Diplomatic History Commons^™

The 1991 Cyclone In Bangladesh: A Historical Analysis Of Operation Sea Angel, Md. Mamun Miah

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Abstract

On April 29, 1991, Bangladeshi people witnessed a destructive attack of a cyclone in the coastal region of the country. The cyclone, with a wind speed of 225 km/h, killed almost 139 thousand people and left millions of people unprotected in the cyclone-battered areas. After the cyclone, there was a humanitarian crisis of hunger, disease, homelessness, and potable water, as the two-month-old civilian government of Bangladesh was struggling to mitigate the suffering of survivors. After the fifteen days of survivors’ struggle with crisis, at the request of the government, on 12 May, the United States sent a military task …

Artifacts As Ambassadors: How Archaeological Artifacts Dictate Modern Diplomatic Relations And Repatriation, Emma Boyd

Honors Papers and Posters

In this thesis, I examine and re-center the roles of archaeological artifacts and conceptions of ownership in global politics, drawing on debates about cultural heritage and diplomacy. This thesis will emphasize debates around ownership and repatriation, articulating their value in international relations and diplomacy between Western countries and postcolonial nations, as well as between federally recognized Native American Indigenous Tribes and the United States government. The thesis review takes the Elgin Marbles, arguably the most debated subject, as a model for my case study analysis. I will explore complications driven by conversations of repatriation. Overall, this thesis will propose theories …

Wedded To Power: Dynastic Marriages And The Hidden Diplomacy Of Women In Early Modern Europe, Amelia H. Earl

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The diplomatic power of women in the ‘Great Power’ dynasties of Europe has been passed over in historiography because very often their power rested in their relationships to their male counterparts. Dismissing these women’s diplomatic and political power as “soft power” of the domestic sphere overlooks the fact that the political structure of Europe relied heavily on familial ties. In early modern Europe, the whole continent was a kinship; thus, familial relationships between two dynasties were inherently political. The daughters and mothers of these dynasties discovered that there was permeable access to the European political arena through marriage and motherhood. …

Orthodoxy, Culture And Language: Alaska In Russia’S Religious Diplomacy Of The 21st Century, Oleksandr Lukyanenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to the analysis of the religious factor of the Russian foreign diplomacy in the light of Vladimir Putin’s high-profile visit to Alaska n August 15, 2025. The paper studies a special place of Alaska in the historical imagination of Russian political and church discourse. The status of this particular territory in Russian state worldview – the former “Russian America” – is indicative: it refers to the idea of an unfinished imperial legacy. The research doesn’t touch a main event that included a meeting with US President Donald Trump but an off-schedule meeting with Archbishop Alexei (Trader) …

Balancing Power And Influence: U.S.-Brazil Foreign Relations In The 20th Century, Thais Russo Goncalves

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

This paper explores the intricate dynamics of U.S. foreign policies directed toward Brazil during the 20th century. The paper examines Brazil’s unique role in Latin America as the only country in the region to actively participate in both World Wars, which led to its emergence as a key ally of the United States. This partnership influenced U.S. foreign policy, particularly in economic and military aid, fostering Brazil’s dependency on the U.S. while simultaneously granting it regional significance. The paper acknowledges four schools of thought: exclusion, reactionary, parental, and economic-political, to analyze the motivations and implications of U.S. policies. The exclusion …

‘An Intriguing But Ambiguous Privilege’: Adventures In Franco-Irish Relations Through The Prism Of The Diplomatic Meal, Elaine Mahon

Books/Book Chapters

This essay discusses the welcome banquet held in February 1945 in honour of the newly appointed French diplomatic envoy to Ireland, Jean Rivière, hosted by Éamon de Valera at Iveagh House, the headquarters of the Irish Department of External Affairs. The banquet took place at a moment when ‘an intriguing but ambiguous privilege’ had been granted by Charles de Gaulle’s Provisional Government to Ireland as the only country permitted to retain its diplomatic representative to France in the post-liberation period. Following the fall of the Vichy regime and the liberation of France in August 1944, de Gaulle’s government de- manded …

'The President Requests The Pleasure': Irish State Dining, 1922-1940, Elaine Mahon

Books/Book Chapters

This chapter explores dining with Irish heads of state and heads of government based on a chronological scope from the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 to the 1937 Constitution of Ireland. It quickly becomes clear that between 1922 and 1932, the Irish government, led by William T. Cosgrave, undertook a broad range of hospitality, entertaining important persons from around the globe. Between 1932 and 1940, the Fianna Fáil government led by Éamon de Valera built on the foundations of state hospitality put in place by the Cosgrave administration but also implemented significant changes in official entertaining. The 1937 Constitution of Ireland …

Baseball: A Vehicle For Exchange Between Two Complicated Global Powers, Cole W. Tully

Honors Theses

Baseball, America’s “national pastime,” has a similarly prominent role in Japanese culture and the nation’s history. Since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, baseball at professional, collegiate, high school, and youth levels has become increasingly prominent within each nation. As baseball became increasingly central to each nation's social and cultural identities, it also began to play a critical role in furthering the nations’ bilateral relationship.

The paper explores various periods where baseball has influenced diplomatic relations, especially “soft diplomacy” and cultural exchange between each nation’s citizens. This includes baseball’s institutionalization into Japan’s education systems during the Meiji Restoration, as …

“Long Have I Wished To See The King:” Indigenous Transatlantic Diplomacy In The 18th Century North American Southeast, Riley Christian Bowers

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis situates three examples of transatlantic diplomacy practiced by Cherokee and Yamacraw diplomats in the eighteenth century within their Indigenous contexts. Utilizing treaty negotiations, transcripts from diplomatic summits, official correspondence, published journals, and newspapers, this study aims to situate these delegations within an Indigenous and transatlantic sociopolitical context. The aim of this work is to address questions regarding the objectives of the people involved, and to trace the outcomes of their policies. The answers to these questions explain one of many southeastern Indigenous political strategies of the eighteenth century, one that highlights the imperial center as a crucial setting …

“An Exercise In International Extortion”: Operation “Intercept” And Nixon’S 1969 War On Drugs, Justin M. Reid

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

When the former senator and vice president assumed the Oval Office in January 1969, President Richard M. Nixon inherited a nation in crisis with drugs playing a central role. At a campaign stop a few months earlier, Nixon announced to a packed convention center in Anaheim, CA, that if elected president he would end the flow of the illicit drugs coming into the United States “decimating a generation of young Americans.”

True to his word, Nixon moved aggressively after his election victory to refocus the federal drug enforcement bureaucracy on drug source control, blaming Mexico as the main culprit. On …

Attitude Towards Cross-Culture Exchange In The 1685 French Embassy To The Kingdom Of Siam, Benjamin M. Beese

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

Traditional histories of Early Modern exchange tend to emphasize the dispersion and adoption (or rejection) of European science and culture. More recently, there has been an historiographical trend to see early modern international interactions as multi-direction exchanges in which all parties are altered in each interaction. The 1685 French-Jesuit Embassy to Siam provides an interesting opportunity to explore the implications of this multi-directional approach. Although this exchange had no significant, lasting impact on either Siam or France, the dynamics at play demonstrate how each party’s attitude towards the exchange impacted their ability to achieve their aims. This paper uses Guy …

The National Interest And The Roots Of American-Saudi Diplomacy, Oliver B. Wiegel

Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the beginnings of diplomacy between the United States and Saudi Arabia during the interwar years and World War II. It explores how national interest was decided upon, how oil companies affected American foreign policy, and the American government’s strategic interest in Saudi oil reserves.

U.S. Government And Politics In Principle And Practice: Democracy, Rights, Freedoms And Empire, Samuel Finesurrey, Gary Greaves

Open Educational Resources

This book is written for students early in college to provide a guide to the founding documents and structures of governance that form the United States political system. This book is called American Government and Politics in Principle and Practice because you will notice that what has been inscribed in law has not always been applied in practice-particularly for indigenous peoples, enslaved peoples, people of color, women, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, those formerly incarcerated, immigrants and the working class within U.S. society. In designing this book, we have two goals. First, we want you to know what the founding documents …

Banking On Belgrade: Nixon’S Foreign Aid Policy With Yugoslavia (1970-1974), Robert 'Bo' Kent

Voces Novae

One of the Nixon Administration’s geopolitical innovations was its willingness to collaborate with communist regimes in order to advance mutual interests. This was demonstrated notably in the Balkans, wherein American policy makers furnished aid to the independent socialist state of Yugoslavia to counter Soviet interests in the region.

Diplomacy And The American Civil War: The Impact On Anglo-American Relations, Johnathan B. Seitz

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Modern historical memory of the American Civil War is dominated by the domestic elements of the four-year conflict between the Union and Confederacy. The military figures, battles, and major political changes of 1861-1864 are central elements to public interpretation of the Civil War. But there is an additional dimension to the events of this period in American history, one that, outside of secondary scholarly research in the past century, remains distant from public knowledge. This research explores the nature of international reaction to the American Civil War, focusing on interaction between the combatants and the United Kingdom. The heart of …

The Casualties Of U.S. Grand Strategy: Korean Exclusion From The San Francisco Peace Treaty And The Pacific Pact, Syrus Jin

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

From August 1945 to September 1951, the United States had a unique opportunity to define and frame how it would approach its foreign relations in the Asia-Pacific region. As the dominant power in the Pacific after World War II and claiming direct authority over vanquished Japan, the United States had the liberty to design its own post-war vision for the entire region. Until 1951, American State Department diplomats and government planners, attempted—ultimately unsuccessfully—to harmonize the competing motivations of lingering World War II multilateralist idealism and Cold War geopolitics in a postcolonial, postwar world. This thesis examines U.S.-Korean relations in context …

Anglo-Spanish Trade And Diplomacy 1712-1742, Forrest La Jeunesse

Masters Theses

Between the War of Spanish succession till the war of Austrian succession, the British focus shifted from matters of the European Continent towards that of expanding its trade and its commercial empire. With the securing of an important treaty with France, the British were able to seek trading concessions from the Spanish, through diplomacy or war, in order to gain economic dominance in the West Indies. However, unequal and often conflicting interests between the two nations prevented desired expansion into the West Indies for the British, so they sought to exploit vague treaty terms and obligations in order to conduct …

Irish Diplomatic Dining 1922-1963, Elaine Mahon

Doctoral

The study of food and power has primarily focused on absolutist courts of the eighteenth century amidst powerful monarchs and a wealthy court life yet research into the power structures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries shows that dining remained an important feature in political and state life.

This dissertation is a study of Irish diplomatic dining between 1922 and 1963 and aims to establish how the Irish government entertained important guests, how diplomatic protocol was drawn up, and to identify whether there was anything distinctly Irish in terms of the tableware, linen, and silver used on the state table …

The English Voyage Of Pietrobono Burzelli, Evan A. Maccarthy

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Praised by poets, scholars, and fellow musicians of his day, the singer, lutenist, and teacher Pietrobono Burzelli (ca. 1417–97) achieved international renown for his skill at improvisational performances on plucked instruments. Until recently, archival documents recorded his presence at many courts on the Italian peninsula and as far away as the Hungarian court. Documents until now unknown to musicologists reveal that Pietrobono also traveled to England. In August 1466 he signed a will and testament in advance of a risky trip “ad partes Anglie” that he was planning to begin the next day.

The testament offers new information about Pietrobono’s …

America, An Aloof Friend: The Limits Of U.S.-Czechoslovak Relations From Munich To War, Connor Schonta

Masters Theses

Between 1918 and 1938, the United States and Czechoslovakia maintained unique, friendly, and special diplomatic relations. This was mainly due to the two countries’ shared commitment to liberal, democratic values. In 1938, however, Hitler’s aggressive foreign policy came to a head in the form of the Munich Agreement, which not only set Czechoslovakia on a course of destruction but also fundamentally transformed the nature of U.S.-Czechoslovak relations. This study seeks to unpack the development of U.S.-Czechoslovak relations in the eleven months between Munich (October 1938) and the start of World War II (September 1939). During this time, the friendly ties …

Strength Through Diplomacy: A Fundamental Review Of The Relationship Between North Korea And The United States, Benjamin D. Blackstone

CMC Senior Theses

At the time that this thesis is printed, we are reminded of the tumultuous relationship between North Korea and the United States every day. If we follow the mainstream news regularly, it seems like we are on a steady path to war. Ultimately, this paper is centered around the question: what is the best foreign policy strategy for both countries to achieve respective goals, without descending into armed conflict? Specifically, I evaluated the failures of the last three U.S. Presidents and used their shortcomings to explain limitations in current foreign policy strategy. I also attempted to show North Korean concerns …

Paris Peace Conference 1919 Simulation, Kitty Lam

World in the 20th Century

This lesson plan for high school students in World History and United States History courses is related to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Students will simulate a meeting of the Paris Peace Conference to determine the terms of peace after the First World War. Eight delegations are represented in this simulation: United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Germany, Kingdom of the Hejaz, Zionist League. The goals of this simulation are to develop student understanding about the post-war priorities of the "Big Four", the role of the First World War in shaping geopolitics in the Middle East, the significance …

Chilean Coup – Un General Assembly Meeting Simulation Scenario And Background Readings, Kitty Lam

World in the 20th Century

This lesson plan for high school students in World History and United States History courses is related to Augusto Pinochet's 1973 coup d'etat in Chile. Students will simulate a fictitious United Nations General Assembly Meeting in December 1973 to address the crisis in Chile. This lesson is based on material from the CNN Cold War documentary series, episode 18 "Backyard" and primary source material from "Chile and the United States: Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973", National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 8, by Peter Kornbluh (http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8i.htm). There are two documents related to …

Hamed, Hamed, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Hamed and his family are from Afghanistan where he worked as a diplomat and interpreter for the U.S. Army after having studied international relations and diplomacy. As the situation with the Taliban worsened it became too dangerous for Hamed and his family to stay in Afghanistan. They began the difficult journey with the help of smugglers, first to Iran, then Turkey, and then to Greece in a dangerous, overfilled boat.

Hamed explains the despair and frustration faced by many refugees. They feel as though very little is actually done for refugees once they’re admitted, and explains they need more assistance. …

Review Of Diplomacy In Renaissance Rome: The Rise Of The Resident Ambassador, By Catherine Fletcher., Brian Maxson

ETSU Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Global Hegemon: Chinese Foreign Policy Shifts And Elevated Unpko Involvement, Alex Berge

Political Science Theses and Capstones

A common question being asked in many circles is whether China will emerge as a potential rival to the U.S. as a global superpower? If the answer to this question is “yes” many ask how China will accomplish this. Research suggests that China will obtain superpower status through increased global presence and more cooperation in international organizations, specifically United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKO). The literature examines Chinese policy changes that allow for more contributions and activity in UNPKOs and also what missions China can now participate in from which it would have formerly abstained. The preliminary results have shown massive …

0828: Richard Marks Collection, 1952-2014, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

The bulk of this collection related to Richard Marks’ research as a genealogist working on his family history, including an index card file of names. Other materials in the collection include personal papers related to his life, materials related to his career as a professor and lecturer, correspondence, and published works on intelligence and local history seen in newspapers, magazines, serials, and books. The collection has been broken down into series to include personal, teaching, correspondence, published works, and genealogy research materials.

Mediation – Its Potential And Its Limits: Developing An Effective Discourse On The Research And Practice Of Peacemaking, Dennis C. Jett

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

This article looks at the various contributions to this issue of the Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs. The contributors have analyzed the potential and limits of mediation, but have focused on a number of different aspects of that process. The analytic research relevant to conflict situations will be most useful, however, if the recommendations offered for how to bring conflicts to an end can actually be of use to practitioners in the field. The approach of this article is therefore to consider how policymakers might employ these recommendations as they pursue the goal of peace. It …

The Politics Of A Gesture: The Impact Of Nixon’S Visit To China On Nixon’S Presidency, Samuel Tofte

Psi Sigma Siren

The importance of a symbolic gesture in diplomacy is very difficult to gauge. Diplomats often embark on social functions, meetings and trips to international countries in order to make contact with foreign diplomats and build relationships with governments. This is an effective means of forging political relationships, but how important is it when it comes to international policy and treaty negotiation? In short, it is extremely important in the process of policy-making, even without the tangible evidence showing its significance. Establishing contact can be the most difficult and arduous step in the road to good diplomatic relations, a fact that …

The Many Shades Of Praise: Politics And Panegyrics In Fifteenth-Century Florentine Diplomacy, Brian Maxson

ETSU Faculty Works

Fifteenth-century diplomatic protocol required the city of Florence to send diplomats to congratulate both new and militarily victorious rulers. Diplomats on such missions poured praise on their triumphant allies and new rulers at friendly locations. However, political realities also meant that these diplomats would sometimes have to praise rulers whose accession or victory opposed Florentine interests. Moreover, different allies and enemies required different levels of praise. Jealous rulers compared the gifts, status, and oratory that they received from Florence to the Florentine entourages sent to their neighbors. Sending diplomats with too little or too much social status and eloquence could …