Ideology Restart: Liberal Project and Pandemic. Lessons of 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 35.5 ◽  
pp. 181-193
Author(s):  
Boris V. Mezhuev ◽  
Sergey V. Birrjukov ◽  
Vasily V. Vanchugov ◽  
Lyubov V. Ulyanova

The present article is an abridged version of the paper of the “Russian Idea” site editors staff devoted to the ideological transformation in the Western countries and Russia in 2020, – the year of COVID pandemic and dramatic elections in the USA. The paper was drawn before the results of the elections were made public, but still it contains the correct forecast of the electoral victory of the liberal establishment representative. The authors also made the hypothesis confirmed by further course of events, that the winner of the ideological contest of 2020 would be the ideology described by the authors as the “new Atlantism”, – the doctrine about the Atlantic coalition interests priority over the national interests of the countries composing the coalition. The paper also forecasts the defeat of populism and Trumpism: in fact, having initiated the new cold war against China the supporters of those trends in the USA will surrender the initiative to their ideological opponents who are much more experienced in leading cold wars. On the basis of these conclusions the authors make the assumption of which new ideologies opposing the liberal establishment would be adopted by the conservative-minded intellectuals, and which conservative strategies could be of current importance for Russia as well.

2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 607-624
Author(s):  
Christine Kim

This article evaluates the US ‘Monuments Men’ operations in Korea, focusing on wartime and postwar efforts undertaken by the government of the USA to preserve and restore artwork seized by Japan. The Asian initiative, conceived a year after the European model was established, likewise drew upon cultural, intellectual, and academic resources. Yet fundamental differences in personnel, perceptions of Korean cultural backwardness, prevailing imperialist attitudes, and Cold War sensibilities rendered a very different kind of project. Ultimately the ‘Monuments Men’ succeeded primarily in preserving the cultural patrimony of Japan, but it failed to recover any plundered objects from Korea, or the rest of Asia for that matter. Focusing on the US deliberations regarding repatriation of Korean looted art, this article lays bare both the US preoccupation with maintaining the national interests of its newest ally, and exposes an understanding of East Asian cultural hierarchy that privileged Japan’s artistic achievement and modern society above all.


2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 631-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tor Bukkvoll

Nursultan Nazarbayev has been President of Kazakhstan since that country became independent in 1991. Observers expect him to remain in his current position until 2013, and there are clear indications that he has started to prepare for his daughter, Dariga Nazarbayeva, to take over power after 2013. Analyses of Kazakhstan's foreign policy therefore both has had and will continue to have a close focus on the person of Nursultan Nazarbayev. In addition, this is all the more true because foreign policy in Kazakhstan to an extreme degree is a one-man affair. The present article discusses the interplay between personal and national interests as motivating factors in the foreign policy of Nazarbayev. More specifically, it investigates how these different types of motivation have influenced Nazarbayev's attempts to seek partnership with or distance from the USA and Russia.


2021 ◽  
Vol IV (IV) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Syed Hussain Murtaza ◽  
Muqarrab Akbar ◽  
Rafida Nawaz

The USA acclaims to be a multicultural land of opportunity assimilating migrant settlers since its inception,but another facet of the USA is a culture of white racial supremacy, and orthodox beliefs regarding blacks, women, religiousand ideological others. The policy of constructing the ideological other, i.e., communism, was the highlight of cold warpolitics. The end of the cold war brought a shift in US policy and led to the rise of right-wing nationalist groups. The Trumpvictory was the triumph of these groups leading to an exponential rise in incidents of domestic terrorism during the TrumpEra. The paper employing Realist IR theory analyzes the Right-wing terrorist ideology through secondary data. One outcomeof the study is that the ideology of populism employing violence is causing civil unrest and is a stigma for USA soft image,and the rise of domestic terrorism is associated with the wave of global religious revivalism.


Author(s):  
Steven Hurst

The main focus of the chapter is on the period between 1974 and 1978, when the Shah sought to accelerate Iran's nuclear programme, creating tensions with the USA. This short period witnessed the emergence of a number of key features of the US-Iranian nuclear relationship: The divergence of perspectives on proliferation and the fuel cycle quickly became clear. Even in a context in which the two were Cold War allies, Iranian nationalism and ambition and American fear of proliferation produced deadlock in their nuclear negotiations. The American refusal to provide Iran with fuel cycle technology was, moreover, strongly influenced by pressure from Congress, which was able to exploit the need for its ratification of any nuclear agreement to great effect. Finally, the chapter reveals a tension between unilateralism and multilateralism that would recur in US policy, as it tried to persuade the other nuclear powers to join it in not transferring sensitive nuclear technology whilst also pursuing its own national interests and accommodating domestic pressures.


Author(s):  
Angela Penrose

Edith’s career and collaboration with Fritz Machlup at Johns Hopkins University flourished and she began work on the growth of the firm, and studied the Hercules Powder Company. As Cold War tensions increased during the 1950s she and Penrose became involved in the defence of their friend and colleague Owen Lattimore who was named as the top Soviet spy by Senator McCarthy. The chapter covers the persecution of Lattimore, his trials, the role of Judge Luther Youngdahl, and the operation of his defence fund. Other friends of E. F. Penrose became victims of the anti-communist ‘witch hunt’, he grew increasingly disillusioned with the USA, and determined he must leave. In 1953 Edith and Penrose testified before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. They were also investigated by the FBI. After five years the case against Lattimore was dropped. Edith’s father died and her brother Harvey was killed in an air accident.


Author(s):  
Daniel Deudney

The end of the Cold War left the USA as uncontested hegemon and shaper of the globalization and international order. Yet the international order has been unintentionally but repeatedly shaken by American interventionism and affronts to both allies and rivals. This is particularly the case in the Middle East as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the nuclear negotiations with Iran show. Therefore, the once unquestioned authority and power of the USA have been challenged at home as well as abroad. By bringing disorder rather than order to the world, US behavior in these conflicts has also caused domestic exhaustion and division. This, in turn, has led to a more restrained and as of late isolationist foreign policy from the USA, leaving the role as shaper of the international order increasingly to others.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097215092110115
Author(s):  
Kishor Sharma ◽  
Badri Bhattarai

Nepal’s strategic position and open border with India and China have attracted unusually high attention, particularly during the Cold War era, not only from these two large neighbours but also from European countries, the USA and the former Soviet Union. However, despite decades of aid inflows, Nepal remains one of the poorest countries. While debate over aid–growth nexus remains unsettled, our empirical results do suggest that aid fragmentation is detrimental to growth, perhaps due to increased administrative burden to manage a large number of small projects and meet reporting requirements of the donor community. While we find that aid is good for growth, attracting uncoordinated and fragmented aid without the need for assessment can, in fact, do more harm than good. These findings point to the importance of coordinated aid approach not only at the country level but also among the donor community.


2021 ◽  
pp. 002234332098082
Author(s):  
Scott Cooper ◽  
Kendall W Stiles

Studies of NATO rely heavily on military spending as a fraction of GDP as the key indicator of members’ contribution to the alliance, but a growing number of scholars have challenged this approach. We suggest that each member’s public goods provision is a better measure of commitment to the alliance. In the case of post-Cold War NATO, out-of-area troop deployments (adjusted for population) constitute one of the strongest indicators of a state’s contribution to public goods. Providing troops for NATO missions in Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Bosnia-Herzegovina is one of the clearest signals of high commitment to the alliance. Using deployment data from 2004 to 2018, we show that there is evidence of disproportionate burden-sharing within the alliance. Countries like Slovenia, Denmark, the USA and UK contributed far more to NATO deployments than others like Turkey, Spain, Poland, and Portugal. We also use the data to begin examining possible causes of these disparities. We find that wealthier countries, countries that spend more on their militaries, and newer alliance members are more likely to contribute. Our indicator and first-cut model open avenues for further research on why some members demonstrate higher commitment to NATO than others.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-144
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Stollenwerk

Opened in April 1960, the overseas port at Rostock resulted from a convergence of factors related to geopolitics, geography, economics and the unique needs and challenges of building a socialist port. Local, national and global pressures played on each other in establishing the port, making Rostock a singular product of the Cold War in the German Democratic Republic. The history of decision-making that went into the building of the port demonstrates the importance of politics in the Cold War, as well as its limits. Although informed by geopolitics, economic decisions in Europe’s socialist economies reflected a broad array of factors. This article argues that national and local decision-makers managed competing regional and national interests in order to develop their own economic strategies that functioned on several different levels. Rostock’s history highlights the common problematic of operating within and outside of the boundaries that the Cold War produced.


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