Hot answers tagged diplomacy
23
Theoretically, wars are still supposed to be declared. To quote the Hague Convention III of 1907:
The Contracting Powers recognize that hostilities between themselves must not commence without previous and explicit warning, in the form either of a reasoned declaration of war or of an ultimatum with conditional declaration of war.
However, after ...
17
The best known example is the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979-1981.
The people who entered and took over the US embassy in Tehran were not officially representatives of the Iranian government, but it's clear enough that they had government support; at the very least, the government did nothing (that I know of) to encourage them to leave.
The result was a ...
11
It's unclear if you mean whether it was (1) a ruse by Wilson against the American public, or (2) Germany against the USA, or (3) Germany against Mexico, or (4) British against USA?
As far as being a ruse by Wilson (e.g. he made up the telegram to present to Congress), this can likely be discounted since there is documentary evidence - in 2005, an ...
9
In 2002, Chinese forces briefly entered the Japanese general consulate in China, in the action of catching defectors from North Korea, who had just rushed into the consulate.
There was probably not much thinking during the brief time of the action, I guess. Afterwards, the Chinese officials claimed they were welcome, but the incident provoked a lot of ...
7
First of all, seeing as to how more than one SE user has questioned the seriousness of the Cuban missile crisis, let me try to outline how tense things were at the time.
The Cuban missile crisis is the only time ever that any section of the US military has mobilised to DEFCON 2. The erstwhile SAC was at DEFCON 2 while the rest of the armed forces were at ...
6
Germany sent, or tried to send the "Zimmerman telegram" to a Mexican government that basically didn't exist.
The reason was that Mexico was in throes of a "free for all" civil war at the time, which is to say that it was in a state of anarchy.
The reason the Germans thought otherwise was because the most unruly of the four major factions, the one under ...
6
It depends entirely on circumstances. It can be any of the following:
Grants (You get money)
Prior loan forgiveness.
This is EXTRA big deal since when you forgive a loan, it's not just the monetary value of the loan+interest that the recipient country essentially gets for free.
The country also removes the risk of defaulting on that loan which - if it ...
5
Short answer: No
Long answer: No.
There were no treaties imposed on Germany in the way that the Treaty of Versailles was thrust upon Germany after WWI. As Drux mentioned in his answer Germany was divided among the quadripartite nations (United States, Russia, Great Britain, France) each governed a portion of Germany.
The Potsdam Conference was where the ...
4
As a reasonable human being, you should also probably be fully aware that:
Splitting off territories based on nationalist movements is usually Bad JuJu for anyone involved, for a variety of reasons (even if done peacefully, there's negative economic impact in the beginning, and there are concerns with well-being of ethnic groups native to the former large ...
4
Wikipedia's article on the subject estimates that the practice could have existed during the Bronze Age and possibly earlier.
The practice of declaring war has a long history. The ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh gives an account of it, as does the Old Testament.
However, the practice of declaring war was not always strictly followed. In his study ...
3
What comes to my mind is the Suez Crisis of 1956. After a series of engagements between Israeli and Egyptian forces, mostly on the Sinai Peninsula, a UN force called the United Nations Emergency Force was sent in to stop further hostilities.
This was during the cold war, when Israel was backed by the US, of course, while Egypt had the support of the Soviet ...
3
In "Ptolemy's map of Ireland: a modern decoding,"* R. Darcy and William Flynn discuss Claudius Ptolemy's Geographia, a map (among many other things) mentioning what is believed to be Ireland, dating back to the early second century. Wiki says 140 AD but I could find no other source to corroborate that claim-- but logic suggests Ptolemy made Geographia in his ...
3
I haven't heard of a connection between Ireland and Egypt, but I have heard of Vikings making it to Greece closer to 1200 BC. I didn't see much about it on Wikipedia, but this article by Ellis Peterson is pretty reflective of what I had heard in a history class several years ago. He describes a Viking invasion at a time when the Greeks were weak.
If the ...
3
In fact formal declaration of war in many countries brings many practical legal consequences, which may include:
imposition of martial law
extraordinary powers for the head of state
ban on political parties and political activities as well as strikes
limitation of rights of foreign nationals, especially those of the enemy state
These consequences are not ...
2
Sometimes it means: US lend $1 billion check to Pakistan at some rate. But Pakistan must buy US weapon for these money, must hire US consultants to use it for its own money, at prices set by US, do this-and-this on the borders, arrest such and such people and so on.
Usually the agreement is not so blatant, but they are only plans. Reality is much worse. I ...
2
The following quote is in support of the answer No, i.e. the terms of treaties imposed upon Germany after their defeat in WWII were not felt to be as insulting as the ones that were imposed with Versailles?
The unification of the Allied sectors and the visible commitment to
reconstruction cheered Germans, as did what were widely regarded as
heroic ...
2
Diplomats enjoy certain immunities. When accredited as such, they can travel in "enemy territory" without interference (unless declared persona non grata), and only the least "civilized" countries will violate the sanctity and privacy of diplomatic pouches.
It was much easier for Japanese diplomats to travel through the Soviet Union than for German ...
2
It seems that Argentina had become part of the League by International law, not by it's Constitution. The League turned down several of Argentina's proposed amendments (which contradicted other articles of the League's Covenant) at the first assembly of the League of Nations. Argentina promptly withdrew, but never gave a formal notice of withdrawal.
...
2
Contrary to what other answerers wrote, the actual situation was much stricter to Germany than after WWI.
The basic fact is that post-WWII German government had no continuity with the pre-defeat one.
Actually German state was completely demolished, and after a while, two new states were re-instituted.
The founders of the new states were the occupying ...
1
Well at least there was such practice in the days of the Romans and ancient Greeks. Up to the Trojan war. We do not have earlier sources, but arguably the practice originates thousands of years BC.
Of course "formal" meant "verbal and explicit" in those times, not necessary written on the paper.
I suppose the practice originated with ultimatums: the ...
1
There is the obvious geo-political gain of weakening their British enemies, who had seen such expansion in that theatre during the seven year war. Come the next war (Napoleonic, yes, unfortunately not so much of a gain for the Bourbons) the United states offered both trade to France and co-belligerency (1812 war). However, I get the feeling France expected ...
1
This letter from John Adams to John Jay makes no mention of any "back turning" incident.
This website talks about how King George III eventually accepted John Adams, and claims that King George III acted in the following manner:
He behaved with dignity during the interview, though he showed that he was affected by it, and assured the minister that as he ...
1
EDIT
The answer to your question is no.
Countries are considered on equal footing, they are sovereign. For one country's court to compel another country the compelling court would have to have jurisdiction. The only possible scenario by which a court of another sovereign can have jurisdiction over another sovereign is if that other sovereign consents to ...
1
Firstly, the Zimmerman telegram was real and sent, he admitted so himself at a press conference.
Secondly, it was a feint to turn Americas attention away from the war in Europe and towards a possible one against Mexico. Germany feared Americas involvement in the war and wanted to ensure they were more concerned with one closer to home. There was no serious ...
1
What can't they just simply come up with a new name?
Well that's hard. People are attached to their name, the name of their family, the name of their tribe, name of their city, name of their country. "come up with a new name" means they should change their name based on what someone else wants. Lots of people don't like this, and think that they alone ...
1
In his judgment in the Tokyo war crimes tribunal, Justice Radhabinod Pal claimed that while in the west there was a convention of declaring war before the resumption of hostilities, the east did not have anything similar. He also provided a number of examples of wars that had been fought without ever declaring war, which is available in the report. So it can ...
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