Central Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 600-616
Author(s):  
Árpád von Klimó
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Religious History ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
State Socialism ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Religious Landscape

Central Europe is still imagined as an area dominated by Christianity, for the most part the Catholic Church, in close alliance with Christian rulers who minimized the impact of both the Protestant Reformation and minorities such as Judaism. This idea rests, however, on an oversimplified picture of the religious history of the region. Recent research has shown that the reality was more complex, and that historians still know very little about what the overwhelming majority of people believed or how they practised their religion. Christianity has never completely monopolized the religious landscape of Central Europe and has itself been constantly changing. The history of Christianization, Reformation, empires, and nationalism present in Central Europe as well as state socialism, the Cold War and today’s relative pluralism give an idea of this complexity.

Operation Pedro Pan: The Migration of Unaccompanied Cuban Children to the United States, 1960–1962

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Casavantes Bradford
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federally Funded ◽  
Difficult Decision ◽  
History Of ◽  
Children’S Homes ◽  
Pedro Pan ◽  
The Cold War

Between the autumn of 1960 and October of 1962, the parents of more than fourteen thousand Cuban children made the difficult decision to send their children alone to the United States, where a young Irish immigrant priest, Father Bryan O. Walsh, arranged for them to be cared for by U.S. foster homes and in Catholic children’s homes and orphanages. The Cuban children’s exodus would later become known as Operation Pedro Pan; the federally funded and Catholic Church–administered program that was established to care for these children would be called the Cuban Children’s Program. Their interconnected trajectories are central to the history of post-revolutionary Cuba and of the Miami Cuban exile community, and shed important light on U.S.-Cuba and U.S.-Latin America relations during the height of the Cold War.

Contemporary Lao Buddhism

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrice Ladwig
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Lao Pdr ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Indochina War

Lao Buddhism’s histories are deeply fragmented. Most Lao were deported to Siam in the nineteenth century, and after the demise of the French colonial regime, the country was drawn into the Second Indochina War. After two decades of brutal warfare and massive destructions, the Lao communist movement took power in 1975. This chapter examines the history of Lao Buddhism in the context of these events, and puts its main focus on the entanglement of religion and politics in the postcolonial phase, as the political polarization of the Lao sangha during the Cold War and the impact of the subsequent revolution remain crucial for understanding Buddhism’s position in the current Lao PDR. While under reformed socialism there has been a resurgence of Buddhism in the last two decades, the social and religious transformations resulting from rapid modernization through the capitalist economy and globalization bring new challenges for the Lao sangha.

Does Europe have a centre? Reflections on the history of Western and Central Europe

2006 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICOLETTE MOUT
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
Special Part ◽  
History Of ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Separate Identity ◽  
The Cold War

Any definition of Central Europe based on geographical and/or historical facts causes difficulties. The line dividing Europe during the Cold War has a very limited use because it does not take into account Central Europe as a special part of the continent. Historians such as Geoffrey Barraclough, Hugh Seton-Watson and Oskar Halecki discussed the idea of a separate identity of Central Europe during the Cold War. Especially after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this discussion was re-opened. From a historian's point of view, the most important contributions came from Piotr Wandycz and Jenő Szűcs. An imaginary centre of Europe can only be found in the continent's common history.There is a belief, rather widespread in English-speaking countries, that the eastern half of Europe is inhabited by a number of endlessly quarrelling small nations whose conflicts keep endangering the quiet and comfort of Anglophones. (Hugh Seton-Watson)

The politics of phosphorus-32: A cold war fable based on fact

2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN KRIGE
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Atomic Energy Commission ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Diplomatic History ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACT In July 1949, and again in January 1950 the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission shipped useful amounts of the short-lived isotope phosphorus-32 to a sanatorium in Trieste, Italy. They were used to treat a patient who had a particularly malignant kind of brain tumor. This distribution of isotopes abroad for medical and research purposes was hotly contested by Commissioner Lewis Strauss, and led to a bruising confrontation between him and J. Robert Oppenheimer. This paper describes the debates surrounding the foreign isotope program inside the Commission and in the U.S. Congress. In parallel, it presents an imagined, but factually-based story of the impact of isotope therapy on the patient and his doctor in Trieste, a city on the Italian-Yugoslavian border that was at the heart of the cold war struggle for influence between the U.S. and the USSR. It weaves together the history of science, institutional history, diplomatic history, and cultural history into a fable that draws attention to the importance of the peaceful atom for winning hearts and minds for the West. The polemics surrounding the distribution of isotopes to foreign countries may have irreversibly soured relationships between Oppenheimer and Strauss, and played into the scientist's loss of his security clearance. But, as those who supported the program argued, it was an important instrument for projecting a positive image of America among a scientifc elite abroad, and for consolidating its alliance with friendly nations in the early years of the cold war——or so the fable goes.

Will New Blood in the Leadership Produce New Blood on the Battlefield? The Impact of Regime Changes on Middle East Military Rivalries

2004 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 612-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Tures
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
International Conflict ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Regime Changes ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact

The Middle East has witnessed a recent spate of alterations in rulers and regimes. These new leaders are coming to power in countries having a history of international conflict with other states in the region. Will the change in government exacerbate interstate crises, producing disputes and wars? Or will the nascent leadership steer their countries to peace, choosing instead to focus on an internal consolidation of power? To answer this question, this article examines the theories of foreign policy behavior of new leaders. It discusses the results of a quantitative analysis of an earlier time frame: the initial years of the Cold War. The article then conducts a series of case study analyses of contemporary times to determine if the theory and prior statistical tests remain valid. The results show that new administrations are more likely to target rivals with a threat, display, or limited use of force. Such incoming leaders, however, seem reluctant to drag their countries into a full-scale war. These findings hold for a variety of countries in a number of different contexts. Such results are relevant for Middle East scholars, conflict mediators, as well as American foreign policymakers who seem to have adopted a taste for regime change in the region.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Jakelski
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cold War ◽  
New Music ◽  
Background Information ◽  
State Socialism ◽  
Art World ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Cultural Mobility

The introduction presents the book’s primary themes and concepts: music and the Cold War, the roles institutions and networks have played in shaping musical practices, Stephen Greenblatt’s model of cultural mobility, and Howard Becker’s model of the art world. It gives relevant background information on the history of new music institutions in the twentieth century, as well as a concise account of the development of state socialism in postwar Poland. It also provides an overview of the book’s structure as well as brief summaries of the chapters. The introduction explains that book’s first half examines the festival’s organization and reception in Poland, whereas the latter half explores the Warsaw Autumn’s worldwide ramifications.

Jazz, Power, and Soviet Youth in the Early Cold War, 1948−1953

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gleb Tsipursky
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Competition ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact

Examining the history of jazz in the Soviet Union between 1948 and 1953, this essay sheds light on the role of popular music in the cultural competition of the early Cold War. While the Soviet authorities pursued a tolerant policy toward jazz during World War II because of its wartime alliance with the United States, the outbreak of the Cold War in the late 1940s led to a decisive turn against this music. The Communist Party condemned jazz as the music of the “foreign bourgeoisie,” instead calling for patriotic Soviet music. Building on previous studies of the complex fate of western music in the USSR during the postwar decades, this article highlights a previously unexamined youth counterculture of jazz enthusiasts, exploring the impact of anti-jazz initiatives on grassroots cultural institutions, on the everyday cultural practices of young people, and on the Cold War’s cultural front in the USSR. It relies on sources from central and regional archives, official publications, and memoirs, alongside oral interviews with jazz musicians and cultural officials.

Cold War Shadows of Japan’s Imperial Legacies for Women in East Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 659-675
Author(s):  
Kozue Akibayashi
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
East Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Women's Movements ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact

Japan occupies a unique position in the history of East Asia as the sole non-Western colonial power. Japan’s defeat in the Asia-Pacific War that ended its colonial expansion did not bring justice to its former colonies. The Japanese leadership and people were spared from being held accountable for its invasion and colonial rule by the United States in its Cold War strategy to make post–World War II Japan a military outpost and bulwark in the region against communism. How then did the Cold War shape feminisms in Japan, a former colonizing force that never came to terms with its colonial violence? What was the impact of the Cold War on Japanese women’s movements for their own liberation? What are the implications for today? This article discusses the effects of Japan’s imperial legacies during the Cold War and the current aftermath with examples taken from the history of the women’s movement in Japan.

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