Israel's Military Aid to Africa, 1960–66

1971 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abel Jacob

DURING the late 1950S and early 19605, Israel mounted an active campaign of aid to Africa, which took three main forms: technical help in agriculture, joint commercial ventures, and military assistance. Of the three, the military and quasi-military programmes made the most considerable mark in Africa;1 they were also an important part of Israel's overall foreign policy, in an attempt to gain political influence through military aid, and thus to help overcome her isolation in the Middle East. Israel's military assistance to Africa illustrates several important aspects of foreign aid. This article deals mainly with the political motives of the donor country, and the various ways in which it may be concerned to influence the actions of the recipient government. Later, there is some discussion of the social and cultural barriers to the transfer of military and para-military organisations from one culture to another.

Significance The situation has highlighted several issues of concern around the influence of the Mexican military, the government’s reliance on it and the challenges Mexico and its security agencies face in trying to meet US demands while addressing domestic threats. Impacts Mexican militarisation was facilitated by Trump administration apathy on human rights; this will change under President Joe Biden. Increased US-bound migration, encouraged by Biden’s more humane rhetoric, will heighten the need for bilateral security cooperation. Future Mexican administrations will struggle to reverse the political influence the military has obtained.


Author(s):  
Alejandra Araya González

Dentro de los repertorios de acción del movimiento de pobladores, sobresalen las formas en que estos actores urbanos se relacionaron con organismos políticos durante la búsqueda de solución a su problema habitacional. Este artículo propone un análisis de las relaciones socio-políticas que sostuvieron los pobladores del Nueva La Habana con el MIR entre 1970-1973, postulando que aquellos vínculos marcaron una dinámica social-política oscilante entre la búsqueda de una asistencia habitacional y la influencia política de un movimiento revolucionario que recién se vinculaba con los pobladores. En esta línea, se postula que la construcción identitaria de los pobladores de Nueva La Habana se puede entender a partir de una conducta pragmática en la experiencia política que vivieron con los dirigentes del MIR, constituyendo un sello identitario sustancial, que abre una perspectiva histórica para comprender la conducta social-política de los pobladores durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX y el Chile actual.Palabras clave: Movimiento de pobladores, Campamento Nueva La Habana, MIR, experiencia política.“We, the squatters, did not belong to the MIR, we were there because our necessity of dwelling”: Squatters of the squatter settlement Nueva La Habana and the MIR, 1970-1973AbstractIn histories of action of the squatters’ movement, we can highlight the ways in which these urban actors related to political organisms looking for a solution to their housing problem. This article proposes an analysis of the socio-political relations among the squatters of New Havana and the MIR between 1970-1973, postulating that those links marked an oscillating social-political dynamics between the search for a housing assistance and the political influence of a revolutionary movement that was linked with the squatters. In this sense, it is postulated that the identity construction of the inhabitants of Nueva La Habana can be understood from a pragmatic behavior in the political experience they lived with MIR’s leaders, constituting a substantial identity character that opens a historical perspective for understanding the social-political behavior of the squatters during the second half of the Twentieth Century and today in Chile.Keywords: Movement of squatters, New Havana squatter settlement, MIR, political experience.“Os povoadores não éramos do MIR, nós estávamos por uma necessidade que foi a morada”: Os moradores do acampamento a Nueva La Habana e o MIR, 1970-1973ResumoDentro dos repertórios de ação do movimento de povoadores, sobressaem asmaneiras pelas quais esses atores urbanos se relacionaram com organizações políticas durante a busca de uma solução para seu problema habitacional. Este artigo propõe uma análise das relações sócio-políticas que sustentaram aos povoadores da Nueva La Habana com o MIR entre 1970-1973, postulando que esses laços, marcaram uma dinâmica sócio-política que oscilam entre a busca de assistência habitacional e a influência política de um movimento revolucionário que, recentemente, se vinculava com os povoadores. Nesta linha, postula-se que a construção da identidade dos povoadores da Nueva La Habana pode ser entendida a partir de uma conduta pragmática na experiência política viveram com os dirigentes do MIR, constituindo um selo de identidade substancial, que abre uma perspectiva histórica para compreender a conduta sócio-política dos povoadores durante a segunda metade do século XX e o Chile atual.Palavras-chave: Movimento de povoadores, Acampamento Nova Havana, MIR, experiência política.


Author(s):  
Willibald Rosner

War and Peace. Land and Military in Direct Confrontation 1797–1918. This chapter focuses on the extremes in relations between the land and the military. The first part deals with the period until 1866, when wars actually took place on Lower Austrian soil and foreign forces were stationed in the land. Here the analysis centres on strategies developed by the population to cope with extraordinary situations. The second section deals with the emergence of the military as a state regulatory power in the sphere of internal and public security in war and peace. The social conflicts following the Vormärz and the political movements in the second half of the 19th century played a role here, as did the First World War, when, although Lower Austria was not a frontline area, the military were the dominant factor in terms of internal security, public control, working life and food security.


Author(s):  
Rhys Jenkins

Rather less has been written about the social, political, and environmental impacts of China on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) than the economic impacts. In terms of social impacts, the chapter considers the effects in terms of both employment and the way in which Chinese companies in the extractive industries have affected local communities. In LAC, discussion of the political implications have mainly focussed on whether or not China’s growing presence represents a threat to US interests in the region, but there is no evidence that China is exercising undue political influence in the region as the case studies of Brazil and Venezuela illustrate. There is little systematic evidence concerning the environmental impacts, although the case of soybeans illustrates the potential negative consequences of growing demand from China.


1957 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
G. T. Griffith

It seems uncertain whether the Macedonian infantrymen of Philip II had breast-plates or not. How much it matters, too, is also perhaps uncertain, though obviously it mattered not a little to the men themselves at the time, whether or not they carried on them that combination of strength and of weight, of moral comfort and physical encumbrance, that a breastplate meant to the man inside it. There may perhaps be something in this question, too, for the social historian as well as for the military specialist.That Greek hoplites of the archaic period normally wore breastplates appears from vase-paintings, especially those proto-Corinthian examples which show combats not of individuals but of opposing phalanxes: it appears, too, from Tyrtaeus. Xenophon in theAnabasis, when he makes a passing remark about casualties on one occasion, gives the same impression about the Ten Thousand, who were predominantly a hoplite force. But breastplates were not uniform. Metal ones could vary greatly in weight, and there were variants (πĩλοι, σπολάδες) that were probably quite light in metal, on linen or leather. It has been suggested with some likelihood that in the fifth century the solid metal type virtually went out of use. If this were so, then the peltasts of the early fourth century would represent a logical development from a hoplite who had already become lighter than of old. It would seem logical for the pekast to have no breastplate at all, an arrangement incidentally that might suit well the mercenaries of the day who often were peltasts, and who were often poor men unlikely to own expensive equipment. But in spite of their occasional spectacular successes even against hoplites, the peltasts did not supersede them, so far as can be seen, in the citizen armies of the Greek cities. Indeed in the Hellenistic period still, in a treaty of about 270 B.C. between the Aetolians and the Acarnanians, the clause providing for reciprocal military aid distinguishes between three classes of infantry: (1) those who wore breastplates (πανοπλίαν), (2) those wore τὸ ἡμιθωράκιον, and (3) those who had no defensive armour (ψιλῲ). The first class is presumably, still, the hoplite.


1982 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 738
Author(s):  
William Gutteridge ◽  
Amos Perlmutter ◽  
Valerie Plave Bennett

Author(s):  
Mariana Cunha Pereira

In this text, I re-elaborate the narratives and oral speech of some of the social subjects (Guyanese Negroes, Macushi Indigenous and Wapishana, regional Brazilians) about the Rupununi Uprising. The narratives and oral speech of the interviewees on the subject are partially constituted by the fieldwork that originated the Ethnography built as a doctorate thesis in the frontier Brazil-Guyana. The intention is to contextualize, by means of these narratives, the realms of memory that make up the political landscape of the 60s in these two countries, since the political event called Rupununi Uprising, characterized as one of the most polemic period in Guyana’s history. In Brazil, milestones of this decade were the military dictatorship and the leftist movements.In Guyana it is a moment of the process of independence and of secession fights.


Author(s):  
Juvence F. Ramasy

In many African countries, armies played a key public role in the aftermath of independence. For this reason, no study of African politics can overlook the militarization of the state. Postcolonial Madagascar, for example, was ruled for over two decades by personnel from its army. National armies often present themselves as neutral entities that can guarantee a country’s political stability. However, there is no such thing as neutrality, whether in Africa or elsewhere. The best hope for armies to become and remain as politically neutral as possible is the demilitarization of political power. The withdrawal of the military from politics and their subordination to civilian decisions is important but does not suffice to ensure the army’s political neutrality. Such a withdrawal was widely carried out through the third wave of democratization, the historical period during which there was a sustained and significant increase in the proportion of competitive regimes. Democratization processes cannot succeed without efforts toward neutralizing the military, and thus, toward demilitarizing the political society and depoliticizing the army. Post-transition regimes striving for democracy should bring about and preserve a formal separation of power between the political and the civilian spheres. For these regimes to establish a solid mandate, the army and the security apparatus need to be placed under democratic control. In Africa, the disengagement of the military from the public sphere came about with the political transitions of the 1990s. But changes in political regimes over the past decade have challenged the democratization process, as the return of praetorianism (an excessive political influence of the armed forces in the Sahel and Madagascar) testifies. Hence, demilitarizing politics, on the one hand and depoliticizing and reprofessionalizing the army on the other remain essential issues to be addressed.


2002 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Slofstra

AbstractThis paper is a plea for the rehabilitation of the concept of Romanisation in the discussion about socio-cultural change resulting from the confrontation of (proto-)historical peoples with Roman power and an often dominant Roman culture. In the theoretical introduction, first of all an attempt is made to identify the social mechanisms of Romanisation; this is followed by a discussion on a model of dimensional analysis attuned to the dynamics of specific processes of Romanisation.The major part of the article is devoted to an outline of the Romanisation process in the northern frontier zone of the Roman Empire, the Lower Rhine region. It focuses on the political and cultural interaction between the Batavian tribe living here and the Romans in the period between the Gallic war and the 3rd century A.D. The paper attempts to explain the differences between the process of Romanisation in the central part of Gaul (‘Interior Gaul’ in Greg Woolf's terminology) which had already been ‘civilised’ early on and the military frontier, where tribal traditions still continued to play an important part, certainly until the Batavian revolt of 69/70 A.D.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Candel-Sánchez

AbstractCan sanctions against foreign aid donors enhance the credibility of conditional aid policies? If such policies suffer from time inconsistency, the answer is positive. This paper proposes a mechanism to overcome the lack of credibility of conditional aid donations to developing countries. A scheme of policy-dependent transfers to the donor country is shown to achieve an optimal commitment outcome by improving the credibility of conditional aid programs. The scheme is devised to cover situations in which the cost of structural reforms is information privately owned by the recipient government.


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