Diplomacy, Anti-diplomacy and International Society

Abstract

Hedley Bull maintained that diplomacy — like the balance of power, international law, the rules of war and the concept of great powers — was one of the ‘distinctive institutions’ of modern international society (Bull, cited in Alderson and Hurrell, 2000b: 91), but only in The Anarchical Society did he devote any significant time to its examination. It may well be, as Andrew Hurrell has suggested, that Bull was not ‘terribly interested’ in diplomacy or that he simply considered its key features self-evident; it may be too that he considered other institutions, especially the balance of power and international law, more crucial to the sustenance of international society (Hurrell, 2002b: 7). The discussion of diplomacy in The Anarchical Society is significant, however, for it reveals much about Bull’s understanding of the roots of international society, as well as his perception of its prospects in the closing quarter of the twentieth century.