Making Sense of Human Rights Diplomacy: Evidence from a US Campaign to Free Political Prisoners

Scholarship on human rights diplomacy (HRD)—efforts by government officials to engage publicly and privately with their foreign counterparts—often focuses on actions taken to “name and shame” target countries because private diplomatic activities are unobservable. To understand how HRD works in practice, we explore a campaign coordinated by the US government to free twenty female political prisoners. We compare release rates of the featured women to two comparable groups: a longer list of women considered by the State Department for the campaign; and other women imprisoned simultaneously in countries targeted by the campaign. Both approaches suggest that the campaign was highly effective. We consider two possible mechanisms through which expressive public HRD works: by imposing reputational costs and by mobilizing foreign actors. However, in-depth interviews with US officials and an analysis of media coverage find little evidence of these mechanisms. Instead, we argue that public pressure resolved deadlock within the foreign policy bureaucracy, enabling private diplomacy and specific inducements to secure the release of political prisoners. Entrepreneurial bureaucrats leveraged the spotlight on human rights abuses to overcome competing equities that prevent government-led coercive diplomacy on these issues. Our research highlights the importance of understanding the intersection of public and private diplomacy before drawing inferences about the effectiveness of HRD.

Turkish foreign policy in a post-western order: strategic autonomy or new forms of dependence?

Turkish foreign policy has dramatically transformed over the last two decades. In the first decade of the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) rule, the ‘logic of interdependence’ constituted the driving motive of Turkish foreign policy. In the second decade, however, the ‘logic of interdependence’ and the soft power-driven ‘mediator–integrator’ role were gradually replaced with a quest for ‘strategic autonomy’, accompanied by interventionism, unilateralism and coercive diplomacy. This article explores the causes of this dramatic shift. We argue that ‘strategic autonomy’, which goes beyond a moderate level of status-seeking compatible with Turkey's material power credentials, has a double connotation in the Turkish context. First, it constitutes a framework for the Turkish ruling elite to align with the non-western great powers and balance the US-led hierarchical order. Second, and more importantly, it serves as a legitimating foreign policy discourse for the government to mobilize its electoral base at home, fragment opposition and accrue popular support. We conclude that the search for autonomy from its western allies and the move towards the Russia–China axis has led to Turkey's isolation and permitted the emergence of new forms of dependence.

Diplomasi Maritim Indonesia dalam Kasus Illegal Fishing oleh Nelayan Vietnam Tahun 2018-2019

Indonesia is considered as a maritime state due to the fact the 2/3 of its territory is covered by the sea. Indonesian waters hold a high potential for maritime resources. With this potential comes a challenge for Indonesia to manage and protect its maritime resources from foreign actors that try to enter Indonesian waters and exploit the resources in it illegally or conduct illegal fishing. Vietnam has become the country of origin for most of the perpetuators of illegal fishing from 2018-2019. This research aims to explain the efforts of Indonesia through maritime diplomacy to in order to tackle the issue of illegal fishing that has been conducted by Vietnamese fishing ships. This article will use the UNCLOS 1982 convention as a legal basis and the concepts of maritime security and maritime diplomacy as a theoretical basis to explain Indonesia’s maritime borders and efforts to assert sovereignty over Indonesian maritime territory. A descriptive research method will be used in this article. This article views that Indonesia’s maritime diplomacy effort is still in compliance with UNCLOS 1982 and the theory of maritime diplomacy which includes the following: 1) cooperative diplomacy which is conducted through bilateral cooperation; 2) persuasive diplomacy through displaying presence in maritime territory; 3) coercive diplomacy through sinking of Vietnamese fishing ships.

China's Race to the Top: Regional and Global Implications of China's Industrial Policy

The paper examines the global and regional implications of China's revitalized state capitalism model through the sectoral lens of the Chinese automotive industry, which stands at the intersection of both traditional and green industrial policy. At the multinational level, China skillfully facilitates local policy implementation that creates excess capacity by propping up local and national champions through convenient compliance with the WTO. At the bilateral level, China closely links purchasing and coercive diplomacy with protections for Chinese players both at home and abroad. Key endeavors like the Belt and Road Initiative open up overseas markets to develop global champions and secure foreign footholds for Chinese champions. Additionally, China's increasing reliance on exclusionary diplomacy provides political justifications to discriminate against foreign competitors within the Chinese market while moving forward with industrial upgrading of domestic players. When linked together, these factors – all byproducts of China's approach to state-led capitalism – combine to explain China's efforts to create a race to the top.

A Flawed Formula for Peacemaking and Continued Violence in Darfur

This article seeks to contribute to understandings of peacemaking failure in Darfur, during the negotiations in Abuja from 2004-2006 that led to the 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement. It argues that a key factor in explaining peacemaking failure, was the reliance on a standard formula for peace negotiations used across the world. Peacemakers, in and around Abuja, worked by assuming the existence of a limited number of cohesive warring parties, enabling a comprehensive agreement and consensus between these groups, and ensuring that this result could be enshrined in a logical written document. The use of this formula, although seemingly logical, entrenched pathologies in the Abuja negotiations – exclusion of certain constituencies, the use of simplistic narratives to frame the conflict, coercive diplomacy, an overactive mediation – that in turn contributed to the continuation and even escalation of violent conflict in Darfur. The article concludes by suggesting potential pathways to decentering this dominant formula for conducting peace negotiations.