The story of this book begins in 2014. Zlatko discussed the situation in Taiwan with Dr Saša Istenič Kotar, a good colleague and the Director of the Center for Taiwan Studies at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Somehow, this discussion turned to the parliamentary dimension of Taiwan's international relations. As Zlatko had been writing on parliamentary institutions and the parliamentary dimension of international relations in general, he went to search for what has already been written on this regarding Taiwan. Detailed preliminary research has confirmed that not much is available in the scholarly literature about what is or may be the contribution of Taiwanese and other parliamentarians to ease Taiwan's international isolation. This has brought Taiwan to the centre of Zlatko's research interest in the context of the fast-growing literature on international parliamentary institutions and parliamentary diplomacy.

The next step was to test whether Taiwan's academics and practitioners share his enthusiasm. So, he prepared a research proposal and responded to a call for applications from Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Taiwan Fellowships, designed to stimulate research on Taiwan. His application was successful, and the first part of the research started in Taiwan in 2016. At the initial stage, the support and hospitality he received from the wonderful staff at the Center for Chinese Studies at the National Central Library (NCL) under the leadership of Director General Tseng Shu-hsien, in particular Yi-Syuan Wu, Arthur Ding from the Institute of International Relations at the National Chengchi University, Jana Rošker from the University of Ljubljana – who was a guest researcher in Taipei at that time – Zlatko's nextbooth neighbour at the NCL Wen-Ti Sung from the Australian National University, and Mor Sobol from the Tamkang University and a volleyball teammate, were very important. For that, they will never be forgotten.

It was in Taipei when Zlatko, following up Saša's suggestions for who to get in touch with while in Taiwan, met David. A renowned academic with rich practical diplomatic experience, David showed a keen interest in Zlatko's research, which has paved the way for their partnership for this book project. This phase included Zlatko's second stay in Taiwan which began in 2017, this time with the support of a grant from the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.