Good International Citizenship: A Third Way for British Foreign Policy

To date, there has not been a sustained attempt to bring the philosophy of the Third Way into foreign policy. In order to fill this gap, the authors turn to the idea of 'good international citizenship' pioneered by the former Australian Foreign Minister, Gareth Evans. It is argued that good international citizenship provides a conceptual rationale for an ethical foreign policy as well as a standard for judging the priority accorded to the goals of security, trade and human rights. Through an examination of a number of cases, the authors conclude that Britain's record as a good international citizen has been uneven and argue—against Labour's critics—that the government has set a new course for Britain's way in the world. More importantly, it has encouraged a public debate about the meaning and priority accorded to the promotion of different values.     

‘Unfurling the banner of reform’: public opinion,nationalism, and Facts and Figures from Italy

This article reconsiders the neglected Italian correspondence of the Cork-born wit, essayist, and journalist, Francis Sylvester Mahony (‘Father Prout’). Re-assessing his traditional reputation as a Tory polemicist, it explores his movement away from the conservative, pro-Union politics of his contributions to Fraser's Magazine in the 1830s, and examines how, despite his continuing rejection of popular O'Connellite nationalism, he came to offer a broadly sympathetic portrait of Young Ireland in the articles he contributed to the London Daily News in the 1840s. It also traces the development of his political thinking at the beginning of the Famine era, focusing, in particular, on the influence of the resurgent nationalist movement in Italy on his reassessment of the Irish question.     

Libya and the state of intervention

The international response to the crisis in Libya has been remarkably quick and decisive. Where many other cases of mass atrocity crimes have failed to generate sufficient and timely political will to protect civilians at risk, the early response to Libya in 2011 has shown that the United Nations Security Council is able to give effect to the ‘responsibility to protect’ norm. While not an implementing party in a legal sense, the Australian government has taken a forward-leaning diplomatic stance in helping to mobilise broad support for addressing this crisis. In light of the ongoing political controversy over armed humanitarian intervention, the Libya case shows that state-based advocacy for R2P matters, given the on-going need to bolster the legitimacy of the principle. A discussion of Canberra's diplomatic activity is a prelude to an examination of the proceedings of the UN Security Council and the two key resolutions, the second of which gave effect to the forcible action. The article then considers three dimensions of the Security Council's implementation of the responsibility to protect: the language of the resolutions and the intriguing absence of a textual reference to the international community's responsibility to act; the expansive mandate for civilian protection in Security Council resolution 1973; and the first unanimous referral to the International Criminal Court, with novel support from the United States of America.     

The History and Historiography of American Diplomacy: Principles, Traditions and Values

The Council on Foreign Relations in New York is known throughout the world both as a leading centre for the study of international affairs and as having an influential voice in current debates on the future global role of the United States. Since the First World War the Council has promoted these goals through organizing working groups, sponsoring specialized monographs, and publishing a number of journals and yearbooks. The Council has now sponsored the publication of a multivolume encyclopaedic dictionary of American foreign relations. Michael Dunne's review of these four volumes concentrates on the broad themes which run through the many hundreds of essays, and asks whether the study of the American diplomatic past can help us to understand the special features of the course and conduct of US foreign relations.     

Wild Food: Plants,Fish and Small Animals on the Menu for Early Holocene Populations at al-Khiday,Central Sudan

Al-Khiday, located on the bank of the White Nile in Sudan, offers an exceptionally preserved stratigraphic sequence, providing a unique opportunity to use organic residue analysis to investigate diet and subsistence during the Khartoum Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic, a period of nearly 3500 years (7000–4500 cal BC). While the vast and diverse Mesolithic fish assemblage indicates a strong reliance on products from aquatic habitats, floodplains, vegetated marshes, and open water, results from the lipid residue analysis suggest that the fish were not cooked in ceramic pots, but consumed in other ways. Rather, pots were more specialized in processing plants, including wild grasses, leafy plants, and sedges. These results, confirmed by experimental analysis, provide, for the first time, direct chemical evidence for plant exploitation in the Khartoum Mesolithic. Non-ruminant fauna (e.g., warthog) and low lipid-yielding reptiles (e.g., Adanson’s mud turtle and Nile monitor lizard), found in significant numbers at al-Khiday, were likely also cooked in pots. There is little evidence for the processing of wild ruminants in the Mesolithic pots, suggesting either that ruminant species were not routinely hunted or that large wild fauna may have been cooked in different ways, possibly grilled over fires. These data suggest sophisticated economic strategies by sedentary people exploiting their ecological niche to the fullest. Pottery use changed considerably in the Early Neolithic, with ruminant products being more routinely processed in pots, and while the exploitation of domesticates cannot be confirmed by a small faunal assemblage, some dairying took place. The results provide valuable information on Early and Middle Holocene lifeways in central Sudan.

     

'When the shooting starts': Atlanticism in British security strategy

The evolution in the international system from bipolarity to unipolarity has led to shifting patterns of alliances in world politics. Since 9/11, the United States has demonstrated a willingness to use its overwhelming military power to deal with potential or real threats. Contrary to its policy of embedded power in the economic and security institutions of the post‐1945 period, the United States increasingly views the multilateral order as an unreasonable restraint on the exercise of hegemonic power. What does this new context mean for Britain? Going back to 1997, the first New Labour government added an internationalist dimension to the traditional roles of acting as a loyal ally to the United States and serving as a bridge across the transatlantic divide. The Iraq war of 2003 showed that the bridge could not bear the weight of the disagreement between ‘Old Europe’ and the new conservatives in Washington. The Prime Minister's decision to be there ‘when the shooting starts’ shows that Britain continues to place the bilateral connection with the United States above all other obligations. This article questions whether the Atlanticist identity that underpins the strategic rationale for the special relationship is likely to succeed in delivering the interests and goals set out in the recent UK security strategy document.