French Diplomat Research Articles

„Broń dyplomatyczna pierwszej rangi”? Powstanie polsko-francuskiego Banku Śląskiego SA po I wojnie światowej

The text outlines the process of creation of Bank Śląski SA [Silesian Bank SA] in Katowice after World War I. The core of the article is the analysis of negotiations conducted between Artur Benis, and later Wacław Olszewicz, with French diplomats and bankers in 1920–1922. The author points out that previous interpretations of the talks mischaracterized the role of the Poles, who were in fact an important party influencing the direction and outcomes of the negotiations concerning the economic future of Upper Silesia. The failure of the concept of a Polish-French bank in the territory annexed by Poland is explained by the wavering attitude of the French and the changes in economic situation taking place during the period of negotiations.

JOZEF ARTUR DÖ QOBİNO İRSİNDƏ ŞƏRQ MÖVZUSU

The French diplomat, sociologist, and writer Joseph Arthur de Gobineau always addressed the subject of the East in his works. Both in art and in publicist work Gobineau appeals to the description of the way of life and thinking, the criteria of life of the people of the East. His works are distinguished by high art and imagery. His works on the East are relevant and interesting in modern times through the prism of East-West relations. Key words: Arthur de Gobineau, diplomat, France, Europe, East

Plantatio Ecclesiae in Africa: From Tutelage to Maturity

Wladimir d’Ormesson, a French diplomat at the Vatican, in praise of François Méjan’s 1957 book, Le Vatican contre la France d’Outre-Mer, expressed with bitterness and regret that the “civilisation” which French missionaries had helped to spread in mission lands had sadly turned against French interests. “[W]e are showered with ingratitude on all sides. We have spread civilization far and wide,” he wrote. “[A]nd now this civilisation pushes us away in the very name of the doctrine that gave rise to it … it is a bitter cycle.” The bitterness and regret of d’Ormesson were directed against the Vatican’s new missionary policy on Africa. That policy, understood as Plantatio Ecclesiae, was predicated upon indigenisation in terms of allowing African priests to assume positions of authority and leadership in their emerging local churches. It became the bone of contention between the Vatican and some missionary congregations. On the flip side, the desire among some African native clergy, to see the evolution of an African church in an independent Africa, in many instances brought about misunderstanding and tension. This essay intends to highlight the bumpy roads that popped up in attempts to root the local church in the post-missionary era in Africa.

When was Melaka founded and was it known earlier by another name? Exploring the debate between Gabriel Ferrand and Gerret Pieter Rouffaer, 1918−21, and its long echo in historiography

A century ago, research on the Malay world was experiencing major breakthroughs on several fronts, but the greatest achievement at the time was without doubt George Coedès’ ‘rediscovery’, based on Asian sources, of a forgotten kingdom named Srivijaya. His book, published in 1918, saw a wave of publications follow in its wake. Sources were trawled in the hope of finding answers to unresolved issues and unidentified place names. Attention invariably also fell on Melaka. In a long article published by the French academic and diplomat Gabriel Ferrand in the same year, the question of Melaka's founding date came under the spotlight. What do the different surviving sources tell us? What about Gaspar Correia's claim that Melaka was a thriving port city for centuries before the arrival of the Portuguese? Was the city — just as in the case of Temasek (Singapore) — known by a different name in earlier times? Ferrand's publication provoked a response from the Dutch academic Gerret Pieter Rouffaer, director of the KITLV. What he planned to be a 20-odd page response to Ferrand swelled into a multifaceted argument running into hundreds of pages. The debate between Ferrand and Rouffaer that touched on Melaka and Temasek-Singapura's early history probably eluded most of their academic contemporaries who were not proficient in both Dutch and French, especially in the English-speaking world. The present article reconstructs the main points of this debate together with their echo in historiography. It makes a contribution to the ongoing discourses, especially in Malaysia, concerning the founding date of Melaka.

The problem of security of Mediterranean communications in French policy in the spring of 1938.

This article explores the representations of French diplomats and military chiefs on the methods of ensuring security of Mediterranean communications against the background of unfolding Austrian crisis in the spring of 1938. Although national and foreign researchers discusses the existence of a threat to French communications in the Mediterranean, Paris’ position on this problem alongside the change of its approach, have not previously become the subject of separate research. The author attempts to elucidate why Paris resorted to the questions of military cooperation with London in the Mediterranean Region precisely in the spring of 1938. The author relied on the achievements of the realist school of the theory of international relations in defining the concept of security. The conclusion is formulated that consolidation of Italy and Germany in the strategically important areas of the region – Spanish Morocco and Balearic Islands, which took place during the Spanish War, posed a serious threat to French communications in the Mediterranean. French military officers believed that particular danger to Paris’ positions in the region came from Italy. In the course of escalation of the Austrian crisis, the stance of Paris on the defense of communications varied. If in February 1938, the French military chiefs were assumed that security of communications could be ensured by signing an agreement,  after the Anschluss they considered conducting military operations in the Mediterranean Region in the instance of the beginning of war. Paris was concerned about consolidation of “axis” powers in the region, and a year ahead of London raised the question on conducting combat operations in the Mediterranean. However, without the support of Great Britain, France was incapable of achieving full protection of its Mediterranean interests.

Losy polskich żołnierzy ery napoleońskiej w świetle kazań i mów okolicznościowych z okresu Księstwa Warszawskiego i Królestwa Polskiego

Po 1795 r., po upadku państwa, Polacy, aby je odzyskać, musieli chwycić za broń i walczyć o niepodległość. O tej walce dowiedzieć się można było również z kazań i mów okolicznościowych czasów Księstwa Warszawskiego i Królestwa Polskiego, wygłaszanych na pogrzebach, przed rozpoczęciem obrad sejmu, na nabożeństwach z udziałem wojska oraz uroczystościach organizowanych ku czci panujących. Ich autorzy, duchowni, opowiadali o doświadczeniu polskiego żołnierza, jakim była bohaterska walka w różnych częściach świata pod przewodem Napoleona Bonapartego, a która to walka miała doprowadzić do wskrzeszenia Polski. Zarazem kaznodzieje przedstawiali rodzimych żołnierzy doby napoleońskiej, jako dziedziców staropolskiego męstwa i bojowników narodowej sprawy, których wzorcowym reprezentantem stawał się książę Józef Poniatowski. Postać zaś i losy księcia, jak i jego współtowarzyszy broni, utrwalone przez legendę napoleońską, będą inspirowały następne pokolenia walczące o wolność Polski.

Kardynał Giovanni Antonio Davia (Gianantonio De Via) ‒ nuncjusz w Rzeczypospolitej (1696-1700)

W latach 1696-1700 nuncjuszem w Rzeczypospolitej był Giovanni Antonio Davia, późniejszy kardynał. Na okres jego misji przypadło szereg skomplikowanych problemów wewnętrznych jak i zewnętrznych, jakie trapiły Rzeczypospolitą: wojny tureckie, relacje katolików z innowiercami w Polsce, konflikty polityczne na Litwie, które zakończyły się wojną domową. Do bardzo interesujących należy wątek ewentualnego udziału Giovanniego Antonio Davii w elekcji na króla Polski Fryderyka Augusta Wettyna, którego panowanie miało tak fatalne skutki dla Rzeczypospolitej. Davia oskarżany był o sprzyjanie saskiej kandydaturze przez dyplomatów francuskich i ich stronników w Polsce, gdyż elektorowi saskiemu zawdzięczał uwolnienie bratanka Giovanniego Battisty z niewoli tureckiej, o co rodzina Daviów bardzo zabiegała. Nie ma bezpośrednich dowodów na złamanie przez nuncjusza Davię neutralności w elekcji, a pozostają jedynie oskarżenia przeciwników Wettyna.

О РАЗВИТИИ МЕТОДА ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ ИДЕОГРАФИЧЕСКИХ ПИСЬМЕННОСТЕЙ В ИСТОРИИ СИНОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ ЛИНГВИСТИКИ (ПО РАБОТАМ АВТОРОВ XIX В.)

The article explores briefly the history of research in one of the most arguable topics in Sinological linguistics — the definition of an ideographic script, i. e. the Chinese writing system perceptions in the Russian and Western sinology of the 19th century. J.-F. Champolion’s and T. Young’s discoveries of the nature of hieroglyphic script, its function and evolution, as well as their decipherment of the ancient Egyptians texts, naturally influenced the broad field of oriental linguistics, having stimulated researches of other hieroglyphic writing systems. The present article touches briefly upon works of the American scholars P. DuPanceau and S. Andrews, the British naturalist G. T. Lay, the French diplomat J.-M. Callery and the well-renowned Russian sinologists I. Bičurin and V. P. Vasilyev. Basing on the selection of works, relevant to the article’s subject matter, the author aims to illustrate the evolution of Sinological knowledge in one of its most arguable topics — the nature hieroglyphic script, its structure and modification over time. Selected passages from the above mentioned authors, their exchange of opinions and comments to each other’s works tend to demonstrate the development of the research methodology itself — the gradual shift from labelling the Chinese script with ideographic stamp to the recognition of its phono-semantic dimensions and its transformation towards a phonetic system of writing.

КРЕМЕНЧУГСКИЕ «МАНЕВРЫ» А. В. СУВОРОВА

The article is devoted to the consideration of such a historical event as “maneuvers” conducted under the guidance of A. V. Suvorov in Kremenchug in 1787. The reliability of the facts related to the presentation of this event in biographical studies dedicated to the great commander is analyzed. A description of the maneuvers in Kremenchug, followed by a conversation between Suvorov and the empress, took shape in the 19th century, in the works of E. B. Fuchs, F. Smith, N. A. Polevoy, A. F. Petrushevsky. This story is present in the biographies of the commander created in the XX century. The reconstruction of this event is carried out on the basis of a historical anecdote outlined in the works of E. B. Fuchs and references to maneuvers in Kremenchug in the memoirs of the French diplomat L. Segur. However, an analysis of other sources makes it possible to question this story. No source mentions the maneuvers in Kremenchug, describing the events as a show or a parade. The troops located in Kremenchug were not subordinate to A. V. Suvorov, and Yu. V. Dolgorukova. The conversation between Suvorov and the Empress after the maneuvers, also does not find confirmation in the sources.

Diplomacy at the end of empire: evolving French perspectives on Portuguese colonialism in the 1950s and 1960s

ABSTRACTDiverging French and Portuguese approaches to imperialism complicated French diplomats’ assessment of Portugal in the 1960s. As France relinquished the last of its African empire, Portugal fought to maintain its overseas provinces. Examining this relationship reveals the uneven evolution of French attitudes towards Africa. Within the French state, some opposed Portugal’s bloody colonial wars, while others believed that Portugal, as the remaining European power in Africa, represented the last best hope for the civilising mission on the continent. Beyond the Cold War dynamics at play, ideologies of race and empire lay at the heart of this relationship.

Informal empire and international law in Tunisia after the French Revolution

ABSTRACTThe French Revolution has often been described as the beginning of a new era of French imperialism, when France began nesting its imperial endeavours around the Mediterranean and recovering from the colonial losses it had incurred around the Atlantic during the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763). The existing literature largely considers this general shift from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean from the perspective of formal imperialism, or the imposition of direct French rule. This article argues that consular imperialism, as an informal imperial strategy unsupported by a direct use of military force, emerged in Tunisia between 1789 and 1815, before the rise of formal imperialism and the establishment of a French protectorate there in 1881. Moreover, in contrast to the economic integration that underpinned the British form of informal imperialism, which led to the establishment of a global market, French diplomats relied on rumoured threats of a possible Napoleonic invasion in their attempts to force Ḥammūda Pasha, the Tunisian bey, to accept a new system of international law in the Mediterranean. Through this legal integration, French diplomats succeeded in remoulding Tunisia into an informal appendage of the growing French Mediterranean Empire during the height of Napoleonic expansion, when the threat of an invasion appeared credible. This study thus shows that an extended focus on informal methods of projecting power through the spread of international legal norms could throw new light on the longue durée factors that framed the realignment of French imperial ambitions around the Mediterranean after 1789.

French Revolutionary Transformations of Diplomatic Practice: The Case of Franco–Ottoman Relations, 1792–17971

This article focuses on questions of rupture and continuity in European international relations around 1800, taking French revolutionary diplomatic practice in the Ottoman Empire as a case in point. Historians who have studied the conduct of French revolutionary diplomacy tend to emphasize the ruptures in revolutionary diplomatic practice. The analysis of Franco-Ottoman alliance negotiations (1792–1797) does not fully match with this assessment. Although it is certainly true that the Revolution led to great alterations in French diplomatic culture, French diplomats were often far from discarding all diplomatic conventions. The article gives a short overview over the diplomatic agents working for the French embassy and their reactions to the Revolution in France. It then presents the Ottoman reaction to the regime change in France, in particular with regards to the transition from monarchy to republic. The main focus is on the question of innovation and continuity in diplomatic practice and on the self-representation of the new French state.

The Attempt to Reform the CMEA in 1962—1963 in the Assessments of French Diplomats. According to the Materials of the Archive of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Based on materials from the archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the majority of which have not been put into scientific circulation in Russian or foreign historiography, the article presents the view of French diplomats and experts on an attempt to reform the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance in 1962—1963. The reform was to lead to the beginning of genuine economic integration in Eastern Europe. However, nationalistic and autarkic tendencies in some countries, primarily in Romania, led to the rejection of reforms in this period. Instead of developing the specialization of production, moving to unified planning and creating supranational bodies in the future, co-operation within the CMEA framework has taken the path of developing existing forms of cooperation, focusing on the development of bilateral trade between the countries of Eastern Europe. After the refusal to reform CMEA, the French began to write less and less about the prospects for genuine integration and ceased to perceive CMEA as a real competitor for the European Economic Community. As a result, the French authorities in the mid-1960s they counted on the development of bilateral cooperation with the CMEA countries, primarily the USSR and Romania, which contributed to the beginning of the détente.

Writing in occupational communities as a lens to study becoming, doing, and relating.

In this empirical study of diplomatic correspondence in the occupational community of French diplomats, I argue that the practice of writing, using a genres lens, is an analytical entry point to th...

Rosja Katarzyny II w Zapiskach Louisa Philippe’a de Ségura

The text presents deliberations on Russia by Louis Philippe de Ségur, a French diplomat, who spent almost five years in Petersburg at the court of Catherine the Great. Against the background of his intricately crafted missionary strategy, whose aim was to sign a trade treaty with Russia, Ségur draws a distinctive portrait of the tsarina and her favourite, Potiomkin, skilfully smuggling in a criticism of their reformation activities. Exposing the delusion of Russia’s civilization progress, “the country of dumb obedience and anarchy” whose nation, superficially absorbing European customs, is still plunged into slavery, he simultaneously revisits “the Russian mirage”.

The de Bunsen Committee and a revision of the ‘conspiracy’ of Sykes–Picot

ABSTRACTThe Sykes–Picot The Sykes-Picot Agreement is often cited as evidence of a Western conspiracy to carve up the Middle East and subordinate the Arabs. It is a prevalent view across the region, and has been a refrain repeated by critics. Yet very little is known of the far more significant conclusions of a Committee, formed by Maurice de Bunsen on the orders of the British government, which ascertained the options open to the Allies in 1915. Far from a nefarious conspiracy, the Committee came down in favour of a decentralised, ultimately independent region. The First World War compelled some revision of the original intent, but the essence of the Committee's conclusions remained intact throughout the war, and after. Conversely, Sir Mark Sykes repudiated the ‘agreement’ he had made with the French diplomat Picot, and substantial revisions were made to that temporary scheme. Yet it seems that ‘conspiracy sells’, and generations have colluded with the theme of perfidy to reinforce particular narratives, including, most recently, the Da´esh movement's claim to have ‘ended Sykes-Picot’.

M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang

Reviewed by: M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang Esther Kim Lee M. BUTTERFLY. By David Henry Hwang. Directed by Julie Taymor. Cort Theatre, New York City. November 4, 2017. David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly is one of the most famous plays of the theatre canon. It has been included in anthologies, syllabi, and discussions of race, Orientalism, sexuality, gender, and performance. Its New York premiere in March 1988 was an instant hit and ran for 777 performances, a record number at the time. Hwang received the Tony Award for Best Play in 1988 and went on to become the most visible Asian American playwright internationally. When it was announced that the play would be revived on Broadway in fall 2017 and be directed by Julie Taymor, there was much anticipation over how Hwang and Taymor would reinterpret the play for twenty-first-century audiences. In 1988, the play generated much controversy over how a man can be deceived into falling in love with another man who pretends to be a woman. How could he not know? Many audience members, in shock, would ask the question while leaving the theatre. In 2017, such a question was not as shocking as it was in 1988, partly because many advancements have been made in understanding how sexual identity is fluid and performative. The scandalousness of the original production had worn off after almost thirty years, and it was no longer surprising to see the scenes in the play that made the 1988 audience gasp and shudder. Hwang may have felt that he needed to update the play and make it more relevant to the 2017 audience, or perhaps he wanted to tell a different story in the revival. He rewrote parts of the play and changed the relationship between the two main characters. The original play was based on a New York Times article about a French diplomat who had an affair with a Chinese opera singer for twenty years. He claimed that he thought the singer, who turned out to be a spy, was a woman. For the original play, Hwang deliberately did not do further research of the actual people and chose to imagine how their relationship could have been possible. For the revival, he reversed his position and included what he discovered about the real French diplomat and the Chinese opera singer. I took my undergraduate class on Asian American theatre at the University of Maryland on a field trip to New York City to see the play, and all of my twenty-five students and I sat eagerly to find out how it had been changed. Before seeing the play I stayed away from reviews, because I did not want to know in advance about the changes that Hwang made. The surprise came early, when the gender pronoun used for the Chinese opera singer was monsieur, not mademoiselle. My students and I looked at one another in confusion, and by the intermission we agreed that the layering of gender identity was made even more complex in the rewrites. The opera singer was a woman onstage though a man offstage, but s/he was actually a woman raised as a man. Click for larger view View full resolution Jin Ha and Company in M. Butterfly. (Photo: Matthew Murphy.) In directing the revival, Taymor compared the play to a Chinese puzzle and wanted to highlight the layers of identity, deception, and relationships. The set design by Paul Steinberg utilized large panels to represent the puzzle-like element of the play. The panels were manually moved by stagehands and folded up and down to reveal different images. Taymor stated in interviews that she did not want to use any of the cutting-edge technology that she, as the director of The Lion King and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, is most known for. Perhaps because of [End Page 560] her reputation, the manual movements of the panels and the bareness of the set were unexpected. Hwang’s play is about the theatricality of identity, and metatheatricality is key to its staging. The fourth wall is frequently broken, and at one moment Gallimard, the protagonist (played by British actor Clive Owen...

The reaction of the representatives of the Allied Powers in Russia on the revolutionary events of 1917

The article put forward a comparative analysis of the reaction of the British and French diplomats and military representatives on the revolutionary events in Russia in February-October 1917. The author defines the range of the most informed foreign observers and tries to appreciate the degree of their impact on the policy of London and Paris concerning Russia. He accentuates on how far these responses and estimates were determined by the position and the nature of activities of the representatives of the Allied Powers, as well as by their political preferences and prejudices. The author avoids to restrict himself by a mere digest of comments of foreign contemporaries of the Russian Revolution. He tends to put these responses into a broader context of efforts of the French and the British governments to keep their Eastern ally in the war. Above all else, the article addresses the issue of common and distinct in the “Russian policy” of the two countries, the degree of conformity and rivalry of the Western Powers in their attempts to influence the march of events in Russia. Estimates of the foreign representatives are traced in dynamics. They naturally evolved following the processes in Russia on the course “from bad to worse”: from anxiety in March-April caused by decline of the morale of the Russian Army to skepticism in June-July in anticipating of the planned offensive on the Eastern front and, finally, to disappointment and blow of all hopes regarding assistance from the part of Russian till the end of the campaign of 1917. The author also stresses surprising similarity of British diagnoses and flexibility of the “Russian policy” of France.

Recruitment of Foreign Specialists from France and French-speaking Switzerland during the Reign of Peter I

The recruitment of specialists in Europe was practised by Russia well before the reign of Peter the Great, at least as early as the fifteenth century. However, neither the extent nor the frequency of recruitments at this period can be compared with what happened during Peter’s reign. Not only did the general context evolve considerably with the arrival of Peter, but also the methods used in the recruitment of specialists. As the data concerning the French in particular show, these recruitments became increasingly targeted and the profiles sought increasingly specialised. In Russia, the general context was also increasingly favourable to this professional emigration. Religious isolationism and suspicion of foreigners were less widespread under Peter I; attempts to make foreign specialists convert to Orthodoxy, so frequent before the reign of the tsar, had become unusual. Finally, a stable legal base appeared which made it possible to conclude contracts with foreigners helping to increase their confidence and thus to favour recruitment. However, this mechanism, apparently very efficient, did not always bring the results expected. The efforts of the tsar’s agents were often sabotaged on the spot, and foreigners were treated badly. The example of the French speaks for itself: some were sent back to France by the authorities themselves for various reasons, others, discontent with their situation, either because they were not paid or did not have work, were easily lured away by French diplomats and put on boats destined for France.

Les métiers de bouche à Tours dans la deuxième moitié du XVe siècle

Food professions in Tours grows rapidly during the fifteenth century, especially in the second half, thanks to the presence of the King and his court. Under the reign of Louis XI the economic development of the city encourages the activity of merchants and craftsmen. Many archival documents of the late Middle Ages, kept at the departmental and municipal Archives of the town, provide information on food corporations, their organization, their relationship with the authorities, as well as their place in the market. In the municipal accountes one finds, for instance, several contracts concerning butchers, bakers, fishmongers, innkeepers, salt and wine merchants and pastry cooks. The last profession becomes very important during the fifteenth century in Paris and in many other French cities. They are specialized in savoury and sweet tarts, which were frequently offered during banquets and official ceremonies, organized for the King and his court, or for French and foreign diplomats and politicians.