scholarly journals Istota totalitaryzmu. Wokół teorii Zbigniewa Brzezińskiego i Carla Friedricha

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-199
Author(s):  
Adam Wielomski

The aim of this text is a contemporary estimation of the thesis formed in a famous book by Zbigniew Brzeziński and Carl Friedrich, Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (1956). This is a classic text of Western political science about totalitarianism, simultaneously scientific and political. Scientific, because it presents the idea of three types of political regimes in the 20th century: totalitarian, authoritarian, and liberal-democratic. Political, because the term “totalitarianism” was very useful in the time of the Cold War. This term presents the old (Nazi Germany) and new (Stalinist Russia) totalitarian states as equal political enemies of the USA, equal in their hostility to political and individual freedom, i.e. America’s creed. By using this term, the Americans can create a horrible picture of Russian communism as totalitarian, the same as Hitler’s regime, while presenting old enemies (West Germany, Italy, and Japan) as good friends of both the USA and freedom, because in this moment these states are democratic and liberal. The new term ended the old line of the delimitation between fascist or pro fascist and antifascist states and legitimates the new alliance between the USA and Franco’s Spain. The author analyses the definition of totalitarianism by Brzeziński and Friedrich as well as the political and ideological accusations made against this book by leftist critics.

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 170 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Eylem Özkaya Lassalle

The concept of failed state came to the fore with the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the USSR and the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Political violence is central in these discussions on the definition of the concept or the determination of its dimensions (indicators). Specifically, the level of political violence, the type of political violence and intensity of political violence has been broached in the literature. An effective classification of political violence can lead us to a better understanding of state failure phenomenon. By using Tilly’s classification of collective violence which is based on extent of coordination among violent actors and salience of short-run damage, the role played by political violence in state failure can be understood clearly. In order to do this, two recent cases, Iraq and Syria will be examined.


Author(s):  
Peter D. McDonald

The section introduces Part II, which spans the period 1946 to 2014, by tracing the history of the debates about culture within UNESCO from 1947 to 2009. It considers the central part print literacy played in the early decades, and the gradual emergence of what came to be called ‘intangible heritage’; the political divisions of the Cold War that had a bearing not just on questions of the state and its role as a guardian of culture but on the idea of cultural expression as a commodity; the slow shift away from an exclusively intellectualist definition of culture to a more broadly anthropological one; and the realpolitik surrounding the debates about cultural diversity since the 1990s. The section concludes by showing how at the turn of the new millennium UNESCO caught up with the radical ways in which Tagore and Joyce thought about linguistic and cultural diversity.


2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joséé M. Sáánchez-Ron

This paper studies the tactics developed in Spain to improve the country's scientific capacity over most of the 20th century. Early in the 20th century, Spain sought to raise its low scientific standing by establishing relations with foreign scientists. The tactics changed according to the political situation. The first part of the paper covers the period from 1900 to the Civil War (1936-39); the second examines consequences of the conflict for physical scientists in Spain; and the third analyzes the growth of physical sciences in Franco's Spain following the Civil War, a period in which the United States exerted special influence.


1970 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 66-83
Author(s):  
Mridvika Sahajpal

No universal definition of peacekeeping exists given the dynamic and contested evolution of this concept over the years. Still, no scholar or student of global affairs can deny that Canada has historically played an integral role in spearheading peacekeeping in various multilateral dimensions. The ‘peacekeeper’ quality has become a part of the country’s foreign policy narrative and national character despite a significant fluctuation of effectiveness over the 20th century. This paper will examine Canada’s commitment to global humanitarianism as a function of the operating global context during and post-Cold War. Specifically, favourable international conditions during the Cold War phase rendered ‘middle power’ peacekeeping to Canada’s advantage; and unfavourable international conditions during the post-Cold War phase exposed Canada’s limitations. Last, the author will briefly discuss Canadian humanitarianism as inseverable from its multilateral obligations. This thesis will be evaluated using a number of high-profile IGO peacekeeping missions from 1956 onwards; and is particularly telling if examining the role of the current Canadian government in peacekeeping affairs.


Author(s):  
Volodymyr Fisanov

The article is devoted to little-known aspects of the political and military developments in the Middle East during the Cold War – from the division of Palestine into two states and until the mid-1950s. The focus is on the confrontation between the two superpowers of the United States and the USSR for their influence on Arab countries. This article uses little-known documentary material, as well as the display of some of the described international events in contemporary film documentaries. It was clarified that in the investigated period the first steps of the policy of large foreign military aid and cooperation on development issues in the Middle East were carried out, first of all, on the part of the USSR and the USA. It was emphasized in particular that then two international coalitions were formed – the monarchical Arab regimes and Israel were supported by the official Washington, and the national revolutionary regimes, where the military forces came to power (Egypt, Syria), cooperated with Moscow. Keywords: Middle East, Great Britain, USA, USSR, Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Cold War, supply of weapons, digital cinema collections


Author(s):  
Mark Thomas-Patterson

This paper aims to examine the attitude that the Chicago Tribune displayed towards the Korean leader Syngman Rhee from 1945-1950. The Tribune played a key role in providing a voice for conservative Republicans during the first half of the 20th century, under the ownership of Robert McCormick. The paper was split over foreign policy, as it supported stopping Communism abroad but also supported non-intervention in global affairs. The political situation on the Korean Peninsula therefore proved to be an especially challenging topic for the Tribune, as it forced it to choose between combating Communism and non-intervention. In order to ascertain the Tribune’s positions on these key issues, I analyzed articles that had been digitized as part of ProQuest’s historical archives. Throughout this relatively short period of time, the Tribune’s opinion of Rhee varied greatly. It initially supported Rhee as a hero against the Truman state department. After the paper established a reporter in Korea, however, the paper’s attitude shifted, and Rhee was portrayed as an ultranationalist zealot. Ultimately, the Tribune developed a stance of confronting communist advances and supporting anti-Communist governments such as Rhee’s that would hold true for the rest of the cold war.


2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Udi E. Greenberg

During its occupation by the United States and throughout the 1950s, Germany experienced one of the most dramatic intellectual, cultural, and educational transformations in history. Historians have often observed the intrusion by the USA into German intellectual and institutional life as part of the USA’s overall plan to ‘re-educate’ Germany and to tie it to its own political traditions and Cold War goals. Through examination of the political theories and academic educational reforms of Carl J. Friedrich, one of the most important intellectuals of the Cold War, this article argues that US policies were simultaneously shaped and determined by intellectual traditions from the Weimar period. It shows how Friedrich’s educational theories, which had a tremendous influence on both US and German academic establishments after the war, were developed already in the context of the Weimar-era ‘Heidelberg School’ and the political theories of Max Weber. Through this example, the article seeks to offer a new and more complex picture of Germany’s postwar democratization in general.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 170
Author(s):  
K. Eylem Özkaya Lassalle

The concept of failed state came to the fore with the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the USSR and the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Political violence is central in these discussions on the definition of the concept or the determination of its dimensions (indicators). Specifically, the level of political violence, the type of political violence and intensity of political violence has been broached in the literature. An effective classification of political violence can lead us to a better understanding of state failure phenomenon. By using Tilly’s classification of collective violence which is based on extent of coordination among violent actors and salience of short-run damage, the role played by political violence in state failure can be understood clearly. In order to do this, two recent cases, Iraq and Syria will be examined.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Anthony Milner

Before considering how best to reposition Indonesia in the world – and I will be looking, in particular, at Indonesia’s current Indo-Pacific initiative -  we need to ask how the world itself has been repositioned. The terms of reference for this conference go straight to this second question. They immediately highlight the theme of globalization, noting how it has promoted “growing connectivity among states” and “revolutionized human interaction”. How then has this region been reconfigured over the last decades? Until the mid-20th-century the entire Asian region was either under European colonial rule or strong Western imperial influence. That is how the region was structured – with the great centres of power in London, Paris, The Hague and Washington. After the extraordinary conquests by Japan, which effectively ended the Western imperial project, Asia was quickly drawn into the Cold War. Countries lined up as Communist or Anti-Communist, and some tried to sustain a degree of neutrality or equi-distance. At the end of the Cold War, in the last decade or so of the 20th-century, as is often commented, there was a unipolar moment – an America-dominated world with a sense of globalization not merely being economic, but also a globalization of ideas. One commentator wrote of the ‘end of history’ – the US had won, he said, with its liberal democratic ideology. Communism had been annihilated, and Western liberalism had the ‘wind in its hair’. This said, there were still objections. Dr Mahathir in Malaysia and a number of bright Foreign Ministry intellectuals in Singapore spoke of ‘Asian values’. They said you had to understand Asian values to explain the great economic transformation taking place in Asian countries – and there was also a need to respect Asian values in the political arena, and not just insist that all societies must develop in the same way. The democracy, human rights, and other supposed responsibilities of government which Westerners have tended to advocate, it was argued, are not necessarily universal norms.  


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