Although diplomats negotiate more and more aspects of world affairs-from trade and security issues to health, human rights, and the environment-we have little idea of, and even less control over, ...what they are doing in our name. InIndependent Diplomat, Carne Ross provides a compelling account of what's wrong with contemporary diplomacy and offers a bold new vision of how it might be put right.
For more than fifteen years, Ross was a British diplomat on the frontlines of numerous international crises, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Afghanistan, and the buildup to the invasion of Iraq, over which he eventually resigned from the British civil service. In 2005, he founded Independent Diplomat, a nonprofit advisory firm that offers diplomatic advice and assistance to poor, politically marginalized or inexperienced governments and political groups, including Kosovo, Somaliland, and the Polisario movement in the Western Sahara, as well as to NGOs and other international institutions.
Drawing on vivid episodes from his career in Oslo, Bonn, Kabul, and at the UN Security Council, Ross reveals that many of the assumptions that laypersons and even government officials hold about the diplomatic corps are wrong. He argues passionately and persuasively that the institutions of contemporary diplomacy-foreign ministries, the UN, the EU, and the like-often exclude those they most affect. He exposes the very limited range of evidence upon which diplomats base their reports, and the profoundly closed and undemocratic nature of the world's diplomatic forums. As a diplomat, Ross was encouraged to see the world in a narrow way in which the power of states and interests overwhelmed or excluded more complex, sophisticated ways of understanding.
As Ross demonstrates, however, the reality of diplomatic negotiations, whether at the UN or among the warlords of Afghanistan, shows different forces at play, factors ignored in reductionist descriptions and academic theories of "international relations." To cope with the complexities of today's world, diplomats must open their doors-and minds-to a far wider range of individuals and groups, concerns and ideas, than the current and increasingly dysfunctional system allows.
In the decade after World War I, German-American relations improved swiftly. While resentment and bitterness ran high on both sides in 1919, Weimar Germany and the United States managed to forge a ...strong transatlantic partnership by 1929. But how did Weimar Germany overcome its post-war isolation so rapidly? How did it regain the trust of its former adversary? And how did it secure U.S. support for the revision of the Versailles Treaty? Elisabeth Piller, winner of the Franz Steiner Preis für Transatlantische Geschichte 2019, explores these questions not from an economic, but from a cultural perspective. Based on extensive archival research, her ground-breaking work illustrates how German state and non-state actors drew heavily on cultural ties – with German Americans, U.S. universities and American tourists – to rewin American trust, and even affection, at a time when traditional foreign policy tools had failed to achieve similar successes. Contrary to common assumptions, Weimar Germany was never incapable of selling itself abroad. In fact, it pursued an innovative public diplomacy campaign to not only normalize relations with the powerful United States, but to build a politically advantageous transatlantic friendship. "In her deeply researched, vividly illustrated history of cultural-diplomatic relations between Weimar Germany and the United States, Elisabeth Piller charts a new course in the history of transatlantic interwar diplomacy." Victoria de Grazia, Columbia University "This is a splendidly written and researched work of history, crossing any number of geographic and cultural borders. With much transatlantic verve, Dr. Piller has achieved a masterful synthesis of diplomatic, intellectual and cultural history." Michael Kimmage, Catholic University of America
SAMMENDRAG Denne artikkelen diskuterer hva slags beskyttelsesplikt stater har overfor sine borgere, når de befinner seg utenfor statens grenser. Argumentene forankres i generelle utviklingstrekk for ...moderne stater, men hovedfokus er på den norske staten og norske borgere. Artikkelen reiser to problemstillinger, for det første hvordan det ble selvsagt at staten har en beskyttelsesplikt for borgere i utlandet, for det andre under hvilke forutsetninger og på hvilke måter dette ansvaret konkret kommer på den politiske dagsorden. Den første problemstillingen besvares historisk og komparativt, med vekt på utviklingen av lojalitetsbånd mellom stat og borgere og velferdsstatlig legitimitet knyttet til statens evne og vilje til å ta seg av sine borgere. Den andre problemstillingen besvares ved analyse av en rekke «kriser» fra det siste tiåret. Her vektlegges medias rolle i kriseartikulering, behovet for rask og synlig respons fra offentlige myndigheter og spenningen mellom behovet for å vise handlekraft og ønskene om at befolkingen skal ta større ansvar for seg selv på reise.