DIPLOMACY IN FIRST-AGE CIVILIZATIONS

A common tendency within the field of political history is that the history of diplomacy starts with the 15. Century Italian city-states. This tendency is not only wrong, but also reductionist and Western-centric. In fact, historic research reveals that there were intense diplomatic relations among international actors in the First Era where power asymmetry was also not as vivid as we tend to believe. Thus, by providing the reader with the First-Age diplomatic relations and activities, the purpose of this article is to fill the gap resulting from lack of information about the history of diplomacy so that diplomacy could be more correctly analyzed and understood within its historic roots.