Diplomatic Culture Research Articles

Unsuccessful Peace-making: the Mission of Francesco da Collo and Antonio de Conti to Moscow (1518-1519)

This article explores the peace mission of Francesco da Collo and Antonio de Conti, envoys of Emperor Maximilian I of the Holy Roman Empire, to Grand Prince Vasily III of Moscow in 1518–1519. The mission aimed to mediate between Moscow and the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, seeking to align both states for a planned united Christian campaign against the Ottoman Empire, whose expansion in Southeastern Europe posed a serious threat. The study centers on da Collo’s report from the mission, which not only chronicles the negotiations but also provides rare insights into Russian diplomacy and courtly traditions of the early 16th century. The article underscores the critical role of ceremonial practices, such as receptions, banquets, and hunts, in the diplomatic culture of the period.Particular focus is given to da Collo's accounts of his interactions with Vasily III and his entourage, highlighting the crucial importance of personal meetings and informal contacts in the diplomatic process of the time. Despite the envoys' efforts, the mission achieved only a temporary one-year truce, with insurmountable barriers to a comprehensive peace including territorial disputes—especially over the control of Smolensk—and the issue of repatriating Russian prisoners of war from Poland.Furthermore, da Collo’s report serves as an early illustration of how Muscovy was constructed as an eastern, despotic power, offering one of the first examples of Russia being depicted as the “Other” in early modern European thought. The study sheds light on the complex dynamics of diplomacy in this era and reveals how these interactions contributed to the broader European perception of Russia as an alien and adversarial state.

The Ceremony of Receiving Ambassadresses at the Russian Court of the Eighteenth Century

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the European system of international relations underwent significant changes, marked by the institutional development of diplomatic services and the establishment of more coherent diplomatic ceremonials. Resident embassies became common, introducing the presence of female relatives of diplomats who actively participated in the life of the diplomatic corps. The growing presence of ambassadresses played a transformative role in early modern diplomatic culture, contributing to the development of gendered diplomatic ceremonials. Drawing on relevant approaches to the study of the ‘new diplomatic history’ and using archival material from the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, this article examines the diplomatic ceremonial of ambassadorial spouses at the eighteenth-century Russian court. It examines the presentation of ambassadors’ wives at court, the implementation of protocol, and issues of etiquette that became sources of contention between ‘ambassadresses’ and the St Petersburg court, as well as methods of conflict resolution. The study of the reception ceremony for ‘foreign ladies’ reveals that, although it was governed by legal norms, it depended heavily on the Russian monarch’s personal attitude towards the ambassador and ambassadress, as well as the country they represented.

Clash of Diplomatic Cultures between Europe and China around 1800: A Rereading of the Macartney Mission

Abstract This essay revisits some familiar diplomatic encounters between European nations and China in the decades around 1800. It proceeds from a theoretical distinction between diplomacy within an international society and diplomacy between international societies. The set of ideas, principles, and institutions of diplomatic interaction within an international society may be summarily termed its diplomatic culture. Diplomacy between international societies lacks a shared diplomatic culture, involving instead negotiations between different diplomatic cultures. The European embassies to China around 1800 epitomize diplomacy between international societies. The essay examines in some detail the attempts on both sides to make sense of the diplomatic exchange, in which they were engaged: translating documents, documenting actions, and interpreting the events by poetic means. All these attempts turned out to entrench differences rather than induce agreements. This predicament was to be resolved only by violence.

Swimming with the Whales: Inflection Points in Mongolia’s ‘Third Neighbour’ Foreign Policy

ABSTRACT When it became a democracy in the early 1990s, Mongolia began to embrace a multi-pillared foreign policy known as the ‘third neighbour’ policy, whereby it regarded the United States and other democracies as its ‘third neighbour’ that balances the influence of its powerful immediate neighbours, Russia and China. Thereafter, four major inflection points have emerged in the development process of the ‘third neighbour’ policy, all in response to changes in Mongolia’s external environment, particularly as it relates to China and Russia. The first inflection point was Mongolia’s move away from a diplomatic culture centred on Russia to one that is more globalised. The second was Mongolia’s effort to reduce China’s economic influence. The third inflection point was a response to increased China–Russia strategic cooperation after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the fourth began only recently and is still taking shape. We have tentatively identified this fourth phase as one of impermanent neutrality.

Beyond Protest

Abstract The systematic protests by the nuncio Fabio Chigi against the peace treaties negotiated during the Congress of Westphalia (1643–1649) have long been interpreted as a papal diplomatic failure, at a time when the ideal of Christianity was definitively giving way to a Europe made up of states. This paper seeks to move away from this categorical interpretation of the phenomenon. By studying the correspondence of the nuncios stationed in Madrid, Paris, Brussels and Vienna, the aim is to analyse how the peace of Westphalia was received, and determine whether this reception differs from the protest politics pursued by Fabio Chigi in Münster. It emerges that the nunciatures had varied reactions to the negotiations and the treaties, within fragmented contexts where the peace in Germany was just one of many current events, which were dominated by ongoing conflicts. The primary characteristic of these reactions is that they result from the local activities of each nuncio. By focusing on the variety of reactions, this study offers a polycentric and interconnected understanding of papal diplomacy at the time of the Congress of Westphalia. It aims to provide a better comprehension of the ‚agency‘ of the apostolic nuncios in redefining the diplomatic culture of the Holy See, through their differing receptions, practices and uses of the notion of peace.

A Jewish Qur’an: An Eighteenth-Century Hebrew Qur’an Translation in Its Indian Context

This essay places the Washington Library of Congress Heb. Ms 183, a Hebrew Qur’an translation from eighteenth-century Cochin, in its South Indian context. After pointing out important general differences between early modern European and South Asian inter-religious cultures and attitudes to translation, this essay analyzes three salient differences between Ms 183 and its Dutch source. Then, the essay scrutinizes three relevant and interrelated contexts: the eighteenth-century Indian diplomatic culture of owning and exchanging scriptural translations; the social position of Muslims and Jews as ‘guests’ and diplomatic brokers; and the rise of Muslim military power in Malabar. On this basis, I argue that this Hebrew Qur’an translation was intended to be cultural–diplomatic capital for Jewish diplomats dealing with Muslim rulers, indicating that not only rulers translated the scriptures of their subjects but also subjects those of their rulers. In addition, by showing how the Mysorean rulers implemented Islamic reforms and how Jewish practices were attuned to majoritarian religious practices, the essay suggests that Ms 183 was also meant to serve Jewish religious purposes, making this manuscript possibly a rare instance of using non-Jewish religious scriptures for Jewish religious practice.

Tracey A. Sowerby ve Christopher Markiewicz (ed.), Diplomatic Cultures at the Ottoman Court, c.1500–1630

Routledge Yeniçağ Tarihi Araştırmaları Serisi’nin 2021 yılında yayımlanan
 son kitabı, Diplomatic Cultures at the Ottoman Court, c.1500–1630 ismini taşımaktadır.
 Bu kitabın editörlüğünü, Oxford Üniversitesi’nden Tracey A. Sowerby
 ile Birmingham Üniversitesi’nden Christopher Markiewicz beraber üstlenmişlerdir.
 Editörler önsözde, kitap serisinin yayımlanmasına vesile olanlarla birlikte,
 kitabın taslak halini okuyarak katkı sağlayanlara teşekkür etmişlerdir. Daha sonra,
 bu kitapta yer alan makale sahibi yazarlar hakkında bilgi verilmiştir.

In the Shadow of Ancient Thebes. Belgian Consular Representation in Luxor and Local Elites, 1860 and 1937

Abstract Throughout the long nineteenth century, nations that tried to expand their consular apparatus in Egypt relied on numerous autochthonous members of the Egyptian elite. Since Luxor was situated next to the site of ancient Thebes, the hordes of travelers visiting Upper Egypt in the course of the nineteenth century relied in particular on the services of consular agents. By means of a multidimensional analysis of the two diplomatic clans that served Belgium’s interests from the mid-1870s up until the abolition of the capitulation system in 1937, the Ayads and the Bicharas, this article provides a better insight in the integration of local elites into foreign diplomatic corps. By incorporating the fragmented and dispersed accounts of the services these consular agents provided into a general assessment of diplomatic culture, this contribution explores new grounds at the intersections of the history of tourism, archaeology, and diplomacy.

How regional organisation survives: ASEAN, hedging and international society

ABSTRACT How can a regional organisation survive in great power contests? This article uses the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as the empirical case to address the puzzle. The inquiry is important for three reasons. First, the recent developments in world politics have shown the increasingly penetrative actions of the major powers into regional multilateral organisations. Second, looking at ASEAN, the internal cohesion and solidity of the Association's member countries over the last decade have been challenged by the competition between China and the U.S. Third, the existing literature on ASEAN regional strategic affairs has been focused on hedging as the weaker states’ agential choice to manage their relations with the stronger states. However, there is insufficient explanation of what makes sustainable Southeast Asian states’ hedging possible. Working within the English School theory of IR, this article offers two factors explaining ASEAN’s survival as a regional international society: elite diplomatic culture and great power management. The argument is that ASEAN has developed its ideas and values of intra-regional diplomatic relations and built institutions that can mitigate the damaging consequences of the U.S.–China order contestation. Furthermore, this study promotes an English School perspective on hedging based on the ASEAN case. Arguing against the realist theory of hedging, which focuses on the domestic function of foreign policy strategy, the narrow conception of national interests and the relative distribution of power at the systemic level, hedging works because of viable institutions of the regional international society oriented toward constructing and preserving order .

Sowerby, Tracey Amanda – Markiewicz, Christopher (ed.). Diplomatic Cultures at the Ottoman Court C. 1500-1630. New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2021, 286 Sayfa, ISBN: 9781000391862.

Osmanlı Devleti’nin başkenti İstanbul’u merkeze alarak yaklaşık 1500-1630 seneleri arasında dönemin farklı diplomatik kültürlerinin nasıl etkileşime geçtiğini inceleyen bu editoryal kitap Avrupa, Asya ve Afrika kıtalarındaki çeşitli devletlerden veya siyasi yapılardan İstanbul’a gelen elçilik heyetleri veya o devletlerin İstanbul’daki daimî elçiliklerinin diplomatik ilişkilerini ele almaktadır. Kitabın farklı diplomatik alanları ve dönemleri irdeleyen ve alanında uzman isimlerce yazılmış bölümleri, genelde erken modern diplomasi tarihine, özelde Osmanlı diplomasi tarihine önemli katkılar sunarak, kitaba mevzubahis alanlar için bir referans kaynak olma hüviyeti kazandırmaktadır.

Not our war. What ASEAN governments’ responses to the Ukraine war tell us about Southeast Asia

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been widely condemned by governments of the ‘political West’. Most other states have been either neutral or even Russia-leaning in this war. Southeast Asia is no exception. There is a sense in the West that the primary explanation for this reluctance to unambiguously side against Russia is the relationship, perhaps even dependency, that these states may have vis-à-vis Moscow; prima facie, a logical presumption. This article finds that while there is some truth to this claim, the relations between individual governments’ responses to the war and their bilateral relationships with Moscow is too uneven to suffice as a satisfactory explanation. Instead, one must look beyond materialistic, mono-causal explanations. To get the full picture, one must appreciate Southeast Asia’s diplomatic tradition, their form of open and inclusive regionalism and the continued focus on domestic politics. This research provides the first comprehensive empirical categorisation of Southeast Asian responses to the Ukraine war and traces these to ASEAN’s diplomatic culture.

ASEAN, COVID-19 and Myanmar crisis: Dealing with critical juncture

Explaining how international institutions develop is the significant contribution of historical institutionalism (HI) to the study of contemporary world politics. HI offers two important concepts, critical juncture and path dependence, demonstrating dynamics within the institution, leading towards continuity and change. The case of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Myanmar democratic crisis tells us about the impact of the crucial moments on the regional organisation and its responses. Yet, ASEAN is resistant to change. What makes it possible is the question that cannot be answered by using the HI approach. Hence, we explain by employing a theoretical framework founded upon the link between diplomatic culture and institutional legitimacy, adopted from the English School (ES) theory of International Relations (IR). This article argues that ASEAN's diplomatic culture ensures member countrie’s compliance with the Association's code of conduct and prevents external power intrusion into Southeast Asian affairs and interests. Therefore, ASEAN's institutional legitimacy can be maintained. The Association deals with the critical juncture without undertaking any fundamental change.

Interfaith Dialogue and Healthcare Diplomacy During COVID-19 and Beyond: Parameters, Opportunities, and Constraints

Interfaith Dialogue and Healthcare Diplomacy During COVID-19 and BeyondParameters, Opportunities, and Constraints Nukhet A. Sandal (bio) In March 2020, right after the COVID-19 virus started to spread around the world, media outlets featured an article that showed a Jewish and Muslim paramedic in Beersheba, praying together during one of their very few breaks while responding to COVID patients. The article quickly became popular on social media as it displayed an uplifting example of interfaith co-existence at a very difficult time for healthcare workers. Zoher Abu Jama, the Muslim paramedic, said, “I believe that God will help us and we will get through this. We should all pray to God to get us through this, and we will get through this world crisis,” expressing a sentiment that his Jewish partner, Avraham Mintz, shared.1 The pandemic created a healthcare crisis with a high toll on physical and mental health. During these difficult times, daily partnerships among ordinary people from different faith traditions (like the one between Abu Jama and Mintz), as well as the initiatives that brought the religious leaders and organizations together with public health professionals, attracted attention. Partly inspired by the uptick in interfaith projects and communications during the pandemic, this article looks at instances and dynamics of interfaith cooperation and diplomacy to tackle the various health crises such COVID and HIV/AIDS. There are many issues that benefit from interfaith diplomacy, ranging from peacebuilding in conflict-laden areas to responses to pressing challenges like climate change. Health and healthcare have quickly climbed to the top of that list, especially given the strain the pandemic has put on resources and infrastructure around the world. In this article, I first provide a theoretical framework to account for the role of religious actors in healthcare. Then, I turn to investigating the platforms and dynamics of religious epistemic connections in health and healthcare within the context of interfaith initiatives and diplomacy, including recent examples involving responses to the pandemic. Interfaith initiatives are not without their challenges and [End Page 196] there are many questions about their future; the third section looks at those dimensions. religious actors as epistemic communities of health There is an established literature on religion and health.2 The literature on interfaith initiatives and diplomacy on healthcare, however, is still very limited. In a step toward filling this gap, I argue that faith-based actors—including religious leaders—constitute a distinct community of practice and expertise when it comes to health and healthcare. In other words, they are epistemic communities and can be described as networks “of professionals with recognized expertise and competence in a particular domain and an authoritative claim to policy-relevant knowledge within that domain or issue-area.”3 Epistemic communities constitute a subset of “communities of practice.”4 Adler gives diplomats “sharing a diplomatic culture, common values, and interests that are intrinsic to their practice” as an example of a community of practice, whereas Cross describes the European Diplomatic Corps as an “epistemic community.”5 In this article, similarly, I recognize that religious actors form communities of practice, yet also emphasize the importance of their expertise, competence, and knowledge production, situating them in the subcate-gory of epistemic communities. I use “epistemic communities” instead of “communities of practice” because the latter is implied in the former, but epistemic communities have a distinct dimension of knowledge production that not every community of practice has. The epistemic community framework has already been used to explain faith-based actors’ activities in areas other than health. I, for example, have argued elsewhere that religious actors are uniquely situated to make a change in a given situation due to their religious expertise, shared norms and understanding, as well as their standing in their communities, and these features qualify them as epistemic communities in conflict transformation.6 This article argues that religious actors can constitute critical epistemic communities in healthcare as well—especially when they collaborate with health professionals and engage in interfaith dialogue and diplomacy—for four main reasons. First, religious actors can speak to very specific values, texts, and interpretations. Hall, Koenig, and Meador describe religion as a cultural-linguistic system with its own approaches...

Different Shades of Norms: Comparing the Approaches of the EU and ASEAN to Cyber Governance

ABSTRACT In order to better capture the dynamics of global cyber governance, it is important to go beyond the established West vs. non-West dichotomy in the scholarly literature and thus develop a more nuanced understanding of the variations of cyber governance norms and approaches within and beyond the traditional Western camp, as well as to take into account the role of regional organisations in reshaping the normative framework of cyber governance. Indeed, the European Union is emerging as a new norm entrepreneur and autonomous regional actor in cyber governance by proactively projecting its regulatory and normative power in the digital sphere. In contrast, the development of ASEAN’s cyber governance norms is a process of norm subsidiarity based on ASEAN’s unique diplomatic culture and normative structure characterised by the ASEAN Way and the principle of ASEAN centrality.

Everyday Migrant Accompaniment: Humanitarian Border Diplomacy

Summary This article advances the notion of humanitarian border diplomacy, contributing to current academic discussions on humanitarian diplomacy and on the practice-theory nexus by conceptualising NGOs’ migrant accompaniment at borders as a form of everyday humanitarian diplomacy. The contention is that humanitarian diplomacy is similar to other diplomatic practices. Starting by rethinking humanitarian diplomacy, it discusses the emergence of humanitarian border diplomacy as a key component of everyday migrant accompaniment. Humanitarian border diplomacy focuses on advancing migrants’ rights, seeking to make helpful, empowering and transformational interventions in an attempt to resist and change the contemporary global governance of migration. The article presents the everyday diplomatic practices of the Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes in Melilla, on Spain’s southern border, as an example of humanitarian border diplomacy. At the border, as an alternative space for resistance, difference and otherness, the need for diplomatic culture as the symbolic mediation of estrangement is revealed.

Diplomatic culture and institutional design: Analyzing sixty years of Antarctic Treaty governance.

Since 1961 the Antarctic Treaty has been acknowledged internationally as the legitimate forum through which decision-making for the region takes place. Membership growth and the establishment of new conventions are strong indicators of how this international regime has overcome challenges to its functioning, while preserving peace maintenance, scientific cooperation and environmental protection as the main pillars of Antarctic governance. For this special volume of Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Science, this work provides an overview of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings' operation, highlighting how they established specific diplomatic practices: the progressive introduction of issues, the avoidance of contentious issues, and "watered-down", ambiguous text, all of which have enabled parties to circumvent conflict and reach consensual agreement. Based on analysis of the Antarctic Treaty Database, this work shows the main practices developed through the Antarctic Treaty and concludes that the adaptability of Treaty Parties to manage challenges over the last 60 years will unquestionably continue to underpin the regime.

Cultural diplomacy as the state’s identifier in the context of globalization

The purpose of the article is to reveal the concept of cultural diplomacy as a priority tool for creating globalization at the level of foreign policy. The article reveals the essence of the globalization process, its prospects, and its main goals. The research methodology is based on the complex use of general scientific and specific scientific methods: analytical, historical, conceptual. The scientific novelty lies in a comprehensive study of the essence of cultural diplomacy in the context of globalization, giving it advantages in the proper coordination of intercultural communication. The study presents the content, tools, and paradigm of diplomatic culture development at the level of the XXI century. Conclusions. The conclusion is made on the need for in-depth study of the cultural diplomacy development in the Ukrainian scientific space in order to strengthen Ukraine's international relations in the process of globalization.
 Keywords: cultural diplomacy, globalization, political culture, soft power policy, international relations, foreign policy, institutionalization, intercultural communication.

History as diplomacy in early modern Europe. Emanuel van Meteren’s Historia Belgica and international relations, 1596–1640

AbstractThe history of historiography has tended to disregard translations of early modern European vernacular histories. Whereas sixteenth‐ and seventeenth‐century histories frequently circulated in various languages, scholarship has predominantly analysed them in national historiographical silos. This article argues that this practice has led us to underestimate the role vernacular histories could play in international relations. By analysing the case of Emanuel van Meteren’s history of the Dutch Revolt, which was translated, adapted, and reprinted in various European vernaculars, it aims to show how we might understand early modern history‐writing as an aspect of diplomacy: a mode of writing and reporting that was deeply embedded in diplomatic culture and that aimed to shape, and was shaped by, international relations. To achieve this, the article 1) shows how Van Meteren’s historical work was an outcome of his trade in diplomatic intelligence and his position in diplomatic networks; 2) outlines the complicated international afterlife of his Dutch text; 3) analyses the book’s impact on international relations. All three aspects, it is suggested, are typical for the kind of annalistic history‐writing Van Meteren practiced. His case might therefore serve as a model for further research into the role of history‐writing in early modern (public) diplomacy.

Ho Chi Minh’s thought about cultural diplomacy

Ho Chi Minh’s thought is a comprehensive and profound system of views on the fundamental issues of the Vietnamese Revolution, the result of the creative application and development of Marxism-Leninism in specific conditions of Vietnam in each stage of the revolution to ensure the victory of the resistance war and successful national construction. Today, domestic and world conditions have changed deeply, but Ho Chi Minh’s ideology in general and Ho Chi Minh’s ideology in particular still have great significance. The diplomatic culture was formed and developed with the process of forming his thoughts on the path of national liberation and socialist nation-building in Vietnam. This study provides a general overview of Ho Chi Minh’s thoughts on diplomatic culture and assesses the current status of the process of applying those perspectives to Vietnam's current diplomatic culture.

Economic diplomacy: pandemic effect

The article analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic crisis on the foreign policy and diplomacy of states, including economic diplomacy. ED is interpreted as a multi-sided multi-faceted activity, an integral part of foreign policy aimed at protecting the national interests and economic security of the country. Given the interdepartmental nature of the ED, the presence of numerous actors and agents, not only state, but also public and business structures, political and foreign economic coordination on the part of the Foreign Ministries is of great importance, and this role of foreign policy departments is increasing during the pandemic crisis. The activity of the ED of Russia in 2020 was generally successful, among the main results: active participation of diplomats in the anti-epidemic work of the Government of the Russian Federation, including export flights, provision of emergency assistance by compatriots abroad, assistance to foreign countries; measures to promote the Russian vaccine in the world, establish its production abroad, and thus win new world markets for medicines; settlement of the pricing crisis on the world oil market with the leading role of Russia and Saudi Arabia; adjustment of double taxation agreements with a number of foreign countries, taking into account the domestic economic needs of the country; the growing experience of BRICS, this interstate association, which did not know the crisis, including its fight against epidemiological diseases, during the period of Russia’s presidency in the BRICS; further steps to deepen integration within the EAEU; Russia’s success in the eastern direction of foreign policy, in the development of trade exchanges and epidemiological cooperation with the ASEAN and APEC states. The new world crisis has become a catalyst for the convergence of ED methods with scientific and public diplomacy, with other diplomatic cultures that can be combined under the general name of civil diplomacy. Such a separation is required to protect the legacy of professional diplomacy, the popularity and use of which methods is growing significantly. ED, as an integral part of official diplomacy, is presented as a mediator between classical and civil diplomacy. It provides civil society with an example of the more rigorous, pragmatic, resultsoriented work that the current pandemic crisis requires.