TyroCity: International Relations

Propaganda

International Relations — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Propaganda is a Latin word that was first used by Pope Gregory XV in 1622, when he established the Sacred Congregation (Worshippers) of Propaganda, a commission designed to spread the Catholic faith worldwide. Since then propaganda has taken on a much broader meaning, and refers to any technique, whether in writing, speech, music, film or other means, that attempts to influence mass public opinion.

Definitions of Propaganda

Propaganda is generally defined as the dissemination of information or message, but more specifically, it connotes the dissemination of information for the purposes of influencing and advocating an agenda. These information/messages have been carefully designed to influence our opinions, emotions, attitudes and behavior. Their purpose is to influence us to believe in something or to do something that we would not normally believe or do. Most importantly, these messages have been designed to benefit someone.

On Military Term, propaganda is any form of communication in support of national objectives designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, or behavior of any group in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly.

Propaganda is dissemination of ideas and information for the purpose of inducing or increasing specific attitudes and actions. Because propaganda is frequently accompanied by misrepresentation of fact and by appeals to passion and prejudice, it is often thought to be perpetually false or misleading. Although some propagandists may intentionally misrepresent fact, others may present it as faithfully as objective observers. The essential distinction lies in the intentions of the propagandist to persuade an audience to adopt the attitude or action he or she supports.

Propaganda may be disseminated by or for individuals, businesses, ethnic associations, religious organizations, political organizations, and governments at every level. Thousands of special-interest groups disseminate propaganda. Among such groups are patriotic societies, fire-prevention and traffic-safety committees, and the prevention of cruelty to animals, labor unions, chambers of commerce. No matter what its objective, propaganda attempts to persuade through rational or emotional appeal or through the organization of personal opinion. Efficient use of the communication media is central for the propaganda.

Some Characteristic of Propaganda:

Repetition: The concern message must be continuously propagated in order to take hold within the collective consciousness. Because of that repetition of the message was necessary for propaganda.

Simplicity: The message must be designed in such a way that it appeals to or is quickly understood by the lowest common intellectual people.

Imagery: The most powerful propaganda is well-established within appealing images. This imagery could be pictorial or descriptive. This is why movies and music are such effective forms of propaganda.

Sentiment: The message must contain as little detail as possible, and instead be designed in such a way that it appeals to some strong emotion or sentiment.

Types of diplomacy

International Relations — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Democratic Diplomacy:
It is now believed that as power resides in the people and it is exercised by the representatives chosen by and accountable to the people, the work of foreign policy-making and its implementation should be carried on according to the will of the people. Not only that, due importance should be attached to the weight of public opinion. Whatever is done by the President or the Prime Minister or the Foreign Minister or the professional diplomats should be known to the people. Crucial matters should be discussed and deliberated in the legislature and there should be a free press in the country to make them known to the common people. It is based on the assumption that ‘national interest’ is safer in the hands of the public rather than in the hands of some elite group, no matter how well skilled in the art of negotiation the latter might be. If the head of the state or of the government or his representative signs a treaty with any other state or states, it should be subject to ratification by the legislature in order to be valid. Thus, the American Senate was justified in rejecting the Treaty of Versailles signed by President Wilson at Paris in 1919. A wrong step taken by a Foreign Minister (as Sir Samuel Hoare of Britain or Madhavsinh Solanki of India) would invite serious criticism in the Parliament and be the cause of his exit from the government. In Nepalese context we can take the examples of TANAKPUR and PANCHESHWOR Treaty and conflict within the political parties as well as in people. Thus, the making and implementation of the foreign policy should be under the popular check. It is true that this kind of diplomacy invites certain ‘dangers’. The people in general are ignorant and they are not capable of exercising control over the role of professional and skilled diplomats. It is likely that the exposure of each diplomatic effort would put the diplomats in a very awkward situation. It is also possible that the operation of diplomacy on such a manner would suffer from the evils of delay and impulsion. However, these weaknesses may be removed if the people in general are politically develop.

Totalitarian Diplomacy:
It is more or less a duplication of traditional or close diplomacy. In a fascist or in a communist system, the chief-leader of the country is the sole maker of foreign policy and it is implemented according to his will that is supported and sustained by his clique of government. The operation of diplomacy is done according to the principles of a particular ‘ideology’ and any consideration of international peace and security is set aside as may be seen in the. Matters are not taken to the parliament for a free and frank discussion and there is strict censorship over the publication of news. Imperialism and war are glorified and the rulers of such a state frankly condemn peace as the dream of the cowards. Mao of China branded all ‘capitalist’ states of the world as ‘paper tigers’. Surprisingly, the diplomats of a totalitarian state invoke fantastic doctrines of racial superiority, mysticism, materialism and militarism for furtherance of their aims. The diplomats become agents of conquest, double-dealing, and spying, whose business is not to work for peaceful international relations but to provoke disagreement rather than understanding to make the leaders and peoples of other nations weak and blind and divided in the face of the growing totalitarian threaten. The object of Totalitarian Diplomacy “is thoroughly calculated to create and maintain bad relations within the world politics and relation.

Personal or Summit Diplomacy:
The direct participation of the heads of great powers (with their ministers or confidants) to sort out matters or to arrive at crucial decisions makes the case of summit or personal diplomacy. It has become increasingly common since the days of the World War II as war time conferences. Major and fateful decisions affecting the whole course of war and the post-war international order were made during the several personal meetings between Prime Minister Churchill of Britain and President Roosevelt of the United States with which Prime Minister Stalin of the USSR and Chinese Prime Minister was associated afterwards. The making of the Atlantic Charter (1941) is the first instance in this regard. The Tehran Conference of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin followed by the Yalta meet of 1943 are other important instances. These were followed by the Potsdam Conference of July-August 1945. These meetings prepared the ground for the creation of the United Nations. The Yalta Conference attended by the President of the United States and the Prime Ministers of Britain, France and the USSR solved the tangled problem of peace in Europe. Reference may be made to a number of non-aligned conferences from the Belgrade meet of 1961. The Camp David negotiations of 1959 between American President Eisenhower and the Soviet Prime Minister Khrushchev softened relations between the two superpowers to the point that one could trace a hint of growing cold war between the USSR and Communist China. The Camp David meet of 1978 hosted by the President of the United States and attended by the President of Egypt and the Prime Minister of Israel tackled the issue of peace in the Middle East. In the 1980s such meetings between the Presidents of the US and the USSR cemented the situation of detente signifying steady curtailment of the cold war. Sometimes personal diplomacy is short-circuited by the role of the most trusted agents or assistants of the heads of the states as we may see in Nixon’s reliance on Kissinger and Yahya Khan’s dependence on Bhutto of Pakistan. Frequent movements of such a trusted representative from one place to another with a particular mission make the case of ‘shuttle diplomacy’.

Other Diplomacy
i)Commercial or Economic Diplomacy: Also known by the names of ‘bourgeois’ or ‘civilian’ diplomacy, it resembles the diplomacy of the merchants and the shopkeepers. It is based on the prescription that a compromise settlement between the rivals through negotiations is generally more profitable than their complete destruction. Through negotiations and by agreeing to give mutual concessions some durable understanding may be reached. Here money plays a decisive part as an essential element of national interest. As every state attempts to increase its economic resources through pacific means, it is also known by the name of economic diplomacy. The line of distinction between politics and economics is unclear and since all focus is laid on trade or commerce, non-state agencies or organized business. The agents of such commercial organizations manage to have half-official and half-mercantile status. We may take note of the fact of the entry of foreign capital into poor and backward countries where the multinational corporations are not only producing and selling their finished goods but also undertaking works as construction of roads and bridges, laying of railway lines, installation of power-generating plants etc. The giving of financial assistance by the rich countries to the poor countries has created a new form of colonialism that is nicknamed as ‘dollar imperialism’. This kind of diplomacy may also be seen in the imposition of economic sanctions by a rich and powerful country on a poor and backward country of the world.
ii) Resource Diplomacy: Nature has blessed all countries with certain natural and mineral resources like oil, coal, iron, gold, uranium, etc. If a country is strong and developed, it makes best possible use of its resources. In case it is poor and backward, it becomes the victim of colonial exploitation. But a number of such countries may form an organization and thereby dictate their terms on those who need their resources. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is considering one of the best examples for this purpose. The oil is used by the Arab states as an instrument and the term ‘oil diplomacy’ thus comes into popularity. Oil is nicknamed as ‘black gold’ or ‘liquid gold’ and it is true, who captures the oil, captures the power of the world in the present context.

Intermediate Consequences of Cold War

International Relations — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

- The Korean War
Japan had taken over Korea in 1910 & ruled it until 1945.

Republic of Korea (South Korea) was established in 1948 in the zone that had been occupied by the US after defeating Japan. Communist North Korean troops, backed by Soviet Union invaded South Korea in June 1950 in order to unite Korea under communist regime.

The U.S. sent troops to defend democratic South Korea. By mid‐July 1950, a 17‐nation military coalition fighting under a U.S.‐led UN Command was engaged in fierce fighting against advancing North Korean troops

In late December 1950, China intervened in the war when UN forces were about to defeat North Korean forces.

The Chinese troops pushed the U.S. back to the 38th parallel (38° North latitude) where the border of North Korea and South Korea still stands today.

The war came to the state of ceasefire in 1953 after the move of the UN Security Council. No peace treaty was signed, and North and South Korea remain technically at war to this very day.

Cuba and the 1962 Missile Crisis

The 1959 Cuban Revolution sparked the most dangerous confrontation of the entire Cold War.

The US wanted to crush emerging communism in Cuba that was just 90 miles from Florida.

US destabilize and topple the Castro regime, in april1961, the United States even sponsored a failed invasion of Cuba designed to remove Castro from power.

After that, the Soviets vowed to protect Cuba from U.S. intervention.

The John F. Kennedy administration publicly confronted the Soviets and demanded that supply of missiles be stopped.

The US relaxed its attitude towards Cuba, and the USSR withdrew supplying the missiles when the US agreed to remove its missiles from Turkey.

Propaganda before and after World War 2

International Relations — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Propaganda before and after World War 2 before 1914, propaganda was usually associated with religion and the implanting of ideas to be cultivated in support of existing beliefs and ‘faith’. Its wartime applications, in the Napoleonic or the American independence wars, were confined largely to calls to arms, lampooning the enemy, glorifying victory, and sustaining morale. The intention by the few to impress the many can be traced back to the ancient world in art, architecture, and symbolism. The advent of printing in the 14th century shifted the emphasis from script to print. In wars of religion, propaganda from the pulpit remained a potent method of swaying emotions, hence the Vatican’s Sacre Congregatio. Massive advances in communications technologies in the 19th century, the development of a global cable network, and the arrival of the mass media by the end of the century extended propaganda to a global audience.

The Great War of 1914-18, a total war which industrialized warfare and made the home front as important as the fighting front, altered the nature of popular involvement and introduced domestic morale as a military asset. It also discredited the word ‘propaganda’ which henceforth came to be associated with the manipulation of opinion, by foul means rather than fair, with lies or half-truths, and with deceit. In particular, the popularization of atrocity propaganda through the relatively new mass-circulation press and the increasingly popular silent cinema discredited the relationship between propaganda and ‘truth’. It was this manipulative power over human emotions which Hitler identified as being a weapon that could be of enormous value for his purposes.

In the new USSR also, propaganda was seized upon as a device that could serve the state, by extending revolutionary ideas to the illiterate masses and, more innovatively, into the international class struggle. With the advent of radio broadcasting in the 1920s, the ability to transmit propaganda across frontiers and appeal directly to foreign audiences undermined traditional notions about non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries. A series of radio ‘wars’ prompted the League of Nations in 1936 to pass a convention attempting to outlaw the use of broadcasting for these purposes. More honored in the breach as the Nazi and Fascist regimes positioned propaganda as a central feature of their domestic and foreign policies, the BBC ideal that ‘Nation Shall Speak Peace unto Nation’ fell victim to the ideological conflict that was to produce both WW II and the subsequent Cold War.

By the outbreak of WW II, the sound cinema had also become an important medium for disseminating propaganda. The British Ministry of Information (the choice of words reflecting the nervousness of democratic countries in eschewing propaganda) recognized that ‘for the film to be good propaganda it must also be good entertainment’. Once the USA entered the war, the formidable American motion-picture industry (‘Hollywood’) was mobilized in support of wartime propaganda themes: ‘why we fight’, ‘know your enemy’, ‘unity is strength’, and so on. The wartime democratic alliance evolved a ‘Strategy of Truth’ towards their propaganda, which did not mean that the whole truth was told. But the reputation for credibility which organizations like the BBC were able to develop in their broadcasts to Nazi-occupied Europe was a serious corrective to the propaganda output of Josef Goebbels’ Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment encapsulated by the phrase the ‘Big Lie’.

While propaganda by press, poster, radio, and film was used extensively on the domestic fronts to sustain popular morale through the harsh realities of war, bombing, rationing, victories, and defeats, on the fighting fronts it was used as an adjunct to military tactics. Millions of leaflets were dropped over enemy lines, mobile loudspeaker teams shouted out messages, and radio transmissions attempted to sow seeds of confusion, doubt, and defeatism. It is axiomatic that successful propaganda must go hand in hand with policy. The Allies in this respect shot themselves in the foot with the insistence on unconditional surrender following the Casablanca Conference of 1942. By announcing that all Germans in defeat would be treated in exactly the same way, this policy fused the fate of the German people with that of the Nazi Party in a way undreamed of by a grateful Goebbels. It enabled him to launch his own drive for total war, it pre-empted the Allied use of such inducements as ‘surrender or die’ since any German soldier would be treated as a war criminal, and it partly helps to explain why the German people kept fighting to the bitter end.

Developments in new communications technologies during the 1980s, such as the portable satellite phone, the laptop computer, and digital data transmission meant that such military control of the information environment would never be possible again. However, as the Gulf war of 1991 indicated, propaganda had not been confined to the dustbin of history. An increasingly sophisticated US military information policy was able to secure a desired view of warfare through the release of videotapes showing missiles hitting (not missing) their targets with unprecedented accuracy, and through live television press conferences which bypassed the traditional role of the media as mediator. Despite the unprecedented effort by the Iraqis to counter this propaganda of a ‘clean’ and ‘smart’ high-tech war by permitting correspondents from Coalition countries to stay behind in the enemy capital under fire, the military information agenda succeeded in dominating the media coverage. Democracies had indeed demonstrated that they could wage war in the presence of more than 1, 500 journalists, and thereby sustain public support in the process.

Propaganda, Diplomacy, and International Public Opinion

The Cold War inaugurated a paradigm shift in the U.S. practice of diplomacy that reflected changes in the nature of diplomatic activity worldwide. Through propaganda, policy initiatives, and covert action, agents of the U.S. government acted directly to influence the ideas, values, beliefs, opinions, actions, politics, and culture of other countries. Foreign affairs personnel not only observed and reported, they also participated in events or tried to influence the way that they happened. The old maxim that one government does not interfere in the internal affairs of another had been swept aside.

The pattern of international relations was further transformed by the electronic communications revolution and the emergence of popular opinion as a significant force in foreign affairs. Foreign policy could no longer be pursued as it had during the nineteenth century, when diplomacy was the exclusive province of professional diplomats who used (often secret) negotiations to reach accords based on power and interest. Developments in mass communication and the increased attentiveness to domestic audiences abroad to foreign affairs meant that the target of diplomacy had now widened to include popular opinion as much, if not more so, than traditional diplomatic activities. In other words, by appealing over the heads of governments directly to public opinion, effective propaganda and other measures would encourage popular opinion to support U.S. policies, which would in turn exert pressure on government policymakers.

Throughout the Cold War, propaganda and diplomacy operated on multiple levels. At the most obvious level, propaganda as it is conventionally understood (the utilization of communication techniques to influence beliefs and actions) was employed as a distinct instrument of U.S. foreign policy. Through the United States Information Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, and other mechanisms, the United States waged a war of words and of ideas that attacked communism, promoted capitalism and democracy, defended U.S. foreign policies, and advertised the American way of life in order to win the Cold War.

On another level, the awareness that international public opinion had become a major factor in the conduct of diplomacy meant that propaganda considerations intruded on the policymaking process itself. American policymakers were increasingly aware that international public opinion had to be an ingredient in policy formulation at all levels: in the planning and policy formulation stage, in the coordination and timing of operations, and finally in the last phase of explanation and interpretation by government officials and information programs.

This attitude played itself out most visibly in the United Nations, which became one of the most important arenas for Cold War propaganda. It also was reflected in the marked increase in the foreign travel of U.S. presidents and vice presidents, an important device for generating news coverage and for reaching international audiences directly. On a more routine basis, consideration of international public opinion simply involved the careful selection of words and phrases to describe the objectives of American foreign policy—including the process of creating what came to be known as a “sound bite. Even within the State Department—an institution wedded to traditional diplomacy and wary of popular opinion—the Policy Planning Staff began to argue in the mid-1950s that convincing foreign officials was often less important than carrying issues over their heads to public opinion, reasoning that popular opinion would exert more of an impact on government officials than vice versa. The extensive and instantaneous media coverage that accompanied diplomatic conferences meant that negotiations needed to be conducted on two levels: on the diplomatic level between governments, and on the popular level to win international public support for policies. Diplomatic conferences were no longer merely opportunities for resolving international disputes; they were sounding boards for public opinion and forums for propaganda.

The psychological dimension of postwar American diplomacy also included a preoccupation with American prestige and credibility—concepts that connoted the reliability of American commitments and served as code words for America’s image and reputation. As Robert McMahon has argued, throughout the postwar period American leaders invoked the principle of credibility to explain and justify a wide range of diplomatic and military decisions. American actions in such disparate crises as Korea (1950–1953), Taiwan Strait (Quemoy-Matsu) (1954–1955), Lebanon (1958), and Vietnam (1954–1973) were driven by a perceived need to demonstrate the resolve, will, and, determination—in a word, credibility—of the United States. .

The infusion of psychological considerations and propaganda tactics into the practice of diplomacy is one of the Cold War’s most important legacies, but given the revolution in communication technologies of the late twentieth century it was perhaps inevitable that the ancient art of diplomacy would become affected by the techniques of propaganda and public persuasion. Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War’s propaganda battles, foreign policy continued to be swayed by images transmitted instantly around the globe.

Propaganda

“Propaganda is a soft weapon; hold it in your hands too long, and it will move about like a snake, and strike the other way.” – Jean Anouilh

“Propaganda has a bad name, but its root meaning is simply to disseminate through a medium, and all writing therefore is propaganda for something. It’s a seeding of the self in the consciousness of others.” – Elizabeth Drew

Propaganda is the dissemination of information aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda. Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.

Propaganda can be defined as any message intended to modify the attitudes and behaviour of people at whom it is directed, primarily by appealing to their emotions. Its use is not confined to dictatorships and authoritarian organizations. Democracies have employed it extensively in wartime. In peacetime it plays a significant role in electoral politics, and in public-service campaigns relating to social problems. Messages may range from simple verbal texts to elaborate combinations of aural and visual signals (e.g. television commercials). The media used have included print, graphic art, film, radio, television, and architecture, from baroque palaces to fascist monuments.

Types
Propaganda is generally an appeal to emotion, contrasted to an appeal to intellect. It shares techniques with advertising and public relations. Advertising and public relations can be thought of as propaganda that promotes a commercial product or shapes the perception of an organization, person or brand, though in post-World War II usage the word “propaganda” more typically refers to political or nationalist uses of these techniques or to the promotion of a set of ideas, since the term had gained a pejorative meaning, which commercial and government entities couldn’t accept. The refusal phenomenon was eventually to be seen in politics itself by the substitution of ‘political marketing’ and other designations for ‘political propaganda’.

Propaganda was often used to influence opinions and beliefs on religious issues, particularly during the split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant churches. Propaganda has become more common in political contexts, in particular to refer to certain efforts sponsored by governments, political groups, but also often covert interests. In the early 20th century, propaganda was exemplified in the form of party slogans. Also in the early 20th century the term propaganda was also used by the founders of the nascent public relations industry to describe their activities. This usage died out around the time of World War II, as the industry started to avoid the word, given the pejorative connotation it had acquired.

Techniques
Common media for transmitting propaganda messages include news reports, government reports, historical revision, junk science, books, leaflets, movies, radio, television, and posters. In the case of radio and television, propaganda can exist on news, current-affairs or talk-show segments, as advertising or public-service announce “spots” or as long-running advertorials. Propaganda campaigns often follow a strategic transmission pattern to indoctrinate the target group. This may begin with a simple transmission such as a leaflet dropped from a plane or an advertisement. Generally these messages will contain directions on how to obtain more information, via a web site, hot line, radio program, et cetera (as it is seen also for selling purposes among other goals). The strategy intends to initiate the individual from information recipient to information seeker through reinforcement, and then from information seeker to opinion leader through indoctrination.

A number of techniques based in social psychological research are used to generate propaganda. Many of these same techniques can be found under logical fallacies, since propagandists use arguments that, while sometimes convincing, are not necessarily valid. Some time has been spent analyzing the means by which propaganda messages are transmitted. That work is important but it is clear that information dissemination strategies become propaganda only strategies when coupled with propagandistic messages. Identifying these messages is a necessary prerequisite to study the methods by which those messages are spread. Below are a number of techniques for generating propaganda:

Appeal to prejudice -Using loaded or emotive terms to attach value or moral goodness to believing the proposition.

Black-and-White fallacy –Presenting only two choices, with the product or idea being propagated as the better choice. (e.g., “You are either with us, or you are with the enemy”)
Beautiful people -The type of propaganda that deals with famous people or depicts attractive, happy people. This makes other people think that if they buy a product or follow a certain ideology, they too will be happy or successful. (This is more used in advertising for products, instead of political reasons)
Big Lie -The repeated articulation of a complex of events that justify subsequent action. The descriptions of these events have elements of truth, and the “big lie” generalizations merge and eventually supplant the public’s accurate perception of the underlying events. After World War I the German Stab in the back explanation of the cause of their defeat became a justification for Nazi re-militarization and revanchist aggression.
Demonizing the enemy -Making individuals from the opposing nation, from a different ethnic group, or those who support the opposing viewpoint appear to be subhuman (e.g., the Vietnam War-era term “gooks” for National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam aka Vietcong, (or ‘VC’) soldiers), worthless, or immoral, through suggestion or false accusations.
Direct order -This technique hopes to simplify the decision making process by using images and words to tell the audience exactly what actions to take, eliminating any other possible choices. Authority figures can be used to give the order, overlapping it with the Appeal to authority technique, but not necessarily. The Uncle Sam “I want you” image is an example of this technique.
Disinformation -The creation or deletion of information from public records, in the purpose of making a false record of an event or the actions of a person or organization, including outright forgery of photographs, motion pictures, broadcasts, and sound recordings as well as printed documents.
Euphoria -The use of an event that generates euphoria or happiness, or using an appealing event to boost morale. Euphoria can be created by declaring a holiday, making luxury items available, or mounting a military parade with marching bands and patriotic messages.
Half-truth -A half-truth is a deceptive statement which may come in several forms and includes some element of truth. The statement might be partly true, the statement may be totally true but only part of the whole truth, or it may utilize some deceptive element, such as improper punctuation, or double meaning, especially if the intent is to deceive, evade blame or misrepresent the truth.
Intentional vagueness -Generalities are deliberately vague so that the audience may supply its own interpretations. The intention is to move the audience by use of undefined phrases, without analyzing their validity or attempting to determine their reasonableness or application. The intent is to cause people to draw their own interpretations rather than simply being presented with an explicit idea. In trying to “figure out” the propaganda, the audience forgoes judgment of the ideas presented. Their validity, reasonableness and application may still be considered.
Name-calling -Propagandists use the name-calling technique to incite fears and arouse prejudices in their hearers in the intent that the bad names will cause hearers to construct a negative opinion about a group or set of beliefs or ideas that the propagandist would wish hearers to denounce. The method is intended to provoke conclusions about a matter apart from impartial examinations of facts. Name-calling is thus a substitute for rational, fact-based arguments against the an idea or belief on its own merits.
Oversimplification -Favorable generalities are used to provide simple answers to complex social, political, economic, or military problems.

Nazi Germany
Most propaganda in Germany was produced by the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Joseph Goebbels was placed in charge of this ministry shortly after Hitler took power in 1933. All journalists, writers, and artists were required to register with one of the Ministry’s subordinate chambers for the press, fine arts, music, theater, film, literature, or radio. The Nazis believed in propaganda as a vital tool in achieving their goals. Adolf Hitler, Germany’s Führer, was impressed by the power of Allied propaganda during World War I and believed that it had been a primary cause of the collapse of morale and revolts in the German home front and Navy in 1918 (see also: Dolchstoßlegende). Hitler would meet nearly every day with Goebbels to discuss the news and Goebbels would obtain Hitler’s thoughts on the subject; Goebbels would then meet with senior Ministry officials and pass down the official Party line on world events. Broadcasters and journalists required prior approval before their works were disseminated. Along with posters, the Nazis produced a number of films and books to spread their beliefs.

Cold War propaganda

The United States and the Soviet Union both used propaganda extensively during the Cold War. Both sides used film, television, and radio programming to influence their own citizens, each other, and Third World nations and USA. The United States Information Agency operated the Voice of America as an official government station. Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, which were in part supported by the Central Intelligence Agency, provided grey propaganda in news and entertainment programs to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union respectively. The Soviet Union’s official government station, Radio Moscow, broadcast white propaganda, while Radio Peace and Freedom broadcast grey propaganda. Both sides also broadcast black propaganda programs in periods of special crises.

In 1948, the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office created the IRD (Information Research Department) which took over from wartime and slightly post-war departments such as the Ministry of Information and dispensed propaganda via various media such as the BBC and publishing.

The ideological and border dispute between the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China resulted in a number of cross-border operations. One technique developed during this period was the “backwards transmission”, in which the radio program was recorded and played backwards over the air. (This was done so that messages meant to be received by the other government could be heard, while the average listener could not understand the content of the program.) When describing life in capitalist countries, in the US in particular, propaganda focused on social issues such as poverty and anti-union action by the government. Workers in capitalist countries were portrayed as “ideologically close”. Propaganda claimed rich people from the US derived their income from weapons manufacturing, and claimed that there was substantial racism or neo-fascism in the US.

When describing life in Communist countries, western propaganda sought to depict an image of a citizenry held captive by governments that brainwash them. The West also created a fear of the East, by depicting an aggressive Soviet Union. In the Americas, Cuba served as a major source and a target of propaganda from both black and white stations operated by the CIA and Cuban exile groups. Radio Habana Cuba, in turn, broadcast original programming, relayed Radio Moscow, and broadcast The Voice of Vietnam as well as alleged confessions from the crew of the USS Pueblo. George Orwell’s novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four are virtual textbooks on the use of propaganda. Though not set in the Soviet Union, these books are about totalitarian regimes in which language is constantly corrupted for political purposes. These novels were, ironically, used for explicit propaganda. The CIA, for example, secretly commissioned an animated film adaptation of Animal Farm in the 1950s with small changes to the original story to suit its own needs.

Afghan War
In the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, psychological operations tactics were employed to demoralize the Taliban and to win the sympathies of the Afghan population. At least six EC-130E Commando Solo aircraft were used to jam local radio transmissions and transmit replacement propaganda messages. Leaflets were also dropped throughout Afghanistan, offering rewards for Osama bin Laden and other individuals, portraying Americans as friends of Afghanistan and emphasizing various negative aspects of the Taliban. Another shows a picture of Mohammed Omar in a set of crosshairs with the words “We are watching.” This technique has been shown to be rather ineffective in terms of long term opinions change given current political and social conditions in Afghanistan.

Iraq War
In November 2005, The Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, alleged that the United States military had manipulated news reported in Iraqi media in an effort to cast a favorable light on its actions while demoralizing the insurgency. Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a military spokesman in Iraq, said the program is “an important part of countering misinformation in the news by insurgents”, while a spokesman for former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the allegations of manipulation were troubling if true. The Department of Defense has confirmed the existence of the program. The New York Times published an article about how the Pentagon has started to use contractors with little experience in journalism or public relations to plant articles in the Iraqi press. These articles are usually written by US soldiers without attribution or are attributed to a non-existent organization called the “International Information Center.” Planting propaganda stories in newspapers was done by both the Allies and Central Powers in the First World War and the Axis and Allies in the Second; this is the latest version of this technique.

Anti-Semitic propaganda for children
In Nazi Germany, the education system was thoroughly co-opted to indoctrinate the German youth with anti-Semitic ideology. This was accomplished through the National Socialist Teachers League, of which 97% of all German teachers were members in 1937. It encouraged the teaching of “racial theory.” Picture books for children such as Don’t Trust A Fox in A Green Meadow Or the Word of A Jew, The Poisonous Mushroom, and The Poodle-Pug-Dachshund-Pincher were widely circulated (over 100,000 copies of Don’t Trust A Fox… were circulated during the late 1930s) and contained depictions of Jews as devils, child molesters, and other morally charged figures. Slogans such as “Judas the Jew betrayed Jesus the German to the Jews” were recited in class. The following is an example of a propagandistic math problem recommended by the National Socialist Essence of Education:

Causes behind the World War II

International Relations — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Introduction

World War II (Started September 1, 1939), global military conflict that, in terms of lives lost and material destruction, was the most devastating war in human history. It began in 1939 as a European conflict between Germany and an Anglo-French coalition but eventually widened to include most of the nations of the world. It ended in 1945, leaving a new world order dominated by the United States and the USSR.

More than any previous war, World War II involved the commitment of nations’ entire human and economic resources, the blurring of the distinction between combatant and noncombatant, and the expansion of the battlefield to include all of the enemy’s territory. The most important determinants of its outcome were industrial capacity and personnel. In the last stages of the war, two radically new weapons were introduced: the long-range rocket and the atomic bomb. In the main, however, the war was fought with the same or improved weapons of the types used in World War I. The greatest advances were in aircraft and tanks.

World War II ended with the surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945 and the surrender of Japan on August 14, 1945. Statistically, this military conflict overshadows every war ever fought. Some 1.7 billion people from 61 nations engaged in a struggle waged on the land, on the sea, and in the skies of Europe, East and Southeast Asia, North Africa, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean. The clash left behind a trail of carnage and destruction unparalleled in human history. World War II took the lives of some 55 million soldiers and civilians and destroyed untold amounts of property. It cost more to finance World War II than any war before it. Beyond the awesome and almost unfathomable statistics, the conflict left a permanent mark on all aspects of human experience and shaped the history of the postwar world. For a generation of men and women everywhere, World War II was “the war.”

Cause behind the 2nd World War

Seen and main cause of war is German attack on Poland on September 1 1939 and consequent declaration of war by Britain and France against Germany. This gives the impression that war was caused by the Polish-German dispute. Polish problem was indeed the immediate cause of the war, but there were many other causes that created the situation in which war became unavoidable. Let us, briefly discuss all the distant as well as immediate causes of the war. It is generally believed that the treaty of Versailles signed after the 1st World War was so unjust that it carried the germs of Second World War.

Three major powers had been dissatisfied with the outcome of World War I. Germany, the principal defeated nation, bitterly dislike the territorial losses and reparations payments imposed on it by the Treaty of Versailles. Italy, one of the victors, found its territorial gains far from enough either to offset the cost of the war or to satisfy its ambitions. Japan, also a victor, was unhappy about its failure to gain control of China. Some of the main causes of the World War II were as follows:

1. Treaty of Versailles:- The point is that the primary cause of World War II was the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. The Treaty of Versailles, named after the small town in France where the treaty was signed, embarrassed and humiliated the Germans. Some of the highlights of the treaty were:

German loss of territory, which damaged their economy
Financial reparations of 33 billion dollars, which caused inflation and unemployment
Loss of their army and navy, leaving them vulnerable to attack
The forced acceptance of guilt for WWI, which humiliated the German people

Treaty of Versailles was a dictated treaty of peace imposed upon Germany. Germans defeated 1871 France, and in 1919 when German was defeated she decided to take revenge. German delegates at Paris Conference were kept confined to a hotel surrounded by barbed wires. Germans were not consulted at the drafting stage. They did not negotiate it. The victors drafted the treaty and Germany was told to sign it or face military action. This is a treaty on which Germany made sign with out having chance to provide suggestions from her side. Because of treaty Germany was deprived of all her overseas colonies, and even in Europe her size was substantially reduced. Poland, France, Belgium and others gained at her cost. Her army and navy were badly curtailed and she was told not to have any air force. Treaty of Versailles mutilated and humiliated Germany. Now, it was the turn to Germany to take revenge. Hitler came on the center stage, led his proud people to avenge their humiliation and caused the Second World War. In addition to embarrassing the people of Germany and making their lives miserable, the treaty was also filled with other problems.

Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and parts of Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Italy were carved out of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. These new small nations were not strong and were not equipped either economically or militarily to grow and to defend themselves.
Russia was not invited to the peace talks because it was still going through its communist revolution and they were talking of worldwide communism.
The League of Nations, which was the precursor to the United Nations, was formed but it carried very little power and was not effective in protecting countries from aggression.

2. The Failure of Peace Efforts:- During the 1920s, attempts were made to achieve a stable peace. The first was the establishment (1920) of the League of Nations as a forum in which nations could settle their disputes. The league’s powers were limited to persuasion and various levels of moral and economic sanctions that the members were free to carry out as they saw fit. At the Washington Conference of 1921-22, the principal naval powers agreed to limit their navies according to a fixed ratio. The Locarno Conference (1925) produced a treaty guarantee of the German-French boundary and an arbitration agreement between Germany and Poland. In the Paris Peace Pact (1928), 63 countries, including all the great powers except the USSR, renounced war as an instrument of national policy and pledged to resolve all disputes among them “by pacific means.” The signatories had agreed beforehand to exempt wars of “self-defense.”

3. Failure of Collective Security System:- After the First World War the collective security system was conceptualized to provide the security to the victim of an aggression. Members of League, by their collective action, would compel the aggressor to vacate it. This collective action could either be in the form of economic sanctions or military support to the victim of aggression. It is failed by name of self-defense, the big power did aggression and collective security didn’t work properly. Like in 1931 Japan committed an aggression against China on Manchuria. Also 1935 Italy waged a war against Abyssinia.

4. Failure of Disarmament:- Pairs Peace Conference that world peace would be ensure if countries reduced their armaments to appoint consistent with their defense. That means all weapons of offensive nature were to be destroyed. The Treaty of Versailles had disarmed Germany, and victor nations were to disarm later. They never really wanted to disarm; therefore Germany declared in October 1933 that she was leaving both the Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations. Later in 1935 Germany formally declared the she was no more bound by the military clause of the Treaty of Versailles. This makes the way of an armed conflict. The failure of disarmament became one of the major causes of Second World War.

5. World Economic Crisis:- World Economic Crisis began in 1929 with sudden stoppage of loans by American financial house to the European Countries. In the 1930’s, the Great Depression that causes throughout Europe, including Germany, millions of people lost their jobs, and their money lost its value. It makes effect mostly to Germany, because she is making rapid industrial progress mostly borrowed American money. Also the race for armaments did negative effect to the economic situation of the Europe.

6. Rise of Fascism: In the 1920’s and 1930’s fascist dictators took control of Italy, Japan, and Germany. Fascism is a type of government in which power is in the hands of a military leader, and the individuals’ rights are subordinate to the authority of the state. Unlike communism, fascism supports private ownership of business but under strict government control. Fascist do not approve of criticism and multiple parties are not permitted. Fascists are intense nationalist who believe in building and using powerful militaries and they support dictatorship and the deprivation of human rights or in other words, quite the opposite of democracy.

7. Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis:- Treaties between Germany, Italy, and Japan in the period from 1936 to 1940 brought into being the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis. The Axis thereafter became the collective term for those countries and their allies. It was a combination of anti-communist Fascist Powers. Japan did not formally adopt fascism, but the armed forces’ powerful position in the government enabled them to impose a similar type of totalitarianism. It divides the world again on the tow hostile camps, which provides easy grounds for war.

8. The Problem of National Minorities:- Large minorities found themselves in the company of non-Germans in Poland and Czechoslovakia because of the Versailles Treaty. There were Russian minorities in Poland and Rumania, Hungarian minorities in Rumania and Yugoslavia, and German and Slav minorities in Italy. This gave rise to feeling of dissatisfaction and fear among the minorities.

9. Appeasement (Reunion) by Britain and France:- Balance of power had always been the cornerstone of British foreign policy. Britain feared that a very powerful France would disturb the balance of power. Britain was worried about growing influence of communism that’s why she changed her foreign policy and makes appeasement with France.

10. Failure of League of Nations:- America never been a member of the League of Nation, also German and Russia were not invited to become its members. Germany joined the League in1926 but left it in 1933. Soviet Union came in only in 1934 and was expelled after her invasion of Finland. Any country that was unhappy with league decision left it. Thus, Japan left it in 1933 and Italy in 1937.

11. German attack on Poland:- On Sept. 1, at 5:45 A.M., 1939, on the order of Chancellor Hitler, the first shot was fired in what some call “the Second World War.” On the same day, a score of Polish cities, including Warsaw, Lwow, Cracow, were bombed. The Polish army expected the attack to come along the Polish frontiers. But Hitler introduced a new kind of war called a Blitzkrieg, which means “lightning war.” Waves of German bombers targeted railroads in Tczew, which troubled Polish military mobilization. Hundreds of tanks destroyed through Polish defenses and rolled deep into the country. On 3 September 1939, France and Britain declared war against German this is a beginning of the Second World War.

End of the Cold War

International Relations — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Certain structural weaknesses in Soviet‐style communism are associated with the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War. Centrally planned economies proved to be less effective than capitalist economies.

Because of the economic crisis, the communist regimes in Eastern Europe fell one by one.

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev adopted certain policies: political openness and economic restructuring in the mid‐1980s to address the economic crisis.

In order for his reforms to take place, he needed to end the Cold War to lower defense spending.

Gorbachev thus announced that the satellite states should be free to choose their own government.

Communist regimes in these countries started to collapse.

The Soviet Union did not intervene as one after another communist regimes collapsed in 1989‐90.

The key external factors contributing to the collapse of communism were the policies of the US administration at that period and the advance of economic and cultural globalization that created demands for western‐style economic and political reforms in Eastern Europe.

The USA and the USSR agreed to disarm a whole category of nuclear weapons through Arms control process.

The dismantling of the Berlin Wall began on November 10, 1989. By mid‐1990, many of the Soviet republics had declared their independence.

On December 8, 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved

The Cold War thus ended with the demise of Soviet Union. With the disintegration of the USSR, Russia came out losing the status and position of a superpower.

The supremacy of the USA has been established making the world unipolar.

Holocaust

International Relations — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Introduction

The Holocaust was the systematic, state‐sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.
“Holocaust” is a word of Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire.“
The Nazis, Germans were “racially superior” and that the Jews, deemed “inferior,” were an alien threat to the so‐called German racial community.

Causes of Hatred

Christianity ‐ Before a Christian authority declared that “Jews were not guilty for the death of Jesus Christ
Church fathers decided that Jews as a group should be persecuted because they ‘killed Jesus.’
This became an excuse to abuse the Jews for more than a thousand years. The Nazi Leaders who had been misguided by those myths considered Jews as their enemies.

Threat of Communism ‐ It was widely assumed around the Europe the then time that Jews were the communists and most of them were the supporters of Marxism. Communist group attempted to carry out a Bolshevik‐type revolution in the German state of Bavaria. Most of the leaders of that failed attempt were Jews.
Extreme Nationalism ‐ The Nationalist leaders of Germany used to consider the Jews for the shameful defeat of Germany in the First World War. The Jews were blamed for not supporting the German military during the war. It was held that Germany had been betrayed by Jewish who were working to defeat Germany.
Economic Theory – Hitler and Nazis assumed the Jew businessmen were responsible for the depression era of 1929 and so on as Germany was hit the hardest by the economic devastation.
Racial Theory – Hitler wanted to purify Germany racially. He wanted only the Aryan Race which couldn’t be obtained unless all Jews were gone.
Personal Reasons – Some argue that Hitler’s Hatred towards Jews was because of his bitter experiences with Jews in the past. Besides, he also used to live in the Jew settlement for many years of his struggling career, and experienced bitter truth.

Nazi’s Policy

Initially, Nazi had the policy of social and economic displacement of Jews and their removal from German soil
They did it through discriminatory legislation, economic deprivation, administrative harassment, and social exclusion rather than physical torture and murder.
As soon as the Nazis assumed power, they made racism and anti‐Semitism central components of their regime.

Anti-Semitism

Many harboured a prejudice against Jews that is known as anti‐Semitism.
Some scholars view anti‐Semitism as a religious prejudice. Others regard it as an anti‐Jewish variety of a general hatred directed against ethnic minorities.
Historians and sociologists have come up with several theories to explain anti‐Semitism the prejudice against Jews, including hateful feelings.

Anti‐Semitic riots and campaigns of terror that climaxed on April 1, 1933, in a countrywide boycott of Jewish‐owned shops and Jewish professionals, such as physicians and lawyers.
On April 7, 1933, the Reichstag enacted a law that allowed the government to dismiss Jews from the German civil service.

Piecemeal regulations as insufficient, and implement a comprehensive legal framework for their anti‐Semitic policies. January 30, 1933, the Nazis established concentration camps for the imprisonment of all “enemies” of their regime.
Sentences could be a few months or a few years. Such camps were built on railroad lines for efficient transportation.

Before the outbreak of war, SS (special German police force at the time of Hitler) and police officials confined Jews, Roma, and other victims of ethnic and racial hatred in these camps.

From November 1935 German churches began to collaborate with Nazis by supplying records indicating who is Christian .
The Nazis also used samples of human hair developed by Nazi scientists to determine ancestry.

End of the Holocaust

Final months of the war, SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on forced marches, often called “death marches,” in an attempt to prevent the liberation of large numbers of prisoners by the Allied forces (Germany’s
enemy states).

Offensives against Germany, they began to encounter and liberate concentration camp prisoners, as well as prisoners en route by forced march from one camp to another.

The marches continued until May 7, 1945, the day the German armed forces surrendered unconditionally to the Allies.
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many of the survivors found shelter in displaced persons (DP) camps administered by the Allied powers. Between 1948 and 1951, almost 700,000 Jews immigrated to Israel,
including 136,000 Jewish displaced persons from Europe.

Other Jewish displaced persons emigrated to the United States and other nations. The last displaced persons camp closed in 1957.

Function of diplomats

International Relations — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

A diplomat has to organized series of function that includes observed, report, and deal with issues in their respective areas. Most functions contain for political affairs, economic and commercial affairs, information and cultural affairs, consular affairs, and administrative matters. In addition, within the functions of a diplomat usually includes a number of attachés from other government departments. Military, air, and naval attachés have traditionally been assigned to foreign missions, but agricultural, commercial, labor, and cultural attachés are becoming increasingly common as a new trend.

The activities of diplomats are extremely mixed. They range from such serious tasks as negotiating issues of great political significance and reporting and commenting on important events in the foreign country to meeting with foreign students, arranging itineraries of exhibits about life in the home country, and issuing visas. These are some of the majors’ functions of Diplomats:

Representation of State
(1) Legal Representation

A diplomat is a legal representative of his/her state in another state or international organization like the UN, the UNESCO etc. In his/her capacity as a legal representative of his/her state, s/he conducts negotiations with the government in the accredited state or participates in the deliberations and voting of UN organs in which his/her country is represented. Unless otherwise indicated, s/he signs the agreements on behalf of his/her state.

(2) Symbolic Representation

Diplomacy is very often subtle and symbolic; the more it is so, the more impressive it becomes. When the head of a state or government visits another country, the Ambassador posted in that country normally holds a reception at his/her Embassy which is attended by his/her counterparts and other senior officials belonging to the host country

(3) Political Representation

Diplomat’s job is to watch the politics of that country. What are political policies and like projection and what are the political parties at play and what is going to be the future leaders and politics of that country. The most important function of a diplomat is to assess the real nature of the policy and power of the country in which s/he is stationed and report it back to his/her External Affairs Ministry. The Ambassador and his supporting staff supply the raw material with the help of which the External Affairs Ministry formulates foreign policy. In the words of Professor Morgenthau: “As the foreign office is the nerve centre of foreign policy, so are the diplomatic representatives its outlying fibers maintaining the two-way traffic between the centre and the outside world”.

The diplomat, with the help of his/her military, economic and other attaches, assesses the real military strength of the country of his/her posting, stability of its government and its policy towards his/her own country. The function of the military and economic attaché’s is to collect military and economic information through wide reading and social contacts and to help Ambassador draft his/her reports to the External Affairs Ministry. The diplomat must not only help his/her foreign office in the formulation of the country’s policy, but must also possess the art of ‘selling’ his/her country’s policy to the government and people of the country in which s/he functions. His/her is a two-way dealing: with his/her own government at home and with the government of the country from where s/he functions.

Negotiations
Diplomacy is synonymous with negotiations and the diplomat must be an experienced negotiator. Many delegations from the diplomat’s country visit foreign countries to conduct negotiations on trade, political and military affairs. The team that negotiates with the foreign government normally includes the Ambassador of the country concerned, who is an on-the-spot assistant and informer. The execution of numerous trade and cultural agreements involves negotiations with the host country for the selection of institutions, persons, items etc.

When matters of great political importance are discussed and negotiated, the Prime Minister or the External Affairs Minister visits the concerned country and negotiates directly with the foreign government. The diplomat has to do the spade-work for such negotiations and thereby assist his superiors. The direct participation of the External Affairs Minister or high ranking officials from the Ministry does diminish the importance of the Ambassador in negotiations; nevertheless, his assistance and assessment are of great help. Thus, no negotiation between the two countries can be accomplished without the assistance and involvement of their Ambassadors to some extent.

The diplomats negotiate on four ways:

Official negotiation
Unofficial negotiations
Facilitative negotiations
Technical negotiations

Informal Function:
Press function: Diplomats has to read newspapers of concern foreign country because all politicians may not be honest and that is if diplomats even have access to them. He/She must read all papers to get a better color of what the media in the country is saying about their internal mechanisms. Diplomats need to make the best presentation of their country. Diplomats will try to get favorable eyes for his/her own country.

Commercial function: Commercial relations are not just political or media, but based on the trade between the countries. The better trade means the better relationship between the two states. They are good diplomats, who will able to distinguish the clarity of decision-making to expedite the trade and commerce.

Administrative function: Diplomatic mission are extension of the home government abroad. Thus, each diplomatic mission contains two key elements: A diplomatic element, whose chief functions are political (negotiation, information, etc.), and consular elements, whose chief functions are administrative. Administrative function includes:

Representation of home citizens and home institutions in the host state
Management of the affairs of citizens of the home state in the host state (e.g., facilitation of economic ties, handling legal problems of home citizens etc.)
Immigration policy and other support to their national

Responsible Person of the Diplomatic Mission

Ambassador:

Ambassador is chef official of diplomatic mission at foreign state. The ambassador is the highest-ranking official of diplomatic service with full responsibility. Unlike a minister and a chargé d’affaires, an ambassador is supposed to represent, in theory, the person of his or her sovereign. Although this theory has little significance now that monarchies are uncommon, it was because of this theory that the United States did not appoint diplomatic of ambassadorial rank until 1893. Today most republics appoint ambassadors in order to conduct relations on an equal basis with other nations. In recent years a majority of the heads of diplomatic missions representing the United States have also held the rank of ambassador.

The embassy abroad, or foreign mission, is headed by an ambassador assisted by a career diplomat who serves as deputy or first secretary. The deputy secretary oversees and coordinates the work of the staff and assumes the responsibilities of the mission as chargé d’affaires whenever the ambassador is away or incapacitated or is between ambassadorial assignments.

Diplomatic missions are staffed largely by Foreign Service officers, with the exception of the attachés who are drawn from their respective agencies back home. The secretaries and secretarial staff come from a separate civil service corps. Citizens of the host country may be hired as translators or for non sensitive jobs.

Consular:

Counselor is a diplomat ranking below an ambassador in foreign mission. Counselor is responsible to take care the problems of own citizens in concern state. He/she is also responsible for issuing Passports for native citizen, Visa, people in jail that need proper legal assistance in that country. In the foreign state this kind of assistance cannot be denied. Because of that Consular will be appointed as a government official living in a foreign state to promote the commerce of the official’s own state and protect its citizens in the concern state.

Consular operations are concerned with the economic and commercial relations between nations. Originally, diplomatic and consular responsibilities were kept strictly separate because early theorists felt that national interests should not be “contaminated” by private commercial matters. Thus, two separate services—diplomatic and consular—usually existed. Today all major countries have combined these two services, and a single corps of professional civil servants serves in both areas.

Consular work involves a variety of activities. Consuls issue birth, death, and marriage certificates to citizens residing or traveling in the foreign country. Consular officers also regulate shipping, aid their country’s citizens when they travel on business or as tourists, and report on economic and business conditions abroad. Activities are often carried out in consulates located in major trading and commercial cities as well as in the capital city.

The Soviet Responses to Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan:

International Relations — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

In response to the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, which the Soviets saw as a concerted effort to encircle them, Stalin organized the Informational Bureau of Communist Parties (Cominform) in September 1947.

This was an effort to unify communist parties around the world and to put up a united front against capitalist aggression.

In January 1949, the Soviets organized the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), a Russian version of the Marshall Plan designed to aid Eastern Europe in postwar reconstruction.

It was also used to bind together the economies of the Soviet bloc, all under Moscow’s strict supervision.

Constructivism

International Relations — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Constructivism today does not accept the social world as something ‘given’, as a natural identity. It was created by human beings with their ideas, concepts and thoughts.
Constructivists focuses on how reality is ‘socially constructed’ .Constructivists of all kinds share two basic assumptions:

The fundamental structures of international politics are social rather than strictly material; and
structures shape actors’ identities and interests rather than simply their behaviour. Constructivists thus believe that human ideas define the international structure; this structure shapes the identities, interests and foreign policies of states; the state and non‐state actors reproduce that structure or sometimes transform the structure. Constructivism believes that our social world is not made essentially by material forces, external to human ideas and control: our world is made of human thoughts, beliefs and innovative ideas. From the constructivist perspective, realist, liberal, see material factors such as money, territory, and weapons as driving international politics. In contrast, constructivism looks at the powerful role that ideas play in international politics. Although they do not deny the importance of material factors such as money and weapons, constructivists argue that the effects of these factors are not predetermined. Instead, the effects of these factors depend on how we think about them. Every material manifestation in international affairs ‐ cooperation, conflict, allies, enemies, interests, power ‐ bears meaning given to it by humans. everything is a product of conscious construction by human beings. These structures are created through human ideas. For instance, a ‘security community’ ‐ for example, the NATO ‐ is a social structure created by human beings; as also the ‘security dilemma’ of states, where one country views the other as its opponent or enemy.

For constructivists, the norms of a society formulate the interests of the society that impacts the relation of the society with other societies.
For constructivists the creation of identities is a necessary feature of international politics.
Identities imply a particular set of interests or preferences. In other words identities inform interests which in turn outline particular forms of action. Constructivists claim that it is necessary to understand how actors develop these interests and identities.
Constructivists believe that the formation of identity is a dynamic process that is changed through culture, norms, ideas and international interactions. For example, the American invasion of Iraq is understood by constructivists as the collision of conflicting identities. America’s constructed identity of a promoter of democratic society led to the war to protect friendly governments from the threats caused by the authoritarian regime of Iraq.
Constructivism tries to find out the causes behind such cooperation and conflict. constructivist approach would focus more on human ideas and beliefs, rather than on the so‐called ‘material’ causes and events.
For a constructivist, cooperation happens because people want to achieve it. In other words, a constructivist may see cooperation as agreements or adjustments of two minds or mindsets. For a constructivist, idea precedes matter; for realists, matter precedes ideas.
A realist, therefore, would establish anarchy as the reality in international politics; a constructivist, on the other hand, would search the roots of anarchy in human minds.
One of the main assumptions of a constructivist approach is that identities, norms, and culture play important roles in world politics.
Identities and interests of states are not simply structurally determined, but are rather produced by interactions,
institutions, norms, cultures. It is process, not structure, which determines the manner in which states interact.
The core debates in the discipline of International Relations today revolve around normative issues put forward by
constructivists‐versus material forces‐highlighted by rationalists (realist and liberal); differences over the nature of social structures, and continuity and transformation in international politics.
constructivists put emphasis on ideas as opposed to matters in the analysis of the international society. For example, conflicts between states can be viewed as ideational conflicts or antagonistic mental constructs of the ruling elites; and not always due to physical or material aspects.

Impact of Holocaust in International Relations

International Relations — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish refugee from Poland, coined the word genocide in 1944 to describe what was happening in German‐occupied Europe. Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (1944)
In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Genocide Convention, which requires governments to “undertake to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.”

Genocide Convention

Article 1 The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
Article 2 In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

International Accountability for Crime Against Humanity

After holocaust, Prosecution of top Nazi leaders at Nuremberg established the principle that individual officials could be held responsible for “crimes against humanity” and for implementation of policies that violated international law

Tribunals created by the United Nations Security Council are trying government officials for crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda,

What are the Crime Against Humanity ?

“Crimes against humanity” include any of the following acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:
} murder;
} extermination;
} enslavement;
} deportation or forcible transfer of population;
} imprisonment;
} torture;
} rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy,
enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of
comparable gravity;
} persecution against an identifiable group on political, racial,
national, ethnic, cultural, religious or gender grounds;
} enforced disappearance of persons;
} the crime of apartheid;
} other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing
great suffering or serious bodily or mental injury.

International Protection of Human Rights

Before the Holocaust, international efforts to oppose human rights abuses were limited to other country territory.
As a result of holocaust, the recognition that the protection of human rights is an international concern expanded dramatically with the 1948 adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

When the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany became apparent after the war, the consensus within the world community was that the United Nations Charter did not sufficiently define the rights to which it referred. A universal declaration that specified the rights of individuals was necessary to give effect to the Charter’s provisions on human rights.

Protections for Refugees

} During the Nazi era, Jews fleeing the Germans and their collaborators often found that entry to other countries, including the United States, was barred.
} Later in 1951, under the United Nation Refugee Convention, governments promised not to return refugees to places where their life or freedom would be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

Reconciliation Between Christian and Jews

The Nazis exploited centuries of negative Christian teachings about Jews and Judaism to foment hatred and promote their own racist, anti‐Semitic policies
Mainstream Christian churches—Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox—failed as institutions to protest or systematically oppose Nazi persecution of Jews.

In 2000 during a historic visit to Jerusalem, Pope John Paul II expressed sorrow for “the hatred, acts of persecution, and displays of anti‐Semitism directed against Jews by Christians at any time and in any place.”

Idea of a Jewish Homeland

During the rule of Nazis in Germany, most Jews who sought to escape Nazi persecution were trapped in German‐occupied Europe because virtually no nation was willing to admit large numbers of Jews, even on a temporary basis.
After World War II, the United Nations divided Palestine into two potential states, one for Jews and one for Palestinian Arabs. The State of Israel was founded in 1948 as a homeland where any Jew could become a citizen under any circumstance.

Division of the world between NATO and warsaw pact

International Relations — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 05:41:42 +0000

North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO]

NATO was founded with the North Atlantic Treaty (also called the Washington Treaty) signed on 4 April 1949 in Washington which came into force in August 1949.

Twelve states initially signed the treaty, including the United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Since then, NATO’s membership has expanded to include a total of 28 states as of June, 2013.

NATO has its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Its guiding principle has always been to establish a just and lasting peaceful order in Europe based on common values of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

The alliance’s goal was the eventual integration of the national armed forces of the member nations into a unified military command.

Key Provisions :

The North Atlantic Treaty consists of 14 articles.

The Treaty calls for peaceful resolution of disputes and economic and political cooperation between parties.

The Treaty also calls for the development of the capacity for defense and provides for joint consultations when a member is threatened.

As mentioned in Article 5 (heart of NATO), the Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.

They promised the use of the members’ armed forces for “collective self‐defense” in case of such attack.

Structure

The highest authority within NATO is the North Atlantic Council composed of ministerial representatives of the member states, who meet at least twice a year.

The position of the secretary‐general has always been held by a European. The council is responsible for general policy, budgetary outlines, and administrative actions, and is the decision‐making body of NATO.

At other times the council is chaired by the NATO secretary‐general and the ambassadors represent the member states instead of the ministers.

Below the Council, there are the Secretariat, various temporary committees, and the Military Committee.

The position of Supreme Commander of the Military has always been held by an American.

Roles, Uses and Success of NATO

The signing of the Intermediate‐Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in 1987 between the US and USSR to eliminate all intermediate range nuclear weapons is considered as a success of NATO.

No NATO member was ever attacked during the Cold War – it never had to use its military forces during Cold War.

It used military force for the first time after Cold War in 1995 to end the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1999, NATO forces used force against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for the protection of Albanians in Kosovo. The first time a NATO member (the US) was attacked was on September 11, 2001 (by non‐state actor al‐ Qaeda).

NATO invoked article 5 of the Treaty for the first time following the September 11, 2001, attacks against the United States

NATO Now

After the formal end of the Cold War in 1991, NATO expanded to include the former members of the Warsaw Pact

It serves as a permanent and institutionalized link between the United States and an ever growing number of European allies in collective defense, crisis management and cooperative security

It has been the most important alliance for the US for the past more than 60 years.

Under the plan known as Partnership for Peace (PFP), nonmembers could be invited to participate in information sharing, joint exercises, and peacekeeping operations in NATO.

NATO activities are no longer confined only to Europe. In 2003, for the first time in its history, NATO took up peacekeeping activities outside of Europe by deploying troops in Afghanistan.

The Warsaw Pact

Warsaw Pact refers to the treaty establishing a mutual‐defense organization (Warsaw Treaty Organization) composed originally of a group of Eastern European nations and the Soviet Union.

The treaty was signed in Warsaw, Poland on May 14, 1955. The parties to the treaty were the Soviet Union and its satellite countries in Eastern Europe: Albania, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia), Bulgaria, and Romania.

The treaty was to last for 20 years, with an automatic 10‐year extension. The creation of the Warsaw Pact was prompted by the integration of a “re‐militarized” West Germany into NATO on May 9, 1955.

The competing military alliance was formed by USSR also because of its own fears of a rearmed Germany.

Soviet troops to occupy Eastern European countries as part of Warsaw Pact activities, the Soviet Union allowed itself to defend any attacks that might come from the West and, at the same time, to keep communist regimes stable.

Key Provisions

The members of the Warsaw Pact pledged to defend each other if one or more of the members were attacked.

The treaty also stated that relations among the signatories were based on mutual noninterference in internal affairs and respect for national sovereignty and independence.

It integrated the armed forces of Eastern Europe into a unified command under the USSR.

Soviet military units were placed on the territories of the other participating states.

High‐ranking Soviet officers were assigned to the defense ministries of Warsaw Pact members to ensure a uniformity of training and to keep the national militaries a part of the armed forces of the Soviet Union.

Two major bodies carried out the functions of the Warsaw Pact: the Political Consultative Committee and the Unified Command of Pact Armed Forces, both headquartered in Moscow.

Controversies and Criticisms

There was a great deal of distrust between the Soviet Union and the member states and among the member states themselves.

the Soviets did not want other pact members to have armies, air forces, or navies that could present obstacles to the Soviet Union.

The Warsaw Pact’s only military action was directed against Czechoslovakia in August 1968 when Czechoslovakia sought closer relations with the West.

The Warsaw Pact no longer exists. After the democratic revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe, the Warsaw Pact became stagnant and was formally declared “nonexistent” on July 1, 1991, at a final summit meeting of Warsaw Pact leaders in Prague, Czech