Five progressive responses to the grand challenges of the 21st century – An introduction

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 072551362110592
Author(s):  
Lars Bo Kaspersen ◽  
Liv Egholm
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
Grand Challenges ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Cold War

We are living in a world which is severely crisis-ridden and faces some major challenges. The fact that we are currently facing a genuine global pandemic (COVID-19) brings about even more uncertainty. The social and political institutions, which emerged and consolidated during the 20th century, and which created stability, have become fragile. The young generation born in the 1990s and onwards have experienced 9/11 and the ‘war against terrorism’, the financial crisis of 2008, changes to climate, environmental degradation, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. The generation born between 1960 and 1990 have had the same experiences along with severe economic crises in the 1970s and 1980s and the Cold War. Some of these challenges are in different ways intertwined with capitalism and its crises, while others are linked to the rapid development of new technologies, in particular innovations within communication and information technologies. This introduction lists the most important grand challenges facing the world as they have emerged more recently. The five articles following this introduction address some of these challenges, with particular attention to the problems of capitalism and democracy and the relation between these two areas. Most authors agree that climate change and the destruction of the environment are the biggest and most pertinent problems to address, but it is their stance that we can only meet these challenges if democracy is functioning well.

Information Technologies and Globalization

1998 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 45-79
Author(s):  
Dilnawaz A. Siddiqui
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Cold War ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Global Business ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Rare Opportunity

Technology is defined as a device to compensate for human physical,psychological, and mental limitations. It is usually neutral, but can havefunctional and dysfunctional aspects based on its users’ intentions.Historically, the technological haves have justified the existence and possessionof new technologies, have publicized their own innocence andsense of responsibility in using them, and have asserted the innocuousnessof their devices without necessarily sharing all of their secrets. Concernedand helpless, the technological have-nots have resisted them and, havingsuffered their deadly devastation, have tried to obtain them at great risk tothemselves. However, the situation of information technology/-ies (IT) isdifferent and more interesting. The haves have attempted to popularizetheir use globally for commercial and other reasons. Many have-nots areembracing them wholeheartedly, while some are more cautious.One motivation behind the use of these technologies is globalization.The increasingly popularized term globalization is rather vague and complex,allowing a variety of interpretations and hidden intentions. Thehave-nots seem to see it as the West’s redoubled efforts at Westernizingthe world with all its pains, pleasures, and perversions; as achieving politicalhegemony as the sole superpower after the end of the Cold War; andas the “opening up of the globe” for commercial control on its own terms.Initially the world, especially the nations of South Asia, saw for themselvesa rare opportunity in the globalization of trade and IT. But since thecontagion has now spread, rather too fast, across the globe, the world cansee more clearly both the prospects and the problems of these two majorglobal trends. The purpose of this paper is to identify various issuesinvolved in these trends, and to discuss, in greater depth, some of them,namely, global business, the promise of technology, and the globalizationof media and culture ...

The Formation of the Republican Institutions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Lorenzo Capussela
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
The Political ◽  
Rural South ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Opening Up

This chapter reviews the evolution of Italy’s social order and institutions between the end of Fascism, in 1943, and the early 1950s. The peninsula was a battlefield for two years, during 1943–5. War and resistance shook Italy’s social order, and the post-war years saw the emergence of a democratic republic based on a progressive constitution. Reconstruction was rapid, and laid the basis for the country’s full industrialization. The ideological cleavage traced by Marxism, however, which split the anti-fascist coalition, and the political repercussions of the Cold War eased the efforts of the pre-war elites to constrain the opening up of the social order and undermine the newly adopted political institutions. An episode of collective action in the rural South nonetheless showed the potential of well-designed reforms sustained by effective organizations. The chapter concludes that during the 1950s electoral democracy consolidated, but Italy remained distant from the liberal democracy paradigm.

National Internationalists: British and West German Protests against Nuclear Weapons, the Politics of Transnational Communications and the Social History of the Cold War, 1957–1964

2005 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 559-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
HOLGER NEHRING
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Social History ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

This article examines the politics of communication between British and West German protesters against nuclear weapons in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The interpretation suggested here historicises the assumptions of ‘transnational history’ and shows the nationalist and internationalist dimensions of the protest movements' histories to be inextricably connected. Both movements related their own aims to global and international problems. Yet they continued to observe the world from their individual perspectives: national, regional and local forms thus remained important. By illuminating the interaction between political traditions, social developments and international relations in shaping important political movements within two European societies, this article can provide one element of a new connective social history of the cold war.

scholarly journals A Comprehensive Survey on Cyber-Physical Smart Grid Testbed Architectures: Requirements and Challenges

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1043
Author(s):  
Abdallah A. Smadi ◽  
Babatunde Tobi Ajao ◽  
Brian K. Johnson ◽  
Hangtian Lei ◽  
Yacine Chakhchoukh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Smart Grid ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
Data Exchange ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Time Data

The integration of improved control techniques with advanced information technologies enables the rapid development of smart grids. The necessity of having an efficient, reliable, and flexible communication infrastructure is achieved by enabling real-time data exchange between numerous intelligent and traditional electrical grid elements. The performance and efficiency of the power grid are enhanced with the incorporation of communication networks, intelligent automation, advanced sensors, and information technologies. Although smart grid technologies bring about valuable economic, social, and environmental benefits, testing the combination of heterogeneous and co-existing Cyber-Physical-Smart Grids (CP-SGs) with conventional technologies presents many challenges. The examination for both hardware and software components of the Smart Grid (SG) system is essential prior to the deployment in real-time systems. This can take place by developing a prototype to mimic the real operational circumstances with adequate configurations and precision. Therefore, it is essential to summarize state-of-the-art technologies of industrial control system testbeds and evaluate new technologies and vulnerabilities with the motivation of stimulating discoveries and designs. In this paper, a comprehensive review of the advancement of CP-SGs with their corresponding testbeds including diverse testing paradigms has been performed. In particular, we broadly discuss CP-SG testbed architectures along with the associated functions and main vulnerabilities. The testbed requirements, constraints, and applications are also discussed. Finally, the trends and future research directions are highlighted and specified.

Democracy and Dictatorship in the Cold War: the Two Germanies, 1949–1961

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew I. Port
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Upheaval ◽  
German States ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World

The ‘long 1950s’ was a decade of conspicuous contrasts: a time of dismantling and reconstruction, economic and political, as well as cultural and moral; a time of Americanization and Sovietization; a time of upheaval amid a desperate search for stability. But above all, it was a time for both forgetting and coming to terms with the recent past. This article focuses on the two forms of government that controlled Germany, democracy, and dictatorship. The Cold War was without doubt the main reason for the rapid rehabilitation and integration of the two German states, which more or less took place within a decade following the end of the Second World War. This article further elaborates upon the political conditions under dictatorship and its effect on the social life. East Germany, under the Soviet control underwent as much political upheaval. It was not until the second half of the twentieth century that Germany became a democracy.

The Death of Caucasus Philology: Towards a Discipline Beyond Areal Divides

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-293
Author(s):  
Rebecca Gould
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cold War ◽  
American Academy ◽  
North American ◽  
Institutional Capacity ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
Literary Cultures ◽  
The Cold War

This essay investigates the challenges facing Caucasus philology, by which I mean the institutional capacity to conduct deep research into the literary cultures of Azerbaijan Republic, Georgia, Daghestan, and Chechnya. I argue that the philological approach to the literary cultures of the Caucasus has been a casualty of the rise of areas studies in the North American academy during the Cold War, and that Cold War legacies continue to shape Caucasus Studies to this day. I conclude by offering three proposals for opening exchanges between the humanities and the social sciences within Caucasus Studies. More broadly, this essay argues for a rapprochement between the social sciences and philological inquiry vis-à-vis the Caucasus.

Introduction: The Korean War in Britain

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Grace Huxford
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Social History ◽  
Korean War ◽  
British History ◽  
History Writing ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

This introduction first gives an overview of Korean War historiography alongside a summary of the war itself, before exploring the position of the Korean War and the Cold War in British history-writing. It highlights how selfhood and citizenship have emerged as growing categories of analysis in Cold War studies and argues why it is important to consider them in the context of post-1945 Britain. It closes by exploring the challenges and possibilities of writing the social history of warfare and bringing domestic and military ‘spheres’ together in a meaningful way.

Do the Social Web 2.0 Media Foster Democratization?

2016 ◽  
pp. 314-330
Author(s):  
Rasoul Namazi
Keyword(s):  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Political Information ◽  
The Internet ◽  
New Information ◽  
The Social ◽  
Negative Impacts

This chapter studies the influence of the Internet and new Web 2.0 technologies on the process of democratization in authoritarian regimes. The objective is to show that the new information technologies are not necessarily helpful to dissident movements and have even some negative impacts on the process of democratization. The author questions the capacity of Internet to transmit political information discusses how the new technologies contribute to the depoliticization of societies by creating passive citizens in authoritarian regimes. This chapter also shows how authoritarian regimes use new information technologies as instruments of control and repression and questions the effectiveness of the new cyber-activism by explaining the structure of the Internet and discussing the capacity of the new technologies in creating political community.

21. Does Strategic Studies Have a Future?

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Freedman
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Armed Force ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Academic Study ◽  
Strategic Studies

This chapter reflects on the question of whether strategic studies has a future as a field of academic study. It first considers the early development of strategic studies and how it became a broad enquiry by the end of the cold war. It then examines how the study of strategy posed a challenge to the social sciences and goes on to discuss the tensions that exist between the academic and policy worlds with respect to strategic studies. It also explores elements of realism that remain very useful in the study of strategy, particularly when it comes to the issue of armed force. The chapter concludes by explaining why strategic studies should be revived as a subject in the universities and how this might be achieved.

The United States and the Soviet Union

2020 ◽  
pp. 138-152
Author(s):  
Matthew Kroenig
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Global Peace ◽  
Otto Von Bismarck ◽  
The Cold War

Otto von Bismarck famously said that “God has special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America.” Divine providence may not have hurt, but it was America’s domestic political institutions that transformed a smattering of British colonies in North America into, first, an independent nation and, then, a global superpower with a network of allies and partners spanning six continents. The United States faced off against the Soviet Union for a half century during the Cold War. But Washington possessed the better institutions, and the stress of the competition caused Moscow’s political system to collapse altogether. In the post–Cold War period that followed, Washington deepened and expanded the Pax Americana, and spread unprecedented levels of global peace, prosperity, and freedom. For the first time since Ancient Rome, a single superpower so overawed any potential competitors that great power rivalry itself came to a temporary halt.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document