Four diplomatic models have been elaborated, with reference to the main Western political cultures: the conservative, the liberal, the socialdemocrat/constructivist and the socialist/manichean. They have been applied to the four arenas of international relations: cultural (conflicts between different nations and/or civilizations), military (peace and war interactions), economic (globalization process), political (democratic transitions). 1989-2008 governance processes were characterized by an increasing influence of ideologies. Conservative diplomacies, mostly aimed at realizing states’ interests (together with the parallel nationalist ideology), were the prevailing ones after Yalta and continued to be applied in all four arenas. Post/1989 processes of governance were often influenced also by the other three political cultures (liberalism, constructivism and manicheism), which are more “intensive” in ideologies. Some hypotheses of this change have been emphasized in the conclusions.
