27–28 September 2018 Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Vilnius
The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, ending the Thirty Years War, is often considered to be a milestone for modern diplomacy. It took nearly five years and the countless efforts of numerous diplomats to bring an end to the largest international conflict in the early modern period. However, wars and conflicts between rulers or governing bodies have always been critical to the development of diplomatic practice. While writing about the diplomat’s duties one of the first theoreticians of diplomacy, Bernard du Rosier, stressed that the ambassadors were to make peace, to arrange past disputes, and remove the cause for future unpleasantness, in other words to end and prevent all kinds of conflicts. But how did late medieval and early modern diplomacy approach this problem? What methods did the diplomats use to obtain the peace – as Garett Mattingly called it - the grand object of diplomacy ?
The upcoming conference, Splendid Encounters VII, will focus on answering these questions. Therefore, we welcome all submissions on this subject, but especially encourage proposals for both individual papers and panels of 3 papers addressing the following:
• peace negotiations on the local or regional levels • ceremonial of negotiations and signing peace or truce agreements • diplomacy as a tool for ending military, religious, economic, etc. conflicts • diplomats’ strategies to deal with conflict on various levels • diplomatic appeasement and peace preservation.
We invite submission of abstracts (300 to 400 words) for twenty-minute papers. Splendid Encounters is a series of international and interdisciplinary conferences that aims to bring together scholars from the broadest possible range of perspectives to consider diplomacy and diplomatic activities in the early modern era.
After successful meetings in Warsaw, Bath, Florence, Budapest, Prague and Lisbon we invite you to join us for another event, this time co-organised by Lithuanian Institute of History, History Faculty of Vilnius University, Faculty of Humanities of Vytautas Magnus University, Institute of History of Polish Academy of Sciences, Premodern Diplomats Network as well as National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.
Please direct queries regarding submissions to Dr Anna Kalinowska: akalinowska@ihpan.edu.pl and e-mail abstract and short biography to: se7.vilnius@gmail.com Deadline for submission is 15th March 2018. The applicants will be notified of the acceptance of their proposal by 15th April 2018. Please be advised, that the conference fee of max. 30 EUR, covering the conference packaged and coffee breaks, may apply.
Source: RSA