Diplomacy with a difference : the Commonwealth Office of High Commissioner, 1880-2006
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Diplomacy with a difference : the Commonwealth Office of High Commissioner, 1880-2006
(Diplomatic studies, v. 1)
Martinus Nijhoff, 2007
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Note
includes bibliographical references and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book illuminates two familiar phenomena - diplomacy and the Commonwealth - from a new and unfamiliar angle: the atypical way in which the Commonwealth's members came to, and continue to, engage in official relations with each other. This innovative and wide-ranging study is based on archival material from four states, interviews and correspondence with diplomats, and a wide range of secondary sources. It shows how members of an empire found it necessary to engage in diplomacy and, in so doing, created a singular, and often remarkably intimate, diplomatic system. The result is a fascinating, multidisciplinary exploration of the evolving Commonwealth and the way in which its 53 members and Ireland conduct diplomacy with one another, and in so doing have contributed a distinctive terminology to the diplomatic lexicon.
Table of Contents
The office of high commissioner
High commissioners and diplomacy
Chapter 1 - Beginnings, 1880-1914
Colonial representation in London
The emergence of the office of high commissioner
Early high commissioners and the establishment of the office
Chapter 2 - Consolidation: 1914 - late 1930s
The growing stature of the dominions: their entry into international relations and the question of constitutional change
The enhanced standing of high commissioners in London
The importance of the office
An expanding work load
The growing diplomatic character of the office
Winning enhanced status
Consultation, information gathering, and high commissioners' meetings
Limitations on high commissioners as diplomats
Problems with prime ministers
Other channels of communication
Prime minister to prime minister
Government-to-government
Liaison officers
The decline of the office of governor-general and the emergence of British high commissioners
South African and Irish overtures to Canada, and the despatch of a South African 'Accredited Representative'
Chapter 3 - Discontent, late 1930s - mid-1940s
High commissioners and high commissioners' meetings during the Second World War
The expansion of high commissions
Anglo-Irish complications
High commissioner woes: Canada and South Africa
The standing of high commissioners elsewhere
Post-War developments
Ireland and Australia: 'an Ambassador, or a Minister or a What'?
Moving forwards: Ireland and Canada
Deputy high commissioners
Chapter 4 - Equal Status, 1946-1948
Discussions in Ottawa
Dominion views of the office
Britain's deliberations
The Prime Ministers' Meeting, 11-22 October 1948
Implementing the Prime Ministers' decisions
Chapter 5 - Substantive equality, late 1940s - early 1950s
Keeping India in the Commonwealth
High commissioners to and from India, Pakistan, and Ceylon
India and the question of translating high commissioners into ambassadors
Accreditation and agreation
The diplomatic consequences of Ireland's departure from the Commonwealth
Later problems
Diplomatic immunity
High commissioners and the decanat
Further equality
South Africa and the decanat, 1956
Chapter 6 - 'Ambassadors plus', early 1950s - mid-1960s
Pageantry and protocol
Royal occasions
Presentation of Credentials
The activity of high commissioners
Relations with the receiving state
The influence of British high commissions
Collegial relations
The Commonwealth Relations Office
CRO diplomacy
Information sharing
Ireland and the CRO
Safeguarding the office: the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations
Preparation
The Conference, 2 March-18 April 1961
Impact
Chapter 7 - Normalisation, early 1960s - mid-1970s
Consular relations
The Commonwealth's consular arrangements
The 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR)
Preparation
The Conference
From the Vienna Conference to consular relations
Comings - and goings
South Africa
Pakistan
The Commonwealth Secretariat
Meetings of high commissioners and of Commonwealth heads of mission
The position of high commissioners
Titular flexibility - and orthodoxy
CRO diplomacy and the demise of the CRO
Britain and the decanat
British high commissioners and the decanat in newly-independent states
The doyen in London
Australian sniping
Chapter 8 - Survival: mid-1970s - 2006
The position of high commissioners
Information sharing and collective meetings
Relations between individual high commissioners
High commissioners and the receiving state
The office and the Commonwealth
Unexpected applicants - and lost sheep
Return of the prodigal
The question of Ireland
A Commonwealth constituency
The Queen as Head of the Commonwealth
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