BOOK: Konstantinos POULIOS, The Congress of Carlowitz (1698/99). Supra-cultural Diplomatic Norms and Practices of Peacemaking at the End of the Seventeenth Century [Legal History Library, eds. Dirk HEIRBAUT, Michelle MCKINLEY, Matthew C. MIROW & C.H. VAN RHEE, 82; Studies in the History of International Law, ed. Randall LESAFFER, 29] (Leiden/Boston: Martinus Nijhoff/Brill, 2025), ISBN 978-90-04-45611-2

 

(image source: Brill)

Abstract:

This book delivers the first comprehensive analysis of the Peace Congress of Carlowitz (1698/99), challenging traditional Eurocentric views on early modern diplomacy. It demonstrates that peacemaking norms and practices were largely ‘supra-cultural’—transcending cultural and religious divides across Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Carlowitz emerges as a significant multi-religious congress that introduced pioneering practices, particularly in ceremonial regulations. By confronting cultural essentialism, provincialising the Westphalian congress-model paradigm, and demythologising Carlowitz as a decisive political turning point—notably marking the adoption of a Western European-style diplomacy by cultural ‘outliers’ such as the Ottoman Empire and Muscovy—this study offers fresh insights into the complexity and polycentric nature of early modern multilateral diplomacy.

On the author:

Konstantinos Poulios, Ph.D. (2024), European University Institute, is a postdoctoral researcher at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He specialises in early modern diplomatic history and peacemaking practices. His research interests encompass early modern conflict resolution mechanisms, with a focus on peace congresses and third-party mediation in southeastern Europe, the diplomatic relations between the Ottoman Empire and Christian European states, early modern diplomatic archival practices, and the intersection of diplomatic and intellectual history.

Read more here: DOI 10.1163/9789004458499.