Simon Rofe - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Simon Rofe
Rooseveltian Foreign Policy Making and Anglo-American Relations in 1938 and 1939—Relationships in the Making
Franklin Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy and the Welles Mission, 2007
This description of Sumner Welles came from Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle in the immed... more This description of Sumner Welles came from Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle in the immediate aftermath of Roosevelt’s Quarantine address in October 1937 (the implications of which will be discussed). Yet it could have been applied at a number of key points, up to and including the Welles mission, during the subsequent 28 months as the Under Secretary made a crucial contribution to Roosevelt’s foreign policy. The chances of outright success in many of the policies considered were minimal, but this was not an impediment to enacting policy within the Roosevelt Administration.
Diplomatic Milestones, 1918–1945: History and Analysis of the Shift from Isolationism to Internationalism
Guide to U.S. Foreign Policy: A Diplomatic History
The Dictatorships of the New Deal Era
France and the Americas: Culture, Politics, History
Putin Already Won in Hosting Russia 2018: The FIFA World Cup and Sport Diplomacy
This work presents a new analysis of the mission undertaken by Under Secretary of State Sumner We... more This work presents a new analysis of the mission undertaken by Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles to Europe on behalf of President Roosevelt in February-March 1940. The thesis asks what Roosevelt's motivations were for undertaking the mission, and what he sought to achieve from it. It considers that the Welles mission was an expression of a number of influences upon Roosevelt that date back to late 1937. These influences, or themes, which provide the broader context and run throughout the period up to the beginning of 1940, are as follows: firstly the integral role in Rooseveltian foreign policy played by Sumner Welles is considered. The second theme concerns the position of his superior, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who was to counsel caution in the face of an increasingly serious world situation, whilst a third influence was the limits upon American foreign policymaking itself. The last element to be considered throughout this study is the influence of Anglo-American relations upon the Welles mission. Further, these themes are not distinct and are interrelated. And all were subject to the influence of an American public who were deeply interested in, but firmly against intervention in, European affairs. This work concludes that the mission that resulted developed multiple objectives after being bom out of a discussion between Roosevelt and Welles on the role the United States could play in achieving a sound and lasting peace in Europe. Such a hope, reckoned by Roosevelt to be 'one chance in a thousand', was at the outset incongruous with the situation in Europe. Roosevelt and Welles knew this to be the case, and pressed ahead because of the existence of other objectives that such a mission could achieve. These were the gathering of first-hand information by Welles from the four capitals of Europe, the perpetuation of Italian neutrality and the prolonging of the 'phony war'. These objectives were never clarified by the protagonists and evolved in themselves through the deployment of the mission, thus requiring the analysis provided here.
The International History Review, 2019
History published a discussion on the field of sport history by Amy Bass, Professor of History at... more History published a discussion on the field of sport history by Amy Bass, Professor of History at the College of New Rochelle. Other notable historians, including Rob Ruck, Susan Cahn, and current North American Society for Sport History president Daniel Nathan, contributed responses to Bass's article. In her state of the field essay, Bass notes that "sports scholarship has an enormous body of literature that, regardless of theoretical and methodological perspective, offers dramatic and interesting narratives. 1 Bass raises the question whether a focus on certain issues, such as the intersection of race and sport, "somewhat ironically push[es] the field into more rigidly nationalistic constructions?" 2 While covering many areas within sport history in the essay, Bass almost entirely excluded diplomatic history form her discussion of the state of the field. This omission is a shame because in the past fifteen years much work has been done in the area of sport and diplomacy or international relations. Although the intersection of the two fields of sport history and diplomatic history, utilizing primary sources from both governments and sport organizations, is relatively recent, the scholarship has been vibrant and wide-ranging across many topics and countries. In a 2012 commentary in Diplomacy & Statecraft, Stuart Murray claims that "sport and diplomacy is largely unexplored," focusing more on case studies than a broad theoretical exploration. 3 Murray is correct in noting that much of the research has been published in article rather than monograph form, including Penelope Kissoudi's "Sport, 1
Wevill, R. (2014).Diplomacy, Roger Makins and the Anglo–American Relationship
Diplomacy & Statecraft, 2016
Trust between Adversaries and Allies: President George H. W. Bush, Trust, and the End of the Cold War
Stanford University Press, 2017
This chapter investigates the central role of trust-building for the George H. W. Bush administra... more This chapter investigates the central role of trust-building for the George H. W. Bush administration and its crucial significance in navigating the political transformations of 1990–91. Portraying Bush's foreign policy as driven by an effort to establish trust among adversaries to minimize risk and maintain order, this chapter shows how Bush and his key advisers, Secretary of State James A. Baker III and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, crafted a strategy of personal diplomacy and caution. Analyzing in particular the demise of the Soviet Union in late 1991 as well as the 1990–91 Kuwait crisis, the chapter highlights the Bush administration's prioritization of reliability, steadfastness, and personal relationships in fostering a culture of mutual trust as key assets for U.S. foreign policy before.
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 2016
The Olympic sporting context of 1908, with its tension between nationalistic competition and high... more The Olympic sporting context of 1908, with its tension between nationalistic competition and high-minded amateurism, provides insight as well into the transatlantic relationship between Great Britain and the United States during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and in the years following the prime ministerial tenure of…
Diplomacy & Statecraft, 2016
The range of actors, or "players", involved in the transactions of diplomacy occasioned by sport ... more The range of actors, or "players", involved in the transactions of diplomacy occasioned by sport are manifold. In the case of the world"s "global game"association footballthey include but are not limited to individual footballers, football clubs, national leagues, national associations, football"s international governance structures, multi-national sponsors, and numerous hangers on. Importantly for this analysis, such a panoply of actors creates an architecture, replicated across other sports, which speak to the necessity of furthering the understanding of the relationship between sport and diplomacy. These two phenomena share a long-standing similarity in global affairs; both having been over-looked as means of comprehending relations between different polities otherwise centred on the nation-state. This exegesis advances our understanding in two areas. First, it addresses the parameters of the discussion of "sport and diplomacy" and problematises the discourse between the two with a note on language; and second, it utilises a framework provided by an appreciation of "global diplomacy" to explore concepts of communication, representation, and negotiation in sport and diplomacy.
Franklin D. Roosevelt – 4th Time is a Charm: the 1944 Presidential Election
Something that works: the IR Model’s approach to technology
Presidential Peacemaking: President George H.W. Bush and the End of the Cold War
In the west, fire exclusion, timber harvest, and last century's climate led to copious regenerati... more In the west, fire exclusion, timber harvest, and last century's climate led to copious regeneration on millions of ha that now need tending. Without treatment, overcrowding increases competition, snow and ice damage potential, and ladder fuels. Limited funding prevents treating all of the affected ha, but by selling small trees for wood pellets, biofuel, or methanol, costs would decrease and more ha could be cleaned. In the northern Rocky Mountains, 8 -10 tree species can occur in young forests, and until this study, information on foliage nutrient concentrations and leaching from saplings for all of these species was limited. We use a mixed-model analysis to examine the change in nutrient concentrations (calcium, magnesium, potassium, carbon, and nitrogen) remaining in saplings for 6 tree species (western white pine, ponderosa pine, western hemlock, western redcedar, Douglas-fir, and grand fir) over a 12-month period. Nutrient concentrations and the pattern of nutrient leaching did vary among the species, but we found that nutrient concentrations did not diminish in the first 200 days and western hemlock was the only species for which nutrient concentrations leached substantially in the 12-month period. Results suggest managers may need to use biomass utilization thresholds to ensure sufficient biomass is left on site to maintain soil productivity.
The IR Model and E-moderating
Increasingly Forlorn: Welles Heads Home via Rome
Franklin Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy and the Welles Mission, 2007
Once back in Rome Welles called upon the full range of his diplomatic skills and experience in pu... more Once back in Rome Welles called upon the full range of his diplomatic skills and experience in pursuing the mission’s objectives. His priorities, with the likelihood of the offensive shortening as every day passed, were to prolong the “phony war” and perpetuate Italian neutrality. Welles attempted to achieve these by maintaining a dialogue with Ciano and Mussolini that encouraged them to think of themselves as potentially pivotal to peace. Further, Welles hoped that the fact that he was still discussing Italy’s role might engender some doubt as to what might happen at the mission’s conclusion. This proved impossible as Mussolini set out to test how far Welles was prepared to involve the United States in the conflict in Europe. When Welles declined Mussolini’s offer to discuss the American’s views with Hitler, any doubts in the minds of Mussolini over the American position were dismissed. Welles knew he was in no position to make any commitment to European security on behalf of the United States in the spring of 1940. Mussolini’s offer in mid-March revealed the limitations that “exploring the possibilities of peace” had in terms of Welles creating the impression that the United States might play a part. In this situation Welles’ attention focused on the gathering of information in an environment where catastrophe appeared imminent.
“Wishing Welles”: The Immediate Origins of the Welles Mission, January and February 1940
Franklin Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy and the Welles Mission, 2007
On the morning of 9 February 1940 Roosevelt informed the assembled pressmen at the 622nd presiden... more On the morning of 9 February 1940 Roosevelt informed the assembled pressmen at the 622nd presidential press conference that he had “only one thing of importance” to tell them. He then made public his intention to dispatch Welles to Europe in a press release of just three paragraphs (see appendix 1). Welles’ goal for the mission was “solely for the purpose of advising the President and the Secretary of State as to present conditions in Europe.”1 Having read from the statement, Roosevelt declared to the press, “Now do not get didactic. You have to stand on this statement … Now that is the whole thing. It is all in one sentence.” 2 Reality could hardly have been more different. Instead, Roosevelt, as has been illustrated in this analysis, was influenced by various motivations in considering the Welles mission. This chapter charts how during January and the first week of February 1940 the various factors that Roosevelt was conscious of at the end of 1939 came to bare alongside the objectives that the mission could achieve. This will in turn allow a full assessment of the mission’s goals prior to Welles’ departure for Europe on 17 February. In short, the mission’s objectives by that point had become an exploration of the possibilities for peace, a desire for firsthand information from the protagonists, perpetuating Italian neutrality and the prolonging of the “phony war.”
Rooseveltian Foreign Policy Making and Anglo-American Relations in 1938 and 1939—Relationships in the Making
Franklin Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy and the Welles Mission, 2007
This description of Sumner Welles came from Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle in the immed... more This description of Sumner Welles came from Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle in the immediate aftermath of Roosevelt’s Quarantine address in October 1937 (the implications of which will be discussed). Yet it could have been applied at a number of key points, up to and including the Welles mission, during the subsequent 28 months as the Under Secretary made a crucial contribution to Roosevelt’s foreign policy. The chances of outright success in many of the policies considered were minimal, but this was not an impediment to enacting policy within the Roosevelt Administration.
Diplomatic Milestones, 1918–1945: History and Analysis of the Shift from Isolationism to Internationalism
Guide to U.S. Foreign Policy: A Diplomatic History
The Dictatorships of the New Deal Era
France and the Americas: Culture, Politics, History
Putin Already Won in Hosting Russia 2018: The FIFA World Cup and Sport Diplomacy
This work presents a new analysis of the mission undertaken by Under Secretary of State Sumner We... more This work presents a new analysis of the mission undertaken by Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles to Europe on behalf of President Roosevelt in February-March 1940. The thesis asks what Roosevelt's motivations were for undertaking the mission, and what he sought to achieve from it. It considers that the Welles mission was an expression of a number of influences upon Roosevelt that date back to late 1937. These influences, or themes, which provide the broader context and run throughout the period up to the beginning of 1940, are as follows: firstly the integral role in Rooseveltian foreign policy played by Sumner Welles is considered. The second theme concerns the position of his superior, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who was to counsel caution in the face of an increasingly serious world situation, whilst a third influence was the limits upon American foreign policymaking itself. The last element to be considered throughout this study is the influence of Anglo-American relations upon the Welles mission. Further, these themes are not distinct and are interrelated. And all were subject to the influence of an American public who were deeply interested in, but firmly against intervention in, European affairs. This work concludes that the mission that resulted developed multiple objectives after being bom out of a discussion between Roosevelt and Welles on the role the United States could play in achieving a sound and lasting peace in Europe. Such a hope, reckoned by Roosevelt to be 'one chance in a thousand', was at the outset incongruous with the situation in Europe. Roosevelt and Welles knew this to be the case, and pressed ahead because of the existence of other objectives that such a mission could achieve. These were the gathering of first-hand information by Welles from the four capitals of Europe, the perpetuation of Italian neutrality and the prolonging of the 'phony war'. These objectives were never clarified by the protagonists and evolved in themselves through the deployment of the mission, thus requiring the analysis provided here.
The International History Review, 2019
History published a discussion on the field of sport history by Amy Bass, Professor of History at... more History published a discussion on the field of sport history by Amy Bass, Professor of History at the College of New Rochelle. Other notable historians, including Rob Ruck, Susan Cahn, and current North American Society for Sport History president Daniel Nathan, contributed responses to Bass's article. In her state of the field essay, Bass notes that "sports scholarship has an enormous body of literature that, regardless of theoretical and methodological perspective, offers dramatic and interesting narratives. 1 Bass raises the question whether a focus on certain issues, such as the intersection of race and sport, "somewhat ironically push[es] the field into more rigidly nationalistic constructions?" 2 While covering many areas within sport history in the essay, Bass almost entirely excluded diplomatic history form her discussion of the state of the field. This omission is a shame because in the past fifteen years much work has been done in the area of sport and diplomacy or international relations. Although the intersection of the two fields of sport history and diplomatic history, utilizing primary sources from both governments and sport organizations, is relatively recent, the scholarship has been vibrant and wide-ranging across many topics and countries. In a 2012 commentary in Diplomacy & Statecraft, Stuart Murray claims that "sport and diplomacy is largely unexplored," focusing more on case studies than a broad theoretical exploration. 3 Murray is correct in noting that much of the research has been published in article rather than monograph form, including Penelope Kissoudi's "Sport, 1
Wevill, R. (2014).Diplomacy, Roger Makins and the Anglo–American Relationship
Diplomacy & Statecraft, 2016
Trust between Adversaries and Allies: President George H. W. Bush, Trust, and the End of the Cold War
Stanford University Press, 2017
This chapter investigates the central role of trust-building for the George H. W. Bush administra... more This chapter investigates the central role of trust-building for the George H. W. Bush administration and its crucial significance in navigating the political transformations of 1990–91. Portraying Bush's foreign policy as driven by an effort to establish trust among adversaries to minimize risk and maintain order, this chapter shows how Bush and his key advisers, Secretary of State James A. Baker III and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, crafted a strategy of personal diplomacy and caution. Analyzing in particular the demise of the Soviet Union in late 1991 as well as the 1990–91 Kuwait crisis, the chapter highlights the Bush administration's prioritization of reliability, steadfastness, and personal relationships in fostering a culture of mutual trust as key assets for U.S. foreign policy before.
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 2016
The Olympic sporting context of 1908, with its tension between nationalistic competition and high... more The Olympic sporting context of 1908, with its tension between nationalistic competition and high-minded amateurism, provides insight as well into the transatlantic relationship between Great Britain and the United States during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and in the years following the prime ministerial tenure of…
Diplomacy & Statecraft, 2016
The range of actors, or "players", involved in the transactions of diplomacy occasioned by sport ... more The range of actors, or "players", involved in the transactions of diplomacy occasioned by sport are manifold. In the case of the world"s "global game"association footballthey include but are not limited to individual footballers, football clubs, national leagues, national associations, football"s international governance structures, multi-national sponsors, and numerous hangers on. Importantly for this analysis, such a panoply of actors creates an architecture, replicated across other sports, which speak to the necessity of furthering the understanding of the relationship between sport and diplomacy. These two phenomena share a long-standing similarity in global affairs; both having been over-looked as means of comprehending relations between different polities otherwise centred on the nation-state. This exegesis advances our understanding in two areas. First, it addresses the parameters of the discussion of "sport and diplomacy" and problematises the discourse between the two with a note on language; and second, it utilises a framework provided by an appreciation of "global diplomacy" to explore concepts of communication, representation, and negotiation in sport and diplomacy.
Franklin D. Roosevelt – 4th Time is a Charm: the 1944 Presidential Election
Something that works: the IR Model’s approach to technology
Presidential Peacemaking: President George H.W. Bush and the End of the Cold War
In the west, fire exclusion, timber harvest, and last century's climate led to copious regenerati... more In the west, fire exclusion, timber harvest, and last century's climate led to copious regeneration on millions of ha that now need tending. Without treatment, overcrowding increases competition, snow and ice damage potential, and ladder fuels. Limited funding prevents treating all of the affected ha, but by selling small trees for wood pellets, biofuel, or methanol, costs would decrease and more ha could be cleaned. In the northern Rocky Mountains, 8 -10 tree species can occur in young forests, and until this study, information on foliage nutrient concentrations and leaching from saplings for all of these species was limited. We use a mixed-model analysis to examine the change in nutrient concentrations (calcium, magnesium, potassium, carbon, and nitrogen) remaining in saplings for 6 tree species (western white pine, ponderosa pine, western hemlock, western redcedar, Douglas-fir, and grand fir) over a 12-month period. Nutrient concentrations and the pattern of nutrient leaching did vary among the species, but we found that nutrient concentrations did not diminish in the first 200 days and western hemlock was the only species for which nutrient concentrations leached substantially in the 12-month period. Results suggest managers may need to use biomass utilization thresholds to ensure sufficient biomass is left on site to maintain soil productivity.
The IR Model and E-moderating
Increasingly Forlorn: Welles Heads Home via Rome
Franklin Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy and the Welles Mission, 2007
Once back in Rome Welles called upon the full range of his diplomatic skills and experience in pu... more Once back in Rome Welles called upon the full range of his diplomatic skills and experience in pursuing the mission’s objectives. His priorities, with the likelihood of the offensive shortening as every day passed, were to prolong the “phony war” and perpetuate Italian neutrality. Welles attempted to achieve these by maintaining a dialogue with Ciano and Mussolini that encouraged them to think of themselves as potentially pivotal to peace. Further, Welles hoped that the fact that he was still discussing Italy’s role might engender some doubt as to what might happen at the mission’s conclusion. This proved impossible as Mussolini set out to test how far Welles was prepared to involve the United States in the conflict in Europe. When Welles declined Mussolini’s offer to discuss the American’s views with Hitler, any doubts in the minds of Mussolini over the American position were dismissed. Welles knew he was in no position to make any commitment to European security on behalf of the United States in the spring of 1940. Mussolini’s offer in mid-March revealed the limitations that “exploring the possibilities of peace” had in terms of Welles creating the impression that the United States might play a part. In this situation Welles’ attention focused on the gathering of information in an environment where catastrophe appeared imminent.
“Wishing Welles”: The Immediate Origins of the Welles Mission, January and February 1940
Franklin Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy and the Welles Mission, 2007
On the morning of 9 February 1940 Roosevelt informed the assembled pressmen at the 622nd presiden... more On the morning of 9 February 1940 Roosevelt informed the assembled pressmen at the 622nd presidential press conference that he had “only one thing of importance” to tell them. He then made public his intention to dispatch Welles to Europe in a press release of just three paragraphs (see appendix 1). Welles’ goal for the mission was “solely for the purpose of advising the President and the Secretary of State as to present conditions in Europe.”1 Having read from the statement, Roosevelt declared to the press, “Now do not get didactic. You have to stand on this statement … Now that is the whole thing. It is all in one sentence.” 2 Reality could hardly have been more different. Instead, Roosevelt, as has been illustrated in this analysis, was influenced by various motivations in considering the Welles mission. This chapter charts how during January and the first week of February 1940 the various factors that Roosevelt was conscious of at the end of 1939 came to bare alongside the objectives that the mission could achieve. This will in turn allow a full assessment of the mission’s goals prior to Welles’ departure for Europe on 17 February. In short, the mission’s objectives by that point had become an exploration of the possibilities for peace, a desire for firsthand information from the protagonists, perpetuating Italian neutrality and the prolonging of the “phony war.”