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Academic

Prof Thomas Otte

Job Title Contact Location
Professor of Diplomatic History  T dot Otte at uea dot ac dot uk
Tel: +44 (0)1603 59 3359  
Arts 4.31 
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Biography

Thomas Otte teaches Diplomatic and International history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  He has edited Military Intervention: From Gunboat Diplomacy to Humanitarian Intervention; Personalities, War and Diplomacy:  and he has written essays in International History; Makers of British Foreign Policy From Pitt to Thatcher; and Railways and International Politics: Paths of Empire, 1848-1945. He is the author of Classic Guides to Diplomatic Theory: From Machiavelli to Kissinger; and The China Question: Great Power Rivalry and British Isolation 1894-1905.

He has published numerous essays in edited collections and articles in leading journals, including the English Historical Review, History, Canadian Journal of History and Diplomacy and Statecraft.

Dr Otte is a member of the national executive committee of the British International History Group (BIHG) (www.bihg.ac.uk)

Key Research Interests

Diplomatic and international history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Forthcoming publications:

‘“The method in which we were schooled by experience”: British Strategy and a Continental Commitment before 1914’, in Keith Neilson (ed.), Britain, Power and the International System, 1856-1956: Essays in Honour of David French (Aldershot: Ashgate, forthcoming March 2010).   ‘“A Vexed Question”: Britain, the Powers and the “Jewish Question” in the Nineteenth Century’, in Keith Robbins and John Fisher (eds.), Religion and Diplomacy (Leiden and Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, forthcoming 2010).   ‘Grey Ambassadors: The Dreadnought Revolution and British Diplomacy, 1906-1914’, in Andrew Lambert and Jan Rueger (eds.), The Dreadnought Revolution (Aldershot: Ashgate, forthcoming, 2010).   ‘High Politics, Finance and Foreign Policy, 1865-1914’, in Brendan Simms and William Mulligan (eds.), The Primacy of Foreign Policy, 1660-2000 (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave, forthcoming 2010).   ‘“Only wants quiet riding”?: Derby, Disraeli, and the “War-in-Sight” Crisis of 1875’, in Geoffrey Hicks (ed.), The View from Knowsley: The Earls of Derby in British Politics (Aldershot: Ashgate, forthcoming 2010).

‘“The Shrine at Sulgrave”: The Preservation of Sulgrave Manor as an “English Mount Vernon”’, in Melanie Hall (ed.), Towards World Heritage: Preservation in an Age of Empire (Aldershot: Ashgate, forthcoming 2010).


Past Research Projects and Grants

Project Title Start Date End Date Funding Body
'Britain, the Great Powers and the Project of Greater Albanian Autonomy, 1875-1881' 1/9/2007 1/3/2009 British Academy

Number of items: 53.

Article

Otte, Thomas (2013) From "Can-Can Diabolique" to "Sitzkrieg": The International China Expeditionary Force, 1900-1. Journal of Military History. (In Press)

Otte, Thomas (2013) Détente 1914: Sir William Tyrrell's Secret Mission to Germany. The Historical Journal. (In Press)

Otte, Thomas (2012) "Outcast from History": The Fischer Controversy and British Historiography. Journal of Contemporary History. (In Press)

Otte, Thomas (2012) "Not getting his meals in the kitchen": Lord Acton's Quest for Public Office, 1892-1894. History. (In Press)

Otte, Thomas (2008) More Liberal Facilities for the Purposes of Historical Research: Whitehall and Public Records in the Early Twentieth Century. Archives, xxxiii, 119. pp. 162-79.

Otte, Thomas (2007) Problems of Continuity: The 1906 General Election and Foreign Policy. Journal of Liberal History, 54. pp. 6-13.

Otte, Thomas (2007) A “German Paperchase”: The “Scrap of Paper” Controversy and the Problem of Myth and Memory in International History. Diplomacy and Statecraft, 18(1). pp. 53-87.

Otte, Thomas (2006) "Avenge England's Dishonour:" By-elections, Parliament and Foreign and Imperial Policy in 1898. English Historical Review, 491. pp. 385-428.

Otte, Thomas (2004) Alien Diplomatist: Anti-Semitism and Anti-Germanism in the Career of Sir Francis Oppenhiemer, 1900-1921. History, 89 (294). pp. 233-255.

Book Section

Otte, Thomas (2013) Introduction. In: By-elections in Victorian and Edwardian Politics, 1832-1914. Boydell & Brewer , Woodbridge, pp. 1-21. ISBN 978-1843837800 (In Press)

Otte, Thomas (2013) "The Swing of the Pendulum at Home": By-elections and Foreign Policy, 1865-1914. In: By-elections in Victorian and Edwardian Politics, 1832-1914. Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge, pp. 121-150. ISBN 9781843837800

Otte, Thomas (2013) "A very internecine policy": Anglo-Russian Cold Wars before the Cold War. In: Essays in Memory of Saki Dockrill. Palgrave-Macmillan. (In Press)

Otte, Thomas (2012) Japan and the "Lesser Races" of East Asia: Late Nineteenth-Century British Diplomats and Constructions of Race. In: Race and Racism in Modern East Asia: Western Constructions and Eastern Reactions. Brill's Series on Modern East Asia in a Global Historical Perspective (1). Martinus Nijhoff-Brill, Leiden and Boston, pp. 127-151. ISBN 9789004237292

Otte, Thomas (2012) "The Pick of Ambassadors": Sir Maurice de Bunsen, Edwardian Diplomatist. In: Diplomacy and Power: Studies in Modern Diplomatic Practice. Essays in Honour of Keith Hamilton. Republic of Letters, Dordrecht, pp. 49-81. ISBN 978-9089790934

Otte, Thomas (2012) Coalition Government in British Politics: Some Historical Reflection. In: The Coalition: The Voters, Parties and Institutions. Institute for Government, London, pp. 16-21.

Otte, Thomas (2012) Lord Salisbury and Japan. In: Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits. Global Oriental, Folkestone. (In Press)

Otte, Thomas (2011) "The Shrine at Sulgrave": The Preservation of the Washington Ancestral Home as an "English Mount Vernon" and Transatlantic Regions. In: Towards World Heritage: International Origins of the Preservation Movement, 1870-1930. Ashgate, Farnham and Burlington, VA, pp. 109-138.

Otte, Thomas (2011) Introduction. In: Coalition Government in Modern British Politics. Social Affairs Unit, London, pp. 1-7. ISBN 978-1-904863-58-8

Otte, Thomas (2011) Chapter II. In: Coalition Government in Modern British Politics. Social Affairs Unit, London, pp. 44-107. ISBN 978-1-904863-58-8

Otte, Thomas (2011) Conclusion. In: Coalition Government in Modern British Politics. Social Affairs Unit, London, pp. 150-158. ISBN 978-1-904863-58-8

Otte, Thomas (2011) Grey Ambassadors: The Dreadnought Revolution and British Diplomacy, 1906-1914. In: The Dreadnought and the Edwardian Age. National Maritime Museum and Ashgate, Farnham and Burlington, VA, pp. 51-78.

Otte, Thomas (2011) "He Interviews the Ambassadors": Alfred de Rothschild, High Finance and High Politics in Victorian and Edwardian Britain. In: On the Fringes of Diplomacy: Influences on British Foreign Policy. Ashgate, Farnham and Burlington, VA, pp. 111-126.

Otte, Thomas (2011) "Only wants quiet riding"?: Derby, Disraeli, and the "War-in-Sight" Crisis of 1875. In: Conservatism and British Foreign Policy: The Derbys and their World, 1820-1920. Ashgate, Farnham and Burlington, VA, pp. 99-128.

Otte, Thomas (2010) "Knaves or Fools?”: The Foreign Office Mind and Austria-Hungary, 1853-1914. In: A Living Anachronism?: European Diplomacy and the Habsburg Monarchy. Festschrift für Francis Roy Bridge zum 70. Geburstag. Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, pp. 119-56.

Otte, Thomas (2010) Between Old Diplomacy and New: Sir Eyre Crowe and British Foreign Policy after the Great War. In: The New Diplomacy: Essays in International History, 1915-1925. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.

Otte, Thomas (2010) "The method in which we were schooled by experience": British Strategy and a Continental Commitment before 1914. In: The British Way in Warfare: Power and the International System, 1856-1956: Essays in the Honour of David French. Ashgate, Aldershot, pp. 301-324.

Otte, Thomas (2010) "A Vexed Question": Britain, the Powers and the "Jewish Question" in the Nineteenth Century. In: Religion and Diplomacy: Religion and Foreign Policy, 1815 to 1941. Republic of Letters, Dordrecht, pp. 103-129.

Otte, Thomas (2010) "Chief of All Offices": High Politics, Finance and Foreign Policy, 1865 - 1914. In: The Primacy of Foreign Policy, 1660-2000. Palgrave, Basingstoke and New York, pp. 232-248.

Otte, Thomas (2009) A Course of Unceasing Remonstrances: British Diplomacy and the Suppression of the Slave Trade in the East. In: Slavery in Diplomacy. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, pp. 93-124. ISBN 1845192982

Otte, Thomas (2009) A Janus-like Power: Great Britain and the European Concert, 1814-1853. In: Das europäische Mächtekonzert, 1815-1853: Friedens- und Sicherheitspolitik vom Wiener Kongress 1815 bis zum Krimkrieg 1853. Cologne and Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, pp. 125-154.

Otte, Thomas (2008) Outdoor Relief for the Aristocracy?: European Nobility and Diplomacy, 1850-1914. In: The Diplomats’ World: A Cultural History of Diplomacy, 1815-1914. OUP, pp. 23-58.

Otte, Thomas (2008) From “War-in-Sight” to Nearly War: Anglo-French Relations in the Age of High Imperialism. In: Anglo-French Relations since the Eighteenth Century. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 59-80. ISBN 9780415395786

Otte, Thomas (2008) The Foreign Office and the Defence of Empire, 1856-1914. In: Imperial Defence: The Old World Order, 1856-1956. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 9-29. ISBN 0415355958

Otte, Thomas (2008) Dash to Peking: The International Naval Coalition during the Boxer Uprising in 1900. In: Naval Coalition Warfare: From the Napoleonic War to Operation Iraqi Freedom. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 86-97.

Otte, Thomas (2008) What we desire is confidence: The Search for an Anglo-German Naval Agreement, 1909-1912. In: Arms and Armaments in Diplomacy. London and Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell, pp. 33-52.

Otte, Thomas (2008) Origins of the First World War. In: War and Diplomacy: From World War I to the War on Terror. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, pp. 1-24.

Otte, Thomas (2008) Between Hammer and Anvil: Sir Francis Oppenheimer, the Netherlands Overseas Trust and Allied Economic Warfare, 1914-1918. In: Diplomats at War: British and Commonwealth Diplomacy in Wartime. Leiden and Boston: Martinus Nijhoff, pp. 85-108.

Otte, Thomas (2007) The Boxer Uprising and British Foreign Policy: The End of Isolation. In: The Boxers, China and the World. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, pp. 157-178. ISBN 0742553957

Otte, Thomas (2004) Diplomacy and Decision-making. In: Palgrave Advances in International History. Palgrave, p. 224. ISBN 1403904405

Otte, Thomas (2004) Almost a Law of Nature?: Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Office and the Balance of Power in Europe, 1905-1912. In: Power and Stability: British Foreign Policy, 1865-1965 (Diplomacy & Statecraft). Frank Cass Publishers, p. 354. ISBN 0714684139

Book

Otte, Thomas, ed. (2013) The Diaries of Harold Temperley, 1900-1939. Ashgate. (In Press)

Otte, Thomas (2013) The Longest Month: July 1914. Macmillan. (In Press)

Otte, Thomas, ed. (2012) Diplomacy and Power: Studies in Modern Diplomatic Practice. History of International Relations Library 28, New Directions in Diplomatic History 4 . Republic of Letters, Dordrecht. ISBN 9789089790934

Otte, Thomas and Readman, Paul, eds. (2012) By-elections in Victorian and Edwardian Politics, 1832-1914. Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge. ISBN 978-1843837800 (In Press)

Otte, Thomas (2011) The Foreign Office Mind: The Making of British Foreign Policy, 1865-1914. CUP.

Otte, Thomas, ed. (2011) Coalition Govenment in Modern British Politics. Social Affairs Unit, London. ISBN 978-1-904863-58-8

Otte, Thomas (2011) Coalitions in British Politics: From the Glorious Revolution to Cameron-Clegg. Social Affairs Unit, London.

Otte, Thomas (2010) A Living Anachronism? European Diplomacy and the Habsburg Monarchy Festschrift für Francis Roy Bridge zum 70. Geburtstag (Gebundene Ausgabe). Vienna: Böhlau Verlag. ISBN 9783205785101

Otte, Thomas (2009) Anglo-French Relations since the late eighteenth century. Routledge. ISBN 9780415495004

Otte, Thomas and Neilson, Keith (2009) The Office of the Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 1854-1946. Routledge. ISBN 9780415362412

Otte, Thomas (2007) The China Question: Great Power, Rivalry and British Isolation, 1894-1905. Oxford University Press, p. 363. ISBN 9780199211098

Otte, Thomas (2002) The Makers of British Foreign Policy: From Pitt to Thatcher. Palgrave, p. 352. ISBN 0333915798

Otte, Thomas, Berridge, G R and Keens-Soper, Maurice (2001) Diplomatic Theory from Machiavelli to Kissinger. Palgrave, p. 232. ISBN 0333753666

This list was generated on Fri May 24 10:45:45 2013 BST.

External Activities and Indicators of Esteem

  • member of the national executive committee of the British International History Group (BIHG)

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