This collection of essays, from leading scholars and serving diplomats, examines the diplomatic corps as an institution of international society. The central argument is that the diplomatic corps provides one of the few unambiguous ways by which an international society is constituted and finds expression.

G. R. BERRIDGE Professor Emeritus, Leicester University, UK MAI'A KEAPUOLANI DAVIS CROSS Colgate University, USA ALAN K. HENRIKSON The Fletcher School, Tufts University, USA J. E. HOARE British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (ret.), UK HUMAYUN KABIR Bangladeshi Ambassador to Nepal, 2003-06 JOYCE E. LEADER University of Georgetown, former US ambassador, USA HALVARD LEIRA Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway PETER LYON Formerly the Commonwealth Institute, London, UK JAMES MAYALL Formerly LSE and University of Cambridge, UK IVER B NEUMANN University of Oslo, Norway KISHAN S. RANA DiploFoundation, Malta; former Indian ambassador SASSON SOFER Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel ADAM WATSON Former British Ambassador and Visiting Professor, University of Virginia, USA