Diplomatic Interactions Research Articles

Dom António and the early modern Iberian world: Global approaches to the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580

AbstractEarly modern Iberian history has enjoyed renewed interest over the last 2 decades or so, with historians utilizing connected historical and global approaches to untangle interactions between various peoples within a vast empire. These studies have accounted for the unique social constructions within the Iberian world, and contended with questions regarding the political integration of Spain and Portugal during the Iberian Union (1581–1640). Scholars have attempted to complicate previous nationalistic interpretations of this period and looked at the institutional and cultural interactions within the Iberian Peninsula and its overseas territories. However, scholars have omitted serious examinations of Dom António's claim to the Portuguese crown during and after the dynastic crisis of 1580, as well as to the imperial and global dimensions of his candidacy. This article considers how the candidacy of Dom António and the Portuguese succession crisis can contribute to understandings of diplomatic interaction and more generally the negotiation of power in the Iberian world.

The Genre Differentiation and Linguistic Peculiarities of English Diplomatic Discourse

This paper deals with English diplomatic discourse as an independent type of discourse, which is characterized by its genre typology. The goals of diplomacy and diplomatic discourse are to protect the national and state interests and to implement norms and values in the context of globalization. For a long time, diplomatic discourse has been a part of political discourse. English diplomatic discourse has its own unique features and parameters that set it apart from other types of institutional discourse. Diplomatic discourse is a complex communicative phenomenon that covers the entire spectrum of diplomatic interactions. There are accurate and regulated standards and requirements for writing diplomatic documents, that depend on and vary according to the genre typology. The research’s relevance is found in the growing interest of contemporary linguistics in the issues of communicative interaction and the study of language in close connection with the practical actions of a person. The paper attempts to systematize knowledge about the texts used in international relations. The fact that English diplomatic documents are widely used determines their genre diversity. Documents of diplomatic discourse are divided into 7 groups: contractual (agreement, treaty, pact), informative (resolution; government statement), instructive (verbal note; circular note), argumentative (diplomatic speech; letter of concern), regulatory (communiqué; verbal note; memorandum), authoritarian (declaration; act), courteous (letter of invitation; letter of condolence). This division of diplomatic texts is performed on the basis of Nataliya Kashchyshyn’s classification of taxonomic units in English diplomatic discourse and makes it possible to consider structural, terminological and pragmatic factors in the formation of diplomatic documents. The purpose of diplomatic discourse is to protect national interests, prevent war and strengthen peace, as well as to implement foreign policy on behalf of the state.

Social Media Influence on Diplomatic Negotiation: Shifting the Shape of the Table

AbstractSocial media is changing not only the atmosphere in which international negotiations take place; it is also changing the very substance of the deals. Because of the pace and proliferation of social media, negotiators must read “weak signals” early on—and anticipate a quickly organized, highly motivated opposition. However, diplomatic negotiators still lack the tools to engage in this sort of anticipatory strategy design. This article examines two recent cases, one involving the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the other involving a German Constitutional Court’s ruling on the European Central Bank’s Public Debt Purchasing Program, in which social media had a highly disruptive, unanticipated impact on international negotiations—to the point of forcing negotiators’ hands—and suggests institutional remedies to better anticipate the catalytic impact of advancing technology on diplomatic interactions.

Institutional Mechanisms for Preventing and Resolving Cross-Border Water Disputes

The fundamental role of international law is to provide a framework for the coexistence of and cooperation among states. If international law and institutions work well, their contribution to the management of international affairs remains in the background. This essay seeks to illuminate the largely unnoticed work of river commissions in preventing and resolving cross-border water disputes. Among the oldest of international organizations, river commissions have long been at the forefront of technical and diplomatic interactions between countries. Similar to other international organizations, river commissions were created to better coordinate interstate interactions and more efficiently pursue common goals. They differ from other international organisations in the focus on water, a unique substance that cuts across so many aspects of human existence and requires specific treatment depending on the hydrological, political, social and economic context. Given the diversity of the contexts, river commissions differ from each other in their design and the tasks assigned to them. Therefore, a river commission is an umbrella term that encompasses a diversity of joint arrangements for cooperation between the riparian countries over their shared waters. This essay argues that river commissions helped to prevent, mitigate, and resolve many cross-border water disputes by building communities over water, enhancing technical knowledge and routinizing organisational transformations.

A Green Gambit: The Development of Environmental Foreign Policy in Morocco

ABSTRACT The Kingdom of Morocco decisively increased trade and diplomatic interaction with countries of Western and Sub-Saharan Africa since the mid-2000s, supplementing Morocco’s long-standing foreign policy orientation toward the ‘West’. Under the guidance of King Mohammed VI, the country gradually sought regional political rapprochement after several decades of relative isolation. The push for regional integration is taking place across multiple policy fields and goes hand in hand with a more assertive demeanour on the stage of international diplomacy. Environmental sustainability – encompassing renewable energy production and environmental protection measures – is a policy sector on which the autocratic Moroccan regime places special emphasis. This paper traces Morocco’s ‘green turn’, the development of environmental sustainability policy under King Mohammed VI in context of Morocco’s general foreign policy realignment. It analyses Morocco’s environmental engagement at the foreign policy level in terms of soft power activity and gives tentative insight on Morocco’s path of becoming an influential regional player in Western and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Significance of the Written Word in European–Mamlūk Diplomatic Missions

ABSTRACT The article addresses the use of the written language in relations between European states and the Mamlūk sultanate (Egypt-Syria, 1250–1517), focusing on chancery sources relating to diplomatic missions to Cairo. In the first part, the author presents an overview of the documents that marked the various stages of embassies to the sultan’s court (authorities’ instructions, cover letters, safe-conducts, Mamlūk chancery documents, etc.). By analysing the nature of these sources, the article aims to show their utility for the purpose of diplomatic interaction. In the second part, the study focuses on the significance of the written language, examining in particular the relationship between the rhetoric of the diplomatic discourse and its actual usefulness. In dealing with some specific aspects of the chancery instruments (commercial clauses, religious issues), the article highlights the active force of the written word in keeping diplomatic dialogue alive despite all the possible differences or contrasts.

The Complicated History of Sino-American Relationship in the XIX-First Half of The XX Century

The article is devoted to the history of relations between the two countries, such as the USA and China in the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. The paper gives a general description of the US-Chinese interstate relations since the beginning of the diplomatic interaction between the two countries, highlights the main directions and dynamics of trade and economic relations, examines the influence of the European and Japanese factors on Sino-American relations, analyzes the foreign policy of the American government towards China. It also focuses attention on basic motive forces of Washington foreign policy in the region at that period of time: commercial, industrial capital. Based on the works of Russian and foreign historians, the author reveals the key political and diplomatic problems of interstate relations between the two countries in the study period. Finally, the author of the article concludes that the US policy in China was primarily aimed at protecting its interests and was formed as the resultant of external and internal factors influencing it.

The use of humour in diplomatic tweets: The affiliative potential of ridicule

Today diplomacy increasingly relies on tweets. Yet, as tweets only allow for 280 characters, statements must be brief and impactful, which encourages the use of humour in conveying one’s message. This article scrutinizes irony and ridicule in diplomatic interactions. Even though these forms of humour may antagonize parties and even turn issues into a security concern, this article points out that they also have an affiliative aspect and could play a conflict-mediating role. Because humour, especially irony, is easy to misunderstand (especially in cross-cultural settings), many warn against using them in diplomatic exchanges. Nevertheless, I will argue that they are ideal for expressing multi-layered messages, enabling the speaker to rely on what is often called ‘constructive ambiguity’, which is often useful in diplomatic conduct. Two case studies illustrate the argument. The first focuses on cartoons ridiculing President Wilson in the early 20th century for his reluctance to commit the US to join WWI (suggesting that cartoons of the time might be predecessors of today’s tweets), and the second on tweets published by the British Embassy in London apropos of the Skripal case (offering an example how humorous tweets can convey multi-layered, complex messages).

Por Ser Hombre Platico: Francisco Gasparo and the 1568 Spanish Negotiations with the Ottoman Governors of Algiers

In the spring of 1568, Uluc Ali Pasha, a Christian convert to Islam born in the Spanish viceroyalty of Naples, became the new Ottoman governor of Algiers. Subsequently, Phillip II of Spain tried to establish a dialogue with him. To conquer the city without having to resort to a military expedition, the king of Spain sent Francesco Gasparo, a Corsican merchant, to Algiers. This article aims to shed light on the Spanish diplomatic practice used in the dialogue with the Ottoman Governors of Algiers during the sixteenth century. To do so, we have had to move away from the traditional focus on the study of agreements and opt for a more holistic approach of the diplomatic event. Diplomacy is no longer seen as a simple political relationship capable of establishing an agreement between two parties during a specific time, but as a permanent practice defined by a complex structure. Thus, the article focuses on the agents and practices used during the Spanish negotiation with Uluc Ali to assess the tenets underpinning this type of diplomatic interaction. Gasparo’s mission enables us to reflect on the structure of Spanish diplomacy in the Early Modern Mediterranean. The Corsican merchant’s experience in Algiers reveals the presence of a specific dialogic pattern between the Iberian and Maghreb coasts and how it was consolidated during the sixteenth century. This article endeavours thus to analyse the characteristic elements and principles of what seems to be a specific diplomatic model.

The EU Policy toward Libya

The Libyan crisis has been a litmus test for European unity and the EU’s ability to act together. Europe's relations with post-revolutionary Libya and European policies on Libya have been characterized by the frequently conflicting interests of Paris, London and Rome, with Berlin emerging as a result of a UN invitation to try and put an end to the instability in Libya. Until the January 2020 Berlin summit, European political and diplomatic interaction with Libya was the domain of EU Member States, with the EU being limited to performing the familiar functions of lending its administrative weight to joint policy roles such as countering migration, promoting business or supporting a developmental road towards stability. All in all, EU strategy remains committed to decision-making mechanisms at Member State level; however, what is exposed in Libya is that the EU toolbox can be a valuable weapon if Europe has a coherent stance. A continuing struggle between member states over how to handle the new world that is emerging in the wake of the Pax Americana is also exposed in European policy on Libya.

A New Paradigm for EU Diplomacy? EU Council Negotiations in a Time of Physical Restrictions

Summary Can diplomacy work without physical presence? International relations scholars consider the European Union (EU) the most institutionalised case of international co-operation amongst sovereign states, with the highest density of repeated diplomatic exchange. In a year, the Council of Ministers hosts on average 143 ministerial and 200 ambassadorial meetings, along with hundreds of working group meetings. These intense diplomatic interactions came to an abrupt halt in mid-March 2020, when the spread of COVID-19 forced the Council to approve — in a manner unprecedented in European integration history — the temporary derogation from its rules of procedures to allow votes in written form, preceded by informal videoconferences between ministers or ambassadors. This argumentative essay reflects on how we can use these extraordinary months of intra-European diplomacy to assess the viability of virtual diplomacy in the EU context and what lessons it provides as we seek more sustainable means of international engagement.

Partisan Federalism and Subnational Governments’ International Engagements: Insights from India

AbstractThis article situates the international activities of subnational governments in India within the broader political economy of federalism. It argues that the nature and the extent of subnational states’ engagements in international affairs are a function of the partisan political relationship the state incumbents have with the national incumbents. The article takes a mixed methods approach. An analysis of 1,153 episodes of international engagements of India’s states from 1996 to 2017 reveals that shifts in foreign policy engagement of selected state governments primarily reflect alterations in the subnational incumbents’ political affiliation with the Union government. Several qualitative case studies shed light on how the central government’s inclusion of subnational governments’ perspectives and representatives in foreign affairs is highly partisan and profoundly political. Therefore, the Indian case reveals how subnational diplomatic interactions merge domestic and international politics.

Diplomacy and the Settlement of International Trade Disputes

How do countries settle disputes in the shadow of the law? Even in the presence of legalized dispute settlement, countries still rely on diplomatic channels to resolve conflicts. But it can be difficult to assess diplomacy’s impact on dispute resolution because those channels tend to be opaque. We present both an original theory of the impact of diplomacy on dispute resolution and a novel measure of diplomacy. If countries with close or, conversely, distant relationships use legal channels for dispute resolution, diplomacy will have little impact on dispute settlement; resorting to legal recourse among friends or adversaries likely means that the dispute is intractable. However, diplomacy can increase the chances of settlement between countries with moderate levels of affinity. We test this argument using a protocol-based proxy for diplomatic interactions—gifts given at the occasion of meetings between diplomatic counterparts—that would otherwise be difficult to observe. Using the case of the United States and its disputes in the World Trade Organization, we find support for our argument. This suggests that even when countries resort to legalized methods of dispute settlement, bilateral dealmaking still plays an important role.

An Old Ally Revisited: Diplomatic Interactions Between the Ottoman Empire and the Sultanate of Aceh in the Face of Dutch Colonial Expansion

Diplomatic relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Sultanate of Aceh (today a province in north-west Indonesia), which had begun in the sixteenth century but then subsequently neglected over the next two centuries, were reinvigorated in the 1840 s when the expanding Dutch colonial empire arrived on the borders of Aceh. When the Acehnese sought to revive the defunct relations with Istanbul, they were met with an ambivalent Ottoman response. Ottoman statesmen seemed torn between the potential benefits of the suggested cooperation and the perils of antagonizing Western colonial powers in the region. Ambivalence also characterized the Ottomans’ response to the Acehnese request for Ottoman suzerainty over their territories in 1868-9, in 1872-3 on the eve of the Dutch invasion of their country, and in the aftermath, for fear of consequent conflict with the Great Powers. By reconstructing the history of Aceh-Ottoman diplomatic interactions on the basis of hereto unexplored Ottoman records, this article aims to reinstate not only the Acehnese, but also the Ottomans as agents in their own right, during a period of Western colonialist expansion. As such, it seeks to decenter historical narratives of nineteenth-century interstate relations, traditionally based on European sources and perceptions, which mostly ignore the agency and diplomatic interactions of non-Western powers.

Diplomacy and the Settlement of International Trade Disputes

How do countries settle disputes in the shadow of the law? Even in the presence of legalized dispute settlement, countries still rely on diplomatic channels to resolve conflicts. But it can be difficult to assess diplomacy's impact on dispute resolution, because those channels tend to be opaque. We present both an original theory of the impact of diplomacy on dispute resolution as well as a novel measure of diplomacy. If countries with close or, conversely, distant relationships use legal channels for dispute resolution, diplomacy will have little impact on dispute settlement; resorting to legal recourse among friends or adversaries likely means that the dispute is intractable. However, diplomacy can increase the chances of settlement between countries with moderate levels of affinity. We test this argument using a protocol-based proxy for diplomatic interactions -- gifts given at the occasion of meetings between diplomatic counterparts -- that would otherwise be difficult to observe. Using the case of the United States and its disputes in the World Trade Organization, we find support for our argument. This suggests that even when countries resort to legalized methods of dispute settlement, bilateral dealmaking still plays an important role.

Not Just Tolerated—A Global Leader: Lessons Learned from Israel's Experience in the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

Israel's influential role in the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification since the agreement's inception is explored. Several factors can explain the country's successful diplomatic interaction. A combination of: low international interest and competition for expertise about the issue; Israel's unique, achievements in combatting desertification as part of its agricultural and forestry activities; and Professor Uriel Safriel's extraordinary stature in the field—contribute to its exceptional involvement. The case constitutes a "proof of concept" for Israel's potential to be effectively engaged in other UN programs. This will require greater government commitment and contribution to international initiatives, along with a willingness to authorize experts and academics to represent the country in additional global frameworks.

Mixed Company in the Contact Zone: the “Glocal” Diplomatic Efforts of a Prussian East Indiaman in 1750s Cape Verde

Abstract This article takes a micro-historical actor-centered approach to study the encounter between the officers of a Prussian East India Company Ship and local elites in 1750s Praia, Cape Verde. Combining recent advances in New Diplomatic History and in Company Studies with insights from the study of Contact Zones and transculturation, it analyzes the diplomatic strategies marginalized and hybrid players could adopt to project themselves onto the early modern global stage and locally counterbalance the hegemonic Northern European Atlantic powers. It thus proposes an alternative model of nonprofessional diplomatic interaction in the early modern period.

Amicable Diplomacy? Korean Embassies and Japanese Intellectuals in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

ABSTRACTNeighborly relations (K. kyorin kwangye, J. kōrin kankei) between the governments of Chosŏn Korea and Tokugawa Japan, their officials, and local elites in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have long been represented as a portrait of amicable diplomatic engagement over these two centuries. Their relations, however, also included more critical views than scholarship has suggested, especially at the individual level where they were not necessarily favorable to the other. Seeking to broaden the range of discourses found in Korean and Japanese depictions of this other in these neighborly relations, this article explores cultural frictions among elites who played important roles in diplomacy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This article also examines how the concept of ‘othering’ generated friction during diplomatic interaction.

Re-envisioning Citizen Diplomacy: A Case Study of a Multifaceted, Transnational, People’s Republic of China “Ethnopreneur”

This article problematises the traditional conceptualisation of the “citizen diplomat” as being confined only to a single nation state sovereignty. At the nexus of transnational “ethnopreneurship,” dual embeddedness, neoliberalism, and post-materialism, citizen diplomats transcend territorially bound identities and perform unofficial dual-accredited roles in the enhancement of bilateral relationships. The protagonist in this case is a transnational People’s Republic of China ethnopreneur who adopts multiple forms of cultural commodification based on both Thai and Chinese resources. As a result, both territories have benefitted from the ensuing informal diplomatic interactions. Traversing the culturally distinctive city of Chiang Mai in Thailand and several flourishing cities in China, the article elucidates the importance of non-traditional diplomats. Put succinctly, it argues for a re-envisioning of transnational ethnopreneurial diplomacy so as to recognise multiple identities, cultures, and markets wherein positive-sum diplomatic returns are achieved. From an intra-Asian perspective, it seeks to remedy a scarcity in the literature – given that existing migrant studies are largely set in North American and European contexts.

THE DIPLOMATIC REPERTOIRES OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANIES IN MUGHAL SOUTH ASIA, 1608–1717

AbstractThis article presents the first survey of the full range of diplomatic interactions between the Mughal Empire and the English and Dutch East India Companies (EIC and VOC) in the period 1608–1717. It proposes a typology of the six different modes of diplomacy practised by the EIC and VOC as a means to understand better the distinct nature of corporate diplomacy. Moving its focus beyond exceptional embassies, this article demonstrates that by far the most common forms of Company diplomatic activity consisted of low-profile petitioning at the imperial centre and ongoing political interactions with provincial and local power-holders. It draws on c. fifty distinct episodes to chart how Dutch and English diplomatic repertoires in South Asia took shape in response to local demands and conventions. Both Companies petitioned Mughal emperors in much the same way as Indian subjects did, and both relied on Mughal patrons to do so. Cast in the role of supplicants seeking imperial favour and protection, Company envoys presented themselves as obliging participants in the ceremonial performance of an asymmetrical relationship. By tying commercial privileges to expectations of submission and service, the imperial government proceeded to incorporate these foreign actors into a domestic political framework.