THE
PUBLICATION AND
OF THE DOCUMENTS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OFFICE* Ann Lane
Diplomacy,
that
is the peaceful by accredited
FOREIGN
November
1993
independent
of relations amongst f체ll keeping the requires agents, of and entities political negotiations and other transactions. records of communications, accurate international historians When to the are open public, such records are in having fortunate documentary to them available ample particularly base As Lord Acton `History to their research. which said, evidence upon documents But diplomatic not and opinion'. archives are not must stand on international history. They invaluable of are also an only the raw material foreign for importantly Most those and administer conduct who policy. asset to
the
policy-maker for current precedents for education material
conduct
they
provide a record future negotiations. and and propaganda.
of' past But they
developments also usually
and contain
Effective
diplomacy requires the efficient management of archives, and few better foreign than those and ordered organised archives are of ministries. Moreover, few government departments are more actively engaged in the foreign their than records are publication of ministries. Although diplomacy is often portrayed as a secret craft, an art practised behind closed doors by individuals who are remote from the public at large, it is doubtful that any department in has this government country a record equal to the FCO in departmental The Cabinet Office the regular publication of archives. histories, Ministry Defence the sponsors official of supports historical issue departments reports and statistics of one kind or research, and other but have Documents British Policy to none anything equivalent another, on Overseas. This pattern is mirrored State Department, the
in the attitude Quai d'Orsay
foreign of ministries overseas: the Amt have and the Ausw채rtiges adopted similar attitudes towards publishing their archives. Throughout the foreign been have ministries and are engaged in the process of editing world * Abridged edition of a paper November presented at the University 1993. of Westminster, The author would like to thank Keith Hamilton, Joint-Editor of Documents on British Policy Oaerseas, whose articles `The Pursuit of "Enlightened Patriotism": The British Foreign Researchers during the Great War Office and Historical Historical and its Aftermath', Research 61 (1988), pp. 316-44 and `The Historical Diplomacy Republic', of the Third Diplomacy and Statecraft, 4 (1993) No. 2, pp. 175-209, supplied much of the source material for this paper.
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