short reflection out in Diplomatica on studying diplomacy diplomatically in reaction to a fresh Interdisciplinary Manifesto pushing the boundaries of new diplomatic history. @ndh-network.bsky.social

brill.com/view/journal...

Civitas Research Group - Instagram Follow Civitas Research Group on Instagram for updates on research, projects, and community insights.

Prof. Enrique García Riaza and his team are eager to engage with scholars about this topic: you can find more information and contact them via their website (in Spanish and English) at proyectoianua.com

The Materiality of Diplomacy in the Hellenistic-Roman Mediterranean The Materiality of Diplomacy in the Hellenistic-Roman Mediterranean

They focus on the matter of spaces and environment within Republican Rome's diplomacy (509-27 BCE), both within and outside the Urbs itself. The team recently edited an English-language book on material diplomacy, available here:
edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-mat...

Compared to later periods, ancient European diplomacy can be an under-studied topic. This makes the IANVA (Environments for dialogue: the spaces of diplomacy in the Roman provincial sphere during the Republic) international research project even more relevant.

Can someone kindly help me with a bibliographical query? Any publications on the #Greek govt-in-exile in #WW2, beside Clogg´s & Papastratis'? I can read #Greek with some understanding but searches are difficult. @swwstudiesedin.bsky.social @ndh-network.bsky.social @greekhistory.bsky.social?

The World Needs New Forms of Intelligence: New Diplomatics and the Power of DQ by Wiebke Denecke A government bombing the capital of another state. A national delegation leaving the UN General Assembly protesting a resolution against an aggressive state. A church community ex…

Finally, also available on our website since this summer is an appeal by Wiebke Denecke for a new form of diplomatic intelligence, that can renew the status quo and be up to the challenges of our time.
newdiplomatichistory.org/the-world-ne...

The Nuclear Age. An Epic Race for Arms, Power and Survival Serhii Plokhy, The Nuclear Age. An Epic Race for Arms, Power and Survival, London: Allen Lane, 2025 Reviewed by Jeremy Black A major work that richly deserves attention and begins not in 1945 but r…

The second is of Serhii Plokhy's wide-ranging study of "The Nuclear Age. An Epic Race for Arms, Power and Survival", available here: newdiplomatichistory.org/the-nuclear-.... Both essays are starkly relevant.