Domesticity, Rearmament, and the Limits of U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Netherlands during the Early Cold War

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Dutch Society ◽  
Policy Goal ◽  
Defense Expenditure ◽  
Economic Austerity ◽  
The Hague ◽  
The U.S

By the early 1950s, Western rearmament had emerged as a central U.S. foreign policy goal. However, many West European governments were reluctant to bear the costs of rearmament at a time when economic reconstruction and social welfare were still urgently needed. Perhaps nowhere was this resistance as entrenched as in the Netherlands, where concern over defense expenditure was most pronounced among Dutch housewives, a traditionally prominent part of Dutch society. For U.S. diplomats in The Hague, the Dutch housewife therefore became the greatest obstacle they needed to overcome in generating Dutch support for rearmament. When U.S. officials encouraged Dutch women to take a more prominent stand on international affairs, these efforts posed a challenge to local cultural conventions. Yet with few usable cultural tropes on which to draw amid continued economic austerity, the U.S. effort to reach Dutch women fell short. An analysis of this failed effort underscores the limits of U.S. cultural influence in other Western societies during the early Cold War.

scholarly journals Faceless Leadership of American Public Diplomacy: HR Crisis in the Post-Bipolar Era

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (12) ◽  
pp. 33-39
Author(s):  
U. Artamonova
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Considerable Change ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Professional Experience ◽  
Leadership Change ◽  
The Past ◽  
Education Professional ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

This article focuses on workforce policies trends in the American public diplomacy institutions. The author compares tendencies regarding HR policy, e. g. frequency of leadership change, length of timespans between nominations, the ratio of acting and confirmed nominees during the age of the United Stated Information Agency (USIA) and after its disbandment in 1999. Comparison demonstrates a considerable change of patterns: since 1999, persons in charge of the American public diplomacy institutions have been rotating more often, and positions themselves stayed vacant longer than they did in the 20th century. There have been many acting nominees during the past decade, whereas in the time of the USIA there has been none. In addition, the article studies characteristics of both the USIA directors and Under Secretaries of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. The analysis of education, professional background, personal relationship with the U. S. President (or the lack of it) demonstrated that standards for the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs position applicants are significantly lower than the ones that were applied to candidates for the directorship of the USIA. With the results obtained, the author arrived to a conclusion that the change of HR policy in the American public diplomacy sphere indicates the lack of interest in the particular dimension of foreign policy among the political leadership of the U.S. in comparison to the age of the Cold War. This conclusion agrees with the fact that since 1990s, the American public diplomacy remains in crisis: no major reforms of institutions since 1999, unsuccessful attempts to develop a comprehensive strategic document for public diplomacy, frequent piques of anti-Americanism in the international public opinion in the 21st century. The article argues that the absence of a prominent leader in the American public diplomacy who would have stayed in the office for considerable amount of time, been a confidant of the President and thus an active participant of the formation of a national political vision, possessed outstanding professional experience, is both the consequence of the crisis in the U.S. public diplomacy and the factor that contributes to this crisis remaining unsolved.

scholarly journals Cold-War Economics: The Use of Marshall Plan Counterpart Funds in Germany, 1948–1960

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 697-716
Author(s):  
Armin Grünbacher
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Marshall Plan ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Realistic Approach ◽  
Ideological Conflict ◽  
War Propaganda ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

The originally propagated view that the Marshall Plan was an altruistic endeavor through which the U.S. saved Europe from collapse and starvation has long been dismissed and replaced with a more realistic approach to international affairs. Whereas Realpolitik and the perception of the evermore menacing Cold War made it inevitable that Marshall Plan aid and its counterpart funds would become a weapon in the ideological conflict of the two political ideologies, the overwhelming body of literature looks at the Marshall Plan either from a political and diplomatic or from an economic viewpoint. Beyond general statements that the Marshall Plan was used as a weapon in the Cold War, relatively little research has been carried out into how this weapon was wielded. This is even truer for the counterpart funds, which are usually only mentioned in passing in the literature, if at all. This is despite the fact that Marshall Aid in general and the counterpart funds in particular had actually quite a significant impact in Cold-War propaganda and economic matters in Western Europe, which most likely contributed to the declining appeal of communism. This article will look at the specific action of American and, after September 1949, German authorities in the use of counterpart funds to demonstrate their significance.

Public Diplomacy during the Cold War: The Record and Its Implications

2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Critchlow
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Department Of State ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

Public diplomacy in its many forms proved a great asset for the United States during the Cold War. A new book by Yale Richmond, a retired U.S. official who for many years was involved with policy toward the Soviet Union, including U.S. Soviet exchanges, highlights the importance of the “cultural” dimension of the Cold War. Richmond focuses on the U.S. side of the U.S. Soviet exchanges, but he also provides interesting comments about Soviet policy, drawing on newly declassified materials from the former Soviet archives. The exchanges, information programs, and other activities undertaken by the U.S. Information Agency and the Department of State played a crucial role in spreading democratic ideas and values within the Soviet bloc. Candid and balanced broadcasts were far more effective than the heavy—handed propaganda that was used initially. The record of public diplomacy during the Cold War provides some important lessons for U.S. foreign policy makers in the post—Cold War world.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and the U.S.-China competition: the case of Italy

2020 ◽  
pp. 81-95
Author(s):  
D. Cristiani
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
China Policy ◽  
Governance Model ◽  
The World ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
The Belt And Road ◽  
The U.S

After originating in China, the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world. Italy was the next country severely hit by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, before the rest of Europe and the world. As Italy struggled to cope with this mounting crisis, China seized the momentum through an aggressive mix of public diplomacy, aid support and disinformation activities. By helping Italy, China pursued three goals: transforming its weaknesses in strengths by shifting the narrative over its handling of the COVID-19 crisis; promoting its management of the situation as the proof of the strength of its governance model; showing to the Italians, the Europeans and the world how Italy was benefitting from being a member of the Belt and Road Initiative. China’s activism in Italy prompted reaction from the United States, and the COVID-19 strained relations between the two superpowers even further. While the idea that a new Cold War is brewing might be far-fetched, the relations between the two are now less and less cooperative. This increasing competition will also impact Italy’s diplomatic freedom of action vis-à-vis China – a trend that is not set to change as the new J.Biden administration takes over in the United States, as his approach to China is likely to be less erratic and more consistent, but hardly softer than Trump’s China policy.

Społeczeństwo holenderskie i los Żydów: skomplikowana historia

2016 ◽  
pp. 425-434
Author(s):  
Dan Michman
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Dutch Society ◽  
Nazi Occupation ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Western European ◽  
Post War ◽  
Of Greece

The percentage of victimization of Dutch Jewry during the Shoah is the highest of Western, Central and Southern Europe (except, perhaps of Greece), and close to the Polish one: 75%, more than 104.000 souls. The question of disproportion between the apparent favorable status of the Jews in society – they had acquired emancipation in 1796 - and the disastrous outcome of the Nazi occupation as compared to other countries in general and Western European in particular has haunted Dutch historiography of the Shoah. Who should be blamed for that outcome: the perpetrators, i.e. the Germans, the bystanders, i.e. the Dutch or the victims, i.e. the Dutch Jews? The article first surveys the answers given to this question since the beginnings of Dutch Holocaust historiography in the immediate post-war period until the debates of today and the factors that influenced the shaping of some basic perceptions on “Dutch society and the Jews”. It then proceeds to detailing several facts from the Holocaust period that are essential for an evaluation of gentile attitudes. The article concludes with the observation that – in spite of ongoing debates – the overall picture which has accumulated after decades of research will not essentially being altered. Although the Holocaust was initiated, planned and carried out from Berlin, and although a considerable number of Dutchmen helped and hid Jews and the majority definitely despised the Germans, considerable parts of Dutch society contributed to the disastrous outcome of the Jewish lot in the Netherlands – through a high amount of servility towards the German authorities, through indifference when Jewish fellow-citizens were persecuted, through economically benefiting from the persecution and from the disappearance of Jewish neighbors, and through actual collaboration (stemming from a variety of reasons). Consequently, the picture of the Holocaust in the Netherlands is multi-dimensional, but altogether puzzling and not favorable.

W cieniu Anny Frank. Szanse Żydów na przeżycie w okupowanej Holandii

2014 ◽  
pp. 384-406
Author(s):  
Bob Moore
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Jewish Population ◽  
Hostile Environment ◽  
Dutch Society ◽  
German Occupation

During the German occupation of the Netherlands between 1940 and 1945, around 75% of the country’s Jewish population were deported and killed, primarily in the extermination camps of Auschwitz and Sobibor. Much attention has been paid to the factors which explain this, but this article questions how any Jews managed to survive in an increasingly hostile environment where there were no ‘favorable factors’ to aid them. The analysis centers on the attitudes of the Jews towards acting illegally, their relationships with the rest of Dutch society, and the possible opportunities for escape and hiding. It also looks at the myriad problems associated with the day-to-day experiences of surviving underground

Vietnam's Post-Cold War Diplomacy and the U.S. Response

Asian Survey ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 832-847
Author(s):  
Allan E. Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The U.S

Philip Wayne Powell, the Cold War, and the Conquest of Northern Mexico

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-304
Author(s):  
Raphael B. Folsom
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Colonial Mexico ◽  
Northern Mexico ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

The writings of the U.S. scholar Philip Wayne Powell have had an enduring influence on the historiography of colonial Mexico and the Spanish borderlands. But his writings have never been examined as a unified corpus, and so the deeply reactionary political ideology that lay behind them has never been well understood. By analyzing Powell’s political convictions, this article shows how contemporary scholarship on the conquest of northern Mexico can emerge from Powell’s long shadow. Los escritos del estudioso estadounidense Philip Wayne Powell han ejercido una influencia perdurable sobre la historiografía del México colonial y las zonas fronterizas españolas. Sin embargo, dichos escritos nunca han sido examinados como un corpus unificado, de manera que la ideología política profundamente reaccionaria detrás de ellos nunca ha sido bien comprendida. Al analizar las convicciones políticas de Powell, el presente artículo muestra cómo puede surgir un conocimiento contemporáneo sobre la conquista del norte de México a partir de la larga sombra de Powell.

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