Rapprochement

Last updated February 23, 2024

In international relations, a rapprochement, which comes from the French word rapprocher ("to bring together"), is a re-establishment of cordial relations between two countries.^[1]^[2] This may be done due to a mutual antagonist, as the German Empire was seen by both France and the British Empire at the time of their signing of the Entente Cordiale.^[3] It has also been done, particularly in the cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States, in an effort to reduce tensions and the likelihood of war.

Historical examples

The Great Rapprochement

Relations between the United States and the United Kingdom warmed significantly in the period leading up to World War I. After multiple border and influence disputes in the 19th century, particularly that of the Anglo-American border dispute in Venezuela, interests in the western hemisphere aligned. Public opinion in the United Kingdom supported the United States in the Spanish–American War, though previously they were skeptical of American domination of the Caribbean.^[4] Rather than intervene, the British government remained neutral. Likewise, the government of the United States refused to aid the Boers in the Boer War, and instead sold limited amounts of war materials to the United Kingdom.^[4] The roots of this rapprochement were both not only strategic, but cultural; many notable political figures including President Theodore Roosevelt supported the United Kingdom on the basis of supporting "Anglo-Saxon" culture.^[4]

Entente Cordiale

The Entente Cordiale was a series of diplomatic agreements between the United Kingdom and France in 1904 that saw the warming of relations and simplification of overseas borders.^[3] In particular, the original cause for the negotiations was the disputed north African colonies of both colonial powers.^[5] Diplomats agreed to colonial concessions in order to prevent colonial conflict between the two; it would eventually grow to be a military alliance acting as a counterweight to the Triple Alliance that would see conflict in World War I. Rather than a formal agreement to military aid, the Entente Cordiale grew with the various diplomatic crises leading up to World War I. The effects of rapprochement could be seen with Franco-British unity in the Moroccan Crisis against the German Empire.^[3]

President Nixon's visit to China

The mending of relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China that began with President Nixon's 1972 visit to China and culminated in 1979 with the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations can be considered to be a case of rapprochement between the two countries.^[6]

Détente

The period known as détente, or "relaxation", between the United States and the Soviet Union during the 1970s was a time of rapprochement. Treaties limiting the scope and number of strategic weapons, including SALT I, were signed. This was partially in response to construction of missile defense systems, which would allow a nation to launch a first strike and shoot down retaliation.^[7] As such, agreements were signed to reduce the feasibility of a first strike - while further agreements sought to reduce strategic weapons systems, rather than cap them.^[7] This led to more cordial relations overall between the two superpowers.

Methods and causes

Rapprochement often begins with a joint policy, treaty or statement, such as with the SALT I treaty or the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations. Often, the rapprochement occurs specifically in an attempt to counter another power, like with Chinese-American rapprochement targeted towards the Soviet Union.^[8] Likewise, France and the United Kingdom sought to counter the German Empire.^[3]

Related Research Articles

Entente, meaning a diplomatic "understanding", may refer to a number of agreements:

China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), has full diplomatic relations with 180 out of the other 192 United Nations member states, Cook Islands, Niue and the State of Palestine. China has had the most diplomatic missions of any state.

The Entente Cordiale comprised a series of agreements signed on 8 April 1904 between the United Kingdom and the French Republic which saw a significant improvement in Anglo-French relations. On the surface, the agreement dealt with minor issues related to fishing and colonial boundaries. Egypt was recognized as part of Britain's sphere of influence, and Morocco as part of France's. The Entente was not a formal alliance and did not involve close collaboration, nor was it intended to be directed against Germany. However, it paved the way for a stronger relationship between France and Britain in the face of German aggression. It should not be mistaken for the official Anglo-French military alliance, which was only established after the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence are the Chinese government's foreign relations principles first mentioned in the 1954 Sino-Indian Agreement. Also known as Panchsheel, these principles were subsequently adopted in a number of resolutions and statements, including the preamble to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China.

The Treaty of San Francisco, also called the Treaty of Peace with Japan, re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers on behalf of the United Nations by ending the legal state of war and providing for redress for hostile actions up to and including World War II. It was signed by 49 nations on 8 September 1951, in San Francisco, California, at the War Memorial Opera House. Italy and China were not invited, the latter due to disagreements on whether the Republic of China or the People's Republic of China represented the Chinese people. Korea was also not invited due to a similar disagreement on whether South Korea or North Korea represented the Korean people.

The Triple Entente describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was built upon the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, the Entente Cordiale of 1904 between France and Britain, and the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907. It formed a powerful counterweight to the Triple Alliance of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Kingdom of Italy. The Triple Entente, unlike the Triple Alliance or the Franco-Russian Alliance itself, was not an alliance of mutual defence.

The Joint Communiqué of the United States of America and the People's Republic of China, also known as the Shanghai Communiqué (1972), was a diplomatic document issued by the United States of America and the People's Republic of China on February 27, 1972, on the last evening of President Richard Nixon's visit to China.

Détente is the relaxation of strained relations, especially political ones, through verbal communication. The diplomacy term originates from around 1912, when France and Germany tried unsuccessfully to reduce tensions.

The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, or Convention between the United Kingdom and Russia relating to Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet, was signed on August 31, 1907, in Saint Petersburg. It ended the longstanding rivalry in Central Asia and enabled the two countries to outflank the Germans, who were threatening to connect Berlin to Baghdad with a new railroad that could potentially align the Ottoman Empire with Imperial Germany.

The Franco-Russian Alliance, also known as the Dual Entente or Russo-French Rapprochement, was an alliance formed by the agreements of 1891–94; it lasted until 1917. The strengthening of the German Empire, the creation of the Triple Alliance of 1882, and the exacerbation of Franco-German and Russo-German tensions at the end of the 1880s led to a common foreign policy and mutual strategic military interests between France and Russia. The development of financial ties between the two countries created the economic prerequisites for the Russo-French Alliance.

The Joint Communique of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People's Republic of China was signed on September 29, 1972, in Beijing. The communique established and normalized diplomatic relations between Japan and the People's Republic of China (PRC), resulted in the severing of official relations between Japan and the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The document produced nine articles in a joint statement, showing compromises on previously ambiguous principles enunciated by both sides. Of these, four points are particularly worthy of attention:

the desire for a peace treaty between Japan and China;
the statement that Japan "understands and respects [China's] stance" that Taiwan is part of the PRC;
an Asia-Pacific anti-hegemony clause;
Japan's reversal of relations with China and Taiwan.

The Formosa Resolution of 1955 was a joint resolution passed by the U.S. Senate and signed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 29, 1955, to counteract the threat of an invasion of Taiwan by the People's Republic of China (PRC). The resolution gave the U.S. president the authority "to employ the Armed Forces of the United States as he deems necessary for the specific purpose of securing and protecting Formosa and the Pescadores against armed attack [by the Communists]".

Relations between the Soviet Unionand Japan between the Communist takeover in 1917 and the collapse of Communism in 1991 tended to be hostile. Japan had sent troops to counter the Bolshevik presence in Russia's Far East during the Russian Civil War, and both countries had been in opposite camps during World War II and the Cold War. In addition, territorial conflicts over the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin were a constant source of tension. These, with a number of smaller conflicts, prevented both countries from signing a peace treaty after World War II, and even today matters remain unresolved.

The 1972 visit by United States President Richard Nixon to the People's Republic of China was an important strategic and diplomatic overture that marked the culmination of the Nixon administration's establishment of relations between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China after years of American diplomatic policy that favored the ROC in Taiwan. The seven-day official visit to three Chinese cities was the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC; Nixon's arrival in Beijing ended 25 years of no communication or diplomatic ties between the two countries and was the key step in normalizing relations between the U.S. and the PRC. Nixon visited the PRC to gain more leverage over relations with the Soviet Union, following the Sino-Soviet split. The normalization of ties culminated in 1979, when the U.S. established full diplomatic relations with the PRC.

The Second Hundred Years' War is a periodization or historical era term used by some historians to describe the series of military conflicts around the globe between Great Britain and France that occurred from about 1689 to 1815, including several separate wars such as the War of the Spanish Succession, War of the Austrian Succession, Seven Years' War, American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. The Second Hundred Years' War is named after the Hundred Years' War, which occurred in the 14th and 15th century. The term appears to have been coined by J. R. Seeley in his influential work The Expansion of England (1883).

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to World War I:

The Franco-Japanese Treaty, was a treaty between the French Third Republic and the Empire of Japan denoting respective spheres of influence in Asia, which was signed in Paris on June 10, 1907 by Japanese Ambassador Baron Shin’ichiro Kurino and French Foreign Minister Stéphen Pichon.

The US foreign policy during the presidency of Richard Nixon (1969–1974) focused on reducing the dangers of the Cold War among the Soviet Union and China. President Richard Nixon's policy sought on détente with both nations, which were hostile to the U.S. and to each other in the wake of the Sino-Soviet split. He moved away from the traditional American policy of containment of communism, hoping each side would seek American favor. Nixon's 1972 visit to China ushered in a new era of U.S.-China relations and effectively removed China as a Cold War foe. The Nixon administration signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union and organized a conference that led to the signing of the Helsinki Accords after Nixon left office.

In political science, triangular diplomacy is a foreign policy of the United States, developed during the Vietnam War (1955–1975) by Henry Kissinger, as a means to manage relations between the contesting communist powers, the Soviet Union and China. Connecting heavily with the correlating policy of linkage, the policy was intended to exploit the ongoing rivalry between the two Communist powers, as a means to strengthen American hegemony and diplomatic interest.

The Washington Summit of 1973 was a Cold War-era meeting between United States president Richard Nixon, United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev, and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union Alexei Kosygin that took place June 18–25. The Cold War superpowers met at the White House to discuss issues regarding oceanography, transportation, agricultural research, cultural exchange, and most significantly, nuclear disarmament. The Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War was signed during the summit. The summit has been called a high-water mark in détente between the USSR and the US. The summit was originally intended to run until June 26, but ended a day early.

References

↑ "rapprochement - definition of rapprochement in English from the Oxford dictionary". oxforddictionaries.com. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012.
↑ Mattes, Michaela; Weeks, Jessica L.P. (2024). "From Foes to Friends: The Causes of Interstate Rapprochement and Conciliation". Annual Review of Political Science. 27 (1). doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-041322-024603. ISSN 1094-2939.
1 2 3 4 Andrew, Christopher M. (1968). Théophile Delcassé and the making of the Entente Cordiale. OCLC 641439750.
1 2 3 Will Kaufman; Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson (eds.). Britain and the Americas : culture, politics, and history : a multidisciplinary encyclopedia. pp. 48–49. ISBN 9781849723817. OCLC 299474335.
↑ Johnson, Douglas (2004). Cross-Channel currents 100 hundred years of the Entente Cordiale. Routledge. ISBN 9780203624586. OCLC 1086417487.
↑ "People's Republic of China-United States: Establishment of Diplomatic Relations". International Legal Materials. 18 (1): 272–275. January 1979. doi:10.1017/s0020782900043886. ISSN 0020-7829. S2CID 249005911.
1 2 "Milestones: 1969–1976 - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
↑ Lüthi, Lorenz M. (2010). The Sino-Soviet Split : Cold War in the Communist World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1282964754. OCLC 824163308.

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[1] "rapprochement - definition of rapprochement in English from the Oxford dictionary". oxforddictionaries.com. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012.

[2] Mattes, Michaela; Weeks, Jessica L.P. (2024). "From Foes to Friends: The Causes of Interstate Rapprochement and Conciliation". Annual Review of Political Science. 27 (1). doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-041322-024603. ISSN 1094-2939.

[:1-3] 1 2 3 4 Andrew, Christopher M. (1968). Théophile Delcassé and the making of the Entente Cordiale. OCLC 641439750.

[:0-4] 1 2 3 Will Kaufman; Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson (eds.). Britain and the Americas : culture, politics, and history : a multidisciplinary encyclopedia. pp. 48–49. ISBN 9781849723817. OCLC 299474335.

[5] Johnson, Douglas (2004). Cross-Channel currents 100 hundred years of the Entente Cordiale. Routledge. ISBN 9780203624586. OCLC 1086417487.

[6] "People's Republic of China-United States: Establishment of Diplomatic Relations". International Legal Materials. 18 (1): 272–275. January 1979. doi:10.1017/s0020782900043886. ISSN 0020-7829. S2CID 249005911.

[:2-7] 1 2 "Milestones: 1969–1976 - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2019-03-04.

[8] Lüthi, Lorenz M. (2010). The Sino-Soviet Split : Cold War in the Communist World. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1282964754. OCLC 824163308.

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