Current and emerging challenges to the practice of Australian diplomacy

This article examines the capacity of Australia's overseas network to respond to a range of different challenges confronting today's diplomats. These include doing more with less at a time of greater international interaction and activity; deepening our understanding of foreign societies at a time when it can be increasingly dangerous to do so; and doing both these things at a time when questions remain about our basic standpoint.     

精英、舆论与外交:华盛顿会议期间的国民外交代表

1921年底,余日章和蒋梦麟作为国民外交代表参与华盛顿会议。他们对中国政府代表团进行舆论监督,力促政府代表早日提出山东问题。当会外谈判成为现实后,他们又力促政府代表早日解决山东问题;并利用各种渠道构建一个舆论宣传网络,努力维护中国的国家形象,揭露日本侵略中国权利的实际情形。余日章、蒋梦麟在华盛顿会议期间的国民外交活动堪称1920年代初期中国精英利用公众舆论影响政府外交的一个典型。     

The transformation of diplomacy: mysteries, insurgencies and public relations

There has recently been a resurgence of interest in the art of diplomacy, fuelled by the growing popularity of the idea of 'soft power'. This article reviews three books key to this revival, all of which argue that a transformed and revitalized diplomacy can and should play a positive role in international politics. One calls for diplomats to overcome their traditional reserve and become 'guerrillas' fighting for human security, peace and development; another for a broader and deeper engagement with 'public diplomacy'—the practice of speaking to foreign peoples rather than just foreign sovereigns. The last favours a return to inherited diplomatic wisdom now half-forgotten. While welcoming this renewed concern for diplomacy, this review article argues that its place in contemporary international politics is perhaps less secure than the works reviewed allow. The 'management of legitimacy'—the central task of diplomats—is a much more difficult task than is often acknowledged.     

Defending Byzantine Spain: frontiers and diplomacy

The centrality of the Reconquista in the historiography of medieval Spain has meant that there has been little examination of the evidence for interaction on and across political boundaries in pre‐Islamic Spain. This article re‐examines existing theories about the defence of the Byzantine province of Spania that had been established by Justinian in the 550s and was taken by the Visigoths in 625. The two existing and opposing models for the extent, defence, and – therefore – the importance of the province to the empire do not explain the evidence convincingly. Rather, a fluid zone of interaction was established in which diplomacy and ‘propaganda’ was the primary means by which opposition was articulated.     

China's oil diplomacy in Africa

Within the next five years, Chinese trade with Africa is predicted to reach $100 billion per year. Much of this springs from China's growing expansion into Africa's oil markets. It is argued that Chinese oil diplomacy in Africa has two main goals: in the short-term to secure oil supplies to help feed growing domestic demand back in China; and in the long-term, to position China as a global player in the international oil market. Yet at the same time, this oil safari is being accompanied by an explicit stance that emphasizes state sovereignty and 'non-interference' in domestic affairs and is wholly disinterested in transparency or human rights. Consequently, Beijing has increasingly been accused of turning a blind eye to autocracy and corruption. China is also threatening to undercut efforts by the African Union and its western partners to make government and business more accountable. While China is providing investment where little was previously forthcoming, concerns about Beijing's engagement with Africa's oil industries need to be resolved, not least by African leaders themselves.     

In praise of counter-conduct

Without access to Michel Foucault's courses, it was extremely difficult to understand his reorientation from an analysis of the strategies and tactics of power immanent in the modern discourse on sexuality (1976) to an analysis of the ancient forms and modalities of relation to oneself by which one constituted oneself as a moral subject of sexual conduct (1984). In short, Foucault's passage from the political to the ethical dimension of sexuality seemed sudden and inexplicable. Moreover, it was clear from his published essays and interviews that this displacement of focus had consequences far beyond the specific domain of the history of sexuality. "Security, Territory, Population" (Foucault, 2007) contains a conceptual hinge, a key concept, that allows us to link together the political and ethical axes of Foucault's thought. Indeed, it is Foucault's analysis of the notions of conduct and counter-conduct in his lecture of 1 March 1978 that seems to me to constitute one of the richest and most brilliant moments in the entire course. Is is astonishing, and of profound significance, that the autonomous sphere of conduct has been more or less invisible in the history of modern (as opposed to ancient) moral and political philosophy. This article argues that a new attention should be given to this notion, both in Foucault's work and more generally.     

The informal diplomacy of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue

After 20 years, the Australian American Leadership Dialogue has acquired enviable access to political leaders in the foreign policy establishments of both countries. The influence of the Dialogue is at earlier consensus-building stages of decision making. Its importance has been in ‘relationship maintenance’ of the bilateral alliance which it has pursued through processes of informal diplomacy. The Dialogue now faces its own challenges of organisational renewal and relevance in the wider ‘interpretative community’ of Australian think tanks, university policy institutes and opinion-formers.     

The Master and Marguerite: Godfrey of Fontaines' praise of The Mirror of Simple Souls*

This article examines the evidence for the intellectual and practical relationship between Marguerite Porete and the secular master of theology Godfrey of Fontaines. It analyses the nature, timing, and importance of Godfrey's response to The Mirror of Simple Souls, and argues that considering the interaction between these two figures has important consequences for our understanding of both of their careers.     

The appeal of appearing green: Soviet-American ideological competition and Cold War environmental diplomacy

This paper argues that the Cold War, for all its environmental costs, brought in its train a hidden benefit: the creation of an international ideological competition that made meaningful environmental agreements more likely. After reviewing the history of Soviet environmental initiatives, the paper discusses the rise of international environmental agreements and the abrupt decline after 1991.     

Why praise Jews: satire and history in the middle ages

Modern readers, including highly sophisticated, professional historians, have not always understood that medieval praise of jews, in its rare occurrences, never signifies categorical approval of Israelites. Instead, such praise functions as a condemnation, sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit, of Christians whose behavior is not even equal to that of the lowest members of society. The elaborate story told by Richard of Devizes about the murder, towards the end of the twelfth century, of a young Christian by a Jew at Winchester provides a clear illustration of the problem.