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The Middle East is home to the invention of agriculture, cities, and writing. It is also in the Middle East that we find evidence of humanity’s earliest diplomatic activity in, for instance, the actual letters sent by ancient kings to one another, the treaties drawn up after their conflicts, and the inscriptions that commemorate their conquests. In this course, we examine texts such as these to explore questions such as: How do we characterize the international system of the ancient Middle East? Does this system change over the approximately two millennia for which we have documentation? Is it better to approach ancient diplomacy through present-day eyes or in the context of ancient world-views? Is an understanding of diplomacy in the ancient Middle East relevant to our understanding of modern international relations? All texts read in translation.