The Owl of Minerva Flies Only at Dusk?

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-563
Author(s):  
Josip Glaurdić

Could the Western foreign policy makers have done anything to prevent the violence accompanying the breakup of Yugoslavia? The answer to that question largely depends on their level of awareness of what was happening in the South Slavic federation in the run-up to war. This article analyzes a string of newly declassified documents of the British Foreign Office related to the February 1991 visit of a high-level British political delegation to Yugoslavia, together with interviews with some of the meetings’ protagonists. These declassified documents and interviews offer a unique snapshot in the development of the Yugoslav crisis and Britain’s policy in the region. They give us a clear picture of the goals and strategies of the principal Yugoslav players and show us what the West knew about the true nature of the Yugoslav crisis and when. The article’s conclusions are clear. Yugoslavia’s breakup and impending violence did not require great foresight. Their cause was known well in advance because it was preannounced—it was the plan of the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milošević to impose a centralized Yugoslavia upon the other republics or, if that failed, to use force to create a Greater Serbia on Yugoslavia’s ruins. Crucially, British policy at the time did nothing to dissuade Milošević from his plan and likely contributed to his confidence in using violence to pursue the creation of a new and enlarged Serbian state.

Author(s):  
Asle Toje

We do not want to place anyone into the shadow, we also claim our place in the sun.” In a foreign policy debate in the German parliament on December 6. 1897 the German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Bernhard von Bülow, articulated the foreign policy aspirations of the ascendant Wilhelmine Germany. This proved easier said than done. In 1907, Eyre Crowe of the British Foreign Office penned his famous memorandum where he accounted for “the present state of British relations with France and Germany.” He concluded that Britain should meet imperial Germany with “unvarying courtesy and consideration” while maintaining “the most unbending determination to uphold British rights and interests in every part of the globe.”...


2013 ◽  
Vol 471 ◽  
pp. 59-63
Author(s):  
Mohd Noor Arib Rejab ◽  
Roslan Abd Rahman ◽  
Raja Ishak Raja Hamzah ◽  
Jawaid Iqbal Inayat Hussain ◽  
Nazirah Ahmad ◽  
...  

This paper presents an evaluation on elastomeric mount used to isolate vibration from powertrain to chassis or structure vehicle. The assessments started with measurement of noise inside compartment, and exhaust noise. This is followed by the measurement of vibration on both sides of elastomeric mounts. The noise in the compartment and exhaust noise is measured according to BS 6086: 1981 and BS ISO 5130: 2007. The noise in the compartment and vibration is tested in three conditions. Firstly, engine is run-up with load (driving at second gear); secondly, without load; and thirdly, without load but hanging. A microphone is fixed at the ear of the mannequin. The fast response and A weighting sound level meter were used for measurement noise in the compartment and exhaust noise. The vibration is measured in terms of acceleration on both sides of each elastomeric powertrain mounts. Two accelerometer transducers are fixed on both sides of powertrain elastomeric mounts. One side was identified as a source of vibration and the other as receiver of vibrations. The results showed that the pattern of overall vibration level on source and receiver increased from 1050 RPM (idling) to 4000 RPM on all test conditions. Vibration transmitted to chassis or receiver structure was analyzed using transmissibility concept. By evaluating test condition of engine run-up without load, informed that the front and rear mounts showed a high level transmissibility contributing to structure-borne noise.


1999 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Vaux ◽  
M. P. S. F. Gomes ◽  
R. J. Grieve ◽  
S. W. Woolgar

This paper addresses differences in the way that the problems of small UK firms are construed by policy makers on the one hand, and by the executives of small companies on the other. The authors employ a discursively-based analysis of interviews carried out with managers of small manufacturing companies in the West London area. They suggest that SME executives construe their attitudes to advanced technology and innovation within the terms of some clear, but implicit management values which tend to lead to the perception of innovation as a risk to be managed, rather than an opportunity to be exploited. It is suggested this has significant implications for attempts to change small company culture.


Author(s):  
Neziha Musaoğlu

Many important changes occurred in the Russian Federation's foreign policy since 2000s with Putin's coming to power. Although the foreign policy is defined as pragmatic during this period, it is in fact ideologically constructed on the basis of the concept of “sovereign democracy.” The concept constitutes in the same time the source of loyalty of the Russian reelpolitik towards the West, especially the USA and of the Russian anti-globalist policies. The aim of this chapter is to analyze the intellectual, normative, and conceptual dimensions of the “sovereign democracy” concept that could serve to conceive the foreign policy practice of the Russian Federation, on the one hand, and on the other hand its dialectical relationships with the West in the era of globalization.


2009 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-99
Author(s):  
Mr. Fazal Husain

This book is another addition to Shahid Javed Burki’s work whose writings have been pivotal for understanding Pakistan’s social and economic transitions. The book examines various sectors of the economy that could become the source for sustainable growth. Thoughtful public policies in the high-potential areas are suggested with the claim that these could help the country join the ranks of Asia’s rapidly growing economies. Based on the weekly columns by the author published in the daily DAWN, and focusing on the 1999-2006 period, the tenure of President Pervez Musharraf, the book analyses the economic and social problems faced by Pakistan. It then discusses the opportunities that exist for the country in light of its geographical situation, and the rapid changes in the structure of the global economy. The issues explored in the book include the reasons for the rapid growth of the economy from 2003 onwards, as well as its impact on poverty and income distribution. It is suggested that these high rates of growth would not be sustained into the future unless a number of changes in the structure of the economy were introduced. The book consists of eight chapters. The first chapter starts with a brief discussion of the country’s economic history as well as the situation in mid 2000 (associated with high growth rates). It then continues to analyse the factors responsible for such growth with the caution that the economy still needs more measures before labeling it to have been set on a course of a high level of sustainable growth. In this regard the obstacles particularly related to infrastructure and governance are discussed raising crucial points and suggesting suitable measures. The chapter identifies various areas that need urgent attention by the policy-makers advising them to understand the true nature of the ‘determinants of growth’ and how they will affect the incidence of poverty and equality of opportunity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 308-323
Author(s):  
Birgül Demirtaş

The perception of Turkey as a model of attractive country in the region has started to change in the recent years. In the first decade of the JDP rule Turkey was seen as an emerging power with its strong economy, improving democracy and inspiring foreign policy. However, the developments since the Arab Uprisings in the neighbourhood, Gezi movement at home, end of the Kurdish peace process, as well as coup attempt and subsequent de-democratisation harmed the soft power of Turkey. This study argues that the JDP’s understanding of democracy and democratisation has been full of flaws from the very beginning of its rule. The Turkish example shows that countries can experience subsequent processes of de-democratisation and de-democratisation if governing parties did not endogenise the basic norms of democracy. Therefore, it is argued that the reverse wave of de-democratisation characterises Turkey more than the “selective” processes of democratisation. It is also argued that JDP elite via its discourse has been constructing the West as the ‘Other’.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 79-129
Author(s):  
Murad Ismayilov

This article examines the ways in which Azerbaijan’s energy abundance and the energy diplomacy the latter made possible—combined with inherent weaknesses attending the state’s young post-colonial polity—conditioned the limits of the desirable by which the country’s post-independence elite was guided and, as such, limited the range of directions—cognitive and spatial—in which Azerbaijan’s foreign policy evolved during the first decade following independence. The study then examines how energy-induced growth in state capacity on the one hand, and the perceived failure of the state’s previous practices to help resolve outstanding security problems on the other, coupled with the effects of a number of endogenous and exogenous shocks (particularly, the colour revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine; Kosovo’s recognition by the West; the Russia-Georgia 2008 war; global economic crisis; and Turkey’s short-lived attempt at rapprochement with Armenia) and the perceptual shifts those shockwaves worked to engender, served to broaden the spatial and conceptual boundaries within which Azerbaijan’s foreign policy practices were conceived and effected, including by virtue of the energy resources the country has got in possession. The paper concludes by tracing the particular ways in which the broadening and deepening of the country’s foreign policy practices have occurred.


2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSANNA SCHRAFSTETTER

AbstractIn 1964 the West German government agreed to provide £1 million in financial compensation to British victims of National Socialism. The distribution of the money, organised by the British foreign office, turned into a major public scandal, as a number of British POWs, among them survivors of the ‘great escape’, had their claims rejected. By examining the refusal of several British POWs to accept their exclusion from the scheme, the article addresses the interplay of political pressure and public opinion that led to a parliamentary inquiry into what became known as ‘the Sachsenhausen affair’ in 1967. Given that provisions of the agreement with West Germany had precluded indemnification to mistreated POWs, the distribution of the money almost inevitably led to bitterness and discontent. From this perspective, the article explores the impact of the Great Escape on British memory of the war, the public reception of the film The Great Escape (1963), and the way in which public memory influenced the debate on compensation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohsen Bakhtiar

While dysphemism has been extensively studied as a general phenomenon, there are not too many studies on how it is used in political discourse by top officials. This paper aims to examine the ways in which a sample of two high-level Iranian politicians offensively conceptualize their alleged enemies, namely the U.S., Israel, and the West, through conceptual metaphors and metonymies. A cognitive linguistic analysis of the speeches of Iran’s supreme leader and ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad indicate that the selection of the metaphorical dysphemistic source domain is primarily determined by religion, previous discourse (pre-existing conventional dysphemistic metaphors), aspects of the target domain, and anger or hatred toward the enemies. The analysis indicates that most of the pejorative connotations are attributed to Israel as the alleged number one enemy of Iran via Israel is an animal, Israel is a tumor, and Israel is a bastard. The other presumed enemies, that is, the U.S. and the West are characterized via the u.s. is a devil, and the u.s. and the west are criminals. Moreover, the two politicians, while resorting to taboo concepts, remain loyal to the established discursive norms of delegitimizing the actions and thoughts of the enemies of the Islamic Republic.


1935 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-106
Author(s):  
Lillian M. Penson

“Ce clergyman laïque, obstiné et maladroit”, so Bismarck spoke of Salisbury to the French Ambassador in 1879, contrasting him with Beaconsfield, whom he thought a man of broader outlook; and we have Salisbury's testimony to Bismarck's “extraordinary penetration”. Yet, among the many difficulties that hamper an attempt to analyse the policy of Salisbury, perhaps the greatest is that there are few subjects on which he was consistent. He made almost a principle of inconsistency. “This country”, he said, “which is popularly governed, and cannot therefore be counted on to act on any uniform or consistent system of policy….” This was in April 1878 at the beginning of his first term at the Foreign Office. As so often happens circumstances strengthened his belief. His early tenures of the Foreign Secretaryship were short, and divided by a Liberal administration whose actions materially affected British policy. The whole period was crowded by movements abroad and at home which compelled adjustments of ideas. Twice, at any rate, he had not a free hand, in 1878–80 and again in 1886, for in the first case he had to reckon with Disraeli and in the other with a divided Cabinet.


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