Download the full list of case summaries here.
Case 369. A Tale of Two Vetoes: How North Korea Tests the UN System—and the Great Powers
Christopher Klein
ISBN: 978-1-56927-070-7 | Published: 2024
This case study examines the implications of China and Russia’s decision in May 2022 to veto a draft UN Security Council resolution strengthening sanctions against North Korea in the wake of the DPRK’s intercontinental ballistic missile launches, which violated UNSC resolutions. It was the first time a draft resolution on North Korea had been vetoed in 64 years. The no votes marked a jarring end to almost two decades of P5 cooperation in trying to stem North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities. Two years later, in March 2024, Russia vetoed a Security Council text that would have extended the mission of the North Korea sanctions panel of experts (whose job was to monitor compliance, a key to enforcement). China abstained. The no vote was a sign of Moscow’s anger at what it viewed as the West’s excessive use of sanctions.
This case allows students to dig into the intense give and take of Security Council negotiations, question how great power rivalry affects the UN’s work, and review how the Council’s handling of North Korea influenced other files on its docket, such as Iran. It also gives students a chance to grapple with Security Council reform ideas and how middle powers and small states factor into the diplomacy.
Case 368. "A Very Important Portion of the World’s Supply of Oil:" The United States and Oil Diplomacy with Mexico during World War I
Alex Beckstrand
ISBN: 978-1-56927-067-7 | Published: 2024
This case study examines U.S. oil diplomacy with Mexico between 1917-1918. This period immediately followed an American invasion of northern Mexico in 1916 in pursuit of bandits led by Francisco “Pancho” Villa. Over ten thousand U.S. troops were in Mexico, resulting in multiple clashes with the Mexican government and dozens killed on each side. The United States withdrew forces in early 1917 following a major war scare that saw the U.S. mobilize over 100,000 troops along its southern border, including the entire National Guard. Tensions remained high even following the withdrawal of forces.
The case study also examines American threats of force, another tool used by the Woodrow Wilson Administration. Although the President made it clear to his cabinet that conflict with Mexico was off the table, the government signaled to its southern neighbor its willingness to use force to occupy oil fields and protect American lives and interests. This provides an opportunity to discuss with students the validity of the “military option.” At the same time, while threatening Mexico with invasion, President Wilson himself was clear that he would not militarily engage Mexico while simultaneously fighting in Europe.
In the end, this case study demonstrates that the Wilson Administration’s approach, while flawed and at times distasteful, helped ensure access to Mexico’s growing oil output during a time of crisis. The key element was the use of multiple means toward the same goal, a lesson still applicable today.
Case 367. Strategy or Crisis Management: The 1973 War, U.S.-Egypt Relations, and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process
Carl Forsberg
ISBN: 978-1-56927-065-3 | Published: 2024
This case explores the minutiae of shuttle diplomacy conducted between the United States, Israel, and Egypt as a result of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, exploring the transformation of U.S.-Egypt relations after 1973. It dissects the impacts of Nixon, Kissinger, and Sadat's personalities in their navigation of Cold War politics and holds important lessons for the past and present of the Arab-Israeli situation.
This case study will enhance a range of political science and history courses. For international relations courses or political science and history courses on US foreign policy, the case study raises questions about the relative roles of domestic politics, geopolitical interests, crisis management, and bureaucratic rivalry in the formulation of US policy. For courses on strategy, diplomacy, and conflict resolution (including in professional military education settings), the case provokes thinking on the relationship between war and its political context, highlighting the frequent disconnect between military victory and strategic success. For courses on the Arab-Israeli conflict or the Cold War, the case highlights a moment in the 1970s that transformed both those conflicts and allows us to use the past to better analyze the persistent rivalries of our own time.
Case 366. The 1938 Munich Conference: Hitler, Chamberlain, and Appeasement
Paul Doerr
ISBN: 978-1-56927-063-9 | Published: 2024
This case explores contentious debates surrounding the years preceding the outbreak of World War II in Europe. It closely tracks diplomatic machinations between allied powers and Hitler's Germany as well as domestic political forces that shaped the most controversial 20th-century foreign policy: Appeasement.
The Munich conference allows students to explore counterfactual history along a number of lines. Should Britain have “stood up” to Hitler before 1939? If so, how? What alternatives were open to the British prior to Munich? In this case, students also explore the constraints under which diplomats and politicians act. Given the economic, strategic and military conditions that Britain faced in the 1930s, how much freedom of action did the British really have? How much of what happened at Munich was pre-conditioned? Students could debate historian Paul Kennedy’s assertion that appeasement was “massively over-determined.” As well, questions of democratic powers confronting dictatorships can also be explored. What “lessons,” if any, can we learn from the Munich conference and its fallout? Students could investigate the mindset of Chamberlain. Was he buying time for rearmament, or did he hope to avoid war altogether? Can any “lessons” from Munich be applied to the current situation in Eastern Europe?
Case 365. Scotland and the United Kingdom: “Breaking up is Hard to Do”
Lynda K. Barrow
ISBN: 978-1-56927-062-2 | Published: 2024
This case examines the historical and present-day political debate around Scottish independence. Against the backdrop of Brexit, a volatile global economic and security climate, and 300 years of intimately shared history, Scotland’s independence movement had special salience in 2014 and again a decade later. The issue is whether the UK can survive as a geopolitical entity and whether Scotland can thrive as a sovereign state (or as part of the EU). How these questions are resolved could have implications for separatist drives everywhere.
This case is well-suited to classes on democracy, constitutions (and concomitant distributions of power within nation-states), sovereignty, nationalism, and identity politics.
Case 364. Les Bleus’ Basketball in China: The Power of Sports Diplomacy
Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff
ISBN: 978-1-56927-060-8 | Published: 2023
This case study documents and analyzes the utility of basketball as a tool of soft power diplomacy, focusing on interactions between France and China since The Cold War and beginning with the Sino-French rapprochement in 1964 and the French basketball team's trip to China in 1966. The case offers students an alternative look at methods of soft power, interspersing players' personal accounts with broader geopolitical machinations.
This case is ideal for any class in which diplomatic soft power is featured as one aspect of interstate relations. Students will gain an appreciation of the powerful symbolism within culture and sport, and how states use these to gain legitimacy, recognition, and respect.
Case 363. Negotiating Peace and Justice: Women’s Leadership, Participation, and Representation in the Process to End Civil War in Guatemala
Alam, Mayesha & Génesis Torres-Alcántara
ISBN: 978-1-56927-046-2 | Published: 2023
This case examines women's involvement in the peace process to end the Civil War in Guatemala. Mayesha Alam and Génesis Torres-Alcántara provide background on the civil war and how it specifically impacted women, and analyze how women's groups organized to achieve their goals in the peace process.
This case study is meant to be instructive and informative but it does not capture every detail about women’s participation in peacemaking in Guatemala. Rather, the case study serves as a comprehensive introduction that can and should be paired with additional resources about Guatemala in particular, and literature, more generally, on relevant topics. Crucial questions include: How were women affected by the civil war in Guatemala? Why did women mobilize to advance peace? What opportunities and challenges did the ASC present for civil society’s participation in the peace process? What difference did women make and where did their efforts fall short?
362. Ousting Boutros-Ghali: The Clinton Administration and the Politics of the United nations
Auger, Vincent
ISBN: 978-1-56927-045-5 | Published: 2023
This case examines the Clinton Administration's decision to deny Boutros Boutros-Ghali a second term as Secretary-General of the United Nations. Vincent A. Auger, an international relations scholar of U.S. foreign policy, international organizations, and counterterrorism, presents the important players involved, the competing interests of the administration domestically and internationally, as well as the inner workings of the United Nations and the Security Council. He also explains how the United States government used its position in the United Nations to eventually get its way.
This case study exposes the complexities of the U.S. policy process during a decade of post-Cold War global dominance in the 1990s, and the nature of the relationship between the United States and the United Nations. Crucial questions include: How did the rules and politics of the UN influence the way that U.S. officials thought about their options? How did U.S. officials build their strategy to block Boutros-Ghali, and what obstacles did they face in implementing that plan? Why did the administration ultimately resort to a unilateral strategy to achieve its goal? What role did American domestic politics and the media play in shaping the administration’s goals and strategy?
361. Dollarization Diplomacy: The Case of Ecuador and El Salvador
Crandall, Britta
ISBN: 978-1-56927-042-4 | Published: 2022
This case examines Ecuador and El Salvador's decision to "dollarize," that is, to make the U.S. dollar their official currency. Britta Crandall, a visiting professor of Latin American Studies at Davidson College, explores the very different conditions and motivators that led to the decision to dollarize in each country, and how those decisions played out.
The study of these two countries’ experiences lends unique insights into the factors that drove dollarization, and the limitations of this policy. Macroeconomic crisis, ideology, and specific economic interests contributed to the decisions. These cases also reveal that the decision to adopt a foreign currency—a process that is by definition international—can be domestically driven, often in the face of international opposition.
360. Sports Diplomacy in Africa: The NBA and the Basketball Africa League
Krasnoff, Lindsay
ISBN: 978-1-56927-043-1 | Published: 2022
This case examines the creation of the Basketball Africa League and its impact on sports diplomacy. Based on the author's experience as a historian, writer, and consultant working at the intersection of global sports, communications, and diplomacy, this case provides a framework through which students can learn about the NBA'S different basketball diplomacy efforts in Africa over time and how those efforts contribute to addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Sport’s ability to cut across the different SDGs makes it a uniquely valuable tool to promote stronger, more resilient communities worldwide. For example, developing a sport—increasing the number of people who play, as well as their access to facilities, while improving skills—can help promote gender equality through greater opportunities for women and girls to engage in sports and learn key skills like leadership. It can strengthen economic development by stimulating local businesses or investment in infrastructure like courts and arenas, as well as the roads and public transportation needed to get fans to matches. Basketball and its practice can help promote public health, education, and access to higher education opportunities through sports scholarships for gifted players, as well as greater social cohesion as people bond together through teamwork toward their on-court goals. Basketball, and sport more broadly, sits at the intersection of development, gender, education, health, ethnicity, migration, and more.
This case challenges student's to think critically about a number of questions, such as why the NBA was investing in an African league? How does basketball serve as a driver of globalization, focusing attention on issues that transcend national boundaries, while forging pan-African identity? What is the intersection of sports and diplomacy within the African basketball context, and how can it play a role in furthering African development and diplomacy through the BAL?
359. The Road Not Taken: How the Iran-India Pipeline Fell Victim to new Delhi's Grand Strategy Shift
Shidore, Sarang
ISBN: 978-1-56927-038-7 | Published: 2022
This case study explores the twists and turns in India’s relations with Iran between 2005 and 2012. It is designed to illustrate the material and ideational factors that drove a rising middle power like India to make policy choices with a backdrop of a major shift in its grand strategy. A secondary focus is how the U.S. deployed diplomacy to help achieve largely favorable outcomes in a key region of the world. Negotiations for the India-Pakistan-Iran (IPI) pipeline and a proposed Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) deal form the fulcrum for process-tracing the narrative. The simultaneous narrative of the India-U.S. negotiations on the nuclear deal (that provides a major intervening variable) are also temporally overlaid and traced at relevant points. When taken together, these narratives provide a composite and more complete picture of choices and decisions that Indian diplomats faced.
357. Cyprus: Seeking Solutions. A Case Study of the 2015-2017 Negotiations
Doherty, Kathleen
ISBN: 978-1-56927-035-6 | Published: 2021
This case study examines the twenty-six months of UN-facilitated, Cypriot-led negotiations to reunify the island of Cyprus from May 2015 to July 2017. Drawing upon the author’s experience as U.S. ambassador to Cyprus during this period, the case assesses the roles and negotiating positions of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, the United Nations, the European Union, the governments of the United Kingdom, Turkey, Greece, Russia, France, and the United States. Historically the United States has played the role of “honest broker” in negotiations over Cyprus; during this period, then Vice President Biden and later Vice President Pence took an active interest in the talks.
Despite a promising start and being seen as the best chance for success in a decade, the negotiations failed in the early hours of July 6, 2017. “I’m very sorry to tell you that despite the very strong commitment and engagement of all the delegations and different parties ... the conference on Cyprus was closed without an agreement being reached,” stated United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
The study explores the issues involved and the positions of the various actors, and identifies factors that contributed to the negotiations’ failure. Since positions and explanations are not all in the public domain, the analysis is indicative, not comprehensive.
356. The Kashmir Back Channel: India-Pakistan Negotiations on Kashmir from 2004-2007
Jacob, Happymon
ISBN: 978-1-56927-034-9 | Published: 2021
In early 2007, Indian and Pakistani back-channel interlocutors, appointed by the respective heads of government, were preparing to finalize a secret deal to resolve their dispute over Kashmir. Had the negotiators managed to finalize a deal, the two counties would have signed it in a public ceremony. Such a deal could have brought the decades-long Kashmir conflict to a peaceful end. However, the deal, which was confidentially negotiated in secret third country locations for a period of close to three years, was neither finalized nor signed due to domestic political upheaval in Pakistan. Successive governments in Pakistan tried to continue the negotiations with the Indian government to complete the agreement, but those attempts did not succeed. This was the first time India and Pakistan had engaged in a serious, sustained and structured back-channel negotiation to resolve the most severe conflict between them.
This case study provides deeper insights into the conflict dynamics between India and Pakistan and the progress of the negotiations themselves. Based on original interviews with the participants in the negotiations, this case study seeks to highlight how the political context emerged for the Kashmir negotiations, how political leaders on both sides established the back-channel, how it worked, how negotiators arrived at the agreement, and the circumstances that stopped the final ratification and implementation of the agreement.
355. Estonia: The First Battle in the Modern Disinformation War. Lessons for Democracies Fighting Warfare
Heering, Jonas & Heera Kamboj
ISBN: 978-1-56927-027-1 | Published: 2021
On the night of April 26, 2007, riots erupted in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Groups consisting largely of ethnic Russians, who make up approximately one third of Tallinn’s population, protested in the streets, clashed with police forces, and looted and destroyed stores in response to the Estonian government’s announcement that it would move the statue of the "Bronze Soldier"—a Soviet war memorial—from Tallinn’s city center to a military cemetery in the suburbs.
The riots were fueled by false reports in Russian-language media outlets, which claimed that the statue, as well as several Soviet military graves, had been destroyed. And, as the protests waned, Estonia became the target of a three-week long series of cyber attacks from Russian Internet Protocol (IP) addresses that brought down most of the country’s digital infrastructure, from government websites to online banking systems and digital news media.
As a target of this combination of cyber attacks and influence operations, Estonia became one of the first victims of what has been described as a new form of Russian hybrid warfare—a core element of which involves the dissemination of disinformation. This case study explores the events, aftermath, and policy responses to events in 2007, and puts the episode in context of the modern fight against disinformation.
354. Resolving the Libyan Crisis: An ISD International Negotiation Simulation
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy
ISBN: 978-1-56927-021-9 | Published: 2021
This case study allows students to simulate intensive, multi-party negotiations in a one-day exercise in order to seek a political settlement to the Libyan conflict. The instructor will divide the group into seven teams. Each team has intensive face-to-face meetings with the other teams, guided by its confidential negotiation instructions. Participants need not be experts on the region—the simulation materials contain all of the information needed to participate successfully in the exercise. This scenario is based on real events, but the negotiations are set in the future with additional hypothetical developments.
353. Circumventing the Foreign Policy Bureaucracy: Henry Kissinger, Anatoly Dobrynin, and Back-Channel Diplomacy
Moss, Richard A.
ISBN: 978-1-56927-019-6 | Published: 2021
This case study explores the back-channel relationship between Henry Kissinger, who served as Nixon’s national security advisor (and later secretary of state), and Anatoly Dobrynin, the Soviet Union’s ambassador to the United States from 1962 to 1986. During the Nixon administration (1969-1974), the Kissinger-Dobrynin channel became the primary forum for candid discussion of the major issues in superpower relations, often to the exclusion of the traditional diplomatic bureaucracy of the U.S. Department of State.
The case, which is derived from the author's book, Nixon’s Back Channel to Moscow: Confidential Diplomacy and Détente (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2017), combines a detailed historical account of the Nixon-era back-channel diplomacy with interactive teaching resources
352. Ireland's Election to the UN Human Rights Council: Power, Influence, Reputation
Anderson, Anne
ISBN: 978-1-56927-040-0 | Published: 2021
Elections to UN bodies provide an important window into the work of the world’s largest and most important international organization. This case examines the role of a comparatively small state, Ireland, and its successful election to the UN Human Rights Council in November 2012.
The case begins with background on the role of elections at the United Nations, both for the Human Rights Council and the Security Council. While elections to the Security Council traditionally attract the most attention, the Human Rights Council is an increasingly important venue for electoral competition among member states, and a site of significant controversies. This increasing importance also highlights that the United Nations, despite its size and mammoth bureaucracy, is far from a static organization. Therefore, this case enables students to consider changes in the UN over time—as well as prospects for future reform—through the lens of UN election processes, mechanisms, and resources.
The case’s discussion of the resources required to succeed in UN elections provides a practitioner’s insight into the nuts and bolts of day-to-day campaigns for seats on UN bodies, and the ways in which diplomats’ choices are constrained by the resources made available to them by their capitals. In addition to the perennial question of UN Security Council reform, instructors may also wish to use this case study to explore questions of legitimacy and hypocrisy at the Human Rights Council, and criticisms that the Council provides a platform for a rogues’ gallery of human rights abusers to undermine the UN’s values.
351. The 2011 NATO Intervention in Libya
Heffern, John A.
ISBN: 978-1-56927-058-5 | Published: 2020
This case examines NATO’s decision to intervene in Libya in 2011. Drawing on the author’s experience as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to NATO, the case assesses the decision-making processes in Washington, New York (the UN), and Brussels (NATO) that led the international community to launch a military operation in Libya under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973. Through engagement with this case, students will develop an understanding of the opportunities and constraints of multilateral approaches to military intervention. The Libya crisis enables students to see the pros and cons of NATO-led operations and so-called coalitions of the willing in humanitarian intervention.
350. The Customer is Always Wrong: The Airbus A220 and U.S. Trade Law
Letovsky, Robert
ISBN: 978-1-56927-056-1 | Published: 2020
The case focuses on the events leading up to the January, 2018 ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) overturning anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) on imports of the CSeries commercial jet, produced by Bombardier, Inc., a Canadian company.
The decision—and the imposition of the initial duties by the U.S. DoC—fundamentally reshaped the global aerospace industry. It led the two largest manufacturers (Airbus and Boeing) to essentially take over significant portions of the third and fourth largest manufacturers (Bombardier of Canada and Embraer of Brazil, respectively).
349. Universal Jurisdiction and the Rwandan Genocide: Global Justice or Vigilante Politics?
Leonard, Eric
ISBN: 978-1-56927-054-7 | Published: 2020
On June 8, 2001, a Belgian court found Alphonse Higaniro, Vincent Ntezimana, Sister Gertrude, and Sister Maria Kisito guilty of crimes committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Although all of the accused lived in Belgium at the time of their arrest, none of the Butare Four (as they are commonly known) were Belgian citizens, none of the victims were Belgian citizens, and none of the crimes were committed on Belgian soil. The trial and prosecution of the Butare Four appears to be a case of pure universal jurisdiction; one of the few in human rights’ legal history. The unique nature of this trial and the subsequent political fallout makes this an interesting case for understanding what the future of international justice might look like, along with an examination of sovereignty and authority in the global community. This case explores questions of international law and politics in response to one of the most horrifying episodes of the 20th century.
348. Curbing Iran's Nuclear and Regional Ambitions: An ISD International Negotiation Simulation
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy
ISBN: 978-1-56927-050-9 | Published: 2020
This negotiation simulation is designed to help students understand the dynamics of international nuclear negotiations. Student copies provide background details on Iran’s nuclear program and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which students will use to negotiate at a hypothetical arms control conference. In this scenario, Iran has threatened to withdraw from the Non-proliferation Treaty. Student teams will represent the major players involved in the JCPOA, negotiating the possible avenues to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, as well as its ballistic missile program and support for proxy groups across the Middle East.
347. Resolving the Syria Conflict: An ISD International Negotiation Simulation
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy
ISBN: 978-1-56927-032-5 | Published: 2019
This negotiation simulation is designed to help students understand the dynamics of international peace talks. Student copies provide full background details of the conflict in Syria, which students will use to negotiate at a hypothetical peace conference. In this scenario, the civil war in Syria ends with President Assad still in power. Student teams will represent the major players involved in the conflict, negotiating the possible avenues for Syria’s future governance and leadership as well as the role the Kurds and other opposition groups can play in a peacetime country. The negotiation simulation is most suitable for groups of between 28 and 35 students divided into 7 teams. Instructor copies include schedules and other details to run the simulation exercise.
346. The Colombian Peace Process: An ISD International Negotiation Simulation
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy
ISBN: 978-1-56927-052-3 | Published: 2020
This negotiation simulation is designed to help students understand the dynamics of international peace talks. Student copies provide background details of the conflict in Colombia, which students will use to participate in several rounds of negotiations held in Havana. The simulation is designed to be split over two sessions, but could be divided into three or four shorter blocs. In this scenario, participants operate within the framework of the 2015 peace talks aimed at solving the decades-long conflict between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Student teams will represent the major players involved in the conflict, negotiating over issues including transitional justice and disarmament.
Forman, Ira
ISBN: 978-1-56927-030-1 | Published: 2019
In 2015 the Hungarian government announced it would fund a statue in the city of Székesfehérvár to honor Bálint Hóman, a pre-World War II historian and government minister. Hóman had a long history as an antisemite, and had co-authored legislation to undermine Jewish citizenship in Hungary. After World War II broke out, Hóman continued to serve in Parliament under the Nazi regime, and had been an advocate for the deportation of Hungarian Jews. This case study examines the controversy that ensued over the Hóman statue, the local and foreign reactions, and the US government decision to lead a coalition to oppose the statue project. The case will challenge students to consider the issue from various perspectives. Why did Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government feel it was necessary to honor such a controversial figure? Why was the Hungarian Jewish community so opposed to the statue—and what was the broader global reaction? And what was the US diplomatic response?
344. From Civil War to Civil War: The Struggle for Peace in Sudan and South Sudan
Lyman, Princeton N.
ISBN: 978-1-56927-028-8 | Published: 2018
Since independence in 1956, Sudan experienced two major civil wars, a genocidal conflict in Darfur, secession of the southern part of the country, and civil war in the newly independent South Sudan. This case study focuses on the tools and actions of diplomacy, and US and international efforts to resolve these conflicts. The author, Special Envoy Princeton N. Lyman, provides fascinating insights into the long and complex diplomacy in the case of Sudan, and the quiet but effective moves beyond the public eye to bring parties to the table. This case study also offers a rare look at the role of special envoys in the peace process, and details the areas where US and other international partners were able to push forward on agreements, with an assessment of what prevented the emergence of a stable and long-lasting peace in Sudan and South Sudan.
343. The 2014-2015 West Africa Ebola Outbreak: The Diplomacy of Response and Recovery in Guinea
Standley, Claire
ISBN: 978-1-56927-019-6| Published: 2018
The 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia killed more than 11,000 people, and offered a stark reminder that viruses do not recognize international borders. The global public health community and local health officials scrambled to respond quickly to help those infected with Ebola, and stop the spread of the disease. This case study looks at the global response in West Africa, as well as efforts to build laboratory capacity in Guinea. Students will examine the political factors and diplomacy governing global assistance in the context of the outbreak of a deadly disease and the transition from urgent response to longer-term capacity building and development needs. The case reviews how these factors, and the overall tragedy of Ebola in West Africa, offering lessons for the global response to public health emergencies.
342. Global Governance of Disease
Katz, Rebecca
ISBN: 978-1-56927-018-9 | Published: 2017
The movement of people, animals, and goods have facilitated the spread of disease throughout history, but the fast pace of globalization in the 21st century increases the danger of pandemics that transcend national borders. This case study traces the historical evolution of global disease governance structures from the first International Sanitary Conference in 1851 to the creation of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the ratification of the International Health Regulations (IHR) in 2005, and examines the global health diplomacy behind the decisions to declare Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC) in response to outbreaks of H1N1, Polio, Ebola, and Zika. The case study then discusses the political and organizational challenges to creating an effective global response to recurring as well as new disease threats.
341. US Strategy to Stem North Korea’s Nuclear Program: Assessing the Clinton and Bush Legacies
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy
ISBN: 978-1-56927-015-8 | Published: 2017
North Korea’s nuclear program was a microcosm of the kind of complex security challenges the United States would confront in the 21st century. This case study examines the role of the US intelligence and foreign policy communities to reduce the global and regional security threats posed by nuclear proliferation in North Korea, by looking at the very different approaches adopted by the Clinton and Bush administrations. This case study focuses on the North Korean nuclear threat as a way to examine the dynamics of intelligence and policy. As the United States and Asia continue to grapple with the threat of a nuclear-armed North Korea, what are the next steps for US diplomacy? What lessons from this case study can inform future US administrations and policymakers toward their policy and negotiations with North Korea—or other states that may be embarking on a nuclear weapons program?
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy
ISBN: 978-1-56927-006-6 | Published: 2017
Does the United States—or any other government—have the tools to stop a looming global economic crisis? This case study investigates the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 and the response of the US intelligence and policy community. The Asian financial crisis illustrates the vast range of US and international security challenges that stem from private sector activities operating largely outside of government control—in ways that adversely affect international markets and national economies. This case study offers an overview of the policy measures that successfully stemmed the crisis in Asia, and discusses whether these tools might prevent a similar currency-related meltdown.
339. Tunisia and the Start of the Arab Spring
Gray, Gordon
ISBN: 978-1-56927-011-0 | Published: 2017
This case study, written by the US ambassador to Tunisia from 2009-2012, examines the roots of the Arab Spring, how and why it unfolded in Tunisia, and the US role as the Ben Ali government collapsed. It offers an overview of Tunisian history and society, including a close look at the two men who had led Tunisia after the country’s independence in 1956, and what their regimes had and had not achieved. The case study examines pivotal events leading up to the revolution of 2010-2011, underscoring the complexity and multiplicity of their causal factors, and offers a detailed look at the diplomacy behind the US support for the democratic transition. There is also a broader discussion of the Arab Spring as a revolutionary movement, and its longer-term impact on other Arab societies and on US interests in North Africa and the Middle East.
Turkington, Rebecca
ISBN: 978-1-56927-013-4 | Published: 2017
The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 ended thirty years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. For decades, Catholic Nationalists had fought against Protestant Unionists in a bitter conflict known as Ireland’s “Troubles.” This case study examines the pivotal role women played in the negotiations to bring about peace.
Northern Ireland’s peace negotiations were notable for their inclusion of civil society actors in general, including an innovative electoral approach to broaden the voices at the table, and promote genuine inclusion. The case draws heavily from extensive interviews with many of the negotiating parties, including members of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition, which gained seats at the table through the electoral system’s ‘top-up’ provisions.
337. Intelligence: A Key Partner to Diplomacy
Laipson, Ellen
ISBN: 978-1-56927-009-7 | Published: 2017
This case study examines the nexus between intelligence gathering and the practice of diplomacy. Both are vital components of US foreign policy, yet the full range of US intelligence activities is often little understood. Intelligence officers are tasked with providing neutral input to help advise and inform US foreign policy, and help diplomats implement policy and advise the executive branch. Successful policy implementation often depends on the quality and quantity of intelligence available to diplomats. This study provides a conceptual background for understanding the intelligence-diplomacy relationship and introduces all the agencies and units active in the US intelligence effort. To illustrate the wide range of interactions between US diplomats and the intelligence community, Laipson includes four historical “mini-cases”:
- intelligence briefings during the breakdown of Yugoslavia in 1990
- intel during the 2012 attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya
- the role of intelligence in arms control and verification measures
- intelligence as a back channel in diplomacy
336. The US and Soviet Proxy War in Afghanistan, 1989-1992
Institute for the Study of Diplomacy
ISBN: 978-1-56927-004-2 | Published: 2017
This case study, drawn from an Institute for the Study of Diplomacy working group series on strategic surprise, focuses on events in Afghanistan during the late 1980s and early 1990s and the policy decisions and consequences of completely withdrawing from engagement in Afghanistan in 1992. The case looks at how policy decisions surrounding these events affected US national strategic objectives in the region at the time—and whether an earlier, and deeper, consideration of the possible implications of the rise of radical Islamic groups might have changed the way in which the United States provided assistance to the mujahideen during and after the Soviet occupation. A decade later, Afghanistan and the radical groups operating within the country would emerge as a major national security challenge for the United States.
335. Peacemaking in Southern Africa: The Namibia-Angola Settlement of 1988
Crocker, Chester A.
ISBN: 978-1-56927-002-8 | Published: 2017
Few conflicts in the waning years of the Cold War involved more players than Southern Africa. Namibia, which had been under de facto rule by South Africa since 1915, by the 1970s was caught up in an independence movement as well as a greater regional struggle and a Cold War power play. The United States, Soviet Union, Cuba, and South Africa all became involved in Angola’s civil war, which threatened to spill over into both Namibia and South Africa. Written by US lead negotiator Ambassador Chester A. Crocker, this case study details the eight-year negotiations to bring about peace in the region—and secure Namibia’s independence from South Africa. The case includes a practical discussion of the concepts of “linkage” and “ripeness”—which help explain how the US team was able to push the negotiations to conclusion in 1988.
334. Tourism Development: A Path to Peace in Sri Lanka?
Fassihi, Manny
ISBN: 978-1-56927-000-4 | Published: 2017
Could Sri Lanka’s tourism sector be a primary driver of economic development – and a way to bring about a lasting peace? This case study looks at the early decision to pursue tourism as a driver of development in the 1950s, and follows the history of Sri Lanka and its tourism industry through 2016.
In 2002, the government of Sri Lanka reached a breakthrough with the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) to bring the civil war, which had been going on for almost two decades, to a ceasefire. Bilateral and multilateral development agencies quickly looked to help the country rebuild, and developing the tourism sector was once again a primary economic development goal. The devastating tsunami and renewed fighting threatened these goals, however.
333. Crisis in Dominion: An Information and Intelligence Assessment
Auerswald, David P.
ISBN: 978-1-56927-023-3 | Published: 2015
This simulation is geared for a 60-to-90-minute seminar in courses on intelligence analysis, ethnic conflict, humanitarian interventions, or foreign policy decision-making. The case study asks participants to assess ambiguous and possibly contradictory information from a variety of raw and finished sources, and then explore what sorts of questions a consumer of information should ask of the intelligence community.
The fictional crisis unfolds in three informal stages in the fictional country of Dominion. The first describes negotiations to settle the civil war there. The second stage begins when the presidents of Dominion and a neighboring state are assassinated, sparking the re-emergence of a simmering ethnic conflict between the region's two main ethnic groups. The third charts the devolution of the country into renewed civil war, with questions as to which side is engaging in atrocities and which external actors might be supporting each side.
332. The Withdrawal from UNESCO: International Organizations and the U.S. Role
Rosenthal, Joel H.
ISBN: Unassigned | Published: 2011
In December 1983, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz sent a letter to Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, notifying him of the United States' intention to leave UNESCO by the end of 1984 unless the organization adopted serious reforms. A year later, Sec. Shultz confirmed Washington's withdrawal, leaving it and London, which followed the American lead, outside an organization they had done so much to create nearly 40 years earlier. This case study analyzes how such a promising vision of the potential of multinational cooperation went sour, and assesses the roles ideology, domestic U.S. politics and policy disagreements within the Reagan administration played in the decision to withdraw.
331. State Narratives in Complex Media Environments: The Case of Ukraine
Walker, Vivian S.
ISBN: Unassigned | Published: 2015
This case study begins with an examination of the origins of the strategic narrative Russia has developed about its new, post-Cold War identity and how that narrative has shaped its propaganda offensive in Ukraine. Following a review of key elements in Russia’s information arsenal, it then assesses Kyiv's counter-narratives, focusing in particular on the East/West dynamic that both defines and complicates its identity as a sovereign state. The study then assesses Ukraine’s information initiatives and assets, before concluding with a set of recommendations for achieving effective strategic narrative development and projecting a complex information environment.
330. From Miracle to Crisis: Brazilian Foreign Debt and the Limits of Obligation
Landy, Thomas M.
ISBN: Unassigned | Published: 2015
In a September 1986 speech to the United Nations, Brazilian President Jose Sarney declared that his country's massive debt imperiled its newly restored democracy, and warned that Brazil would not "pay its foreign debt with recession, nor with unemployment, nor with hunger." Such crises illustrate the reality that some global financial obligations become so onerous that they must be restructured or forgiven--yet there is no single entity in the international arena with the authority to make and enforce such a binding determination. This case study codifies and explores a set of questions whose answers can help resolve such challenges, which—as we have seen in Greece, among other countries—remain as relevant today as they were 30 years ago. It would be appropriate for courses in world politics, international political economy, development issues, and foreign policy analysis at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
329. High Drama in Honduras: Constitutional Crisis and the Overthrow of President Zelaya
Barrow, Lynda K.
ISBN: 1-56927-380-4 | Published: 2012
In the pre-dawn hours of June 28, 2009, some 200 armed, hooded members of the Honduran military pulled President Manuel Zelaya from his bed, whisked him out of the presidential palace, loaded him onto a military plane, and packed him off to Costa Rica. Thus began what quickly became a full-blown crisis for Honduras and the region. This three-part case study focuses on the questions this episode raises about the nature of Honduras’ constitutional order, as well as broader questions about democratic legitimacy. Part A sets out the events leading to Zelaya’s ouster, including his political alliance with Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez and his push to get voter approval for a National Constituent Assembly. It ends with the inauguration of a new Honduran president, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, in January 2010. Part B briefly explores the international community’s response, while Part C delves into the constitutional crisis that Zelaya’s removal fomented.
328. Pharmaceuticals, Patents, and U.S. Trade Policy
McDonald, Michael K.
ISBN: 1-56927-379-0 | Published: 2012
This case study examines the role of intellectual property rights in U.S. trade policymaking by analyzing the Obama administration’s handling of the May 2009 report on Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, due to Congress just four months after President Barack Obama took office. The case examines the role of intellectual property rights in trade negotiations, the impact of the 2006 midterm elections on the trade process with respect to intellectual property, and the example of Thailand’s drug licensing program. It offers a concrete look at the politics of trade policymaking, the role of intellectual property rights and the “Access to Medicines” campaign on trade politics, and the negotiating process between the administration and Congress regarding trade.
327. Unveiling the Veil Ban Dilemma: The Case of Leyla Sahin
Piatti-Crocker, Adriana and Laman Tasch
ISBN: 1-56027 | Published: 2012
This case study examines the historical evolution of secularism in Turkey and analyzes the legality of veil bans in Turkey and in some Western European countries. Through the case of Leyla Sahin, who was not allowed to register for classes at the University of Istanbul in 1998 simply because she wore an Islamic veil, it sheds light on whether banning Muslim veils in public spaces falls within the realms of current regional and international human rights law. This study is designed to be taught in a variety of courses in international relations and comparative politics. It could also be employed in classes that discuss globalization, international law, human rights, the growing influence of international and regional organizations in domestic politics, or gender politics.
Dietrich, John W.
ISBN: 1-56927-300-6 | Published: 2012
In his January 2003 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush called on the United States to commit $15 billion over five years under a new program, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), to address the international HIV/AIDS epidemic. This case study examines how AIDS issues fit into existing and emerging definitions of national interests; explores whether to use bilateral or multilateral funding and programs to combat the disease; and considers whether funding restrictions should include U.S. values on prevention strategies and encourage the use of U.S.-manufactured drugs. Collectively, PEPFAR decisions raise the issue of whether funding programs in the developing world gives rich countries undue leverage over policy choices, and thus represents, intentionally or not, a form of neoimperialism. The study is designed to be used in introductory or advanced courses in international politics, U.S. foreign policy, or more specialized courses examining ethics in international relations.
Love, Maryann Cusimano
ISBN: 1-56927-552-1 | Published: 2011
When John V. Hanford III was sworn into office in May 2002 as the U.S. ambassador-at-large for religious freedom, he chose Vietnam as the country he would visit first in his new role. Although bilateral ties had rapidly warmed following the normalization of relations in 1995, Hanoi’s human rights record was so poor that many members of Congress wanted to designate Vietnam a “country of particular concern” under the terms of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. This case study asks participants to assess Ambassador Hanford’s strategy for deciding whether adding Vietnam to the CPC list would improve or exacerbate conditions.