lighting, Diplomacy

Ancient Greek diplomacy: Politics, new tools, and negotiation [A historical journey #4]

29 April 2021

online

Watch the recording  Listen to the podcast

Masterclass with Jovan Kurbalija

After dealing with the early days of diplomacy and the diplomacy of the ancient world, we move to ancient Greek diplomacy. To the ancient Greeks we owe the term ‘diplomacy’ (‘folded in two’). 

We will start our discussion with the role of the orator, and the first examples of extraterritoriality. Ancient Greek diplomacy was probably the most open form of diplomacy in history, delivered in plenary sessions. Ancient Greece also made early innovations in communication by developing some type of proto-telegraph. Lastly, they made huge advancements in developing crypto-protected communication.
 
What can modern diplomacy learn from ancient Greek diplomacy? In short, full transparency and openness is not an optimal environment for diplomacy which needs to solve complex problems through convergence and compromise.
 
Join us for an engaging discussion on these and other issues at our next Masterclass which will be held, on Thursday, April 29th, at 14:00 CEST.

Find out more about how technology influenced the history of diplomacy