BONUS LINK: My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here.
Notes on Selected Chapters of Force and Statecraft: Diplomatic Challenges of our Time
Notes on Selected Chapters of Force and Statecraft: Diplomatic Challenges of our Time
Notes on Force and Statecraft
Introduction:
Dilemma of Force and Statecraft is when/how/if to use
force—force that can be so dangerous
FAO *Diplomacy statue by Alves good model for
FAOs*
*Does a superpower likes the US actually damage the world
order and stability?
*Collective cooperation requires:
- common
interests and competition
- structure
appropriate to size
- common
values and procedures within the structure
-
adaptability
CHAPTER 1: THE EMERGENCE OF DIPLOMACY AND THE GREAT POWERS
Intro:
Diplomacy: the system
of regulated and organized contacts between states which Europe has evolved…one
of her most important gifts to the world
The Early techniques,
instruments and ideas of diplomacy:
- From 6th century B.C., the Greeks developed the
practice of choosing ambassadors—they
have no battleships at their disposal…their only weapons are words and
opportunities (Demosthenes).
- Romans developed legal concepts like the law of nations, the law
that’s commons to all mankind, and the importance of respecting legal obligations
and honor treaties.
- Following the Romans, the Byzantine empire organized a
special permanent governmental department to deal with foreign affairs.
- The Venetians (15th century) established
permanent diplomatic missions with a systemized diplomatic service.
- This all led to the creation of political science—notably
among the creators of this discipline was Machiavelli
States and Raison d’Etat in the 17th Century
- War shaped the formation, character and development of
modern states
- Transformation began with the 30 years war (1618-48) and
the Treaty of Westphalia
- The emergence of the modern state due to:
Effective
armed forces, able bureaucracy and theory of state that defined political interest in rational/practical terms.
- Rise of the raison
d’etat = a state is more than its ruler, crown, prince and people…the state
above all else!
EX:
Cardinal Richelieu used this idea ruthlessly.
*French
becomes the lingua franca of
diplomacy itself
- Diplomats job = maintaining
effective communication between the two princes, delivering letters and in
protecting his Master’s subjects and conserving his interests.
- Overwhelming French power led to alliances to balance the
power and to the Nine Years War (1688-97)
War and Competition
in the 18th Century:
- this Age
of Reason also witnessed an anarchy against all
- Began with Great Northern War of 1700-1721 (supremacy in
the Baltic region)
Peter the
Great brought Russia into being as a modern state to do win at the Battle of Poltava
- 1713/14 Treaty of Utrecht = first European treaty to
mention BoP
- Callieres On the
Manner of Negotiating with Princes 1716—best writing ever on diplomatic
methodology
*Cautions
again large diplomatic conferences and reliance on lawyers
*Foreign
relations should be done by trained professionals vice politically- connected amateurs
Diplomats should be carefully
educated in the lessons of history and trained in diplomatic skills and
techniques, and should know exactly the state of the military forces both on
land and sea.
- Frederick the Great stated: Negotiating without arms produce as little impression as musical scores
without instruments.
- The rape of Silesia
by Frederick is a great example of raison
d’etat personified
- It took the French revolution and ensuing Napoleonic Wars
to shock Europe into collaboration…defeating French forces during the Battle of Nations at Leipzig in 1813
*Following
1815 Battle of Waterloo this
collaboration stood as basis for first international
system based upon BoP for peace and security
CHAPTER 2: THE CLASSICAL SYSTEM OF DIPLOMACY, 1815-1914
Intro:
- efforts here
produced a period of unprecedented peace…the
classical system of diplomacy
Building a System
with a BoP and a Concert:
- Congress of Vienna- major task not to just end past
hostilities by to make a viable international system of peace and security
*Castlereagh
and Metternich were the two principal architects to tackle: how to put
power into the service of peace and security
*The generality of dissatisfaction is a
condition of stability because it ensures no one
party is totally satisfied and ensure relative security (Kissinger)
- This all required a corporate buy-in though and to that
end they made the Quadruple Alliance (soon added France to it) and the Concert
of Europe
- In every crisis from 1815-1854 they worked together to
find solutions to prevent war, and to minimize the wars of 1850s and 60s
- Why could they do this?!
*Unusually
skilled statesmen, and free from pressures of transparent democracies to some extent
- Clausewitz’s On War:
war is the continuation of political
activity by other means. The political
object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it and those means can’t ever
be in isolation from their purpose.
Change and an
Experiment with a Defensive Alliance System
- Following revolutions of 1848, rise of nationalism created
a rise of realpolitiker
Statecraft
is only defined in the exercise and application of raw power
*Example of
the folly of this being the senseless killings in the Crimean War
- the lessons of one generation are not always accepted by
another
- This time period saw the widespread acceptance of Darwinism
and rise jingoism
- All this concerned
Bismark, who wanted to puruse safety-politics
*So he
created an elaborate defensive alliance system: maintain equilibrium of forces that was very complicated (and
weak because of its complexity)
- 1864 Geneva Convention signed
- 1878 Congress of Berlin prevents danger in the Balkans
- 1884-85 Conference of Berlin called to forestall
possibility of crisis arising
Further Change and an
Experiment with Bipolar Alignment
- This change started with German-Russian alliance was
severed in 1879
*Poor
German leadership launched Weltpolitik =
make Germany a global power
- Evolved into post 1907 Triple Alliance (Germany,
Austria, and Italy) and Triple Entente (Britain, France and
Russia).
Characteristics of
the System
- Composition, numbers and types of actors
- Structure = balance among Great Powers…but this requires
flexibility
- Shared goals and objectives
- Statesmen had to develop norms, methods and rules of accommodation
- Wars if fought with limited means for
limited political objectives could be legitimate instruments of policy
- Reliance on just war theory and professional diplomats
p. 137-143 Lessons of History
and Knowledge for Statecraft
“What is the good of experience if you do no reflect” Frederick the
Great
However, Clausewitz warns against those “who never rise
above the anecdote”
*Habit of mind (thinking in focused ways about history)
categories:
-
Importance in history of individual people (presidents, ambassadors etc)
- Be
attentive to process (the cause and effect of events)
- The wide
range of possibilities (reactions and outcomes)
- Develop perspective
and proportion (knowing what is/isn’t important)
p. 157-160 Congress of Vienna
1814-1815
- everyone shares vital interest in reaching mutually
acceptable agreements about how best to create and maintain viable
international system to regulate patterns of conflict and cooperation
- 4 major principles: compensation, legitimacy (respect for
pre-Napoleonic rulers’ thrones), BoP, and ethics/human rights
- Agreed to reduction in size of standing armies, mutual
restraint, buffer zones, neutral areas like Beligium and Switzerland
- Quadruple alliance agrees to meet regularly as the Concert
of Europe
P. 180-182 COLLECTIVE
SECURITY FOR THE POST-1815 SETTLEMENT
- 1814 Treaty of Chaumont establishes system of collective
security
- Metternich and Castlereagh see wisdom of force and
statecraft combined
- Criteria of armed force lends credibility to the system of
Great Powers
- Deterrence through
collective security is difficult though when combined with BoP structure and
shared goals, it was successful
P. 203-206 AMERICAN
GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY, 1852-1854
- Gunships better suited to coercive diplomacy—they can be
easily dispatched and withdrawn and displayed and controlled—best uniter of
force with persuasion
- 1852, President Fillmore sends Commodore Perry to get
Japan to open their country
- He sails there in
July 1853 and does inspire fear, he issues US desires and returns in March 1854
*Results in
1854 Treaty of Kanagawa: Japan accepts incentives and opens 2 ports for supplying and establishes
consular privileges
P. 225-228 BISMARCK
AS AN HONEST BROKER IN THE CRISIS OF 1878
- Crisis stemmed from slow disintegration of Ottoman empire,
human rights violations and Great Power ambitions in the Balkans. (Russia-British fight)
- Congress of Berlin in June 1878 meets for a month. Bismarck is the honest broker of peace
*key is following operational principles of crisis
management; Bismarck deliberately built in pauses during negotiations
- Came to understand necessity of mutual restraint and
limited objectives.
P. 228-232 THE GUNS OF AUGUST, 1914
- crisis of 1914 reveals tragic inept mismanagement
- leaders cared more about not appearing weak
- The crisis actually unfolded slowly over 6 week
period: Assassination is on 28 Jun and
Austria declares war on Serbia 28 July 1914.
- it was a pattern of mobilization and escalation
*Most serious mistake in crisis management is for a leader to believe that there is nothing they can
do to prevent war…never say inevitable
**Moltke
makes this mistake when he tells the Kaiser that he can’t change his
plan for a two-front war
- Little effort was
made to coordinate diplomatic and military actions or communications as part of
an overarching strategy
- BECAUSE OF THESE
MISTAKES a local dispute in the Balkans led to invasion of Belgium and WWI
which would eventually involve US, China and Japan.
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