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

这一博士论文研究项目将分析和评估维持美国广泛外交机构的想法和假设，这是一个由285个使领馆组成的影响深远的网络。近几十年来，由于技术进步和地缘政治关切的转变，外交实践发生了巨大变化。世界各地的个人现在有机会在推特上与大使和外长直接交流，维基解密上的外交通信被披露后，要求提高外交交流透明度的呼声高涨，非国家恐怖分子继续挑战外交官及其设施不可侵犯的观点。虽然一些国家已经适应了21世纪的现实，适应了机动性更强、机动性更强的外交团队和更少的外交设施，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，这是从20世纪下半叶开始的一种持续努力，目的是通过在世界各地散布旨在以类似方式查看、工作和行为的使领馆，而无论其地理位置如何，从而获得几乎全部的外交报道。关注这一未被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出现了。通过审查外交基础设施和外交政策目标之间的关系，该项目将采用地理方法，侧重于日常唯物主义和机构网络，以审查外交做法及其影响。该项目将扩展目前外交理论和实践的方法，使日常实践的审查重新成为外交研究的中心角色。项目结果将有助于美国国务院对其外交地理的影响进行自我评估，并将帮助其他从事外交实践的人评估实践对治国方式的地理影响。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将为有前途的学生建立强大的独立研究生涯提供支持。博士生将把该项目的重点放在以下几组问题上：(1)哪些因素影响与美国使领馆选址有关的决策？(2)美国对外交基础设施的做法与其他国家有何不同？(3)每个设施的普遍性在哪些方面证明对美国的外交政策目标是有益的，也是适得其反的？学生将使用多种尺度和广泛声音的制度人种学方法，包括实地实践者、高层政策制定者、退休大使、过去的声音，以及学生在华盛顿特区和美国国务院内部的亲身经历。她将确定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，并与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.