A small library could be stocked with books written about Napoleon
Bonaparte the general, whose battles and campaigns have been studied
extensively. Warriors, however, are not generally known for their
diplomatic skills and Napoleon is no exception. After all, conquerors
are accustomed to imposing rather than negotiating terms. For Napoleon,
however, the arts of war and diplomacy meshed. Napoleon was often as
brilliant and successful at diplomacy as he was at war, although at
times he could also be as disastrous at the diplomatic table as he was
on his final battlefield. William R. Nester's Napoleon and the Art of
Diplomacy is the first comprehensive exploration of Napoleon the
diplomat and how his abilities in that arena shaped his military
campaigns and the rise and fall of the French empire.
Napoleon's official diplomatic career lasted nearly two decades and
involved relations with scores of kings, queens, ministers, diplomats,
and secret agents across Europe and beyond. All those involved asserted
their respective state (and often their private) interests across the
entire span of international relations in which conflicts over trade and
marriage were often inseparable from war and peace. For Napoleon, war
and diplomacy were indivisible and complementary for victory. Much of
Napoleon's military success was built upon a foundation of alliances and
treaties.
Although not always at war, Napoleon incessantly practiced diplomacy on
a steady stream of international issues. Some of his noteworthy
achievements in this arena included his 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio with
the Austrians after he defeated them in the Italian campaign; the 1807
Treaty of Tilsit, when he incorporated Tsar Alexander of Russia as his
junior partner while France was still at war with Britain; and, the 1812
conference of Dresden, where the crowned heads of Europe allied with
France as Napoleon opened his massive (and disastrous) invasion of
Russia.
Nester's masterfully researched and written Napoleon and the Art of
Diplomacy fills a gaping hole in Napoleonic literature by providing a
vital and heretofore neglected dimension that allows readers to fully
understand one of history's most intriguing, complex, and powerful
leaders.
About the Author: Dr. William Nester is a professor in the Department of
Government and Politics at St. John's University in New York and the
author of more than a score of books on a wide variety of international
relations topics including The First Global War: Britain, France, and
the Fate of North America, 1756-1775 and Haughty Conquerors: Amherst and
the Great Indian Uprising of 1763. He has spent nearly a dozen years
living overseas doing research and traveling in more than eighty
countries.
