ABSTRACT
The chapter shows that multilateral cooperation was a European construction. It started in the Renaissance, among the main five Italian sovereign states (Lodi Treaty) and continued in Europe until the famous Westphalian treaty. The genealogy and developments of European diplomacy are scrutinised first at the level of European thought and then in the world context of the early globalisation. The slow process of institutionalisation of multilateral arrangements took place in the multipolar power distribution system defined as the Concert of Europe. After the Napoleonian defeat, the first array of civilian multilateral arrangements took place in various policy fields, from post to health. The driving country moved from one capital to the next, with a special role played by the UK. The attempts to globalise the system in an inclusive way failed in the end and the system collapsed with WWI. The achievements and failures of the multilateral system still provoke intense theoretical debate.
