Articles de revues sur le sujet « Diplomatic and consular service – Germany »

The article covers the activities of the German mission in Kyiv as a cultural, political, and administrative centre of the Ukrainian SSR in 1924–38 in the status of a consulate and consulate-general. The data about the following heads of the consular institution is provided: Siegfried Hey, Werner Stephanie, Rudolf Sommer, Andor Hencke, and Georg-Wilhelm Grosskopf. The legal basis for the establishment of consular relations between the Ukrainian SSR and Germany was the Treaty on Application of the Treaty of Rapallo signed on 16 April 1922 between the RSFSR and Germany to the Allied Republics of the RSFSR. The consular district of the first German mission covered Kyiv, Chernihiv, Podillia, and Volyn governorates. The mission of the consulate was to inform the government about the internal situation in the Ukrainian SSR, promote trade relations and cultural cooperation, and protect the interests of German citizens. The head of the consulate immediately came under close surveillance of the ODPU (United State Political Department) of the Ukrainian SSR on suspicion of conducting intelligence activities as well as collecting information about the economy, industry, and agriculture in the territory of his consular district. Subsequently, the ODPU increasingly introduced its own agents to the staff of foreign missions as service personnel, and NKVD agents in civilian clothing set up surveillance on the consulate’s premises. They accompanied the consul, the consulate staff, and even some visitors on their way out of the premises. Thus, the secret service collected compromising materials that gave grounds for accusing German diplomats of anti-Soviet activities and espionage. The consul’s correspondence was also under control. When A. Hitler came to power in Germany, the information confrontation between the USSR and the Third Reich began, but official diplomatic and consular relations continued. In his reports, the consul in Kyiv recorded the horrors of the Holodomor, the growing process of party ‘purges’, secret executions and suicides, coupled, from January 1937, with daily reprisals against intellectuals and workers in his consular district. The consulate-general in Kyiv ceased its operation in 1938, the official reason being the streamlining of the number of consular offices of the Third Reich and the USSR. Keywords: German Consulate, Werner Stephanie, Rudolph Sommer, Andor Hencke.

As opposed to the overwhelming majority of researches within the so called “Diplomatic studies” that focus on an institutional design of external services (which appears to be “the form” of diplomacy per se), this article deals with “the substance” of the matter in question, paying special attention to the means and ways of educating and integrating young diplomats into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. Unlike the State Department (the USA), Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO, the UK), le Quais d’Orsay (the MFA of France) or Das Auswärtige Amt (the MFA of Germany), that are influenced by the so-called “political appointees”, the Russian diplomatic service is renowned for its “career diplomats”, who generation after generation are recruited into the Ministry to form (by means of different vertical and horizontal ties) a close-knit team that promotes the country’s national interests on the world stage. Thus, the authors explore the process of renewal of the Russian diplomatic service, whereby young diplomats are being purposefully groomed in several national Universities (namely, MGIMO-University or Diplomatic Academy) to subsequently rise through the ranks of the Ministry by taking disparate career trajectories (for example, depending on or, conversely, irrespective of the foreign languages they acquired), occupying different job families (desk work, protocol, interpretation, consular service, public relations, etc.), taking part in a diplomatic rotation that will bring them to various home (in Headquarters) and overseas (Embassies, Permanent Missions and Consulate- Generals) postings and acquiring new ranks as a prerequisite to promotion from junior to senior positions. As a result, Russia’s diplomatic service has come to be seen as a full-fledged system, the key to understanding of which lies not in depicting the existing institutional framework (which appears to be the focus of the overwhelming majority of works on the matter), but in scrutinizing main recruitment principles and the MFA’s personnel policy, thoroughly analyzed in this article.

The author presents the specifi c elements of diplomatic and consular work in the South Pacifi c region from the perspective of a career diplomat. He shows the main geographical and political characteristics of Australia which infl uence consular activity and also the characteristics of the benefi ciaries of consular services who need to be served by the consular infrastructure. The study presents several models for undertaking Hungarian consular work and for organizing the Hungarian consular network in Australia. The author also outlines current inconsistencies in the regulations applicable to consular activity in Australia under domestic, international, and Hungarian norms as well as functional issues and the possible ways to correct them. In his conclusions, the author formulates proposals for the redesign of consular organization in Australia.

The institutional predecessors of the recent Diplomatic Academy in Vienna took a significant impact on the civil service of the Habsburg Monarchy. The Oriental Academy was founded by empress Maria Theresia in 1754 to train dragomans for the eastern relations. The Academy stood under Jesuit influence and became a secular institution in the middle of the 19th century. By this time the political and legal studies had been dominated on behalf of human and natural sciences and the Academy had been turning to a special institution for training professionals for the foreign service (central service, diplomatic service, consular service). In 1898 the Oriental Academy was transformed into the Imperial and Royal Consular-Academy by Minister Gołuchowski. This reform affected the educational structure as well and the institution focused on the consular branch. The quota of political and economical courses increased as a reflection to the intensive global trade, but on the other hand Austrian and Hungarian Constitutional Law were also set in the new educational system due to the public legal transformation of the Monarchy in 1867 (Austro-Hungarian Compromise). This study aims to present the brief institutional history of the Oriental and Consular Academy and the way the educational system of the Academy had evolved. At last, it is going to be observed to what extent constitutional legal studies were represented in the courses of the institution and how they interpreted the disputed legal nature of the dualistic Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the formation of the legal framework that made possible the existence and functioning of the US foreign service. The purpose of the article is to clarify the preface and the course of formation of the professional foreign service of the United States, which was reflected in the adoption of the Rogers Act. The methodological basis of the study. The study was based on the principle of historicism, which contributed to the consideration of the phenomenon under study in its development and made it possible to identify periods in the formation of a professional diplomatic service. The use of the problem-chronological method contributed to the preservation of the historical heredity and integrity of the picture; the application of the comparative method made it possible to identify significant changes that occurred after the adoption of Rogers’ Law, which was considered through the use of the method of analysis. A historiographical description of the main scientific works devoted to the research topic is given. Analyzed works A. Evans, T. Lay, I. Stewart etc., which became the basis for the study. The scientific novelty lies in the systematization of ideas about qualitative and quantitative changes in the diplomatic service after the adoption of the relevant law. The author concludes that before the adoption of the Rogers Act there was no control over the selection of diplomatic and consular staff and the negative consequences of such a decision were especially evident during the First World War. Therefore, the historical conditions in which America found itself at that time became a challenge for the continued existence of the consular and diplomatic services, and therefore the issue of restructuring and modernization of these services in the United States and its transfer to another, qualitatively new level. In general, the author emphasizes the change in the status of foreign service, which was introduced by relevant legislation, namely the Rogers Act, the need for which was caused by certain historical conditions of the American state and its place on the world stage. Prior to the enactment of the Diplomatic Service Act, there was virtually no control over the selection of diplomatic and consular personnel representing the United States on the world stage. After the First World War, it became clear that the diplomatic service needed to be restructured. That is why Rogers’ law was passed, which, in fact, was the first legislative attempt to resolve this issue.

A small country with a big international footprint, the Netherlands depends on the world around it for its future security, prosperity and well-being. Its wide diplomatic network is managed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is responsible for policy in the areas of foreign relations and trade, European cooperation, development cooperation and consular services provided to Dutch nationals abroad. Responsibility for foreign trade was added to the ministry’s core tasks when the present Dutch government was formed in 2012. This article looks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ major programme of reforms and spending cuts—‘Modernizing the Diplomatic Service’—which was started three years ago to ensure that the diplomatic service remains well placed to fulfil its roles. The article discusses the rationale behind the programme, the approach taken, and discusses the reforms that have been introduced and the lessons learned. Finally, the article considers elements for future reform.

The article is regarding issues of the scope of the immunity of the honorary consul in the treaty particular situation, when the double-sided consular convention being in force between the sending but assuming state isn't distinguishing between professional but honorable consular officers, at the simultaneous sweep the immunity of the consul. In such a situation a fundamental problem is arising - how to treat the honourable consular officer sending you under the immunity account. Theoretically the host country has two possibilities. He can acknowledge that the silence of the bilateral convention on separating the honorable consular service means that the bilateral convention under the immunity account refers only to professional consuls. He/she will be marking it, that honorary consuls will be treated according to standards of the Vienna Convention on consular relationships from 1963 He can however accept, that sometimes very strong jurisdictional immunity guaranteed by the bilateral convention (answering as for of one's scope for diplomatic immunity) will concern both consular categories in the identical scope. Presenting arguments starting to speak is a purpose of the present text too both with interpretations without ultimate determining the correctness one or of second interpretation of norms.

The EU does not aim to harmonize the public administration of Member States, although, in recent years, there have been several examples which prove that EU legislation in whatever policy inevitably and unavoidably results in some standardization. In 2015 the EU replaced its former decision with a directive to enhance Member States to co-ordinate consular assistance in third States. Every EU citizen has the right to enjoy, in the territory of a third State in which the Member State of which they are nationals is not represented, the protection of the diplomatic and consular authorities of any Member State on the same conditions as the nationals of that State. This provision of Article 23 of TFEU not solely requires the cooperation of administrative authorities of foreign service but implicitly means a kind of harmonization of substantive law, leads to organizational changes and affects administrative procedural rules of Member States.

The paper provides an overview of the current digital diplomacy (DD) practices being implemented by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Ukraine and Kuwait. Given the fact that digital diplomacy is becoming an integral part of the foreign policy in numerous countries, it appears reasonable to analyze the latest experience of Ukraine and Kuwait which represent a fast implementation of digital instruments in their diplomatic practices. Both states are considered as long-time partners which enjoy a fruitful experience of mutual cooperation and have certain peculiarities in the use of digital diplomacy. At the same time, high technologies transform the traditional diplomacy, dramatically increasing the digital impact on the practice and priorities of international relations. Such challenges as digital diplomatic management, targeting of widening key audiences and increasing transparency of diplomatic actions have already become a new reality for modern diplomats. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the goals, tool-kit and challenges of digital diplomacy of Ukraine and Kuwait. The paper also presents a comparative analysis of existing positive practices of Ukraine and Kuwait in digital diplomacy. This research made it possible to trace the key areas of the digitalization processes in the diplomatic services of Ukraine and Kuwait including consular online services, digitalization of diplomats’ training, the use of digital instruments in the routine diplomatic procedures etc. The author elaborated a comparative table outlining the similarities and differences of digital diplomacy of the mentioned countries. The study confirms that digital diplomacy can be helpful in a range of issues, from internal communication between government bodies to security challenges (e.g. countering information threats and disinformation in the online network). Thus, the coordinated and comprehensive digitalization of diplomatic practice is no longer a subject of discussions on feasibility but a priority on the diplomatic agendas.

The article discusses a significantly modified regulation within administrative law applied in the consular service. There seems to be a need for a voice in the discussion regarding the legal status of a Consul of the Republic of Poland (as well as the other members of the diplomatic corpus) as seen from an administrative law point of view. In the background of two regimes of administrative and consular law, it is also undoubtedly necessary to indicate the basic procedural border problems. A very typical example are the modified administrative procedures provided for diplomacy, with particular emphasis put on the importance of jurisdictional administrative proceedings lead by the consul. The administrative procedure constructed in this way by the legislature differs in many points from the general administrative procedure performed by other Polish authorities. Therefore, to some extent, it can be perceived as a specific administrative consular law. The aim of this article is to signal the typical procedural differences and to point out their sources. “Consular administrative law” can be perceived as a special administrative procedure, which does not constitute part of the general administrative procedure applicable to all national authorities and citizens in Poland, but which still is a sub-branch of Polish consular law which applies to the Polish citizens and foreigners in a specific administrative situations. The existence of so-called “consular administrative law”, however, presupposes one fundamental condition, which is having and maintaining foreign relations in the first place.

The specifics of the functioning of foreign diplomatic institutions of Ukraine in the conditions of digital transformation have been studied. It was determined that the practice of maintaining pages in social networks, organizing online lectures and online briefings of diplomats, creating chatbots, information platforms, mobile applications, or various distance courses aimed at popularizing one's country in the world is currently widespread. In the activities of foreign diplomatic institutions of Ukraine, not only various forms and methods of digital transformation are actively pursued, but certain achievements are already available, which are embodied in real indicators. First of all, digital transformation in foreign diplomatic institutions of Ukraine is aimed at transferring most services to an online format, simplifying the procedures for obtaining them, minimizing bureaucratic formalities, increasing the efficiency of decision-making and providing assistance, optimizing financial costs for maintaining institutions, making information available and reducing the burden on employees diplomatic institutions. The main aspects of digital transformation, which is currently taking place in the system of diplomatic service bodies in general, and in foreign diplomatic institutions in particular, are revealed. The main achievements of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in the direction of digital transformation were characterized, in particular the following: implementation of the project "DRUG" (Voluntary registration of Ukrainian citizens)" introduction of electronic queues in all foreign diplomatic institutions of Ukraine; provision of access to 2 million hard of hearing and deaf Ukrainians to the services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanks to new software; reducing the deadline for issuing Ukrainian e-visas for foreigners; creation of a chatbot platform for round-the-clock advisory support of citizens; a new information resource "Advice to travelers from the consular service of Ukraine" was introduced; the formation of the regulatory and legal framework necessary for keeping consular records in electronic form (e-Accounting) has been completed; The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is connected to the "Trembit" electronic interaction system, which will speed up the receipt of information from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine for prompt confirmation of the validity of a driver's license and the issuance of a criminal record certificate. Further directions of digital transformation, which directly affect the functioning of foreign diplomatic institutions of Ukraine, are outlined, namely: joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to the registers of other bodies, primarily the Ministry of Justice; launch of the "e-Notary", "e-Legalization", "e-Apostille" modules by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine with the assistance of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and jointly with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and the State Tax Service of Ukraine.

Ukrainian-Romanian relations have in fact become the main subject of my professional life. I started as a historian during the Soviet Union times and later as a diplomat of Independent Ukraine from December of 1992. For almost 14 years out of 24 of my diplomatic service I worked first as political adviser at the Embassy of Ukraine in Romania (1994–1999), and then twice as Consul General of Ukraine in Romanian city of Suceava in 2001-2005 and in 2010–2014. I had the honour to open the Ukrainian consular office in Romania in 2001, which was unfortunately closed in 2014! It was a combination of pleasant moments with sad feelings. Due to a certain aggravation of relations between Ukraine and Romania in the middle of 1994, in particular the Transnistrian crisis, I was urgently appointed as a Counsellor at our Embassy in Bucharest. Thus, after a year and a half of joining the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in July 1994 I left for a long-term diplomatic appointment to Romania. After the end of this assignment in November 1999, I was appointed as a deputy Head of the Secretariat of the new Minister for Foreign Affairs Borys I. Tarasiuk. In December 2001 I was appointed as the first Consul General of Ukraine in Suceava city. At that time, the Ukrainian-Romanian political relations were rather complicated. Occasionally, the Romanian side officially accused Ukraine of “non-fulfilment” of the basic bi-lateral political agreement, especially with regard to ensuring the cultural and educational rights of the Romanian minority in Ukraine, although the real situation was completely different. The first Consulate General of Ukraine in Romania which I had the honour to open, performed all the functions stipulated by our national Consular Statute. Our first concern was the provision of necessary support to citizens of Ukraine who visited Romania or lived in this country. My first Consular mission to Romania ended in 2005 and from September 2010 to November of 2014 I again represented Ukraine in Suceava. However, this time my working mood was not so uplifted. Then I remembered an advice of B. I. Tarasiuk, then already the deputy at our Verkhovna Rada, who said to me, “You have to serve Ukraine”. The distinctive thing about consular work is that its main aim is to protect the rights of Ukrainian citizens living or temporarily staying in the territory of a country of one’s appointment. Therefore, I paid special attention to this working direction. After returning from Romania, I worked for some time again as the Ambassador at large and reaching the retirement age in January 2016 I discontinued my diplomatic service by my own will, as I believed that young Ukrainian diplomats should have “space” for their career and professional growth. Keywords: Embassy of Ukraine in Romania, Consulate General of Ukraine in the Romanian city of Suceava, reminiscences, biography, diplomatic service of Ukraine.

ABSTRACTDuring the nineteenth century the British consular service was often dismissed as an organization with purely commercial responsibilities. A succession of governments and diplomats insisted upon this notion, despite the fact that at certain times both relied very much on consular officials for information on foreign affairs. This dependence was especially evident in Italy during the decade after 1860, when British leaders had lent their moral and diplomatic support to the creation of the modern Italian state against considerable international opposition. During this period their desire not to see the achievement undone led them to maintain a close watch on Italian affairs. The contribution made in this area by the consular service, and the manner in which it was reorganized in response to Italian unification, show how such a role could take priority over its other functions. Although this state of affairs was no doubt exceptional on account of the remarkable level of British interest in the Unification of Italy, it nonetheless provides a clear demonstration of how the organization could be used under certain circumstances. The extent to which British consuls were used to monitor affairs in post-unification Italy also encourages reflection upon the widespread view that British foreign policy rejected interventionism in favour of isolation from European affairs during the 1860s.

This article asks the question what relevance do Article 19 (Government Service) and Article 28 (Members of diplomatic missions and consular posts) have in today's bilateral tax treaty system. Borne out of international courtesy, and codified in the Vienna Conventions, the fiscal immunity of governments in their foreign affairs is a well-established principle in international taxation. Articles 19 and 28 of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and Capital are a representation of this principle in the framework of the double taxation convention (DTC). The article focuses on the extension of these provisions in this context, and assesses the substantive value, history and recent practical trends in support thereof.

Los uniformes han servido siempre para distinguir grupos de profesionales. La carrera diplomática española es uno de esos grupos que tienen en esta tipo de prenda una de sus señas de identidad. Son ya muy pocos los servicios diplomáticos –los de ciertas monarquías- que todavía disponen de uniforme. Su uso casi siempre se ha limitado, también en el caso de esos otros países, a las ocasiones de gala. Apenas ha evolucionado desde sus orígenes en el siglo XIX. Además los de todos esos países son similares, con una casaca de paño azul marino, y unos bordados dorados. Desde que en 1928 se unificaron en España las carreras diplomática y consular, el uniforme es único para estos profesionales. Los símbolos que les identifican y la tradición establecida al respecto fueron recogidos en el Reglamento Orgánico de la Carrera Diplomática, de 15 de julio de 1955. Teniendo en cuenta los cambios ocurridos desde sus orígenes se presenta una breve historia del origen y evolución del uniforme hasta el modelo actual.________________________________Uniforms have always served to distinguish groups of professionals. The Spanish Diplomatic Service counts itself among those groups that have in this garment one of their distinguishing feature. It is one of the last Services, most of them belonging to European monarchies, to have a uniform. Its use has nearly always been restricted to gala occasions. The garment has scarcely changed since its origins in the nineteenth century. Since 1928, the year when the unification of the Spanish Diplomatic and Consular Services occurred, there is only one model of uniform. Its identification symbols and the tradition laid down in this matter, where included in the Organic Regulations of the Diplomatic Service, dated July 15, 1955. Taking into account the changes that have affected this garment since then, a brief history of the origin and evolution of the uniform up to the current model is presented.

Problem setting. In the XXI century almost all aspects of human life are covered by the processes of scientific and technological progress. The sphere of law has not been spared from these processes: thanks to information technologies, certain legal services have become more accessible and convenient. In Ukraine, this was manifested not only in the creation of electronic versions of national legislation and various electronic registers, but also in the provision of administrative services through the relevant services. Consular activities involve the provision of services. Amendments to the procedure for the provision of such administrative services and the provision of such services in electronic form can accelerate the process of digitalization of Ukraine, as well as unload the work of diplomatic institutions and reduce corruption risks. Analysis of recent researches and publications. In the national legal literature in recent years, much attention has been paid to e-government (Kravets R., Kuzhda T., Romaniv T.), while almost no attention is paid to the analysis of the state of implementation of electronic services (Solomko Y.), in particular electronic visa services (Kolomiets G., Makhoniuk O., Mulska O.), which determines the relevance and practical significance of this study. Target of research is to investigate the introduction of electronic services for foreign citizens to obtain a visa to enter or transit through the territory of Ukraine, as well as forecasting the prospects of using electronic visas in Ukraine based on the analysis of foreign experience of using this type of visa. Article’s main body. For the implementation of visa services, the Internet acts as a special platform for submitting, processing and, in some cases, providing a ready-made document granting the right to enter the country. This may be a special government website designed to process visa applications of foreigners or a special web application for migration issues. The use of the e-visa concept has been successfully tested in foreign countries and in the EU. It is mainly used by the states with strict immigration policies in order to facilitate and systematize the work of their diplomatic, consular and migration institutions, an electronic authorization system was created. Conclusions and prospects for the development. As a result of the study of the phenomenon of e-diplomacy, analysis of the practice of using electronic services for the provision of administrative services by diplomatic and consular institutions, analysis of the legislation of the countries with advanced e-visas, the state of implementation of e-visas in Ukraine was assessed and the prospects for their development were determined. The steps of the state in this direction are part of a large reform of digitalization of the country, the implementation of which will improve the image of Ukraine in the world, make our country attractive for tourists, as well as optimize the visa issuance procedure, relieving the workload of diplomatic and consular missions, authorized persons for processing visa applications and the Migration Service of Ukraine. The introduction of the e-visa institute as an element of digital diplomacy provides an opportunity for quick bilateral contact and communication, and thus contributes to the achievement of the goals set in the Strategy of State Migration Policy of Ukraine until 2025.

The present study reveals the activities of the Austrian vice-consulate in Rousse along the Danubian coastline in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution (1848 – 1849). The Austrian vice-consul in the city, Emmanuel von Rössler, developed diligent intelligence and public service activities in Rousse, Vidin and Shumen, with which he privileged Habsburg loyalists and hindered the activity of separatist defectors in the Ottoman Empire. In the spirit of “new” diplomatic history, the contribution pays particular attention to the relationship between the vice-consul and the many disaffected soldiers and emigrants who relied on his instructions and resources in the tense political situation after the revolutionary 1848. Also, the article rethinks the place of consular institutions in the world of international relations through the lens of transnational history, emphasizing their relative independence and presenting a more accurate picture of the active interactions between different consular missions and units. Last but not least, the study uses the methodology of “entangled” history to rethink the role of local events in the Ottoman lands between Stara Planina and the Danube in the context of the global Age of Revolutions, analyzing the processes in this region as an integral part of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary dynamics in the middle of the “long” XIX century.

This research intends to cover the process of establishment of the U.S.–Saudi relations, and the factors it was influenced by. It is based on the study of the U.S. foreign policy documents. The research has revealed that the United States recognized the government of the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd (February 1931) after an agreement was reached to elevate its diplomatic representation in Iraq to the ambassadorial level. That means that the U.S. prioritized relations with the Kingdom of Iraq to relations with the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd. The United States recognized the government of the King Ibn Saud due to commercial interests. Hereafter the Department of State initiated the U.S.–Saudi Provisional Agreement in regard to Diplomatic and Consular Representation, Juridical Protection, Commerce and Navigation, signed in November 1933. It was aimed at protecting the rights of the U.S. citizens, who worked in the Kingdom since 1931, especially after obtaining the oil concession by the California Standard Oil company in May 1933. However, the diplomatic representative to Saudi Arabia was not appointed. This issue was mainstreamed when commercial volumes of oil were discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1938, the U.S. oil company signed its second concession agreement in 1939, and the U. S. commercial interests in Saudi Arabia had significantly increased. Besides, the representatives of Great Britain, Germany and Japan intensified their activities to obtain oil concessions in Saudi Arabia. The King Ibn Saud highly appreciated exclusively commercial U.S. interests, the absence of its intentions to expand political influence or to take over Saudi territories. For these reasons, he preferred cooperation with the United States to other nations. The U.S.–Saudi diplomatic relations were established on February 4, 1940, when B. Fish, who was the U. S. Minister–resident in Egypt, presented his credentials to the King Ibn Saud. The decision to establish diplomatic representation in Saudi Arabia was taken in June–July 1939. It was caused by the increasing competition for Saudi oil, not a beginning of the World War, as some scholars suggest.

The article deals with the content of the first draft regulations for the institution of honorary consuls in Ukraine in 1918-1923, and the circumstances of founding the first missions of honorary consuls. The research was conducted on the basis of archival information from the documents stored in the Central State Archives of Higher Futhorities and Government of Ukraine. The question of establishing the special positions of honorary consuls was raised during the compilation of the Ukrainian State Consular Statute. During the period of the Central Rada there were no concepts regards these positions in the draft regulations related to the establishment of consular service as a public institution. The actual steps to institute the posts of honorary consuls were done in the time of the Directory of the UNR. Firstly the question was put at a meeting of ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions of UNR in Vienna, 18 – August 20, 1920. From January 1921, the Honorary consulates were established in Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark. Leaders of honorary consulates were searched among the local business elites. Information about candidate was carefully studied before taking a decision on the appointment. The first persons, appointed as a honorary consuls of Ukraine, were the foreigners Harold Simsonen, Simon Kuoni, Johann Hausschild, Wilhelm Christiansen and the Ukrainian Alex Bogolyubskii.

The article deals with influence of the Serbian elite in the scope of the Yugoslav Foreign Service during 1918–1939. The influence of the elite circles was particularly prominent in the Yugoslav Army and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as was the case in Serbia until 1918. As non-institutional factors had great influence on the work of state institutions, the first aim of this paper is to examine the main aspect for selection, career development and obstacles in the life of Yugoslav Diplomats, derived from the power struggle among elite circles. The second aim is to compare Serbian and Yugoslav experiences in order to establish similarities and differences in the characteristics of the pre-War and Interwar Diplomatic-Consular personnel. The analysis is based on Yugoslav archival materials, as well as on foreign published documents, memorial literature and relevant Yugoslav/Serbian and foreign historiography.

In 1816, Charles Davenport Coxe, anxious to leave his New Jersey home and return to his diplomatic career, sought a consular appointment to France with the support of his former superior in North Africa, Tobias Lear, who praised Coxe’s arduous service in Tunis at a time when the United States had no warships in the Mediterranean to protect its commerce. However, Coxe’s application was not successful nor was his later bid to return to the Marine Corps as its commandant. Finally, in 1824, Coxe’s efforts were rewarded with an appointment as consul at Tunis. The following year, he was transferred to another North African capital, Tripoli, where he became awkwardly entangled in the local fallout of big-power rivalries and Tripolitan politics. Coxe died in Tripoli in 1830, his legacy one of involvement in two of his country’s most challenging and distant outposts as it began to emerge on the world stage.

The article is devoted to one of the greatest German poets of the Baroque era, Martin Opitz. Although during his lifetime he became one of the most honoured writers, poetry seldom brought him financial stability and independence, which he achieved thanks to his diplomatic service under various influential rulers of the Holy Roman Empire. M. Opitz never had a high diplomatic rank, usually holding the positions of an agent or a secretary, which, however, did not prevent him from often being in the thick of political events. Opitz's life spanned the years of the Thirty Years' War, which turned his life upside down. The article focuses on the problem of the influence of M. Opitz's diplomatic activity on the formation of his patriotic views and the development of the German national idea in his poetic works, thanks to which he became widely known. During his diplomatic trips, Opitz, by virtue of his pronounced artistic emotional perception of the events of the Thirty Years' War, tragic for the German lands, divided the world around him into “friends”, “Germans”, and “aliens”, i.e. enemies who sought, as the poet argued, “to enslave Germany.” The article evaluates the role of diplomatic activity in the life of Opitz in the formation of the specific phenomenon of German nationalism. The article is based on rare, only partially introduced into academic circulation historiography, where a special place is occupied by biographical materials, namely the private correspondence of M. Opitz, his first biography, compiled by a close friend Ch. Koeler, and the funeral sermon by the poet Jh. Rist.

In his essay on the “Uniting for Peace” resolution, Larry Johnson suggests that the General Assembly can recommend non-use of force collective measures when the Security Council is blocked because of a permanent member casting a veto. He rightly points out that today there is no longer any need to use Uniting for Peace for such recommendations. The General Assembly can and has recommended so-called “voluntary sanctions” in cases where it found a threat to international peace and security to exist. For example, in resolution 2107 (XX) of December 21, 1965 concerning the Question of Territories under Portuguese Administration, the Assembly, making no reference to Uniting for Peace, urged “Member States to take the following measures, separately or collectively:(a)To break off diplomatic and consular relations with the Government of Portugal or refrain from establishing such relations;(b)To close their ports to all vessels flying the Portuguese flag or in the service of Portugal;(c)To prohibit their ships from entering any ports in Portugal and its colonial territories;(d)To refuse landing and transit facilities to all aircraft belonging to or in the service of the Government of Portugal and to companies registered under the laws of Portugal;(e)To boycott all trade with Portugal.”

The purpose of the study is to clarify the source potential of the Ukrainian Diplomatic Archive for studying the specifics of the activities of the Japanese Consulate in Odesa in the interwar period. The research methodology is based on the principles of scientificity, historicism, systematicity and general scientific and special scientific methods, in particular archival heuristics and source criticism. The scientific novelty of the research results lies in the reconstruction of the Ukrainian component of the source base of the activity of the Japanese consulate in Odesa in the interwar period. Conclusions: The main array of documents related to the activities of the Japanese consular institution in Odesa in the interwar period was not preserved in Ukrainian archives. At that time, Ukraine was part of the USSR, was deprived of the right to engage in foreign policy activities and interacted with foreign missions within the framework of all-Union instructions. Soviet special services also supervised foreign missions. The Branch State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine holds a relevant documentary complex, which includes three thematic groups: reports on the results of supervising the heads of the Consulate of Japan in Odesa; reports on the results of supervising consulate staff; copies of intercepted consul reports on the economic and social policy of the USSR, the state of industry and agriculture. The source base for the study of the activities of the Japanese Consulate in Odesa is wider than the documents of the special services and is part of the Ukrainian Diplomatic Archive in the segment of Ukrainian-Japanese relations. Despite the fact that the activity of the consulate can be considered only as a diplomatic presence of Japan on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, documentary information indicates direct contacts of Japanese diplomats with Ukrainian state bodies, plans to start trade relations with the Ukrainian SSR, etc. Documents on this topic are also in the Central State Archive of Supreme Authorities of Ukraine, state archives of Odesa and Mykolaiv regions. The creation of the Diplomatic e-archive will help expand access to documents about the activities of foreign missions in Ukraine and Ukrainian-Japanese relations

Abstract During the Cold War the Bonn government always insisted on the »principle of non-involvement« in its China policy, in order to maintain strict neutrality in the continuous conflicts in the Far East. For strategic and intelligence considerations, however, the Federal Intelligence Service and the Federal Ministry of Defense had tried to intensify the relations with National China. The contacts between Bonn and Taipei developed to a military training aid, which the Federal Ministry of Defense granted National Chinese officers for training purposes into the Federal Republic. In the period 1964 to 1973, a total of 27 National Chinese army officers were trained in the German Armed Forces schools and the Führungsakademie. The German military training aid was considered not only as a starting point of a diplomatic break-through, but also as a means to break the political ice age which resulted from the lack of diplomatic relations between West Germany and National China in the post-war period.

AbstractThis article continues an examination of the British government's counter-revolutionary organization begun in ‘The Alien Office 1792-1806’, The Historical Journal, XXXIII (1990), which outlined the department's functions and secret service policy. The Swiss and Swabian agencies were one aspect of British foreign secret service; they linked the French princes' secret agents to the British government under the central European control of William Wickham, ambassador in Berne 1794–7, and military and diplomatic subsidiaries. Anti-republican secret committees were set up covering all France, Switzerland, northern Italy and southern Germany, which included members from every grade of society. French republican generals, even Ministers were swayed, allowing infiltration of the French secret police. British control was however limited to the finesse of finance – bribery was implicit. By never offering enough to the leaders and too much to assistants, initial constitutional intentions slid into subversion and assassination. The first complete andfully documented description is included of how, why, and by whom, the French deputies were assassinated at Rastadt.

On April 14-15 the International scientific and practical conference Digital international relations 2022 took place at MGIMO University. The event was organized by MGIMO University in cooperation with Ivannikov Institute for System Programming of the RAS under the aegis of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Plenary session International Relations in the Context of Digitalization of Public Life was opened with the speeches of the Rector of MGIMO University A. Torkunov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs S. Lavrov, the Minister of Science and Higher Education V. Falkov, the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. Sergeyev, the Deputy Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media A. Shoytov, the Director of the Institute for System Programming A. Avetisyan and the President of the Russian association for public relations Ye. Minchenko. Distinguished guests noted the growing role of digital technologies in world politics, public administration, economics, education, and science. There were lots of sessions, panel discussions and round tables, such as Digital public diplomacy: new rules of international politics; Digital transformation of ASEAN and Russia: points of convergence; Legal support for the development of the digital economy in Russia and abroad; Diplomatic and consular service in the era of digitalization of international relations; Digital technologies and new media; Digital youth: what awaits the employer in the 21st century; Data analysis and international processes dynamics; Business models and business processes’ digital transformation; Regional experience of the economy and social sphere digitalization: best practices. The conference was attended by more than 750 professionals from different countries and regions – scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs working in IT, social science, and humanities. This variety helped to hold lively and open discussions on the most relevant and significant topics and to establish interaction between highly qualified specialists who have absolutely different but equally deep understanding of digital technologies.

The early career of Herbert Blankenhorn (1904–1991) illustrates important trends in the transition from Nazi Germany to the Federal Republic. During the 1930s and 1940s he served as a diplomat in the German Foreign Office and also joined the Nazi Party in 1938. After 1945 he would play a very public role in the creation of a new political culture in West Germany. Konrad Adenauer thought that the exceptional political sense of his young personal assistant, who also served as Secretary General of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the British Zone, helped him become chancellor of the Federal Republic in 1949. Through the mid-1950s Blankenhorn remained one of Adenauer's most intimate advisors, especially on matters concerning foreign policy. From late 1949 to mid-1950, he also oversaw the creation of what became the West German Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office), and thereafter he was the head of its Political Division and deputy to State Secretary Walter Hallstein until 1955. He went on to serve as West German ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (1955–1958), France (1958–1963), Italy (1963–1965), and the United Kingdom (1965–1970). After retiring from the diplomatic service in 1970, Blankenhorn functioned as the West German representative in the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Executive Council until 1976.

In 2014, in the course of the Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine consciously opted for European values. Thus, cooperation with one of the founding member states of the EU bears strategic importance. The author believes that the the interaction between the two countries is based on ancient relations between France and Ukraine. Apart from political relations, France and Ukraine are bound by creative endeavours of many artists. After celebrating the 25th anniversary since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries, the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and France opened an exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Ukrainian diplomatic service. The author stresses that France was the first Western state with which Ukraine signed the 1991 Interstate Agreement on Mutual Understanding and Cooperation. Moreover, it was in Paris where the Charter of Paris for a New Europe was signed, the document which allowed Ukraine to join the CSCE as a full-fledged member. Taking into account the current development in the east of Ukraine, the author underscores that France and Germany were the initiators of the Normandy Format negotiations. France consistently supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine, while not recognising the annexation of Crimea and takes a firm stand towards Russia. The author mentions the establishment of the France-Ukraine friendship group, headed by Valerie For-Muntean. Apart from political cooperation, economic ties between the two states are also gaining momentum. Nowadays, Ukraine is examining modern initiatives of France in ecology, energy efficiency, etc. The article outlines the interation of the two states in the educational sphere. France is encouraging numerous riveting projects intercultural projects displaying the best specimens of modern Ukrainian art. New intercultural contacts are also gaining ground. The author highlights the main events held at the culture and information centre of the Embassy and reports about the multidisciplinary festival Week-End a l’Est – Kyiv. Yet another recent development has been the inauguration of the web platform Nouvelle Ukraine, whose aim is to raise awareness about Ukraine in France, contribute to the positive image of the country, and build economic and cultural contacts. According to the author, the cooperation of Ukraine and France is only beginning to gain momentum and has infinite potential. Keywords: France, Ukraine, the EU, France-Ukraine friendship group, Ukrainian-French ties.

The economic expression of the Romanian-Polish military and political alliance undoubtedly had to be represented by the rebirth of the Baltic-Pontic commercial road, as the flow of products coming into and towards the Polish space had been artificially directed, during the 19th century, as a result of understandable political and economic interests, towards the North and the Adriatic Seas, instead of the Baltic and Black Seas. A Polish commercial road towards the Balkans obviously comprised economic, financial and strategic components. One of them referred to building an alternative to the continental routes dominated by Germany (Rhine, Main, Danube); the aim was chiefly to break a dangerous monopoly in the region of Central Europe and the Baltic area. Foreign commerce on the two relations did not enjoy, in any period between the two world wars, a spectacular evolution and never reached an important point. The arguments are based on strictly economic and financial elements: 1. Romania and Poland produced largely the same type of merchandise: there were basically similar raw materials (cereal, coal, oil), the products had a very low degree of processing, and one could earn more and more assuredly with the export type-products on traditional markets (mainly Western Europe); 2. Even if there was a great interest in a partner or a product on the other market, the transport thereof took a very long time. Between Warsaw and Bucharest there was a simple, inefficient and unsafe railroad; there was no preoccupation in the ’20s for the revamping or modernizing of the transport and service infrastructure (telephone, telegraph, post) between the two states; 3. Last, but not least, although the two states had a great number of inhabitants – and, thus, an extremely important potential for buying and consumption – the potential was strongly handicapped by the standard of living. The scanty Polish projects and investments on the Baltic – Black Sea axis have completed – and have not influenced – the general frame of Romanian – Polish relations, essentially based on political, diplomatic and military interests.

The present paper summarizes the results of an application initiated within the framework of 35 years celebration of diplomatic relations between Germany and Vietnam. Within this context, the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) and the Academy of Managers for Construction and Cities (AMC) jointly organized in 2010 a series of four thematic workshops. The one-day events have had similar structures and focused on main subjects of interest in the water sectors of both countries. In Vietnam, the workshops took place in Ha Noi, Hai Phong, Nha Trang and Vung Tau. Best practice examples about conceptualization, operation and maintenance of municipal water works provided an insight view into the challenges currently faced by the water service providers. TUD and AMC, together with their German and Vietnamese partners, addressed these issues by organizing the consecutive workshops under the umbrella of Vietnamese Water Supply and Sewerage Association (VWSA) and in coordination with the German Water Partnership (GWP). Bài báo trình bày tóm tắt các kết quả của một đề xuấttrong khuôn khổ kỷ niệm 35 năm quan hệ ngoại giao giữa CHLB Đức và Việt Nam.Theo đó, Trường Đại học Tổng hợp Kỹ Thuật Dresden (TUD) và Học viện Quản lý Xây dựng và Đô thị (AMC) đã phối hợp tổ chức một chuỗi bốn hội thảo chuyên đề trong năm 2010. Mỗihội thảo thực hiện trong một ngày chương trình giống nhau và tập trung vào các chủ đề chính mà cả hai quốc gia đều quan tâm trong lĩnh vực nước. PhíaViệt Nam, các hội thảo được tổ chức ởcác thành phốHà Nội, Hải Phòng, Nha Trang và Vũng Tàu. Nhiều bài thuyết trìnhvề khái niệmhóa, vận hành và bảo dưỡng các công trình cấpnước đô thị đã thảo luận sâu về những thách thức mà các dịch vụ cấp nước đang gặp phải. TUD và AMC, kết hợp với các đối tác CHLB Đức và Việt Nam, đã ghi nhậncác vấn đề phát sinh thông quaviệc tổ chức nhiều hội thảo liên tục dưới sự bảo trợ của Hiệp hội Cấp thoát nước Việt Nam (VWSA) và Hiệp hội nước CHLB Đức (GWP).

The research reveals who and when was authorized to represent the Council of Lithuania in Swe-den, and how the German Government and the military leadership reacted to the documents published by the Lithuanians on the 3rd and the 6th January, 1918 in Stockholm, which were published in the Swedish and Danish press. After the research, we can state that until May 27th, 1918, the Council of Lithuania was unrepresented in Sweden. However, the nation of Lithuania was represented. This function was carried out by the representatives of the Lithuanian Society who have received Charges d`Affaires certificates. They were under the supervision of the Russian Imperial diplomatic service. Neither Jurgis Savickis, nor Ignas Šeinius, nor Jonas Aukštuolis had the authorization from the Council of Lithuania to represent the Council of Lithuania in Sweden. They were correspondents of the Lithuanian Information Bureau (LIB), meaning that they supplied information to the bureau under the leadership of J. Gabrys. After May 27, 1918, the representation of the Council of Lithuania could have been (however it does not mean that it actually was) a component of the representation of the Council of Lithuania in Germany. The reaction of the German government and the German military authorities to the demands set by the Lithuanian Conference in January 3, 1918, in Swedish and Danish press, was very unfavourable, and they have sought for ways to convince the Lithuanians in Stockholm of the „correct way of thinking”. Immediately they have sent J. Šaulys there from Berlin. Until the 6th of January, 1918 – the declaration of independence from Russia as announced in the Swedish press, the German government and the German military authorities were not seen to have a reaction. The research on the representation of the Council of Lithuania in Sweden was carried out on the basis of published (press, published documents) and unpublished sources (from the Lithuanian Central State Archives, the fund of the Political Archive of the German Foreign Office (RZ 201), and the Manu-scripts Department of the Vilnius University Library (F. 155–366)). The research resorted to the methods of qualitative analysis and synthesis (the new material of the sources was supplemented with the infor-mation circulating in historiography), the comparative method (the facts found in Lithuanian and German archives and the press are compared), and the descriptive method. To process the primary sources in Lith-uanian and German languages, the logical–analytical method was applied (the notional content and infor-mation analysis was conducted).

The chronological boundaries of the collective monograph cover a long historical period, which extends to the era of European Modernism and continues to the modern (current) history of European Postmodernism. The key thesis of the team of authors of the monograph is the idea of systemic belonging of Ukraine to European civilization as its component, which interacts with other parts of the system. The first chapter of the peer-reviewed collective monograph "European receptions of Ukraine in the XIX century" shows the reflection of the Ukrainian problem in the German-language literature of the first half of the XIX century, taking into account new archival document, the development of Ukraine’s relations with other Slavic peoples is traced, and the peculiarities of Ukrainian-Bulgarian relations are considered as a separate case study. An interesting paragraph of the collective monograph devoted to cultural, educational and scientific cooperation of Dnieper Ukraine with European countries. This information illustrates well how the Industrial Revolution radically changed the face of the planet, brought new scientific experience that gave room for the development of the capitalist system, and with them, the Industrial Revolution brought social problems, environmental disasters that still cannot be solved. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) formulated the "iron law of wages", according to which workers can receive only a living wage. The second chapter of the collective monograph "The Ukrainian Question and Ukraine in the European History of the Twentieth Century" presents an integrated narrative of Ukrainian national history in the light of the European history of the two world wars and their consequences. The First World War, or the Great War, undoubtedly became a turning point in European history and, accordingly, in the national histories of European countries. The historical experience of the Ukrainian national liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people for the right to European development is covered in the paragraph of the collective monograph "Ukrainian Diplomatic Service 1917-1924". The vicissitudes of Stalin's industrialization and collectivization and their impact on the Ukrainian SSR's relations with European states in the 1920s and 1930s are highlighted in terms of continuity of ties with Europe. A separate regional example of the situation is covered on the example of the history of Transcarpathia on the eve of World War II. The third chapter of the collective monograph "Independent Ukraine in the European integration space" highlights the features of Ukraine's current positioning in Europe. After the collapse of the USSR, ideological obstacles to the development of globalization were overcome. The American political scientist F.Fukuyama in his work "The End of History" concluded the final victory of liberal ideology. This section of the peer-reviewed collective monograph also highlights the position of the international community on the Crimean referendum in 2014, analyzes the policy of Western European countries on the Ukrainian-Russian armed conflict on the example of the policy of Germany, France and Austria. The research result is a separate model of reality, which is reproduced with the help of a certain perception and awareness of the historian. In this sense, the author's team of the monograph has achieved the goal of creating a meaningful narrative that highlights the place of Ukraine at different stages of modern and postmodern European history. From the point of view of the general perception of the narrative offered to the reader, the authors of the collective monograph managed to harmonize individual stylistic features in a conceptually unified text, the meanings of which will be interesting to both professional historians and students and the general readership.

For some weeks last past this Government has been alarmed by Reports of hostilities intended by the Algerines and Tunisines against this Place. These are supposed to be the consequence of the Indignation of the Grand Seignior at the Remissness of this Bashaw in affording assistance during the last war of the Porte against the Two Imperial Crowns. Tho’ there is great reason to doubt as yet the authenticity of the Report in question I think it my duty to acquaint you Sir with it, since here it has been thought serious enough to cause measures of defence being taken, and preparations made. The internal disturbances which continue, and the excessive dearness of Provisions contribute to distress us much and leave me no other satisfaction than that of being able to assure you Sir that His Majesty's Service, and the increase of the British Subjects do not suffer the least Detriment by these Calamities.

Carner was a renowned writer when he started his diplomatic career in 1920. He was considered the most eminent living Catalan poet and had an important presence in the social and cultural scene in Barcelona. His joining the Spanish consular service came as a bombshell. From then on he never again lived permanently in Catalonia, although he kept in touch and came back frequently until the Civil War. This article provides a detailed description of Carner’s diplomatic endeavours (and biography) based on his file at the Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry’s archive, and it includes a final table that summarises all the jobs, postings and dates of his diplomatic career.

Энэхүү өгүүлэлд Их Монгол Улс, 1911 оны үндэсний эрх чөлөөний хувьсгалын үр дүнд байгуулсан Богд Хаант Монгол Улс, 1921 оны Ардын хувъсгал, Монгол Улс ардчилал, зах зээлийн эдийн засагт шилжсэн өнөөг хүртэлх Монгол Улсын дипломат албаны түүхэн онцлог, гадаад харилцааны төв байгууллага болох Гадаад харилцааны яамны бүтэц, зохион байгуулалт, холбогдох газар, хэлтсийн чиг, үүрэг, эрх зүйн үндэслэл, элчин, консулын харилцаа, ДТГ-ууд, хүний нөөцийн бодлого зэргийг маш товчоор тусгав. Commencement and development of Mongolian diplomatic service The article aims to briefly describe the particulars of the diplomatic service of Mongolia throughout the historic stages of the Great Mongol State, Bogdo Khaan’s Mongolia after the 1911 national freedom revolution, Mongolia after the 1921 people’s revolution, and transition to democracy and market economy until today. It also describes the structure, organization, functions of departments and divisions, as well as the legal status of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the central authority in charge of foreign relations, ambassadorial and consular relations, diplomatic representations and human resource policy.

The article analyses the evolution of European diplomacy over two decades, to assess the impact of the European External Action Service (EEAS) creation alongside consecutive waves of enlargement. Data is drawn from two original datasets about European Union (EU) member states’ diplomatic representations within the EU and across the globe. It shows that member states have maintained and strengthened their substantial diplomatic footprint across the EU’s territory, expanding it to include new members and making Brussels a diplomatic hub also for non-member countries. In parallel, and despite the establishment of the EEAS, member states have maintained and even increased their networks of diplomatic representations across the globe, alongside more numerous and more politically active EU Delegations (EUDs). At the same time, member states have been reducing their diplomats’ numbers, as the cases of Austria, France, Germany and Italy show. This delicate balancing act has been made possible not only by contemporary technological developments, but also by European cooperation, as in the case of EUDs hosting member states’ representations in non-member countries, a development referred to as co-location. Therefore, whereas the continued presence of national embassies on the ground could be interpreted as detracting from the EEAS, the existence of EUDs contributes also to other, more indirect but certainly novel, forms of diplomatic cooperation under a single European roof.

The emergence of diplomatic protocol service within the structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Estonia (1918–40) is a subject that has hitherto not been researched. This is illustrated by the fact that even the complete list of chiefs of protocol (chef du protocole) of the MFA of Estonia has been missing until now. The strengthening of Estonia’s statehood by its international recognition, the accreditation of foreign envoys, and the first state visits brought about the need for a thorough understanding of all nuances of diplomatic protocol and ceremonial. Nevertheless, the office of a separate chief of protocol was created in the structure of the MFA of Estonia only according to the new Foreign Service Act, decreed by the Head of State Konstantin Päts on 13 March 1936; i.e. more than 18 years after the declaration of Estonia’s independence. Prior to 1936, the functions of protocol officers were usually fulfilled by the head of the MFA’s administrative or political department. This article focuses on three core issues: 1) who were the chiefs of protocol? 2) their functions and how diplomatic protocol was regulated in the MFA; 3) the reason why a separate office of the chief of protocol was not created earlier than 1936. The key source for this research is the MFA collection in the Estonian National Archives (RA, ERA.957). There are no clear sources regarding the functions of the chief of protocol before 1922. The field was most probably shaped and shared by several officials, including the head of the political department Hermann Karl Hellat (1872–1953) and William Tomingas (1895–1972), the junior private secretary of Foreign Minister Jaan Tõnisson (1868–1941?). Everything connected to international practices was probably influenced by the most experienced diplomats of the young state, namely the members of Estonia’s foreign delegation, which had already been created in 1917. Another major influence was Foreign Minister Jaan Poska (1866–1920), who as a former mayor of Tallinn, the former governor of the autonomous Governorate of Estonia, and the head of Estonia’s delegation at the peace talks with Soviet Russia, had extensive experience in protocol-related matters. Hans Johannes (Johan) Ernst Markus (1884–1969) can be deemed the first chief of protocol to be mentioned in the hitherto known sources of the MFA. According to an MFA report to the Estonian government from July of 1922, Markus was the head of the MFA’s Western political department and performed the duties of ‘master of ceremonies’ as well. In January of 1923, Markus was appointed head of the MFA’s administrative department. He remained in this office until April of 1927, coordinating the state visits of the President of Latvia Jānis Čakste (February of 1924), the Secretary General of the League of Nations Eric Drummond (February of 1924), and the President of Finland Lauri Kristian Relander (May of 1925), as well as the state visits of Estonia’s Head of State, the presentation of credentials, and day-to-day work regarding diplomatic privileges and immunities. Since the chief of protocol was responsible for organising ceremonies connected to the Head of State (Riigivanem), Markus could be considered not only as a coordinator of the MFA’s protocol matters, but as the chief of state protocol. Markus certainly did not work alone. He could rely on the administrative department and basically the whole MFA in fulfilling his functions, while also counting on the support of the aide-de-camp to the Head of State. Nevertheless, it was Markus who laid the ’cornerstone’ for the best practices that could be systematised and used by his successors. In April of 1927, the functions of the chief of protocol were taken over by Johan Leppik (1894–1965), the former Envoy to Poland and Romania, and Chargé d’Affaires in Czechoslovakia. In August of 1927, Leppik was appointed head of the MFA’s political department. According to the MFA’s working arrangement, Leppik retained the functions of chef du protocole in his new office starting from January of 1928. Since the grand, first-ever state visit of a monarch to Estonia, by King Gustaf V of Sweden in June of 1929, and the visit of the President of Poland Ignacy Mościcki in August of 1930 (which were preceded by the state visits of Estonia’s Head of State to those countries) required extensive preparations, Leppik could rely on the work of his subordinate, the head of the political bureau and deputy chief of protocol Elmar-Johann Kirotar (1899–1985). In June of 1931, Leppik was succeeded by the director of the bureau of law Artur Haman (Tuldava) (1897–1942) in his office as chief of protocol. Haman (Tuldava) put great effort into systematising existing practices related to protocol (incl. Presentation of credentials, and receptions) into a comprehensive compendium, which has been preserved to this day. The efficient work of Kirotar and Tuldava was probably noted by Estonia’s leadership, since once the separaate office of the chief of protocol had been created within the structure of the MFA, the position was filled first by Kirotar (1936–9) and then by Tuldava (1939–40). The quest for stability was most probably connected to the strong presidential power that shaped Estonia’s political life in the latter half of the 1930s. The personal influence of the head of state became more important in filling high-ranking positions in the state structure. According to the Foreign Service Act adopted by Parliament (Riigikogu) on 30 May 1930, departmental directors were appointed by the Foreign Minister. The Foreign Service Act decreed by the Head of State on 13 March 1936 changed this procedure. According to the latter, departmental directors (incl. the chief of protocol) were appointed and dismissed by the Head of State (upon taking into consideration proposals from the Foreign Minister). There is no clear answer to the question of why there was no separate office of the chief of protocol in the 1920s, since these functions needed to be fulfilled anyway. This was most probably connected to budgetary restrictions i.e. the need to avoid all kinds of ’unnecessary’ expenses. In the 1930s, the director of the administrative department Jaan Mölder (1880–1942, in office 1935–6) and the head of the consular bureau August Koern (1900–89, in office 1936) also briefly fulfilled the functions of the chief of protocol. The latter was especially involved in systematising the rules and regulations of diplomatic practices. Like his predecessors and successors, he sent numerous inquiries to Estonia’s representations abroad to collect information on matters connected to privileges and immunities, decorations, preseance, organisation of state funerals, etc. According to sources at the Estonian National Archives, Estonia’s MFA collected information on international diplomatic practice everywhere that it was represented by its missions abroad. Already during the first years of Estonia’s independence, the MFA possessed the popular Guide to Diplomatic Practice by Sir Ernest Mason Satow (first issued in 1917) and several protocol-related compendiums from Finland, the United States of America, Great Britain, etc. It can be concluded that without a rich heritage of diplomatic practice of its own, Estonia was quickly able to successfully adapt to the international environment in matters of diplomatic protocol.

The secession from Russia, the declaration of independence, and the request to recognise the independent state of Lithuania were the three steps which had to be made by the Council of Lithuania (in Vilnius) in order to bring Lithuania back into the international community after 120 years of occupation. The first two steps were made after all members of the Council of Lithuania signed the Statement of 11 December 1917, but it was not made public anywhere. Part I of the Statement was the Declaration of Independence, which declared the termination of all state ties which formerly bound the state to other nations and proclaimed the re-establishment of the independent state of Lithuania. Another step that ensued the secession and the declaration of independence had to be a request for the recognition of the independent state of Lithuania for it to become a full-fledged member of the international community. However, first and foremost, it had to be announced publicly. The article publishes the note handed over by the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) to the German envoy on 8 February 1918 and to the envoys of the Entente Powers and neutral states on 9 February 1918 and analyses its text and context. The text of the note in French is identical. The note includes the first request to recognise the independence of the Lithuanian state based on the modified text of Part I of the Statement of 11 December 1917 signed by the Council of Lithuania (in Vilnius). The note dated 7 February 1918 was submitted to the German envoy in Bern and the note dated 9 February 1918 was handed over to the diplomatic and consular representatives of the Entente Powers (France, Great Britain, the USA, Italy) and neutral states (the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden) in Switzerland and the Swiss Political Department. Historiography includes no mention of the note delivered to Gisbert von Romberg, the German envoy in Bern, on 8 February 1918. The démarche made by Pranciškus Karevičius and Konstantinas Olšauskas at the same time, on 7–9 February 1918, to Gen. Erich Ludendorff and the German Chancellor Georg von Hertling in Berlin is not mentioned either. Both démarches, one by the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) in Bern and the other by the two Lithuanian priests in Berlin, were, in fact, coordinated. The reaction to the note and the evaluations of the démarches found in historiography are similar, but the fact that on 10 February 1918, in the aftermath of the said démarches, the Chancellery of the German Chancellor prepared the draft document on the recognition of Lithuania’s independence has not been known before. The aim of the research is to investigate the context and the text of the first request to recognise Lithuania’s independence expressed on 8–9 February 1918, to reveal the reaction towards it and the results achieved. The chronological boundaries of the research cover the period from the sitting of the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) of 25 January 1918, which put forward the idea to issue a memorandum with annexes, to 25 February 1918, when the German Military Administration completed the investigation into the circumstances of authorising the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) to represent Lithuanian affairs abroad. The research employed the logical-analytical method (the notional analysis of the content of the note and the information provided by the sources in German, French, Norwegian, English languages was conducted), synthesis (the new material of the sources was supplemented with the information circulating in historiography), comparison (the facts from Lithuanian, German and Norwegian archives and the Lithuanian, German and Swiss press were compared), comparative analysis (the texts of documents in different languages were compared), descriptive, inductive, and interpretive methods (the idea and meaning of the content of the sources was reconstructed with regard to the question wording). The research consists of three parts. The first part analyses the context of the origin of the note (25 January 1918–7 February 1918) and concludes that: (1) the uncoordinated efforts of the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne), the Council of Lithuania (in Vilnius), and the Supreme Lithuanian Council in Russia to send Lithuanian delegates to the negotiations in Brest-Litovsk clearly demonstrated the equal rights of all three councils in representing the interests of the Lithuanian nation without any of them being more superior than the others; (2) the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) and the Council of Lithuania (in Vilnius) sought to declare the independence of Lithuania and to obtain the recognition of Lithuania’s independence first from Germany and then from the Entente Powers and neutral states on the basis of the Statement of 11 December 1917; only the (non)presentation of the parts of the text in the documents of the notification of the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) and the Council of Lithuania (in Vilnius) and the wording of different text parts differed; (3) to obtain as prompt recognition of Lithuania’s independence as possible, the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) and the Council of Lithuania (in Vilnius) exerted pressure on the German Government in Berlin, and the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) did the same in the Swiss capital Bern; (4) the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) actively sought to participate in the formation of the Provisional Government of Lithuania and its work in taking up the posts of ministers and gradually taking over the competences in both foreign and domestic affairs from the Council of Lithuania (in Vilnius) by reducing its functions to the function of approval only; the publication of Part I of the Statement of 11 December 1917 before the same was done by the Council of Lithuania (in Vilnius) had to ensure that the leadership was in the hands of the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne). The second part of the study analyses the structure, content, and the essence of the note and the chronology of its submission. It is revealed that the introductory part of the note substantiates the powers exercised by the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) and its function. Its first part contains the first-ever publication of the modified text of Part I of the Statement of 11 December 1917 signed by the Council of Lithuania (in Vilnius), i.e., the Declaration of Independence. The second part provides the justification for the declaration of independence; the third part specifies and describes the elements of Lithuania as a state; the fourth part repeats the Declaration on the Secession from Russia adopted by the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) on 25 December 1917. The fifth part expresses the request to recognise the independent state and justifies such a request, and the final part expresses respect for the Government of the foreign state to which the note is addressed. It was ascertained that the purpose of the text of the note was to obtain the recognition of Lithuania’s independence from the belligerent and neutral states, to accelerate the procrastinated recognition from Germany, to initiate the formation of the Provisional Government of Lithuania, and to create preconditions for re-orienting Lithuanian foreign policy from Germany towards the Entente Powers. The third part of the article addresses the reaction of Germany, the Entente Powers, and neutral states towards the note and the results of the démarche made by the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) in Bern and by the two Lithuanian priests in Berlin. It appeared that the German Foreign Office and the Military Administration believed that the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) sought to take over the competence of the Council of Lithuania (in Vilnius), to put Germany in front of a fait accompli or perhaps even abandon Part II of the Statement of the Council of Lithuania of 11 December 1917, and to change the Lithuanian foreign policy orientation towards the Entente Powers. The reaction of the German Military Administration and the German Chancellor towards the visit of Bishop Karevičius and prelate Olšauskas in Berlin was positive, helping to dot the i’s and cross the t’s in the history of Lithuania’s recognition. As a result, on 10 February 1918, the Chancellery of the German Chancellor drafted the document on the recognition of Lithuania’s independence. The investigation into the competence of the Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne) by the German Foreign Office and the General Staff revealed the immense influence made by Juozas Gabrys and Friedrich von Ropp and the confidence in the information provided by them. On receipt of the note, the Entente Powers and the neutral states showed different, yet reserved, reactions: some refrained from any specific statements and did not reply (Switzerland, Norway), others limited themselves to the expression of their sympathies (France), or briefly informed that the final decisions would be made by the peace conference (Great Britain). To sum up the findings of the research, the text of the note and the context of its submission are significant for several essential aspects: (1) the foreign press, the diplomats of the Entente Powers and neutral states learnt about Part I of the Statement of the Council of Lithuania of 11 December 1917, i.e., the Declaration of Independence, which could not be published before; (2) the text of the note included all (published and unpublished) declarations by the Lithuanians in Lithuania and abroad about the secession from Russia, the declaration of independence, and the re-establishment of the Lithuanian state, which demonstrated the unanimous aim of all Lithuanians; (3) three steps were made by a single text: the secession from Russia was declared, the independence was proclaimed, and the request was expressed to recognise the Lithuanian state, bringing it back into the international community.