Non-Market Economies' Accessions to the WTO: Evolution of the Approach and Implications for the Organization

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-81
Author(s):  
Chieh Huang
Keyword(s):  
Free Market ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World War ◽  
Market Economies ◽  
Market Structures ◽  
Multilateral Trade ◽  
Rules And Principles ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
Second World

AbstractThe General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its successor, the Word Trade Organization (WTO), have been the main forum of international trade since the end of the Second World War. The regime is unquestionably based on free-market rules and principles. Yet in the last two decades, formerly planned economies — including Eastern European countries, former Soviet countries and China — have attempted to join the GATT/WTO. To encourage their transition under the influence of free-market principles, and to be a truly global trade organization, the GATT/WTO has accepted applicants with a reforming planned economy. This article studies the evolution of the GATT/WTO's approaches to integrate non-market economies and shows that the approach to integrate non-market economies during the WTO era is significantly different than during the GATT. While special mechanisms were provided in GATT accession protocols to bridge different market structures, WTO accessions require non-market economies to convert their own market structures. This article holds that this intolerance of different market structures in the WTO reflects the collapse of embedded liberalism and the rise of coercive trade diplomacy. Multilateral trade diplomacy has therefore become a means of imposing a domestic restructuring of economic structures rather than providing a negotiation forum for trade liberalization.

scholarly journals Druga wojna światowa a pozycja ustrojowa europejskich monarchów

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 251
Author(s):  
Maciej Rakowski
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World War ◽  
Royal Authority ◽  
Fascist Regime ◽  
Political Model ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
Sphere Of Influence ◽  
Second World

<p>The Second World War brought significant political changes to European monarchies. Immediately after the war, six kingdoms ceased to exist and became republics. This concerned Eastern European countries in the Soviet sphere of influence, as well as Italy, where Victor Emmanuel III had to pay for years of cooperation with the fascist regime. Before the outbreak of the war, at least three European monarchies had considerable power, holding the most important prerogatives in their hands: this was the case in Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. Such a political model failed to survive the war, as after 1945 the kings and princes of the Old Continent only “reigned, but did not rule” (only Louis II, Prince of Monaco kept a stronger position until the end of the 1950s). It used to happen during the war that in countries with an established parliamentary system the monarch played a greater role than during the years of peace (the most prominent example being Wilhelmina, the Queen of the Netherlands). The article also presents other issues important to the royal authority – the functioning of monarchs in exile, the threat to their lives, the exercise of sovereignty (usually only in a ceremonial capacity) over the armed forces, and abdications forced by the circumstances.</p>

scholarly journals Accusing Russia of Fascism

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 100-123
Author(s):  
Marlene Laruelle
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
Second World ◽  
With Memory

With memory wars between Central and Eastern European states and Russia, the Second World War has become a useable past instrumentalized as a currency for legitimacy on the international scene. These memory wars focus on who was fascist and who colluded with Nazism—the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1941 or the collaborationist forces in Central and Eastern Europe? And, subsequently, who are the new fascists advancing a revisionist interpretation of the Second World War today: Putin’s Russia or Central and Eastern European countries? What is at stake here is the recognition of Russia as having a legitimate say in European affairs because of the Soviet victory, or its exclusion for refusing to repent of its role in dividing Europe and occupying a part thereof. This article debunks the accusation of fascism attributed to Putin’s regime and offers to look at the label of fascism as a mirror game between the West and Russia in defining what Europe should be like and Russia’s inclusion or exclusion.

International Memory Wars

2021 ◽  
pp. 62-83
Author(s):  
Marlene Laruelle
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Ukrainian Crisis ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Second World

This chapter argues that the perception of Russia as an antifascist power has been reinforced by memory wars that have reshaped the relationship between Russia and its Central and Eastern European neighbors. It examines how the emergence and gradual visibility gained by the narrative of the Soviet Union as an occupier with a totalitarian ideology shocked the Russian elite and public opinion. Given the context of memory wars, the chapter focuses on the issue of defining who was fascist and who colluded with Nazism — the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1941 or the collaborationist forces in Central and Eastern Europe. This chapter then presents Russia's response to the new memories articulated by Central and Eastern European countries on two fronts: legal and historiographical. Ultimately, the chapter highlights how the Ukrainian crisis demonstrated that memories have been instrumental in “real” wars, as all parties claim that their martyrdom and heroism during the Second World War entitle them to some recognition today.

‘Communism Is a Religion That Is Inspired, Directed and Motivated by the Devil Himself’: Billy Graham’s Apologetics and the Cold War West

2021 ◽  
pp. 141-159
Author(s):  
Uta Andrea Balbier
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Billy Graham ◽  
Free Market Capitalism ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
End Times ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World

Anti-Communism constituted a core feature of Billy Graham’s preaching in the 1950s. In Graham’s sermons Communism did not just stand for the anti-religious thread of an atheistic ideology, as it was traditionally used in Protestant Fundamentalist circles, but also for its opposition to American freedom and Free Market Capitalism. This article argues that the term Communism took on significantly new meaning in the evangelical milieu after the Second World War, indicating the new evangelicals’ ambition to restore, defend, and strengthen Christianity by linking it into the discourse on American Cold War patriotism. This article will contrast the anti-Communist rhetoric of Billy Graham and other leading evangelical figures of the 1950s, such as Harold Ockenga, with the anti-Communist rhetoric used by early Fundamentalists in the 1910s and 1920s. Back then, Communism was predominantly interpreted as a genuine threat to Christianity. The term also made appearances in eschatological interpretations regarding the imminent end-times. The more secular interpretation of Communism as a political and economic counter-offer by evangelical preachers such as Billy Graham will be discussed as an important indicator of the politicization and implied secularization of the evangelical milieu after the Second World War.

scholarly journals The Adaptation of New Countries to Existing (Old) Institutional Frameworks

2021 ◽  
pp. 223-256
Author(s):  
Erkki Berndtson
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World War ◽  
Institutional Frameworks ◽  
European Political Science ◽  
Second World ◽  
Science Association

AbstractPolitical science as an independent academic discipline emerged in Europe after the Second World War. Moreover, up until the 1990s, it was mainly a preserve of Western Europe. The discipline began to develop in Central and Eastern Europe only after the 1989/91 political upheavals. When political science was institutionalised as a discipline in Western Europe, it was helped by international organisations such as the International Political Science Association (IPSA) and the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). It would seem, however, that European cross-national organisations do not currently promote and facilitate European political science successfully, as only a few Central and Eastern European institutions participate fully in international cooperation. The current field of European political science is organisationally fragmented, which makes it difficult to enable new countries to adapt to existing institutional frameworks, and to create an institutionalised pan-European political science discipline. Resolving this problem is vital if European political science is to develop more fully.

scholarly journals Promotion of Atheism as a Principle of the Communist Ideology - Case Study: Romania

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-140
Author(s):  
Alin Goron
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World War ◽  
European Area ◽  
Communist Ideology ◽  
Scientific Socialism ◽  
Second World

The Communist ideology called for the denial of Christianity as a form of "mysticism" filled with "superstitions", but particularly as one of the factors that impeded social, economic and cultural progress. Scientific socialism, however, was meant to awaken class consciousness, setting Romanian society on a path towards true modernity. Thus a real battle ensued on the ideological front between two entities, the secular and ecclesiastical authorities, arising from the divide between traditional religious beliefs and atheist Marxism. The actions of the authorities against religious propaganda included both practical measures, which involved activities that filled the free time of the villagers, but also coercive measures consisting in political pressure or arrests. In spite of the communist regime's efforts to impose its own cultural agenda, the effects were long overdue, with rather modest results. Romania's forced development was faced with some inherent problems of the process of modernization and industrialization. The forced imposition of a foreign ideology to a conservative Eastern European area relying on obsolete mindsets, a society where 80% of the population lived in rural areas as of the end of the Second World War, required a longer period of time than the regime had originally planned.

scholarly journals The status and the future of Baltic States and Romania in the strategy of Western Allies in the early years of the Second World War: a comparative view

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-109
Author(s):  
Ramojus Kraujelis
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World War ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Second World

The fate of Lithuania and Romania as well as future of the whole Central and Eastern European region was determined in the years of the Second World War. The common origin of their tragic and painful history was the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact – the secret deal between Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, which divided Central and Eastern Europe between two totalitarian regimes. In June 1940 the three Baltic States and a part of Romania were directly occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union. The main objective of this paper is to identify, analyze and compare the attitudes of the United States and Great Britain with respect to the annexation of the Baltic States and the Romania territory and discussed the post-war future reserved to them. During the early years of the Second Word War (1940-1942) few interesting international discussions about possible post-war arrangement plans existed. The analysis of the Western attitude would enable us to give answers to certain questions: What could have been done by the Western states for the benefit of Central and Eastern European region; what have they, in fact, done and what did they avoid doing? The year 1943 witnessed the consolidation of the Western attitude with regard to Soviet Union’s western borders, which resulted in the fundamental fact that Moscow did not intend to retract its interests in the Baltic States, Eastern Poland, North Bucovina and Bessarabia while the West did not intend to fight for these territories. Considering the fact that at the Teheran conference (1943) the Western states agreed upon turning the Baltic states into a Soviet interest sphere, the United States and Britain entered the Yalta conference (1945) with no illusions as to the fate of Central and Eastern Europe in general.

Popular Culture

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean Vuletic
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
Cultural Goods ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
The Government ◽  
Second World

Immediately following the Second World War, Eastern European communist parties employed censorship against Western popular culture, such as film and popular music, which they regarded as politically inappropriate. From the late 1950s, most parties increasingly sought to satisfy their citizens’ desires for consumption and entertainment, and they promoted the development of local cultural alternatives. The parties were not uniform in their policies, as a comparison between Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia demonstrates. However, they did seek to appropriate popular culture to advance their political interests, and they similarly faced resistance from some domestic artists who criticized the government. The reluctance of the parties to allow as much freedom of consumption and expression as existed in the West, together with their inability to provide cultural goods that could keep up with Western fashions, points to popular culture as a factor that contributed to the demise of communism in Eastern Europe

scholarly journals Imagining Africa in Eastern Europe: Transcultural Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis in Cold War Yugoslavia

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-251
Author(s):  
Ana Antić
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Transcultural Psychiatry ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World War ◽  
International Context ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Second World ◽  
Shed Light

This article seeks to write Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe into the history of post-Second World War global psychiatry and to explore the significance of Marxist psychiatry in an international context. It traces Yugoslav psychiatrists’ transnational and interdisciplinary engagements as they peaked in the 1960s. Focusing on the distinguished Belgrade psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Vladimir Jakovljevic (1925–68), it looks at Yugoslav psychiatry’s clinical and anthropological research in the global South to shed light on its contributions to Western-dominated transcultural psychiatry. Through this lens the article also explores how Eastern Europe’s intellectuals engaged with decolonisation and the notions of race, ‘primitivism’ and modernity. Jakovljevic’s involvement in transcultural psychiatry demonstrated the inherent contradiction of Eastern European Marxist psychiatry: its dubiously colonial ‘civilising mission’ towards the subalterns in its own populations and its progressive, emancipatory agenda. Jakovljevic’s writings about Africa ultimately turned into an unprecedented opportunity to shed light on some glaring internal inconsistencies from Yugoslavia’s own socio-political context.

Security Empire

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Pucci
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Early History ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World War ◽  
Secret Police ◽  
History Of ◽  
Second World

The secret police were one of the most important institutions in the making of communist Eastern Europe. Security Empire compares the early history of secret police institutions, which were responsible for foreign espionage, domestic surveillance, and political violence in communist states, in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany after the Second World War. While previous histories have assumed that these forces were copies of the Soviet model, the book delves into the ways their origins diverged due to local social conditions, languages, and interpretations of communism. It illuminates the internal tensions inside the forces, between veteran agents who had fought in wars in Spain and Germany, and the younger, more radical agents, who pushed forward the violence, arrests, and show trials inside Eastern European communist parties in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In doing so, the book traces the role of political violence, ideological belief, and surveillance in building communist institutions in Europe by the mid-1950s.

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