Abstract
While the concept of friendship has been largely invisible within Western political debate, in the international political domain, ‘friendship’ and the language of friends have been prominent in treaties and alliances between nations. Database searches on the topic of ‘politics and friendship’ locate predominantly references concerning relationships between states. However, it has been war and enmity rather than friendship that has dominated analysis in international relations literature. In this article we provide a history of international treaties, focusing in particular on those named as friendship treaties. We will discuss the use of concepts and terminology related to friendship and the nomenclature associated with international alliances. It will be argued that friendship is more a tool of public relations and spin, rather than diplomacy and peace-building, and the cynical use of friendship does not sit easily with the Nehruvian concept of friendship as an important method of diplomacy that can act as a path to peace, goodwill and understanding between states and nations.
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Notes
Ironically, the first formal enunciation of these principles, in the Agreement on Trade and Intercourse between the Tibet region of China and India, signed on 29 April 1954, was followed less than 10 years later by the Indo-China border war (Gupta et al, 1993).
‘Joshua was deceived in 1451 BC into making a treaty of peace with the Gibeonites …’ (Bunn-Livingston, 2002, p. 79).
Both versions of the peace treaty have survived and a reproduction of the treaty has been on display in the United Nations headquarters.
The Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean, south of Hawaii, also served as the ‘Pacific proving ground’ for US nuclear testing, including Bikini Atoll.
Attempts are still being made to find the original wording of the Treaty title. In relationships between states the words used in German are more often ‘gutes Einvernehmen’ (perfect amity, harmony) rather than Freundschaft (friendship).
Shuuko is the more common Japanese word for ‘friendship’, also translated as amity or goodwill, and washin, used to translate friendship in the treaty title, is not usually used for ‘friendship’, but is closer to ‘harmony’. See also Devere and Pakenham (2006).
International leagues and organizations.
Treaties can also be entered into by other subjects of international law, such as international organizations, and this is reflected in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations or between International Organizations 1986. This Convention is not yet in force.
The Chinese version is named Zhong-Su Youhao Tongmeng Huzhu Taioyue, where youhao means ‘friendship’ (Thanks to Peilin Yang for assistance with translation).
The last trusteeship in the Pacific was Palau, which was granted independence in 1994.
The Samoan translates as ‘Covenant of Friendship’, indicating a very close, almost spiritual, relationship, similar to that between a minister of religion, his village and congregation.
Personal communication with New Zealand's foreign affairs negotiator.
Roshchin (2010), in this volume, details the series of treaties and agreements between the Soviet Union (later the Russian Federation) and the United Kingdom as an example of friendship between ideological ‘enemies’.
References
List of Treaties
Treaty of Westphalia; 24 October 1648, http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/westphal.htm, accessed 5 June 2007.
(1778) Treaty of Amity and Commerce (Le Traité de Commerce et d’Amitié), http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18thcentury/fr1788-1.asp, accessed 27 June 2007.
Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Navigation between the United States of America and his Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands 1849, http://www.hawaii_nation.org/treaty1849.html, accessed 15 January 2007.
(1879) Treaties of Friendship between Great Britain and Tonga, Treaties and Agreements with Great Britain, http://www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/library/online/Texts/Pacific_archive/, accessed 27 January 2010.
(1939) The German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty, http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/nazsov/gsbound.htm, accessed 15 January 2007.
Turkish–German Friendship Treaty, signed in Ankara, 18 June 1941, http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/timeline/410618awp.html, accessed 15 January 2007.
The Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between the People's Republic of Albania, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, the Hungarian People's Republic, the German Democratic Republic, the Polish People's Republic, the Rumanian People's Republic, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Czechoslovak Republic 14 May 1955, http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/documents/collection_3/PCC_docs/1955/Treaty550514.htm, accessed 15 January 2007.
(1962) Treaty of Friendship between the Government of New Zealand and the Government of Western Samoa (Feagaiga Fa’auoo), http://www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/library/online/Texts/Pacific_archive/, accessed 29 January 2010.
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(2001) Treaty of Good-neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation, http://www.shaps.hawaii.edu/fp/russia/r_c_treaty_20010716.html, accessed 15 January 2007.
Treaties and Agreements with Great Britain, http://www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/library/online/Texts/Pacific_archive/, accessed 27 January 2010.
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Devere, H., Mark, S. & Verbitsky, J. A history of the language of friendship in international treaties. Int Polit 48, 46–70 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2010.34
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2010.34