Wilsonian Pragmatism? Woodrow Wilson, Japanese Immigration, and the Paris Peace Conference

“He [Wilson] was more than just an idealist: he was the personification of the heritage of idealism of the American people. He brought spiritual concepts to the peace table. He was a born crusader.”

Herbert Hoover ¹

The issue of the Japanese plea for race equality at the Paris Peace Conference is generally seen as a secondary issue for American delegates. Most accounts see Wilson as being bullied into rejecting the proposal by the Dominion delegates — most notably Australia's Billy Hughes. Analyzing his views on race and its intricate connection with immigration and examining his own and his advisers response to political allies and opponents at home and in Paris over these issues, this piece will argue that Wilson responded as much to domestic pressures as external forces in his eventual compromise with the Japanese in Paris.     

Visa Diplomacy

The consular element of national diplomatic power plays an essential, but often overlooked role in international relations. This is unfortunate, since the process of globalization places increasing importance on so-called “low politics”—trade, commerce, tourism, migration—all traditional consular areas of interest. This study examines the visa component of consular diplomacy as an integral device in the conduct of international relations. The simple visa serves an important purpose in international relations and is a well-used, but little studied, instrument of foreign policy in today's system of sovereign states.

In this article, “visa diplomacy” is defined as the use of visa issuance or denial at an individual, group, and interstate level, to influence another state's policies. Although possessing limitations, visa diplomacy is an available signaling and retorsion instrument which makes it a viable policy option in the arena of international affairs. At the operative level, it links an individual or group to its sovereign country and respective national policies. Denial or issuance at the individual or group level can have outcomes on overall interstate interactions as illustrated in the cases selected for this study. The conclusion assesses where the use of visa diplomacy seems most effective in international relations.     

Diplomacy in the media age: Three models of uses and effects

This study offers three conceptual models to promote systematic research into uses of the media as a major instrument of foreign policy and international negotiations: public diplomacy, where state and nonstate actors use the media and other channels of communication to influence public opinion in foreign societies; media diplomacy, where officials use the media to communicate with actors and to promote conflict resolution; and media-broker diplomacy, where journalists temporarily assume the role of diplomats and serve as mediators in international negotiations. The first two models, while previously defined, undergo serious revision in this study. The third model is new. This article demonstrates the analytical usefulness of the models through applications to various examples and case studies of significant contemporary diplomatic processes.     

South Africa: The Order of Good Hope

Past South African governments already felt the need for honours as instruments of diplomacy in the 1930s, but only instituted the Order of Good Hope in 1973. Inherited British attitudes to honours, the cessation in 1925 of the award of honours bearing titles, and long periods in which civilian honours were not awarded contributed to its frugal use. Wishing to recognize foreign assistance to the liberation movements, from 1994 President Mandela frequently put the Order to use, freely awarding leaders of foreign governments. However, restraint returned after the initial surge. Since instituting new orders in 2003, President Mbeki has emphasised substantial merit as the key to admission.

“Yes, I should have given more praise.” The Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon, became Commander-in-Chief and later Prime Minister of Great Britain, when asked whether there was anything in his life that he could have done better.

     

What really happened at Paris?

Lloyd E. Ambrosius, Woodrow Wilson and the American Diplomatic Tradition: The Treaty Fight in Perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. £27.50.

British Documents on Foreign Affairs: Reports and Papers from The Foreign Office Confidential Print (General Editors K. Bourne and D. Cameron Watt). Part II. From the First to the Second World War. Series I. The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 (ed.) M. Dockrill, Vols. 1-7. University Publications of America, 1989. $1050 (14 vols).

Bruce Kent, The Spoils of War. The Politics, Economics and Diplomacy of Reparations 1918-1932, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. £40.

F.S. Northedge, The League of Nations: Its Life and Times 1920-1946, Leicester: Leicester University Press, paperback edition, 1988, £12.95.

Klaus Schwabe, Woodrow Wilson, Revolutionary Germany, and Peace-making, 1918-1919: Missionary Diplomacy and the Realities of Power. Translated from the German by Rita and Robert Kimber, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1985. $40.

Arthur Walworth, Wilson and His Peacemakers: American Diplomacy at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, New York: Norton, 1986 £24.75.     

Book reviews

Philip Towle, Enforced Disarmament: From the Napoleonic Campaigns to the Gulf War (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), x + 268 pp., £35 (hb), ISBN 0-19-820636-4.

Paul K. Davis, 100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to the Present (Oxford and Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2000), 474 pp., £59.95 (hb), ISBN 1-57607-0751.

David Nicholls, Napoleon: A Biographical Companion (Oxford: ABC-Clio, 2000), 340 pp., £29.95 (hb), ISBN 0-87436-957-6.

The Satow Siam Papers: The Private Diaries and Correspondence of Ernest Satow, vol. i, 1884-1885, introduced and edited by Nigel Brailey (Bangkok: The [Thai] Royal Historical Society, 1997), iv + 203 pp., price not obtainable, ISBN 974-89918-7-3.

Ernest Satow, C.M.G., A Diplomat in Siam: H.B.M. Minister-Resident, Bangkok, 1885-88, introduced and edited by Nigel Brailey (Bangkok: Orchid Press, rev. edn. 2000), 208 pp., price not obtainable, ISBN 074-8304-73-6.

John Lukacs, Five Days in London, May 1940 (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 1999), viii + 236 pp., £12.95, ISBN 0-300-08030-1.     

Reference materials for diplomatic studies

Edmund Jan Osmanczyk Encyclopedia of the United Nations, Basingstoke, Taylor and Francis Ltd. 1990 £175.00.

The International Directory of Government, London, Europea Publications, 1990, £140.

Louise Haberman and Paul Sack (eds.) Annual Review of Nations: Year 1988, Basingstoke, Taylor and Francis, 1989, £57.     

Reflections on the history of Japanese diplomacy

Japan and the Wider World: From the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the Present, Akira Iriye. London: Longman. 1997. viii, 213pp. ISBN: 0-582-21053-4

The Clash: U.S.-Japanese Relations Throughout History, Walter LaFeber. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 1997. xxii, 508pp. ISBN: 0-393-03950-1

Hands Across the Sea?: U.S.-Japan Relations, 1961-1981, Timothy P. Maga. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. 1997. x, 183pp. ISBN: 0-8214-1210-8     

Book reviews

John R. Davis, Britain and the German Zollverein, 1848-66 (London: Macmillan, 1997). x + 238 pp. £45. ISBN 0-333-67828-1.

Martin Thomas, Britain, France and Appeasement: Anglo-French Relations in the Popular Front Era (Oxford and New York: Berg. 1996). xi + 268 pp. £29.95 hb; £12.95 pb. ISBN 1-85973-192-9.

Peter Lowe, Containing the Cold War in East Asia: British Policies Towards Japan, China and Korea, 1948-53 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997). xii + 288 pp. £40. ISBN 0-7190-2508-7.

David M. Barrett, Uncertain Warriors: Lyndon Johnson and His Vietnam Advisers (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1994). xii + 279 pp. £11.95 pb. ISBN 0-7006-0631-9.

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, Changing Differences: Women and the Shaping of American Foreign Policy, 1917-1994 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997). x + 275 pp. £14.50 pb. ISBN 0-8135-2449-0.

Philip M. Taylor, Global Communications, International Affairs and the Media Since 1945 (London & New York: Routledge, 1997). xx + 248 pp. £45 hb. ISBN 0-415-11678-3; £15.99 pb. ISBN 0-415-11679-1     

'Arming the key battleground': German rearmament, 1950-55

Saki Dockrill, Britain's Policy for West German Rearmament, 1950-1955, Cambridge Studies in International Relations No 13, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991, £27.50.

Thomas Alan Schwartz, America's Germany. John J. McCloy and the Federal Republic of Germany, Cambridge, USA, Harvard University Press, 1991, £23.95.     

Diplomatic Interactions and Negotiations

This article examines the role of state actors, organization agencies, and individual agents in diplomatic interactions and negotiations. States as diplomatic actors, organizations as diplomatic agencies, and individuals as diplomatic agents enter into complex and interdependent relationships. Proposing a three‐level analysis of interstate interactions and diplomatic negotiations, I argue that no diplomatic negotiation happens without interactions between parties at the state, organizational, and individual levels. The agency–structure paradigm provides a conceptual framework for understanding behavioral and structural properties of international interactions and their influence on diplomatic negotiations. Diplomatic negotiation employs specific forms of interaction, using a distinct language, protocol norms, symbols, ceremonies, and rituals. The state's “self” (as a social conception of its identity, values, and interests) affects the process of diplomatic negotiation. By managing, organizing, and improving international interactions at the actor, agency, and agent levels, negotiating parties can advance the process and effectiveness of diplomatic negotiation.     

The Sincerity of the British Commitment to the Maintenance of the Balance of Power 1714-1763

'A nation interested in the preservation of a certain distribution of power tries to make its interest appear to be the outgrowth of the fundamental, universally accepted principle of the modern state system, and hence, to be identical with an interest common to all nations. The nation itself, far from defending a selfish, particular concern, poses as the guardian of that general principle; that is, as the agent of the international community.'¹

The balance of power can be seen as one of the guiding principles of European diplomacy over the past three centuries. Yet the subject remains controversial, with critics arguing that states have never routinely or sincerely pursued it. The study examines British policies towards pursuing and maintaining a balance of power in Europe between 1714 and 1763, through an analysis of the pamphlet literature and diplomatic correspondence of the period, as well as the foreign policy record. The policy was debated at length in Britain, with criticism of it mounted on a variety of grounds. But that this was indeed Britain's policy was never doubted. The conclusion is that while British policy was far from altruistic, support for the balance was perceived in Whitehall as dovetailing with national self-interest, and while many factors contributed to British support for the maintenance of the equilibrium, her commitment to maintaining it was sincere.     

Mending the “Unhinged Alliance” in the 1970S: Transatlantic Relations, Public Diplomacy, and the Origins of the European Union Visitors Program

This article examines in depth the foundation of the EU's one explicit example of public diplomacy, the European Union Visitors Programme. The narrative covers the historical background to the EUVP, the main individuals involved, and its significance for the development of the EU as an international actor. Public diplomacy relies on personal contacts, and the intention here is to demonstrate the importance of this petit histoire. The contribution of the EUVP towards establishing a transatlantic “community of values,” as demonstrated by the support it received from the U.S. diplomatic representation in Brussels, is an important extra dimension. The article concludes that the EUVP, while offering a potential model for the EU to project its “soft power” and world-view internationally, remains limited in scope and unable to fulfill its potential.     

America's backyard

Eric Paul Roorda, The Dictator Next Door: The Good Neighbour Policy and the Trujillo Regime in the Dominican Republic, 1930-1945. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1998. Pp.xii + 337. ISBN 0 8223 2123 8 (paperback).

Stephen G. Rabe, The Most Dangerous Area in the World: John F. Kennedy Confronts Communist Revolution in Latin America. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1999. Pp.257. ISBN 0 8078 4764 X (paperback).

William M. LeoGrande, Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977-1992. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Pp.xvi + 773. ISBN 0 8078 2395 3 (hardback).     

Book reviews

Charles S. Sampson (ed.), Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Vol.VI, Kennedy-Krushchev Exchanges (Washington: GPO, 1996).

Gillian Staerck and Michael Kandiah (eds), PROfiles 1964 on CD-ROM: Set I Prime Minister's and Cabinet Documents (£300 + VAT; ISBN 0-11-526478-7); Set 2, Documents on External Affairs (£350 + VAT; ISBN 0-11-526487-6); Set 3, Cabinet Committees and Defence Documents (£300 + VAT; ISBN 0-11-526488-4); Set 4, Comprehensive Index and Library CD-ROM (£200 + VAT; ISBN 0-11-526489-2). Discount for purchase of all four sets: £900 + VAT. Published by HMSO Electronic Publishing Sales, HMSO Publications Centre, 51 Nine Elms Lane, P0 Box 276, London 5W8 5DT (Tel. David Blake or Andrew Evans on UK - 171-873-8236; Fax. UK - 171-873-8203). The US and Canadian agent is UNIPUB, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706- 4391 (Tel. Toll Free 800-274-4888; Fax 800-865-3450).

Michael Shea, To Lie Abroad - Diplomacy Revisited (Sinclair Stevenson, 1996), 260 pp., £17.99 hb.

Michael Dockrill and Brian McKercher (eds.), Diplomacy and World Power: Studies in British Foreign Policy, 1890-1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1 996); xix+2714 pp. ISBN 0-921-46243-6.

David H. Dunn (ed.), Diplomacy at the Highest Level: The Evolution of International Summitry (London/New York: Macmillan, St. Martin's Press, 1996), 279 pp. £45, ISBN (UK) 0-333-64441-9, (USA) 0-312-16273-1.

David Dutton, Anthony Eden: A Life and Reputation (London: Arnold, 1997) xiv + 576 pp., £25 (hb); ISBN 0-340-56168-8.

James G. Hershberg, James B. Conant: Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), 948 pp.

Saki Dockrill, Eisenhower's New-Look National Security Policy, 1953-61 (London: Macmillan, 1996). xvi + 400pp., £40.

Alan James, Britain and the Congo Crisis, 1960-63 (London: Macmillan, 1996), xxi + 219pp. £42.50; ISBN 0-333-61860-2.

Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam (New York: Random House, 1995), xviii + 414pp., ISBN 0-8129-2523-8.     

Book reviews

M.B. Hayne, The French Foreign Office and the Origins of the First World War 1898-1914 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993) £35. ISBN 019-820270-9.

Keith Hamilton, Bertie of Thame: Edwardian Ambassador (Woodbridge/Suffolk: Boydell Press 1990 (= Royal Historical Society Studies in History, No. 60)), ix + 436 pp. ISBN 0-86193-217X. £35.

Anita Inder Singh, The Limits of British Influence: South Asia and the Anglo-American Relationship, 1947-56 (Pinter, 1993) pp. 309. £45.

Robert H. Ferrell (ed.), Truman in the White House: The Diary of Eben A. Ayers (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991) $37.50. ISBN 0-8262-0790-1.

Robert Pearce (ed.), Patrick Gordon Walker: Political Diaries 1932-1971 (London: The Historians Press, 1991) £20. ISBN 1-872273-05 X.

Richard J. Aldrich (ed.), British Strategy and the Cold War, 1945-51 (London: Routledge, 1992) £40. ISBN 0-415-07851-2.

Timothy Garton Ash, In Europe's Name. Germany and the Divided Continent (London: Jonathan Cape, 1993) £25. ISBN 0-224-02054-4.     

Book reviews

B.J.C. McKercher, Transition of Power: Britain's Loss of Global Pre-eminence to the United States, 1930-45, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999, xii + 403, £40, ISBN 0521 440 904

Joseph A. Maiolo, The Royal Navy and Nazi Germany, 1933-39: A Study in Appeasement and the Origins of the Second World War (London, MacMillan Press Ltd., 1998), xii + 259 pp. £?? ISBN 0-333-72007-5.

William I. Hitchcock, France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe, 1944-54, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1998, pp.291. £37.50 hardback, £14.50 paperback.

R. Holland, Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus 1954-1959 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998). 347 pp. £48 hb. ISBN 0-19-820538-4.

Michael L. Krenn, Black Diplomacy: African Americans and the State Department 1945-1969 (London: M.E. Sharpe, 1999). Viii + 223pp. £15.95 pb. ISBN 0-7656-0381-0

Jerrold L. Schecter, Russian Negotiating Behavior (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1998). 225 pp. ISBN: 1-878379-78-X.     

Book reviews

Sibyl Crowe and Edward Corp, Our Ablest Public Servant, Sir Eyre Crowe GCB, GCMG, KCB, KCMG, 1864-1925 (Braunton Devon: Merlin Books, 1993) £17.95. ISBN 0 86303 607-4.

Richard J. Aldrich, The Key to the South: Britain, the United States, and Thailand during the Approach of the Pacific War, 1929-42 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1993).

John Saville, The Politics of Continuity: British Foreign Policy and the Labour Government, 1945-46 (London and New York: Verso, 1993). ISBN 0 86091 456 9.

John Kent, British Imperial Strategy and the Origins of the Cold War, 1944-49 (Leicester, London and New York: Leicester University Press, 1993). ISBN 0 7185 1330 4.

Frederick W. Marks III, Power and Peace: The Diplomacy of John Foster Dulles (Westport, CT & London: Praeger, 1993) £45. ISBN 0 275 94497 2.

Charles Grant, Delors: Inside the House that Jacques Built (London: Nicholas Brealey, 1994) pp.305. £12.99. ISBN 1 85788 039 0.     

The Anglo-American “Special Relationship”: The Lazarus of International Relations

Scholars have variously queried the existence of the Anglo-American “special relationship,” consigned it to history as “special no more,” or demanded that Britain choose between its European and American relationships. These critiques have become increasingly prevalent since the Cold War. Yet the current British government, like many before it, continues to portray a choice between America and Europe as a “false choice,” and the “special relationship” has arguably deepened in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. This article contends that international diplomatic history can contribute much to understanding the “Lazarus-like” quality of the “special relationship.” Specifically it argues that a number of critical continuities in post-World War II British foreign policy survived the end of the Cold War and have since contributed heavily to the determination of the British foreign policymaking elite to maintain the “special relationship” at the same time that Britain pursues a leadership role within Europe.