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There is a quote often attributed to Winston Churchill: ‘History is written by the victors’. Although countless historical narratives exist, it is somewhat true that our perception of what is right, and what is wrong, is influenced by the status quo. After all, despite the atrocities committed by certain nations against others — the centuries of exploitation of the Global South coming to mind — we are only now overturning the previously-accepted norms of colonialism and embracing the stories long hidden from sight.
The idea of ‘who was right’, however, remains up in the air with other topics. History is not black and white most of the time. There are cases where both sides have crossed the lines of human rights, or conflicts spanning decades and centuries purely due to unresolved enmity between the different parties. In other cases, we might not have enough evidence to decide who the true ‘victor’ or ‘victim’ is.
This issue of the Diplomacy Review hopes to provide a multitude of perspectives on the debate between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. You may encounter viewpoints that you vehemently disagree with, that challenge your preconceptions and go against what you believe. It is our hope that this journal, and our society as a whole, will allow you to explore different issues — and perhaps examine the evidence behind what you previously believed to be the truth.
Ingrid Chan
President, UCL Diplomacy Society
September 2024
ISSUE 11: SO WHO WAS RIGHT? - A LOOK BACK
Essays
All Published Issues
Note
We were 72 hours into the new year as we typed these words in a Google document. And already Japan (Ryosuke’s home), went through a 7.2-magnitude earthquake and a burning passenger jet following an aviation accident. (Laura’s home Romania, in contrast, began 2024 well, by finally being accepted into the Schengen area.) While Ryosuke tried to be optimistic about how the rest of the year might go for his home, (after all, how much worse can it get for Japan?) we kept on wondering if the last three days were foreshadowing what the rest of 2024 may bring, not only for Japan but for us all.
We have good reason to predict that 2024 will be a tumultuous year. As we bring to you the second edition journal of our 2023 cycle, we cannot help but ponder how the issues our group of talented writers delved into in their essays will develop this year. Globally, as climate change continues to transform our world, the intense debate on how we should protest it has become one we are all familiar with. At home, we wonder if the Tories’ Autumn Budget will signal a much-needed return to fiscal stability after the spectacular ride the UK economy was put through the last few years. In Europe, the political aftermath of the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis is still in full swing and populist leaders still represent a strong and resilient undercurrent in sentiment. This is a troubling notion, considering that Germany, Europe’s economic engine, is expected to stutter this year. In the Caucasus, the “frozen war” over Nagorno-Karabakh flared up once again, emphasising the salience of the still-ongoing trauma resulting from the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Africa, the greater geopolitical impact of the sting of military coups and the subsequent decline of French influence is still to be understood. Turning to Asia, we arrive in Myanmar, where a brutal genocidal civil war fuelled with drug money is expected to rage on. Lastly, we are reminded that the worst legacies of the Cold War never went away, as nuclear tensions heightened between the great powers.
Whenever we have the chance to read the liberal, optimistic, utopianistic literature of the early 1990s, we are reminded of the impossibility of predicting the future. Always some form of classical GenZ banter, something along the lines of “the end of history? Nah this is when the fun begins” (but usually less polite) pops in our heads. But of course, no one could have predicted the state of affairs we are in. Everyone ranging from Mearsheimer to Fukuyama made many predictions, and the vast majority were far short in foreseeing what would happen. As we bring you these articles, we cannot help but try to imagine how different the world will be in the short time until our next publication. We hope to have your readership then as well.
Laura Ionescu and Ryosuke Kohatsu
January 2024
Issue 10 - Peacebuilding in a World at War
Essays
Note
On behalf of all writers, we are pleased to present to you the second journal publication of the 2022-23 Diplomacy Review cycle. We are incredibly grateful for the team of thirty-six journalists, who have worked tirelessly alongside our editing team this term. Following the success of the first edition which was printed and published on the UCL Diplomacy Society website, we hope to continue promoting the interests and perspectives of our writers into next year.
We are proud to present a broad range of articles that engage with the theme in creative ways. From the complex Middle East, to conflict, compromise and cooperation in Europe, Africa, and Asia, diverse geographies are accounted for. Similarly, while articles about the conflict and escalation of tensions in Ukraine and Taiwan are topical, we are also pleased to feature explorations of understudied demographics, as well as other intersectional and interdisciplinary work. This year also saw the addition of an “Economy” column to our team, reflected in this journal through an article on the implications of the economic power of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia).
Laura Ionescu, Journal Director & Raphael Conte, Editorial Manager
October 2023
Issue 9, Managing Global Conflict
Essays
Dedication from the editors
On behalf of all writers, we are pleased to present to you the first journal publication of the 2022-23 Diplomacy Review cycle. We are incredibly grateful for the team of thirty-six journalists, who have worked tirelessly alongside our editing team this term. This year, we have been able to recruit an incredibly diverse and talented group of writers, giving us great pride in presenting you with this edition. We are also looking forward to collaborating with the other authors across The Diplomacy Review for the second edition.
During the Brexit referendum campaign, the ideal of sovereignty was lauded as the missing piece of the puzzle: with fresh powers and newfound vigour, the United Kingdom would be able to chart its own course in the voyage of realising a ‘Global Britain’. Although tangible results have failed to materialise thus far, sovereignty remains an indispensable concept in our globalising world. As the spectrum of articles in this journal highlight, sovereignty has much broader applications than post-Brexit Britain. From the language of Iberian Eurosceptics and contested jurisdictions in Africa, to energy and the digital world, sovereignty encompasses all geographies and themes, yet enables us to hone in on the power dynamics shaping our planet. From a practical standpoint, sovereignty is also of vital importance to the diplomatic profession. As our journalists demonstrate, it is inextricably intertwined with international law, humanitarian intervention, negotiation, and international organisations.
We hope you enjoy the efforts our writers have made to wrestle with this multifaceted concept and encourage you to keep exploring the diplomatic world.
Laura Ionescu, Journal Director.
Raphael Conte, Editorial Manager.
January 2023
Issue 8, Sovereignty in a Globalising World
Essays
Dedication from the Editors
Over 30 years ago, the collapse of the Soviet Union ushered in “the end of history”, emerging in its wake was the new global consensus of liberal democracy, and the era of grand clashes of civilisations seemed to be at an end. At the close of the bloodiest century in human history, it appeared as though totalitarianism had lost the great ideological battle. However, the 21st century has done little to prove Fukyama’s adage; instead, history appears to have been resurrected in the emergence of anti-democratic values - from Central Europe to North Africa - the democratic project is perceived as fatigued by restless populations who view the ideology as ill-equipped to contend with the challenges of the modern world.
Today, we witness numerous democratic setbacks and a boom of “crisis-of-democracy” theories and books. In established democracies, mainstream parties have trouble forming stable coalitions and are losing seats to right-wing parties. Russia and China – the world’s leading autocracies – are stepping up repression and exporting their ideologies to other countries. Even in the United States, where Donald Trump has left the white house, the democratic project seems to be more threatened than ever before.
12 years on from the Arab Spring, the figure of the Burning Man, Mohammed Bouazizi, who had chosen death by self-immolation and consequently sparked protests across Tunisia, serves as a tragic harbinger of a conflict fought for democracy that still rages on, and cautions us against the arrogance of a presumed victory in a battle of ideas which will never be won for long.
Cautiously then, our writers attempt to map and analyse the fault lines which are emerging in our political era, the end of “the end of history”
Zemal Sheerani & Lea Wowra.
December 2021
Issue 7, Democracy in Crisis?
Essays
Dedication from the head editor:
Deontology requires us to question our work, what we write and what we fail to cover. The Global South is a subject that allows our team to counterbalance the preponderance of articles on the West. The Global South may sound like a geographical designation, however these countries are only set aside from that of the North by the shackles of political economy. The Global South pertains to: Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Pacific Islands, developing countries in Asia, and the Middle East. Often staged as supporting acts in articles covering Western dynamics, adequate coverage of countries and policies of the south are missing from European journalism, and mea culpa, from our work. To speak of the Global South is to avoid the lure of exoticisation and to offer space and visibility to the socio-political dynamics of southern countries.
In an exercise of journalistic introspection, our writers turn to The Global South. We hope that you will discover these countries as the cradles of political innovation, martyrs of Western struggles, hybridizations of social and religious norms and that hopefully, it will instill a desire to more holistic journalism coverage in the future.
To Abigail Paige.
Editor Maeva Bleicher.
Designer Kiril Radovenski.
March 2021
Issue 6, The Global South
Essays
Dedication from the head editor:
In order to talk about cultural diplomacy efficiently, we must first strive to define it. Officially, cultural diplomacy is recognised as a sector of foreign policy. In fact, cultural diplomacy is a public policy that aims, within the framework of foreign policy, to export information representative of national culture and multiply interactions with foreign countries within the cultural field. After the Cold War, the threat of nuclear war became less prominent, reducing the need for deterrence policies. Diplomacy is regulated by a new dynamic: governments are trying to resolve their difference through dialogue and not by the use of force. Nevertheless, as a precondition for dialogue, mutual understanding of each other's culture seems indispensable. This is how culture has entered the realm of diplomacy. Its various processes such as conveying a positive image through culture, obtaining the favours of one country, conducting a diplomacy of understanding with another country are the objectives of cultural diplomacy which Joseph Nye called "soft power".
While cultural diplomacy is increasingly welcomed and praised in the international arena, some denounce culture's instrumentalisation to the benefit of politics. Can diplomacy influence cultural processes? Is cultural diplomacy a set of mediation and international understanding processes, or does it translate a form of political opportunism? What remains of creativity or of the formation of cultural identity when it is not appropriated by politics? Dynamics such as the local selective enhancement of identity through "cultural" traits considered representative allows us to consider the power relations at work in diplomacy. This is the great difficulty of cultural diplomacy. While we affirm that cultural diplomacy is necessary, if it is not wholly independent of the state, there will always be a risk that culture will become a political tool.
How can diplomatic activities not be limited by this pressure? If the realm of political opinion is forever heterogenous readers will undoubtedly find pleasure in the varying perspectives offered by this first edition. It is with great pleasure that I publish the first Issue of 2020. I thank all of our writers and contributors for their words, insights, and fantastic work this term.
To Josephine, thank you for your trust.
Editor: Maeva Bleicher
Designer: Kiril Radovenski
The Diplomacy Review, 2020
Issue 5, Cultural Diplomacy
Essays
Editorial Notice
A special thank you to our resident journalists for your dedication, curiosity and integrity. Throughout the year, your words have illuminated many essential issues and unheard stories. Our journey as writers has just started, yet your insights have already reached many. Thank you to our contributors, whose submissions have enriched the journal with new voices and fresh perspectives.
These small acts...
As this will be our final issue of the academic year, we would like to express our gratitude to all those who took the time to consider what it was that we had to say. Whatever the emotions you felt through your engagement with our words, be they inspiration or outrage, you gave your time and your attention to consider our perspectives. When we truly listen to another, we accord them a dignity. We validate both their equal worth as a fellow human but also their concerns, their hopes and their fears. However, when we listen, we also prove that we possess the humility to know we have more to learn and courage to grow from these
lessons gleamed from our interaction. These small acts are not insignificant.
We would also like to thank all the academics and professionals who helped our society in some way this year. Without your expertise, we would not be able to continue to provide the services that we do. Those of you who spoke at our events, assisted us with our research, or appeared in our videos, you all donated some of your time to help our community in their pursuit of greater understanding. Your efforts will have inspired and changed the courses of lives and learning in unknowable and uncountable ways. These small acts are not
insignificant.
The academic year of 2020 shall not see the traditional graduations many of us had hoped for. Many of us will be deprived the symbolic day that signifies our coming of age. As students, much of our time is spent thinking of our future. In some ways university is a bridge between two phases of our lives. However, for many of us now, we have walked that bridge and must enter the next phase
regardless.
The current challenges and threats mean that as citizens of this time, we must be more aware, more knowledgeable and more politically engaged than any other in history. Complacency is not a luxury afforded to us. Our small acts are not insignificant. We must continue to possess the humility to learn and demand this of our representatives. However, we too must also use our energies, our skills and our knowledge to act into the political sphere and secure our right to determine a future that is fit for the many, not just the few.
Thank you.
Head editor: Josephine Aulnois
The Diplomat, 2020
Issue 4, Diplomacy in Action
Essays
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