Diplomatic History Research Articles

The views of Chinese and Russian experts on the Russia-China military alliance

As the Sino-Russian military partnership deepens, scholars from both sides have had various discussions on whether a military alliance would be formed. Most scholars believe that maintaining a partnership is the best option for both countries at present, whether out of their actual needs or national interest. However, scholars from both sides have disagreed slightly on the core issue and details. On the Chinese side, most scholars had not discussed the possibility of establishing a military alliance until 2012, they had usually confirmed that the Chinese government is firmly committed to the non-alliance policy. Between 2012 and 2014, there was a great discussion about possibility of establishing a military alliance. Some scholars explore the preference for a non-alliance policy from the interest, theoretical and purely safety perspectives, while others illustrate the benefits of a Sino-Russian alliance through different angles, such as conflicts, external factors, relations with the US and the handling of international affairs. However, when Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out in a speech in 2015 that the two countries “should be partners and not allies”, Chinese scholars again placed non-alliance at the core of Sino-Russian relations. While Russian scholars are also inclined towards the non-alliance theory, there is another argument: Sino-Russian alliance could be a possible option. This conclusion is mainly based on the two countries’ different understanding on foreign policy and alliance formation. China have always adhered to an independent, stable and sustained foreign policy, maintaining partnerships with all countries but forming alliances with none. While also adopting an independent and practical foreign policy, Russia has alliances, and is more familiar with them. China and Russian have formed three alliances throughout their diplomatic history, all of which had failed and obstructed the long-term cooperation and development of the two nations. Based on the research and opinions of Chinese and Russia scholars, the best option remains a non-alliance.

Grósz Károly útja Makón át Aradra

On August 28, 1988, Prime Minister Károly Grósz, Secretary General of the MSZMP, sat down with Nicolae Ceausescu, a Romanian communist dictator in Arad; the outcome of the discussion is well known: „Arad” has become synonymous with failure in diplomatic history. The public faced the fiasco when, after the meeting, Grósz gave an interview to Hungarian Television in Hungarian territory in Szeged. Before the meeting in Arad, Károly Grósz was victorious in political terms; however, after this failure, he loses public battles after public battles. The Prime Minister and Secretary General is on the slope after an interview in Szeged following „Arad”, from where there was no coming back for him. Károly Grósz was greeted by a cheering crowd in Makó on the way back after the negotiations. People did not know at the time that the discussions had failed. The passage of Károly Grósz in Makó was just a historical flash. In this study, we attempt to outline the elements of this event and the background to this fleeting moment.

At the forward line of the diplomatic front (in memory of V. I. Churkin)

The article is dedicated to the memory of the prominent Soviet, Russian diplomat — Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin, who for several decades represented our country in the diplomatic field, including the UN. Vitaly Churkin, undoubtedly, was a bright personality, a brilliant orator and a high professional. He firmly and consistently defended the interests of our state in the international arena, and at the same time could clearly formulate his own position on acute issues of world politics, which gave special strength to his argumentation. Vitaly Churkin was fluent in foreign languages, and could correctly and accurately interpret the foreign policy strategy of our country. This helped him intelligibly and convincingly convey its meaning to his Western colleagues, which contributed to finding political solutions to conflict situations in the course of resolving international regional crises. Vitaly Churkin knew the background and many details of the events, which made him deeply aware of the essence of the discussed international problems. He possessed a rare gift of persuasion that contributed to the achievement of a consensus of the parties in resolving acute conflict international situations. This was especially evident when the UN was considering such complex and delicate issues as the Crimean issue. Vitaly Churkin was a brilliant master of his craft. He was constantly at the forefront of the diplomatic front. Vitaly Churkin made a worthy professional contribution to the history of diplomacy and foreign policy of our country. With the passage of time, the deeper meaning of his precise diplomatic steps to maintain political stability in the world becomes more and more obvious. The diplomatic activities of Vitaly. Churkin must be analyzed again and again so that his memory constantly highlights the role of the individual in the history of our state and in upholding the main principles of international security and a world order without global conflicts.

Diplomatic History of the First World War on the Pages of Russian Publications 1914-1917

Diplomatic History of the First World War on the Pages of Russian Publications 1914-1917

From Ally to Enemy: The XYZ Affair and а Diplomatic Crisis in the Franco-American Relations

The XYZ Affair was the most significant political incident during twenty years of the Franco- American alliance (1778–1798). It was the leading cause of the diplomatic crisis and the Quasi-War in relations between two countries from 1798 to 1800. Based on sources such as treaties, monographs, and other documents from the American side which are related to the topic, the article aims to analyze the crisis in Franco-American diplomacy after twenty years of establishing the alliances through the XYZ Affair and the Quasi-War. The study focuses on presenting the breakdown of trust in the Franco-American relations that led to the emergence of the XYZ Affair; the diplomatic crisis in the Franco-American relations known as the XYZ Affair and the Quasi-War between both countries and efforts of two countries to find a peaceful solution. The research shows that the XYZ Affair had been the biggest conflict case in the history of the Franco-American relations since 1778. In fact, America’s interest and honour in the XYZ Affair was the fundamental cause leading to the severe crisis in relations between two countries. The article contributes to clarifying the history of the XYZ Affair, the Quasi-War, the Franco-American relations, and a part of American diplomatic history in the first half of the founding era of the United States.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States and Sub-Saharan Africa: In Search of Influence, Security, and New Markets

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States and Sub-Saharan Africa:In Search of Influence, Security, and New Markets Michael B. Bishku (bio) Introduction The GCC was established in 1981 and includes the countries of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain. Saudi Arabia and the UAE currently have the most interactions with Sub-Saharan Africa (defined as those areas on the continent south of the Arab North African states located on the Mediterranean),1 while Bahrain has the least. Oman has historical connections with Africa's east coast, while Qatar has become more active on the continent especially since its rivalry with Saudi Arabia and the UAE heated up in 2017, due to Qatar's military ties with Turkey and the perception that it was too favorable in its dealings with Iran and Islamist organizations. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait (which received its independence from Britain in 1961), and the UAE became active on the African continent during the 1970s, especially following the 1973 Arab-Israeli War when many African countries broke off diplomatic relations with Israel over its continued occupation of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula captured as a result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain received their independence from Britain in 1971, while the late-Sultan Qaboos of Oman was able to assume full control over his country's domestic and foreign policy [End Page 48] a year earlier, also from Britain. During the 1970s and 1980s, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE were involved with providing developmental aid in Africa and even working for the same purpose as Libya's leader Muammar Qaddafi on the continent when activities were directed in garnering support for the Arab world in its conflict against Israel. Investment and increased trade as well as counteracting the activities of Iran's Islamic Republic in Africa have become more important for Saudi Arabia since then and, in more recent years for the UAE, which has surpassed the Saudis in those endeavors as well as in regarding Turkey as a rival for influence on the African continent. This article will review the connections and interactions of the GCC states in Sub-Saharan Africa, something that is need of more study. This is especially important given the increased activity on the continent during post-Cold War period in both security arrangements for protecting shipping lanes and in dealing with the threat of terrorist organizations and/or in economic arrangements on the part of both bigger powers such as the U.S., Russia, China, and France, middle powers such as Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel, India, and other countries with interests in the region such as the remainder of the Arab Gulf states. As scholars sometimes debate which countries to include in the category of middle powers, it is best to elaborate what might constitute such. A most succinct definition of a middle power is offered by Dong-min Shin: "…a state actor which has limited influence on deciding the distribution of power in a given regional system but is capable of deploying a variety of sources of power to change the position of great powers and to defend its own position on matters related to national or regional security that directly affect it."2 While greater attention is usually given by scholars of diplomatic history and international relations to the bigger powers, not enough is devoted to recognized middle powers and other countries seeking or on the verge of such status. Though there have been an increasing number of studies in recent years, especially [End Page 49] of Turkey's,3 Iran's,4 and Israel's5 activities in Africa, attention towards Saudi Arabia and the GCC states has been lagging behind; this article seeks to address that matter. The GCC States' Involvement in Africa during the Cold War Saudi Arabia's King Abdelaziz (also known as Ibn Saud) established diplomatic relations with Ethiopia's Haile Selassie in 1934 as his country was at the time one of only two independent states on the Arabian Peninsula, the other being Yemen. This was in part in response to fascist Italy's diplomatic moves in those two countries and...

Jugoslovensko-rumunsko savezništvo između dva svetska rata (Mala Antanta i Balkanski sporazum)

With the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes after the First World War, the new state got the Kingdom of Romania as a neighbour. Disagreements that existed between the two countries regarding the demarcation in Banat were resolved by the marriage of the King Alexander I Karađorđević and the Romanian Princess Maria Hohenzollern. The royal marriage was the basis for further development of allied relations between the states in the period between the two world wars. The partnership was strengthened by military-political pacts within the framework of the Little Entente and the Balkan Pact. The peace treaties concluded during the Versailles Conference did not guarantee the security of minor European countries such as the Kingdom of SHS and Romania. The revisionist aspirations of the joint neighbours of Hungary and Bulgaria developed friendly relations that Belgrade and Bucharest needed to deter the enemy from taking any action. The Yugoslav public viewed Romania as a friendly country, so diplomatic activities within the two alliances were closely monitored by the press. In addition, many public workers were concerned with analysing perspectives that could benefit the two countries in the future. The fact that Romania was a significant ally was evidenced by the fact that in December 1938 the mission was promoted to the rank of embassy, which was the first embassy in the diplomatic history of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In this paper, we intend to present the development of allied relations between the two countries, based on the historical reach of the historiography, as well as the analysis of the writing of the Yugoslav press. Particular attention will be paid to the challenges that the alliances faced during the Third Reich's penetration into Southeast Europe. Although the allies of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Romania would find themselves on opposite sides in World War II, there was no mutual war between the two countries, which was a consequence of the built relations in the interwar period.

The Moscow Embassy of George Kennan and American Diplomacy in the Cold War

This paper studies the operations of the Embassy of the United States of America in Moscow headed by G. F. Kennan (May — September 1952) in the context of Cold War diplomatic history. Based on an analysis of documents located in the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, this study focuses on such key international issues as peaceful settlement of the Korean war, resolution of the German issue, and the signing of a treaty protecting fur seals in the Pacific basin. This article highlights the role of the American Embassy in Moscow, and of Ambassador Kennan in particular, in the discussion of these issues, and the nature of the embassy staff members’ interactions with Soviet authorities. The archival materials concerning the Soviet-American relations in 1952 provide clear evidence that the diplomatic corps faced severe difficulties under the conditions of military and political confrontation of the Cold War. The paper also elucidates the reasons for declaring Kennan persona non grata. Finally, the author considers the influence of the Moscow ambassadorship on Kennan’s perception of communism and the Soviet social system. He became convinced not only of the Soviet political system’s bureaucratic inertia and clumsiness, its excessive centralization, and its total focus on Stalin’s personality, but also of the extreme straightforwardness and uncompromising nature of American foreign policy towards the Soviet Union.

Defending Polish Liberties: A Conceptual and Diplomatic History of the Ottoman Declaration of War on Russia in 1768

Defending Polish Liberties: A Conceptual and Diplomatic History of the Ottoman Declaration of War on Russia in 1768

MENJADI ISTRI DIPLOMAT: HURUSTIATI SOEBANDRIO DALAM MEMBENTUK CITRA INDONESIA DI INGGRIS 1947-1954

In the history of Indonesian diplomacy, there have been several outstanding diplomat figures who have made achievements, such as Soebandrio. Then, it is important to realize that the success of Soebandrio in connecting Indonesia with the world when he was in London and Moscow; and his role in various significant state missions cannot be apart from his wife’s role, Hurustiati Soebandrio. During Soebandrio’s career, Hurustiati’s diplomatic role began when her husband became the Indonesian Ambassador in London, at least from 1947 to 1954. During that time, Hurustiati took part in various efforts to build a good image of Indonesia to support the implementation of foreign policy. This study focuses on examining the role of Hurustiati Soebandrio as a wife of a diplomat from 1947 to 1954. Therefore, the study aims to present the role of women as diplomatic wives in the writing of the history of Indonesian diplomacy. In general, it also aims to encourage the writing of a history of diplomacy that pays attention to the role of women. This study employed the historical method by placing archives, magazines, and newspapers as primary sources. The study shows three images of Indonesia that Hurustiati formed in London, namely Indonesia as an independent country, a country that try to reach gender equality, and a multicultural county. To achieve these three images, Hurustiati made various efforts, such as giving official lectures, holding talks with diplomatic officials and their wives, and initiating exhibitions.

Three Hungarian Diplomats’ Emissary Diaries – A Comparative Analysis of Emissary Diaries of János Rimay, Gáspár Tassy and Mihály Tholdalagi in the Context of the 1627 Peace Treaty of Szőny

The article focuses on the examination of three emissary diaries related to the Peace Treaty of Szőny (1627). These sources differ considerably from the most widespread sources used in the diplomatic history. The diaries were published earlier but have not been systematically compared yet. These diaries approach the treaty from different perspectives even though they touch upon the same affair. The emissaries arrived to the peace talks with various mandates, resided in different places, and exchanged their correspondence with different persons, thus gaining access to the same pieces of information at different times and/or in different places. Therefore, it is reasonable to pose the following questions: what kind of information was known by whom in a given moment; which specific aspect of the peace talks was concerned; who could exert an influence on the process; and, respectively, how and for what purpose the pieces of information were retrieved from a participant; or how these pieces of information were used by those who belonged to the participant’s network of relations.

Japan’s Diplomatic Proactive Stance towards Indochina and the Cambodian Problem (1970)

Abstract This article assesses the Japanese diplomatic contribution through the prism of the Indochinese political situation in the early 1970s. The traditional literature depicts Japan’s non-existent proactivism in postwar foreign politics, based on its alleged unconditional dependence on Washington’s political agenda. However, throughout the 1970s there were occasions in which the country showed how it was independently engaged at a diplomatic level. This has often been overlooked by the literature produced in the field, but it is an irrefutable conclusion from the historical evidence and the analysis of the archival sources. Japan’s diplomatic commitment in solving the problem of peace in Cambodia, its double effort as a diplomatic intermediary between the political actors involved in the Indochinese issue and, at the same time, through the ODA policy, may offer the missing elements for a no longer univocal interpretation of its postwar diplomatic history—which is the aim of this essay.

Jefferson’s unknown informant on Necker in 1789: an episode of diplomatic history involving Condorcet

ABSTRACT The American envoy in Paris, Jefferson, sent on 17 June 1789 to Jay, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, an assessment of Necker, then at the apex of his political fortune, provided by an informant whose name was not disclosed by Jefferson. This paper intends to show that the author of this report was the philosopher, mathematician and economist Condorcet – certainly the French friend who had with Jefferson the most intense intellectual intercourse – and sketches a history of the relationship between Condorcet, Necker and Jefferson from which the report arose. While the friendship of Jefferson and Condorcet has been studied extensively, the report on Necker was never investigated in depth.

Palestine Solidarity Conferences in the Global Sixties

This article maps the internationalization of the Palestinian cause by studying the participants, groups, and themes at Palestinian solidarity conferences held in 1969–70. Examining such conferences reveals the extent of communication and ideological debate between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and international solidarity activists at an important juncture in the internationalization of the Palestinian liberation movement. The article makes the methodological point that international conferences organized by the PLO and other Palestinian institutions can function as an alternative archive that complements the traditional archives of diplomatic and intellectual history. Read in tandem with extant Palestinian sources, the paper trail left by international conferences mitigates the scattered and precarious status of Palestinian archives.

Thomas Paine in French: Translations, Transfers and Circulations in the Age of Revolutions (1776–1793)

Abstract This essay looks into the publishing history of three major works by Thomas Paine in French, Common Sense (1776), the Letter to the Abbe Raynal (1782) and Rights of Man (1791–92). Although it is often taken for granted that Paine’s writings circulated to a great extent in the Atlantic world, the translation of these writings in French has not been studied in depth. These translations appeared at three key moments of French, American and Atlantic history. The strategies used by the translators and those who commissioned these translations will be studied in an approach combining book history, the history of print culture, as well as political and diplomatic history. By relying on new archival material, especially manuscripts of translations and letters, I intend to offer a new insight into the translation and circulation of Paine’s writings in French and in France before and after he settled there in 1792.

Rethinking the Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty: Perceptions and Receptions Within Egyptian Society (1977–1982)

The Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty marked a new era in the history of the Arab–Israeli conflict. Relying methodologically on the history of ideas and diplomatic history, this article sheds light on the diversity of the perceptions and receptions of peace and relations with Israel as manifested by two influential Egyptian public opinion shapers who represented polar approaches—the mouthpiece of the Muslim Brothers—the journal Al-Da‘wa and Rūz al-Yūsuf, the semi-independent liberal weekly with a moderate left bias. The timeframe is 1977–1982—from Sadat’s historical visit to Jerusalem to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and its impact on the budding Israeli–Egyptian relations.

South Korea and Australia: 60 years of diplomatic history, 110 years of human stories

South Korea and Australia: 60 years of diplomatic history, 110 years of human stories

‘A Friendly Neutral’: Churchill and Turkey in the Second World War

ABSTRACT By utilizing published and unpublished speeches, memoranda, and letters, this article examines Churchill’s influence on Anglo Turkish relations during the Second World War resituating Churchill in the diplomatic history of Anglo-Turkish relations. By exploring Churchill’s nineteenth-century youth and background, this article will reveal that Churchill attitudes and views of an Anglo/Turkish alliance in the Second World War was shaped by the context of nineteenth-century geostrategic politics like the ‘Great Game’ and the ‘Eastern Question’

The Catholic Turn in Conservative U.S. Circles

In American Catholic: The Politics of Faith During the Cold War, D.G. Hart explores how post-World War II politically conservative Catholics, “primarily in the world of opinion journalism and magazines, made Americanism safe for the church” and “political conservatism (especially the Republican party) plausible to Roman Catholics” (7). Hart labels these Catholics “neo-Americanists” to distinguish them from those of the nineteenth century (xi). Although Phyllis Schlafly makes a brief appearance and Dorothy Dohen gets a mention, this is a story about men, white men. Their ranks include William F. Buckley, Michael Novak, George Weigel, and Catholic convert Richard John Neuhaus. Hart’s claims are significant, he asserts, because “The presence of Roman Catholicism in American political and intellectual conservatism is a subject often overlooked to many who write about church and state or religion and politics in the United States” (xi). Perhaps Hart is referring to scholars who typically focus on Protestants, such as himself. Diplomatic History readers familiar with Catholics’ anticommunist efforts as highlighted by Seth Jacobs or Kyle Burke will recognize familiar characters in Hart’s account.1 Seth Jacobs, America’s Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia, 1950–1957 (Durham, NC, 2004); Kyle Burke, Revolutionaries for the Right: Anticommunist Internationalism and Paramilitary Warfare in the Cold War (Chapel Hill, 2018).

Review: Consolation Prize podcast. Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University

Review: <i>Consolation Prize</i> podcast. Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University