WSC 2018 HISTORYHistory of Diplomacy

Origins of DiplomacyCity-States of Ancient Greece | Han Dynasty China

Byzantine Empire | Renaissance Italy | Ancient India

City-States of Ancient Greece• The ancient Greek city-states sometimes sent envoys to each other in order to negotiate war and peace or

commercial relations, but no regular diplomatic representatives posted in others’ territory.

• However, some of the functions given to modern diplomatic representatives were in Classical Greece filled by a proxenos, who was a citizen of the host city having a particular relations of friendship with another city – a relationship often hereditary in a particular family.

• In times of peace diplomacy was even conducted with rivals such as the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, though the latter eventually succumbed to the invasions of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great. The latter was also adept at diplomacy, realizing that in order to conquer certain territories it was important for his Macedonian and subject Greek troops to mingle and intermarry with native populations. For instance, Alexander even took a Sogdian woman of Bactria as his wife, Roxana, after the siege of the Sogdian Rock, in order to quell the region (which had been troubled by local rebels such as Spitamenes).

• Diplomacy was a necessary tool of statecraft for the great Hellenistic kingdoms such as the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire, who fought several wars in the Near East and often negotiated a peace treaty through alliances through marriage.

Proxenos | City-States of Ancient Greece• Proxeny was an arrangement whereby a citizen (chosen by the city) hosted foreign ambassadors at his own

expense, in return for honorary titles from the state. The citizen was called proxenos - "instead of a foreigner”. A proxenos would use whatever influence he had in his own city to promote policies of friendship or alliance with the city he voluntarily represented.

• For example, Cimon was Sparta's proxenos at Athens and during his period of prominence in Athenian politics, previous to the outbreak of the First Peloponnesian War, he strongly advocated a policy of cooperation between the two states. Cimon was known to be so fond of Sparta that he named one of his sons Lacedaemonius.

• Being another city's proxenos did not preclude taking part in war against that city, should it break out – since the proxenos' ultimate loyalty was to his own city. However, a proxenos would naturally try his best to prevent such a war from breaking out and to compose whatever differences were threatening to cause it. And once peace negotiations were on the way, a proxenos' contacts and goodwill in the enemy city could be profitably used by his city.

Han Dynasty China• The time of the Han dynasty (202 BC–AD 220) was groundbreaking in the history of Imperial China's foreign

relations. During the long reign of Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BC), the travels of the diplomat Zhang Qian opened up China's relations with many different Asian territories for the first time. While traveling to the Western Regions in order to seek out an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu, Zhang Qian was imprisoned by the Xiongnu for many years, but he brought back detailed reports of lands that had been previously unknown to the Chinese. This included details of his travels to the Greek-Hellenized kingdoms of Fergana (Dayuan) and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (Daxia), as well as reports of Anxi (Persian Empire of Parthia), Tiaozhi (Mesopotamia), Shendu (India), and the Wusun Central Asian nomads.

• After his travels, the famous land trading route of the Silk Road leading from China to the Roman Empire was established.

• Emperor Wu was also known for his conquests and successful campaigns against the Xiongnu. He warred against the Kingdom of Wiman Joseon in order to establish the Four Commanderies of Han in Manchuria, including the Lelang Commandery which was in North Korea. The empire began expanding into southern China and northern Vietnam, then the territory of the Baiyue kingdoms.

Zhang Qian| Han Dynasty China• His travels are recorded in Records of

the Grand Historian (Shiji) by Sima Qian, and are largely linked to the Silk Road.

• Brought alfalfa seeds to China for horse fodder

• Set out to the Yuezhi for military alliance against Xiongnu but got captured instead

• Married Xiongnu wife and bore son to gain trust of Xiongnu leader when enslaved

• Unsuccessful trade route to India

Byzantine Empire • After the fall of Rome, the key challenge to the Byzantine Empire was to maintain relations to its neighbors,

including the Persians, Georgians, Iberians, the Germanic peoples, the Bulgars, the Slavs, the Armenians, the Huns, the Avars, the Franks, the Lombards, and the Arabs, to embody and maintain its imperial status. All these neighbors lacked formalized legal structure which Byzantine had taken from Rome. When they set about forging formal political institutions, they were dependent on the empire. Byzantine diplomacy was war by other means. Byzantine historian John Kinnamos writes, "Since many and various matters lead toward one end, victory, it is a matter of indifference which one uses to reach it." With a regular army of 120,000-140,000 men after the losses of the seventh century, the empire's security depended on activist diplomacy.

• Byzantium's "Bureau of Barbarians" was the first foreign intelligence agency, gathering information on the empire’s rivals from every imaginable source. While on the surface a protocol office—its main duty was to ensure foreign envoys were properly cared for and received sufficient state funds for their maintenance, and it kept all the official translators—it clearly had a security function as well. On Strategy, from the 6th century, offers advice about foreign embassies: "[Envoys] who are sent to us should be received honorably and generously, for everyone holds envoys in high esteem. Their attendants, however, should be kept under surveillance to keep them from obtaining any information by asking questions of our people."

Diplomatic Principles | Byzantine Empire• Byzantine diplomacy drew its neighbors into a network of international and interstate relations, controlled by

the empire itself. This process revolved around treaty making.

• Byzantine historian Evangelos Chrysos postulates a three-layered process at work:

1) the new ruler was welcomed into the family of kings,

2) there was an assimilation of Byzantine social attitudes and values,

3) as a formalization of the second layer of the process, there were laws.

• In order to drive this process, the Byzantines availed themselves of a number of mostly diplomatic practices. For

example, embassies to Constantinople would often stay on for years. A member of other royal houses would

routinely be requested to stay in Constantinople, not only as a potential hostage, but also as a useful pawn in

case political conditions where he came from changed.

• Another key practice was to overwhelm visitors by sumptuous displays. Constantinople's riches served the

state's diplomatic purposes as a means of propaganda, and as a way to impress foreigners.

Diplomatic Principles | Byzantine Empire• The fact that Byzantium in its dealings with the barbarians generally preferred diplomacy to war is not

surprising. For the East Romans, faced with the ever-present necessity of having to battle on two fronts — in the

east against Persians, Arabs and Turks, in the north against the Slavs and the steppe nomads — knew from

personal experience how expensive war is both in money and manpower. The Byzantines were skilled at using

diplomacy as a weapon of war. If the Bulgars threatened, subsidies could be given to the Kiev Rus. A Rus threat

could be countered by subsidies to the Patzinaks. There was always someone to the enemy’s rear.

• Another innovative principle of Byzantine diplomacy was effective interference in the internal affairs of other

states. In 1282, Michael VIII sponsored a revolt in Sicily against Charles of Anjou called the Sicilian Vespers.

Emperor Heraclius once intercepted a message from Persian rival Khosrau II which ordered the execution of a

general. Heraclius added 400 names to the message and diverted the messenger, provoking a rebellion by those

on the list. The emperor maintained a stable of pretenders to almost every foreign throne. These could be given

funds and released to wreak havoc if their homeland threatened attack.

Renaissance Italy• In Europe, early modern diplomacy's origins are often traced to the states of Northern Italy in the

early Renaissance, with the first embassies being established in the 13th century. Milan played a leading role, especially under Francesco Sforza who established permanent embassies to the other city states of Northern Italy. It was in the Italian Peninsula that the traditions of modern diplomacy began, such as the presentation of an ambassador's credentials to the head of state.

• Sforza was the first European ruler to follow a foreign policy based on the concept of the balance of power, and the first native Italian ruler to conduct extensive diplomacy outside the Italian peninsula to counter the power of threatening states such as France. Sforza's policies succeeded in keeping foreign powers from dominating Italian politics for the rest of the century.

Link:

• The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli mentions Francesco Sforza’s ability to hold his country and also as warning against using mercenary troops.

Ancient India• Ancient India, with its kingdoms and dynasties, had a long tradition of diplomacy. The oldest treatise on

statecraft and diplomacy, Arthashastra – “the science of politics”, is attributed to Kautilya (also known as Chanakya), who was the principal adviser to Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya dynasty who ruled in the 3rd century BC.

• It incorporates a theory of diplomacy, of how in a situation of mutually contesting kingdoms, the wise king builds alliances and tries to checkmate his adversaries. The envoys sent at the time to the courts of other kingdoms tended to reside for extended periods of time, and Arthashastra contains advice on the deportment of the envoy, including the trenchant suggestion that 'he should sleep alone'. The highest morality for the king is that his kingdom should prosper.

Links: Contrast to Machiavelli, Byzantine activist diplomacy

• All means to achieve victory are appropriate, but the reason is to benefit its people, unlike Machiavelli where the end goal is to preserve the power of the monarch. Arthashastra also declares the need for empowering many modern liberal causes such as the poor, women, and animals, going so far as to suggest the creation of welfare state in which “land reform” is done by taking land away from inactive landowners and giving it to poor farmers.

Evolution of Rules of Modern Diplomacy• From Italy the practice was spread across Europe. Milan was the first to send a representative to the court of

France in 1455. However, Milan refused to host French representatives fearing espionage and that the French representatives would intervene in its internal affairs. As foreign powers such as France and Spain became increasingly involved in Italian politics the need to accept emissaries was recognized. Soon the major European powers were exchanging representatives. Spain was the first to send a permanent representative; it appointed an ambassador to the Court of St. James's (i.e. England) in 1487. By the late 16th century, permanent missions became customary. The Holy Roman Emperor, however, did not regularly send permanent legates, as they could not represent the interests of all the German princes (who were in theory all subordinate to the Emperor, but in practice each independent).

• In 1500-1700 rules of modern diplomacy were further developed. French replaced Latin from about 1715. The top rank of representatives was an ambassador. At that time an ambassador was a nobleman, the rank of the noble assigned varying with the prestige of the country he was delegated to. Strict standards developed for ambassadors, requiring they have large residences, host lavish parties, and play an important role in the court life of their host nation. In Rome, the most prized posting for a Catholic ambassador, the French and Spanish representatives would have a retinue of up to a hundred. Even in smaller posts, ambassadors were very expensive. Smaller states would send and receive envoys, who were a rung below ambassador.

Evolution of Rules of Modern DiplomacyHistorical levels of diplomatic precedence:

• Vatican > kingdom > duchy > principality > republic (caused angry Germans, Scandinavians, and Italians)

• Since determining precedence was complex and constantly fluctuating, arguments were common.

• Ambassadors were often nobles with little foreign experience and no expectation of a career in diplomacy. They were supported by their embassy staff. These professionals would be sent on longer assignments and would be far more knowledgeable than the higher-ranking officials about the host country. Embassy staff would include a wide range of employees, including some dedicated to espionage. The need for skilled individuals to staff embassies was met by the graduates of universities, and this led to a great increase in the study of international law, French, and history at universities throughout Europe.

• At the same time, permanent foreign ministries began to be established in almost all European states to coordinate embassies and their staffs.

Evolution of Rules of Modern Diplomacy• The elements of modern diplomacy slowly spread to Eastern Europe and Russia, arriving by the early 18th

century. The entire edifice would be greatly disrupted by the French Revolution and the subsequent years of warfare. The revolution would see commoners take over the diplomacy of the French state.

• Ranks of precedence were abolished. Napoleon also refused to acknowledge diplomatic immunity, imprisoning several British diplomats accused of scheming against France.

• After the fall of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna of 1815 established an international system of diplomatic rank. Disputes on precedence among nations (and therefore the appropriate diplomatic ranks used) were first addressed at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, but persisted for over a century until after World War II, when the rank of ambassador became the norm. In between that time, figures such as the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck were renowned for international diplomacy.

The Instruments of DiplomacyYou Scratch My Back

Embassy + Consulate + Mission• A diplomatic or foreign mission is a group of people from one state present in another state to officially

represent the sending state. A diplomatic mission usually denotes the resident mission, namely the embassy, which is the main office of a country's diplomatic representatives in the capital city of another country, whereas consulates are smaller diplomatic missions which are normally located outside the capital of the receiving state (but can be located in the capital, usually when the sending country has no embassy in the receiving state). A non-resident embassy deals with countries outside of where they reside.

• A permanent diplomatic mission is typically known as an embassy, and the head of the mission is known as an ambassador, or high commissioner. The term "embassy" is commonly used also as a section of a building in which the work of the diplomatic mission is carried out, but, strictly speaking, it is the diplomatic delegation itself that is the embassy, while the office space and the diplomatic work done is called the chancery. Therefore, the embassy operates in the chancery.

• Consulates usually deal with questions about passports for their own citizens, visas for foreigners wanting to visit the consulate's home country and licenses for import and export. As such, consulates focus on dealing with individuals and businesses as defined by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Asylum• Asylum, in international law, the protection granted by a state to a foreign citizen against his own state. The person for

whom asylum is established has no legal right to demand it, and the sheltering state has no obligation to grant it.

• Territorial asylum is granted within the territorial bounds of the state offering asylum and is an exception to the

practice of extradition. It is designed and employed primarily for the protection of persons accused of political offenses

such as treason, desertion, sedition, and espionage.

• Extraterritorial asylum refers to asylum granted in embassies, legations, consulates, warships, and merchant vessels

in foreign territory and is thus granted within the territory of the state from which protection is sought. Cases of

extraterritorial asylum granted in embassies, legations, or consulates (generally known as diplomatic asylum) are often

occasions for dispute. For example, after an unsuccessful uprising against the communist government of Hungary in

1956, the United States controversially granted diplomatic asylum to dissident Hungarian Roman Catholic József

Cardinal Mindszenty, who was given refuge in the U.S. embassy and remained there for 15 years.

• Neutral asylum is employed by states exercising neutrality during a war to offer asylum within its territory to troops

of belligerent states, provided that the troops submit to internment for the duration of the war.

• It is the right of a state to grant asylum to an individual, but it is not the right of an individual to be granted asylum by a

state. This perspective is reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which, though recognizing

(article 14) the right “to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution,” does not explicitly provide a

right of asylum.

Diplomatic Immunity• Diplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity that ensures diplomats are given safe passage and are considered

not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country's laws, but they can still be expelled. Modern diplomatic immunity was codified as international law in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) which has been ratified by most nations, though the concept and custom of such immunity have a much longer history dating back thousands of years. Many principles of diplomatic immunity are now considered to be customary law. Diplomatic immunity as an institution developed to allow for the maintenance of government relations, including during periods of difficulties and armed conflict. When receiving diplomats, the receiving head of state grants privileges and immunities to ensure they may effectively carry out their duties, on the understanding that these are provided on a reciprocal basis.

• Originally, these privileges and immunities were granted on a bilateral, ad hoc basis, which led to misunderstandings and conflict, pressure on weaker states, and an inability for other states to judge which party was at fault. An international agreement known as the Vienna Convention codified the rules and agreements, providing standards and privileges to all states.

• It is possible for the official's home country to waive immunity; this tends to happen only when the individual has committed a serious crime, unconnected with their diplomatic role (as opposed to, say, allegations of spying), or has witnessed such a crime. If immunity is waived by a government so that a diplomat (or their family members) can be prosecuted, it must be because there is a case to answer and it is in the public interest to prosecute them.

History of Diplomatic Immunity• A Roman envoy was urinated on as he was leaving the city of Tarentum. The oath of the envoy, “This stain will be

washed away with blood!”, was fulfilled during the Second Punic War.

• The Islamic Prophet Muhammad sent and received envoys and strictly forbade harming them. This practice was continued by the Rashidun caliphs who exchanged diplomats with the Ethiopians and the Byzantines. This diplomatic exchange continued during the Arab–Byzantine wars.

• Classical Sharia called for hospitality to be shown towards anyone who has been granted amān (or right of safe passage). Amān was readily granted to any emissary bearing a letter or another sealed document. The duration of the amān was typically a year. Envoys with this right of passage were given immunity of person and property. They were exempt from taxation, as long as they didn't engage in trade.

• The British Parliament first guaranteed diplomatic immunity to foreign ambassadors in 1709, after Andrey Matveyev, Russian resident in London, had been subjected to verbal and physical abuse by British bailiffs.

• Upper-class, noble-blooded European diplomats set the rules of protection from prosecution but it was largely limited to Western Europe until defined by the 1815 Congress of Vienna. Although early on there were already requirements of honor and customs, the rules of diplomacy was disrupted by Napoleon during the French Revolution.

• Diplomatic immunity was upheld during World War II when warring countries allowed diplomats to evacuate through neutral states.

Diplomatic Bag• A diplomatic bag is a container with certain legal protections used for carrying official correspondence

between a diplomatic mission and its home government. The physical concept of a "diplomatic bag" is flexible and therefore can take many forms.

• A diplomatic bag usually has some form of lock and/or tamper-evident seal attached to it in order to deter or detect interference by unauthorized third parties. The most important point is that as long as it is externally marked to show its status, the “bag” has diplomatic immunity from search or seizure, as codified in article 27 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. It may only contain articles intended for official use. It is often escorted by a diplomatic courier, who is similarly immune from arrest and detention.

• In discussions of cryptography, the diplomatic bag is conventionally used as an example of the ultimate secure channel used to exchange keys, codebooks, and other necessarily secret materials.

• In contemporary practice, diplomatic bags are indeed used for exactly this purpose. An illustration is the strenuous protest made by German diplomats in Poland in the late 1920s when a cypher machine being shipped to the German Embassy in Warsaw – a commercial version of the famous Enigma machine – was mistakenly not marked as protected baggage and was opened by Polish Customs.

Rezidentura | resident spy• In espionage, a resident spy is an agent operating within a foreign country for extended periods of time. A base

of operations within a foreign country with which a resident spy may liaise is known as a "station" in English and a rezidentura (residency) in Russian. What the U.S. would call a "station chief", the head spy, is known as a rezident in Russian.

• A legal resident spy operates in a foreign country under official cover (such as from his country's embassy). He is an official member of the consular staff, such as a commercial, cultural, or military attaché. Thus, he has diplomatic immunity from prosecution and cannot be arrested by the host country if suspected of espionage. The most the host country can do is send him back to his home country as persona non grata. He can meet high-level personnel from the host country, has more access to resources – but his presence and role is known by the host country.

• An illegal resident spy operates under non-official cover and so they cannot claim immunity from prosecution when arrested. They may operate under a false name and hold fake documents. They have the advantage of being unknown to the host country in order to access underground intelligence sources – but they have less access to the full range of official resources and no diplomatic immunity to fall back upon.

Diplomatic Offices• The current system of diplomatic ranks was established by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961). There are

three ranks, two of which remain in use:

• Ambassador.

• An Ambassador is a head of mission who is accredited to the receiving country's head of state. They head a diplomatic mission known as an embassy, which is usually headquartered in a chancery in the receiving state's capital.

• Minister (no longer in use)

• A Minister is a head of mission who is accredited to the receiving country's head of state. A Minister heads a legation rather than an embassy. However, the last legations were upgraded to embassies in the late 1960s, and the rank of Minister is now obsolete.

• An envoy or an internuncio is also considered to have the rank of Minister. (Now an envoy just means any diplomat)

• Chargés d'affaires:

• A chargé d'affaires en pied is a permanent head of mission who is accredited by his country's Foreign Minister to the receiving nation's Foreign Minister, in cases where the two governments have not reached an agreement to exchange ambassadors.

• A chargé d'affaires ad interim is a diplomat who temporarily heads a diplomatic mission in the absence of an ambassador.

• Precedence within each rank is determined by the date on which diplomatic credentials were presented. The longest-serving ambassador is the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, who speaks for the entire diplomatic corps on matters of diplomatic privilege and protocol. In many Catholic countries, the papal nuncio is always considered the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps.

Ambassador• An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who

represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government.

• An ambassador is the ranking government representative stationed in a foreign capital.The host country typically allows the ambassador control of specific territory called an embassy, whose territory, staff, and vehicles are generally afforded diplomatic immunity in the host country. Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, an ambassador has the highest diplomatic rank. Countries may choose to maintain diplomatic relations at a lower level by appointing a chargé d'affaires in place of an ambassador.

• The equivalent to an ambassador exchanged among members of the Commonwealth of Nations are known as High Commissioners. The “ambassadors” of the Holy See are known as Papal or Apostolic Nuncios.

Purposes of Ambassadors• Protect citizens

• Due to the advent of modern travel, today's world is a much smaller place in relative terms. With this in mind, it is considered important that the nations of the world have at least small staff living in foreign capitals in order to aid travelers and visitors from their home nation. As an officer of the foreign service, an ambassador is expected to protect the citizens of his home country in the host country.

• Support prosperity

• Another result of the increase in foreign travel is the growth of trade between nations. For most countries, the national economy is now part of the global economy. This means increased opportunities to sell and trade with other nations. When two nations are conducting a trade, it is usually advantageous to both parties to have an ambassador and staff living in the other country, where they act as an intermediary between cooperative businesses.

• Work for peace

• One of the cornerstones of foreign diplomatic missions is to work for peace. This task can grow into fights against international terrorism, the drug trade, international bribery, and human trafficking. Ambassadors help stop these acts, helping people across the globe. These activities are important and sensitive and are usually carried out in coordination with the Defense Ministry of the state and the head of the nation.

Gunboat Diplomacy• In international politics, gunboat diplomacy (or “Big Stick ideology” in U.S. history: Speak softly and carry a big

stick; you will go far – Theodore Roosevelt) refers to the pursuit of foreign policy objectives with the aid of conspicuous displays of naval power – implying or constituting direct threat of warfare, should terms not be agreeable to the superior force.

• The British diplomat James Cable defined gunboat diplomacy as “the use or threat of limited naval force, otherwise than as an act of war, in order to secure advantage or to avert loss, either in the furtherance of an international dispute or else against foreign nationals within the territory or the jurisdiction of their own state.”

• He further broke down the concept into four key areas:

• Definitive Force: the use of gunboat diplomacy to create or remove fait accompli (done deals).

• Purposeful Force: application of naval force to change the policy/character of the target government or group.

• Catalytic Force: mechanism designed to buy breathing space or present policy makers with an increased range of options.

• Expressive Force: use of navies to send political message (this aspect is undervalued and dismissed by Cable himself).

• Link: realpolitik

Coercive Diplomacy | framework• According to Alexander George, coercive diplomacy seeks to achieve three objectives. First, it attempts to persuade an

adversary to turn away from its goal. Second, it seeks to convince an adversary to reverse an action already taken. Third, it may persuade an adversary to make “fundamental changes in its government”.

• Alexander George developed a framework in which a number of "variants" or methods of using coercive diplomacy could be deployed to achieve these objectives. These variants include the following:

1. Ultimatum

2. Tacit Ultimatum

3. Try-and-See

4. Gradual Turning of the Screw

• The first variant of the coercive diplomacy strategy is the classic ultimatum. An ultimatum itself has three distinct components: “a demand on the opponent; a time limit for compliance with the demand; and a threat of punishment for noncompliance that is both credible to the opponent and sufficiently potent to impress upon him that compliance is preferable”.

• The second variant of coercive diplomacy, “Tacit ultimatum”, is similar to “ultimatum” except that it doesn't set forth an explicit time limit.

• The third variant of coercive diplomacy, the “Try-and-See”, addresses strictly the first component of the “ultimatum” variant, “a demand on the opponent”. There is no time limit set, no sense of urgency conveyed - instead the coercer makes a single threat ortakes a single action “to persuade the opponent before threatening or taking another step”.

• Finally, the “Gradual Turning of the Screw” approach is similar to the “Try-and-See” method in that it makes a threat but then “relies the threat of a gradual, incremental increase of coercive pressure”.

Coercive Diplomacy | conditional success• Among the numerous theories on coercive diplomacy, Peter Viggo Jakobsen's (1998) ideal policy succinctly identifies the

four key conditions the coercer must meet to maximize the chance of success to stop or undo acts of aggression:

1. A threat of force to defeat the opponent or deny him his objectives quickly with little cost.

2. A deadline for compliance.

3. An assurance to the adversary against future demands.

4. An offer of inducements for compliance.

• Schelling postulates that coercive diplomacy is essentially compellence – this means that the coercer wants to trigger some kind of response – in contrast to deterrence, it requires that the punishment is administered until the adversary stops. Deterrence is more passive because the punishment (warfare) is administered only when the other acts.

• Unlike Schelling, Alexander George believed that coercive diplomacy encompassed “defensive” compellent actions only: to force the adversary to stop or reverse action already taken, rather than an offensive goal of forcing them to do something ... Coercive diplomacy essentially is the embodiment of the “carrot and stick” philosophy: motivation is used to induce the target to submit to your wishes, while appearing threatening at the same time.

• Success: Kennedy’s naval blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis (link to gunboat)

• Failure: Saddam Hussein failed to meet Bush’s deadline for exiting Kuwait, leading to Operation Desert Storm (Gulf War)

Preventive Diplomacy• Preventive diplomacy is action to prevent disputes from arising between parties, to prevent existing disputes

from escalating into conflicts and to limit the spread of the latter when they occur.

• Michael S. Lund, the author of “Preventing Violent Conflict: A Strategy for Preventive Diplomacy”, identifies it as “action taken in vulnerable places and times to avoid the threat or use of armed force and related forms of coercion by states or groups to settle the political disputes that can arise from the destabilizing effects of economic, social, political, and international change.”

• Since the end of the Cold War the international community through international institutions has been focusing on preventive diplomacy. As the United Nations and regional organizations as well as global and regional powers discovered the high costs of managing conflict, there is a strong common perception of benevolence of preventive diplomacy. Preventive diplomacy actions can be implemented by the UN, regional organizations, NGO networks and individual states. One of the examples of preventive diplomacy is the UN peacekeeping mission in Macedonia (UNPREDEP) in 1995–1999. It was the first UN preventive action.

• Preventive measures include: conflict early warning, fact-finding, confidence-building measures, early deployment, humanitarian assistance, and demilitarized zones.

Paradiplomacy• Paradiplomacy is international relations conducted by subnational or regional governments on their own, in

order to promote their own interests. Regions, federal states, provinces, and cities seek their way to promote trade, investments, cooperation and partnership and account for many of today's cross-borders contacts.

• Paradiplomacy was introduced into the academic debate by the Canadian scholar Panayotis Soldatos. The American author Ivo Duchacek further developed the concept. Other current denominations for paradiplomacy and related concepts are: “multilayered diplomacy”, “substate diplomacy” and “intermestic affairs”. This latter concept expresses the growing trend of the internationalization of domestic issues, which takes local and regional concerns to the center stage of international affairs.

• The intention of local governments is thus to promote development by exploring complementarity with partners facing similar problems, looking to join forces to arrive at solutions more easily. In addition, they explore opportunities alongside international organizations that offer assistance programs for local development projects.

• Decentralized paradiplomacy emerged following World War II, when local governments in Europe (esp. France) signed twinning agreements, principally with German local governments, in order to promote peaceful coexistence and the reconstruction of Europe.

• Reasons for paradiplomacy:

• cultural autonomy (protodiplomacy) e.g. Catalonia, Quebec; economic comparative advantage

Soft Power• Soft power is a term used in international relations theory to describe the ability of one state to indirectly influence the

behavior or interests of other political bodies through cultural or ideological means. The term was first coined by Harvard University professor Joseph Nye, who remains its most prominent proponent, in a 1990 Atlantic Monthly article.

• In Nye's words: “The basic concept of power is the ability to influence others to get them to do what you want. There are three major ways to do that: one is to threaten them with sticks; the second is to pay them with carrots; the third is to attract them or co-opt them, so that they want what you want. If you can get others to be attracted, to want what you want, it costs you much less in carrots and sticks.”

• Soft power, then, represents the third way of getting others to “want what you want”. One of the key determinants of the difference between hard and soft power is the method of diplomacy. Soft power is the degree to which one nation (or individual)'s perceived values or culture inspire affinity on the part of others. Nye argues that soft power is more than influence, since influence can also rest on the hard power of threats or payments. And soft power is more than just persuasion or the ability to move people by argument, though that is an important part of it. It is also the ability to attract, and attraction often leads to acquiescence.

• The success of soft power heavily depends on the actor’s reputation within the international community, as well as the flow of information between actors. Thus, soft power is often associated with the rise of globalization and neoliberal international relations theory. Popular culture and media is regularly identified as a source of soft power, as is the spread of national language.

Hard Power = military + economic• Hard power is the use of military and economic means to influence the behavior or interests of other political bodies.

This form of political power is often aggressive (coercion), and is most effective when imposed by one political body upon another of lesser military and/or economic power. Hard power contrasts with soft power, which comes from diplomacy, culture and history.

• According to Joseph Nye, the term is “the ability to use the carrots and sticks of economic and military might to make others follow your will.” Here, “carrots” are inducements such as the reduction of trade barriers, the offer of an alliance or the promise of military protection. On the other hand, “sticks” are threats including the use of coercive diplomacy, the threat of military intervention, or the implementation of economic sanctions. Ernest Wilson describes it as the capacity to coerce “another to act in ways in which that entity would not have acted otherwise.”

• While the existence of hard power has a long history, the term itself arose when Joseph Nye coined soft power as a new and different form of power in a sovereign state's foreign policy.

• The term hard power describes one state’s ability to use economic incentives or military strength to influence other actors’ behaviors. It relies on a measure of power propounded by the realist school in international relations theory. In the realist school, power is linked with the possession of certain tangible resources, including population, territory, natural resources, economic and military strength, among others. Hard power is defined by the use of such resources to spur the behavior of other entities.

• Examples: US policy in war on terrorism e.g. Iraq War, Taliban; economic sanctions esp. Iran

Counterinsurgency• Counterinsurgency (COIN) can be defined as “comprehensive civilian and military efforts taken to

simultaneously defeat and contain insurgency and address its root causes”.

• Counterinsurgency is effective when it is integrated “into comprehensive strategy employing all instruments of national power,” including public diplomacy. The goal of COIN operations is to render the insurgents as ineffective and non-influential, by having strong and secure relations with the population of the host nation.

• An understanding of the host nation and the environment that the COIN operations will take place in is essential. Public diplomacy in COIN warfare is only effective when there is a clear understanding of the culture and population at hand. One of the largest factors needed for defeating an insurgency involves understanding and manipulating the populace and their viewpoints.

• Ethics is a common public diplomacy aspect that is emphasized in COIN warfare. Insurgents win their war by attacking internal will and the international opposition. In order to combat these tactics the counterinsurgency operations need to treat their prisoners and detainees humanely and according to American values and principles. By doing this, COIN operations show the host nation’s population that they can be trusted and that they are concerned about the well being of the population in order to be successful in warfare.

• Counterinsurgency is used to address power vacuums caused by insurgents capitalizing on societal problems –COIN’s objective is to also improve living conditions, help provide government services, and eliminate support for said insurgency.

Public Diplomacy• In international relations, public diplomacy or people's diplomacy, broadly speaking, is the communication with and

dissemination of propaganda to the general public of foreign nations to establish dialogue designed to inform and influence.

• Nicholas J. Cull divides the practice of public diplomacy into five instruments: listening, advocacy, cultural diplomacy, exchange diplomacy and international broadcasting (IB).

• Standard diplomacy might be described as the ways in which government leaders communicate with each other at the highest levels, the elite diplomacy we are all familiar with. Public diplomacy, by contrast focuses on the ways in which a country orpolitical body communicates with citizens in other societies. Effective public diplomacy starts from the premise that dialogue is often central to achieving the goals of foreign policy: public diplomacy must be seen as a two-way street. Furthermore, public diplomacy activities often present many differing views as represented by private American individuals and organizations in addition to official U.S. Government views.

• Film, television, music, sports, video games and other social/cultural activities are seen by public diplomacy advocates as enormously important avenues for diverse citizens to understand each other. They help shape the message a country wants to present abroad and can be developed as tools of persuasion (attraction; link: soft power, counterinsurgency).

• One of the most successful initiatives which embodies the principles of effective public diplomacy is the creation by international treaty in the 1950s of the European Coal and Steel Community which later became the European Union. Its original purpose after World War II was to tie the economies of Europe together so much that war would be impossible. Supporters of European integration see it as having achieved both this goal and the extra benefit of catalyzing greater international understanding as European countries did more business together and the ties among member states' citizens increased.

Dollar Diplomacy• Dollar diplomacy of the United States—esp. during President William Howard Taft's term— was a form of American

foreign policy to further its aims in Latin America and East Asia through use of its economic power by guaranteeing loans made to foreign countries. Historian Thomas A. Bailey finds that dollar diplomacy was designed to make both people in foreign lands and the American investors prosper. The term was originally coined by previous President Theodore Roosevelt. Basically it’s an economic twist to activist (Byzantine) diplomacy.

• The outgoing President Theodore Roosevelt laid the foundation for this approach in 1904 with his Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (under which United States Marines were frequently sent to Central America) maintaining that if any nation in the Western Hemisphere appeared politically and financially unstable so as to be vulnerable to European control, the United States had the right and obligation to intervene. Taft continued and expanded the policy, starting in Central America, where he justified it as a means of protecting the Panama Canal. In March 1909, he attempted unsuccessfully to establish control over Honduras by buying up its debt to British bankers.

• Taft’s Secretary of State Knox felt that the goal of diplomacy should be to create stability abroad, and through this stability promote American commercial interests. Taft's dollar diplomacy not only allowed the United States to gain financially from countries, but also restrained other foreign countries from reaping any sort of financial gain. Consequently, when the United States benefited from other countries, other world powers could not reap those same benefits. Overall the "dollar diplomacy" was to encourage and protect trade within Latin America and Asia.

Cyber Diplomacy• Cyber-diplomacy is the evolution of public diplomacy to include and use the new platforms of communication of the

21st century. As explained by Jan Melissen in The New Public Diplomacy: Soft Power in International Relations, cyber-diplomacy “links the impact of innovations in communication and information technology to diplomacy.” Cyber-diplomacy is also known as or is part of public diplomacy 2.0, EDiplomacy, and virtual diplomacy. Cyber-diplomacy has as its underpinnings that, “it recognizes that new communication technologies offer new opportunities to interact with the wider public by adopting a network approach and making the most of an increasingly multicentric global, interdependent system.”

• The following are initiatives undertaken by DipNote, the Department of State’s official blog aimed at making US public diplomacy more accessible:

• President Barack Obama gave a speech addressing the Muslim world, from Cairo, Egypt in June 2009, in an attempt to foster change in the perception of the United States. His speech discussed the new beginnings and relations between the West and the Middle East. Between June and December in 2009, the DOT opened thirty discussion threads on nineteen Arab and Russian centered websites, where the primary conversation was Obama’s Cairo speech.

• Another example of a DOT initiative is the narrative of Gibran Kahlil Gibran. One of the DOT members followed the life and work of Gibran Kahlil Gibran, a Lebanese-American poet and artist. This project creates a narrative of an American who is of Middle Eastern descent and his life within the United States. Former Under Secretary of State, Charlotte Beers, stated, the use of “virtual reality to see a small town in America, to have an interview, to listen to someone recite the Declaration of Independence…that’s the goal,” of creating an American narrative. The hope is that exporting the American narrative, such as the one of Mr. Gibran's, makes American values and ideals tangible.

Third Neighbor Policy + Zero-sum• The third neighbor policy is a facet of foreign relations of Mongolia referring to its building relationships with

countries other than Russia and China, the two superpowers that historically had a sphere of influence extending to the country. Its aim is to balance out the influence from Russia and China. The economy of Mongolia is dependent on exploitation of the country's mineral resources, which include copper, gold, uranium and coal, and thus the country is vulnerable to pressure from foreign countries and corporations involved in resource extraction. Mongolia’s ambitious third neighbor policy might anger China and Russia, who fear “third neighbors” like the US, Japan, South Korea, India, and Turkey encroaching upon their resource-rich sphere of influence. So far, however, there have been no interference by China or Russia – even when Mongolia moved towards democracy and joined the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

• A zero-sum view of diplomacy is generally regarded as “I win if you lose”, resulting in solely negative political campaigns. In essence, one person’s gain is another’s loss – actors that take on this view of diplomacy look at the world in black and white and act as if in perfect competition with others.

• The most prominent example of non-zero-sum games from the subfield of social psychology is the concept of “social traps”. In some cases pursuing our personal interests can enhance our collective well-being, but in others personal interest results in mutually destructive behavior – e.g. overfishing, logging – tragedy of the commons. It has been theorized by Robert Wright in his book Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, that society becomes increasingly non-zero-sum as it becomes more complex, specialized, and interdependent. This means that zero-sum diplomacy becomes increasingly irrelevant and ineffective.

Paiza | historical diplomatic passport• A paiza or paizi or gerege was a tablet carried by Mongol officials and envoys to signify certain privileges and

authority. They enabled Mongol nobles and officials to demand goods and services from civilian populations.

• The paiza were in three different types (golden, silver, and copper) depending on the envoy's level of importance. With the paiza, there came authority that the envoy can ask for food, transport, place to stay from anywhere within the empire with no difficulties.

• The officials and nobles of the Mongol Empire issued paizas unofficially and abused civilians. Therefore, Ögedei Khan (r. 1229–1241) prohibited the nobility from issuing paizas and jarliqs.

• To attract foreign or overseas merchants and talents, the Great Khans gave them paiza exempting them from taxes and allowing them to use relay stations (yam). However, Möngke Khan (r. 1251–1259) limited notorious abuses and sent imperial investigators to supervise the business of the merchants who were sponsored by the Mongols. He prohibited them from using the imperial relay stations (yam) and paizas.

• Although paizas were popularized by the Mongols, they were not (contrary to common claim) a Mongol innovation. Similar such passports were already in use in northern China under the Liao dynasty.

Alliance• An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to

achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called allies. Alliances form in many settings, including political alliances, military alliances, and business alliances. When the term is used in the context of war or armed struggle, such associations may also be called allied powers, especially when discussing World War I or World War II.

• A formal military alliance is not required for being perceived as an ally—co-belligerence, fighting alongside someone, is enough. According to this usage, allies become so not when concluding an alliance treaty but when struck by war.

• More recently, the term "Allied forces" has also been used to describe the coalition of the Gulf War.

• Scholars are divided as to the impact of alliances. Several studies find that defensive alliances deter conflict. One study questions these findings, showing that alliance commitments deterred conflict in the prenuclear era but has no meaningful impact on war in the postnuclear era. Another study finds that while alliance commitments deter conflict between sides with a recent history of conflict, alliances tend to provoke conflicts between states without such a history.

• A 2003 study found that allies fulfill their alliance commitments approximately 75% of the time. Most research suggests that democracies are more reliable allies than non-democracies. A 2004 study did however question whether alliance commitments by democracies are more durable.

• Link: nuclear diplomacy

Summit• A summit meeting (or just summit) is an international meeting of heads of state or government, usually with

considerable media exposure, tight security, and a prearranged agenda. Notable summit meetings include those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin during World War II. However, the term summit was not commonly used for such meetings until the Geneva Summit (1955). During the Cold War, when American presidents joined with Soviet or Chinese counterparts for one-on-one meetings, the media labelled the event as a “summit”. The post–Cold War era has produced an increase in the number of “summit” events.

• Nowadays, international summits are the most common expression for global governance – the movement towards transnational political cooperation, aimed at negotiating responses to problems that affect multiple actors – done through regulation by international institutions with demarcated power to ensure compliance (UN, World Bank, International Criminal Court etc.).

Embargo• An embargo (severe economic sanction) is the partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade with one

country or more. Embargoes are considered strong diplomatic measures imposed in an effort, by the imposing country, to elicit a given national-interest result from the country on which it is imposed. Embargoes are generally considered legal barriers to trade, not to be confused with blockades, which are often considered to be acts of war.

• In response to embargoes, an independent economy or autarky often develops in an area subjected to heavy embargo. Effectiveness of embargoes is thus in proportion to the extent and degree of international participation.

• Economic sanctions are used as a tool of foreign policy by many governments. Economic sanctions are usually imposed by a larger country upon a smaller country for one of two reasons—either the latter is a threat to the security of the former nation or that country treats its citizens unfairly. They can be used as a coercive measure for achieving particular policy goals related to trade or for humanitarian violations. Economic sanctions are used as an alternative weapon instead of going to war to achieve desired outcomes.

• Some policy analysts believe imposing trade restrictions only serves to hurt ordinary people.

• Regime change is the most frequent foreign policy objective of economic sanctions. Jeremy Greenstock suggests that the reason sanctions are popular is not that they are known to be effective, but “that there is nothing else between words and military action if you want to bring pressure upon a government”.

Embargo | examples• One of the most comprehensive attempts at an embargo happened during the Napoleonic Wars. In an attempt to cripple

the United Kingdom economically, the Continental System – which forbade European nations from trading with the UK – was created. In practice it was not completely enforceable and was as harmful if not more so to the nations involved than to the British.

• The United States imposed an embargo on Cuba on March 14, 1958, during the Fulgencio Batista regime, at first the embargo applied only to arms sales, however it was later expanded to include other imports, being extended to almost all imports on February 7, 1962. Referred to by Cuba as "el bloqueo" (the blockade), the U.S. embargo on Cuba remains one of the longest-standing embargoes. The embargo was embraced by few of the United States' allies and apparently has done little to affect Cuban policies over the years. Nonetheless, while taking some steps to allow limited economic exchanges with Cuba, President Barack Obama reaffirmed the policy, stating that without improved human rights and freedoms by Cuba's current government, the embargo remains “in the national interest of the United States.”

• In 1973–1974, Arab nations imposed an oil embargo against the United States and other industrialized nations that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War. The results included a sharp rise in oil prices and OPEC revenues, an emergency period of energy rationing, a global economic recession, large-scale conservation efforts, and long-lasting shifts toward natural gas, ethanol, nuclear and other alternative energy sources.

• In effort to punish South Africa for its policies of apartheid, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a voluntary international oil embargo against South Africa on November 20, 1987; that embargo had the support of 130 countries.

• Link: OPEC

Persona non grata• In diplomacy, a persona non grata (Latin: “person not appreciated”) is a foreign person whose entering or

remaining in a particular country is prohibited by that country's government. Being so named is the most serious form of censure which a country can apply to foreign diplomats, who are otherwise protected by diplomatic immunity from arrest and other normal kinds of prosecution.

• Under Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a receiving state may “at any time and without having to explain its decision” declare any member of a diplomatic staff persona non grata. A person so declared is considered unacceptable and is usually recalled to his or her home nation. If not recalled, the receiving state “may refuse to recognize the person concerned as a member of the mission”.

• With the protection of mission staff from prosecution for violating civil and criminal laws, depending on rank, under Articles 41 and 42 of the Vienna Convention, they are bound to respect national laws and regulations. Breaches of these articles can lead to a persona non grata declaration being used to punish erring staff. It is also used to expel diplomats suspected of espionage or any overt criminal act such as drug trafficking. The declaration may also be a symbolic indication of displeasure.

• So-called tit for tat exchanges have occurred (whereby ambassadors of countries involved in a dispute each expel the ambassador of the other country), notably during the Cold War. A notable occurrence outside of the Cold War was an exchange between the United States and Ecuador in 2011: the Ecuadorian government expelled the United States ambassador, as a result of diplomatic cables leaking (WikiLeaks), the United States responded by expelling the Ecuadorian ambassador.

Extraterritoriality• Extraterritoriality is the state of being exempted from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of

diplomatic negotiations.

• Historically, this primarily applied to individuals, as jurisdiction was usually claimed on peoples rather than on lands. Extraterritoriality can also be applied to physical places, such as foreign embassies, military bases of foreign countries, or offices of the United Nations. The three most common cases recognized today internationally relate to the persons and belongings of foreign heads of state, the persons and belongings of ambassadors and other diplomats, and ships in international waters.

• Notable example: Western (British) officials in China during the Opium Wars

Sanctions• International sanctions are actions taken by countries against others for political reasons

• Types of sanctions:

1. Diplomatic sanctions – the reduction or removal of diplomatic ties, such as embassies.

2. Economic sanctions – typically a ban on trade, possibly limited to certain sectors such as armaments, or with certain exceptions (such as food and medicine)

3. Military sanctions – military intervention

4. Sport sanctions – preventing one country's people and teams from competing in international events, for example in rugby during South Africa’s apartheid period.

5. Sanctions on Environment – since the declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, international environmental protection efforts have been increased gradually.

• Economic sanctions are distinguished from trade sanctions, which are applied for purely economic reasons, and typically take the form of tariffs or similar measures, rather than bans on trade.

• 3 reasons for sanctions: 1) force cooperation with international law; 2) contain threats to peace (Iran nuclear proliferation); and 3) UN Security Council condemnation

• Link: same reasons (coercive action, humanitarian violations) and consequences (autarky, harming ordinary citizens) as embargo

Self-determination• The right of people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law. It states that a

people, based on respect for the principle of equal rights and fair equality of opportunity, have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no interference.

• The concept was first expressed in the 1860s, and spread rapidly thereafter.

• During and after World War I, the principle was encouraged by both Vladimir Lenin and United States President Woodrow Wilson. Having announced his Fourteen Points, Wilson stated: “National aspirations must be respected; people may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent”.

• During World War II, the principle was included in the Atlantic Charter, signed on 14 August 1941, by FDR and Churchill. By extension the term self-determination has come to mean the free choice of one's own acts without external compulsion (basically freedom of choice).

• Links: emerged against the backdrop of imperialism and colonialism after the Peace of Westphalia; has elements of nationalism

• Notable examples: right to freedom of choice argument employed by American Revolutionaries

Polarity• Polarity is any of the various ways in which power is distributed within the international system. It describes

the nature of the international system at any given period of time. One generally distinguishes four types of

systems: unipolarity, bipolarity, tripolarity, and multipolarity. The type of system is completely

dependent on the distribution of power and influence of states in a region or globally.

• The post-Cold War international system (which was bipolar) is unipolar: The United States’ defense spending

is “close to half of global military expenditures; a blue-water navy superior to all others combined; a chance at a

powerful nuclear first strike over its erstwhile foe, Russia; a defense research and development budget that is 80

percent of the total defense expenditures of its most obvious future competitor, China; and unmatched global

power-projection capabilities.”

Polarity | unipolar and bipolar• Nuno P. Monteiro, assistant professor of political science at Yale University, argues that three features are

endemic to unipolar systems:

1. Unipolarity is an interstate system and not an empire. Monteiro cites Robert Jervis of Columbia University to support his claim, who argues that “unipolarity implies the existence of many juridically equal nation-states, something that an empire denies.”

2. Unipolarity is anarchical. Anarchy results from the incomplete power preponderance of the unipole.

3. Unipolar systems possess only one great power and face no competition. If a competitor emerges, the international system is no longer unipolar.

• Historical examples of bipolarity:

• Great Britain and France in 18th century since the end of the War of the Spanish Succession until the Seven Years' War (1754-1763).

• The United Kingdom and Russia in 19th century since the end of the Napoleonic Wars until the Crimean War (1853-1856).

• The United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War (1947-1991).

Realpolitik• Realpolitik is politics or diplomacy based primarily on considerations of given circumstances and factors, rather than

explicit ideological notions or moral and ethical premises. In this respect, it shares aspects of its philosophical approach with those of realism and pragmatism. It is often simply referred to as pragmatism in politics, e.g. “pursuing pragmatic policies”. The term Realpolitik, coined in 1853 by Ludwig von Rochau, is sometimes used pejoratively to imply politics that are perceived as coercive, amoral, or Machiavellian. It emerged when Rochau realized that the liberals of the Enlightenment made the mistake of assuming the law of “might is right” was gone just because it was shown to be unjust. In reality, the proponents of realpolitik don’t care about what is just or unjust – they just work with what they have, without moral premise.

• Realpolitik can be described as the exercise of policies that are in line with accepted theories of political realism. In either case, the working hypothesis is generally that policy is chiefly based on the pursuit, possession, and application of power.

• Notable examples of realpolitik:

1. Kissinger, who encouraged Nixon to reach out to China despite ideological differences

2. Machiavelli, who argued in The Prince that the sole aim of politicians is to seek power

3. Bismarck, who coined the term balance of power

4. Sun Tzu, who foreshadowed realpolitik elements in the Art of War

5. Lee Kuan Yew, whose PAP government in Singapore embodied rationalism and the absence of ideology

Pen to PaperThe Outcomes of Diplomacy

Notable Pacts and Treaties | Institutions of Accord

Amarna Letters• The Amarna letters are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between

the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom. The letters were found in Upper Egypt at Amarna, the modern name for the ancient Egyptian capital of Akhetaten (el-Amarna), founded by pharaoh Akhenaten (1350s – 1330s BC) during the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. The Amarna letters are unusual in Egyptological research, because they are mostly written in Akkadian cuneiform, the writing system of ancient Mesopotamia, rather than that of ancient Egypt.

• The Amarna letters are of great significance for biblical studies as well as Semitic linguistics, since they shed light on the culture and language of the Canaanite peoples in pre-biblical times.

• The letters have been important in establishing both the history and the chronology of the period. Letters from the Babylonian king, Kadashman-Enlil I, anchor the timeframe of Akhenaten’s reign to the mid-14th century BC. They also contain the first mention of a Near Eastern group known as the Habiru, whose possible connection with the Hebrews —due to the similarity of the words and their geographic location — remains debated.

• In the letters, the quarrelsome king, Rib-Hadda, of Byblos, who, in over 58 letters, continuously pleads for Egyptian military help. Specifically, the letters include requests for military help in the north against Hittite invaders, and in thesouth to fight against the Habiru.

Treaty of Nerchinsk• The Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 was the first treaty between Russia and

China. The Russians gave up the area north of the Amur River as far as the Stanovoy Mountains and kept the area between the Argun River and Lake Baikal. This border along the Argun River and Stanovoy Mountains lasted until the Amur Annexation in 1860. The agreement was signed in Nerchinsk on August 27, 1689. The signatories were Songgotu on behalf of the Kangxi Emperor and Fyodor Golovin on behalf of the Russian tsars Peter I and Ivan V.

• From about 1640, Russians entered the Amur basin from the north, into land claimed by the Manchus who at this time were just beginning their conquest of China. The Manchus had, by the 1680s, completed the conquest of China and eliminated the last Ming successor states in the south. By 1685 most of the Russians had been driven out of the area. After their first victory at Albazin in 1685, the Qing government sent two letters to the Tsar (in Latin) suggesting peace and demanding that Russian freebooters leave the Amur. The Russian government, knowing that the Amur could not be defended and being more concerned with events in the west, sent Fyodor Golovin east as plenipotentiary.

The treaty had six paragraphs:

1 and 2: definition of the border,

3. Albazin to be abandoned and destroyed.

4. Refugees who arrived before the treaty to

stay, those arriving after the treaty to be sent

back.

5. Trade to be allowed with proper documents.

6. Boundary stones to be erected, and general

exhortations to avoid conflict.

Peace of Westphalia• The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed in the Westphalian cities of Münster and Osnabrück,

effectively ending the European wars of religion. These treaties ended the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) in the Holy Roman Empire between the Habsburgs and their Catholic allies on one side, and the Protestant powers and their French allies on the other. The treaties also ended the Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648) between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the independence of the Dutch Republic.

• The Peace of Westphalia established a new system of political order in central Europe based upon the concept of sovereign states, which became known as Westphalian sovereignty. A norm was established against interference in another state’s domestic affairs. Inter-state aggression was to be held in check by balance of power – multipolar world order. The negotiations also established the precedent of peace established by diplomatic congress. As European influence spread across the globe, these Westphalian principles became central to international law and to the prevailing world order. However, some have argued that Westphalian sovereignty was obsolete with the advent of globalization.

• The main tenets of the Peace of Westphalia were:

1. All parties would recognize the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, in which each prince would have the right to determine the religion of his own state, the options being Catholicism, Lutheranism, and now Calvinism.

2. Christians living in principalities where their denomination was not the established church were guaranteed the right to practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private at their will.

3. General recognition of the exclusive sovereignty of each party over its lands, people, and agents abroad, and responsibility for the warlike acts of any of its citizens or agents. Issuance of unrestricted letters of marque and reprisal to privateers was forbidden.

Abuja Treaty• The Abuja Treaty, an international agreement signed on June 3, 1991, in Abuja, Nigeria, created the African

Economic Community, and called for an African Central Bank to follow by 2028. The current plan is to establish an African Economic Community with a single currency by 2023.

• The African Economic Community (AEC) is an organization of African Union states establishing grounds for mutual economic development among the majority of African states. The stated goals of the organization include the creation of free trade areas, customs unions, a single market, a central bank, and a common currency (see African Monetary Union) thus establishing an economic and monetary union.

• The African Monetary Union is the proposed creation of an economic and monetary union for the countries of the African Union, administered by the African Central Bank. Such a union would call for the creation of a new unified currency, similar to the euro; the hypothetical currency is sometimes referred to as the afro or afriq.

Treaty of Utrecht• The Treaty of Utrecht is a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed by the

belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession. Before Charles II of Spain died in 1700, having no Habsburg heirs, he had named Philip, the Duke of Anjou, a French Bourbon, as his successor. Philip was the grandson of Charles’ half-sister, Maria Theresa of Spain and Louis XIV of France. However, Philip was also in line for the French throne, and the other major powers (countries) in Europe were not willing to tolerate the potential union of two such powerful states. Essentially, the treaties allowed Philip to take the Spanish throne as Philip V in return for permanently renouncing his claim to the French throne, along with other necessary guarantees that would ensure that France and Spain should not merge, thus preserving the multipolar balance of power in Europe.

• The Treaty, which ushered in the stable and characteristic period of Eighteenth-Century civilization, marked the end of danger to Europe from the old French monarchy and hegemony, and it marked a change of no less significance to the world at large, — the maritime, commercial and financial supremacy of Great Britain.

• Links: multipolarity

Paris Peace Accords• The Paris Peace Accords, officially titled the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in

Vietnam, was a peace treaty signed on January 27, 1973 to establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War. The treaty included the governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) that represented indigenous South Vietnamese revolutionaries. It ended direct U.S. military combat, and temporarily stopped the fighting between North and South Vietnam. However, the agreement was not ratified by the United States Senate.

• The main negotiators of the agreement were United States National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese politburo member Lê Đức Thọ; the two men were awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts, although Lê Đức Thọ refused to accept it.

Antarctic Treaty• The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulate

international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude. The treaty entered into force in 1961 and currently has 53 parties. The treaty sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation and bans military activity on the continent. The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War. Since September 2004, the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat headquarters has been located in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

• The main treaty was opened for signature on December 1 1959 and officially entered into force on June 23 1961. The original signatories were the 12 countries active in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957–58. The twelve countries that had significant interests in Antarctica at the time were: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries had established over 50 Antarctic stations for the IGY. The treaty was a diplomatic expression of the operational and scientific cooperation that had been achieved "on the ice".

Khitomer Accords• The Khitomer Accords consist of two historic peace treaties between the Klingon Empire and the United

Federation of Planets and were the first step in reconciliation between the two powers.

• The accords were signed at the Khitomer Conference in 2293 on the Klingon planet Khitomer.

• The explosion of the Klingon moon Praxis in 2293 caused severe ecological disasters on the Klingon Homeworld and an almost complete shutdown of Klingon economy. Following these events, the Klingon chancellor Gorkon started peace talks with the Federation in which Captain Spock served as special envoy to the Empire. The peace conference was first scheduled to be held on Earth, but was later relocated due to Chancellor Gorkon's assassination on his way to Earth. The new venue was Camp Khitomer, on the Klingon planet Khitomer, which was kept secret in order to prevent further assaults.

• Curzon Dax represented the Federation in the negotiations, at which the Romulan Senator Pardek was also present.

• As part of the agreement, the Empire relinquished its historical claims to the Archanis sector, which is located in Federation territory on the Klingon border.

• The Second Khitomer Accords banned the use of Subspace weapons. The Son'a openly flouted this accord in 2375.

Treaty of Tordesillas • On June 7, 1494, the governments of Spain and Portugal agreed to the Treaty of Tordesillas. The Treaty of Tordesillas

neatly divided the “New World” of the Americas between the two superpowers.

• Spain and Portugal divided the New World by drawing a line in the Atlantic Ocean, about 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, then controlled by Portugal. All lands east of that line (about 46 degrees, 37 minutes West) were claimed by Portugal. All lands west of that line were claimed by Spain.

• Spain and Portugal adhered to the treaty without major conflict, and the results linger throughout the Americas today. Most Latin American nations are Spanish-speaking countries, for instance, but Portuguese is the leading official language in Brazil. This is because the eastern tip of Brazil penetrates the line agreed to in the Treaty of Tordesillas, so the region was colonized by Portugal.

• The treaty ignored any future claims of the British and French, the other European superpowers of the time. Eventually the other superpowers ignored the treaty as it became obsolete – both with the declination of Spain and Portugal’s powers as well as the discovery of lands in Asia and Africa.

• Most importantly, however, the Treaty of Tordesillas, completely ignored the millions of people already living in established communities in the Americas. The treaty stipulated that any lands with a “Christian king” would not be colonized. Christianity had not spread to the Americas, and the resulting colonization proved disastrous for indigenous cultures such as the Inca, Taino, Aztec, Tupi, and thousands of other bands throughout the Americas.

Paris Climate Agreement• The aim of the convention is described in Article 2, “enhancing the implementation” of the UNFCCC through:

• (a) Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change;

• (b) Increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production;

• (c) Making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.

• Countries furthermore aim to reach “global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible”. The agreement has been described as an incentive for and driver of fossil fuel divestment.

• In the Paris Agreement, each country determines, plans and regularly reports its own contribution it should make in order to mitigate global warming, called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). There is no mechanism to force a country to set a specific target by a specific date, but each target should go beyond previously set targets.

Sugauli Treaty• The Treaty of Sugauli which established the boundary line of Nepal was signed between the East India Company and King

of Nepal following the Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16. The signatory for Nepal was Raj Guru Gajraj Mishra, the signatory

for the Company was Lieutenant Colonel Paris Bradshaw. The treaty called for territorial concessions in which some of the

territories controlled by Nepal would be given to British India, the establishment of a British representative in Kathmandu,

and allowed Britain to recruit Gurkhas for military service. Nepal also lost the right to employ any American or European

employee in its service (earlier several French commanders had been deployed to train the Nepali army).

• Under the treaty, some of the Nepalese controlled territory was lost including all the territories that the King of Nepal had

won in wars in the last 25 years or so such as Sikkim in the east, Kumaon Kingdom and Garhwal Kingdom in the west. Some

of the Terai lands were restored to Nepal in 1816 and more were restored in 1860 to thank for helping the British to

suppress the Indian rebellion of 1857.

• The first representative sent from Britain was Edward Gardner, who was installed at a compound north of Kathmandu – this essentially recognized Nepal’s sovereignty. That site is now called Lazimpat and is home to the Indian and British embassies.

Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty• The NPT consists of a preamble and eleven articles, but is interpreted as a three-pillar system.

1. non-proliferation

2. disarmament

3. the right to peacefully use nuclear technology

• These pillars are interrelated and mutually reinforcing. An effective nonproliferation regime whose members comply with their obligations provides an essential foundation for progress on disarmament and makes possible greater cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Douglas Treaties• The Douglas Treaties, also known as the Vancouver Island Treaties or the Fort Victoria Treaties, were a series

of treaties signed between certain indigenous groups on Vancouver Island and the Colony of Vancouver Island.

• With the signing of the Oregon Treaty in 1846, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) determined that its trapping rights in the Oregon Territory were tenuous. Thus in 1849, it moved its western headquarters from Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River to Fort Victoria. Fort Vancouver’s Chief Factor, James Douglas, was relocated to the young trading post to oversee the Company's operations west of the Rockies.

• As the colony expanded the HBC started buying up lands for colonial settlement and industry from Aboriginal peoples on Vancouver Island. For four years the governor, James Douglas, made 14 land purchases from Aboriginal peoples.

• To negotiate the terms, Douglas met first in April 1850 with leaders of the Songhees nation, and made verbal agreements. Each leader made an X at the bottom of a blank ledger. All lands purchased were exchanged for cash, clothing and blankets. The terms of the treaties promised that they would be able to retain existing village lands and fields for their use, and also would be allowed to hunt and fish on the surrendered lands.

• One of the major controversies regarding the treaties is the actual terms of the treaties were left blank at the time of signing and a number of clauses and pages were instead inserted at a later date. The Treaties were signed during a period of severe cultural destruction in which the Songhees had experienced precipitous population decline, due to the arrival of foreign diseases. The Treaties remain highly controversial given that it is unclear whether the Aboriginal leaders knew exactly what they were signing over, and given that the HBC took advantage of the recent cultural destruction by offering fairly inconsequential in exchange for large and highly valuable land purchases.

Congress of Vienna• The Congress of Vienna was a meeting of ambassadors of

European states chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich, and held in Vienna from November 1814 to June 1815. The objective of the Congress was to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The goal was not simply to restore old boundaries but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other and remain at peace. The leaders were conservatives with little use for republicanism or revolution, both of which threatened to upset the status quo in Europe. France lost all its recent conquests while Prussia, Austria and Russia made major territorial gains. Prussia added smaller German states in the west, Austria gained Venice and much of northern Italy. Russia gained parts of Poland. The new Kingdom of the Netherlands had been created just months before, and included formerly Austrian territory that in 1830 became Belgium.

Congress of Berlin• The Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878) was a meeting of the representatives of six Great powers of

the time (Russia, Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Germany), the Ottoman Empire and four Balkan states (Greece, Serbia, Romania and Montenegro), aiming at determining the territories of the states in the Balkan peninsula following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. The Congress came to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Berlin, which replaced the preliminary Treaty of San Stefano signed three months earlier between Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

• The principal mission of the participants at the congress was to deal a fatal blow to the burgeoning movement of pan-Slavism – which was the desire to unite the Balkan states under one rule.

• Though most of Europe went into the Congress expecting a diplomatic show much like the Congress of Vienna, they were to be sadly disappointed. Bismarck was short-tempered in the heat of summer. Thus, any grandstanding was cut short by the testy German chancellor. The ambassadors from the small Balkan territories whose fate was being decided were barely even allowed to attend the diplomatic meetings, which were mainly between the representatives of the Great Powers.

• According to Henry Kissinger, the congress saw a shift in Bismarck's Realpolitik. Until then, as Germany had become too powerful for isolation, his policy was to maintain the Three Emperors League. Now that he could no longer rely on Russia's alliance, he began to form relations with as many potential enemies as possible.

Conference of Ambassadors• The Conference of Ambassadors of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers was an inter-allied

organization of the Entente in the period following the end of World War I. Formed in Paris in January 1920 it became a successor of the Supreme War Council and was later on de facto incorporated into the League of Nations as one of its governing bodies. It became less active after the Locarno Treaties of 1925.

• The Conference of Ambassadors of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers was appointed by the League of Nations to take charge of the Greek/Albanian border dispute that turned into the Corfu Incident of 1923.

• The Conference consisted of ambassadors of Great Britain, Italy, and Japan accredited in Paris and French minister of foreign affairs. The ambassador of the United States attended as an observer because the United States was not an official party to the Treaty of Versailles. French diplomat René Massigli was its secretary-general for its entire existence.It was chaired by the foreign ministers of France.

• It was formed to enforce peace treaties and to mediate various territorial disputes among European states. Some of the disputed regions handled by the Conference included Silesia (between Poland and Czechoslovakia), the Vilnius Region (between Poland and Lithuania), the Klaipėda Region (between Germany and Lithuania) and the Corfu Incident (between Italy and Greece). One of its major territorial decisions was made on 15 March 1923, in recognizing the eastern borders of Poland created following the Polish–Soviet War of 1920.

G20

• The G20 is an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union, (plus Spain as a permanent guest member). Founded in 1999, the G20 aims to discuss policy pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability. It seeks to address issues that go beyond the responsibilities of any one organization. The G20 heads of government or heads of state have periodically conferred at summits since their initial meeting in 2008, and the group also hosts separate meetings of finance ministers and foreign ministers due to the expansion of its agenda in recent years.

• Membership of the G20 consists of 19 individual countries plus the European Union (EU). The EU is represented by the European Commission and by the European Central Bank. Collectively, the G20 economies account for around 85% of the gross world product (GWP), 80% of world trade, two-thirds of the world population, and approximately half of the world land area.

PurposeBring together systemically important industrialized and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy.

• OPEC’s stated mission is “to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the

stabilization of oil markets, in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a

steady income to producers, and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry.” The organization

is also a significant provider of information about the international oil market. As of May 2017, OPEC’s members

are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (the de

facto leader), United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela, while Indonesia is a former member. Two-thirds of OPEC’s oil

production and reserves are in its six Middle Eastern countries that surround the oil-rich Persian Gulf.

• The formation of OPEC marked a turning point toward national sovereignty over natural resources, and OPEC decisions

have come to play a prominent role in the global oil market and international relations. In the 1970s, restrictions in oil

production led to a dramatic rise in oil prices and OPEC's revenue and wealth, with long-lasting and far-reaching

consequences for the global economy. In the 1980s, OPEC started setting production targets for its member nations;

and generally when the production targets are reduced, oil prices increase, most recently from the organization's 2008

and 2016 decisions to trim oversupply.

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is an intergovernmental organization of 14 nations as of February 2018, founded in 1960 in Baghdad by the first five members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela), and headquartered since 1965 in Vienna, Austria. As of 2016, the 14 countries accounted for an estimated 44 percent of global oil production and 73 percent of the world’s “proven” oil reserves, giving OPEC a major influence on global oil prices that were previously determined by American-dominated multinational oil companies.

• The League’s main goal is to “draw closer the relations between member States and co-ordinate collaboration

between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and

interests of the Arab countries”.

• Following adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945. It

aimed to be a regional organization of Arab states with a focus to developing the economy, resolving disputes

and coordinating political aims. Each country was given one vote in the council. The first major action was the

joint intervention, allegedly on behalf of the majority Arab population being uprooted as the state of Israel

emerged in 1948 (and in response to popular protest in the Arab world), but a major participant in this

intervention, Transjordan, had agreed with the Israelis to divide up the Arab Palestinian state proposed by

the United Nations General Assembly. It was followed by the creation of a mutual defence treaty (Joint Defence

and Economic Cooperation) two years later. A common market was established in 1965.

The Arab League is a regional organization of Arab states in and around North Africa, the Horn of Africa and Arabia. It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Kingdom of Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, Transjordan (renamed Jordan in 1949), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria. Currently, the League has 22 members, but Syria’s participation has been suspended since November 2011, as a consequence of government repression during the Syrian Civil War.

Commonwealth of Nations

• The Commonwealth dates back to the mid-20th century with the decolonization of the British Empire through increased self-governance of its territories. It was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949, which established the member states as “free and equal”.

• Member states have no legal obligation to one another. Instead, they are united by language, history, culture and their shared values of democracy, free speech, human rights, and the rule of law. These values are enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter and promoted by the quadrennial Commonwealth Games.

• The Commonwealth of Nations (formerly the British Commonwealth is an intergovernmental organization of 53 member states that are mostly former territories of the British Empire.

APEC• Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a forum for

21 Pacific Rim member economies that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. It was established in 1989 in response to the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies and the advent of regional trade blocs in other parts of the world; to defuse fears that highly industrialized Japan would come to dominate economic activity in the Asia-Pacific region; and to establish new markets for agricultural products and raw materials beyond Europe.

• An annual APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting is attended by the heads of government of all APEC members except Republic of China (Taiwan) (which is represented by a ministerial-level official under the name Chinese Taipei as economic leader). The location of the meeting rotates annually among the member economies, and a famous tradition, followed for most (but not all) summits, involves the attending leaders dressing in a national costume of the host country. APEC has three official observers: the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretariat, the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

African Union (AU)

• The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of all 55 countries on the African continent, extending slightly into Asia via the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. It was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and launched on 9 July 2002 in South Africa, with the aim of replacing the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, with 32 signatory governments. The most important decisions of the AU are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of its member states. The AU's secretariat, the African Union Commission, is based in Addis Ababa.

European Union (EU)• The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in

Europe. The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardized system of laws that apply in all member states. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital within the internal market, enact legislation in justice and home affairs, and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries, and regional development. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished. A monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. Switzerland is not a member state.

• The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC), established, respectively, by the 1951 Treaty of Paris and 1957 Treaty of Rome. The original members of what came to be known as the European Communities, were the Inner Six; Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. The Communities and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU, the United Kingdom enacted the result of a membership referendum in June 2016 and is currently negotiating its withdrawal. The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the constitutional basis of the EU, the Treaty of Lisbon, came into force in 2009.

• The European Union provides more foreign aid than any other economic union. Additionally, 27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Off in Paris For So LongThe Role of Diplomats

Niccolò Machiavelli | realpolitik• Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli is the father of modern political science. For many years he was a senior

official in the Florentine Republic, with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He also wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. His personal correspondence is renowned by Italian scholars. He was secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici were out of power. He wrote his most well-known work The Prince (Il Principe) in 1513, having been exiled from city affairs.

• “Machiavellianism” is widely used as a negative term to characterize unscrupulous politicians of the sort Machiavelli described most famously in The Prince. Machiavelli described immoral behavior, such as dishonesty and the killing of innocents, as being normal and effective in politics. He even seemed to encourage it in some situations. The book gained notoriety due to claims that it teaches “evil recommendations to tyrants to help them maintain their power”.

• The term “Machiavellian” is often associated with political deceit, deviousness, realpolitik, and other manipulations described in “The Prince” by which one might accumulate power. On the other hand, many commentators, such as Baruch Spinoza, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot, have argued that Machiavelli was actually a republican, even when writing The Prince, and his writings were an inspiration to Enlightenment proponents of modern democratic political philosophy. In one place, for example, he noted his admiration for the selfless Roman dictator Cincinnatus.

Otto von Bismarck | realpolitik• Conservative Prussian statesman who provoked 3 short wars against Denmark, Austria, and France which he

won decisively, consolidating German power

• First chancellor of the German Empire

• Used balance of power diplomacy to maintain peace

• Annexed Alsace-Lorraine, which led to Germanophobia in France (partly caused World War I)

• Nicknamed “Iron Chancellor” for his use of realpolitik at home to build the foundation of his foreign policy –German unification and rapid economic growth

• Disliked colonialism but reluctantly built an overseas empire when the elites and mass opinion demanded it of him

• Created the first welfare state in the modern world

• Fought the Catholic Church in Kulturkampf (cultural struggle) but reversed it later to fight the Socialists

• Distrusted democracy but used it when it suited him (realpolitik)

• Negotiated with enemies and dominated his allies in the cabinet (realpolitik)

• Famously predicted World War I by saying “the Great European War will be borne out of something stupid in the Balkans”

Henry Kissinger | realpolitik• Henry Alfred Kissinger served as the United State’s Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the

presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. A Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1938, he became National Security Advisor in 1969 and United States Secretary of State in 1973. For his actions negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam, Kissinger received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize under controversial circumstances. Kissinger later sought, unsuccessfully, to return the prize after the ceasefire failed.

• A practitioner of Realpolitik, Kissinger played a prominent role in United States foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. During this period, he pioneered the policy of détente with the Soviet Union, orchestrated the opening of relations with the People's Republic of China, and negotiated the Paris Peace Accords, ending American involvement in the Vietnam War. Kissinger has also been associated with such controversial policies as U.S. involvement in a military coup in Chile and U.S. support for Pakistan during the Bangladesh War despite a genocide.

Eleanor Roosevelt | social cause• Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was an American politician, diplomat and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of

the United States, having held the post from March 1933 to April 1945 during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four terms in office, and served as United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 1945 to 1952. President Harry S. Truman later called her the “First Lady of the World” in tribute to her human rights achievements.

• After Eleanor discovered her husband’s affair with Lucy Mercer in 1918, she resolved to seek fulfillment in a public life of her own. She persuaded Franklin to stay in politics after he was stricken with paralytic illness in 1921, which cost him the normal use of his legs, and began giving speeches and appearing at campaign events in his place. While her husband served as President, she significantly reshaped and redefined the role of First Lady.

• Though widely respected in her later years, Roosevelt as First Lady was controversial at the time for her outspokenness, particularly her stance on racial issues. On some occasions, she publicly disagreed with her husband’s policies. She launched an experimental community at Arthurdale, West Virginia, for the families of unemployed miners, later widely regarded as a failure. She advocated for expanded roles for women in the workplace, the civil rights of African Americans and Asian Americans, and the rights of World War II refugees.

• Following her husband’s death in 1945, Roosevelt remained active in politics for the remaining 17 years of her life. She pressed the United States to join and support the United Nations and became its first delegate. She served as the first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights and oversaw the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Later she chaired the John F. Kennedy administration’s Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.

K.R. Narayanan | social cause• Narayanan began his career in India as a member of the Indian Foreign Service in the Nehru administration. He

served as ambassador to Japan, United Kingdom, Thailand, Turkey, the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America and was referred to by Nehru as “the best diplomat of the country”. Elected as the ninth Vice President in 1992, Narayanan went on to become President in 1997. He was the first member of the Dalit community to hold the post.

• President Narayanan in his speeches consistently sought to remind the nation of its duties and obligations towards the Dalits and Adivasis, the minorities, and the poor and downtrodden. Drawing from the experiences of his own home state Kerala, he pointed out that education was at the root of human and economic development. He hoped that the establishment would not fear the awakening of the masses through education, and spoke of the need to have faith in the people.

Thomas Jefferson• Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of

Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Previously, he was elected the second Vice President of the United States, serving under John Adams from 1797 to 1801.

• He graduated from the College of William & Mary and briefly practiced law, at times defending slaves seeking their freedom. He became the United States Minister to France in May 1785, and subsequently the nation's first Secretary of State in 1790–1793 under President George Washington. Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose Hamilton’s Federalist Party. With Madison, he anonymously wrote the controversial Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in 1798–1799, which sought to embolden states’ rights in opposition to the national government by nullifying the Alien and Sedition Acts.

• As President, Jefferson pursued the nation’s shipping and trade interests against Barbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies. He also organized the Louisiana Purchase, almost doubling the country’s territory and organized the Lewis and Clark expedition exploring it. Through peace negotiations with France, his administration reduced military forces. American foreign trade was diminished when Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act of 1807, responding to British threats to U.S. shipping. In 1803, Jefferson began the controversial process of Indian tribe removal to the newly organized Louisiana Territory.

• Link: embargo

Kim Dae-jung | detente• Kim Dae-jung was President of South Korea from 1998 to 2003, the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and the

only Korean Nobel Prize recipient in history. He was referred to as the “Nelson Mandela of South Korea”.

• His policy of engagement with North Korea has been termed the Sunshine Policy. He moved to begin détente with the communist government in North Korea, which culminated in a historic summit meeting in 2000 in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. This marked a critical juncture in inter-Korean relations, and the two Koreas have had direct contact with each other since. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for these efforts.

• During his presidency, he introduced South Korea's contemporary welfare state, successfully shepherded the country’s economic recovery, brought in economic transparency by reducing state subsidies to chaebols and holding them accountable, as well as fostered a greater role for South Korea on the world stage.

• In 1973, he was kidnapped and almost killed for his criticism of military dictator Park Chung-he, and was in political exile in the US after being sentenced to death in 1980 on charges of sedition.

Oscar Arias• Arias’ presidency of Costa Rice saw the transformation of its economy from one based on the traditional cash

crops (coffee and bananas) to one more focused on non-traditional agriculture (e.g. of exotic flowers and fruits) and tourism. Some within the PLN criticized his administration for abandoning the party’s social democratic teachings and promoting a neoliberal (laissez-faire) economic model.

• Arias received the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for his work towards the signing of the Esquipulas II Accords. This was a plan intended to promote democracy and peace during the Central American crisis, in which major civil wars and communist revolutions erupted in the context of the Cold War, as the United States pursued their interests in the region through puppet governments and the elite class, who ignored the wellbeing of the peasants and working class.

• Arias then called for a higher level of integration in the Central America region and promoted the creation of the Central American Parliament. During his current administration, Arias has declared that Costa Rica will not enter the Central American Parliament. Arias also modified the country's educational system. The most notable action in this respect was the reintroduction of standardized academic tests at the end of primary and secondary school.

• Arias also changed Costa Rica’s diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China.

• Link: laissez-faire economics (social studies)

Zhou Enlai | detente• Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death

in January 1976. Zhou served along with Chairman Mao Zedong and was instrumental in the Communist Party’s rise to and consolidation of power, forming foreign policy, and developing the Chinese economy.

• A skilled and able diplomat, Zhou served as the Chinese foreign minister from 1949 to 1958. Advocating peaceful coexistence with the West after the stalemated Korean War, he helped orchestrate Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to China.

• Zhou survived the purges of other top officials during the Cultural Revolution. While Mao dedicated most of his later years to political struggle and ideological work, Zhou was the main driving force behind the affairs of state during much of the Cultural Revolution. His attempts at mitigating the Red Guards’ damage and his efforts to protect others from their wrath made him immensely popular in the Cultural Revolution's later stages.

• Link: Kissinger’s counterpart

Mikhail Gorbachev | detente• Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was the eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, having been General

Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991.

• Gorbachev's policies of glasnost (openness and freedom of speech) and perestroika (economic restructuring away from planned economy) and his reorientation of Soviet strategic aims contributed to the end of the Cold War. For this, he was awarded the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize. Under this program, the role of the Communist Party in governing the state was removed from the constitution, which led to crisis-level political instability with the resulting surge of regional nationalist and anti-communist activism culminating in the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev later expressed regret for his failure to save the USSR, though he has insisted that his policies were not failures but rather were vitally necessary reforms which were sabotaged and exploited by opportunists.

• Link: Détente

• Abandoned Brezhnev doctrine and announced non-intervention in foreign states’ affairs (esp. Warsaw Pact) –loosened Soviet hegemony effectively caused the end of the Soviet Union and thus the Cold War;

• Improved trade and personal relationships with Western leaders (esp. Reagan, Thatcher) – negotiated nuclear arms reduction deals

• Withdrew troops from Afghanistan

Samantha Power• Samantha Jane Power is an Irish-born American academic, author, political critic, and diplomat who served

as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017.

• Power began her career by covering the Yugoslav Wars as a journalist. She was a senior adviser to Senator Barack Obama until March 2008, when she resigned from his presidential campaign after apologizing for referring to then-Senator Hillary Clinton as “a monster”.

• In April 2012, Obama chose her to chair a newly formed Atrocities Prevention Board. She is considered to have been a key figure in the Obama administration in persuading the president to intervene militarily in Libya. In 2016, she was listed as the 41st most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

• Power is a subject of the 2014 documentary Watchers of the Sky, which explains the contribution of several notable people, including Power, to the cause of genocide prevention. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for her book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, a study of the U.S. foreign policy response to genocide.

• Link: realpolitik and association with Kissinger – she advocated for the use of military power to solve human rights abuses and war atrocities (using humanitarian grounds to justify military intervention)

Ban Ki-moon• Ban Ki-moon is a South Korean diplomat who was the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations from

January 2007 to December 2016. Before becoming Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he graduated from university, accepting his first post in New Delhi, India.

• Ban was the foreign minister of South Korea until 2006, when he began to campaign for the office of Secretary-General. Ban was initially considered to be a long shot for the office. As foreign minister of South Korea, however, he was able to travel to all the countries on the United Nations Security Council, a maneuver that turned him into the campaign's front runner.

• Ban was responsible for several major reforms on peacekeeping and UN employment practices. Diplomatically, Ban has taken particularly strong views on global warming, pressing the issue repeatedly with U.S. President George W. Bush, and on the Darfur conflict, where he helped persuade Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir to allow peacekeeping troops to enter Sudan.

Dag Hammarskjöld• Dag Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author who served as the second Secretary-General

of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. At the age of 47 years upon his appointment, Hammarskjöld was the youngest to have held the post. He is one of only four people to be awarded a posthumous Nobel Prize and was the only United Nations Secretary-General to die while in office. He was killed in a DC-6 airplane crash en route to cease-fire negotiations during the Congo Crisis, a US-Soviet proxy war.

• During his term, Hammarskjöld tried to smooth relations between Israel and the Arab states. Other highlights include a 1955 visit to China to negotiate the release of 11 captured US pilots who had served in the Korean War, the 1956 establishment of the United Nations Emergency Force, and his intervention in the 1956 Suez Crisis. He is given credit by some historians for allowing participation of the Holy See within the United Nations that year.

• Conspiracy theory: he was killed due to his efforts towards securing Congolese independence, as Congo’s independence would have hurt the interests of the CIA, MI6, a Belgian mining company, and a South African paramilitary unit

U Thant• Burmese diplomat U Thant was appointed as UN Secretary-General in 1961, when his predecessor, Dag

Hammarskjöld, died in an air crash. In his first term, Thant facilitated negotiations between U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), helping to avert a global catastrophe. Later, in December 1962, Thant ordered Operation Grandslam, which ended a secessionist insurgency in Congo. In his second term, Thant was well known for publicly criticizing American conduct in the Vietnam War. There is an island in NYC off Brooklyn named after him.

• Links: Cuban Missile Crisis; Arab-Israeli conflict; closure on Congolese crisis; Vietnam War (Paris Peace Accords)

Ambassador Spock• After retiring from Starfleet, Spock serves as a Federation ambassador, contributing toward the easing of the

strained relationship between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. In his later years, he serves as Federation Ambassador-at-Large to the Romulan Star Empire and becomes involved in the ill-fated attempt to save Romulus from a supernova, leading him to live out the rest of his life in the parallel timeline introduced in Star Trek (2009).

• Link: Khitomer Accords (Star Trek) between Klingon and Federation

Colin Powell• Powell was perceived as moderate and was the first ever African-American Secretary of State under the Bush

administration. Over the course of his tenure he traveled less than any other U.S. Secretary of State in 30 years.

• After the September 11 attacks, Powell’s job became of critical importance in managing America’s relationships with foreign countries in order to secure a stable coalition in the War on Terrorism.

• Powell came under fire for his role in building the case for the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Although initially opposed to the idea, Powell eventually agreed to go along with the Bush administration’s determination to remove Saddam. He had often clashed with others in the administration, who were reportedly planning an Iraq invasion even before the September 11 attacks. The main concession Powell wanted before he would offer his full support for the Iraq War was the involvement of the international community in the invasion, as opposed to a unilateral approach. He was also successful in persuading Bush to take the case of Iraq to the United Nation.

• Powell’s chief diplomatic role was to garner international support for a multi-national coalition to mount the invasion. To this end, Powell addressed a plenary session of the United Nations Security Council to argue in favor of military action. This was controversial as it emerged that many “facts” in his speech were falsehoods designed by the Bush administration to convince other countries to help stage the Iraq invasion.

António Guterres• António Guterres was previously the Prime Minister of Portugal and is serving as the ninth Secretary-General of

the United Nations. Previously, he was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015, famously appointing Angelina Jolie as Special Envoy. He worked chiefly to secure international aid for refugees, especially those displaced by the Syrian Civil War.

July Crisis• The July Crisis was a diplomatic crisis among the major powers of Europe in the summer of 1914 that led

to World War I. The crisis was set in motion on June 28, 1914 when Slavic nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo. In the immediate aftermath, a series of diplomatic maneuvers led to an ultimatum from Austria-Hungary to the Kingdom of Serbia, and eventually led to war.

• The assassination had been carried out by those wishing to unite all of the territories with majority South Slavicpopulation not already ruled by the Kingdom of Serbia (pan-Slavism). Austria-Hungary’s post-assassination ultimatum was part of a coercive program meant to weaken the Kingdom of Serbia’s threat to take control of the northern Balkans and its significant Southern Slavic population, especially the Bosnian Serbs. This was intended to be achieved either through diplomacy or by a localized war if the ultimatum were rejected. A month after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.This local conflict ultimately expanded into World War I as more powers became involved.

• Links: pan-Slavism, coercive diplomacy

Cuban Missile Crisis• The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis or the Missile Scare, was a 13-day (October 16-28

1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning American ballistic missile deployment in Italy and Turkey with consequent Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.

• In response to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961 and the presence of American Jupiter ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev decided to agree to Cuba and Castro’s request to place nuclear missiles on the island to deter future US invasion.

• The 1962 United States elections were under way, and the White House had for months denied charges that it was ignoring dangerous Soviet missiles off Florida. The missile preparations were confirmed when an Air Force U-2 spy plane produced clear photographic evidence of the missiles. The U.S. established a military blockade to prevent further missiles from reaching Cuba; Oval Office tapes during the crisis revealed that Kennedy had also put the blockade in place as an attempt to provoke Soviet-backed forces in Berlin as well. It announced that they would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba and demanded that the weapons already in Cuba be dismantled and returned to the Soviet Union.

Cuban Missile Crisis• After a long period of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between U.S. President John F. Kennedy

and Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, subject to United Nations verification, in exchange for a U.S. public declaration and agreement to avoid invading Cuba again. Secretly, the United States also agreed that it would dismantle all U.S.-built Jupiter MRBMs, which had been deployed in Turkey against the Soviet Union.

• The blockade was formally ended on November 21, 1962. The negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union pointed out the necessity of a quick, clear, and direct communication line between Washington and Moscow. As a result, the Moscow–Washington hotline was established. A series of agreements reduced US-Soviet tensions for several years.

Fashoda Incident• The Fashoda Incident was the climax of imperial territorial disputes between Britain and France in Eastern Africa,

occurring in 1898. Whoever gained Fashoda would be able to proceed with its colonialist plans as it was the direct intersection point of British and French lands. A French expedition to Fashoda on the White Nile river sought to gain control of the Upper Nile river basin and thereby exclude Britain from the Sudan. The French party and British-Egyptian forces met on friendly terms, but it became a war scare back in Europe. The British held firm as both empires stood on the verge of war with heated rhetoric on both sides. Under heavy pressure the French withdrew, securing Anglo-Egyptian control over the area. The status quo was recognized by an agreement between the two states acknowledging British control over Egypt, while France became the dominant power in Morocco. France had failed in its main goals.

• Bell says: “Between the two governments there was a brief battle of wills, with the British insisting on immediate and unconditional French withdrawal from Fashoda. The French had to accept these terms, amounting to a public humiliation...Fashoda was long remembered in France as an example of British brutality and injustice.”

• It was a diplomatic victory for the British as the French realized that in the long run they needed the friendship of Britain in case of a war between France and Germany. It was the last crisis between the two that involved a threat of war and opened the way for closer relations in the Entente cordiale of 1904. It gave rise to the ‘Fashoda syndrome’ in French foreign policy, or seeking to assert French influence in areas which might be becoming susceptible to British influence.

Great Game• The Great Game was a political and diplomatic confrontation that existed for most of the nineteenth century

between the British Empire and the Russian Empire over Afghanistan and neighboring territories in Central and Southern Asia. Russia was fearful of British commercial and military inroads into Central Asia, and Britain was fearful of Russia adding “the jewel in the crown”, India, to the vast empire that Russia was building in Asia. This resulted in an atmosphere of distrust and the constant threat of war between the two empires.

• The Great Game began on 12 January 1830 when Lord Ellenborough, the President of the Board of Control for India, tasked Lord William Bentinck, the Governor-General, to establish a new trade route to the Emirate of Bukhara. Britain intended to gain control over the Emirate of Afghanistan and make it a protectorate, and to use the Ottoman Empire, the Persian Empire, the Khanate of Khiva, and the Emirate of Bukhara as buffer states between both empires. This would protect India and also key British sea trade routes by stopping Russia from gaining a port on the Persian Gulf or the Indian Ocean. Russia proposed Afghanistan as the neutral zone. The results included the failed First Anglo-Afghan War of 1838, the First Anglo-Sikh War of 1845, the Second Anglo-Sikh War of 1848, the Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878, and the annexation of Khiva, Bukhara, and Kokand by Russia.

One China Policy• The “One China principle” is the principle that insists both Taiwan and mainland China are inalienable parts of a

single China. The 1992 Consensus is the current policy of the PRC government, and at times, the policy of the ROC government, depending on which major political party is in power. Under this consensus, both governments agree that there is only one sovereign state encompassing both mainland China and Taiwan, but disagree about which of the two governments is the legitimate government of this state. An analogous situation existed with West and East Germany in 1949-72, with North and South Vietnam in 1955-75, and with North and South Yemen in 1967-90, and still exists today with North and South Korea, the Syrian government and Syrian opposition, but has never existed with the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, or with Sudan and South Sudan.

• The One-China principle faces opposition from supporters of the Taiwan independence movement, which pushes to establish the Republic of Taiwan and cultivate a separate identity apart from China called Taiwanization.

• Link: Taiwanese self-determination

Middle East Qatari embargo• The 2017–18 Qatar diplomatic crisis began when several countries abruptly cut off diplomatic

relations with Qatar in June 2017. These countries included Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt. The severing of relations included withdrawing ambassadors and imposing trade and travel bans.

• The crisis is an escalation of the Qatar–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict. The Saudi-led coalition cited Qatar's alleged support for terrorism as the main reason for their actions, insisting that Qatar has violated a 2014 agreement with the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Saudi Arabia and other countries have criticized Al Jazeera and Qatar’s relations with Iran. Qatar claims that it has assisted the United States in the War on Terror and the ongoing military intervention against ISIL.

Zimmermann Telegram• The Zimmermann Telegram was a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign

Office in January 1917 that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico in the prior event of the United States entering World War I against Germany. This was intended to delay US involvement in the war as well as slow down US military supplies to the Allied powers. Mexico would recover Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. The proposal was intercepted and decoded by British intelligence. Revelation of the contents enraged American public opinion, especially after the German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann publicly admitted the telegram was genuine on March 3, and helped generate support for the United States declaration of war on Germany in April. The decryption was described as the most significant intelligence triumph for Britain during World War I, and one of the earliest occasions on which signals intelligence influenced world events.

• Mexico refused because it was in the midst of civil war and unwilling to strain foreign relations, in addition to unreliable German support, being unable to accommodate well-armed Americans in the event of victory, and most importantly – it was impossible for them to win a war against the United States.

South China Sea disputes• The South China Sea disputes involve both island and maritime

claims among several sovereign states within the region, namely Brunei, the People's Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. An estimated US$5 trillion worth of global trade passes through the South China Sea and many non-claimant states want the South China Sea to remain international waters. To promote this, several states, including the United States, conduct freedom of navigation operations.

• The disputes include the islands, reefs, banks, and other features of the South China Sea, including the Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands, and various boundaries in the Gulf of Tonkin. Claimant states are interested in retaining or acquiring the rights to fishing areas, the exploration and potential exploitation of crude oil and natural gas in the seabed of various parts of the South China Sea, and the strategic control of important shipping lanes, which will form the foundation of the upcoming Asian economic century. There is great wealth to be gained for the countries involved in these disputes.

XYZ Affair• The XYZ Affair was a political and diplomatic episode in 1797 and 1798, early in the administration of John Adams,

involving a confrontation between the United States and Republican France that led to an undeclared war called the Quasi-War. The name derives from the substitution of the letters X, Y and Z for the names of French diplomats Hottinguer (X), Bellamy (Y), and Hauteval (Z) in documents released by the Adams administration.

• An American diplomatic commission was sent to France in July 1797 to negotiate the French seizure of American trading ships, a problem which was threatening to break out into war. The diplomats Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry, were approached through informal channels by agents of the French Foreign Minister Talleyrand, who demanded bribes and a loan before formal negotiations could begin. Although such demands were not uncommon in mainland European diplomacy of the time, the Americans were offended by them, and eventually left France without ever engaging in formal negotiations. Gerry, seeking to avoid all-out war, remained for several months after the other two commissioners left. His exchanges with Talleyrand laid ground work for the eventual end to diplomatic and military hostilities.

• The failure of the commission caused a political firestorm in the United States when the commission’s dispatches were published. It led to the undeclared Quasi-war (1798 to 1800). Federalists who controlled the government took advantage of the national anger to build up the nation’s military. They also attacked the Jeffersonian Republicans for their pro-French stance and Elbridge Gerry for what they saw as his role in the commission’s failure.

U-2 Incident• The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War on 1 May 1960, during the presidency of Dwight D.

Eisenhower and the premiership of Nikita Khrushchev, when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down while in Soviet airspace. The aircraft, flown by CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers was performing photographic aerial reconnaissance when it was hit by a surface-to-air missile and crashed near Sverdlovsk. Powers parachuted safely and was captured.

• Initially the United States government tried to cover up the plane’s purpose and mission, but was forced to admit its military nature when the Soviet government came forward with the captured pilot and remains of the U-2 including spying technology that had survived the crash as well as photos of military bases in the Soviet Union taken by the aircraft. The event embarrassed the US and marked deterioration in its relations with the Soviet Union. Powers was convicted of espionage and sentenced to three years of imprisonment plus seven years of hard labor but would be released two years later on 10 February 1962 during a prisoner exchange for Soviet officer Rudolf Abel.

• The US and Soviet leaders’ reactions to the U-2 Incident led to the collapse of the Four Powers Paris Summit and destroyed any hope of détente.

Christmas Truce• The Christmas truce was a series of widespread but unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of World War

I around Christmas 1914.

• Both sides reconsidered their strategies following the stalemate of the Race to the Sea and the indecisive result of the First Battle of Ypres. In the week leading up to the 25th, French, German, and British soldiers crossed trenches to exchange seasonal greetings and talk. In some areas, men from both sides ventured into no man’s land on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to mingle and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps, while several meetings ended in carol-singing. Men played games of football with one another, giving one of the most memorable images of the truce.

• The following year, some units arranged ceasefires but the truces were not nearly as widespread as in 1914; this was, in part, due to strongly worded orders from the high commands of both sides prohibiting fraternization. Soldiers were no longer amenable to truce by 1916. The war had become increasingly bitter after devastating human losses suffered during the battles of the Somme and Verdun, and the use of poison gas.

• The truces were not unique to the Christmas period, and reflected a growing mood of live and let live, where infantry close together would stop overtly aggressive behavior and often engage in small-scale fraternization, engaging in conversation or bartering for cigarettes. In some sectors, there would be occasional ceasefires to allow soldiers to go between the lines and recover wounded or dead comrades, while in others, there would be a tacit agreement not to shoot while men rested, exercised or worked in full view of the enemy. The Christmas truces were particularly significant due to the number of men involved and the level of their participation—even in very peaceful sectors, dozens of men openly congregating in daylight was remarkable—and are often seen as a symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst one of the most violent events of human history.

Pig and Potato War• On June 15, 1859, exactly thirteen years after the adoption of the Oregon Treaty (where both the US and Britain claimed

San Juan Island), the ambiguity led to direct conflict. Lyman Cutlar, an American farmer who had moved onto San Juan Island claiming rights to live there under the Donation Land Claim Act, found a large black pig in his garden. Cutlar was so upset that he took shot and killed the pig. It turned out that the pig was owned by an Irishman, Charles Griffin, who was employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company to run the sheep ranch. He also owned several pigs that he allowed to roam freely. Cutlar said to Griffin, “It was eating my potatoes.” Griffin replied, “It is up to you to keep your potatoes outof my pig.” When British authorities threatened to arrest Cutlar, American settlers called for military protection.

• In September, U.S. President James Buchanan sent General Winfield Scott to negotiate with Governor Douglas and resolve the growing crisis. This was in the best interest of the United States, as sectional tensions within the country were increasing, soon to culminate in the Civil War. Both sides agreed to retain joint military occupation of the island until final settlement could be reached, reducing their presence to no more than 100 men.

• Wilhelm I was chosen as arbitrator, and he referred it to a commission in Geneva which eventually ruled in favor of the US, giving them San Juan and designating the boundary line from the Oregon Treaty as the Haro Strait.

• Link: Douglas Treaties

Falkland Islands• The Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. As British

overseas territory, the Falklands has internal self-governance, and the United Kingdom takes responsibility for its defence and foreign affairs.

• Controversy exists over the Falklands’ discovery and subsequent colonization by Europeans. At various times, the islands have had French, British, Spanish, and Argentine settlements. The United Kingdom and Argentina both claim the Falkland Islands. The UK bases its position on its continuous administration of the islands since 1833 and the islanders’ “right to self-determination as set out in the UN Charter”. Argentina’s position is that it acquired the Falklands from Spain when it achieved independence in 1816, and that, in 1833, the UK expelled Argentine authorities and settlers from the islands with threat of force. In April 1982, Argentine forces temporarily occupied the islands. British administration was restored two months later at the end of the Falklands War. Most Falklanders favor the archipelago remaining UK overseas territory, but its sovereignty status is part of an ongoing dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom.

• Oil exploration, licensed by the Falkland Islands Government, remains controversial as a result of maritime disputes with Argentina.

Partition of India• The Partition of India was the division of British India in 1947 which accompanied the creation of two

independent dominions, India and Pakistan. The Dominion of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Pakistan is today the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh. The partition involved the division of three provinces, Assam, Bengal and the Punjab, based on district-wide Hindu or Muslim majorities. The boundary demarcating India and Pakistan became known as the Radcliffe Line. The partition was set forth in the Indian Independence Act 1947 and resulted in the dissolution of the British Raj, as the British government there was called. The two self-governing countries of Pakistan and India legally came into existence at midnight on 14–15 August 1947.

• The partition displaced over 14 million people along religious lines, creating overwhelming refugee crises in the newly constituted dominions; there was large-scale violence, with estimates of loss of life accompanying or preceding the partition disputed and varying between several hundred thousand and two million. The violent nature of the partition created an atmosphere of hostility and suspicion between India and Pakistan that plagues their relationship to the present.

History of DiplomacyCase Studies

Chen Guangcheng | cultural differences• The Obama administration’s powers of diplomacy were put to the test back in 2012 when Chinese dissident Chen

Guangcheng escaped dramatically from house arrest to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on the eve of the United States’ and China’s annual negotiations on strategic and economic issues.

• Negotiations between United States and Chinese officials involving Chen’s fate were conducted under top secrecy, at the Chinese government’s insistence. “Face is more important in Asian society than any contract”.

• At the height of the crisis, both the United States and Chinese negotiating teams threatened to call off the Strategic and Economic Dialogue if the Chen matter wasn’t resolved to their satisfaction. Yet the talks did begin as scheduled. Interestingly, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not even broach the topic of Chen with her Chinese counterparts, during the first two days of the negotiation, according to the New York Times, even as her aides transferred the dissident – who said he wanted to remain in China – from the embassy to hospital.

• Only after Chen changed his mind and said he wanted to travel to the United States did Clinton bring up the activist’s name. Even then, she adhered to the subtleties of Chinese society: rather than asking directly for Chen’s release from China, she simply said that she would need to speak about the dissident when she appeared before the press. The indirect approach worked. Within hours, the Chinese announced that Chen had been granted permission to study in New York.

• The talks seemed to generate real tangible results despite the significant diplomatic distraction. They illustrate the potential value of adapting to your counterpart’s negotiating style in international negotiations. They also highlight the discipline and coordination required to keep a planned negotiation on track when a crisis threatens to sabotage it. As one United States official told the Times, “The days of blowing up the relationship over a single guy are over.”

NAFTA• NAFTA is currently being renegotiated, and that’s important because the U.S. trades as much with Canada and

Mexico as it does with Japan, South Korea, and the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) combined.

• Nearly every U.S. community relies on exports for jobs and economic growth, but what communities export depends on their industry base.

• In 2016, services comprised nearly 50 percent of total exports from these top metropolitan areas. Even as the nation shifts from goods to services exports, manufacturing remains vital, and for US firms to manufacture and export they need to be able to import intermediate goods.

• Take Michigan, the hub of the U.S. auto industry. Tens of billions of dollars’ worth of motor vehicle seats, ignitions, wires, and other parts flow into southeast Michigan to support local auto production. Essentially, to export price-competitive cars, Michigan must be able to import cost-competitive components. The importance of these integrated supply chains means that pulling the U.S. out of NAFTA would have been extremely bad for the U.S. economy, but luckily President Trump is not going to do that.

• Instead, we’re renegotiating the agreement, which in many ways makes sense, since NAFTA was last negotiated 25 years ago and a lot has changed since then. NAFTA negotiators should focus on upgrading environmental standards, creating new rules for e-commerce, and ensuring labor standards that govern companies in all three countries have been updated to help workers benefit from trade.

The Doha Round of Trade Talks | failure• The Doha round of trade talks was an attempted multilateral trade agreement. It would have been between every

member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It was launched at the Doha, Qatar, WTO meeting in November 2001. Its goal was to finish up by January 2005, but the deadline was then pushed back to 2006 and eventually suspended. That’s because the United States and the European Union refused to reduce agricultural subsidies.

• The agreement’s purpose was to boost the economic growth of developing countries. It centered around reducing subsidies for developed countries’ agricultural industries. That would allow developing countries to export food, something they were already good at producing. In return, the developing countries would open up their market to services, particularly banking. That would provide new markets to the developed countries’ service industries. It would also modernize these markets for the developing countries.

• The Doha round process was ambitious. First, all WTO members (almost every country in the world) participated. Second, decisions must be settled by consensus, as opposed to majority rule. That means every country must sign off. Third, there are no piecemeal sub-agreements. That means there is either an entire agreement or none at all. In other words, unless every country agrees with the whole deal, it’s off.

• Link: shows how multilateral trade agreements (e.g. NAFTA) are harder to negotiate than bilateral ones