Diplomacy – Theory and Practice in Islam

The author, currently teaching at the School of Oriental Studies at Xi’an University, in 2006 under this title obtained a Ph.D. in Islamic Civilization. Yet his book, recommended by himself as a textbook for Foreign Ministries and Diplomatic Schools, is a curious failure: It does not teach diplomacy as practised in the West, nor does it relate to current Muslim diplomacy. Rather, the book presents both the theory and practice of diplomacy as if it had not been regulated by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (ratified by the entire Muslim world) but still followed the earliest Islamic precedents and the Shari[ah as understood in the Middle-ages, al-Shaybani’s kitab al-siyar al-kabir in particular.

Basically the book should have started, and perhaps ended, with the Qur’anic verses calling for the respect and fulfilment of contracts (Q, 17: 34; Q, 23: 8). At any rate, it should have discussed prominently the roles of the United Nations, nuclear deterrence, and terrorism by non-State actors if he had wished to be relevant today. It is not without risk when the author, quite on the contrary, follows by-gone jurisprudence on war and peace allowing Muslims to recruit with ‘word and sword’ (p.16), inviting non-Muslims to Islam ‘through military means’ (p.24), and even justifying the death penalty for diplomats who violate the Shari[ah. (p.95 ff.)