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Ottewill-Soulsby's groundbreaking study of international diplomacy in the Carolingian era introduces new paradigms for interpreting relations between the Frankish Kingdom and Muslim powers in both the Eastern and Western Mediterranean. The author explicitly rejects Francis W. Buckler's venerable "alliance system" model, which assumed that the Carolingians and Abbasids recognized in each other useful counterweights to the Byzantine Empire and the Umayyads of Al-Andalus (p. 6). Ottewill-Soulsby (Univ. of Oslo, Norway) proposes instead that Carolingian-Abbasid relations are better understood as exercises in "prestige diplomacy," meant to respond to domestic concerns and pressures (p. 12). In contrast, he argues that the Carolingians and Umayyads engaged more in "frontier diplomacy" (p. 14). In neither context does he suggest these are monocausal phenomena, acknowledging that these two diplomatic approaches could and did overlap. The author also considers possible reasons for the comparatively more limited diplomatic overtures by the Franks toward Muslim rulers in the Central and Southern Mediterranean. Ottewill-Soulsby demonstrates conclusively that foreign and domestic policies deeply informed each other, and he offers a salient warning against interpreting international relations in this period solely from a Frankish perspective. His book thus offers an innovative and important model for studying diplomacy in the early medieval Mediterranean.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.