‘A Hazardous Task’: Britain and the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations

In 2014, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations celebrated its fiftieth anniversary since its coming into force in 1964. Setting out the privileges and immunities accorded to diplomats and diplomatic missions, the negotiations of this convention were part of the United Nations' plan to strengthen the international rule of law. This article analyses the role of Britain, one of the major actors in the negotiation process. It explores how Britain's negotiation position was shaped by diplomatic realities of the 1950s, and the strategies used to ensure Britain's interests being reflected in the final convention. The focus will be on the overall political pressure that underlined Britain's negotiation position, in order to reveal the general UK position on the codification of diplomatic privileges and immunities. Despite the remarkably friendly atmosphere at the 1961 Vienna conference, Britain could not press through all its amendments which, through the concluding legislation process, protracted Britain's ratification process. The article shows while London was supporting the codification of international law, codification by convention was not its ultimate choice. Therefore, the subsequent legislation process was marked by an inter-departmental dispute between the Foreign Office and Treasury, inter alia, on the exemption of Scotch whisky from excise duties.     

Ambassador George Buchanan and the July Crisis

During the July Crisis, the United Kingdom was put under strong pressure from Russia and the latter's ally, France, to declare it would fight alongside them. Britain had made the entente cordiale with France in 1904 and a Convention with Russia in 1907. The British Ambassador to St. Petersburg, George Buchanan, was the key figure in diplomatic communication between Britain and Russia at this time and his performance has drawn diverse comments over the decades. Some analysts believe he genuinely sought to restrain Russia from war, but was undermined by his own government, who too easily accepted St. Petersburg must mobilise its army. But others feel Buchanan's reports of Russian mobilisation were ill-informed and unhelpful to the government in London. This article examines Buchanan's performance, arguing that he attempted to preserve peace for a time and does not deserve some of the criticisms levelled at him. Nonetheless, the preservation of the Triple Entente was a priority for him and, after about 28 July, once it became clear that European war could not be avoided, he became tardy in reporting Russia's war preparations, appearing more interested in defending his hosts’ behaviour than in providing an accurate analysis of events.     

Territory,sovereignty and entitlement: Diplomatic discourses in the United Nations Security Council

This paper builds upon feminist approaches within political science, international relations and geography that study how bodies haunt global politics, by exploring how entitlement to power connects through the scale of the body to that of the state. In a context of rising populism and political bluster, as well as post-#metoo discussions of personal entitlement displayed by well-known political figures, there is a need to take seriously how discourses of statehood within security crises are gendered in specific ways. This paper argues that the concept of entitlement offers potential for geographic enquiry by opening up new perspectives on masculinist framings of territory and state in critical geopolitics and in critical international relations. It considers specifically how diplomatic discourses ground and naturalize claims to territory by showing how states’ entitlement to territory and masculinist forms of personal entitlement are connected. Drawing upon feminist approaches to language, discourse and power, this paper studies diplomatic interventions at the United Nations Security Council in New York in 2014–2017 on the crisis in Ukraine. Methodologically, it analyses diplomatic speeches through the concept of entitlement to show how territorial claims are naturalized through rhetorical devices grounded in hegemonic forms of masculinity. It argues that a clearer understanding of the connections between discourses of personal entitlement and state territorial sovereignty can further our understanding of territory.     

Troublesome Empire: Great Britain's American Dimension, 1600–1777

ROBERT M. BLISS. Revolution and Empire: English Politics and the American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century. Manchester: Manchester University Press; dist New York: Columbia University Press, 1990. Pp. xi, 300.

JOHN MORGAN DEDERER. War in America to 1775: Before Yankee Doodle. New York and London: New York University Press; dist. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990. Pp. xvii, 323.

MAX M. MINTZ. The Generals of Saratoga: John Burgoyne and Horatio Gates. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1990. Pp. ix, 278.

PAUL DAVID NELSON. William Tryon and the Course of Empire: A Life in British Imperial Service. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Pp. xiii, 250.

DAVID S. SHIELDS. Oracles of Empire: Poetry, Politics, and Commerce in British America 1690–1750. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Pp. xiv, 295.     

Rape as a Weapon of War(riors): The Militarisation of Sexual Violence in the United States, 1990–2000

This article uses a transnational feminist lens to examine how accusations of sexual violence were mobilised by the United States (US) government to justify military intervention at the same time that the US military failed to address sexual violence perpetrated by and against its own service members. Drawing upon an archive of civilian representations ranging from the New York Times to G.I. Jane, the author explores US interventions in the Persian Gulf, Haiti and the former Yugoslavia alongside sexual assaults committed by servicemen at the Tailhook Convention, on Okinawa and at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. This article draws connections between feminism and neo‐imperialism, between Cold War and War on Terror ideologies, and between rape as a weapon of war and rape during times of ‘peace’ in order to better understand the relationships between sexual politics and geopolitics at the end of the twentieth century.     

Review Article: British Foreign Policy from Salisbury to Blair

JOHN W. YOUNG. Britain and the World in the Twentieth Century. London: Edward Arnold, 1997; dist. New York: St Martin's Press. Pp. xi, 250. $19.95 (us), paper; DOUGLAS NEWTON. British Policy and the Weimar Republic, 1918–1919. New York: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, 1997. Pp. x, 481. $135.00 (CDN); RICHARD S. GRAYSON. Austen Chamberlain and the Commitment to Europe; British Foreign Policy, 1924–29. London: Frank Cass, 1997; dist. Portland, Oreg.: ISBS. Pp. xviii, 318. $49.50 (us); DAVID DUTTON. Anthony Eden: A Life and Reputation. London: Edward Arnold, 1997; dist. Don Mills: Oxford University Press. Pp. xiv, 576. $40.50 (CDN), paper; PETER JONES. America and the British Labour Party: The ‘Special Relationship’at Work. London: I. B. Tauris, 1997; dist. New York: St Martin's Press. Pp. 252. $59.50 (us).     

The Children of Africa in the Colonies

British Imperialism: Innovation and Expansion 1688–1914 by P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins. London and New York: Longman, 1993. Pp. xv + 504, tables, maps. £38 (hardback); £16.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–582–49175–4; 0–582–491762.

British Imperialism: Crisis and Deconstruction 1914–1990 by P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins. London and New York: Longman, 1993. Pp. xiv + 337, tables, maps. £30 (hardback); £11.99 (paperback). ISBN 0–582–20966–8; 0–582–20965‐X.     

Defending Empire at the United Nations: The Politics of International Colonial Oversight in the Era of Decolonisation

This article argues that, although anti-colonial delegations to the 1945 San Francisco Conference did not succeed in bringing all colonial territories under the umbrella of international trusteeship, the threat of expanding international oversight shaped the relationship between colonial governments and international organisations in powerful ways. By focusing on how the UN Special Committee on Non-Self-Governing Territories evolved as a de facto supervisory system for dependent territories, this article considers the ways that representatives at the United Nations defined dependency and self-government and explores the crusade that colonial governments led to justify imperialism in the post-war world. Through a consideration of the diplomatic actions of France, Great Britain and Belgium, this article explores the ways that colonial empires jointly mobilised to defend colonialism at the level of the United Nations. In the face of evolving supervisory mechanisms at the United Nations, the French, British and Belgian delegations joined forces in an attempt to expose some of the inherent contradictions in UN policy towards dependent populations, and to make the case that subject populations living in independent territories often endured worse conditions than those living in formal overseas empires.     

The commonwealth as history

The Imperial Dream: The British Commonwealth and Empire 1775–1969 by Edward Grierson. London: Collins, 1972. Pp. 320. £2.50. It is a pity that no one has troubled to read the proofs; the bibliography is peppered with spelling mistakes.

Commonwealth: A History of the British Commonwealth of Nations by H. Duncan Hall, with an introduction by Sir Robert Menzies. London, New York, Cincinnati, Toronto, Melbourne: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1971. Pp. xxxvi+1015, maps, illustrations. £10.00.     

Review Article: ‘Managing’ Women in War and Peace

UTE DANIEL.The War from Within: German Working-Class Women in the First World War, trans. Margaret Ries. Oxford and New York: Berg, 1997. Pp. xii, 343. $18.50 (us), paper; DEBORAH THOM. Nice Girls and Rude Girls: Women Workers in World War I. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1998; dist. New York: St Martin's Press. Pp. xvi, 224. $59.50 (us); FRANCES H. EARLY. A World without War: How US Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1997. Pp. xxi, 265. $22.95 (us), paper, LUCY NOAKES. War and the British: Gender, Memory, and National Identity. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1998; dist. New York: St Martin's Press. Pp. vi, 218. $59.50 (us); JANE SLAUGHTER. Women and the Italian Resistance, 1943–1945. Denver: Arden Press, 1997. Pp. xx, 171. $22.50 (us), paper; DALIA OFER and LENORE J. WEITZMAN, eds., Women in the Holocaust. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Pp. vii, 402. $30.00 (us).     

Reviews of Books

CLARK G. REYNOLDS. Navies in History. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 267. $24.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Joseph A. Maiolo

PETER WHITFIELD. New Found Lands: Maps in the History of Exploration. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. Pp. viii, 200. $40.00 (US). Reviewed by Glyndwr William

A. J. COATES. The Ethics of War. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997; dist. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Pp. 314. $24.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Noam J. Zohar

JEREMY BLACK. Why Wars Happen. New York: New York University Press, 1998. Pp. 271. $30.00 (US); JEREMY BLACK. War and the World: Military Power and the Fate of Continents, 1450–2000. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Pp. 334. $35.00 (US). Reviewed by Roger Beaumont

ROBERT E. A. PALMER. Rome and Carthage at Peace. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1997. Pp. 152. DM 68. Reviewed by Hans-Friedrich Mueller

ROGER COLLINS. Charlemagne. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. Pp. xv, 234. $55.00 (CDN), cloth; $19.95 (CDN), paper. Reviewed by John J. Contreni

JEAN FAVIER. Gold and Spices: The Rise of Commerce in the Middle Ages, trans. Caroline Higgitt. New York and London: Holmes & Meier, 1998. Pp. 390. $39.95 (US). Reviewed by John H. Munro

JOHANNA MARIA VAN WINTER, compiler. Sources Concerning the Hospitallers of St John in the Netherlands, 14th–18th Centuries. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1998. Pp. viii, 821. NLG 450. Reviewed by David F. Allen

DENIS TWITCHETT and FREDERICK W. MOTE, eds. The Cambridge History of China: VIII: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part 2. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xxi, 1203. $130.00 (US). Reviewed by Richard von Glahn

RICHARD W. UNGER. Ships and Shipping in the North Sea and Atlantic, 1400–1800. Aldershot: Variorum, 1997; dist. Brookfield: Ashgate. Pp. xii, 316. $89.95 (US). Reviewed by Timothy J. Runyan

OM PRAKASH. The New Cambridge History of India: II.5: European Commercial Enterprise in Pre-Colonial India. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xviii,377. $54.95(US). Reviewed by Blair B. Kling

M. W. DALY, ed. The Cambridge History of Egypt: II: Modern Egypt, from 1517 to the End of the Twentieth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 463. $100.00 (US). Reviewed by Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot

JAROSLAW PELENSKI. The Contest for the Legacy of Kievan Rus'. Boulder: East European Monographs, 1998; dist. New York: Columbia University Press. Pp. xxiii, 325. $48.00 (US). Reviewed by Paul Bushkovitch

NICHOLAS CANNY, ed. The Oxford History of the British Empire: I: The Origins of Empire: British Overseas Enterprise to the Close of the Seventeenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. xix, 533. $59.50 (CDN). Reviewed by Simon Adams

PHILIP LAWSON. A Taste for Empire and Glory: Studies in British Overseas Expansion, 1660–1800. Aldershot: Variorum, 1997; dist. Brookfield: Ashgate. Pp. xiv, 298. $89.95 (US). Reviewed by Kenneth Morgan

HARRY LIEBERSOHN. Aristocratic Encounters: European Travelers and North American Indians. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 179. $49.95 (US). Reviewed by Ian K. Steele

SYLVIANE A. DIOUF. Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. New York: New York University Press, 1998. Pp. ix, 254. $18.50 (US), paper. Reviewed by Paul E. Lovejoy

DESMOND GREGORY. No Ordinary General: Lt General Sir Henry Bunbury (1778–1860): The Best Soldier Historian. Cranbury: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1999. Pp. 144. $32.50 (US). Reviewed by Neville Thompson

JOHN GASCOIGNE. Science in the Service of the Empire: Joseph Banks, the British State, and the Uses of Science in the Age of Revolution. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. vii, 247. $64.95 (US). Reviewed by Larry Stewart

PAUL WEBER. On the Road to Rebellion: The United Irishmen and Hamburg, 1796–1803. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997; dist. Portland: ISBS. Pp. 205. $45.00 (US). Reviewed by Daire Keogh

JAC WELLER. On Wellington: The Duke and His Art of War, ed. Andrew Uffindell. London and Mechanicsburg: Greenhill Books and Stackpole Books, 1998. Pp. 191. £19.99. Reviewed by Brian M. de Toy

LAWRENCE S. KAPLAN. Thomas Jefferson: Westward the Course of Empire. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1999. Pp. xvii, 198. $50.00 (US), cloth; $17.95 (US)) paper. Reviewed by Reginald C. Stuart

I. C. CAMPBELL. ‘Gone Native’ in Polynesia: Captivity Narratives and Experiences from the South Pacific. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 167. $55.00 (US). Reviewed by David A. Chappell

NICHOLAS TARLING. Nations and States in Southeast Asia. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. x, 136. $59.95 (US), cloth; $17.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by A.J. Stockwell

JAMES CABLE. The Political Influence of Naval Force in History. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. viii, 213. $59.95 (US). Reviewed by George W. Baer

NELIDA FUCCARO. The Other Kurds: Yazidis in Colonial Iraq. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1999; dist. New York: St Martin's Press. Pp. xiii, 230. $55.00 (US). Reviewed by Robert Olson

MARTIN A. KLEIN. Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xxi, 354. $54.95 (US), cloth; $19.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by William B. Cohen

JAIME E. RODRÍGUEZ O. The Independence of Spanish America. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 274. $59.95 (US). Reviewed by Timothy E. Anna

CARL BENN. The Iroquois in the War of 1812. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 272. $21.95 (CDN), paper. Reviewed by K. David Milobar

PHILIP D. CURTIN. Disease and Empire: The Health of European Troops in the Conquest of Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 256. $64.95 (US), cloth; $19.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Daniel R. Headrick

TIMOTHY E. ANNA. Forging Mexico, 1821–1835. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 330. $40.00 (US). Reviewed by Claudia Agostoni

GERALD STUDDERT-KENNEDY. Providence and the Raj: Imperial Mission and Missionary Imperialism. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 1998. Pp. 273. $44.95 (US). Reviewed by Penelope Carson

JANE SAMSON. Imperial Benevolence: Making British Authority in the Pacific Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998. Pp. xv, 240. $35.00 (US). Reviewed by Hugh Laracy

J. Y. WONG. Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism, and the Arrow War (1856–1860) in China. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xxx, 542. $69.95 (US). Reviewed by D. W. Clayton

ELLIOTT WEST. The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998. Pp. xxiv, 422. $34.95 (US). Reviewed by Francis Paul Prucha

JACK L. HAMMERSMITH. Spoilsmen in a ‘Flowery Fairyland’: The Development of the US Legation in Japan, 1859–1906. Kent: Kent State University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 368. $49.00 (US). Reviewed by Antony Best

PETER STANLEY. White Mutiny: British Military Culture in India. New York: New York University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 314. $40.00 (US). Reviewed by Hew Strachan

JOHN C. G. RÖHL. Young Wilhelm: The Kaiser's Early Life, 1859–1888, trans. Jeremy Gaines and Rebecca Wallach. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xxv, 979. $74.95 (US). Reviewed by Lamar Cecil

DAVID MAYERS. Wars and Peace: The Future Americans Envisioned, 1861–1991. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. viii, 184. $45.00 (US). Reviewed by Eileen P. Scully

SAMUEL L. BAILY. Immigrants in the Lands of Promise: Italians in Buenos Aires and New York City, 1870–1914. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999. Pp. xvii, 308. $45.00 (US). Reviewed by Donald S. Castro

HIROAKI KUROMIYA. Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s–1990s. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 357. $44.95 (US). Reviewed by David Saunders

ANDREW LAMBERT. The Foundations of Naval History: John Knox Laughton, the Royal Navy, and the Historical Profession. London: Chatham Publishing, 1998. Pp. 256. £30.00. Reviewed by C. I. Hamilton

H. RAHMAN. The Making of the Gulf War: Origins of Kuwait's Long-Standing Territorial Dispute with Iraq. Reading: Ithaca Press, 1997. Pp. xv, 378. £35.00. Reviewed by Peter Sluglett

ROY MACLAREN, ed. African Exploits: The Diaries of William Stairs, 1887–1892. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998. Pp. vi, 423. $49.95 (CDN); PETER HARRINGTON and FREDERIC A. SHARF, eds. Omdurman 1898: The Eye-Witnesses Speak: The British Conquest of the Sudan as Described by Participants in Letters, Diaries, Photos, and Drawings. London and Mechanicsburg: Greenhill Books and Stackpole Books, 1998. Pp. 236. £20.00. Reviewed by Philip Stigger

MATTHEW S. SELIGMANN. Rivalry in Southern Africa, 1893–99: The Transformation of German Colonial Policy. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. vii, 200. $65.00 (US). Reviewed by Robert Kubicek

SALWA ALGHANIM. The Reign of Mubarak al-Sabah: Shaikh of Kuwait, 1896–1915. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1998; dist. New York: St Martin's Press. Pp. xiii, 242. $59.50 (US). Reviewed by Frederick F. Anscombe

RISTO MARJOMAA. War on the Savannah: The Military Collapse of the Sokoto Caliphate under the Invasion of the British Empire, 1897–1903. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 1998. Pp. 305. FIM 140; $28.00 (US). Reviewed by A. S. Kanya-Forstner

LOUIS A. PÉREZ, JR. The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Pp. xvi, 171. $16.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by David Healy

MARK MAZOWER. Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century. London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1998. Pp. xv, 495. £20.00. Reviewed by William R. Keylor

GUIDO MÜLLER, ed. Deutschland und der Westen: Internationale Beziehungen im 20. Jahrhundert: Festschrift fiir Klaus Schwabe zum 65. Geburtstag. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998. Pp. 381. DM 138, paper. Reviewed by Rennie W. Brantz

NIALL FERGUSON. The Pity of War. New York: Basic Books, 1999. Pp. xliii, 563. $30.00 (US). Reviewed by Martin Kitchen

JAY WINTER and EMMANUEL SIVAN, eds. War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. vii,260. $59.95 (US) Reviewed by R. J. B. Bosworth

GEORGE H. CASSAR. The Forgotten Front: The British Campaign in Italy, 1917–1918. London and Rio Grande: Hambledon Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 269. $55.00 (US). Reviewed by William Philpott

DAVID DUTTON. The Politics of Diplomacy: Britain and France in the Balkans in the First World War. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1998; dist. New York: St Martin's Press. Pp. 248. $59.50 (US). Reviewed by David Stevenson

PAUL W. DOERR. British Foreign Policy, 1919–1939: ‘Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst’. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998; dist. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Pp. xi, 291. $28.95 (CDN), paper. Reviewed by Fred Stambrook

KURKPATRICK DORSEY. The Dawn of Conservation Diplomacy: US-Canadian Wildlife Protection Treaties in the Progressive Era. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1998. Pp. xvi, 311. $35.00 (US). Reviewed by Philip V. Scarpino

JACOB METZER. The Divided Economy of Mandatory Palestine. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xxii, 275. $59.95 (US). Reviewed by Martin Bunton

SASSON SOFER. Zionism and the Foundations of Israeli Diplomacy, trans. Dorodiea Shefet-Vanson. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 449. $64.95 (US); BEN HALPERN and JEHUDA REINHARZ. Zionism and the Creation of a New Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. 293. $35.00 (US). Reviewed by Donna Robinson Divine

SHERI BERMAN. The Social Democratic Moment: Ideas and Politics in the Making of Interwar Europe. Cambridge, Mass, and London: Harvard University Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 308. $45.00 (US). Reviewed by William Lee Blackwood

ERIC PAUL ROORDA. The Dictator Next Door: The Good Neighbor Policy and the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic, 1930–1945. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1998. Pp. xii, 337. $17.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Irwin F. Gellman

M. E. YAPP, ed. Politics and Diplomacy in Egypt: The Diaries of Sir Miles Lampson, 1935–1937. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Pp. xvii, 1044. $332.50 (CDN). Reviewed by Robert L. Tignor

JOHN HERMAN. The Paris Embassy of Sir Eric Phipps: Anglo-French Relations and the Foreign Office, 1937–1939. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1998; dist. Portland: ISBS. Pp. viii, 276. $75.00 (US). Reviewed by Keith Neilson

JAMES K. HOPKINS. Into the Heart of the Fire: The British in the Spanish Civil War. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. Pp. xxii, 474. $60.00 (US). Reviewed by Willard C. Frank, Jr.

SUSAN A. BREWER. To Win the Peace: British Propaganda in the United States during World War II. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1997. Pp. xiii, 269. $39.95 (US). Reviewed by John Ramsden

JÜRGEN ROHWER. Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two: German, Italian, and Japanese Submarine Successes, 1939–1945. London: Greenhill Books, 1999. Pp. xvi, 366. £30.00. Reviewed by Michael L. Hadley

RICHARD OVERY. Russia's War. London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1998. Pp. xxi, 394. £20.00 Reviewed by Evan Mawdsley

DONALD H. AVERY. The Science of War: Canadian Scientists and Allied Military Technology during the Second World War. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. Pp. xv, 406. $40.00 (CDN). Reviewed by Reg Whitaker

RANDALL L. SCHWELLER. Deadly Imbalances: Tripolarity and Hitler's Strategy of World Conquest. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Pp. x, 267. $21.50 (US), paper. Reviewed by Stephen A. Schuker

OOI KEAT GIN. Rising Sun over Borneo: The Japanese Occupation of Sarawak, 1941–1945. New York: St Martin's Press, 1999. Pp. xix, 158. $55.00 (US). Reviewed by Nicholas Tarling

LARRY I. BLAND, ed. George C. Marshall's Mediation Mission to China, December 1945–January 1947. Lexington: George C. Marshall Foundation, 1998. Pp. xx, 661. $60.00 (US). Reviewed by David L. Wilson

MICHAEL J. HOGAN. A Cross of Iron: Harry S. Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, 1945–1954. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xii, 525. $34.95 (US). Reviewed by Matthew Jones

ROGER S. WHITCOMB. The Cold War in Retrospect: The Formative Years. Westport: Praeger, 1998. Pp. xiii, 260. $65.00 (US). Reviewed by David S. Foglesong

EDELGARD MAHANT and GRAEME S. MOUNT. Invisible and Inaudible in Washington: American Policies toward Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1999. Pp. xii, 252. $75.00 (CDN). Reviewed by Gordon T. Stewart

GARY B. OSTROWER. The United Nations and the United States. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998. Pp. xvi, 317. $29.95 (US). Reviewed by Stanley Michalak

LARS BLINKENBERG. India-Pakistan: The History of Unsolved Conflicts: I: The Historical Part. Odense: Odense University Press, 1998; dist. Portland: ISBS. Pp. 337, paper; LARS BLINKENBERG. India-Pakistan: The History of Unsolved Conflicts: II: An Analysis of Some Structural Factors. Odense: Odense University Press, 1998; dist. Portland: ISBS. Pp. 433. $61.50 (US, for both), paper. Reviewed by Hasan-Askari Rizvi

MARY ANN HEISS. Empire and Nationhood: The United States, Great Britain, and Iranian Oil, 1950–1954. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Pp. x, 328. $19.50 (US), paper. Reviewed by Helmut Mejcher

ANDREW MORAVCSIK. The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht. Idiaca: Cornell University Press, 1998. Pp. xii, 514. $22.50 (US), paper. Reviewed by Pierre-Henri Laurent

YOSEF GOVRIN. Israeli-Soviet Relations, 1953–1967: From Confrontation to Disruption. London and Portland: Frank Cass, 1998. Pp. xxxvi, 347. $59.50 (US), cloth; $27.50 (US), paper. Reviewed by Michael Graham Fry

JEFFREY PICKERING. Britain's Withdrawal from East of Suez: The Politics of Retrenchment. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 231. $65.00 (US); MICHAEL J. COHEN and MARTIN KOLINSKY, eds. Demise of the British Empire in the Middle East: Britain's Responses to Nationalist Movements, 1943–55. London and Portland: Frank Cass, 1998. Pp. xv, 255. $54.50 (US). Reviewed by Tore Tingvold Petersen

DAVID R. MORRISON. Aid and Ebb Tide: A History of CIDA and Canadian Development Assistance. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1998. Pp. xxi, 602. $65.00 (CDN). Reviewed by Kim Richard Nossal

FRITZ FISCHER. Making Them, Like Us: Peace Corps Volunteers in the 1960s. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998. Pp. viii, 237. $27.95 (US). Reviewed by Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman

ROLAND DANNREUTHER. The Soviet Union and the PLO. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. ix, 222. $59.95 (US); FRED WEHLING. Irresolute Princes: Kremlin Decision Making in Middle East Crises, 1967–1973. New York: St Martin's Press, 1997. Pp. 225. $49.95 (US). Reviewed by Fred Halliday

ELINOR C. SLOAN. Bosnia and the New Collective Security. Westport: Praeger, 1998. Pp. xii, 128. $49.95 (US). Reviewed by Donald M. Snow

STEVE TSANG. Hong Kong: Appointment with China. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1997; dist. New York: St Martin's Press. Pp. xiii, 274. $17.95 (US), paper; JOHN FLOWERDEW. The Final Years of British Hong Kong: The Discourse of Colonial Withdrawal. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. xxi, 258. $65.00 (US). Reviewed by Ian Scott

STEPHEN HOPGOOD. American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. x, 262. $94.50 (CDN).Reviewed by Dimitris Stevis

JERROLD L. SCHECTER. Russian Negotiating Behavior: Continuity and Transition. Washington: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1998. Pp. ix, 225. $14.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Stephen White

PETER TRUBOWITZ, EMILY O. GOLDMAN, and EDWARD RHODES, eds. The Politics of Strategic Adjustment: Ideas, Institutions, and Interests. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Pp. viii, 331. $20.50 (US), paper Reviewed by John H. Maurer

PETER BURROUGHS and A. J. STOCKWELL, eds. Managing the Business of Empire: Essays in Honour of David Fieldhouse. London and Portland: Frank Cass, 1998. Pp. 262. $45.00 (US). Reviewed by John Flint

CHARLES JONES. E. H. Carr and International Relations: A Duty to Lie. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp. xvii, 179. $54.95 (US), cloth; $19.95 (US), paper. Reviewed by Christopher Brewin

PAUL GORDON LAUREN. The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Pp. xiii, 385. $29.95 (US), paper; WILLIAM KOREY. NGOs and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ‘A Curious Grapevine’. New York: St Martin's Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 638. $39.95 (US). Reviewed by J. G. Merrills

CHRISTOPHER COKER. War and the Illiberal Conscience. Boulder: Westview Press, 1998. Pp. xvi, 240. $39.00 (US). Reviewed by John Mueller     

Covering the Building of a Kingdom: The Saudi Arabian Authority in The London Times and The New York Times, 1901–1932

The orientalist literature subjected the Middle East in an exotic way — mostly as an “Arabian Nights” society ruled by traditional sultans and/or tribal chiefs — rather than modern governance structure's “bureaucracy.” The presumption within postcolonial scholarship has been that this perception influenced the policy landscape in the United States and Europe, especially the media depictions of the oriental leaders and leadership. The paper empirically tests this hypothesis through content analysis using Weber's categorization of leadership of two newspapers of record — The New York Times in the United States and The London Times in the United Kingdom — during the period of state building in Saudi Arabia (1901–1932). I find that rather than depicting the Saudi leadership as “backward,” these newspapers in particular, tend to overstate the development of the Saudi state during this period. As Weber is best known for his three types of authority, it benefits the discipline to see how the interpretive communities of Western journalists operationalized “authority” in terms of politics and religion of Saudi Arabia as this monarchy emerged.     

Appeasement Revisited

R. A. C. PARKER. Chamberlain and Appeasement: British Policy and the Coming of the Second World War. London: Macmillan, 1993. Pp. v, 388. £35.00;

GAINES POST, JR. Dilemmas of Appeasement: British Deterrence and Defense, 1934–1937. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993. $48.50 (US);

R. J. Q. ADAMS. British Politics and Foreign Policy in the Age of Appeasement, 1935–39. London: Macmillan, 1993. Pp. xii, 192. £40.00;

MICHAEL J. COHEN and MARTIN KOLINSKY, eds. Britain and the Middle East in the 1930s: Security Problems, 1935–1939. London: Macmillan, 1992. Pp. xvii, 231. $40.00;

BENNY MORRIS. The Roots of Appeasement: The British Weekly Press and Nazi Germany during the 1930s. London: Frank Cass, 1992. Pp. 212. $40.00 (US);

GERARD J. DE GROOT. Liberal Crusader: The Life of Sir Archibald Sinclair. New York: New York University Press, 1993. Pp. xi, 266. $35.00 (US);

CLEMENT LEIBOVITZ. The Chamberlain-Hitler Deal. Edmonton, Alberta: Les Éditions Duval Inc., 1993. Pp. viii, 544. No Price Available.     

Empire: The View from Beyond

JOHN M. MACKENZIE. The Empire of Nature: Hunting, Conservation and British Imperialism. Manchester: Manchester University Press; dist., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. Pp. x, 34a. £40.00;

STEPHEN CONSTANTINE, ed. Emigrants and Empire: British Settlement in the Dominions between the Wars. Manchester Manchester University Press; dist., St. Martin's Press, 1990. Pp. x, 208. £40.00;

J.A. MANGAN, ed. Making Imperial Mentalities: Socialisation and British Imperialism. Manchester: Manchester University Press; dist., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990. Pp. xi, 227. £40.00

RONALD HYAM. Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience. Manchester: Manchester University Press; dist., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990. Pp. ix. 234. £10.95 (paper);

W.J. READER. ‘At Duty's Call’: A Study in Obsolete Patriotism. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988. Pp. viii, 152. £45.00;

JACQUELINE BRATTON et al. Acts of Supremacy: The British Empire and the Stage, 1790–1930. Manchester: Manchester University Press; dist., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991. Pp. vii, 248. £40.00;

P.J. RICH. Elixir of Empire: The English Public Schools, Ritualism, Freemasonry, and Imperialism. London and New York: Regency Press, 2nd. ed., 1992. Pp. 152. £9.95.     

Ornamentalism,Empire and Race: Indigenous Leaders and Honours in Australia and New Zealand

The imperial honours system, David Cannadine has argued, was a means for binding together ‘the British proconsular elite’ and ‘indigenous colonial elites’ throughout the settler colonies and dominions of the British Empire (Cannadine, David. Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire. London: Penguin, 2002). Yet in settler colonies like Australia and New Zealand indigenous populations were marginalised and often disregarded, and it was local white elites who became knights of St Michael and St George, the Bath and the British Empire. Focusing on Australia and New Zealand, this article explores the complex relationships Aboriginal and Māori leaders have had with honours during the twentieth century. Building upon Cannadine's analysis, I examine the ways in which indigenous leaders navigated the political complexities involved in the offer of an honour, and how their acceptance of awards was received by others, shedding light on how honours systems intersected with post-war struggles for indigenous rights in the former dominions.     

Collected Essays

SARKESIAN, SAM C. and ROBERT E. CONNOR, JR. eds. America's Armed Forces: A Handbook of Current and Future Capabilities. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996. Pp. x, 475. $99.50 (us).

COHEN, ROBIN, ed. The Cambridge Survey of World Migration. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pp. xxi, 570. $125.00 (us).

KUPCHAN, CHARLES A., ed. Nationalism and Nationalities in the New Europe. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1995. Pp. xi, 224. $14.95 (us)> paper.

LONG, ROGER D., ed. The Man on the Spot: Essays on British Empire History. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1995. Pp. x, 246. $59.95 (us).

MANDELBAUM, MICHAEL, ed. The Strategic Quadrangle: Russia, China, Japan, and the United States in East Asia. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1995. Pp. vii, 221. $16.95 (us), paper.

MECONIS, CHARLES A. and BORIS N. MAKEEV. US-Russian Naval Co-operation. New York: Praeger, 1995. Pp. xii, 172. $55.00 (us).

NOLAN, CATHAL J., ed. Ethics and Statecraft: The Moral Dimension of International Affairs. New York: Praeger, 1995. Pp. xvii, 235. $19.95 (us), paper.

REINHARZ, JEHUDA and ANITA SHAPIRA, eds. Essential Papers on Zionism. New York: New York University Press, 1995. Pp. ix, 857. $25.00 (us), paper.

WEINDLTNG, PAUL, ed. International Health Organisations and Movements, 19187ndash;1939. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp. xvi,337. $69.95(us).     

Review Article:Rediscovering India under the British

O.P. KEJARIWAL. The Asiatic Society of Bengal and the Discovery of India's Past 1784–1838. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Pp. xiv, 293. $24.95 (US);

TAPAN RAYCHAUDHUM. Europe Reconsidered: Perceptions of the West in Nineteenth Century Bengal. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Pp. xviii, 369. $39.95 (US);

JOAN G. ROLAND. Jews in British India: Identity in a Colonial Era. Hanover, N.H. and London: University Press of New England, 1989. Pp. xiii, 355. $40.00 (US);

NANCY GARDNER CASSELS. Religion and Pilgrim Tax under the Company Raj. Riverdale, Md.: The Riverdale Company, 1988. Pp. xiii, 184. $34.00 (US);

APARNA MUKHERJEE. British Colonial Policy in Burma: An Aspect of Colonialism in South-East Asia 1840–1885. Riverdale, Md.: The Riverdale Company, 1988. Pp. x, 559. $34.00 (US).     

Review Articles

The United States Foreign Service. MARTIN WEIL. A Pretty Good Club: The Founding Fathers of the U.S. Foreign Service. New York: W.W. Norton & Company 1978. Pp. 313; RICHARD HUME WERKING. The Master Architects: Building the United States Foreign Service, 1890–1913. Lexington: The United Press of Kentucky 1977. Pp. xvi, 330; RACHEL WEST. The Department of State on the Eve of the First World War. Athens: The University of Georgia Press 1978. Pp. viii, 183. Reviewed by F.M. Carroll

Friends in Need, Allies in Competition. PETER LOWE. Great Britain and the Origins of the Pacific War: a Study of British Policy in East Asia, 1937–1941. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1977. Pp. 318; JAMES R. LEUTZE. Bargaining for Supremacy: Anglo-American Naval Collaboration, 1937–1941. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1977. Pp. 328; WILLIAM ROGER LOUIS. Imperialism at Bay 1941–1945: The United States and the Decolonisation of the British Empire. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1977. Pp. 595; CHRISTOPHER THORNE. Allies of a Kind: The United States, Britain, and the War against Japan, 1941–1945. London: Hamish Hamilton 1978. Pp. xxii, 772. Reviewed by T.B. Millar     

‘One Chief Letter Office at New-York’: Packet Ships,Imperial Administration,and the Geography of the American Post, 1692–1783

ABSTRACT

The postal system in the American colonies is an understudied arm of the first British Empire. Although outside the main institutions of colonial administration, the post office followed the overall periodisation of imperial affairs, as America waxed and waned in London’s attention. This directly shaped the geography of the post office, because American officials focused on the post’s ability to connect American towns, while British officials emphasised the transatlantic connection of the postal packet ships. The packets, however, were not as important to transatlantic communications as they imagined, which led the American officials to resist when London wanted to make New York City the headquarters of the American post.     

War and Foreign Affairs in China

EDWARD L. DREYER. China at War, 1901–1949. London and New York: Longman, 1995. Pp. x, 422. $114.95 (CDN);

ARTHUR WALDRON. From War to Nationalism: China's Turning Point, 1924–1925. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp. xix, 366. $39.95 (us);

MICHAEL H. HUNT. The Genesis of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Pp. xiv, 343. $34.50 (us);

XIAOYUAN LIU. A Partnership for Disorder: China, the United States, and Their Policies for the Postwar Disposition of the Japanese Empire, 1941–1945. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Pp. xiii, 343. $59.95 (us).