Interpersonal Diplomacy offers a pioneering theory of how emotional connection and trust between world leaders can shape the outcomes of international crises, especially those involving nuclear weapons. Drawing on microsociological theory, particularly Randall Collins’ theory of interaction rituals, Holmes and Wheeler show how interpersonal dynamics-such as emotional energy, mutual focus of attention, and bodily co-presence-can foster social bonds that transform adversarial relationships.

Challenging dominant structural and psychological explanations of crisis diplomacy, the book demonstrates that leader-to-leader interactions can decisively alter the trajectory of high-stakes confrontations. Through rich case studies-including the relationship between John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev during the Berlin Crisis and Cuban Missile Crisis, and the interpersonal diplomacy between Indian and Pakistani leaders Rajiv Gandhi, Zia-ul-Haq, Benazir Bhutto, and V.P. Singh, the authors trace how trust was built, tested, and sometimes thwarted. It also explores how leaders may use written communication or virtual technologies to replicate elements of face-to-face diplomacy in contexts where physical meetings are not possible. Timely and theoretically innovative, the book provides scholars and practitioners with a new framework for understanding how human relationships shape the prospects for peace and the future of international order.

Nicholas J. Wheeler is Professor of International Relations at the University of Birmingham.

His publications include (with Ken Booth) The Security Dilemma: Fear, Cooperation, and Trust in World Politics (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) and Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). His new book Trusting Enemies: Interpersonal Relationships in International Conflict was published by Oxford University Press in March 2018. His book Saving Strangers has 2,229 Google Scholar Citations (his total number of citations is 6,961). He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in the United Kingdom, a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, and has had an entry in Who’s Who since 2011. In his career, he has supervised to successful completion twenty-six PhDs. He co-edits with Professors Christian Reus-Smit and Evelyn Goh the Cambridge Series in International Relations, one of the most prestigious book series in the field of International Relations.