Letter from the Editors

Welcome to the October 2021 issue of The Diplomat Magazine.

Certain events are bound to make the history books: a changing of the guard at the world’s top global body; an internationally-brokered peace deal; a leadership change for the first time in decades. But the fallout from these landmark events is harder to measure. This month, we look back at (or, in one case, extrapolate forward from) historical milestones to evaluate the changes and progress (if any) that followed.

Hindsight is 20/20, and we make use of that advantage in this issue.

In October 1971, the People’s Republic of China finally entered into the United Nations, just over 22 years after it had taken control of the Chinese mainland. For our cover article, Professor Rosemary Foot, an emeritus fellow of St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, explains how Beijing’s approach to the U.N. has changed in the 50 years since. While China consistently talks up the importance of the United Nations, and has steadily increased its commitment to and involvement in the body, there is an inherent tension between its words and deeds. “China’s approach threatens to undermine, perhaps fatally, its articulated preference to maintain the centrality, stature, and authority of the U.N. in world politics,” Foot argues.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will be reelected to a second term later this month, of that there is no doubt, Bruce Pannier writes. While some aspects of Mirziyoyev’s reform program – most notably economic reforms and foreign policy – have progressed since he took over in 2016, other areas have seen little to no change. In his article, Pannier, an RFE/RL correspondent and long-time Central Asia analyst, catalogues what’s changed under Mirziyoyev and what hasn’t, naturally leaving us with a checklist of what to look for as Mirzyoyev moves into his second term – and, likely, beyond it.

Next, journalist Andrew Nachemson revisits the 1991 Paris Peace Accords and their meaning for Cambodia. Signed on October 23, 1991, the accords had two primary goals – ending Cambodia’s devastating civil war and setting up a democracy in its wake. There was also, however, an unstated goal – enabling the international community to wind down its involvement in the country. A tension soon emerged between maintaining peace and building a democracy, with Cambodian leader Hun Sen sidelining democracy while claiming doing so was in service to ensuring peace.

On April 9, 2021, Samoans narrowly voted the opposition party into power, resulting in the country’s first female prime minister (and first new prime minister at all in over 22 years). Over three months and two court decisions later, Fiame Naomi Mataʻafa was finally confirmed as prime minister. Even after prevailing – for now – over the fierce opposition put up by the former PM and his long-ruling party, Fiame faces an uphill battle to govern, with multiple crisis looming: the pandemic, the economy, and climate change, just to name a few.

We hope you enjoy these stories, and the many more in the following pages.