The Ernest Gellner Nationalism Lecture: The Soviet Union, self‐determination, and the creation of the postwar human rights system

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-307
Author(s):  
Eric D Weitz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Creation

Breaking Away Towards Peace in the Middle East

1995 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-101
Author(s):  
Frans A.M. Alting von Geusau
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Middle East ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Lasting Peace ◽  
The Creation ◽  
State Of Israel

For many years after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, peace in the Middle East has been an elusive goal, despite the continuous attention given to it by the United Nations and the (mainly American)efforts to promote negotiations between the parties concerned. The affirmation by the UN Security Council “that the fulfilment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East” failed to break the threefold deadlock barring the way towards peace. The Arab states and the PLO refused to recognise Israel's right to exist as a sovereign state in the Middle East. Their goal of a ‘comprehensive peace’ was peace without Israel. Israel refused to recognise the existence of a Palestinian people as defined by the PLO, entitled to exercise its right of self-determination. Its goal was to conclude peace treaties with neighbouring states, without the creation of a Palestinian state, however. In the context of the global conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union (from 1945–1989) neither side could achieve peace on its own terms.

scholarly journals Rethinking the Bandung conference in an Era of ‘unipolar liberal globalization’ and movements toward a ‘multipolar politics’

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
African Unity ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Political Unity ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Creation

In April 1955, a historic conference was held in Bandung, Indonesia. Political leaders from 29 Asian and African countries gathered on the initiative of the leaders from China, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, and Myanmar, to address the issues about economic co-operation, self-determination, decolonization and the peace. These ideas contributed to the creation of the non-alignment movement (NAM). However, in Africa, Nkrumah’s proposal for political unity was defeated, which led to the creation of the Organization of the African Unity as a compromise. NAM was later penetrated from within by the forces of imperialism, notably dictatorships and authoritarian regimes supported by the United States, the Soviet Union, the former colonial powers and their local cronies, weakening its functionality.

Reform, “Rebirth” and Regret: The Rise and Decline of the Ethnic-German Nationalist Wiedergeburt Movement in the USSR and CIS, 1987–1993

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric J. Schmaltz
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Political Dissent ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Umbrella Organization

In early 1989, the Soviet Germans established the Wiedergeburt (“Rebirth”) All-Union Society. An umbrella-organization originally designed to protect and advance ethnic-German interests in the USSR, the “Rebirth” Society adopted the most effective legal means by which it could confront the regime—namely, political dissent based on Lenin's notion of national self-determination. The “Rebirth” movement evolved in this context and represented the fifteenth-largest Soviet nationality numbering more than two million in the 1989 Soviet census. By 1993, official membership in the “Rebirth” Society included nearly 200,000 men and women. Ironically, at the very moment the Soviet Germans became more politically conscious, the Soviet Union and the ethnic-German community were disintegrating.

The Helsinki Accord: A Growth Industry

1990 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 53-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Korey
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Ronald Reagan ◽  
The United States ◽  
Jimmy Carter ◽  
Mikhail Gorbachev ◽  
Negotiation Strategies ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Growth Industry

Despite conservative opposition, in the late 1970s, Jimmy Carter turned the tide in favor of the Helsinki Accord by taking a strong stand in fostering U.S. participation in it. Korey focuses on the U.S. delegation to the Commission on Security and Cooperation (CSCE) in Europe and credits the success of the Helsinki Accord to U.S. adroit negotiation strategies, beginning with the Carter administration. By 1980, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev came to embrace the “humanitarianism” of the treaty. The Vienna review conference's (1986–89) effort peaked when a milestone was reached in the human rights process, linking it directly to security issues equally pertinent to the East and the West. The author contends that the United States' ardent participation in the monitoring of compliance was particularly effective in putting pressure on the Soviet Union to uphold the agreement within its territory, yielding enormous progress in human rights

The Principle of Self-Determination of Peoples High and Low

2021 ◽  
pp. 77-90
Author(s):  
Boris N. Kashnikov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Moral Principle ◽  
World War ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Third Stage ◽  
Normative Logic

The subject matter of this article is the principle of Self-Determination of Peo­ples of the contemporary international law. The principle is scrutinized both his­torically through its inner historical transformation and logically, through the analysis of its inner normative logic. The problem related to this principle is that it belongs simultaneously to three realms, those of politics, law and morals, containing different meanings. These meanings often do contradict each other and it happens differently on different stages of the historical transformation. The three major stages of the development of the principle (from the First World War up to the end of the Second; from the end of the Second World war up to the demise of the Soviet Union; and from the demise of the Soviet Union up to now) were continuously the stages of predominantly political, legal and moral. Each of the stages was reflecting the characteristic illusion of its time and was founded on the unique combination of the dominant meanings of the principle, which was enabling the principle to play its practical role. At the same time there are clear indications that the principle is incapable to play its cardinal proper role of the universal moral principle when it comes to it. This becomes crystal clear at the third stage of the development and which is trigger­ing unprecedented political violence of the contemporary movements of self-determination and secession

THE MAIN STAGES OF THE FORMATION OF THE UKRAINIAN DIASPORA IN THE UNITED STATES

2021 ◽  
pp. 86-101
Author(s):  
Ol’ga A. Pylova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Russian Empire

The article focuses on the emigration of Ukrainians to the US and the formation of a Ukrainian diaspora there. Emigration from ethnic Ukrainian territories began at the end of the nineteenth century and has continued to the present day. The generally accepted periodisation considers five waves of emigration (before 1914, 1914–1945, 1945–1986, 1986–2014 and after 2014) and therefore five stages of the diaspora formation. As the study shows, the stages or waves of emigration from Ukraine largely coincide with the migration processes in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and finally in the post-Sovi- et space, but there are also a number of differences that need to be understood. The diaspora issues were often linked to issues of emigrant self-determination, identity formation as well as the policies of the recipient state. Political, social, educational and other organisations have been formed within the diaspora over the course of its existence, with the diaspora institutionalisation pro- cesses varying according to the specific historical period. In the context of the continuation of the next stage of Ukrainian emigration to the United States and the evolution of the diaspora today, a historical and genetic study of the transmigration of Ukrainians overseas and the formation of diaspora structures acquires particular relevance.

Challenging Hegemony, Competing for the Truth

2019 ◽  
pp. 109-125
Author(s):  
Richard Togman
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
National Security ◽  
Environmental Movement ◽  
Threat Perception ◽  
Black Panthers ◽  
Environmental Destruction ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Development Agencies ◽  
Alternative Theories

Chapter 6 focuses on the rebirth of the Malthusian concept of overpopulation and the translation of fears over hunger, poverty, and environmental destruction to the problem of population. Moreover, delving into how alternative theories arose to challenge the dominant modernization discourse championed by national security and development agencies of Western states, this chapter explores the subjugated discourses espoused by actors including the nascent environmental movement, the Soviet Union, the Vatican, and the Black Panthers. This chapter shows how it is the subjective threat perception, married to the dominant discursive frame the actor adopts, that results in the creation of natalist attitudes and policy. Significantly, the wishes of individuals themselves are systematically ignored when actors come to narrate the meaning of fertility for the collective, which due to the very conceptualization of the problem at hand most often results in the failure of policy to have the desired effects.

scholarly journals La géopolitique des droits humains

2005 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-486
Author(s):  
Jean-Louis Seurin
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Third World ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Droits Humains ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Communist Countries

The universality of the ideology of Human Rights is presently enjoying increased interest inspite of the limited results and disappointing concrete realizations achieved in this area. At the time of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the universality of the doctrine of Human Rights was only an illusion and the problems raised by the application of subsequent international accords have made evident the political conflicts which are at play behind the human rights debate. Presently, one may accurately speak of a "geopolitic of human rights". Starting from the precept that the best way to resolve opposing points of view is to begin with reality, the author examines the relative situation of Human Rights in three groups which are each relatively homogeneous : the Atlantic zone regrouping the pluralist constitutional democracies; the totalitarian countries including the Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc countries and the communist countries of Asia and, finally, the zone of non-aligned countries of the "third world".

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