Case study of an Ambassador: David Bruce and the American Embassy in London, 1961-69

本项目将分析美国驻伦敦大使的工作及其对英美关系的重要性，着眼于20世纪60年代大卫·布鲁斯（David Bruce）领导下的美国驻伦敦大使馆的经历。这本书将重点介绍他的日常外交职责，并阐述这些职责对更广泛的国际历史研究的意义。将深入的历史研究与外交研究中知识分子辩论的把握相结合，它将调查常驻大使馆与现代外交行为的相关性。媒体对所谓“特殊关系”的报道侧重于总统和总理之间的高层私人往来，而这个项目将着眼于更低层次的日常官方层面的交流——两国关系的“内部运作”。在这样做的过程中，它涉及广泛的主题，包括政治和经济问题，但也包括贸易促进，领事工作和公共关系，军事和情报合作。此外，与大多数其他侧重于双边政治关系的大使学术研究不同，该项目将侧重并反映大使作为外交官的日常工作。它将考察他如何与英国政府建立个人联系，他在多大程度上与议会、媒体和公众互动，他如何促进与伦敦的友好关系，他向华盛顿自己的政府提供政治报道和政策建议，以及他通过外交使团与其他大使的接触。但它也将考察驻伦敦大使馆的总体情况，考察大使是如何管理使馆的，考察代表团副团长等主要官员所扮演的角色，考察国务院工作人员在政治和经济报道等领域的工作，以及其他机构工作人员的重要性，如中央情报局、美国新闻署和国防部门。在这样做的过程中，它解决了外交研究文献中关于大使馆和大使的一些主要争论，包括20世纪“大使馆之死”的争论——也就是说，由于国家之间更迅速的直接通信，喷气式飞机运输的出现和媒体的发展，大使馆和大使在20世纪60年代和70年代变得多余（媒体可以“即时”报道世界各地的政治事件）。该研究询问，与两国政府之间的其他接触方式（如首脑会议和外交部长会议、英国驻华盛顿大使馆的工作以及通过联合国和北大西洋公约组织等国际组织的联系）相比，大使的重要性有多大。拟议中的专著将表明，无论大使在高层讨论中的中心地位如何降低，他们在当时的外交关系中仍然是一个至关重要的因素，尤其是在大国之间。除了已出版的作品，该项目还将以美国和英国的档案研究、私人论文收藏、口述历史项目和大卫·布鲁斯本人留下的非常完整的日记为基础。利用其他大使的回忆录和传记，它将把布鲁斯和伦敦大使馆的工作进行比较，试图确定他们在多大程度上是独特的，以及他们在多大程度上符合经验模式。该项目将产生一系列会议论文，并将于2014年由美国著名出版集团Continuum在其“外交关键研究”系列中出版一部9万字的专著，由洛娜·劳埃德编辑。鉴于这一专题的性质，其成果不仅将引起历史学、国际关系和美国研究专业的广泛学者和学生的兴趣，而且也将引起外交专业人员的兴趣。

This project will analyse the work and importance of the US Ambassador in London to relations between the United Kingdom and the United States, looking at the experience of the American embassy in London, under David Bruce, during the 1960s. It will both focus on his day-to-day diplomatic duties and draw out the significance of these for the broader study of international history. Combining in-depth historical research with a grasp of the intellectual debates in diplomatic studies, it will investigate the relevance of the resident embassy to the conduct of modern diplomacy. Whereas media coverage of the so-called 'special relationship' focuses on the high-level, personal dealings between Presidents and Prime Ministers, this project will look lower down, at the exchanges on a day-to-day, official level - the 'inner workings' of the relationship. In so doing, it touches on a wide range of topics, including political and economic issues, but also trade promotion, consular work and public relations, military and intelligence co-operation. Furthermore, in contrast to most other academic studies of ambassadorships, which tend to concentrate on bilateral political relations, this project will focus and reflect upon the ambassador's everyday work as a diplomat. It will look at how he established personal contacts with the British government, the extent to which he interacted with Parliament, the media and the general public, his promotion of friendly relations with London, his political reporting and policy advice back to his own government in Washington and his engagement with his fellow ambassadors through the diplomatic corps. But it will also look at the London embassy in general, at how it was managed by the Ambassador, the role played by key officials like the Deputy Chief of Mission, the work of State Department staff in such areas as political and economic reporting, and the significance of staff from others agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States Information Agency and the defence services. In so doing, it addresses some of the major debates about embassies and ambassadors in the diplomatic studies literature, including that of the 'death of the embassy' in the twentieth century - that is, the idea that embassies and ambassadors were becoming redundant in the 1960s and 1970s due to swifter direct communications between states, the advent of jet transport and the growth of the media (which could report political events around the world 'instantly'). The research asks how important the Ambassador was compared to other methods of contact between the two governments, such as summit and foreign ministers meetings, the work of the United Kingdom's embassy in Washington and links via international organisations, like the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The proposed monograph will show that, however reduced the centrality of ambassadors to high-level discussions, they were still a vital factor in diplomatic relations at this time, not least between the major powers. As well as published works, the project will be based on archival research in the United States and United Kingdom, private papers collections, oral history projects and the remarkably full diaries left behind by David Bruce himself. Using memoirs and biographies of other ambassadors, it will draw comparisons with the work of Bruce and the London embassy, to try to ascertain how far they were unique and to what extent they fitted a pattern of experience. The project will result in a number of conference papers as well as the publication in 2014 of a 90,000-word monograph by the prestigious American publishing group, Continuum, in their 'Key Studies in Diplomacy' series, edited by Lorna Lloyd. Given the nature of the topic, the outputs will be of interest not only to a wide range of academics and students - in History, international relations and American Studies - but also to professionals in diplomacy.