Modem Concert Diplomacy: The Contact Group and the G7/8 in Crisis Management

Abstract

This chapter examines the concept of modem concert diplomacy and its impact in regional crisis management. It aims to develop the concept by contrasting it with other concepts of multilateral co-operation, especially international regimes and international organisations. An assessment of the Contact Group’s role in crisis management in Bosnia shows both the limits as well as the potential of concert diplomacy. The chapter assesses the role played by modem concert diplomacy in contemporary international relations in an examination of a critical case study of great power diplomacy in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo within the framework of the Contact Group and the G7/8. The management of the crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina saw three phases of Contact Group involvement: the negotiations on the Contact Group Plan in the summer of 1994 until the summer of 1995, the Dayton process from the summer of 1995 until the winter of 1995, and the peace implementation phase in the winter of 1995/96.