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eWTI Notes: Selection Decisions Log 2020, 2021

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Benjamin G. Martin edited this page Jun 7, 2021 · 1 revision

Using the data in the electronic World Treaty Index (eWTI) has required some careful vetting of the material. Below are my notes, in the form of a working log, on choices taken in selecting particular treaties for inclusion or exclusion, and discussion of the principles on which these selections were made. [Note: Earlier notes on these choices, 2017-2018, are in Google doc, now archived here: "WTI Quality Assurance 2017 to 2018"] ...

1. Create a new WTI (29 April version), "7CULT+",

This selection is basically just eWTI’s topic: 7CULT. But with some corrections and additions. The principle is to include all bilateral agreements that the WTI, and UNESCO, called "cultural": that means both (a) general cultural agreements and (b) narrow agreements on specific exchanges or programs labeled as cultural. So I create a new set called 7CULT+, by marking with the relevant agreements with "yes" in excel file column B "is_cultural?".

7CULT+ includes: Everything that WTI places under 7CULT

PLUS

  • A few 7EDUC agreements (especially from before 1950) that were general agreements on “intellectual cooperation"
  • All agreements related to film (which I had removed “yes“ from earlier)

MINUS

  • Agreements limited to specific dates (which were usually programs for exchanges, rather than general agreements), except where these were the first or only cultural agreement between the two states in question.

The reason to remove these time-specific agreements is that they are included in the WTI in a highly inconsistent manner, creating misleading results. For example, I removed the “yes” from 419561, “DDR-USSR Cultural Cooperation 1960.” This is just a Notiz noting the “Protokoll zwischen der DDR und die USSR über die kulturelle Zusammenarbeit im Jahre 1960.” This was surely just the annual plan of activities based on the existing and still valid cultural accord of 1956 (which was filed with UNTS). Including this in our “yes” group would make sense, but it is inconsistent; I see from printed East German records that there was a similar agreement “für das Jahr 1959” signed on 26.2.1959, and that’s not in WTI at all. Similarly, a few countries, notably China (PRC), North Korea, and Yugoslavia, filed all of its single-year program amendments in their own national treaty publications, and these have been entered into WTI (in Yugoslavia's case, with Yugoslavia as party 1). Other countries had such year-to-year agreements, too, but they are not filed here. So counting the ones from these three states would distort the data set. Keeping the first or only ones of this kind between two states make sense, however: the logic of that choice is that this treaty establishes that there was contact, which is important for our network visualizations.

May 15, 2020:

To fix in: 7CULT+:

  • Remove yes from Brazil-Zaire, 9 November 1972 (see below) [done]
  • Remove and rename Romania-USA 1963, 1964, 1967, 1968; and USA-Romania 1970 [done]
  • Remove Sierra-USSR 1968 [done]
  • Remove Yugoslavia-Italy 1967 [done]
  • Remove France-Bulgaria 1936 [done]
  • re-check all 7EDUC agreements that I decided, at an earlier point, to assign "yes" to [done, no new removals]

May 19, 2020: Made above edits; I will now consider 7CULT+ to be done and ready for use.

June 16, 2020: Czechoslovakia-France protocol of 26 September 1964 turns out to have been an implementation agreement, limited to activities during 1964-1966. So I edited the headnote in eWTI and am now removing "yes" from it in 7CULT+ and 7CULTGEN.

August 25, 2020: Dominican Republic-Spain agreement of 27 January 1953 is a duplicate; it appears also as Spain-Dom Rep (same date), UNTS source. Have removed "yes" (columns 7CULT+ and 7CULTGEN) from the Dom Rep-Spain version.

Create a new WTI (14 May version), including only General Cultural Agreements (7CULTGEN or 7GCA)

This will offer a count of only General Cultural Agreements, removing anything that looks narrow. I do this practically by saving a copy of WTI and selecting 7CULT:

PLUS

  • A few 7EDUC agreements (especially from before 1950) that were general agreements on “intellectual cooperation"
  • A few agreements with culture/cultural in their titles but categorized under other topic headings. For example: (a) the USA-USSR Agreement on "Cultural, Technical and Educational Exchanges" (27 January 1958, 104350) is tagged as 3TECH, but should be included here (so I've added a "yes" in column B); (b) on the other hand, an agreement like Brazil-Zaire, 9 November 1972, 118811, on "economic, commercial, technical, scientific and cultural cooperation", is tagged as 1AMITY and is indeed a generic friendship treaty, and not a cultural agreement beyond its invocation of the "cultural" as one of several areas of development and fields of cooperation. So it is right not to include that here. (Remove from 7CULT+, too.)

MINUS

  • CTs with dates in the title, except where these are the first/only ones between two states (see above) Note: Some treaties of this kind are not marked as such by their WTI titles. For example, USA and Romania signed a general cultural agreement (9 December 1960) and then four more (2 April 1963, 23 December 1964, 18 February 1967, 26 November 1968). But my examination of these treaty texts shows that these four were "exchanges of notes" outlining exchange arrangements for the coming two-year period. I removed the "yes" in this set and edited their titles to include years. (Should I make this change in the 7CULT+ set? It is interesting that the US chose to register these agreements in UNTS. Given how few cultural agreements the USA signed they make up a substantial percentage of the total! Well, for the sake of consistency I need to remove these from 7CULT+ as well.) On the other hand: some protocols for one or two-year exchanges seem to be something different than proper general cultural agreements. For example: USSR signed a cultural agreement with Senegal in 1962 and filed this with UNTS (as Soviets did with most of their GCAs). In 1967 and 1968 USSR signed protocols with Sierra Leone (called "1967 cultural exchanges," "1968/69 Cultural Collaboration") and did not file these with UNTS. These, then, I choose here to classify as not belonging to the group of GCAs. (But the first of them can stay in the 7CULT+ section.)

According to the CIA's 1968 report "World Strength of the Communist Party Organizations", the USSR and Sierra Leone had signed an agreement on scientific, technical and cultural cooperation in 1965; the 1967 document was apparently a protocol to that agreement. But no 1965 agreement of this kind shows up in either UNTS or the sources on Soviet treaties. Oh well.

  • any agreements whose titles suggest a narrow or specific focus (on art, archaeology, film/motion pictures, books, exhibitions, language/orthography, and so on). For example, USA-Guatemala agreement on "cultural property" (13 August 1970, 111047) is in fact a narrow "exchange of notes" related to moving art objects from Guatemala to New York for an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Not, that is, a general cultural agreement. See the text in UNTS v. 775, p. 196.
  • Agreements marked as 7CULT which are confined to academic exchanges only (and should probably have been tagged 7EDUC) For example: (a) France-Sweden 3 June 1936, 418678, which outlines exchange of professors and the mutual recognition of academic degrees. Have removed "yes" from this one. It is possible that others of this kind are still in the sample. (b) Brazil's WWII-era agreements with Latin American states. Some of these are really educational agreements, which were called "cultural" when they were deposited with the UN after the war. Others were in fact general cultural agreements!

Brazil-Paraguay: an educational agreement. Remove from this sample. Brazil-Chile: GCA! Keep in the sample. Brazil-Venezuela: GCA, if with somewhat dated language. Keep. Brazil-Dom Rep: an educational agreement (text just like Br-Parag). Remove from this sample. Brazil-Canada: an “exchange of notes constituting a cultural agreement”, but covering broad area. Keep. Brazil-Ecuador: an old-fashioned educational agreement (text just like Br-Parag). Remove from this sample. [done]

15 May:

Check:

  • Ethiopia-USSR, other than 1959? (Yes, real GCA 1961. Remove 1959 protocol from this set. But because first, leave in 7CULT+.)
  • Poland-Romania, other than 1960? (Yes, real GCA 1964. Remove 1960 protocol from this set. But because first, leave in 7CULT+.)
  • Yugoslavia-Italy, other than the 1967 program ("Cultural exchange through November 1969")? (Yes, real GCA Italy-Yugo 1960. Remove 1967 protocol from this set and from 7CULT+.)

Yugoslavia's case makes me think: There is a difference (which is historically significant to me) between a state choosing to sign a proper GCA and not. So, I see that Yugoslavia signed several documents laying out specific cultural exchange programs with some countries, but also some proper GCAs with a different group of countries. (The first set are all with Y as party 1, the second set with Y as party 2.) If I leave these time-limited program documents in the 7CULTGEN (or 7GCA) sample, I miss that distinction. So: remove these from 7GCA but leave each first/only agreement between Yugo and country X in 7CULT+. (Done.) Countries with which Yugo had only a dated agreement (and therefore kept in 7CULT+): Congo, Tunisia, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan, Kuwait, Morocco, Afghanistan.

  • Check all remaining 7EDUC agreements [done]
  • Check all agreements tagged under title as "exchan". [done; removed a few more agreements that were narrowly related to a particular library, shrine, or fund.]

16 June 2020: France-Haiti 19 April 1972 was a protocol, adding a mixed commission to oversee projects covered by the French-Haitian cultural agreement of 24 September 1945. So, this can stay in 7CULT+ but it was not a GCA. Removed "yes" from that column.

August 25, 2020: Dominican Republic-Spain agreement of 27 January 1953 is a duplicate; it appears also as Spain-Dom Rep (same date), UNTS source. Have removed "yes" (columns 7CULT+ and 7CULTGEN) from the Dom Rep-Spain version.

October 7, 2020: The cultural agreements signed by Egypt and Syria create some confusion, apparently because of the overlap from the period of the United Arab Republic (the union between Egypt and Syria that existed from 1958 to 1961). For example:

  • Cuba’s agreement with the United Arab Republic (the union between Egypt and Syria that existed from 1958 to 1961) was held to apply between Cuba and Syria as well as between Cuba and Egypt. For this reason it appears as two agreements in eWTI. See { | Office arabe de presse et de documentation, 1970 | | |zu:179448:UX5CQPY4}
  • According to WTI, Spain signed a cultural agreement as party 2 with Syria and Egypt on 26-04-1951, which came into force apparently in 1959 (when both states were the UAR).

The source of this confusion seems to be the publication Repertoire des accords & engagements conclus par la R.A.S. de 1923 à 1969 (Damascus, 1970), used as a source for preparing eWTI. This official record of Syria's treaties evidently includes treaties signed by United Arab Republic between 1958 and 1961, when Syria was a part of it. For that reason, some of the UAR's agreements appear twice in WTI, once for "Egypt," (since WTI does not have a separate name for Egypt during the period when the state was called UAR, 1958-1971), and once for Syria. To avoid double-counting, I could remove the "yes" (from both 7CULT+ and 7CULTGEN) for all entries for Syria where the treaties were actually signed by the UAR, between 1958 and 1961. WTI helps here: each treaty under Syria signed (or which came into force) in the UAR period is marked in the headnote "CULTURE (EGYPT)". Egypt's agreements from the same period are marked "CULTURE (UAR)."

So, I am removing "yes" from all all entries for Syria marked in the headnote as "CULTURE (EGYPT)" wherever WTI has an agreement of the same date and with the same country but with Egypt (rather than Syria). Note that you need to check party 1 and 2 to catch all of these; the one with Greece, 4 September 1956, which was also signed by Egypt (see Sakkas 2009, 105) is here with Syria as Party 1 but also as between Greece and Egypt with Greece as party 1. So I removed the "yes" from the Syria one. Same thing with the 19 October 1957 agreement with Czechoslovakia (which was signed with Egypt, not Syria!, see here); this is in eWTI as Czecho (party 1) and Egypt (party 2). Have done the same with the agreement with Poland (02-02-1957), and the one with Romania (15-04-1957), and the one with Iran (09-09-1958), and the one with India (25-09-1958),

Done. So there is just one left with Party 1 Syria which are marked "CULTURE (EGYPT)" but that does not have a corresponding agreement signed by Egypt. This is Syria-Indonesia, 10 October 1955 (556016). I'm basically sure this was signed by Egypt; if/when I can document that I will change the eWTI entry. For now it stays as is.

... October 8, 2020 Extending 7CULT+ and 7CULTGEN to 1980. Principles of exclusion/inclusion are as above. To check:

  • Yugoslavia's agreements. Many are dated (these are especially the ones from Yugoslavia's own treaty list, which were entered into WTI with Yugo as party 1). I keep the "yes" on only those where it's the first/only one with a particular country. These include:

    • Yugo-Congo 1967
    • Yugo-Tunisia 1968
    • Yugo-Pakistan 1968

  • East Germany: done

  • Cuba: done

  • Syria: done

  • Finland-Albania 1978? First between the countries, so gets a "yes"

  • Finland-China 1980? Is year-limited, but is first between the countries, so gets a "yes"

October 14, 2020 Checking Spain's agreements, I find that there are a lot of doubles; that is, agreements entered in from UNTS and from Spain's own national treaty publication. Am removing "yes" from the national registry version of two agreements, and keeping the UNTS one, as I have done in other cases. Poland had one such duplicate, too. France had 10! All fixed now (and marked in eWTI column Y).

Rechecked several other countries' agreements, looking for duplicates, just to be sure. China: no duplicates. USA: one duplicate. Italy: a duplicate: Egypt-Italy 1959 [556055] is same as Italy-Egypt 8 Feb 1959 [436315]. Removed yes from 556055.
East Germany: ok Yugoslavia: ok Brazil: one duplicate (see below, re: Peru). Peru: Unclear what the WTI source PEIF (evidently a national source for Peru's agreements) really is. Anyway, this (like other national treaty publications) adds some duplicates. For example, am removing "yes" from 725053, since the same agreement, with Brazil, 14 July 1973 (but with Brazil as party 1) is a UNXX doc: 122319. Checked other Peruvian agreements from this source, no more duplicates.

West Germany:

  • Germany-Turkey 08-05-1957 is here from UNTS and from WGBA; removed yes from WGBA (424770).
  • Germany-Mexico 01-02-1977 is here from UNTS and from WGBB; removed yes from WGBB (495654).

Argentina: OK. Unclear what the WTI source ARIF (evidently a national source for Argentina's agreements) really is.

Mexico: several duplicates, in which a Mexican-national source (MXLR) duplicated an agreement from UNTS. Removed yes from all national-source versions, kept the UNTS (UNXX) versions. Also one case where a British source (UKTS) duplicated a treaty from UNTS. Done.

OK, so one way to really check this would be to go through each national source alongside UNTS, and look systematically for duplicates. Do this with WTI's own 7CULT selected, and then again in my own 7CULT+. Sources I have checked: ARIF ATL: found duplicates ATS: found duplicates BELA BEMB BOIF BRAI BRIF BUSM CCJC CHIT CMPS COTC CTRC CTS CUGO CUPL CYOG DKT ECRO: one duplicate (Ecuador-Israel) EGDA EGDZ EGND EGVV: one duplicate (East Germany-Belgium) ESTC FIAS FRJO: several duplicates FRPR FRRT: one duplicate FRTA: two duplicates GADA GRIF GRJO GULA HOLA HUHJ: one duplicate (Hungary-Mexico 1975) ICST: one duplicate (Denmark-Iceland 1965) INMR INTM IRTB: one duplicate ITDI ITGU: one duplicate (Italy-Finland 1976) IVJO JHZ JJS KNGK KSIF KSTL KSTS LERT LETC LRAI LTS MATS MOB

[From here I started searching each source against all sources, not just against UNTS+UNXX.]

MXDO: eight duplicates! MXLR NDLDC NEMR NET: one duplicate NITF NORT PEIF PHIF PHTS PKTS PODZ: one duplicate POSH POYB POZU PTDG RGBL SITL SLIF SMIF SPBO: several duplicates SPTI SUGG SUSG SUST SVOF SVRG SYDL SYIF SYJO SYRP TORT TURG TUYB UKCP: one duplicate UKTS: two duplicates URTC USIA VKNG VZTP WGBA: one duplicate WGBB: one duplicate YUJP: two duplicates

Phew! Total number of 7CULT+ agreements 1935-1980 is now: 1754. ...

19 February 2021: The editing continues, alas. I have located a duplicate and several agreements that, from their titles, should not be in the CultGen collection. Have removed "CultGen=yes" from these, including (for example):

  • Bulgaria-Poland 1966, "Cultural Information Centers"
  • Norway-Italy 1966, "Cultural institutes tax free"
  • East Germany-Hungary 1966, "German Culture and Information Center in Budapest"
  • France-West Germany, 1966, "Modification of 1965 Cultural Agreement"

While I'm at it I search for "amendment" in the titles and found another agreement (Italy-France) that was just amending an earlier GCA. Removed CultGen=yes from that, too.

Total number of 7CultGen agreements 1935-1980 is now: 1375. (Total, 1935-1999=1760)

... 8 March 2021: France-Romania 25 June 1969, 110533, is an agreement creating a French Library in Bucharest and a Romanian one in Paris: not a GCA. Am removing "CultGen=yes" from this one.

Total number of 7CultGen agreements 1935-1980 is now: 1374. (Total, 1935-1999=1759)

10 March: Australia-Philippines 1977 was a duplicate of Philippines-Australia 1977 (and this one is a UNTS one, with text). Removed CultGen=yes from the Austra-Phil version. And so:

Total number of 7CultGen agreements 1935-1980 is now: 1373. (Total, 1935-1999=1758)

11 March:

  1. Spain-USA 1964 ("FINANCING CULTURAL EXCHANGE PROGRAMS") is just an amendment to an earlier agreement, 1958, which was itself about financing of "educational" programs, and so has the WTI tag "4EDUC" (not even 7EDUC). Removing CultGen=yes from this.
  2. The cultural agreements between the UK and USSR were two-year programs. I have added dates to their titles (dates which do in fact appear in the UNTS titles, but were not entered into WTI), and removed six of these from CultGen. I am keeping the first one to be filed with UNTS (UK-USSR 1 December 1959, 105032). In fact, this one also refers back to two earlier agreements (Soviet communniqués) which are also in WTI, but for which we do not have the texts. So it is also a 2-year agreement of the kind I usually eliminate. But I will keep this one, as it is the first for which I have text; and because the text is very detailed and interesting!

Total number of 7CultGen agreements 1935-1980 is now: 1366. (Total, 1935-1999=1751)

29 March 2021 Found duplicates:

  • Colombia-Spain 1 April 1953 is duplicate of Spain-Colombia 11 April 1954 (121203, a UNTS doc). (The first one was incorrectly dated)
  • Guatemala-Spain 27 April 1964 is duplicate of Spain-Guatemala, same date but UNTS (132090). Have removed "yes" from these in 7CULT+ and 7CULTGEN.
  • Treaty 513024, Portugal-Brazil 1971, is actually “supplement to cult agreement of 1966”. Am removing yes from CultGen, but leaving in for 7Cult+.

Total number of 7CultGen agreements 1935-1980 is now: 1363. (Total, 1935-1999=1748)

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