DDB: Documentos Diplomáticos Brasileiros? - Uma possibilidade longinqua, ao que parece... Documentos Diplomáticos Suíços
A diplomacia brasileira dispõe de um um Consultor Jurídico – o primeiro foi instituído pelo pai do Barão, o Visconde do Rio Branco –, mas nunca "sentiu necessidade" de dispor de um historiador oficial, ou seja, alguém encarregado de selecionar os documentos diplomáticos mais interessantes e de divulgá-los em prazos regulares.
Não temos, por exemplo, o equivalente do U.S. Foreign Relations series, volumes temáticos com documentos cronologicamente agrupados, mesmo confidenciais (depois de liberados), que servem ao público em geral, mas mais precisamente aos historiadores, como guias documentais em seu trabalho analítico e interpretativo. Sempre propus a criação de um cargo de Historiador Diplomático no Itamaraty, mas nunca fui ouvido.
Até o Reino do Marrocos possui um quadro estratégico das relações internacionais do país, preparado pelo seu instituto de pesquisas da área diplomática, que pode ser visto neste link: https://www.ires.ma/fr/publications/rapports-generaux/tableau-de-bord-strategique-evolution-du-positionnement-international-du-maroc-douzieme-edition
Abaixo, um exemplo interessante: a série da Suíça, liberada a cada 30 anos, ou seja, na desclassificação.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida
H-Diplo: New posted content
H-Diplo: New posted content
H-Diplo Roundtable XXVI-11 on Zala et al., _Documents Diplomatiques Suisses, 1992_
H-Diplo Roundtable XXVI-11
Sacha Zala et al., Documents Diplomatiques Suisses, 1992. Bern: Dodis, 2023. ISBN 978-3-907261-10-1.
28 November 2024 | PDF: https://hdiplo.org/to/RT26-11 | X: @HDiplo | BlueSky: @h-diplo.bsky.social
Editor: Diane Labrosse | Commissioning Editor: Liliane Stadler | Production Editor: Christopher Ball
Contents
Introduction by Georg Kreis, University of Basel 2
Review by Stéphanie Ginalski, Université de Lausanne.. 6
Response by Thomas Bürgisser and Sacha Zala, Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland.. 18
Introduction by Georg Kreis, University of Basel
The scholarly discussion revolving around the Dodis Research Centre’s volume on Swiss diplomatic documents from 1992 gives us the opportunity to reflect on the importance of this type of scientific endeavor in a recapitulatory way. The volumes of the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (DDS), which have been published since 1979, occupy a key position in the landscape of Switzerland’s diplomatic history and historiography.
Since 2021, the Dodis Research Centre annually selects and publishes approximately 1,800 of the most important documents on Swiss foreign policy at the exact expiry date of the 30-year protection and embargo period—just like a proverbial Swiss clock, so to speak. At the beginning of each year, Dodis uploads these documents via its website and publishes a small, carefully selected sub-set of approximately 62 documents both digitally and in print. The print volume of documents from 1992 was presented to the public at a well-attended book launch on 3 January 2023.[1]
In fact, the annual book launches of the DDS series have become somewhat of an institution in and of themselves and enjoy great popularity among scholars, students, journalists, as well as Swiss and foreign diplomats. They also receive considerable press coverage in Switzerland on the day they are held. Media professionals pour over the compiled documentation and convey a “selection of the selection” from the always rich and meaningful collections of documents, which continue to a wider public debate on the continued relevance of Swiss diplomatic history for the present day.[2] We know that documents that were previously classified as secret are of particular interest.
What is special about the way in which Dodis makes Swiss diplomatic documents accessible to the public is that they are primarily intended to allow interested citizens to encounter historical primary-source material with a sound balance of proximity and distance. The aim is to stimulate curiosity and inquiry. Thanks to the interactive format of both the print and digital versions of the DDS volumes, the index, and the table of contents, interested readers can find out more with little effort, about what was thought and done on their behalf in the arena of foreign affairs thirty years ago. The Dodis volumes also draw interest from the many bilateral and multilateral diplomatic missions based in Switzerland. Of course, current-day policymakers at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs are interested too in what their predecessors have left behind in written reflections.
Yet what significance do these editions have for historical research and for the ongoing academic debates surrounding Swiss foreign policy? They are important intermediate products in a continuous process of academic debate on the history of Swiss foreign relations. These can be used to gauge what has already been—as always—provisionally worked out in the existing literature. In the case of the present volume, Swiss reactions to the possibility of becoming part of the European Economic Area (EEA) have received considerable attention.[3] On the basis of the documentation now available, it is possible to guess what is still waiting to be recorded in an in-depth investigation.
More broadly speaking, the selection of files contained in DDS 1992 provides a condensed overview of the most important foreign policy challenges—big and small—which occurred that year. With its layout, based primarily on archival holdings from the Swiss Federal Archives in Berne, it can provide a glimpse into issues and topics that have received little attention to date. The detailed note of a conversation that took place in Geneva in May 1992 between the president of the African National Congress (ANC), Nelson Mandela, and Swiss State Secretary Franz Blankart, is particularly significant and catalogued as Document Number 19 in DDS 1992 (115-118). In this document, Mandela comments that Switzerland had a “most negative image” in South Africa because of its non-participation in international sanctions and because of the behavior of several Swiss companies. Nevertheless, he added, “Let bygone be bygone, let us now normalize the perception,” referring primarily to financial support for the ANC (118).[4]
On the whole and in the spirit of “blue skies research,” DDS 1992 leaves open which research questions could or should be developed on the basis of the materials provided. Most Dodis volumes are products of what is called Grundlagenforschung in German—research that forms a solid basis for further investigations. They are intended as entry points into specific topics for those interested in historical research on Swiss foreign policy. The substantial introduction that precedes the documents provides both context and overview for the selection of documents that essentially mark the beginning of a new year in the declassification calendar at the Swiss Federal Archives (XXXI-LI). It is now also accompanied by a detailed review in the Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte, an academic journal dedicated to new research on Swiss history.[5]
I do want to stress, however, that while this roundtable primarily revolves around the edited volume of 1992, the publication of these documents in an edited volume—as much as they form the material core of the edition—is only half of the achievement. The other half—which cannot be valued highly enough, especially for further research—is the digital enrichment of the document corpus with metadata and its breakdown according to relevant core themes and key words, which makes targeted research much easier. The editors aptly state soberly in their contribution to our roundtable that, “this is the primary work we do on sources.” In her contribution, Stéphanie Ginalski correspondingly highlights the diversity of diplomatic activities and emphasizes, among other things, the negotiations on climate issues that were conducted in 1992—more than 30 years ago. She also reflects on the reorientation of the conventional understanding of Swiss neutrality that occurred that year, stressing Switzerland’s participation in international sanctions “without inciting a revolution.”
Marianne von Grünigen, meanwhile, dwells on the strengthening of the CSCE and its successor organization over time, as well as on the “soft” institutionalization of its involvement in various conflicts leading up to and including 1992. She emphasizes that the year 1992 was significant in terms of enhanced cooperation among the existing international organizations in Europe. The year 1992 was a turning point after two decades of growing optimism for a more peaceful, secure and democratic Europe. Finally, Thomas Bürgisser and Sacha Zala, the two editors of the volume, respond to the two preceding contributions. They confirm Ginalski’s observation concerning the “glaring absence of women” in diplomacy at the time. Women remained heavily underrepresented in the diplomatic corps throughout the 1990s. Von Grünigen herself is a notable exception in the Swiss diplomatic corps and thankfully, the gender balance has since improved considerably.
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