Conclusion

Author(s):  
Stève Sainlaude

The imperial government was able to focus solely on French national interests in determining its policy on the American crisis, without taking into account public opinion, because the antidemocratic nature of the Second Empire meant that decision-makers discussed external affairs in the closed sphere of the Quai d’Orsay or the Tuileries Palace. To determine its course of action during the American Civil War, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs therefore relied solely on its assessment of how France could best benefit from the situation created by the crisis, a judgment that it based on the dispatches of its diplomats and consuls. No advantage could be gained from a division of the Union; no valid reason could prompt the French Foreign Ministry to side with the states in rebellion. While Napoleon III hoped for a victory for the secessionists in order to further his own “grand design” in Mexico, he had to revise his American policy under the influence of his foreign ministers, who made him realize that France would not benefit from U.S. dismemberment. Nonintervention prevailed, revealing the powers of persuasion of Thouvenel and Drouyn de Lhuys.

Author(s):  
Uladzimir Snapkouski ◽  

The article examines the main directions of activity and forms of interaction between the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Belarusian SSR in the UN and its specialized institutions during the years of perestroika (1985 - 1991). To disclose the topic, materials from the journal “International Affair” were used (reviews of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the foreign policy of the USSR, articles by the foreign ministers of the Union republics, primarily Ukraine and Belarus), book and journal publications of Union / Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian scientists, documents of the United Nations and foreign policy of the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Belarusian SSR. The author’s conscious emphasis on the union level reflects the real situation in relations between the Union Center and the republics in the Soviet federation during the perestroika period, when these relations rapidly evolved from the foreign policy dictate of the Center to greater autonomy of the republics in the international arena, which ultimately has led to the collapse of the USSR and the proclamation of independence all union republics. The article analyzes such issues as the new approach of the Soviet Union to the UN in the years of perestroika, the formation of new relations between the Union republics and the Center, diplomatic cooperation of Soviet delegations and representatives of socialist countries in the UN, Belarusian initiatives at the 45th session of the UN General Assembly (1990). During the years of perestroika, the Soviet leadership and the union Foreign Ministry did a tremendous job of clearing the rubble of the Cold War, developing broad international cooperation and integration the USSR into the world economy. The Belarusian and Ukrainian diplomatic services have made a significant contribution to this activity within the framework of the UN and its specialized agencies and have received much broader opportunities for realizing the national interests and needs of their peoples within the framework of radically renewed relations between the Union Center and the republics. The article is one of the first attempts in post-Soviet historiography to investigate the activities of the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the BSSR in the UN and its specialized institutions during the period of perestroika


2018 ◽  
pp. 851-854
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Bozhko

Memories of the prominent Ukrainian diplomat, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine Volodymyr Khandohii titled “Diplomatic Chapters: True Stories of Career Diplomat” may be significantly distinguished among the other books of this popular genre due to its sharpened polemics. All in all, it is quite logical. Having been voted out of the office of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom in summer 2014, he decided to resign since he had not received any proposals from the Minister. It was when it seemed that he had plenty of time and energy to work. In fact, this book is not about the critical attitude towards the mistakes of the young “reformers team” that came to power in Ukraine on the roar of the revolutionary wave. It is about a difficult but important Soviet period of “phantom diplomacy”, which became a solid brick in the foundation of Ukrainian statehood. Speaking about the diplomat, the author uses interesting associations, unexpected retrospectives, and parallels with modern times. He does not omit the evaluation of important failures, including one that have been made in personnel assignments, namely concerning “Ukrainian leaders with prefix “acting”, who made dramatically significant decisions in spring 2014.The motive of institutional memory preservation is constantly evolving in the book. The author is more than convinced that this issue is relevant for the current Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. It should be noted that Volodymyr Khandohii is one of those few domestic diplomats who has not missed any career stage, starting from the position of the “fairy” attaché (as one of the veterans of the Ukrainian diplomatic service noted) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR in far 1976, and to the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in near 2009.While turning pages of this solid work (which is almost 600 pages of folio format) sometimes you may find yourself thinking that you are reading the history of the entire Ukrainian foreign-policy establishment that, despite certain ornamentality of the Soviet period, played a significant role in the establishment of independent Ukraine and protection and advocacy of its national interests in the world in modern times, rather than the biography of an individual. In other words owing to the memories of Volodymyr Khandohii, a reader has a unique opportunity to look behind the scenes where the history has been created and is still being created. It is likely that not everyone will agree with some of his points concerning the activities of individuals or their roles in Ukrainian diplomacy. In particular, as for me, the author could be more critical, while mentioning certain personalities, especially acquaintances from joint work in the Soviet Foreign Ministry. On the other hand, such subjectivism is quite natural, taking into account the personal character of memoirs as a genre. In the end, V. Khandohii emphasizes that his book is “a sketch of epoch portrait in the interior of author’s own assessments and associations”. Let me add – the epoch that tests our independent state and our people, including Ukrainian diplomats, for resistance. Keywords: Volodymyr Khandohii, “phantom diplomacy”, memoirs, history, Ukrainian foreign policy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-79
Author(s):  
Nargiza Sodikova ◽  
◽  
◽  

Important aspects of French foreign policy and national interests in the modern time,France's position in international security and the specifics of foreign affairs with the United States and the European Union are revealed in this article


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tian J. Ma ◽  
Rudy J. Garcia ◽  
Forest Danford ◽  
Laura Patrizi ◽  
Jennifer Galasso ◽  
...  

AbstractThe amount of data produced by sensors, social and digital media, and Internet of Things (IoTs) are rapidly increasing each day. Decision makers often need to sift through a sea of Big Data to utilize information from a variety of sources in order to determine a course of action. This can be a very difficult and time-consuming task. For each data source encountered, the information can be redundant, conflicting, and/or incomplete. For near-real-time application, there is insufficient time for a human to interpret all the information from different sources. In this project, we have developed a near-real-time, data-agnostic, software architecture that is capable of using several disparate sources to autonomously generate Actionable Intelligence with a human in the loop. We demonstrated our solution through a traffic prediction exemplar problem.


1987 ◽  
Vol 8 (x) ◽  
pp. 341-352
Author(s):  
Melissa Clegg

Since the founding of the Fifth Republic Paris has been rebuilt to an extent only the reconstructions of the Second Empire under Napoleon III could match. The story of its rebuilding—told by David Pinkney, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Washington—could serve as a fable with a moral about the whole of French cultural and political life for the last twenty-five years. De Gaulle began the transformation of Paris by deregulating the building industry. The threats of that policy to the historical character of the city eventually provoked, under Giscard d’Estaing and Mitterrand, a return to the centrist practices of a state accustomed to regulation.


1982 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-137
Author(s):  
Pierre L. Horn

It is commonly known that Victor Hugo felt only contempt and hatred for Napoleon III and his Second Empire, so readers of Hugo's History of a Crime might easily expect that the Emperor's vengeful wrath would fall on the poet. However, far from trying to destroy Hugo financially, Napoleon not only allowed the sale of numerous of his masterpieces in France (with the exception of Châtiments and other writings considered insulting to the regime) but he did not interfere with the performance of the Hugolian repertoire on the stage of Parisian theatres.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Askerov

With the advancement of power in 2002, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has introduced revolutionary policies in Turkey in various realms, including foreign affairs. The new trend in the foreign policy focused on not having problems with neighbors. This could be possible or nearly possible theoretically but eliminating century-long and deep-rooted conflicts with some of the neighbors would not be easy in practice. The new idealistic/moralistic approach necessitated new ways of policy formulation based on mutual gains and unthinkable concessions on the part of Turkey. Ankara’s new approach had given a special importance to building bridges of trust with the neighbors, which also seemed attractive to the political leaders of the neighboring states. This idealistic/moralistic approach was vulnerable to the dynamic political and economic developments in the region and the world in general. The policy did not have a power of sustainability due to the various old, new, and emerging problems around Turkey and hence, the government had to give it up gradually and take a new course of foreign policy based on realistic approaches to defend its national interests.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hikmat Shah Afridi ◽  
Shabana Khan ◽  
Sobia Jamil

Chahbahar, being part of an Indian grand design is playing its role for counter weighing to Gwadar Port whereas it also provides India with easy access to Afghanistan and CARs. On the other hand, Pakistans geo-political positioning has been revolving around its anomalous and eccentric relations with various states. The prime rationale for state relations and relevant alliances with states was to maintain harmony with neighboring countries but during world wars, entente meant fighting your brothers war. In this context, Pakistans acceptance by the world was relatively slower and its take-ups in making friends, in the political playland were much tricky. Pakistan was wary with the former USSR whereas the compliance to the US backfired on many occasions gradually made Pakistan withdraw from its upclose position with the US, therefore now it is time to make independent and rational decisions but yet in the best national interests.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (01) ◽  
pp. 171-181
Author(s):  
Muhammad Naveed Ul Hasan Shah ◽  
Muhammad Irfan Mahsud ◽  
Azadar Ali Hamza

Pakistan, since 1947 remains under the umbrella of US, as a result, relations of Pakistan were not smooth with anti US states including USSR. The US was to increase its role in the region in order to make secure the largest petroleum reserves in the Persian Gulf. Pakistan’s alignment with the western world was mainly to counter possible Indian aggression, not to lessen the Soviet influence in the region, but the approach was more or less thwarting Soviet interests in the region. Over 3 million Afghan refugees had travelled to Pakistan in the 1st year of Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. The main objective of the USA during the initial stages of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was primarily to ensure that the Soviet exercise would be a costly one. The United States of America supported Afghan militants with the help of Pakistan to organize them against the USSR. A general perception is that US did not want to be directly involved to thwart the Soviet invasion; rather USA handed over the operational aspect of the program to the Pakistan. The Pakistan was in charge of providing the funds and weapons to the mujahedin and setting up training camps. The US remained indecisive over the next course of action in Afghanistan and the Pakistan took the opportunity to carry out its own agenda in Afghanistan to promote their national interests.


2001 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karlheinz Neunreither

In Early December 2000 The Political Leaders Of The European Union (EU) met in Nice in order to decide on the treaty adaptations needed before the enlargement envisaged for the next decade. The overall goal was to render the EU more efficient and its decision making more transparent. The outcome of this important event was widely considered as disappointing. Some observers even came to the conclusion that there were no leaders of the EU as such, but only rather narrow-minded, egotistical national leaders who did not – with minor exceptions – care about the ‘common good’ at all. Never had it become so evident, in the opinion of some, that the European perspective had been fading away for many years, and that it was being replaced by national considerations which are often short-sighted and limited to the horizon of the next national elections. One of the classical theories on European integration, neo-functionalism, measures the progress of integration in terms of the Europeanization of its political elites. From this perspective, the top decision-makers seem to be on a downward trend. Is it then a case for the opposite theory, that of intergovernmentalism, which claims that national interests continue to be in the centre of EU decision-making and that tough bargaining is of its very nature?


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