Belgian Rule and its Afterlives: Colonialism, Developmentalism, and Mobutism in the Tanganyika District, Southeastern DR-Congo, 1885–1985

2017 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 47-68
Author(s):  
Reuben Loffman
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Labor History ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Dr Congo ◽  
Unfree Labor ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

AbstractThe arrival of Belgian rule in the late nineteenth century initiated significant changes in the labor history of Tanganyika, a province in the southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as well the discursive regimes used to legitimize these transformations. After the colonial conquests, unfree labor was justified by paternalistic rather than mythical discourses. Although unfree labor was less common in the postcolonial period, the state forced farmers to sell crops at low prices and build roads for no remuneration. In the Cold War context, the language and practice of developmentalism mediated the coercive practices of the independent Congolese state (known as Zaïre, 1971–1997). The floundering Zaïrian government expanded its presence in Tanganyika due to its partnership with USAID. USAID's rhetoric and practice was influenced by a “bottom up” approach to agricultural production, but the cuts to its funding in the 1980s meant it struggled to soften Mobutu's coercive administration.

scholarly journals Histoire du politique au Congo-Kinshasa: Les concepts à l'épreuve (1) Mobutu (2)

Afrika Focus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Hendrickx
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Review Article ◽  
The West ◽  
The World ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

This review article analyses two publications which deal with the history of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo/Zaire, emphasising the reign of President Mobutu Sese Seko. In comparing the two publications, originating from two decidedly different traditions, the pre- sent article concludes that, twenty years after the fall of the Mobutu regime, there is not (yet) a historiographic consensus on the character of the Mobutu regime. Jean-Pierre Langellier, com- ing from the world of journalism, emphasised in his biography of Mobutu the importance of the President’s friendship ties with the West, and the influence of the Cold War. Conversely, scholar Gauthier de Villers relativised the deterministic character of the Cold War on the regime, as well as the unconditional amical ties of Mobutu with his Western allies. Key words: Congo, DRC, Mobutu, Zaire 

Juggling Several Balls at Once

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-516
Author(s):  
Grace Mueller ◽  
Paul F. Diehl ◽  
Daniel Druckman
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Early Failure ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
The Cold War

Abstract Peacekeeping during the Cold War was primarily, and in some cases exclusively, charged with monitoring cease-fires. This changed significantly, as peace operations evolved to include other missions (e.g., rule of law, election supervision), many under the rubric of peacebuilding. What is lacking is consideration of how the different missions affect one another, simultaneously and in sequences. This study addresses that gap by looking at the interconnectedness of missions and their success in the UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC), which was mandated to perform eight different missions over a decade. The article examines success or failure in each of those missions and how they relate to one another guided by theoretical logics based on the “security first” hypothesis and mission compatibility expectations. Early failure to stem the violence had negative downstream consequences for later peacebuilding missions. Nevertheless, MONUC’s election supervision mission was successful.

scholarly journals Institute of the Soviet Advisors in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 139
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Leonidovych Kovalkov
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Soviet Occupation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

А role and place of soldiery and civil advisers as an important instrument of soviet politics in the Democratic republic of Afghanistan are investigated in the article. It is well-proven that on a quantity, scales of activity and sphere of plenary powers the institute of soviet advisers in Afghanistan did not have analogues in history of the "cold war". The attempt of determination of degree of efficiency of realization of orders of soviet guidance by advisers is realizable. Factors that influenced on their activity are found out. Question about responsibility of soviet advisers for the failure of socialistic experiment in the Democratic republic of Afghanistan discussed in the article. Also heaved up the problem of interpretation of institute of the soviet advisers as an important instrument of the soviet occupation Afghanistan in 1979–1989. The researches based foremost on the memoirs of the soviet advisers. Like research is at first carried out in Ukrainian historiography.

Chile, the CIA and the Cold War

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Lockhart
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Trends ◽  
Southern South America ◽  
Intelligence Operations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
The Cold War

This book reinterprets the history of Chile, the CIA and the Cold War. It blends national, regional, and world-historical trends from Chile -- from the appearance of its labor movement in the late nineteenth century to the end of the Pinochet dictatorship in the late twentieth -- into both the inter-American and transatlantic communities. It argues that Chileans made their own history as highly engaged internationalists while reassessing American and other foreign-directed intelligence operations in Chile and southern South America while recontextualizing and reassessing United States, particularly CIA, influence.

Ordered to Disarm, Encouraged to Rearm: Japan’s Struggles with the Postwar

2020 ◽  
pp. 139-160
Author(s):  
Garren Mulloy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Japanese Military ◽  
History Of ◽  
Military Institution ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

In the fall of 1945, the Japanese military institution’s end was sudden and final, one of the central ordering institutions of East Asia since the late-nineteenth century disappeared. Or did it? As Garren Mulloy shows, the Japanese imperial military institutions – its ethos, cultures, and personnel – were recast and reinvented in the Cold War as the United States sought to transform Japan into a key ally. In a detailed historical examination of the imperial roots of the SDF, Mulloy examines how the military institution of the fallen empire was sustained and then reconfigured to serve the new era of democracy and an international order dominated by the United States. In the process he recasts Japanese post-1945 security in a new postimperial key, focusing on the first two decades of security transformation, and showing how once imperial officers latched onto the Cold War help to reinvent the Japanese military as a territorially bound Self Defense Force. In the process he revises the familiar story of demilitarization and pacifism into a more complicated and ambivalent history of transwar martial cultures and practises which continued to flourish deep into the 1960s.

Introduction: Writing the History of Terrorism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carola Dietze
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Global History ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter analyzes the most important trends in the writing of the history of terrorism since the beginning of terrorism research in the late nineteenth century up to today. It presents the origins of terrorism studies in Western social sciences and international relations, and it contextualizes the standard narrative of the history of terrorism put forward by the political scientists David C. Rapoport and Walter Laqueur. The chapter traces major developments in the history of terrorism in professional historiography in the Soviet Union or Russia as well as Europe and the United States during and after the Cold War, and especially since the attacks on September 11, 2001, and it outlines the results and effects of that historiography. On the basis of the evaluation of the scholarship available to date, the article maps out the rationale and the contours of the new global history of terrorism pursued in The Oxford Handbook of the History of Terrorism.

Global Development

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Lorenzini
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
History Of Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

In the Cold War, “development” was a catchphrase that came to signify progress, modernity, and economic growth. Development aid was closely aligned with the security concerns of the great powers, for whom infrastructure and development projects were ideological tools for conquering hearts and minds around the globe, from Europe and Africa to Asia and Latin America. This book provides a global history of development, drawing on a wealth of archival evidence to offer a panoramic and multifaceted portrait of a Cold War phenomenon that transformed the modern world. Taking readers from the aftermath of the Second World War to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the book shows how development projects altered local realities, transnational interactions, and even ideas about development itself. The book shines new light on the international organizations behind these projects—examining their strategies and priorities and assessing the actual results on the ground—and it also gives voice to the recipients of development aid. It shows how the Cold War shaped the global ambitions of development on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and how international organizations promoted an unrealistically harmonious vision of development that did not reflect local and international differences. The book presents a global perspective on Cold War development, demonstrating how its impacts are still being felt today.

Louis Menand: The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America. 2001. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 546 pp.

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-204
Author(s):  
Lance Kenney
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Cold War ◽  
William James ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Cultural Impact ◽  
Oliver Wendell Holmes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Charles Peirce ◽  
The Cold War

Louis Menand’s The Metaphysical Club, daunting in its choice of subject matter, closely aligns itself with the ancient sense of the word ‘history’ as a fluid, almost epic narrative. The Metaphysical Club of the title was a conversation group that met in Cambridge for a few months in 1872. Its membership roster listed some of the greatest intellectuals of the day: Charles Peirce, William James, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Chauncey Wright, amongst others. There is no record of the Club’s discussions or debates—in fact, the only direct reference to the Club is made by Peirce in a letter written thirty-five years later. Menand utilizes the Club as a jumping-off point for a sweeping analysis of the beliefs of the day. The subtitle of the book belies its true mission: ‘a story of ideas in America.’ Menand discusses the intellectual and social conditions that helped shape these men by the time they were members of the Club. He then shows the philosophical, political, and cultural impact that these men went on to have. In doing so, Menand traces a history of ideas in the United States from immediately prior to the Civil War to the beginning of the Cold War.

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