In the post Cold War, the role of diplomacy has visibly expanded in much more unstable international conditions. This is partly because more complex relationships between a larger number of power centers have emerged including non-governmental organizations as well as states. These developments are adding to the machinery of diplomacy expanding the number of topics of negotiation and modifying the established character of diplomacy in significant ways. This book explores the historical development of diplomacy from the earliest times and shows how it has grown and adapted its methods to the needs of previous international environments. It follows these developments from the late twentieth century and concludes that while diplomacy techniques have adapted in response to very new needs and technological advances in communication, the activity itself remains inevitable and has never been more important.--Publisher description.