Fortune’s Banter

2021 ◽  
pp. 282-312
Author(s):  
Martin Wight
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Roman Antiquity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
De Gaulle

In this essay Wight surveyed concepts and events from Graeco-Roman antiquity to modern times dealing with the impact on international politics of chance, destiny, fate, fortune, freedom, irony, luck, necessity, providence, tragedy, and will. The ancient sources cited include Horace, Plutarch, Polybius, Thucydides, and Virgil. The political philosophers considered range from Machiavelli to Burke and Marx. Among the reflective political leaders cited are Bismarck, Cavour, Cromwell, Gladstone, Lincoln, Lloyd George, and Napoleon. The twentieth-century decision-makers quoted extend from Adenauer, Churchill, de Gaulle, Dulles, and Roosevelt to Hitler and Mussolini. Wight distinguished between ‘opportunism of ends’ and ‘opportunism of means’. Opportunism that creates propitious circumstances may overlap with opportunism that waits for—and prepares for—a favourable time and seizes the chance at hand. Unintended, unexpected, and ironical consequences abound in international politics.

Social Policy, Welfare, and Social Identities, 1900–1950

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Moses
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Reform Movements ◽  
Family Policies ◽  
Population Politics ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
The Impact

The first half of the twentieth century witnessed the dramatic emergence of modern welfare states across Europe. Why did this transformation take form? Was this process uniform across Europe? And what did it mean for relations between individuals and states? This chapter suggests that European social policies in the early twentieth century were characterized by an emphasis on integration and community. This perspective chimed with widespread utopian aspirations for social improvement voiced across the political spectrum and across the Continent. Nonetheless, the relative emphasis on integration and community varied across Europe and over time. Moreover, associated quests for an ideal future held the potential to be both enabling and oppressive. This chapter highlights two related themes that reveal these complexities: work and population politics. It charts developments in social legislation across Europe, including eugenics, labour, and family policies, and it traces the impact of transnational reform movements and international organizations.

Introduction

2007 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Jeremy Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This chapter investigates the idea of the 'Jewish contribution' that was borne on Jews, non-Jews, and the interaction between them in modern times, from the seventeenth century to the present. It determines what role 'Jewish contribution' has played in 'Jewish self-definition' and how it has influenced the political, social, and cultural history of the Jews. It also discusses the biblical heritage that Jews, Christians, and Muslims share that highlights the people of the book and the impact of biblical monotheism on the history of religions. The chapter looks at the survival of the Jews as a distinct ethnic group and a multinational religious community that wrestles with the phenomenon to understand the reasons for their survival. It mentions the tragedy of the Nazi Holocaust and the re-establishment of the Jewish state in its wake that piqued the curiosity of the world.

scholarly journals Serbian Society at the Beginning of the 20th Century. “Militarization of Everyday”

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 28-45
Author(s):  
Ya. V. Vishnyakov
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Balkan Countries ◽  
Eastern Question ◽  
The Impact

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Eastern question and the search for ways to solve it occupied a central place in the politics of both Russia and European states. With his decision was closely linked the process of formation of the young Balkan countries. Serbia, whose formation of a new statehood typologically coincides with a change in the system of European international relations of the 19th and early 20th centuries, played an important role in the events of the Eastern question, while claiming to be the Yugoslav “Piemont”. However, it was the war by the beginning of the twentieth century. It became, both for Serbia and other countries of the region, not only a means of gaining state sovereignty, but also the main way to resolve its own interstate contradictions, which took place against the background of an external factor - the impact on the political processes of the Balkans of the Great Powers. These factors led to the natural militarization of the everyday life of Serbian society. The presence in the everyday consciousness of the people of the image of a hostile “other” became one of the main ways of internal consolidation of the country, when attitudes towards war, pushing the values of peaceful life to the background, created a special basic consensus in the state development of Serbia at the beginning of the 20th century, and the anthropological role of the military factor was essential influenced the underlying processes that took place in the country at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the conditions of a new stage of destruction of the Balkans along the ethno-political line, the factor of militarization of everyday life again becomes an important element of the historical policy of the Balkan countries and the construction of a “new past”. In this regard, the understanding of many problems and possible scenarios for the development of the current Balkan reality is linked to this phenomenon. Thus, the study of the impact on the political life of Serbia at the beginning of the twentieth century of special "extra-constitutional" institutions is important for a wide range of researchers, including for a systematic analysis of the crisis in the territory of the former SFRY.Author declares the absence of conflict of interests.

scholarly journals ME, YOU, And US: Constructing political persona on social networks during the 2015 UK General Election.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethany Usher
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
General Election ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Visual Elements ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Political Campaigning ◽  
The Impact

This article offers statistical and discourse analysis of political leaders’ profile pages during the 2015 UK General Election ‘short campaign’ as a means to better understand the construction of political persona on Social Network Sites (SNS). It examines this as a group production and promotional activity that variously used patterns and routines of both traditional and digital media to display leaders as party branded selves.  Performances strived for balance between authority and authenticity, using the political self as a spectacle to direct microelectorates to specific actions.  This study demonstrates how self-storytelling is shaped by the coded conventions or “house rules” of SNS, which are viewed as inescapable institutions for maintaining public visibility.  It examines how linguistic and visual elements, linked to different political ideologies, chimed with Twitter and Facebook users and looks to the impact on political campaigning.

The Political Economy of African International Relations

1975 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Timothy M. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
New States ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Impact

Our understanding of the international political economy of Africa is underdeveloped; we have inadequate data and theories about the development of underdevelopment on the continent. Even the orthodox study of international politics and foreign policy in Africa is largely a recent phenomenon, stimulated by the rise of new states in the last twenty years. This essay, then, can be no more than a review of the field and a lament over its deficiencies. In particular, we are concerned about: i) the relative inattention afforded the impact of international politics on the rate and direction of social change in African states; ii) the need for a new conceptual framework to advance our understanding of the linkage politics between African elites and external interests; and iii) the related growth and international inequalities on the continent. This essay proceeds therefore from a critical review of analyses of the international political economy of Africa to a tentative presentation of a new typology of states and regimes, regions and behavior, in Africa which reflects the importance of those variables on which students of political economy focus.

Old Wine in Old Bottles: Recent Contributions to British Foreign Policy and European International Politics, 1789–1848

1987 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul W. Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Diplomatic History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Military Organizations ◽  
British Foreign Policy ◽  
War And Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This review article has a conventional purpose, namely, to assess the contributions made by thirteen recent books, most by British historians, to the history of British foreign policy and the European states system during the revolutionary, Napoleonic, and post-Napoleonic eras. There is, however, a problem. None of the books is conventional diplomatic history. Almost half relate only indirectly to foreign policy, while for the remainder foreign policy constitutes only part of their subject matter. The review therefore consciously runs two risks: that of judging the books by inappropriate standards and that of drawing conclusions about current historiography in this field and period from an inappropriate sample. The reader will have to judge whether the results justify the procedure.Geoffrey Best's War and Society in Revolutionary Europe illustrates the problem. Best clearly succeeds in his goal of going beyond the study of military organizations to the study of war itself as a “unique human interest and activity.” The book is far-ranging, delightfully written, based on wide reading, and packed with insights. It also contributes substantially to the history of international politics, mainly by demonstrating how powerful an impact armies and combat had. Yet from the political historian's standpoint there is ground for some frustration as well as for pleasure. Best's descriptions of how armies developed from the Old Regime into the nineteenth century and his analyses of the impact of war in 1792–1815 are excellent for France and Britain and adequate for Prussia and Spain.

El Movimiento Popular y la historiografía en Chile: Elementos para un balance a 40 años del Golpe de Estado

2014 ◽  
pp. 105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Thielemann Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Social History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Academic Fields ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Popular Movement ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Siglo Xx ◽  
Movimientos Sociales

  Resumen: El concepto Movimiento Popular ha sido elaborado por la práctica política de izquierda durante todo el siglo XX, extendiéndose desde allí al campo acadé­mico. Pero con el Golpe de Estado de 1973 y la consecuente derrota política de este sector, su valor teórico perdió fuerza. El presente artículo busca establecer algunos balances y periodificaciones, especialmente respecto de los momentos en que la pregunta por el Movimiento Popular se ha hecho políticamente urgente, encontrando eco entre los historiadores. Se revisan, primero, las tesis gruesas de la corriente previa a 1973, denominada como Historiografía Marxista Clásica. A partir del impacto de los hechos de aquel año, se observan las premisas tanto de la reacción postestructuralista de los Nuevos Movimientos Sociales, como de la denominada Nueva Historia Social. Por último se revisan algunos visos de reactivación del problema desde una perspectiva de la historiografía política y social en las últimas dos décadas. Palabras clave: historiografía, movimiento popular, movimientos sociales. Abstract: The Popular Movement concept was developed by leftist politics throughout the twentieth century and it reached various academic fields as well. However, in Chile, this concept lost its theoretical strength with the 1973 Coup and the political defeat of the left. This article attempts to make some evaluations and periodizations of moments when questions on the Popular Movement have become politically urgent and found an echo in historians. The text overviews theses of the pre-1973 Classic Marxist Historiography trend. From the impact of the 1973 Coup, we can observe the post-structural reactions of the New Social Movements as well as those coming from the New Social History. The text also examines some reactivation of the question from the perspective of political and social historiography in the last decades. Key words: Historiography, popular movement, social movements. Resumem: O conceito Movimento Popular tem sido elaborado pela prática política de esquerda durante todo o século XX, se estendendo desde ali ao campo acadêmico. Porém, com o Golpe de Estado de 1973 e a consequente derrota política deste setor, seu valor teórico perdeu forca. O presente artigo procura estabelecer alguns balanços e periodificaçoes, especialmente respeito dos momentos em que a pergunta pelo Movimento Popular se tem feito politica­mente urgente, encontrando eco entre os historiadores. Se revistam, primeiro, as teses grosas da corrente previa a 1973, denominada como Historiografia Marxista Clássica. A partir do impacto dos fatos de aquele ano, se observam as premissas tanto da reação pós-estruturalista dos Novos Movimentos Sociais, como da denominada Nova Historia Social. Por último, se revistam alguns visos de reativação do problema desde uma perspectiva da historiografia política e social nas últimas duas décadas. Palavras chave: historiografia, movimento popular, movimentos sociais..

Declining Power and the Preventive Motivation for War

1987 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack S. Levy
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
The State ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Power ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Power Differentials ◽  
Political Security ◽  
The Military

The preventive motivation for war arises from political leaders' perceptions that their states' military power and potential are declining relative to those of a rising adversary, and from their fear of the consequences of that decline. It is conceptualized as an intervening variable between changing power differentials and the outbreak of war, and is distinguished from preemption and other sources of better-now-than-later logic. The strength of the preventive motivation is hypothesized to be a function of a state's expectations regarding its rate of military decline, the margin of its inferiority in the future, the probability of a future war, and the probability of a victorious war now with acceptable costs. It is also affected by the risk orientation of decision makers; the influence of the military in the political process; and domestic political factors that undermine the political security of decision makers as well as the military power and potential of the state.

Confronting Jim Crow in the ‘Lone Star’ capital: the contrasting strategies of African-American and ethnic-Mexican political leaders in Austin, Texas, 1910–1930

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-169
Author(s):  
JASON J. McDONALD
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African American ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Ethnic Communities ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
The Impact

Focusing upon the interaction between ethnic political elites in Austin, Texas, during the early twentieth century, this study examines (1) the impact of migration upon the dominant white elite's attitudes towards and dealings with the city's subordinate nonwhite ethnies, and (2) the agendas adopted by local African-American and ethnic-Mexican leaders. The article explains why in their efforts to improve conditions for their respective ethnic communities, the African-American and ethnic-Mexican leaderships pursued very different strategies from each other – the former concentrating upon the attainment of more universalist goals, the latter on more multiculturalist ones – and evaluates the effectiveness of these contrasting policies.

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