Secret Diplomacy How Far Can It Be Eliminated

This is a book on modern politics. In this book, the author is trying to find answers to how secret diplomacy can be eliminated and raises the following questions: Is secret diplomacy the evil spirit of modern politics? Is it the force that keeps nations in a state of potential hostility and does not allow a feeling of confidence and wholehearted cooperation to grow up? Or is it only a trade device, a clever method of surrounding with an aura of importance the doings of the diplomats, a race of men of average wisdom and intelligence who traditionally have valued the prestige of dealing with "secret affairs of state"? Or is it something less romantic than either of these—merely the survival from a more barbarous age of instincts of secretiveness and chicane acquired at a time when self-defense was the necessity of every hour?

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Dr. Reinsch does not hesitate to express definite opinions. Thus, he says that "had Germany been told in July, 1914, that Great Britain would support France and Russia, the war would undoubtedly have been prevented" (p. 95). The author reviews the controversy in England over a Commons Committee on Foreign Affairs, but says little as to the possibility of machinery to insure less secrecy and more parliamentary control of the executive. He contents himself with pious wishes rather than practical suggestions, and the democratic fervor that is evident on almost every page, if not eloquent, is very earnest and consistent. "Secret diplomacy destroys public confidence"; the language of ideal aims veils unconscionable actions; if democracy means anything, more and more minds must participate in the great things of the world; "Lincoln's simple faith in the people has not yet been adequately applied in international affairs" (p. 221), and, finally: "Patient, sound, upbuilding influences shall have to work powerfully on the masses of men, and on their leaders, before we may finally overcome the evils that express themselves in practices inherent in a system such as that we call 'secret diplomacy', before the world may be made an abode of mutual confidence and helpfulness instead of a house of imprisonment, suspicion and terror" (p. 224). —Political Science Quarterly, Volume 37 ...contains much illustrative material on the subject with which it deals, much ripe wisdom, much practical counsel. After a review of diplomatic practice in the last two centuries, with special attention to the diplomacy of 1900-1920, certain general conclusions are drawn for reconstructive work in the future. The author steers a true course between the insanity of the red critic of orthodox diplomacy and the complacency of the professional diplomat. If rather general and inconclusive in tone, that is because the student can, in this matter, only indicate sound principles and hope that those in power—the people and their official representatives—will act upon them. —The American Political Science Review, Volume 16

East Asia was a major focus of struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War of 1945 to 1991, with multiple "hot" and "cold" conflicts in China, Korea, and Vietnam. The struggle for predominance in East Asia, however, largely predated the Cold War, as this book shows, with many examples of the United States and Russia/the Soviet Union working to exercise and increase control in the region. The book focuses on secret treaties, 26 of them, signed from the mid-1890s through 1950, when secret agreements between China and the USSR, including several concerning the Chinese Eastern Railway, gave Russia greater control over Manchuria and Outer Mongolia. One of the most important was negotiated in 1945, when Stalin signed the Sino-Soviet Friendship Treaty with Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Nationalists, that included a secret protocol granting the Soviet Navy sea control over the Manchurian littorals. This secret protocol excluded the US Navy from landing Nationalist troops at the major Manchurian ports, thereby guaranteeing the Chinese Communist victory in Northeast China; from Manchuria, the Chinese Communists quickly spread south to take all of Mainland China. To a large degree, therefore, this formerly undiscussed secret diplomacy set the underlying conditions for the Cold War in East Asia.

This volume investigates secret diplomacy with the aim of understanding its role in shaping foreign policy. Recent events, including covert intelligence gathering operations, accusations of spying, and the leaking of sensitive government documents, have demonstrated that secrecy endures as a crucial, yet overlooked, aspect of international diplomacy. The book brings together different research programmes and views on secret diplomacy and integrates them into a coherent analytical framework, thereby filling an important gap in the literature. The aim is to stimulate, generate and direct the further development of theoretical understandings of secret diplomacy by highlighting ‘gaps’ in existing bodies of knowledge. To this end, the volume is structured around three distinct themes: concepts, contexts and cases. The first section elaborates on the different meanings and manifestations of the concept; the second part examines basic contexts that underpin the practice of secret diplomacy; while the third section presents a series of empirical cases of particular relevance for contemporary diplomatic practice. While the fundamental conditions diplomacy seeks to overcome – alienation, estrangement and separation – are imbued with distrust and secrecy, this volume highlights that, if anything, secret diplomacy is a vital, if misunderstood and unfairly criticised, aspect of diplomacy. This book will be of much interest to students of diplomacy, intelligence studies, foreign policy and IR in general.