{"title":"The World’s Most Prestigious Prize: The Inside Story of the Nobel Peace Prize","authors":"H. Nehring","doi":"10.1080/09592296.2022.2143117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2022.2143117","url":null,"abstract":"Second, the author points out that well aware of the risks of nuclear escalation and using nuclear weapons, Kennedy and Khrushchev were determined to keep American and Soviet military forces under tight control and managed to do so. Third, The Silent Guns emphasises that the extremely cautious behaviours of numerous civilian and military lower rank officials on both sides contributed to avoiding a nuclear war. Based on this analysis, the author observes, ‘the Cold War environment of October 1962 proved to be a surprisingly safe period’ [268]. However, this reviewer wonders if Kennedy was ready to allow the Soviets to take over Berlin. His political stakes in the city were much higher than in Turkey. Nevertheless, Kennedy wanted to avoid a straightforward trade between Cuba and Turkey. Indeed, for him, even the concession over Turkey had to be secret or made under a diplomatic cover like the Cordier ploy to minimise damage to domestic and alliance politics. Vorhees might have reached different conclusions if he had examined Kennedy’s concern over Berlin in the wider historical context of the Berlin crisis. In addition, there seems to be some room for debate regarding the stability of the Cold War system in October 1962. Certainly, the self-restraint of the actors involved in the missile crisis, especially those at lower levels, contributed to the absence of a nuclear catastrophe. However, this does not completely rule out the possibility of what Dean Acheson called ‘plain dumb luck’ averting nuclear war. Nevertheless, The Silent Guns offers some new findings and stimulating arguments on the nexus between domestic politics and diplomacy, the inner workings of the backchannel diplomacy between Kennedy and Khrushchev, Kennedy’s fallback to avoid nuclear war, and the problem of how close the Cuban crisis came to nuclear apocalypse. With these insights, the book contributes to further understanding of the Cuban Missile Crisis.","PeriodicalId":44804,"journal":{"name":"Diplomacy & Statecraft","volume":"33 1","pages":"857 - 859"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43985451","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tears, Fire, and Blood: The United States and the Decolonization of Africa","authors":"Cary Fraser","doi":"10.1080/09592296.2022.2143125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2022.2143125","url":null,"abstract":"The Churchill complex is more complex than Buruma allows. Historians will continue to write the kind of high politics history that he has done, but they are also exploring the subject in other ways and widening the field valuably. Studies of culture, identity, memory and race, and Churchill himself, are now revealing much about why the relationship has had longevity despite vast asymmetry in power and different national histories.","PeriodicalId":44804,"journal":{"name":"Diplomacy & Statecraft","volume":"33 1","pages":"864 - 865"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42796815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘If This Is the People’s Will, the People Should Be Replaced’: The Shi’ization of Syria During the Civil War, 2011–2018","authors":"Yehuda Blanga","doi":"10.1080/09592296.2022.2143123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2022.2143123","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT For the past decade, a cruel and bloody civil war has wracked Syria. The conflict, and especially its military and humanitarian aspects, has been surveyed extensively. But like every war, that in Syria involves a ‘soft conflict’ in addition to the military confrontation. By this is meant the religious, educational, social, and cultural actions undertaken by the Shi’ite axis – the Syrian regime and its allies, Iran and Hezbollah – vis-à-vis the Sunni majority in the country. For Bashar Assad, a member of the Alawite sect, and his Shi’ite allies, the Sunnis pose a real threat, which can best be countered by converting them to Shi’ism.","PeriodicalId":44804,"journal":{"name":"Diplomacy & Statecraft","volume":"33 1","pages":"794 - 823"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46136285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Architects of International Relations: Building a Discipline, Designing the World, 1914-1940","authors":"Alexander Mack","doi":"10.1080/09592296.2022.2143131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2022.2143131","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44804,"journal":{"name":"Diplomacy & Statecraft","volume":"33 1","pages":"872 - 873"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47248843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Aftermath of the Suez Crisis: The Reopening of the Canal and Anglo–American Relations","authors":"R. Ikeda","doi":"10.1080/09592296.2022.2143115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2022.2143115","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT There have been a great number of works on the Suez Crisis, but scarce academic attention has been paid to the process whereby its settlement was achieved. This paper argues that Britain succeeded in securing fairly sufficient Egyptian concessions with support from the US and the UN. The Americans, who had been hostile to the British prior to their agreement to withdraw troops from the Canal Zone, led the effort to make the Egyptians concede during negotiations on the Canal’s reopening. Contrary to the prevailing argument that Britain suffered a political defeat because of international pressure, this paper argues that Britain persuaded the US to acquiesce to the de facto arrangement because of the Canal’s economic value. The deployment of the UNEF brought a certain level of humiliation to Egyptian sovereignty. As Nasser’s influence in Middle Eastern affairs was contained, Britain chose a pragmatic deal with Egypt over the Canal.","PeriodicalId":44804,"journal":{"name":"Diplomacy & Statecraft","volume":"33 1","pages":"681 - 717"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42736303","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fraternal Enemies: Israel and the Gulf Monarchies","authors":"Eldad Ben Aharon","doi":"10.1080/09592296.2022.2143121","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2022.2143121","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44804,"journal":{"name":"Diplomacy & Statecraft","volume":"33 1","pages":"861 - 862"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44032562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Diplomatic Deliberative Practices in International Organizations: Does Institutional Design Matter?","authors":"D. Panke, Gurur Polat, Franziska Hohlstein","doi":"10.1080/09592296.2022.2143126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2022.2143126","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Scholars have demonstrated that deliberation between political actors in states as well as in International Organizations (IOs) matters because it can impact the quality and legitimacy of outcomes. Yet, we do not know much about how deliberation between political actors can be triggered in practice. Drawing on insights from the deliberative turn that has taken place in Comparative Politics as well as insights from International Relations, this paper inquires how different IO institutional features effect the extent of diplomatic deliberation. Unique and novel survey data shows that there is variation between and within IOs. In some IOs, such as the UNFCCC or CoE, diplomats engage in extensive deliberations, while they do so considerably less in others, such as the UNWTO or IWC. Our paper provides novel insights into the inner working of IOs. In general, diplomatic debates are most pronounced in large IOs with high level delegates that often opt for negotiating behind closed doors. In addition, specific institutional design elements matter in the different stages of an IO policy-cycle, such as procedural rules fostering interaction between diplomats in the negotiation stage or a limited policy scope in the voting stage.","PeriodicalId":44804,"journal":{"name":"Diplomacy & Statecraft","volume":"33 1","pages":"824 - 852"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43935403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The British Army, Upper Silesia, and European Diplomacy, 1920–22","authors":"W. Butler","doi":"10.1080/09592296.2022.2143109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2022.2143109","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT At the end of the First World War, Britain was at the limit of its capabilities, both militarily and diplomatically. Despite large reductions in the size of its armed forces, it had an increasing number of responsibilities as a victorious power. One of these responsibilities was to ensure the success of a plebiscite in Upper Silesia. It had little desire to do this but was compelled to provide support in order to counter French influence in the region, having to do so with minimal expertise and manpower. This article explores the decision-making which occurred in relation to the British role in Upper Silesia, placing it within the wider context of British strategic and diplomatic policy in the years immediately after the First World War, while also assessing the use (or not) of British civilian and military experts on the ground. Belatedly taking a role in the region certainly helped to aid a situation which was spiralling out of control, but highlights how a short-term outlook on foreign policy and decision-making hindered British efforts to exert influence in the region and further afield.","PeriodicalId":44804,"journal":{"name":"Diplomacy & Statecraft","volume":"33 1","pages":"632 - 655"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45625348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Military Education and the British Empire, 1815–1949","authors":"Iain E. Johnston-White","doi":"10.1080/09592296.2022.2143120","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2022.2143120","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44804,"journal":{"name":"Diplomacy & Statecraft","volume":"33 1","pages":"859 - 860"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46163583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}