Diplomatic History Commons^™

Review Of Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War In Vietnam, Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Nick Turse's Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam.

"Your Majesty's Friend": Foreign Alliances In The Reign Of Henri Christophe, Jennifer Yvonne Conerly

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In modern historiography, Henri Christophe, king of northern Haiti from 1816-1820, is generally given a negative persona due to his controlling nature and his absolutist regime, but in his correspondence, he engages in diplomatic collaborations with two British abolitionists, William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, in order to improve his new policies and obtain international recognition. This paper argues that the Haitian king and the abolitionists engaged in a mutual collaboration in which each party benefitted from the correspondence. Christophe used the advice of the British abolitionists in order to increase the power of Haiti into a powerful black state, and …

Praying For Bullets: The Moral Necessity Of International Intervention In Cases Of Genocide, Layla Raine Grice

Young Historians Conference

Perhaps the most heinous crime imaginable, genocide has pockmarked the landscape of the twentieth century. Genocidal conflicts erupt over issues of culture and race, touching the heart of how we as humans define ourselves. Despite repeated attempts to prevent genocide the UN’s policies remain unclear and insufficient. This paper attempts to define the moral obligation of the UN towards nations experiencing genocide, including a specific examination the Bosnian and Sudanese genocides of 1995 and 2004. Based on Rawl’s “veil of ignorance” and theories of moral objectivism, the UN is morally obligated to intervene with whatever tools necessary to halt genocide.

Atomic Logic: Us Non-Proliferation Initiatives And Presidential Decision-Making, 1961-1974, Stephen J. Nordin

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This project examines how successive American administrations confronted the international spread of nuclear weapons. The focus is on the decision-making processes of presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon when confronting atomic weapons development in Israel and India. It seeks to identify influences on presidential perceptions of the phenomenon of nuclear proliferation. These include initiatives at the United Nations, reportage from the intelligence community, the advice of administration officials, and the positioning of foreign governments.

The American response to the Israeli and Indian cases prior to 1974 played a formative role in the development of non-proliferation policy in subsequent decades. The decisions …

Jlia 2:1

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

There is an ever widening gap between conflict resolution policy makers and scholars—a tragedy given practitioners’ dire need for new ideas to help resolve deadly conflicts and the growing knowledge researchers have to share. Research tends to swing like a pendulum between analytic and rigorous methods and accessible and relevant approaches. We reject this tradeoff. We believe that research can be simultaneously rigorous and relevant, and analytic and accessible. Given the devastating loss of life associated with armed conflict, the need for translating research results into policy prescriptions is especially strong in peacemaking. The goal of this issue of the …

“The Living Are Getting Rarer”: The Causes And Consequences Of The International Trade In White Rhinoceros Horns Under The Convention On International Trade In Endangered Species, Alisha Falberg

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

In 2012, more than 400 South African white rhinoceros were poached and killed for their horns. The horns, used in ancient Asian medicines, are falsely believed to cure diseases. They are currently worth thousands of dollars on the black market because the white rhinoceros is an endangered species and the trade in its horns is strictly regulated under the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).The two countries at the center of this crisis are South Africa, where the majority of the world’s white rhinoceros live and are being poached, and Vietnam, …

Consequences Of The Arab Spring: How Shari’Ah Law And The Egyptian Revolution Will Impact Ip Protection And Enforcement, Stephen S. Zimowski

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

Egypt’s recent revolution sent shockwaves through the international community, and almost immediately political pundits began to ponder its effect on Middle Eastern stability. To date, post-revolution Egypt has struggled to regain its political stability and implement the democratic government its citizens demand. The eventual nature of the new Egyptian government will have a substantial impact not only on the region’s stability but also on international trade. As such, this comment will examine the likely impact of a new Egyptian regime on intellectual property rights and protections in Egypt. The comment explores the role of Shari’ah Law in lawmaking and Shari’ah …

We Can Work It Out: Putting Our Best Foot Forward In International Higher Education Initiatives, Julie Rowland

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

A global economy requires globally competitive workers and global citizens.This need has generated supranational higher education initiatives through organizations such as the European Union and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. These initiatives promote student mobility across borders by harmonizing higher education systems between member nations. To demonstrate how the U.S. can become more involved in international higher education initiatives, this comment will first give an overview of the history of these initiatives globally. The comment explores the legal and soft governance mechanisms involved in international initiatives and the feasibility of their application to the U.S. A description of the structures of …

2012-13 Jlia Masthead, Jlia Masthead

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

No abstract provided.

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 …

Ethnic Conflict: An Organizational Perspective, Victor Asal, Jonathan Wilkenfeld

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

To talk about the behavior of others is to generalize especially if that behavior is perceived to be negative. As researchers who have studied ethnic discrimination and ethnic conflict for close to two decades, we have noticed, anecdotally at least, that this penchant for generalization is rampant in discussions of ethnic politics. Journalists and academics tend to talk about one or another ethnic group’s involvement in violence without specifying a political organizational agent. This kind of generalization is a serious obstacle to understanding conflicts and identifying solutions because it prevents policymakers and academics from getting at the messy reality of …

When States Mediate, Molly M. Melin

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

Militarized conflict is one of the most devastating of all human activities. The international community’s response to conflict occurrence can significantly affect the number of casualties, the extent of resulting devastation and even the outcome of the conflict. State responses range from conflict management, whereby third parties actively engage in resolving the conflict; joining, whereby states become an additional disputant; or remaining uninvolved. One of the most common active third-party responses is to act as a mediator, a role using consensual, nonbinding and nonviolent means of conflict management and resolution. This paper explores the policy of state-led mediation, its strengths …

The Politics Of International Arbitration And Adjudication, Stephen E. Gent

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

Arbitration and adjudication have proven to be effective means of producing long-lasting settlements on contentious issues, but states are generally reluctant to use such legal forms of dispute resolution, especially in resolving issues of national security. To understand when policymakers can and should promote the use of legal mechanisms, they need to understand the political reasons behind the reluctance of states to use these forums. This essay identifies five factors that significantly influence the willingness of states to relinquish decision control and pursue arbitration or adjudication: third-party bias, salience, uncertainty, bargaining power, and armed conflict. To promote the use of …

Using The Right Tool For The Job: Mediator Leverage And Conflict Resolution, Kyle Beardsley

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

In international dispute mediation, a one-size-fits-all view of mediation may actually inhibit effective conflict resolution. Mediators must especially tailor the level of leverage to the needs of the situation. This essay first considers existing studies that have found both potential benefits and risks of heavy-handed third-party involvement as a conflict-management strategy. It then considers a few illustrative cases to demonstrate the importance of making sure that the tools of mediation fit the context. Finally, it concludes with a discussion of how sustained post-conflict peacekeeping and peacebuilding can reduce the risks of leverage in mediation.

Intractable Syria? Insights From The Scholarly Literature On The Failure Of Mediation, J. Michael Greig

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

The conflict in Syria has been ongoing since March 2011, but to date has resisted third-party diplomatic efforts. This failure of mediation is despite the fact that numerous actors in the international system have interests both in Syria and the Middle East at large. The human toll of the conflict, which has produced large numbers of civilian casualties and considerable human suffering, creates even deeper urgency for effective conflict management in Syria. In this paper, I apply insights drawn from the scholarly literature on conflict management and civil wars to the Syrian conflict to explain why mediation efforts have thus …

Who Should Be At The Table?: Veto Players And Peace Processes In Civil War, David E. Cunningham

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

Civil wars contain a set of actors that have the ability to block settlement and continue the war on their own. When they contain more “veto players,” conflicts are much longer and negotiations are more likely to break down. The rate of success of international efforts to resolve multi-party civil wars is much lower than when there is only one rebel group fighting the government. This article discusses implications for peacemakers designing responses to conflicts with multiple veto players. Negotiations in these conflicts are most likely to lead to a peace agreement that successfully ends the war if they include …

Deceptive Results: Why Mediation Appears To Fail But Actually Succeeds, Scott Sigmund Gartner

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

International disputes receiving third-party mediation are less likely to result in peace treaties than those negotiated bilaterally between the disputants. When belligerents do settle, mediated agreements are more likely to fail. Is mediation detrimental to conflict resolution? No. Third-party mediation represents a highly effective, but costly, means of peacemaking. Disputants recognize its costs and only employ mediation when they are unable to resolve a conflict between themselves, creating a “selection effect.” As a result, mediators are selected for the toughest cases – those least likely to end peacefully and mostly likely to result in fragile agreements. When the difficulty of …

Research On Bias In Mediation: Policy Implications, Isak Svensson

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

One of the most important and disputed questions within the field of international mediation concerns the issue of bias. The question of bias cuts to the core of what mediation is and the ways in which mediators can help the parties reach peace. Focusing on research on the role of neutrality and bias in international peace diplomacy in civil wars, this article draws out the policy implications of my own empirically-based work on the role of bias in the mediation of internal armed conflicts. This article suggests that neutrality should not be part of the definition of mediators, …

The Lack Of Coordination In Diplomatic Peacemaking, Birger Heldt

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

The increased number of peacemaking actors during the past twenty years is accompanied by an increased amount of peacemaking, but also a low success rate. This article focuses on recent emerging conflicts. It finds that peacemaking is prevalent, but is often not coordinated with regard to choice of tools (mediation, arbitration, etc.), or the agenda or the issues of the talks. This lack of coordination has for many years been recognized as detrimental and may partly explain the low success rate. The article suggests that policymakers need to have a long-term strategy to address the coordination problem, part of which …

Foreword, I. William Zartman

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

No abstract provided.

Translating Scholarship Into Policy, Scott Sigmund Gartner, Amy C. Gaudion

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

There is an ever widening gap between conflict resolution policy makers and scholars—a tragedy given practitioners’ dire need for new ideas to help resolve deadly conflicts and the growing knowledge researchers have to share. Research tends to swing like a pendulum between analytic and rigorous methods and accessible and relevant approaches. We reject this tradeoff. We believe that research can be simultaneously rigorous and relevant, and analytic and accessible. Given the devastating loss of life associated with armed conflict, the need for translating research results into policy prescriptions is especially strong in peacemaking. The goal of this issue of the …

Democracy, Identity And Anti-Americanism In Turkey: Implications For United States-Turkey Relations, Jeff Easterling '13

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.