PORTSMOUTH PEACE TREATY FORUM
When initiated in 1994, the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forums were the first formal meetings between Japanese, Russian and American scholars and diplomats in Portsmouth NH, since the negotiation of the Treaty of Portsmouth Treaty in 1905. The Treaty is considered one of the most powerful symbols of peace in the Northern Pacific region and the most significant, shared peace history for Japan, Russia, and the United States.
The Forums are sponsored by the Japan-America Society of New Hampshire to explore, through Japanese, Russian and American perspectives, the history of the Treaty of Portsmouth and its relevance to current diplomatic issues. The Forums provide modern scholarship on international problems in the "spirit of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty" and study the Treaty as an example of multi-track or two-track diplomacy.
The Portsmouth Peace Treaty provides an example to the world of the enlightened foreign policy for peace by Japan, Russia, and the United States. The Treaty also exemplifies the ability of local citizens to mediate informally international disputes. As hosts for thirty days in August 1905, the State of New Hampshire, the people of Portsmouth and the United States Navy fostered goodwill between Russian and Japanese Delegates during the critical peace negotiations that ended the Russo-Japanese War, then the largest war being fought in the world. In 1905 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, an uncommon commitment to peace became a common virtue. The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forums commemorate and continue that tradition.
Follow the links below for transcripts of the presentations from each Forum speaker:
The Forums are sponsored by the Japan-America Society of New Hampshire to explore, through Japanese, Russian and American perspectives, the history of the Treaty of Portsmouth and its relevance to current diplomatic issues. The Forums provide modern scholarship on international problems in the "spirit of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty" and study the Treaty as an example of multi-track or two-track diplomacy.
The Portsmouth Peace Treaty provides an example to the world of the enlightened foreign policy for peace by Japan, Russia, and the United States. The Treaty also exemplifies the ability of local citizens to mediate informally international disputes. As hosts for thirty days in August 1905, the State of New Hampshire, the people of Portsmouth and the United States Navy fostered goodwill between Russian and Japanese Delegates during the critical peace negotiations that ended the Russo-Japanese War, then the largest war being fought in the world. In 1905 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, an uncommon commitment to peace became a common virtue. The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forums commemorate and continue that tradition.
Follow the links below for transcripts of the presentations from each Forum speaker:
FORUM I, June 1994
- Charles B. Doleac, Forum founder and moderator
- Minister Kyoji Komachi, Former Director, Russian Division, European and Oceanian Affairs bureau, Minister of Foreign Affairs
- John Curtis Perry, Henry Willard Denison Professor of History and Director, North Pacific Program at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University
- Constantine Pleshakov, noted Russian scholar, former Director of the Pacific Study Center at the Russian Institute of U.S. and Canadian Studies and formerly at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton
- The Honorable Ruth L. Griffin, State of New Hampshire Executive Council
- The Honorable Eileen Foley, Mayor, City of Portsmouth NH
- John Barry, President, Russia Society of New Hampshire
FORUM II, October 1994
- Charles B. Doleac, Forum founder and moderator, Welcome Remarks
- Counselor Jiro Kodera, Embassy of Japan, Washington DC
- John Curtis Perry, Henry Willard Denison Professor of History and Director, North Pacific Program at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University
- Counselor Vladimir O. Rakhmanin, Embassy of the Russian Federation, Washington DC
- The Honorable Eileen Foley, Mayor, City of Portsmouth NH
- Concluding Remarks, Charles B. Doleac
FORUM III, September 1995
- Charles B. Doleac, Forum founder and moderator, Welcome Remarks
- Introduction to Speakers' Report, Beyond Cold War to Trilateral Cooperation in the Asia pacific Region: Scenarios for a New Relationship Between Japan, Russia and the United States
- Hiroshi Kimura, Professor of Political Science, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto
- Konstantin Sarkisov, Director, Center for Japanese Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
- Graham Allison, Director, The Center for Science and International Affairs, Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
- Audience Questions & Panel Answers
- Concluding Remarks, Charles B. Doleac
FORUM IV, March 2000
- Charles B. Doleac, Welcome Remarks
- John Curtis Perry, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, "The Japanese-Russian Relationship in Historical Perspective: Japanese View"
- Hiroshi Kimura, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, Japan, "Putin's Possible Way of Negotiating with Japan: Scenarios Based Upon Pattern and Strategy of Gorbachev and Yeltsin"
- Constantin Pleshakov, Department of International Relations, Mt. Holyoke College, former Director of the Pacific Study Center at the Russian Institute of U. S. and Canadian Studies, "The Roots of Present Conflict: Russo- Japanese War, 1904, 1905"
- Dmitri Trenin, Deputy Director, Carnegie Moscow Center, Moscow, "Publics, Politicians, Diplomats: Creating the Right Environment for Negotiations"
- Akira Muto, First Secretary, Embassy of Japan, Washington, DC, "The Relationship Between Bilateral Negotiation and International Environment in the Context of the Territorial Negotiations Between Japan and Russia"
- Eileen Babbitt, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, "The Contribution of Non-Official Parties to the Success of Official Negotiations"
- Audience Questions and Panel Answers
- Concluding Remarks
FORUM V, December 2006
At the commemoration event on December 10, 2006 - one hundred years to the day on which the Norwegian Nobel Institute presented the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize to President Roosevelt -- a group of citizens in Portsmouth, New Hampshire presented an official replica of the Nobel Peace Prize to the commander of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (right in photo), that hosted the formal negotiations between Russia and Japan and 1905 and today operates a Treaty Rooms Museum in the building where the negotiations took place. In presenting the replica medal, Charles B. Doleac (left in photo), moderator of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum and founder of the Japan-American Society of New Hampshire which hosted the commemoration, read a letter from Geir Lundestad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute. The letter said, in part, "We are honored that you are celebrating the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Theodore Roosevelt. The basis for the committee's decision was stated in the presentation address as 'President Roosevelt's happy intervention to terminate the bloody war recently waged between two Great Powers, Japan and Russia.’ Roosevelt took strong interest in the peaceful solution of disputes along several different lines. When I visited the White House a few years ago, I was pleased to see Roosevelt’s peace prize medal prominently displayed in the Roosevelt Room right across the hall from the Oval Office.”
At the commemoration event on December 10, 2006 - one hundred years to the day on which the Norwegian Nobel Institute presented the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize to President Roosevelt -- a group of citizens in Portsmouth, New Hampshire presented an official replica of the Nobel Peace Prize to the commander of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (right in photo), that hosted the formal negotiations between Russia and Japan and 1905 and today operates a Treaty Rooms Museum in the building where the negotiations took place. In presenting the replica medal, Charles B. Doleac (left in photo), moderator of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum and founder of the Japan-American Society of New Hampshire which hosted the commemoration, read a letter from Geir Lundestad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute. The letter said, in part, "We are honored that you are celebrating the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Theodore Roosevelt. The basis for the committee's decision was stated in the presentation address as 'President Roosevelt's happy intervention to terminate the bloody war recently waged between two Great Powers, Japan and Russia.’ Roosevelt took strong interest in the peaceful solution of disputes along several different lines. When I visited the White House a few years ago, I was pleased to see Roosevelt’s peace prize medal prominently displayed in the Roosevelt Room right across the hall from the Oval Office.”
FORUM VI, December 2007
The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum welcomed Dennis Ross, author of Statecraft And How to Restore America’s Standing in the World to Portsmouth on December 18. Mr. Ross came to Portsmouth three weeks before the 2008 Presidential Primary. Ambassador Ross was Middle East diplomat during the Clinton and George HW Bush administrations. As a result he was quoted frequently during the November 2007 Annapolis Conference on the challenges of the Middle East peace process. In an interview with The New York Times he said, “If you’re going to do Middle East peace process, you can’t just lay out a broad vision.” Then, on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour he said, “One of the things this process needs to do is re-establish a sense of possibility, re-establish a sense of belief again…It can't just be an example of stagecraft, where you stage an event. It should be an example of statecraft where you have objectives, you identify means, and you involve yourself in a way that helps the two sides begin to overcome differences, simply because now there's an intensity to the effort.” At the Forum, Ambassador Ross spoke about issues of diplomacy and statecraft “in the spirit of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty.”
"From a vantage point over 100 years later we might do well to understand the Theodore Roosevelt the Nobel Committee honored: not the President 'carrying a big stick,' but the President who used the diplomatic good offices of a great nation for peace,” said Charles Doleac, Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum founder and moderator. “Fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Henry Kissinger, praised Theodore Roosevelt as one of our nation’s greatest Presidential diplomats because he approached the global balance of power with unparalleled sophistication. Roosevelt earned this reputation, and his Prize, for his realistic appraisal of competing international interests and for the creative blend of formal, informal and back channel diplomacy he used to bring Russia and Japan to the negotiating table to achieve lasting peace. Roosevelt’s diplomacy brought the United States onto the world stage in 1905 not only as a player with national interests backed by the military might of the Great White Fleet; but also -- and more importantly -- as an international diplomatic player with the moral authority of proven success as the peacemaker who ended the largest land and sea war the world had ever seen."
The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum welcomed Dennis Ross, author of Statecraft And How to Restore America’s Standing in the World to Portsmouth on December 18. Mr. Ross came to Portsmouth three weeks before the 2008 Presidential Primary. Ambassador Ross was Middle East diplomat during the Clinton and George HW Bush administrations. As a result he was quoted frequently during the November 2007 Annapolis Conference on the challenges of the Middle East peace process. In an interview with The New York Times he said, “If you’re going to do Middle East peace process, you can’t just lay out a broad vision.” Then, on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour he said, “One of the things this process needs to do is re-establish a sense of possibility, re-establish a sense of belief again…It can't just be an example of stagecraft, where you stage an event. It should be an example of statecraft where you have objectives, you identify means, and you involve yourself in a way that helps the two sides begin to overcome differences, simply because now there's an intensity to the effort.” At the Forum, Ambassador Ross spoke about issues of diplomacy and statecraft “in the spirit of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty.”
"From a vantage point over 100 years later we might do well to understand the Theodore Roosevelt the Nobel Committee honored: not the President 'carrying a big stick,' but the President who used the diplomatic good offices of a great nation for peace,” said Charles Doleac, Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum founder and moderator. “Fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Henry Kissinger, praised Theodore Roosevelt as one of our nation’s greatest Presidential diplomats because he approached the global balance of power with unparalleled sophistication. Roosevelt earned this reputation, and his Prize, for his realistic appraisal of competing international interests and for the creative blend of formal, informal and back channel diplomacy he used to bring Russia and Japan to the negotiating table to achieve lasting peace. Roosevelt’s diplomacy brought the United States onto the world stage in 1905 not only as a player with national interests backed by the military might of the Great White Fleet; but also -- and more importantly -- as an international diplomatic player with the moral authority of proven success as the peacemaker who ended the largest land and sea war the world had ever seen."
FORUM VII, December 2008 Samantha Power was the Anna Lindh Professor of Global Leadership and Public Policy Practice at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a foreign policy columnist at Time magazine. In 2003, her book, A Problem from Hell: American and the Age of Genocide, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for general nonfiction, the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, and the Council on Foreign Relations’ Arthur Ross Prize for the best book in U.S. foreign policy. Chasing the Flame was a nationwide bestseller when it was published last winter and is now available in paperback for the first time. According to Penguin Books, it is “the story of UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello’s life and of the troubled times we live in, and as more and more Americans are thinking about foreign policy issues and our role in the world, this one man’s life provides invaluable lessons on how we should respond to the challenges of this new era. Samantha Power’s book is [both] a biography of Vieira de Mello [and] a riveting account of the last four decades of global conflicts and our attempts to understand and resolve them… [T]he life of Sergio Vieira de Mello yields vital lessons for us today, providing us with his unique expertise on how to unite as nations, rebuild our international institutions, and establish peace and security in those parts of our world that need them the most.”
In an interview with Penguin Books about why she wrote Chasing the Flame, Ms. Power was asked what someone who desires to follow in Sergio’s footsteps should do. She said, "A surprising number of people long to make a difference, but a) don't know how, or b) know how, but don't believe it can make a difference. Yet an even more surprising number of people don't explore the opportunities (or the potential impact) before assuming there is no role they can usefully play… I hope [the book] inspires a desire to inject their wisdom into the public sector in some fashion, whether part-time or full-time.” On December 6th, Ms. Power spoke on her book and issues of diplomacy and foreign policy at the annual Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum. In 1905, the Governor, US Navy and people of New Hampshire hosted Russian and Japanese diplomats on behalf of President Theodore Roosevelt for the peace conference to end the Russo-Japanese War. The result was the Treaty of Portsmouth, for which Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize, presented on December 10, 1906.
In an interview with Penguin Books about why she wrote Chasing the Flame, Ms. Power was asked what someone who desires to follow in Sergio’s footsteps should do. She said, "A surprising number of people long to make a difference, but a) don't know how, or b) know how, but don't believe it can make a difference. Yet an even more surprising number of people don't explore the opportunities (or the potential impact) before assuming there is no role they can usefully play… I hope [the book] inspires a desire to inject their wisdom into the public sector in some fashion, whether part-time or full-time.” On December 6th, Ms. Power spoke on her book and issues of diplomacy and foreign policy at the annual Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum. In 1905, the Governor, US Navy and people of New Hampshire hosted Russian and Japanese diplomats on behalf of President Theodore Roosevelt for the peace conference to end the Russo-Japanese War. The result was the Treaty of Portsmouth, for which Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize, presented on December 10, 1906.
FORUM VIII, December 2009
The 2009 Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum was presented in the Wentworth Grand Ballroom -- the room in which the Japanese delegation hosted an appreciation banquet on September 4, 1905 -- the eve of the signing of the Treaty. A video of President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture presented in Oslo on December 10, 2009 was shown. Go to the transcript of President Obama's Acceptance Speech.
A luncheon hosted by the Japan-America Society of NH preceded the video presentation, where Charles B. Doleac, JASNH president welcomed guests included Japanese Consul-General Masaru Tsuji and the commander of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Capt. Bryant Fuller.
The 2009 Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum was presented in the Wentworth Grand Ballroom -- the room in which the Japanese delegation hosted an appreciation banquet on September 4, 1905 -- the eve of the signing of the Treaty. A video of President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture presented in Oslo on December 10, 2009 was shown. Go to the transcript of President Obama's Acceptance Speech.
A luncheon hosted by the Japan-America Society of NH preceded the video presentation, where Charles B. Doleac, JASNH president welcomed guests included Japanese Consul-General Masaru Tsuji and the commander of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Capt. Bryant Fuller.
FORUM IX, November 2016
"Reconsidering the Trilateral Cooperation Study: Relationships Between Japan, Russia and the US"
At the start of his remarks, Allison said, “Thanks to the people of Portsmouth who invented something special. That local people engaged with the [1905 Russian and Japanese] diplomats was odd, strange, and quite remarkable for its outpouring of support and enthusiasm … and is a topic worth thinking about.”
Hill commented, “In 1992 I didn’t think we’d be doing this again. [But] politics is always problematic. In 1905 there was a willingness to reach settlement that made a Russian-Japanese resolution feasible. Now Russia and Japan are trying to find compromise. For Japan, China is the biggest existential threat since 1945. Russia is wondering about China too. “On a prior trip that was cancelled, Japan was preparing for Putin to visit historic sites from the Russo-Japanese War where Russian prisoners were cared for and their cemetery is still tended by local Japanese villagers. [Based on the 1905 example of Portsmouth’s citizen diplomacy], you should all be poised to help.”
Charles B. Doleac, founder and moderator of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum noted in introducing the program, “In a recent article in the Atlantic Magazine, Graham Allison and Neal Ferguson proposed the formation of an institute of applied history to advise the President. Adopting the model of the Institute of Economic Advisors this group could identify historical examples and provide often overlooked context to international relationships and disputes. “In 2015, on the 110th anniversary of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, Russian and Japanese diplomats met for the first time since 1905 in this same room [the Wentworth Grand ballroom where the Forum took place] where they agreed, in the newspaper’s words, to ‘bury the hatchet.’ When Fiona and Graham first came to Portsmouth in 1995, it was unclear whether Wentworth By the Sea would be saved from demolition. It is fitting that they come back, to this place, with renewed ideas, including citizen diplomacy, for settling the dispute between Russia and Japan that has lasted for 47 years in the context of a peace that lasted from 1905 to 1945.”
"Reconsidering the Trilateral Cooperation Study: Relationships Between Japan, Russia and the US"
- Charles B. Doleac, founder and moderator of the Forum
- Graham Allison, Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, twice recipient of the Department of Defense's highest civilian award for his work on DOD strategy and policy towards Russia, Ukraine, and the other states of the former Soviet Union
- Fiona Hill, Director of the Center on the United States and Europe, a senior fellow in the Foreign policy program at Brookings Institution and author of the 2013 book,, Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin.
At the start of his remarks, Allison said, “Thanks to the people of Portsmouth who invented something special. That local people engaged with the [1905 Russian and Japanese] diplomats was odd, strange, and quite remarkable for its outpouring of support and enthusiasm … and is a topic worth thinking about.”
Hill commented, “In 1992 I didn’t think we’d be doing this again. [But] politics is always problematic. In 1905 there was a willingness to reach settlement that made a Russian-Japanese resolution feasible. Now Russia and Japan are trying to find compromise. For Japan, China is the biggest existential threat since 1945. Russia is wondering about China too. “On a prior trip that was cancelled, Japan was preparing for Putin to visit historic sites from the Russo-Japanese War where Russian prisoners were cared for and their cemetery is still tended by local Japanese villagers. [Based on the 1905 example of Portsmouth’s citizen diplomacy], you should all be poised to help.”
Charles B. Doleac, founder and moderator of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum noted in introducing the program, “In a recent article in the Atlantic Magazine, Graham Allison and Neal Ferguson proposed the formation of an institute of applied history to advise the President. Adopting the model of the Institute of Economic Advisors this group could identify historical examples and provide often overlooked context to international relationships and disputes. “In 2015, on the 110th anniversary of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, Russian and Japanese diplomats met for the first time since 1905 in this same room [the Wentworth Grand ballroom where the Forum took place] where they agreed, in the newspaper’s words, to ‘bury the hatchet.’ When Fiona and Graham first came to Portsmouth in 1995, it was unclear whether Wentworth By the Sea would be saved from demolition. It is fitting that they come back, to this place, with renewed ideas, including citizen diplomacy, for settling the dispute between Russia and Japan that has lasted for 47 years in the context of a peace that lasted from 1905 to 1945.”
FORUM X, November 2019
- Charles B. Doleac, founder and moderator of the Forum, Welcome Remarks
- Jake Sullivan, "Foreign Policy and the 2020 Election"
FORUM XI, September 2020
- Joseph S. Nye, Jr. via Zoom, Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump
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FORUM XII, February 2024
In her book, There's Nothing for You Here, Hill argues that it is a perceived lack of opportunity in the post-industrial era that has left people angry and susceptible to populist messages. Alternatively Hill suggests bridging the opportunity gap with resources such as higher education, apprenticeships, job training, mentoring and coaching, and believes that everyone can play a role in helping “find opportunity in the 21st century.”
“As an analyst of global affairs, Fiona Hill is alarmed by the recent trends toward authoritarianism and suggests some practical advice to those willing to support educational opportunity as a counter to populism here in the US and around the world,” said Charles B. Doleac, Forum chairman and senior partner at Boynton, Waldron, Doleac, Woodman & Scott PA. “The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum explores diplomatic themes ‘in the spirit of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty.’ We invite scholars and diplomats with special insight into international relations and example of citizen diplomacy to discuss the potential for ordinary people to make a difference.”
This Forum program was supported by the Japan-America Society of NH and Boynton, Waldron, Doleac, Woodman and Scott, P.A., with Portsmouth Athenaeum, World Affairs Council of NH and the Portsmouth Historical Society.
- Charles B. Doleac, founder and moderator of the Forum, Welcome Remarks
- Fiona Hill
In her book, There's Nothing for You Here, Hill argues that it is a perceived lack of opportunity in the post-industrial era that has left people angry and susceptible to populist messages. Alternatively Hill suggests bridging the opportunity gap with resources such as higher education, apprenticeships, job training, mentoring and coaching, and believes that everyone can play a role in helping “find opportunity in the 21st century.”
“As an analyst of global affairs, Fiona Hill is alarmed by the recent trends toward authoritarianism and suggests some practical advice to those willing to support educational opportunity as a counter to populism here in the US and around the world,” said Charles B. Doleac, Forum chairman and senior partner at Boynton, Waldron, Doleac, Woodman & Scott PA. “The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum explores diplomatic themes ‘in the spirit of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty.’ We invite scholars and diplomats with special insight into international relations and example of citizen diplomacy to discuss the potential for ordinary people to make a difference.”
This Forum program was supported by the Japan-America Society of NH and Boynton, Waldron, Doleac, Woodman and Scott, P.A., with Portsmouth Athenaeum, World Affairs Council of NH and the Portsmouth Historical Society.