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.     

George W. Bush,Barack Obama and the future of US global leadership

The foreign policy world views of George W. Bush and Barack Obama differ dramatically. Bush made terrorism the focal point of his foreign policy and dismissed the idea that either allies or international institutions should constrain America's freedom of action. Obama sees terrorism as one of many transnational problems that require the cooperation of other countries to combat and, as a result, the United States must invest more in diplomatic efforts to build partnerships. Despite these differences, both presidents share one common conviction: that other countries long for US leadership. Bush believed that friends and allies would eventually rally to the side of the United States, even if they bristled at its actions, because they shared America's goals and had faith in its motives. Obama believed that a United States that listened more to others, stressed common interests and favored multinational action would command followers. In practice, however, both visions of American global leadership faltered. Bush discovered that many countries rejected his style of leadership as well as his strategies. Obama discovered that in a globalized world, where power has been more widely dispersed, many countries are not looking to Washington for direction. The future success of US foreign policy depends on the ability of policy‐makers to recognize and adapt to a changing geopolitical environment in which the US remains the most significant military, diplomatic and economic power but finds it, nonetheless, increasingly difficult to drive the global agenda.     

Multinational enterprises,international relations and international business: reconstituting intellectual boundaries for the new millennium

The rapidly changing nature of the international political economy along with its increasing complexity, poses challenges for both theoreticians as well as policymakers; the former in terms of developing innovative frameworks of analysis able to model and understand the constitutive nature and contours of its parameters; the latter in terms of developing suitable frameworks of analysis able to inform policy analysis and practical management strategies. This article explores these dilemmas from two disciplinary perspectives. First, from international relations (IR) theory, particularly how various theoretical approaches have failed to consider more fully the role of non-state actors like multinational enterprises (MNEs) despite the growth in their importance and the resources they control. Second, from the perspective of international business (IB) which, while focusing on MNEs, has done so in the absence of more contextual approaches that situate MNEs in power-political, regulatory, and inter-state environmental settings. By highlighting the weaknesses of both disciplinary approaches, the article then suggests that the construction of new interdisciplinary rubrics jointly created from IR and IB, offers a better means of appreciating the changing character of the global political economy and some of its most important actors and emerging processes.     

Intersections: history,memory, discipline. By Brij V. Lal. Lautoka

Bellona Island Beliefs and Rituals. By Torben Monberg. Pacific Islands Monograph Series No. 9. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1991. xix, 449 pp, figs, genealogies, maps, photos, tables, bibliog., index. $US42.

Te Waimana, The Spring of Mana: Tuhoe History and the Colonial Encounter. By Jeffrey Sissons. Te Whenua Series No. 6, Pacific People, Land, and Literature. Dunedin, University of Otago Press, 1991. xiv, 304 pp; maps, photos, figs, gloss., bibliog., index. ISBN 0–908569–59–9. $NZ39.95.

Labour in the South Pacific. Edited by Clive Moore, Jacqueline Leckie and Doug Munro. Townsville, James Cook University, 1990. 335 pp, maps, tables, bibliog., index.

Health and Healing in Tropical Australia and Papua New Guinea. Edited by Roy MacLeod and Donald Denoon. Townsville, James Cook University, Department of History and Politics and Centre for Melanesian Studies, 1991. xviii, 213 pp, intro., notes, bibliog., index. $A16 ($A25 outside Australia including postage).

Beach‐la‐Mar to Bislama: the emergence of a national language in Vanuatu. By Terry Crowley. Oxford Studies in Language Contact. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1990. xxi, 422 pp. $A120.

The Mundugumor: From the Field Notes of Margaret Mead and Reo Fortune. By Nancy McDowell. Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991. xiii, 337 pp.

Singer in a Songless Land: A Life of Edward Tregear 1846—1931. By K, R. Howe. Auckland, Auckland University Press, 1991. 241 pp. $NZ39.95.

The Empty Place: Poetry, Space and Being among the Foi of Papua New Guinea. By James S. Weiner. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1991. xiv, 218 pp, maps, illus., bibliog., index.

On the Margins of History: From the Punjab to Fiji. By Oskar Spate. History of Development Studies 3. Canberra, National Centre for Development Studies, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1991. 142 pp, app. $25.     

China,the international criminal court,and global governance

ABSTRACT

This article explores the Chinese policies towards the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the context of global governance. Despite China’s fast-growing foreign policy competence, the level of confidence held by China in engaging with global governance systems has not yet fully transmitted to the legal institutions governing human rights issues, and the ICC is such an example. This article examines specific policy concerns of China regarding the ICC in light of China’s engagement with global governance, and some of the traditional concerns that have had an impact on that engagement. It discusses the extent to which these concerns should still be regarded as policy barriers preventing China’s full accession to the ICC in years to come.