Abe's Constitution revision plans will soon take shape

Subject Efforts to amend Japan's Constitution. Significance Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a long-stated ambition to amend Japan's Constitution for the first time since its introduction under US occupation after the Second World War. Abe made a speech last month in which he called on his party to draw up proposals by year-end, and set Tokyo's hosting of the Olympic games in 2020 as a deadline for making the amendment. Impacts The main opposition party will use public opposition to Constitution revision to rally support and differentiate themselves. Discussion of amendments related to the military will strain Tokyo's relations with Seoul and Beijing. Washington will quietly support amendments that make Japan more useful as a military ally. Large public protests are likely and could weaken Abe's apparently unassailable leadership of his party and country.

Author(s):  
Mara Gubaidullina ◽  
Laura Issova ◽  
Almagul Kulbayeva

Introduction. The article investigates the versatile activities of Polish diplomats on the example of the representative offices of the embassy of Poland (delegations) in Alma-Ata (Almaty) and Semipalatinsk (Semey). Documents in the Kazakhstani archives indicate the presence of nine delegations created during the war in Kazakhstan to facilitate the formation of the Polish army (Anders Army). Polish “delegates” – diplomats, military, civilian employees – helped to rescue the Poles from places of detention and settlements, to draw up their documents for further sending to the army. Materials. Documents of the “especially valuable” fund of the Semipalatinsk Archive (currently the Documentation Center of Modern History of the East Kazakhstan Region, Semey), which are put into scientific circulation for the first time, testify to the versatile activities of Polish delegations in a large space in the east of the country. Analysis and Results. Polish delegates organized not only military-political and consular issues, but also economic, social, humanitarian activities. Polish employees worked in contact with Soviet institutions. They provided social support to both the military and displaced, evacuated, orphans, and disabled people. The organization of orphanages and shelters for Polish children was carried out, including by the efforts of Polish diplomats. The Poles who returned after the war to their homeland organized societies of the so-called “sybyraki”. Today they act as a kind of bridge in relations between Kazakhstan and Poland.


Significance As Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet shapes its approach, the major outstanding bilateral issues with Russia remain unresolved: the dispute over the South Kuril islands/Northern Territories and the still unsigned formal peace treaty to end the Second World War. The Japanese-Russian economic relationship continues regardless, with particular emphasis on energy. Impacts Japan will strengthen its alliance with the United States and regional allies, while Russia will further develop partnership with China. Energy cooperation with Japan will strengthen Russia's role as a supplier of energy to East Asian countries. The Trans-Siberian route will grow in importance as a freight link between Japan and Europe.


Rusin ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136-158
Author(s):  
A.I. Kudriachenko ◽  

The author emphasizes that the growing national self-identification and selfawareness of the Ukrainians, the political balance of powers at the turn of 1938– 1939 in Czechoslovakia and the international arena were significant factors in the state aspirations of the residents of the Transcarpathian region. At the same time, the processes of autonomization, formation, and liquidation of Carpatho-Ukraine were determined not only by its socio-economic position, but also by the latent diplomatic and geopolitical confrontation. The establishment of Carpatho-Ukraine was associated with the military confrontation and, for the first time, was accompanied not only by a number of military operations, but also by the massive heroism of its defenders, who opposed the invaders. According to the current definitions, all this constituted the hybrid war, which became the harbinger and real percursor of the Second World War.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-169
Author(s):  
Ronen Yitzhak

This article deals with Lord Moyne's policy towards the Zionists. It refutes the claim that Lord Moyne was anti-Zionist in his political orientation and in his activities and shows that his positions did not differ from those of other British senior officials at the time. His attitude toward Jewish immigration to Palestine and toward the establishment of a Jewish Brigade during the Second World War was indeed negative. This was not due to anti-Zionist policy, however, but to British strategy that supported the White Paper of 1939 and moved closer to the Arabs during the War. While serving in the British Cabinet, Lord Moyne displayed apolitically pragmatic approach and remained loyal to Prime Minister Churchill. He therefore supported the establishment of a Jewish Brigade and the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine in the secret committee that Churchill set up in 1944. Unaware of his new positions, the Zionists assassinated him in November 1944. The murder of Lord Moyne affected Churchill, leading him to reject the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 87-96
Author(s):  
Elena Yu. Guskova

The article is devoted to the analysis of interethnic relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in the 1940s and 1960s. The article is based on materials from the archives of BiH, Croatia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia. The documents show the state of affairs in the Republic – both in the economy and in ideology. In one or another way, all of them reflect the level of tension in the interethnic relations. For the first time, the article presents the discussion on interethnic relations, on the new phenomenon in multinational Yugoslavia – the emergence of a new people in BiH under the name of “Muslim”. The term “Muslims” is used to define the ethnic identity of Bosniaks in the territory of BiH starting from the 1961 census.


Author(s):  
Douglas E. Delaney

How did British authorities manage to secure the commitment of large dominion and Indian armies that could plan, fight, shoot, communicate, and sustain themselves, in concert with the British Army and with each other, during the era of the two world wars? This is the primary line of inquiry for this study, which begs a couple of supporting questions. What did the British want from the dominion and Indian armies and how did they go about trying to get it? How successful were they in the end? Answering these questions requires a long-term perspective—one that begins with efforts to fix the armies of the British Empire in the aftermath of their desultory performance in South Africa (1899–1903) and follows through to the high point of imperial military cooperation during the Second World War. Based on multi-archival research conducted in six different countries on four continents, Douglas E. Delaney argues that the military compatibility of the British Empire armies was the product of a deliberate and enduring imperial army project, one that aimed at ‘Lego-piecing’ the armies of the empire, while, at the same time, accommodating the burgeoning autonomy of the dominions and even India. At its core, this book is really about how a military coalition worked.


2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-31
Author(s):  
Fabio Massaccesi

Abstract This contribution intends to draw attention to one of the most significant monuments of medieval Ravenna: the church of Santa Maria in Porto Fuori, which was destroyed during the Second World War. Until now, scholars have focused on the pictorial cycle known through photographs and attributed to the painter Pietro da Rimini. However, the architecture of the building has not been the subject of systematic studies. For the first time, this essay reconstructs the fourteenth-century architectural structure of the church, the apse of which was rebuilt by 1314. The data that led to the virtual restitution of the choir and the related rood screen are the basis for new reflections on the accesses to the apse area, on the pilgrimage flows, and on the view of the frescoes.


Sociology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 898-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Frisk

The article challenges the thesis that western societies have moved towards a post-heroic mood in which military casualties are interpreted as nothing but a waste of life. Using content analysis and qualitative textual analysis of obituaries produced by the Royal Danish Army in memory of soldiers killed during the Second World War (1940–1945) and the military campaign in Afghanistan (2002–2014), the article shows that a ‘good’ military death is no longer conceived of as a patriotic sacrifice, but is instead legitimised by an appeal to the unique moral worth, humanitarian goals and high professionalism of the fallen. The article concludes that fatalities in international military engagement have invoked a sense of post-patriotic heroism instead of a post-heroic crisis, and argues that the social order of modern society has underpinned, rather than undermined, ideals of military self-sacrifice and heroism, contrary to the predominant assumption of the literature on post-heroic warfare.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document