The “New Look” of German Diplomacy: The West German Foreign Service after the Second World War

When established in 1951, the West German Foreign Office resembled its pre-1945 Berlin Ministry predecessor in many ways. Notably, about 45 percent of Bonn’s diplomats came from the old service. Such continuities raised concerns about a restoration of old diplomatic traditions and attitudes. However, significant changes in German diplomacy—its West German variant—soon became evident, not least in terms of diplomatic style and methods. This analysis explores how the Foreign Office’s staff adopted, promoted, or rejected such changes. It assesses institutional processes of transformation and examines why diplomats were willing to “re-learn” diplomacy after the Second World War. Likewise evaluated are the problems and limits of re-orientation. By focussing on (dis)continuities within the Foreign Service in the 1950s and 1960s, the analysis contributes to the general field of research on processes of transition in West Germany after the end of the Third Reich.     

Japanese diplomacy during the Cambodian peace process and Japan's post-Cold War role in Southeast Asia: the legacy of the Fukuda Doctrine, 1989–1993

Japan's role during the Cambodian peace process after 1989 is often considered a successful case of post-Second World War Japanese diplomacy. In contrast to claims in the existing literature that Japan began to consider and initiated its involvement in the settlement only beginning in the late 1980s, this article demonstrates that Tokyo's role built upon a diplomatic platform that the Japanese had constructed through peace efforts since the Cambodian conflict erupted in 1979. The policy framework, objectives and initiatives of Japan's Cambodia diplomacy during the peace process represented the culmination of a ten-year diplomatic endeavour. Ultimately, Japan's involvement in the Cambodian settlement, guided by its Southeast Asia strategy of promoting coexistence and cooperation between ASEAN and Indochina, legitimated and favoured Japan's attempts to expand its post-Cold War role in regional political and security affairs.     

Sitting on the Balcony: American Responses,Strategic Dilemmas,and Swedish Criticism of the Vietnam War

Small states often seek power by exercising authority beyond their borders. Sweden, a prominent protagonist of the global projection of moral values, established itself as a champion of humanitarian internationalism in the post-Second World War period, especially during the Vietnam War. By voicing criticism of the American war effort and putting moral purposes beyond itself, Sweden tried to change American policy. Years of vehement criticism provoked strong reactions in the United States, leading to bilateral diplomatic crises and long-lasting political conflicts. Even though part of a wave of international criticism and based on the power of the better argument and conveyed through open advocacy, Sweden's public diplomacy had little bearing. Its confrontational style was counter-productive; its content badly synchronised with the domestic American debate and lacking originality and centrality; and the criticism generally considered irrelevant. Attention fell on Swedish verbal activism when more conspicuous elements of Swedish Vietnam policy were in focus.     

Dismantling the Oil Wars Myth

This article argues that, contrary to the assumptions of international relations scholars, policymakers, and the general public, states do not engage in oil wars. A twofold strategy is employed to support this assertion. First, the article scrutinizes the logical underpinnings of oil war claims, arguing that proponents have underestimated the obstacles to seizing and exploiting foreign resources and, consequently, exaggerated the likelihood of oil wars. Second, the article examines four conflicts that are commonly identified as international oil wars: Japan's attack on the Dutch East Indies in World War II, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the Iran--Iraq War, and the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay. It finds that the desire to control additional oil resources was not the fundamental cause of aggression in any of these conflicts. In the latter two cases, aggression was unconnected to oil interests. In the former, states fought for their survival, not for an oil prize.     

“A Very Great Clerk”: Sir Ronald Campbell and the Fall Of France,May–June 1940 1

Sir Ronald H. Campbell was the first British ambassador during the Second World War to manage a key bilateral relationship with a wartime ally. When the Germans invaded France in May 1940, Campbell's Embassy was transformed from a diplomatic reporting post into a frontline base that had to brief London not only on the political situation in France but also on strategic military matters. However, the British ambassador would constantly struggle to register his authority in the overall management of the Franco-British relationship, and more often than not, was bypassed by Whitehall departments, special advisors and senior ministers. Campbell only found himself in a more pivotal role as communications between the British and French Governments disintegrated and the latter moved to Bordeaux. It then fell upon Campbell to make some of the most dramatic decisions in twentieth century Franco-British history.     

日朝关系与朝核问题

二战结束至今,日朝之间仍未建立外交关系,因此,两国又被称作“近而远的国家”。目前,战争赔偿问题、日本人绑架问题、导弹发射及出售问题已成为日朝恢复邦交关系的一些障碍因素。尤其是朝核问题成为今后相当长一段时期影响日朝关系的一个主要因素。     

战后国民政府的外汇政策与侨汇

战后,国民政府为吸收侨汇曾几度调整外汇政策,然而,由于恶性通货膨胀加剧,财政经济濒临崩溃,国民政府无法维持一个稳定、合理的外汇汇率,对汇率的调整往往只有暂时的效果,当官价汇率与市场汇率接近时,侨汇数量就增加,反之则减少。战后侨汇呈逐年递减之势,由于官价汇率与市场汇率往往背离,因而无法阻止侨汇大量流入黑市。     

国内关于二战时期澳大利亚外交研究综述

在第二次世界大战时期，澳大利亚从国家利益和国家安全考虑，加入反法西斯国家阵营并担当西南太平洋地区抗击日本法西斯的主力。我国关于二战时期的历史的研究可谓汗牛充栋，长篇累牍，但由于澳洲地理位置偏僻，国际影响较小，有重要地位的澳大利亚外交却长期以来不为学术界重视。我国最早注意到此问题的是金仲华，     

论泰国自由泰政府时期的华文教育

二战结束后最初几年，泰国华文教育出现了井喷式的复兴现象，其迅猛程度和发展规模史无前例。究其原因，一是自由泰政府调整了对华文教育的政策，使其有了宽松的发展空间；二是由于中泰建交后，中国民国政府对华文教育发挥了推动作用；三是自由泰政府因忙于处理战后所面临的复杂而棘手的内政和外交难题而放松了对华文教育的管理和控制，从而扩大了大办华文教育的自由度。     

‘Something old,something New’: The politics of recognition in post‐cold‐War Europe

In 1945, as a final settlement of the Palestine question drew near, the Arab states established the Arab Office, Washington, as part of their unprecedented effort to influence public and elite opinion on this matter in the United States. It was staffed by many of the leading young Arab intellectuals of the era. This article charts the Arab Office's attempt to reduce American support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. In particular, it examines the accusations, made at the time, that the Arab Office, in pursuing its anti-Zionist agenda had co-operated with leading American anti-Semites and was under the control of the notorious former Mufti of Jerusalem, who had collaborated with Hitler during the Second World War.     

The foreign office of the federal republic of Germany and the question of relations with communist states, 1953-55

The thaw in the Cold War following Joseph Stalin's death in March 1953 initiated a debate within the West German Foreign Office about intensifying relations with Eastern European communist states. Several veteran diplomats advocated expanding economic ties in particular. By 1955, however, the ministry's leadership around Foreign Minister Adenauer had won out with its more cautious course of limiting contacts to diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. This early debate already highlighted most of the issues central to West German deliberations on expanding relations with communist states right up to Brandt's Neue Ostpolitik of the late 1960s and early 1970s.     

Reparations in the Long Run

This paper explores how policy-makers during the Second World War attempted to “learn the lessons” of history from the reparations settlement imposed after the First World War. It shows how these lessons were developed and articulated in the formulation of, in particular, American foreign policy, and also their consequences for foreign policy during and after the Second World War. The paper demonstrates the important role of European advisors in shaping American policy, thereby illustrating that not all American lessons of history were born in the USA. It also draws out how many of these lessons have found an echo in the historiography of German reparations that has emerged over the past fifty years. In both periods the issues of enforcement and compliance, the issues that concern us generally in this volume, dominated the debate between advisors and policy-makers.     

Reparations in the Long Run

This paper explores how policy-makers during the Second World War attempted to “learn the lessons” of history from the reparations settlement imposed after the First World War. It shows how these lessons were developed and articulated in the formulation of, in particular, American foreign policy, and also their consequences for foreign policy during and after the Second World War. The paper demonstrates the important role of European advisors in shaping American policy, thereby illustrating that not all American lessons of history were born in the USA. It also draws out how many of these lessons have found an echo in the historiography of German reparations that has emerged over the past fifty years. In both periods the issues of enforcement and compliance, the issues that concern us generally in this volume, dominated the debate between advisors and policy-makers.     

Beyond the American Century: Walter Lippmann and American Grand Strategy, 1943–1950

As the United States became a world Power, journalist and intellectual Walter Lippmann feared that it would become its own worst enemy. During and after the Second World War, he tried to steer the country towards coherent statecraft, to define the national interest and the limits of power, and give geopolitical expression to the role of the United States as the core of an Atlantic strategic system. But in response to world war, the Truman Doctrine, and the Korean War, he became pessimistic about the country's ability to conduct strategy effectively. In the prophetic tradition, he believed that a fatal symbiosis between America's growing strength and domestic politics led it towards crisis. Though at times ahistorical, Lippmann's concept of strategy deserves attention for its dialogue between power and identity, for its questioning of “ends” as well as means, and for its focus on the danger of self-defeating behaviour.     

“A Very Great Clerk”: Sir Ronald Campbell and the Fall Of France, May-June 1940

Sir Ronald H. Campbell was the first British ambassador during the Second World War to manage a key bilateral relationship with a wartime ally. When the Germans invaded France in May 1940, Campbell's Embassy was transformed from a diplomatic reporting post into a frontline base that had to brief London not only on the political situation in France but also on strategic military matters. However, the British ambassador would constantly struggle to register his authority in the overall management of the Franco-British relationship, and more often than not, was bypassed by Whitehall departments, special advisors and senior ministers. Campbell only found himself in a more pivotal role as communications between the British and French Governments disintegrated and the latter moved to Bordeaux. It then fell upon Campbell to make some of the most dramatic decisions in twentieth century Franco-British history.     

United Nations Security Council Reform Revisited: A Proposal

The United Nations [UN] came into being following the Second World War. Resembling earlier efforts of co-operation by the most powerful states of the international system, it was an attempt to effect global governance through the maintenance of international peace and security amongst states. However, led by its main executive organ, the Security Council, the UN has been unable to prevent and effectively deal with armed conflicts and mass atrocities in a number of situations. Over the years, the inability of the UN Security Council to take collective action has resulted in its ineffectiveness in dealing with war and humanitarian crises. This situation has led to calls for Security Council reform and has generated several initiatives to that end. This analysis discusses major shortcomings of the Security Council, analyses prominent reform initiatives, and introduces a proposal, the “Two-Layered Regional Model,” for Security Council reform.     

简析新马地区早期华人银行的帮派色彩

早期新马地区华人社会中的帮派色彩导致帮权经济的产生,这在该地区华人银行业中也有明显体现。本文试图分析新马地区华人银行帮派色彩的表现、产生根源以及淡化的主要原因。一、华人银行中的帮派色彩欧洲殖民者东来后积极参与马来西亚经济,在诸多经济领域对当地华人产生重要影响,引起华人经济的许多变化。1840年,加尔各答联合银行(Union Bank of Calcutta)在新加坡设立分行,这是欧洲金融活动在新马地区开始经营的标志。1859年,渣打商业银行(Chartered Mercantile Bank)在槟城开设分公司,它是马来半岛的首家银行①。1884年,早已活跃于中国…     

Crossing to Safety from Cold War America: The Collaboration and Friendship of John Paton Davies,Jr. and George Frost Kennan

This analysis probes the interwoven careers and lives of two distinguished American diplomats, John Paton Davies, Jr. and George Frost Kennan. These Foreign Service officers, who rose to prominence in the years immediately after the Second World War, were embroiled in the formulation and implementation of controversial policy during the early Cold War. The experience of Davies and Kennan illustrates the domestic hazards that have dogged American foreign policy-making even into the present. Yet the focus here is on their friendship—a subject hitherto little examined in the scholarly literature—its connexion to the evolution of their policy recommendations, its steadying power in moments of moral and personal crisis, its tempering effect on failure. The assessment also draws on a notable work of fiction, Wallace Stegner’s 1987 Crossing to Safety, to consider the ineffable nature of friendship itself.     

终身雇用制历史考察

终身雇用制是一个内涵丰富的概念。它的最初形态为江户时代的奉公人制度 ;在明治维新后近代资本主义工矿业企业得到初期发展的基础上 ,经过甲午战争、日俄战争 ,于第一次世界大战以后 ,开始进入制度化阶段 ;在战前军国主义统制经济体制下初步确立 ;在战后民主化改革和经济恢复的基础上得到继承和发展 ;在 6 0年代日本经济进入高速成长阶段以后发展成熟并最终确立 ,成为战后日本经济成功的重要原因之一。终身雇用制出现伊始 ,就是后进社会日本对封建传统妥协的产物 ,其中蕴涵着它自身的矛盾性。     

More Sinned Against than Sinning? The Case of the Arab Office, Washington, 1945-1948

In 1945, as a final settlement of the Palestine question drew near, the Arab states established the Arab Office, Washington, as part of their unprecedented effort to influence public and elite opinion on this matter in the United States. It was staffed by many of the leading young Arab intellectuals of the era. This article charts the Arab Office's attempt to reduce American support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. In particular, it examines the accusations, made at the time, that the Arab Office, in pursuing its anti-Zionist agenda had co-operated with leading American anti-Semites and was under the control of the notorious former Mufti of Jerusalem, who had collaborated with Hitler during the Second World War.