Monday Seminar:
Denice Fett
Solmsen Fellow (2011-2012)
History, University of North Florida
This paper explores the questions and complications of accessing and disseminating information in early modern international negotiations. All states engaged in diplomatic discourse sought to gain access to, control the dissemination of, and utilize information and intelligence in order to succeed in relations. Successful international relations largely depended on managing information, intelligence and news both at home and abroad; however, all states experienced limitations and complications in their efforts at management because of shared logistical considerations. This paper explores the ramifications of these logistical limitations and the efforts made to overcome them in order for early modern governments to manage their relations successfully.
Denice Fett, Solmsen Fellow, is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida. She completed her Ph.D. at the Ohio State University in 2010. Although her current project focuses on diplomatic communications and information networks in Reformation diplomacy, her broader research interests include diplomatic culture, information and intelligence, the transmission of news, and the impact of time and space on early modern international communications.