We are proud to announce that, on 22 January 2026, one of our post-doctoral researchers Giorgio Ennas published his first monograph entitled Italo-Ottoman Relations in the Age of the Congress of Paris. Mirroring the ‘Other’, 1856-1871. (https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/italoottoman-relations-in-the-age-of-the-congress-of-paris-9781350378278/).

This monograph highlights the existence of a common sensibility between the Sardinian/Italian and the Ottoman diplomatic elites involved in international negotiations during the 1860s, the period of the Congress of Paris and a key period of transition towards the age of imperialism. In this context, both regions aspired to be incorporated into a global European civilisation characterised by a universal ambition to include a broader range of Powers, moving beyond cultural and religious differences.

In this period, the members of different diplomatic elites studied international law from the same manuals. Ennas convincingly argues that it is this common education which diffused European diplomatic culture among non-European diplomatic elites, creating a flourishing of multiple modernities in the process. Through a comparative analysis of their diplomatic documents and foreign policies, this study problematizes the common narrative of East versus West and uncovers the cultural similarities between these two alleged ‘others’.