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The paper aims is to present the situation of the Polish creative sector offices environment against the background of European examples. The research material was developed on the basis of literature, survey and statistical research. Significant differences between Polish and foreign office buildings have been identified in the scope of workspace arrangements. The results of the research classify systematise of new functional zones for employees, who are expected to shape the future vision of our world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Netherlands' colonial empire was a source of wealth, pride and prestige, being seen by some as an essential element of Dutch identity and the key to the Netherlands' status as a European power. The most prized of the empire's components was Indonesia. When nationalists declared the independence of the Republic of Indonesia on 17 August 1945, Dutch colonialists refused to take it seriously, but they soon discovered that the Indonesians were willing to fight for their newly-declared freedom. They also found that international opinion, especially as expressed in the new United Nations (UN), defended the Republic's right to exist. Australia has been acknowledged as an important contributor to international recognition of Indonesian independence through its actions in the UN Security Council and its membership of the UN Committee of Good Offices (CGO). This article, however, focuses on a lesser-known part of the story: Australia's role in the UN Consular Commission, established at the same time as the CGO. Although the Commission was active for only a short period in late 1947, it deserves recognition on a number of counts: for its pioneering work in UN peacekeeping; as an early example of Australian diplomacy in its region; and for how an examination of its activities, and the responses of the Dutch, the Indonesians and others, can be useful for understanding the course of the Indonesian independence struggle in the years that followed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the British government adopted and maintained a policy of strict non-intervention throughout the conflict. Previous commentators, to varying degrees, have suggested this policy was largely a product of British hostility towards the Spanish Republic and designed to facilitate a victory for the military rebels who would subdue threats of a communist revolution. This analysis argues that historians have exaggerated British concerns about communism and that Britain saw the Republic as a viable political project that it wanted to succeed. Rather than focusing on British perceptions of only left-wing groups in Spain, this analysis also incorporates perceptions of the extreme right and fascist groups. British concerns about Spain's political polarisation laid the foundations of the policy of non-intervention, which sought to avert risks of the conflict escalating and solidifying the broader ideological polarisation occurring in Europe during the 1930s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a survey of EMBA students in China and South Korea, this article examines how two sensitive but potentially salient criteria—race and gender—affect the selection of an executive to head the (a) foreign operations of a U.S. multinational in China and South Korea and (b) newly acquired U.S. operations of a Korean multinational. The results reveal a fairly complex picture of how gender, race, and the interplay of these two factors might affect these decisions. In the Korean sample, competencies mattered more than race and gender in a senior executive appointment to the U.S. operations of Korean multinationals. Also in the Korean sample, race and gender outweighed competencies in assignments to Korea. In the Chinese sample, competencies outweighed race and gender in a senior executive appointment in China. Overall, Koreans had a more positive attitude toward foreign-born Koreans than the Chinese toward foreign-born Chinese for senior executive appointments. Implications for international human resource management and diversity management, both theoretical and applied, are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines British responses to the Sino-Indian border war of 1962. It illustrates how, in the years leading up to the war, Britain's colonial legacy in the Indian subcontinent saw it drawn reluctantly into a territorial dispute between Asia's two largest and most powerful nations. It analyses disagreements in Whitehall between the Foreign Office and Commonwealth Relations Office over the relative strength of India and China's border claims, and assesses how these debates reshaped British regional policy. It argues that the border war was instrumental in transforming Britain's post-colonial relationship with South Asia. Continuing to filter relations with India through an imperial prism proved unsatisfactory, what followed was a more pragmatic Indo-British association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite widespread interest in corruption and how to root it out, the problem continues to grow. Anti-corruption strategies and methods have proved ineffective in achieving lasting reductions in corruption. Anti-corruption academic research has not been free of criticism, and part of the problem is its emphasis on macro-level analysis. The case studies in corruption and anti-corruption in this symposium focus on specific areas that have received surprisingly little attention in the literature: the effectiveness of political finance supervisory bodies; the impact of European Union post-conditionality on anti-corruption efforts; and the increased use of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in shaping the way that corruption is conceptualised and combated on a global scale. Together, the articles in this symposium offer some novel insights and approaches to the issue of how best to understand and assess different ways of addressing corruption in specific sectors which have received insufficient attention in the literature to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the effect of external stimuli in curbing corruption at the national level? This article analyses the intervening impact of EU post-conditionality and GRECO monitoring on countries' anti-corruption record. It finds that "soft governance" has a positive impact and stimulates national responses against corruption. This positive influence increases when is additionally conditioned by strong internal stimuli targeting corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the diplomatic challenges which confronted the first Margaret Thatcher administration in regard to Britain's Cold War policy of non-recognition of North Korea. The request of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to simultaneously appoint its resident High Commissioner to London as its non-resident Ambassador to Pyongyang had to be opposed by the British Foreign Office despite the fact that St. Vincent was not a party to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, while London had to consider breaking the provisions of the 1883 Paris Convention in order not to recognize the ‘right of priority’ of patents which had been approved in Pyongyang as was required. Also, North Korea's stated intention to join the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization and therefore establish its permanent mission in London forced the Foreign Office to attempt to block North Korea's admittance to the IMCO despite the principle of universality of international organizations, while Britain's inability to talk directly to the North Koreans deprived London of an important means with which to stop North Korean military aid from arriving in Zimbabwe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The information related to the conclusion of separate peace by the Romanian government, in the winter of 1917/1918, transmitted by the allied ministers from Iaşi to the capitals of own countries echoed among the British political and military leaders. Although aware of the difficulty of providing British support, the government in London considered necessary for Romania to continue resisting the enemy. Knowing the difficulties the Romanian Armed Forces had to face on the Eastern Front, London was mainly interested in Germany not being able to withdraw troops from this front to redirect them to the West. In this context, the Cabinet in London seemed to understand, at least in moral terms, the difficult situation in Romania. In the present study, the author intends to provide, based on the documents found in the archive, a brief analysis of the political and economic significance attached to the Bucharest Peace Treaty in London, as well as of the predicted consequences for the political future of Romania. The British diplomacy carefully analysed all the aspects of the treaty imposed on Romania by the Central Powers, treaty that could anticipate, in the eyes of London, the status of Europe in the event of a victory won by Germany in Europe*. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Special Operations Executive (SOE) Crete produced its own written history at the end of World War II, and this has been so widely followed since then that it has become an orthodoxy. What this narrative neglects is the deliberate strategy, engineered by the Cretan section head, Major lack Smith-Hughes, of isolating and undermining the strongest, best-organized, and most popular resistance organization in Crete, the National Liberation Front (EAM), in favor of the much less popular SOE-created, pro-Royalist organization, the National Organization of Crete (EOK). Only one SOE officer, Major Terence Bruce Mitford, questioned this policy--and this only after he attached himself as British Liaison Officer (BLO) to the armed wing of the National Liberation Front, the National Popular Liberation Army (ELAS) in Western Crete in the final months of the occupation. This article argues that the SOE strategy ensured the inevitability of civil war in Crete following the end of the Nazi Occupation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines correspondence in the British Foreign Office Archive to explore British views of Ethiopian identities during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The premise of the paper is that during this time, British officials used group identities to help determine which Ethiopian leaders might make the best allies in furtherance of British strategic and economic interests. In essence, the British correspondents created and continually redefined ethnic categories as a reflection of the provincial leaders' willingness to serve British economic interests. In the mid nineteenth century, after freeing British subjects imprisoned by emperor Tewodros (ruled 1855–1868), British diplomats sought to identify another legitimate ruler of Ethiopia; in the process, they attributed characteristics to various Ethiopian groups which marked those groups as more or less "civilized." By the late nineteenth century, this recasting of identities contributed to the racializing of Ethiopian territories. In defining and redefining the qualities of Ethiopian notables and groups according to their own economic, colonial or political needs, British sources created categories of actors which did not necessarily correspond to identities as understood and asserted by the populations of what would become the Ethiopian Empire. [End Page 231] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The British parliament took a keen interest in the international protection of minorities during the interwar era. Minority treaties addressing the rights of minorities in east central Europe had been concluded and placed under the guarantee of the League of Nations after the First World War. The main focus here is not on the situation of individual minority groups but rather on the general operation of minority protection and the attempts to improve it during the late 1920s and early 1930s, when the principles and procedures of minority protection were widely discussed. As a key member of the League, Britain had a strong interest in the smooth functioning of the system. This article shows that parliamentary questions constituted an important form of parliamentary pressure on the government's conduct of foreign affairs during the interwar era, and that the questions were, in some instances, co-ordinated with the efforts of voluntary associations and publicity in the media. In order to present the viewpoint of the government as well, the preparation of the answers and other responses to the questions by the foreign office is also examined. The source material reveals that there was complex interaction between parliament, the government, and voluntary associations in defining British policy vis-à-vis the League of Nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay on U.S. Foreign Service officers is presented. It states that the U.S. swears allegiance to the Constitution, and no to the race or soil. Topics discussed are U.S. foreign policy, the rise in English language, and multiculturalism. Other topics include foreign relations between the U.S. and Russia, spread of democracy for peace, and military operations for achieving state of peace.

The article discusses the constitutional framework that courts need to implement when lawsuits are brought against a foreign official. It explains development of act of state doctrine and foreign sovereign immunity by U.S. Supreme Court. Also discusses the U.S. Supreme Court case Samantar v. Yousuf related to sovereign immunity for foreign states.

An interview with Marc Malloch-Brown, minister of state in the Foreign Office of Great Britain is presented. When asked about the South-South cooperation, he discussed on the pattern of global political economy. He discussed on the government-to-government cooperation. He mentions that human rights language is needed for re-thinking and re-positioning in the human rights dimension.

Clerks employed in the Foreign Office before 1906, and in the offices of the secretaries of state before 1782, were scribes rather than advisers; often little is known about either their opinions or influence. An interesting exception is Sir David Nairne, who worked for many years for the secretaries of state in exile employed by King James II and his son, King James III. Nairne's career falls into three unequal parts: 1689–1713, when little more than a clerk carrying out the instructions of his superiors; 1713–1719, when promoted as one of James III's principal advisers; and 1719–1728, when demoted once again to a clerk, albeit with enhanced status. Yet even when one of James III's two most influential advisers, he remained primarily an assistant rather than a councillor putting forward his advice with caution. For both James II and James III, Nairne was not a civil servant in the modern sense but, rather, a domestic or household servant employed and used as circumstances demanded. For a short time, Nairne had a significant diplomatic career, but he always remained primarily a servant. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, the author reflects on the risk to multinational companies after the enactment of the Anti-Bribery law by China and also discusses its affect of the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA) prosecutions. It mentions that China's latest anti-bribery law regarding payments to foreign officials contradicts regulations of FCPA. According to the author, commercial bribery law can be an important source of action for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in FCPA violations.

The article discusses the enactment of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the U.S. It informs that the law governs the conduct of domestic businesses and also reviews their relation with foreign government officials in foreign markets. It highlights that the U.S. Congress has faced many difficulties regarding the development of payment strategies and policies to govern employee's misconduct during the enactment of the act.

The article focuses on bribery in Great Britain and the role of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in combating bribery by the foreign public officials during international business transactions. The need of enacting domestic legislation for criminalizing bribery and the corporate offense in case of failure to prevent bribery is discussed. The inability of the guidance enacted by the Ministry of Justice in enforcing law for preventing bribery is also discussed.

This article: discusses the change in priority in the Brazilian foreign policy given to the defense of Brazilian migrants rights; explains the motivations for the historical neglect of these rights and demonstrates that the Foreign Office has been changing the priority given to Brazilian migrations in the last two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the role of the Auswärtige Amt (Foreign Office of Germany, or AA) during the Third Reich, a period of time during which the National Socialist (Nazi) Party was in power in Germany. Several topics are discussed, including how there are conflicting reports on whether the diplomats at the AA worked in opposition to or helped the Nazis, what the German foreign policy and occupation policy was in regard to the Baltic and Scandinavian countries during World War II, and what the significance of the term "Alternativpolitik" (alternative policy) was in regard to Germany's foreign policy during the Nazi era. Political figures that influenced Germany's foreign policy, such as Wipert von Blücher, Rudolf Nadolny, and Constantin von Neurath, are also mentioned.

This article focuses on one aspect of the Anglo-Israeli relationship, which in the eyes of the Israelis was the main point of concern: the question of British arms sales to the Middle East. It covers the period from the start of the 1950s, when Britain officially recognized Israel, and concludes with the period immediately prior to the Suez War of 1956. During this period, the Foreign Office (FO) was a major force in the formation and implementation of British foreign policy in the Middle East. Central to its role in dealing with British policies towards the region was its effective veto on the sale of British weapons to the Middle East region. The article argues that during this period the FO was extremely flexible in sanctioning the sale of arms to its Arab allies, but did not offer the same flexibility in dealing with potential British arms sales to Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Office During the Third Reich -- an Internal Differentiation The final report of the Commission of Historians Dealing with the History of the German Foreign Office during the Nazi Dictatorship and the Federal Republic has kindled a heated debate. Here the results of the commission are checked by systematic research. Mostly the article focuses on the question as to which new insights can be gained by engaging in an internal differentiation within the Foreign Office. The Commission of Historians has disputed that such a differentiation leads to an increase in understanding. For the first time, the staff of the various desks which were (among other things) responsible for the persecution of the Jews and the Political Department are compared. Here it becomes clear that fundamental differences existed within the Foreign Office on a hitherto unrecognised scale. What were the consequences? To answer this question, the positions espoused by the Judenreferat [Jewish desk] as well as the Political and Legal Departments during the Holocaust are examined. In this manner it is possible to determine a balanced internal differentiation within the Foreign Office which takes the existing internal commonalities and differences into account without downplaying its extensive participation in Nazi crimes. The results of the Commission can thus be corrected and supplemented comprehensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was enacted over thirty years ago to prohibit bribery of foreign officials by U.S. persons. In the last few years, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have dramatically expanded the FCPA through a surge in its enforcement. Responding to complex developments in law, the global economy, and agency politics, the DOJ and the SEC have brought ten times as many cases as in prior years, and assessed hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties. At the same time, the substantive reach of the law has been extended through the increased enforcement. Thus, ad hoc enforcement actions, rather than legislation, regulation, or judicial decision, have transformed the FCPA. In the absence of formal process or reasoned articulation, the scope of the law is currently unclear. Businesses have little official guidance in designing effective compliance programs and may be more likely to violate the FCPA. Unruly enforcement, and the resulting lack of clarity about what the FCPA requires, may compromise the law's efficacy. Therefore the DOJ and the SEC should encourage compliance by providing clear, general guidance about the scope of the FCPA. The Article concludes with specific questions about the FCPA that such guidance should resolve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the online document resource from Adam Matthew Digital Ltd. It says that the document resource for the availability of complete digitized images in all British Foreign Office Files which deal with the foreign relations of Great Britain to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in 1946-1976. Moreover, the document resource is published in three sections with regards to the period of Chinese history including the years 1949-1956, 1957-1966 and 1967-1976. It mentions that the topics in the digitalized files for the period 1949-1956 include the economic situation of China, the financial aid of the U.S. to Taiwan, and the road and railway construction in China. Furthermore, the files indicate the involvement of China to the Korean which affected the economy of the former.

Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government has allegedly pursued a decentralized vision of Canadian federalism. This vision includes pledges to limit the federal spending power and the declaration of Québec as a "nation." Controversially, this commitment has also extended to the foreign relations of Canadian provinces. Québec recently negotiated a bilateral labour mobility agreement with France and was also granted formal standing in Canada's delegation at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Ottawa has also promised to support an autonomous subfederal role in trade promotion and the negotiation of international economic agreements. This study will argue, however, that Canadian provinces have exercised partial and signifi cant autonomy in terms of foreign offices, trade policy, cross-border functional relations, development assistance, and the environment, long before the arrival of Harper and the Conservatives. In fact, this policy capacity is due to long-term trends related to the intrusiveness of international trade agreements, federalism's response to these pressures, and the ongoing decentralization of federal-provincial relations in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to advance the contextual study of public diplomacy - the inquiry into the influences of a government's contextual variables on its practice and management of public diplomacy. To meet this aim, this study investigated the empirical associations between Hofstede's cultural dimensions and Excellence in public diplomacy, a conception of excellence in public diplomacy developed from the Excellence study, based on survey data from 52 embassies in Washington, DC. The findings suggest that the uncertainty avoidance dimension has substantial and significant empirical associations with Excellence in public diplomacy. Additionally, not only low uncertainty avoidance cultures but also individualist and low power distance cultures are more conducive to the Excellence than are their counterparts. Nonetheless, the findings have an implication that, in terms of associational magnitude, the overall contextual effects of societal culture on the Excellence may not be strong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs regarding the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). The terms of office for several IFLA board members, including Alex Byrne, Nancy Bolt, and Isabel Franca, has ended. The IFLA has begun accepting applications for the position of IFLA secretary general. The IFLA has established offices and language centers in Africa and Russia.

When the United States - the traditional supplier of arms to Cuba - decided not to supply Fulgencio Batista's government after March 1958 and the dictator approached Britain, this presented a dilemma for Harold Macmillan's administration so soon after the 1956 Suez crisis. Whitehall was keen to sell arms but wary of doing business with a country so firmly located in the United States' sphere of influence. It will be seen that the Foreign Office conferred with Washington at every stage in its decision process, both in deciding to arm Batista after gaining US acquiescence, and later in acceding to pressure and not supplying military hardware to Fidel Castro's nascent regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]