ABSTRACT
This chapter conceptualizes the spectrum of diplomatic relations. It discusses how relations are made. The chapter highlights how diplomatic relations can change fundamentally. It deals with Realist approaches that link security imperatives to balancing behaviour, and balancing behaviour to the making of relations. The chapter investigates Liberal approaches that put more emphasis on economic motives, connect these to the creation of cooperation-facilitating institutions, and from there to the making of relations. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of this lens by examining European Union (EU) foreign policy. The chapter looks at Constructivist scholarship that addresses the generative mechanisms through which relations are produced and reproduced. As an empirical illustration, it discusses Eritrean-Ethiopian relations, which moved from the friendship of two liberation movements to the enmity of two governments. The chapter describes the institutional arrangements in three areas that are economics, neighbourhood and security.
