Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Geographic Examination of the United States Diplomatic Footprint

博士论文研究：美国外交足迹的地理考察

• 批准号: 1536308
• 负责人: Alexander Murphy
• 金额: $ 1.28万
• 依托单位: University of Oregon Eugene
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2017-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1536308&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Geographic; Examination

This doctoral dissertation research project will analyze and assess the ideas and assumptions that motivate the maintenance of the United States' widespread diplomatic apparatus, a far-reaching network of 285 embassies and consulates. The practice of diplomacy has changed dramatically in recent decades as a result of technological advancements and shifting geopolitical concerns. Individuals around the world now have the opportunity to communicate directly with ambassadors and foreign ministers on Twitter, disclosure of diplomatic correspondences on WikiLeaks have heightened calls for more transparency in diplomatic exchanges, and non-state terrorist actors continue to challenge the idea that diplomats and their facilities are inviolable. While some countries have adjusted to 21st century realities by adapting to a more mobile, maneuverable diplomatic corps and fewer diplomatic facilities, the United States remains committed to a widespread diplomatic network. This diplomatic footprint is the hallmark of universality, a sustained effort beginning in the second half of the 20th century to acquire nearly total diplomatic coverage by scattering around the world embassies and consulates designed to look, work, and behave in a similar manner regardless of their geographic location. Attending to this understudied phenomenon means studying the historical and geographic conditions out of which the United States? relatively even and uniform diplomatic apparatus materialized. By examining the relationship between diplomatic infrastructure and foreign policy aims, this project will apply geographic approaches focusing on everyday materialisms and institutional networks to examine diplomatic practice and the implications of those practices. The project will expand current approaches to diplomatic theory and practice, bringing examinations of everyday practice back into a central role in diplomatic studies. Project findings will facilitate self-evaluation by the U.S. Department of State of the implications of its diplomatic geography, and it will assist others engaged in diplomatic practice in assessing the geographic implications of practices on statecraft. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.The doctoral student will focus the project on the following sets of questions: (1) What factors influence decision making related to U.S. embassy and consulate placement? (2) How does the U.S. approach to diplomatic infrastructure differ from that of other states? (3) In what ways does the universal character of each facility prove alternately productive and counterproductive for U.S. foreign policy aims? The student will employ methods that draw on institutional ethnographic techniques at multiple scales and a wide range of voices, including ground practitioners, high-level policymakers, retired ambassadors, voices from the past, and the student's own experience in Washington, D.C., and within the U.S. Department of State. She will identify the origins of the universality argument and its continued relevance alongside 21st century diplomatic practices. She also will engage in archival research and conduct interviews with current and former members of the diplomatic corps.

该博士学位论文研究项目将分析和评估促使维持美国广泛外交机构的思想和假设，这是一个由285个使馆和领事馆组成的深远网络。 由于技术的进步和改变地缘政治关注，外交实践在近几十年来发生了巨大变化。 现在，世界各地的个人都有机会直接与Twitter上的大使和外交部长进行交流，对WikiLeaks的外交通信的披露加剧了呼吁外交交流的透明度，而非国家恐怖主义行为者继续挑战外交官及其设施是无敌的观念。 尽管某些国家通过适应更加流动性，可操作的外交团和更少的外交设施来适应21世纪的现实，但美国仍然致力于广泛的外交网络。 这种外交足迹是普遍性的标志，从20世纪下半叶开始，持续的努力是通过散布世界使馆和旨在外观，工作和以类似方式行事的领事来获得几乎完全的外交覆盖范围，无论其地理位置如何。 参与这种研究的现象意味着研究美国的历史和地理条件？相对均匀和统一的外交机构实现了。 通过研究外交基础设施与外交政策的目标之间的关系，该项目将采用重点关注日常唯物主义和机构网络的地理方法来研究外交实践及其实践的含义。 该项目将扩大目前的外交理论和实践方法，将日常实践的考试重新恢复到外交研究中的核心作用。 项目的发现将促进美国国务院的外交地理意义的自我评估，并将帮助其他从事外交实践的人评估对史克拉夫特实践的地理意义。 作为博士学位论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生能够建立强大的独立研究职业。 （2）美国的外交基础设施方法与其他州的方法有何不同？ （3）每个设施的普遍特征以什么方式证明了对美国外交政策的富有成效和适得其反的目标？ 该学生将采用以多种规模和各种声音来利用机构民族志技术的方法，包括地面从业人员，高级决策者，退休的大使，过去的声音以及学生在华盛顿特区以及美国国务院内的学生经验。 她将确定普遍论证的起源及其与21世纪外交实践一起继续相关性。 她还将与外交军的现任和前任成员进行档案研究，并进行访谈。