‘That Moral League of Nations against the United States’: The Origins of the 1856 Declaration of Paris

The Declaration of Paris, signed by seven European powers on 16 April 1856, is almost forgotten today. Yet it marks the beginning of modern international law as we know it: multilateral treaties open for accession by all powers with the intention of creating new universal rules. Its extension of neutral rights to trade undisturbed in peace-time was a radical reversal of the centuries-old British tradition of extensive belligerent rights. But there is no convincing explanation why Britain signed this treaty and lobbied for its global acceptance. This article shows that the Declaration was a package deal in which Britain accepted broader neutral rights but gained the abolition of privateering. Privateering was no anachronism, but the linchpin of US strategy in case of a conflict with Britain. The Declaration of Paris closed most of the world's ports to privateers and thus ended the practice. The Declaration was also the first multi-lateral law-making treaty and marks the invention of the main instrument we use today to create international law.     

‘The Most Developed of the Underdeveloped Nations’. US Foreign Policy and Student Unrest in 1960s Spain

Throughout the 1960s, Spanish students staged a strong opposition against the dictatorship of General Franco. Also during this decade, the U.S. Foreign Service in Spain began to pay great attention to these students for two key reasons. On the one hand, student protests posed a threat to US defensive interests in a country with a high strategic value during the Cold War in southern Europe. However, on the other hand, campus agitation could lead to positive effects for the United States if students’ expectations of social change were channeled toward national development in a context of order and political stability. So, how could student activism and idealism be directed toward a controlled modernization of Spain? This article attempts to answer this question by studying American programs aimed at disseminating the principles of modernization theory in Spanish universities as an instrument to (1) influence students’ political and intellectual socialization and to immunize them against radical ideologies and (2) channel students’ aspirations towards constructive and responsible reform of their country's socioeconomic structures.     

‘Those same cursed Saracens’: Charlemagne's campaigns in the Iberian Peninsula as religious warfare

While it is well known that many of Charlemagne's wars had a strong religious element, Frankish campaigns against the Muslims of Spain in his reign have generally been understood as secular exercises in power politics. This article presents evidence contemporary to Charlemagne's reign to argue against this, using a diverse range of sources to conclude that many observers of the Frankish invasions of the Iberian Peninsula understood them as religious wars aimed both at the defending of Christian communities in Francia and protecting and expanding the worship of Christianity in Spain. Further, although the prosecution of these wars was politically opportunistic, the sources suggest that Charlemagne and his court encouraged interpretations of these campaigns in religious terms and that they might be considered examples of religious war.     

Travelling responsibly,but further to go: Australia’s new consular diplomacy

ABSTRACT

This article considers the transformations taking place in the consular landscape and the resulting pressures on departments of foreign affairs both in Australia and elsewhere. For Australia, the challenges are particularly compelling. As the Lowy Institute has observed in successive reports, Australia’s anaemic overseas representation renders the growing consular load an even more formidable problem. When crises strike, resources are diverted both within government and within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, skewing other priorities. The second part of the article analyses government responses to these challenges. It examines the new focus on consular diplomacy and the government’s first formal consular strategy. It assesses the recent modest expansion of Australia’s overseas diplomatic network, together with the steps taken to enhance international cooperation on consular issues. The article concludes that while the problems facing Australia’s consular service remain pressing, some progress has been made.     

新时期中国文化外交兴起的必然

文化是国际竞争中备受关注的“软力量”。文化外交作为一个国家总体外交的重要组成部分越来越引起人们的重视。文化外交包括双边和多边文化交流、留学生培养、语言推广和媒体信息交流等活动。文化外交与公共外交关系密切,但又有所侧重。中国拥有悠久的对外文化交流的历史,改革开放以来,我国文化外交在配合国家整体外交,提升文化的国际影响力,宣传中国和平发展理念以及树立良好国家形象等方面发挥了重要的作用。尽管我国的文化外交仍处在一个初级阶段,对外文化交流的潜力还没有得到充分发挥,但是潜力巨大的中国文化外交必将在新世纪有着广阔的发展前景。     

New Light on the Korean War

It is the natural order of states and their governments to periodically upset the constructed balance of power and to subsequently seek out a ‘reset button.’ Such was the case following the First World War when the European map was redrawn and East Central Europe took on the appearance of a fractured and contested zone. What emerged from the confluence of four defunct empires was a collection of newly fabricated or reconstituted states vying for existence in a traditionally contested zone of influence. In October 1921, the Successor States of the Austro-Hungarian Empire convened a conference in the Adriatic town of Porto Rose to negotiate the details of commercial relations amongst themselves and to determine the broader economic character of the region. For Czechoslovakia – the most industrialized and arguably the most Westernized of these states – the conference presented an opportunity to promote its foreign economic agenda. This study represents a unique examination of the first international conference held among independent East European states and the importance it held for Czechoslovakia's foreign economic-policy objectives in the years following the First World War. At the same time, the study suggests connections with more recent overtures toward economic integration.     

二战前日本政党内阁对中国政策变化的原因分析

二战前日本两大政党内阁,宪政会.民政党与政友会的对中国政策变幻不定,缺乏一贯性。宪政会以《日英同盟》为基轴,强调维护从二十一条中获利的外交路线;但在护宪三派内阁以后,却转变为以国际协调、不干涉中国内政为内容的币原外交。政友会的对中国政策,从原敬内阁时期的对美协调、对中国内政不干涉,转变为田中义一内阁时期的自主外交。同一政党的不同时期,甚至同一人物主持内阁的不同时期,其对中国政策的变化幅度也极大。虽然中国反日爱国民族主义运动的高涨等因素,对二战前日本两大政党内阁对中国政策的调整产生了一定影响,但是,在国内经济环境变化的背景下,支持政党组阁的势力的经济利益,才是日本对中国政策调整的决定性因素。     

Controversy,uncertainty and the diverse public in cultural diplomacy: Australia–China relations

In the past few years, foreign policy tensions between China and Australia have become especially fraught. In some cases, this political situation manifests in the very diplomatic initiatives that were funded to help ease relations. This article considers a case study of a theatrical collaboration in the context of contemporary Australia–China relations to interrogate the value of our understandings of and evaluation frameworks for public diplomacy. This article argues that theories of cultural diplomacy and assessments of initiatives need to consider the multiple and competing objectives, diverse publics and controversial receptions that may be the outcomes of cultural diplomatic initiatives. It demonstrates this complexity in relation to Australia–China relations. Taking a cultural diplomatic initiative that sought to increase positive association for Chinese culture in the Australian public as a case study, it illustrates the range of differences that can be found amongst stakeholders, and the different roles that may be ascribed to cultural diplomacy. These interests, including those of different artistic and political stakeholders, as well as differences in the publics involved, are best segmented not only according to nation but also to subculture.     

Enter the ‘Far East’: Korean culture in early South Korea–Israel relations

Diplomatic relations between South Korea and Israel were formed only in 1962. Furthermore, as the two countries from both ends of the continent cooperated in various areas during the 1960s and 1970s, relations were becoming more complicated and even officially rather cool in light of Korea’s evolving relations with the Arab world. Against this backdrop, and based on the reading of contemporaneous Israeli press, the study argues that culture mattered very much in the early stages of the relations. Cultural contacts between Koreans and Israelis started well before the establishment of full diplomatic relations, and cultural diplomacy played a significant role in maintaining them in the decades that followed. Like today, both parties often emphasized the cultural and historical affinities between the two peoples, and in the process, the Israeli public was exposed to early glimpses into Korean culture while images of Korea and its people were created as well.     

The mosaic versus the melting pot: Canada and the USA

Ownership represents a key relation between people and places. Eastern European transformations since the late 1980s confront western norms of private property rights within a capitalist system with the legacies of an alternative ownership system and with attempts to establish property markets from first principles. The developments in the former GDR and in eastern Germany after German reunification offer an opportunity to question assumptions of use and value which underlie western models of property tenure. While common themes of privatisation and commodification link eastern and western experiences, the particular manifestations of transformations in eastern Germany challenge the claims of the primacy of ownership and the legitimacy of claims for control over the built environment.     

论日欧首脑外交

首脑外交是第二次世界大战以来国家间交往的一种频繁使用的外交形式,随着国际格局多极化与世界经济全球化的发展,首脑外交也日益突显出其独特作用,并且为当今大多数国家的政治首脑所接受,冷战约束后,首脑外交更加趋向于公开化,制度化,全球化,在当今国际新秩序的构建过程中,资本主义世界的铁三角同盟（日美欧战略三角）也面临着战略性的结构调整,向着全球性战略伙伴关系发展,日本与欧盟及其成员国的关键日益密切,日欧间首脑的频繁互访无疑发挥了重大的作用。