Informal Diplomacy Research Articles

Mackay's unburnt legacy: heroes-rescue-Aborigines organizing narratives in the exhibiting of Taiwan Aboriginal artefacts

This paper is a case study of this 2001 exhibition in Taipei entitled ‘Treasures Preserved Abroad: the Dr. Mackay Collection of Formosan Aboriginal Artefacts.’ These Royal Ontario Museum owned Taiwan Aboriginal artefacts were originally collected in the late 1800s by the Canadian Presbyterian missionary George Leslie Mackay (1844–1901). The exhibition honoured the centennial of Mackay's death, because Mackay has become something of a modernizing hero to Taiwanese nationalists. The exhibition opened on 2 June 2001 with a nationally televised opening ceremony featuring former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui and other VIPs. This rescue narrative was used despite Mackay's accounts of burning the non-Christian religious objects of converted Pingpu Aborigines, which he referred to as “paraphernalia of idol worship” and his ethnocentric denigration of Atayal Aboriginal culture in his 1896 book “From Far Formosa.” Utilizing theoretical approaches from organizational communications, the paper shows how organizing narratives about rescuing Aborigines involve modernizing heroes assisting Aborigines with various difficulties or threats. These rescue narratives allow coordination among disparate agents and personnel who as micro actors speak on behalf of macro actors such as the nation or Aboriginal peoples. The exhibition was translated into several other institutional narratives including Canada nation branding, Taiwan government informal diplomacy, and corporate public relations. The article concludes with an analysis of how York University Centre for Asian Research-affiliated academics used the Mackay hero-rescues-Aborigines narratives to organize the permanent display of the artefacts at the Royal Ontario Museum.

The ASEAN-ISIS Network: Interpretive Communities, Informal Diplomacy and Discourses of Region

A network of think tanks—the ASEAN-Institutes of Strategic and International Studies and their researchers—have played a proactive and sometimes influential role in regional debates on Asian economic integration and security cooperation through informal diplomacy. This paper contributes to the literature on knowledge utilisation, specifically debates on the role of policy research institutes in policy-making. Paying attention to the debates and research on economic and security cooperation which preceded attempts at institutionalisation drives analytical attention to scholars, think tanks and others in the ‘interpretive community’ who were engaged in a long term learning activity to shape domestic and regional agendas and institutionalise discourses of regional cooperation.

Buddhism in Singapore–China Relations: Venerable Hong Choon and His Visits, 1982–1990

AbstractVenerable Hong Choon (1907–90) made eight visits to China between 1982 and 1990. During these visits, the Venerable met national and religious leaders, made pilgrimages to sacred Buddhist sites, helped to restore the monasteries associated with his master Venerable Hui Quan, and officiated at religious ceremonies. This study aims to examine the diplomatic significance of Venerable Hong Choon's visits to China. It positions these religious exchanges within the broader context of Singapore–China relations since the reopening of China in the late 1970s, and argues that Buddhism played a role in fostering international relations between the two countries in the period prior to the official establishment of diplomatic ties. In the absence of formal diplomatic channels between Singapore and China, Venerable Hong Choon's religious visits could thus be seen as a form of informal diplomacy with the aim of confidence building.

The 1940 Olympics: Imperial commemoration and diplomacy

This study sketches the early history from 1930 to 1932 of the bid for the 1940 Tokyo Games. Tokyo Mayor Nagata Hidejiro conceived of the bid for the 1940 Tokyo Olympic Games to market the newly reconstructed Tokyo as an international tourist destination during the 2,600th national anniversary of the Japanese empire in 1940. The leaders of Tokyo invented many 1930s commemorative idioms for the Tokyo Olympiad. The Japanese Government did not endorse the Tokyo bid for the 1940 Games, and the tensions amongst Tokyo, Japanese national government and the international community reveal the conflictual domestic and international politics of 1930s Japan. When Japanese diplomatic ties were strained by 1930s Japanese imperialism in Asia, however, the Japanese state endorsed the 1940 Olympics as a forum for informal diplomacy.

Franklin Roosevelt and the Runciman visit to Washington in 1937: Informal diplomacy and Anglo-American relations in the era of Munich

Franklin Roosevelt and the Runciman visit to Washington in 1937: Informal diplomacy and Anglo-American relations in the era of Munich

Taiwan's Overseas Opposition Movement and Grassroots Diplomacy in the United States: the case of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs

This article examines the advocacy of overseas Taiwanese, particularly those in the United States, and their influence on US foreign policy and subsequently upon democratization in Taiwan. It concentrates particularly on the work of a Taiwanese non-governmental, non-profit advocacy group in the US—the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA). This article first composes an organizational history of FAPA by investigating the questions and processes of why and how FAPA was formed at the local level in the US. Further, it analyzes how the organization mobilized its relatively modest local resources in the US through grassroots diplomacy to promote Taiwan's visibility in the US, to influence the US government on Taiwan-related issues, and to attempt to impact upon Taiwan's democratization. Through the presentation of FAPA's organizational history, this article ultimately tries to answer the question of whether a non-governmental organization such as FAPA and its grassroots diplomacy has had an impact on US foreign policy and Taiwan's democratization. Besides adding to the existing scholarly literature on the causes of Taiwan's democratization, this study on the formation and effectiveness of FAPA seeks to contribute to studies on NGOs' or non-state actors' grassroots diplomacy and lobbying efforts on governmental policies. Because FAPA functioned as an important diplomatic channel for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Taiwan's first opposition party in the post-World War II era, before it matured into a fully-developed national opposition party in the 1990s and consequently unseated the Kuomintang (KMT) in 2000, this article is also an examination of an opposition movement's informal diplomacy.

Building Peace in Sri Lanka: a Role for Civil Society?

This article deals with civil society in the ethnically polarized violent conflict of Sri Lanka. It spells out the possible role of civil society in peacebuilding, while at the same time problematizing the civil-society concept and pointing to the problems faced by civil society in Sri Lanka in taking on this role. Civil-society actors in Sri Lanka strive to contribute to peace processes (1) addressing ethnic divides and public opinion with education and awareness-raising programmes, as well as cross-ethnic dialogue, (2) addressing politics with popular mobilization, advocacy work, and informal diplomacy, and (3) addressing economic issues through reconstruction and development. However, civil society in Sri Lanka has been weakened by political patronage and the protracted war. Like Sri Lankan society, it is to a large extent ethnically divided, and popular mobilization has through history been nationalist and violent rather than pro-peace. Although civic peace organizations work hard to take on a peacebuilding role, their activities are often project-oriented and top-down, rather than mass-based and bottom-up. Moreover, critical assessments of the impact of small-scale activities and analysis of the linkage between them and the larger conflict context (in which the work of similar organizations as well as external forces have to be taken into account) need to be further developed, by civil-society actors as well as researchers.

Catherine Forslund. Anna Chennault: Informal Diplomacy and Asian Relations. (Biographies in American Foreign Policy, number 8.) Wilmington, Del.: S R Books. 2000. Pp. xxxiii, 180. $19.95

Catherine Forslund. Anna Chennault: Informal Diplomacy and Asian Relations. (Biographies in American Foreign Policy, number 8.) Wilmington, Del.: S R Books. 2000. Pp. xxxiii, 180. $19.95 Get access Forslund Catherine. Anna Chennault: Informal Diplomacy and Asian Relations. (Biographies in American Foreign Policy, number 8.) Wilmington, Del.: S R Books. 2000. Pp. xxxiii, 180. $19.95. M. Cristina Zaccarini M. Cristina Zaccarini Adelphi University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 107, Issue 5, December 2002, Pages 1585–1586, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/107.5.1585 Published: 01 December 2002

Taiwan in Japan's foreign relations: informal politics and virtual diplomacy

Taiwan in Japan's foreign relations: informal politics and virtual diplomacy

Taiwan's Informal Diplomacy and Propaganda. By Gary D. Rawnsley. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. ix, 182 pp. $65.00 (cloth).

Taiwan's Informal Diplomacy and Propaganda. By Gary D. Rawnsley. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. ix, 182 pp. $65.00 (cloth).

Informal diplomacy and the modern idea of Japan

Informal diplomacy and the modern idea of Japan

Informal diplomacy and the modern idea of Japan

(2001). Informal diplomacy and the modern idea of Japan. Japan Forum: Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-13.

Taiwan's informal diplomacy and propaganda

Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction A Brief International History of the Republic of China Diplomacy and Propaganda Diplomats, Propaganda and the Overseas Chinese Taiwan's International Media and Propaganda Conclusions Notes Bibliography Index

Post-war reconstruction of the Japan Lobby in Washington: the first fifteen years

This paper describes Tokyo's regeneration of informal diplomacy, lobbying, and public relations in Washington during the first fifteen years of the post-World War Two era. Relieved by the Allied Occupation from official responsibility for conduct of Japan's foreign relations and even denied opportunities for foreign travel and communication, Japan's conservative national élite worked deftly through American individuals and organizations pursuing compatible agendas to counter Occupation reform efforts they considered excessive or ill-advised. Following recovery of national sovereignty in 1952, Japan's Lobby managers diversified and expanded their US operations, focusing energy on maintenance of the political status quo in the bilateral economic relationship that had been established at the outset of the Cold War. The Article concludes that Tokyo's Lobby managers adapted successfully to changes in their domestic and international environments during the early post-war era and provided critical support for Japan's primary national objective of rapid economic reconstruction and growth.

Herding cats: multiparty mediation in a complex world

Part 1 Multiparty mediation - concepts, issues, strategies, and actors: introduction to multiparty mediation multiparty mediation and the conflict cycle the practitioner's perspective. Part 2 Conflict prevention and aversion: the role of the OSCE High Commissioner in conflict prevention, Max van der Stoel Canada and the crisis in Eastern Zaire, Gordon Smith and John Hay managing potential conflicts in the South China Sea - informal diplomacy as process, Hasjim Djalal and Ian Townsend-Gault Burundi - parallel diplomacy or the policy of nonindifference, Fabienne Hara. Part 3 Ending violent conflict: the road to Madrid, James A. Baker III the Oslo accords - multiparty facilitation through the Norwegian Channel, Jan Egeland peacemaking in Southern Africa - the Namibia-Angola settlement of 1988, Chester Crocker more and less than it seemed - the Carter-Nunn-Powell mediation in Haiti, 1994, Robert Pastor the road to Sarajevo, Richard Holbrooke bringing peace to Cambodia, Richard H. Solomon ending violent conflict in El Salvador, Alvaro de Soto Angola - the Lusaka peace process, Paul J. Hare Haiti - Canada's role in the OAS, Barbara McDougall Northern Ireland - the Good Friday Agreement, John de Chastelain the Ecuador-Peru peace process, Luigi R. Einaudi Mozambicans negotiating through third parties - the role of the community of St Egidio, Andrea Bartoli the multilevel peace process in Tajikistan, Harold Saunders multiparty mediation in Northern Ireland, Paul Arthur. Part 4 Implementation and peacebuilding: a Bosnia federation memoir, Dan Serwer the United Nations in Angola -post-Bicesse implementation, Margaret Joan Anstee Mozambique -implementation of the 1992 Peace Agreement, Aldo Ajello.

The International Status of Taiwan in the New World Order. Legal and Political Considerations

Part 1 The international legal status of Taiwan: The international legal status of Taiwan, Hungdah Chiu Is Taiwan a part of China? H. Kuijper Toward modern concepts of sovereignty and statehood, M.C. Davis. Part 2 Responses to diplomatic isolation - informal diplomacy: Limitations and prospects of Taiwan's informal diplomacy, Linjun Wu Does flexible diplomacy improve Taiwan's international status? K. Moller. Part 3 Responses to diplomatic isolation - participation in international organizations: Taiwan's return to international organizations - policies, problems and prospects, D. Van Vranken Hickey Taiwan's 'return' to international organizations, Ko Swan Sik All dressed up but not invited to the party - can Taiwan join the United Nations now the Cold War is over? V. Wei-Cheng Wang The Republic of China's right to participate in the United Nations, Sheng-Tsung Yang Taiwan's right to be heard before the security council, J.E. Lord Taiwan's option of becoming a permanent observer, L.B. Sohn The United Nations framework for the participation of observers, N. Sybesma-Knol Taiwan, China and the United Nations, Lung-Chu Chen. Part 4 relations across the Taiwan Strait: The paradox of Taiwan-mainland China relations, J.C. Hsiung The development of Cross-Strait policies in China and Taiwan, Cheng-Wen Tsai. Part 5 Concluding observations: Self-determination in action for the People of Taiwan, J.M. Henckaerts. Appendices: legal aspects of the problem of representation in the United Nations general assembly resolution on the representation of China in the United Nations the Chinese White Paper on Cross-Strait relations the Taiwanese White Paper on Cross-Strait relations request to consider the exceptional situation of Taiwan in the international context.

The ASEAN Regional Forum: The Spirit of Constructive Engagement

The ASEAN states have taken a central role in an East Asian security regime. Rather than focus on problem-solving or negotia tions, the ASEAN Regional Forum (AJRFJ stands as a consultative process to further the benefits of constructive engagement: eco nomic development and stability. Its formation recalls ASEAN's own cautious concern for building consensus and bilateral under standings in preparation for a multilateral endeavour. ASEAN-like, states are called upon to practice self-restraint, by renouncing force and interference in other states' domestic affairs. Moreover, to achieve regional stability through a balance of great powers, the ASEAN states have often facilitated inclusion of all through an informal diplomacy that limits obligations and protocol The nations of post-Cold War Asia-Pacific have launched a regional secur ity forum that faces concerns like the consolidation of Cambodia, the governance of the South China Sea, the nuclear challenge from North Korea, and the increases in arms purchases by Asian states, as well as the human rights policies of the regime in Myanmar. This ASEAN Re gional Forum (ARF) will be part of a three-phase process that begins with the annual ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM). ASEAN members have been meeting with Dialogue Partners (Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the United States) in Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC). Now there will be the ARF, made up of the ASEAN members, the Dialogue Partners, and foreign ministers from China, Russia, Vietnam, Laos, and Papua New Guinea. The motivation underlying this consultation is the common fear of instability: 'The whole

Informal Diplomacy in the Venezuelan Crisis of 1896

Informal Diplomacy in the Venezuelan Crisis of 1896