The Role of Middle Powers

1971 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-90
Author(s):  
Carsten Holbraad
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Competitive Balance ◽  
World War ◽  
The Subject ◽  
International Role ◽  
Middle Powers ◽  
Second World

While the recent interest in the international role of middle-sized powers may be traced back to the end of the Second World War, some European writers of earlier centuries touched upon the subject. Both the older and the modern writers have used the term 'middle powers' in various senses and have failed to draw up satisfactory criteria for distinguishing them from other states. Yet, it is possible to examine the roles of middle-sized powers by studying their behaviour in a variety of historical situations. Here their typical roles arc outlined in several distinct situations of the 'bipolar’ system, namely, cold war, condominium and détente, as well as in two characteristic situations of the 'multipolar’ system, namely, concert and competitive balance of power.

‘Sufficient Reinforcements Overseas’: British PostWar Troops' Recruiting Policy in Nigeria, 1945–53

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 823-844
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Nwafor Mordi
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
World War ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Overseas Deployment ◽  
Second World

This article critically examines Britain's postwar recruitment policy in Nigeria, 1945–53. It is a subject that has not been studied by scholars. As the Second World War drew to a close, the Nigerian colonial military had declared that it had sufficient illiterate, ‘pagan’ infantrymen of northern Nigerian ‘tribal,’ including Tiv, origin to meet any but unforeseen demands of troops for service in the South East Asia Command (SEAC). Yet, recruitment of the same category of infantrymen, as well as ex-servicemen, was resumed after the war. The critical/analytic historical method is deployed to interrogate Nigerian and British archival sources on the subject. The study shows that, unlike the case of the High Commission Territories Corps (HCTC), Nigeria's postwar recruitment was not meant for overseas deployment. It was primarily driven by Britain's objectives of restoring the army to its pre-war role of enforcing colonial law and order in furtherance of its resolve to maintain its colonial state in Nigeria despite postwar militant nationalism.

scholarly journals The history of archaeological research at the site of the former Kulmhof extermination camp

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Andrzej Grzegorczyk
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
World War ◽  
The Public ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Second World

The Kulmhof extermination camp in Chełmno nad Nerem was the first camp set up by the Nazis to exterminate Jews during the Second World War. The history of Kulmhof has long been an area of interest for academics, but despite thorough research it remains one of the least-known places of its kind among the public. Studies of the role of archaeology in acquiring knowledge about the functioning of the camp have been particularly compelling. The excavations carried out intermittently over a thirty-year period (1986–2016), which constitute the subject of this article, have played a key role in the rise in public interest in the history of the camp.

scholarly journals Revisionism and Neo-Revisionism in Russian Foreign Policy: Reflecting on the Book by Sakwa R. Russia’s Futures. Polity Press, 2019

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-193
Author(s):  
Daria B. Kazarinova
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Security Dilemma ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Russian Politics ◽  
Second World

This article analyzes the latest book by the British expert on Russian politics R. Sakwa, his key conceptual ideas, key characteristics, contradictions and challenges (between the “stabilocracy” and “securocracy”, incompleteness of modernization and neo-modernization, the letter and spirit of Russian constitutionalism) of modern Russia. We analyze his arguments about the variety of interpretations of the concept of “normality” in relation to Russia as opposed to Western approaches. The contradictions of the New cold war grow into a clash of epistemologies / narratives / discourses / values, in which framing and the accusation of revisionism becomes a tool. We emphasize the fundamental difference in approaches to defining concepts of revisionism and neo-revisionism, trace the dialectic of these concepts from a neo-Marxist understanding to a geopolitical one, generalize the existing definitions, including the understanding of neo-revisionism as an integral attribute of emerging power, which R. Sakwa also adheres to. The revision of history, especially the memory of war, is a powerful propaganda tool for the clash of narratives. In context of development of the “mnemonic security dilemma” (D. Efremenko), the change of the Holocaust narrative to the narrative of the “war of two totalitarianisms” in Europe, Russia should adopt a number of principles for working in the field of historical memory of the Second World War, including new interpretations for the role of China in the victory over fascism.

scholarly journals The Heritage of the Cold War in Contemporary Curricula and Educational Reforms

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Tomislav Topolovčan ◽  
Snježana Dubovicki
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Educational Reforms ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
World War ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World

Using a theoretical-critical and historical approach, this paper analyses the implications of the Cold War in national curricula and educational reforms of the second half of the 20th century with emphasis on the 21st century. The context of the time after the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War is shown, as well as the social and political changes that are significant for education and were prompted by the wars. The emergence of the international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (whose focus is not educational but economic) and the role of behavioural psychology were also analysed, which explained their significance in later educational reforms. The role of the Cold War in reducing socio-humanistic teaching contents and the implementation of natural sciences and mathematics has also been explained. The synthesis of the analysed aspects suggests that the Cold War military and technological race resulted in the implementation of the STEM area, thus the measurability of learning outcomes, which influenced the psychologisation, standardisation, economisation, and globalisation of education. Most of the current (un)successful national educational and curricular reforms were initiated in that direction without respect for the social, cultural, and historical features of individual countries. These changes have left a mark in pedagogy, in which the humanistic approach appears to counteract other approaches. Some educational systems demonstrate a shift from such trends, from the technical-scientific curriculum towards the didactic tradition of Bildung and the philosophy of education. The reasons can be found in the above-average results on international standardised evaluations of those countries that have national curricula, in contrast to what is recommended by the globalisation and standardisation of education as some of the elements of the Cold War heritage.

scholarly journals “A most bountiful source of inspiration:” Dobzhansky’s evolution of tropical populations, and the science and politics of genetic variation

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 281-297
Author(s):  
Tito Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Variation ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Theodosius Dobzhansky ◽  
Science And Politics ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Social Orders ◽  
Second World

Abstract Theodosius Dobzhansky has been studied for how he integrated field naturalism and laboratory experimentation in ways that helped produce the Modern Synthesis, as well as how he leveraged biological expertise to support liberal and cosmopolitan values amidst Second World War and the Cold War. Moreover, Dobzhansky has been central in analyses of the institutionalization of genetics in Brazil, where he spent several years. This article situates Dobzhansky’s Brazilian research within the science of variation and the politics of diversity. I conclude by raising questions about how the ways in which science figured in politics depended on ideas about the role of scientists in society whichwere advanced in parallel, suggesting research on the “co-production” of natural and social orders.

Restoring Four-Power Rights, Reviving a Confederation in 1989

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Elise Sarotte
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Second World War ◽  
First Century ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
World War ◽  
German States ◽  
Divided Germany ◽  
Second World ◽  
Restoration Model

This chapter examines the Soviet restoration model and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's revivalist model. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) hoped to use its weight as a victor in the Second World War to restore the old quadripartite mechanism of four-power control exactly as it used to be in 1945, before subsequent layers of Cold War modifications created room for German contributions. This restoration model, which called for the reuse of the old Allied Control Commission to dominate all further proceedings in divided Germany, represented a realist vision of politics run by powerful states, each retaining their own sociopolitical order and pursuing their own interests. Meanwhile, Kohl's revivalist model represented the revival, or adaptive reuse, of a confederation of German states. This latter-day “confederationism” blurred the lines of state sovereignty; each of the two twenty-first-century Germanies would maintain its own political and social order, but the two would share a confederative, national roof.

Hendrik Draye, tegenstander van de uitvoering van de doodstraf

2006 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-152
Author(s):  
Luc Vandeweyer
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Penal Policy ◽  
Catholic University ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The University ◽  
Second World ◽  
Young Professor

Hendrik Draye, opponent of the carrying out of the death penaltyIn this annotated and extensively contextualised source edition, Luc Vandeweyer deals with the period of repression after the Second World War. In June 1948, after the execution of two hundred collaboration-suspects in Belgium, the relatively young linguistics professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, Hendrik Draye, proposed, on humanitarian grounds, a Manifesto against the carrying out of the death penalty. Some colleagues, as well as some influential personalities outside the university, reacted positively; some colleagues were rather hesitant; most of them rejected the text. In the end, the initiative foundered because of the emphatic dissuasion by the head of university, who wanted to protect his university and, arguably, the young professor Draeye. The general public’s demand for revenge had not yet abated by then; moreover, the unstable government at that time planned a reorientation of the penal policy, which made a polarization undesirable. Nevertheless, Luc Vandeweyer concludes, "the opportunity for an important debate on the subject had been missed".

The Nonviolent Struggle for Indian Freedom, 1905-19

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hardiman
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Passive Resistance ◽  
Civil Resistance ◽  
Political Concept ◽  
History Of ◽  
Second World ◽  
Moral Stance

Much of the recent surge in writing about the practice of nonviolent forms of resistance has focused on movements that occurred after the end of the Second World War, many of which have been extremely successful. Although the fact that such a method of civil resistance was developed in its modern form by Indians is acknowledged in this writing, there has not until now been an authoritative history of the role of Indians in the evolution of the phenomenon.The book argues that while nonviolence is associated above all with the towering figure of Mahatma Gandhi, 'passive resistance' was already being practiced as a form of civil protest by nationalists in British-ruled India, though there was no principled commitment to nonviolence as such. The emphasis was on efficacy, rather than the ethics of such protest. It was Gandhi, first in South Africa and then in India, who evolved a technique that he called 'satyagraha'. He envisaged this as primarily a moral stance, though it had a highly practical impact. From 1915 onwards, he sought to root his practice in terms of the concept of ahimsa, a Sanskrit term that he translated as ‘nonviolence’. His endeavors saw 'nonviolence' forged as both a new word in the English language, and as a new political concept. This book conveys in vivid detail exactly what such nonviolence entailed, and the formidable difficulties that the pioneers of such resistance encountered in the years 1905-19.

Implications

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Edele
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Soviet Regime ◽  
World War ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Middle Position ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Second World

This chapter turns to the present and explains the implications of the current study for the ongoing debate about the Soviet Union in the Second World War and in particular about the role of loyalty and disloyalty in the Soviet war effort. It argues that this study strengthens those who argue for a middle position: the majority of Soviet citizens were neither unquestioningly loyal to the Stalinist regime nor convinced resisters. The majority, instead, saw their interests as distinct from both the German and the Soviet regime. Nevertheless, ideology remains important if we want to understand why in the Soviet Union more resisted or collaborated than elsewhere in Europe and Asia.

scholarly journals Per Ravenna trecentesca: nuove proposte per l’assetto architettonico di Santa Maria in Porto Fuori

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-31
Author(s):  
Fabio Massaccesi
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Subject ◽  
First Time ◽  
Santa Maria ◽  
Second World ◽  
The Church

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.

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