Foreign Policy and Diplomacy. An Introduction, 2nd edition

Foreign policy and diplomacy go hand in hand and are usually studied together, although they are significantly different in terms of theory and practice. Both of them have their own definition(s), levels of decision and goals, outcomes and assessment criteria, meanings and portfolios.

In simple words, foreign policy is about politics, while diplomacy is bureaucracy (specialized public service within central administration). At least this is the European largely accepted understanding, unlike American authors who see “diplomacy” on a more political dimension, in fact using the two concepts interchangeably.

More often, the academic discipline is studied in universities as Foreign Policy Analysis, which is fairly similar to Foreign Policy and Diplomacy though it has a specific focus on public policy mechanisms and decision‐making process in the field, rather than on aspects related to diplomacy. We encourage in this book the “orthodox” idea that “Foreign Policy” and “Diplomacy” represent different fields and activities, in the sense that bureaucratic (professional) diplomacy is subordinated and it comes to fulfil the strategy, political objectives and instructions of the government’s foreign policy.