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

这个博士论文研究项目将分析和评估促使维持美国广泛的外交机构（一个由285个大使馆和领事馆组成的影响深远的网络）的想法和假设。近几十年来，由于技术进步和地缘政治关切的变化，外交实践发生了巨大变化。世界各地的个人现在都有机会在Twitter上与大使和外交部长直接沟通，维基解密上外交信件的披露提高了外交交流透明度的呼声，非国家恐怖分子继续挑战外交官及其设施不可侵犯的观念。虽然一些国家已经适应了21世纪的现实，采取了更灵活的外交使团和更少的外交设施，但美国仍然致力于建立一个广泛的外交网络。这种外交足迹是普遍性的标志，始于20世纪下半叶的持续努力，通过在世界各地分散的大使馆和领事馆，无论其地理位置如何，都以类似的方式外观，工作和行为，获得几乎全部的外交覆盖。关注这一未被充分研究的现象意味着要研究美国所处的历史和地理条件。形成了较为均匀统一的外交机构。通过研究外交基础设施和外交政策目标之间的关系，本项目将应用地理方法，重点关注日常唯物主义和机构网络，以研究外交实践和这些实践的影响。该项目将扩展目前的外交理论和实践方法，使日常实践的检验重新成为外交研究的中心角色。项目结果将促进美国国务院对其外交地理影响的自我评估，并将帮助其他从事外交实践的人评估治国方法学实践的地理影响。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。博士生将把项目集中在以下几组问题上：(1)哪些因素影响与美国大使馆和领事馆安置有关的决策？(2)美国在外交基础设施方面的做法与其他国家有何不同？(3)对于美国的外交政策目标来说，每一种设施的普遍性在哪些方面证明了它们时而有益，时而适得其反？学生将采用多种尺度和广泛的声音，包括基层从业者，高层决策者，退休大使，过去的声音，以及学生自己在华盛顿特区和美国国务院的经历，利用机构民族志技术的方法。她将指出普遍性论点的起源及其与21世纪外交实践的持续相关性。她还将从事档案研究，并对外交使团的现任和前任成员进行采访。

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.