Diplomatic Services Research Articles

Latin America confronts the United States: asymmetry and influence

Where we used to consistently read that Latin America suffered ‘under the talons of the eagle’ and that the region had little sense of agency in the face of the North American giant, a recent bevy of extremely well-researched scholarship is indicating that such a view is mistaken. Tom Long's book is the latest contribution to this critical rethinking of US power in the Americas. Making extensive use of archival sources in and outside the US, as well as in-depth elite interviews with key protagonists across the hemisphere, Long convincingly argues not only that the US did not always get its own way, but also that it is possible for presumably powerless countries in the region to move US policy. Rather than focusing on standard realist readings of Latin American history predicated on arguments of hierarchy, Long turns his attention to the question of asymmetry, casting it as a situational challenge and not as a blocking obstacle. He asks how a country can move another country's foreign policy when it has no realistic recourse to the mechanisms of coercion commonly associated with the practice of international relations. His answer is that it has to deploy different strategies in an attempt to gain influence. Tellingly, the skill and persistence of national leadership and diplomatic services enter into this frame as central not only to selling the US on accepting this influence, but also as a fulcrum of personal relationships on which to bend this lever.

Afryka Południowa i Południowo–Zachodnia w niemieckiej propagandzie kulturowej (1914–1918)

South and South-West Africa in German Cultural Propaganda (1914–1918)On July 7th 1914, the British government requested general Louis Botha to take over the German radio transmitters in Lüderitz and Swakopmund. The German forces, unable to withhold the attack any longer, surrendered on July 9th 1915. The government in Berlin, realised that winning Southwest Africa back, might prove impossible, regardless of the course of the war in Europe. By the same token, the future of the German diamond companies, united in a consortium called Diamantenregie since 1909, depended on the developing political constellation in the Union of South Africa. Since 1915, German authorities have launched a subtle diplomatic game aimed at winning the support of the South African elites and the public opinion of the country. The neutral Netherlands were the main stage of this long–term post–war policy. Due to the historical connections to South Africa, the Netherlands played an important role as a cultural and political mediator. Some members of the Dutch elites – writers, journalists, politicians – still held the pro– Boer and anti–English position when WWI broke out. This position encouraged the involvement of the Dutch elites in the German incentives regarding cultural propaganda. This paper offers insights into the so far unpublished correspondence of the main actors of the contemporary field of German propaganda. The main person under investigation is Johannes Visscher, a Dutch journalist and expert on South Africa. As editor of the journal Hollandsch Zuid– Afrika, published by Nederlandsch Zuid–Afrikaansche Vereniging (NZAV), Visscher was employed by the German diplomatic services in the years 1915–1918. As part of the activities financed by Reichskolonialamt, Visscher shaped the image of Germany in the South African press and the pro–German image of South Africa in the Dutch press.

Reflection on the effects of Citizenship in the teachings of Quran and Nahj al-Balagha

Background and Aim: Nowadays, social scientists and civil rights issues of concern to civil society are emphasized. View on issues in this area, suggests that instead of adopting a passive position and repeat the socio-political literature West, at humbly on the way wide pension law, the rights of citizens to receive true effects. This concise, representation of civil rights in the Quran and Nahj al-Balagha into the frame takes up the words of the Notes may reflect researchers to focus more and deeper. The purpose of this paper is to examine the cognitive concept of citizenship and its place in the territory of the Qur'an and Sunnah. Method: In this cross-sectional study done by relying on Islamic sources. Findings: In the Quran and infallible word while explaining the general rules of civil rights and crystallization mechanisms in the implementation of this law is designed in the community. Conclusion: Despite the appearance of so-called emerging civil rights and basing it on the teachings of liberal delusions, conceptual aspects and the need for protection of these rights, previously unmatched cohesion emphasis on Islamic teachings of God's image. Looking at the Quran and Nahj al-Balagha, the rights of citizenship and human rights dimensions without the dark descent and even religion (in so sure of this law) is clearly visible. However, realization of civil rights and social rights requires an understanding of people from all social, economic, cultural, civil and diplomatic services. A community of citizens, will be possible. Please cite this article as: Abbasi M, Sadr Tabatabai SMA, Kalhornia Golkar M. Reflection on the effects of Citizenship in the teachings of Quran and Nahj al-Balagha. Bioeth J Q 2016; 6(21): 7-22.

Deciphering ADFGVX messages from the Eastern Front of World War I

ABSTRACTIn the last months of World War I (WW I), the German Army and diplomatic services used the ADFGVX hand-cipher system to encrypt radio messages between Germany and its outposts and stations in the Balkans, the Black Sea, and in the Middle East. Hundreds of cryptograms were intercepted from July to December 1918 by British and U.S. military intelligence, who were able to recover most of the keys and decipher most of the cryptograms using manual cryptanalysis methods. Fortunately, the original cryptograms have been preserved by James Rives Childs, the U.S. officer assigned to G.2 A.6, the SIGINT section of American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in Paris, and they appear in his book, General Solution of the ADFGVX Cipher System, published by Aegean Press Park in 2000.In this article, the authors present the results of an effort toward the complete cryptanalysis of the messages, and an analysis of their contents. The authors present a new computerized method for the ciphertext-only cryptanalysis of ADFGVX messages which they developed for that purpose. They also provide details on how all the keys were recovered and almost all the messages decrypted, despite the low quality of significant parts of the intercepted material.The analysis of the messages in their historical context provides a unique insight into key events, such as the withdrawal of the German troops from Romania, and the impact of the Kiel Mutiny on communications. Both events had major political and military consequences for Germany in the Eastern Front. Cryptanalysis allowed the Entente Powers to closely monitor those events as well as others developments, also highlighting inherent weaknesses in German cryptographic and cryptanalytic capabilities. The authors plan to publish online all the decrypted messages.

ВІРМЕНСЬКА ГРОМАДА В КАМ’ЯНЦІ-ПОДІЛЬСЬКОМУ XVI–XVII СТ.

The article contains the basic stages of formation and functioning of the Armenian community in Kamianets Podilskyi. Much attention is focused on the ethnic composition of the population of the city as it has status on the basis of government. The author explores the issue of the Armenian community population, the number of buildings which belong to Armenians, reflection of the community in the office work of the city. The questions of the state of justice in the Armenian community in Kamianets Podilskyi is outlined. The number of documents have been analyzed, the range of issues have been discussed. The features of trade and craft activities of the Armenian community in the 16th — 17th centuries have been determined. The author notes the specifics of the Armenian community in Kamianets Podilskyi in the form of transit trade between East and West, which was carried out by means of caravans. The article highlights the mobility of Armenian merchants who travelled to Kafa, Suceava Tokat, attended fairs in Lviv, Lutsk. However, the article notes that the majority of local Armenians were taken care not by trade, but craft work or by combination of these activities. Thanks to knowledge in Crimean-Tatar and Turkish languages and the awareness in Turkish and Tatar cases, Armenians were often involved in the diplomatic services as translators, counselors, mediators, developer or as diplomats. Thus, the author argues that the Armenian community exerted a significant impact on social, economic and cultural processes in Kamianets Podilskyi. Despite its “freedom” and autonomy there have been obvious limitations in trade and craft work. Together with this, the Armenians were one of the richest people in Kamianets Podilskyi. Their “mobility”, language and traditions of the eastern territories positively resulted in trade with the East, which was often out of reach for merchants from other urban communities.

The Republic’s Renegades: Dutch Converts to Islam in Seventeenth-Century Diplomatic Relations with North Africa

This article explores the ways in which Dutch converts to Islam acted as informants, intermediaries and at times even informal diplomats for the Dutch Republic, a newcomer to Mediterranean trade and diplomacy. It asks how these renegades, who often occupied high ranks in the North African corsairing fleets and local positions of power, facilitated and shaped Dutch-North African relations. The article explores the renegades’ diplomatic services, follows them as they (re)establish contact with the Dutch Republic, and analyzes how they fashioned themselves as cross-confessional mediators. Far from being marginal figures caught in the dichotomy of a Christian past and a Muslim present, Dutch renegades operated as part of a continuum that encompassed both the Islamic Mediterranean and the Dutch Republic.

Diplomacy, Secrecy and the Law

This paper reviews international and national law protecting secrecy and confidentiality in diplomatic relations. A first part focuses on secrecy within diplomatic relations. The 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and various Headquarters Agreements contain provisions protecting diplomats, the diplomatic mission and, importantly, diplomatic documents and correspondence from unwanted disclosure. Largely developed during the Cold War period and reflecting sentiments of distrust, this international legal framework remains fundamental to the way in which diplomacy is conducted. The second part explores internal and external pressures that pose a threat to the culture of secrecy in diplomacy. Diplomats operate largely outside the scrutiny of the public, with little oversight by parliaments, causing a democratic deficit. Recent years have seen a rise in public demands for openness and transparency in diplomacy, especially when human rights were at stake. The paper scrutinizes court cases in national and international contexts in which the freedom of speech, the right to access to information held by diplomatic services, and the freedom of the press have been invoked. It is argued that while this type of litigation has begun to cause cracks in the legal regime protecting secrecy, diplomacy as of yet remains an information fortress in otherwise open and democratic societies.

Electronic commercial diplomacy: a research model and an empirical analysis of embassy websites

This article deals with the question to what extent governments adopted digital communication channels in their commercial diplomacy services? Commercial diplomatic services are offered by governments to companies and entrepreneurs who aspire to do business in another country. First, this article presents a research framework drawn from the literature, followed by the results of an empirical study. A structured website analysis was carried out of the embassy websites of the top ten countries in e-government. The findings show that electronic commercial diplomacy (e-CD) is still in an 'embryonic' stage. The countries in this study have developed strategies and goals for their online presence, but the interactive services are still limited. Furthermore, the findings suggest that implementation settings - strategy, goals - can explain the type of e-CD to a more significant extent than institutional settings

Women, Marriage and Work in the British Diplomatic Service

This article explores the ways in which marriage, and the hetero-normative ideals associated with it, structured the experiences of women within the British Diplomatic Service from the early nineteenth century to the 1980s. Drawing on the sociological concept of ‘incorporation’, the article shows how assumptions about the duties of wives towards their husbands and country contributed to the ongoing exclusion of women from the Diplomatic Service and later served to restrict the career mobility of female officers, most notably through the operation of a marriage bar. The article argues that the hetero-normative model began to break down in the 1970s due to a number of factors, including generational change, the spectre of sex discrimination legislation, and the example set by more politically assertive groups of wives in Diplomatic Services elsewhere. This analysis suggests that ‘incorporation’ should be understood as a phenomenon which not only determines the social identities of wives, but can fundamentally shape the experiences and opportunities of women formally employed within the occupational culture in question.

The Role of Information and Communication Technology in delivering Diplomatic Services for growth and development of Tanzania

Rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICT) has lead to significant changes in social, economical and political relations of the modern society. Access to information and control over it contribute to the prevalence of soft power in politics of digital age, and empower the non-state actors in international relations. Contemporary diplomatic service, besides being faced with enhanced roles, requests for extended outreach and accountability, yet shrinking resources, is also challenged with multi stakeholder and multidisciplinary international arena. The presence of information and communication technologies (ICT) has somewhat carved out an alternative path to development. This paper examines The Role of Information and Communication Technology in delivering Diplomatic Services, a case of Ministry of Foreign Affaires and International Cooperation. Both qualitative and quantitative research designs were applied. The study populations were from the ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Tanzania with the sample of 100 respondents drawn purposively. Interviews, questionnaires, and focus group discussion were instrument used to collect Primary data. The data analysis involved descriptive statistics using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSSx) computer programmes. The study findings show that, ICT has a significant role to play in delivering diplomatic services in Tanzania. About (60%) of the respondents agreed to use E-mails and internet to deliver diplomatic services to the citizens.

Nordkoreanische Studenten im Auslandsstudium der DDR

Summary Since the foundation of modern states the exchange of qualified young students across the borders of the national states is part of cultural foreign policy. Students were sent off out of a variety of reasons. To widen out the individual personality, to study other cultures, states and nations, to extend the language expertise by research and practice etc., and last but not least to expand the capacity of diplomatic and secret services. In the case of this case-study about the history of students and young persons exchange between the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and North-Korea (KVDR) a detailed insight is presented about the development, academic structure and aims. This exchange program during the Korean war started as a solidarity-act of high propagandaesteem in the early fifties of last century ending in the sixties under the disaster of lost interest by the North-Korean dictatorship. The article is fully based on sources of the East-German institutions of the communist party and the GDR Foreign-Ministry and gives a first insight about the theme and the arguments used.

Commercial diplomacy in practice: experiences of international business executives and representatives in Malaysia

Commercial diplomacy aims at creating and expanding business opportunities abroad. Empirical research on commercial diplomacy from a business perspective is scarce. This paper presents the results of a study on the experiences of an embassy’s commercial diplomacy activities in Malaysia by home country business executives and representatives abroad. The findings show that companies familiar with the Malaysian business environment apply less for diplomatic business support, but that support towards newcomers is assessed as valuable. Businesses experience the commercial diplomatic services as reactive, though willing to help. Matchmaking facilities are valued, especially by companies that are not familiar with the Malaysian business environment.

Multi-level Policy Approach in the Governance of Labour Migration: Considerations From the Philippine Experience

Abstract With 40 years of experience in labour migration, the Philippines has designed a comprehensive approach for its governance that other countries of origin in Asia look up to. The objectives of the migration policy consist in facilitating the employment of Filipino workers abroad and the consequent economic benefits, while ensuring safe and decent conditions for the workers, through a variety of measures, including regulating the recruitment industry, training migrants through specific programmes, supervising the terms and conditions in the labour contract, and making available a system of redress for victimised migrants. These objectives are reached through the national migration policy. However, the national policy has inherent limitations, both in terms of design, implementation and reach, as the outreach of the Philippine government while migrants are abroad is limited to diplomatic and other services. For this reason, the Philippines has engaged both in bilateral and multilateral cooperation. This paper, after presenting the development of migration from the Philippines at the three policy levels, will briefly assess the efficacy of such policies, using indicators, such as growth of migration flows and coverage, to conclude that all three levels must be pursued, with some preference for the bilateral approach within a multilateral framework.

El servicio exterior español: una visión crítica desde su creación hasta la reforma de 2006

International Society has suffered important changes since the end of the Colf War. Because of that, the different diplomatic services, such as the Foreign Service of the Foreign Office, are trying to adapt to the new situation. In 2005, the Spanish Foreign Service (Servicio Exterior Espanol) started a similar transformation process. This article tries to make an assessment on this transformation.

The Protection of EU Citizens Abroad: Accountability, Rule of Law, Role of Consular and Diplomatic Services

The concept of protection of distressed citizens abroad was born inside the mainstream of theories on ‘Law of Nations’ in the seventeen and eighteen centuries. For a long time, this concept has been based on the strict relation between State and ‘its’ subjects. Since 1992, the new legal order of European Union (EU) law has given zest to the novel concept of protection of European citizens abroad, so that any EU country can intervene to protect unrepresented Europeans in third countries. Rule of law and Member State accountability are two basic milestones in EU law and well-settled case law of the EU Court of Justice, so that the traditional theories on State immunity and on discretionary power of consular and diplomatic agents cannot reasonably be maintained. The present study will conduct an in-depth analysis on Article 23 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), where the basic provision on protection of Europeans abroad is enshrined.

Clergymen in Diplomacy in the Fifteenth Century Castile

The clergymen were, along the Middle Ages, usually members of the diplomatic services of the Monarchy. The fact of know the Latin was, among other things, the key that were suitable to work for the Monarchy in this kind of tasks. This study analyzes the figure of the clergymen who played in diplomatic works in the fifteenth century. It analyzes who, why and how they were chosen for these tasks, attending on his studies and hierarchy.

Profit and Piety: Thomas More, John Colet, and the London Mercery

This study offers a new comparison between Thomas More's and John Colet's ideology concerning wealth and property and their activities with the Mercers’ Company, in order to demonstrate their humanist aims of bringing virtue (pietas) and learning to society partly by means of business. It is argued that, as in the wider Church, there was a reciprocal relationship between profit and piety in the life and works of the two humanists, despite their apparent dismissive attitudes to money in their writings. As a result of their work, not only did the Mercers benefit from the two men's skills, but London gained a new school, the re-foundation of the Guild of the Holy Name of Jesus and the improvement of the hospital of St. Thomas of Acre along with More's legal and diplomatic services, which improved international trade relations, especially with the Low Countries. Their humanist philanthropy exhibited the active side of their devotional lives in their educational aims, civic service and social reform.

Review: The Diplomatic Corps as an Institution of International Society

THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS AS AN INSTITUTION OF INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY Edited by Paul Sharp and Geoffrey Wiseman New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Xii, 287 pp, US$80.00 cloth (ISBN 978-0-230-00165-7)This book focuses on a rare and quaint subject. diplomatic corps has been perceived as a dignified remnant of the old that has little, if any, instrumental value nowadays. As an area of study, it has not been considered worth investigating by students of diplomacy and hardly figures in the diplomatic studies' literature, let alone in the wider field of international relations. Research unprofessional diplomatic bodies tends to concentrate on national diplomatic services, their histories, organizational capacities and limitations. There is virtually no comprehensive study examining the international community of diplomats accredited in national capitals and at the headquarters of international organizations worldwide. From this perspective alone, this book is unique. It deserves the attention of everyone studying diplomacy, but also those interested in the diversity of international social practice.Another interesting aspect of the book is the conceptualization of the diplomatic corps as an institution of the international society, that is to say, within the terminology and analytical framework of the of international relations. One need not buy the theoretical package that goes with the English school (and it is to the credit of the editors that they use but do not oversell the theory to the reader) to accept that it provides an appropriate scheme to engage normatively and do justice to such a topic. As the late Adam Watson puts it in his foreword to the book, it is especially when things go wrong, such as in the case of a local crisis, a noncooperative regime, or a break in diplomatic relations between some (but never all) states, that one comes to appreciate the role of the diplomatic corps to act international society as a whole and to provide the lubricating oil when diplomatic actors get into a stalemate (xi). What is not discussed in the book are the limitations of the international society approach, especially its Eurocentrism. Thus there is no historical examination of how, for example, the western consular and diplomatic corps in the east Asian treaty ports and legation quarters were not a mere technical innovation of the international society but often the product of treaties of capitulation and a means of politically infiltrating foreign countries. Progressively, the western consular and diplomatic corps ensured the inclusion and cooptation of local regimes into western international society but on highly unequal terms.The book is well structured and looks at conceptual and practical questions from a variety of angles as well as from a variety of capitals (e.g., Seoul, Beijing, Pyongyang, Washington, London, Kigali, Oslo, Kathmandu, Skopje, Hanoi, Stockholm, New York, and Brussels). It fittingly starts with the historical and conceptual background to the diplomatic corps. Chapter one on The origins of the diplomatic corps: From Rome to Constantinople is disappointing, however. Serious reflection on the suggested origins of the concept is lacking, since the author appears uninterested in engaging with the Roman period (which gets a mere page-and-a-half, and not all of it is on Rome). …

Japanese Strategic Thought toward Asia

This well-constructed work starts from a rather lengthy, detailed ‘Overview’ written by three editors to enable readers to clearly understand the purpose and structure of the volume. This part includes a summary of the four periods of Japanese strategic thinking that comprise the main body of the book: the 1980s, the first half of the 1990s, the second half of the 1990s, and the Koizumi era. The volume, published in 2007, even covers the first few months of Abe Shinzo in office. In Part 1, ‘Chronology’, the afore-mentioned four periods are examined. Part 2, ‘Geography’, focuses on Japan's strategic thought toward five countries/areas in Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Russia, and Central Asia. The final chapter deals with Japan's strategic thinking on regionalism. The chronological and geographical approaches taken in the book give readers a complete picture of the topic. Editors and contributors consist of ten leading experts in Asian studies residing in the United States and other major Asian countries. Most of the contributors are university professors, but there was also a significant contribution from some people with a background in diplomatic services.

Locke: A Biography (review)

Reviewed by: Locke: A Biography Michael Losonsky Roger Woolhouse . Locke: A Biography. Cambridge-New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. xviii + 528. Cloth, $39.99. "A man of versatile mind"—a remark from a letter to Locke by a life-long friend—is the subtitle of the first chapter of this biography. It could also be the book's subtitle. Relying on Locke's correspondence, manuscripts, and mostly unpublished journals, Woolhouse pieces together a detailed quilt that exhibits the tremendous variety of Locke's interests and activities. Locke, who admitted to wandering interests (133), wrote about medicine, horticulture, religion, education, economics, government, and human understanding, as well as occasional poetry and a play. He even edited Boyle's History of the Air and a bilingual version of Aesop's Fables. His resume included a Bachelor of Medicine, a license to practice it, teaching and tutoring positions, diplomatic services, secretary, commissioner, and more. Woolhouse does justice to this variety and sometimes gives the impression that Locke's life was a crazy quilt. For example, after describing Locke's diverse activities after returning from France in 1679, he writes, "there was . . . much else going on . . . for during these years he also composed two lengthy works about the nature of government" (181). [End Page 175] Adhering closely to Locke's correspondence and journals, Woolhouse is reserved about ties between Locke's political writings and the activism of Shaftesbury's circle. He is also skeptical about the role of politics in Locke's extended trip to France in 1675. Other biographers believe that the trip was motivated by fear, since the English government had just condemned a pamphlet written by Shaftesbury that was also attributed to Locke. Woolhouse argues that it is very likely that Locke "went for nothing more than his health" (117). Locke suffered from asthma and chronic bronchitis, and Woolhouse emphasizes their role in his life, observing that Locke's writings on medicine, which antedate the Essay, are already "imbued by . . . empirical, anti-theoretical methodology" (86, 104–05). Locke believed doctors should pursue systematic observations that track the observable history or course of a disease and not speculate about their hidden natures—a methodology that should be extended to natural philosophy. This is what Locke does in the Essay, where human knowledge of nature, as Woolhouse deftly notes, is "inevitably, literally superficial" (243). The most dramatic part of Locke's life was his exile to Holland. Here Woolhouse's attention to detail is particularly effective as the story of Locke's exile reads like a film script, complete with refugees, agents, Locke hiding under assumed names, coded letters, and plots to assassinate and invade. Locke's precise relationship to the various political plans, including the invasion of England by William of Orange, is disputed, and Woolhouse again is skeptical about Locke's involvement. What is clear is that in Holland Locke made great progress on the Essay. Working on it was "a cherished diversion with which its author entertained and consoled himself during exile, and which, had circumstances been different, he would never have been sufficiently single-minded to complete" (229). This is a comprehensive biography, exceeding in depth and scope Maurice Cranston's John Locke (1957). Locke's personal life is not neglected, including his relationships with women, his obsessive love of order, and what foods he liked. Woolhouse even speculates that Locke's friendship with Nicholas Toinard "though apparently never physical, is sometimes suggestive of homosexuality" (149). Still, in the end, Locke remains enigmatic. Does Woolhouse emphasize Locke's "versatile mind" at the expense of its unity? Locke's letters and journals yield only a fragmented account. After all, when it came to politics, a contemporary described Locke as "a master of taciturnity" (208). Or was there simply no unifying theme to Locke's life? Woolhouse does not directly address this question, but suggests that the disunity is real and that two factors account for this. First, there is Locke's lament that his life was pushed along "contrary to my design and expectation" (4). Second, Locke was by nature not a single-minded person; instead, he "had a breadth of interest and ability, which . . . got in the way...