Prologue: Whither Conference Diplomacy?

Abstract

When this book was originally written, in 1966/67, conference diplomacy was a fairly succinct concept, mostly exemplified in the multilateral meetings of organizations of the UN system. Conference diplomacy was, in a sense, an extension of parliamentary diplomacy, the term used by early writers in connection with the General Assembly and similar bodies constituting the ‘parliaments’ of the emerging international system. Legally not much has changed. The rules of procedure of the UN General Assembly are still those of 1985. The Security Council continues to labour according to its (provisional!) rules of procedure, last revised in 1982. Yet there are notable changes.