ABSTRACT
Diplomatic history has long been an area of scholarly endeavour where Whiggish ideas of improvability and of improvement have a central role-with little qualification. The standard theme is of progress in terms of bureaucratic processes, notably systematisation. This leitmotif has an especial chronological configuration. In particular, there is a commonly held negative interpretation of medieval diplomacy and the improved practices of the early modern period. This typical explanation remains deeply teleological, tying the advance of modern diplomacy with the emergence of strong Powers, centralised government, and what is frequently called the European states system.
