Neither Hegemony nor Dominance: Reconsidering German Power in Post Cold-War Europe

2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 389-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES SPERLING
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
German Unification ◽  
Structural Power ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Absolute Power ◽  
The Past ◽  
Processes And Incentives

German unification in 1989 raised the spectre of German hegemony in post-cold war Europe. In this article, I demonstrate that Germany lacks the structural power consistent with European hegemony or dominance; that there is little evidence supporting an appreciable gap between Germany's structural power and foreign policy ambitions; and that apparent symptoms of German hegemony, particularly the process of institutional emulation in Central and Eastern Europe, reflect other international processes and incentives emanating from the state system itself. This reassessment and downgrading of Germany's relative and absolute power resolve the paradox of German structural power and German reluctance identified by others. But this alternative narrative raises another more important question: why is Germany treated as a potential or even aspiring hegemon in Europe? The answer to that question is located in the interconnected legacies of Auschwitz and the occupation regime. This joint legacy constitutes an important part of the historical context within which we frame our assessments and judgements of German power; explains the frequently unwarranted exaggeration and suspicion of German power; and demonstrates how the past can function as a powerful prism though which we interpret the intentions, ambitions and capabilities of a state.

‘New Warsaw Pacts’, ‘Beggar Imperialism’ and interstate rivalry in Central and Eastern Europe

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-290
Author(s):  
Filip Ilkowski
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
European Area ◽  
Interstate Rivalry

This article addresses newly emerging interstate rivalry between Central and Eastern European states based on unevenness of capitalist development and growing assertiveness of particular states in terms of their various strategies and tactics. It critically analyses the efficacy of ‘New Warsaw Pacts’ concepts and argues that in the Central and Eastern European area, we observe a specific form of a post–Cold War multi-polarity, whereby interstate rivalry is becoming increasingly more complex. The term of ‘Beggar Imperialism’ is utilized as a possibly useful description of a specific form geopolitical strategy shown by the example of Poland.

scholarly journals US political and military involvement in the security of Central and Eastern Europe after 1989 – the example of Poland

2020 ◽  
Vol 196 (2) ◽  
pp. 320-338
Author(s):  
Mikołaj Kugler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Military Involvement ◽  
Nato Enlargement ◽  
The Usa

The article discusses how the United States of America has contributed to the security of Central and Eastern Europe, both politically and militarily, since the end of the Cold War, using Poland’s example. It shows that the United States committed itself to the security of both Poland and the region, following the collapse of communism in Poland in 1989, albeit to a varying degree in different countries. America played a pivotal role in NATO enlargement in the 1990s, and in extending security assurances to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, as well as to other countries in the subsequent years. It has continued to assist Poland with its defence reform, thus enhancing its military capabilities. It was also instrumental in strengthening NATO’s eastern flank after 2014, a salient point on Poland’s security agenda since it acceded to the Alliance. It is argued that American political and military involvement in Poland’s security has been both substantial and beneficial, and there is a real need for continued political and military cooperation with the USA and its presence in the region. In the article, the determinants of Poland’s post-Cold War security policy are outlined. Next, the roles that both countries have played in each other’s policies are explained. After that, the US contribution to Poland’s security, both in the political and military spheres, is presented. Finally, an attempt is made to evaluate American involvement, and the author’s perspective on the future of the Poland-US cooperation is offered.

scholarly journals Canadian Assistance to Central and Eastern Europe in Post-Cold War Times

2020 ◽  
pp. 126-137
Author(s):  
Maryna Bessonova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Canadian Society ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Canadian Foreign Policy ◽  
Economical System ◽  
Universal Values ◽  
Communist Countries

Canadian support for the post-communist countries of the Central and Eastern Europe is one of the important components of the international assistance. It plays a great role for the successful transition in the region from communist to the liberal political and economical system. The region consists of the very different nations, some of them already completely incorporated to the Western economic, political, defense and security structures, and others are still on their path to democracy. In the article it is proposed a short overview of the place occupied by Central and Eastern Europe among Canadian foreign policy interests; and generalizations of the main ways of Canadian assistance to the countries of the region (such as political and economic reforms, human rights, supremacy of laws, freedom of media, etc.). Support of democratic developments in the world remains one of the main priorities for Canadian foreign policy. Despite some critiques inside the Canadian society of the issues of financial support, the assistance to the developing nations of Central and Eastern Europe completely fits universal values declared as the main pillars of current Canadian foreign policy.

Self-Institutionalizing as Political Agency: Contemporary Art Practice in Bucharest and Budapest

ARTMargins ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-73
Author(s):  
Izabel Galliera
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Institutional Critique ◽  
Art Practice ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Temporary Organizations

Reacting against politically monopolizing attempts at rewriting the socialist past in post-1989 Hungary and Romania, a diverse number of artists, curators, critics, activists and students have come together to form temporary organizations and institutions. Through a contextual reading and critical analysis of The Department for Art in Public Space (2009–2011) in Bucharest and DINAMO (2003–2006) and IMPEX (2006–2009) in Budapest, this article investigates what the author refers to as a “self-institutionalizing” and the ways in which this practice becomes a vehicle to rear politicized civil societies in post-cold war Central and Eastern Europe. The discussion of the two self-institutionalizing initiatives in Romania and Hungary seeks to contribute and complicate the official and institutionalized narrative of institutional critique rooted in a North American context.

Land of Blue Helmets

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Arab World ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
Member States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Political Mediation

Born in 1945, the United Nations (UN) came to life in the Arab world. It was there that the UN dealt with early diplomatic challenges that helped shape its institutions such as peacekeeping and political mediation. It was also there that the UN found itself trapped in, and sometimes part of, confounding geopolitical tensions in key international conflicts in the Cold War and post-Cold War periods, such as hostilities between Palestine and Iraq and between Libya and Syria. Much has changed over the past seven decades, but what has not changed is the central role played by the UN. This book's claim is that the UN is a constant site of struggle in the Arab world and equally that the Arab world serves as a location for the UN to define itself against the shifting politics of its age. Looking at the UN from the standpoint of the Arab world, this volume includes chapters on the potential and the problems of a UN that is framed by both the promises of its Charter and the contradictions of its member states.

Truth to Power

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Policy Issue ◽  
International Terrorism ◽  
Intelligence Community ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
Intelligence Support ◽  
The Cold War

This first-ever history of the US National Intelligence Council (NIC) is told through the reflections of its eight chairs in the period from the end of the Cold War until 2017. Coeditors Robert Hutchings and Gregory Treverton add a substantial introduction placing the NIC in its historical context going all the way back to the Board of National Estimates in the 1940s, as well as a concluding chapter that highlights key themes and judgments. The historic mission of this remarkable but little-understood organization is strategic intelligence assessment in service of senior American foreign policymakers. It has been at the center of every critical foreign policy issue during the period covered by this volume: helping shape America’s post–Cold War strategies, confronting sectarian conflicts around the world, meeting the new challenge of international terrorism, and now assessing the radical restructuring of the global order. Each chapter places its particular period of the NIC’s history in context (the global situation, the administration, the intelligence community) and assesses the most important issues with which the NIC grappled during the period, acknowledging failures as well as claiming successes. With the creation of the director of national intelligence in 2005, the NIC’s mission mushroomed to include direct intelligence support to the main policymaking committees in the government. The mission shift took the NIC directly into the thick of the action but may have come at the expense of weakening its historic role of providing over-the horizon strategic analysis.

Differences in temporal reasoning

Focaal ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 (66) ◽  
pp. 25-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Ringel
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Temporal Reasoning ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Temporal Complexity ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Temporal Flexibility ◽  
Shrinking City

Hoyerswerda, Germany's fastest-shrinking city, faces problems with the future that seem initially unrelated to the past and yet excite manifold conflicting accounts of it. The multiple and conflicting temporal references employed by Hoyerswerdians indicate that the temporal regime of postsocialism is accompanied, if not overcome, by the temporal framework of shrinkage. By reintroducing the analytical domain of the future, I show that local temporal knowledge practices are not historically predetermined by a homogenous postsocialist culture or by particular generational experiences. Rather, they exhibit what I call temporal complexity and temporal flexibility-creative uses of a variety of coexisting temporal references. My ethnographic material illustrates how such expressions of different forms of temporal reasoning structure social relations within and between different generations. Corresponding social groups are not simply divided by age, but are united through shared and heavily disputed negotiations of the post-Cold War era's contemporary crisis.

1968. The “Prague Spring”: Fifty Years Later. Historical Essays

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Market Economy ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
General Reader ◽  
The Past ◽  
Relevant Today ◽  
Prague Spring ◽  
The Military

This book is devoted to a symbolic event that defined the life and values of several generations. Half a century ago, Czech communists tried to give a new impetus to their country’s system of government by combining socialist values with a rational market economy and the mechanisms of a developed democracy. This effort failed, and the state was occupied by the military. This book is the result of joint efforts by Russian, Czech, and Romanian historians, archivists, and cultural and literary scholars, who—exploring new documents and materials—have reinterpreted these events and their lessons from a present-day perspective. Objectively, the “Prague Spring” is from a bygone era, but it is still a milestone, and many of the problems encountered during the Prague Spring are still relevant today. The authors hope that they have contributed to the historiography of the now-distant events of 1968 and that their contributions will help in analysing the experiences of the past in order to be prepared for the events of the future. This book is aimed at specialists in the history and culture of Central and Eastern Europe, students of higher educational institutions, and the general reader interested in twentieth-century history.

Negotiating agency and structure: Trade union organizing strategies in a hostile environment

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dragoș Adăscăliței ◽  
Ștefan Guga
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
General Situation ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Union Organizing ◽  
Hostile Environment ◽  
The Past ◽  
Automotive Assembly ◽  
Agency And Structure

This article investigates a case of successful union organizing in one automotive assembly plant in Romania. The authors argue that in order to explain why the union succeeds in defending workers’ rights there is a need to consider both structural and agency aspects that condition labor’s capacity to effectively defend their interests. The findings show that the union at the Romanian plant has made use of a diverse repertoire of protest activities in order to defend its worker constituency. The authors also discuss why as of late protests are less and less used by the union in response to the shifting economic and political environment in which the plant is embedded. They argue that a closer look at the strategy of the Romanian union and the path it has taken in the past decade provides a better understanding of the conditions for union success in an economic, legal, and political environment that has become increasingly hostile toward organized labor. In this sense, the article points to the more general situation unions in Central and Eastern Europe have found themselves in recent years.

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