scholarly journals Collective Identity and Christianity: Europe between Nationalism and an Open Patriotism

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 339
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Palaver
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Local Identity ◽  
World War ◽  
Jacques Maritain

Times of crisis push human beings, a clannish creature, to retreat into closed societies. Anthropologically, this can be explained with concepts such as pseudospeciation, group narcissism, or parochial altruism. Politically, the preference for closed societies results in our modern world in nationalism or imperialism. Henri Bergson’s distinction between static and dynamic religion shows which type of religion promotes such tendencies of closure and which type can facilitate the path toward open society. Bergson rejected nationalism and imperialism and opted for an open patriotism with its special relation to dynamic religion. Dynamic religion relativizes political institutions such as the state and results today in an option for civil society as the proper space where religions can and must contribute to its ethical development. It aligns more easily with a counter-state nationhood than with a state-framed nationalism. Whereas Bergson saw in Christianity the culmination of dynamic religion, a closer look shows that it can be found in all post-Axial religions. Martin Buber, Mohandas Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, Abul Kalam Azad, and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan exemplify this claim. After World War II, Catholic thinkers such as Jacques Maritain or Robert Schuman by partly following Bergson chose patriotism over nationalism and helped to create the European Union. Today, however, a growing nationalism in Europe forces religious communities to strengthen dynamic religion in their own traditions to contribute to a social culture that helps to overcome nationalist closures. The final part provides a positive example by referring to the fraternal Catholic modernity as it culminates today in Pope Francis’ call for fraternity and his polyhedric model of globalization that connects local identity with universal concerns.

The Limits of Compensation: Swiss Neutrality Policy in the Cold War

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 12-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Fischer ◽  
Daniel Möckli
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
World War ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Emotional Commitment ◽  
The Cold War

Switzerland was in a unique place among European countries after World War II. Although situated in the center of Europe, it had not been attacked by Nazi Germany and therefore emerged from the war with a strong economy, stable political institutions, and social cohesion. The experience of World War II forged a collective identity different from that in other continental states. The Swiss had a deep emotional commitment to neutrality and a conviction that autonomous defense would continue to be an effective security strategy after 1945. The Swiss government acknowledged the need for, and indeed was supportive of, the new United Nations collective security system. The Swiss were well aware of the benefits of Western collective defense and European integration as the Cold War divide came about. But Switzerland was willing to associate with these new multilateral governance structures only to the extent that they did not negatively affect neutrality or, in the case of European integration, Swiss economic interests.

Muslims in America from the European Colonial Period to the Present

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kambiz GhaneaBassiri
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
National Identity ◽  
World War I ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
World War ◽  
The Us ◽  
Muslim Majority

The history of Muslims in America dates back to the transatlantic mercantile interactions between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Upon its arrival, Islam became entrenched in American discourses on race and civilization because literate and noble African Muslims, brought to America as slaves, had problematized popular stereotypes of Muslims and black Africans. Furthermore, these enslaved Muslims had to re-evaluate and reconfigure their beliefs and practices to form new communal relations and to make sense of their lives in America. At the turn of the 20th century, as Muslim immigrants began arriving in the United States from the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and South Asia, they had to establish themselves in an America in which the white race, Protestantism, and progress were conflated to define a triumphalist American national identity, one that allowed varying levels of inclusion for Muslims based on their ethnic, racial, and national backgrounds. The enormous bloodshed and destruction experienced during World War I ushered in a crisis of confidence in the ideals of the European Enlightenment, as well as in white, Protestant nationalism. It opened up avenues for alternative expressions of progress, which allowed Muslims, along with other nonwhite, non-Christian communities, to engage in political and social organization. Among these organizations were a number of black religious movements that used Islamic beliefs, rites, and symbols to define a black Muslim national identity. World War II further shifted America, away from the religious competition that had earlier defined the nation’s identity and toward a “civil religion” of American democratic values and political institutions. Although this inclusive rhetoric was received differently along racial and ethnic lines, there was an overall appeal for greater visibility for Muslims in America. After World War II, increased commercial and diplomatic relations between the United States and Muslim-majority countries put American Muslims in a position, not only to relate Islam and America in their own lives but also to mediate between the varying interests of Muslim-majority countries and the United States. Following the civil rights legislation of the 1950s and 1960s and the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965, Muslim activists, many of whom had been politicized by anticolonial movements abroad, established new Islamic institutions. Eventually, a window was opened between the US government and American Muslim activists, who found a common enemy in communism following the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Since the late 1960s, the number of Muslims in the United States has grown significantly. Today, Muslims are estimated to constitute a little more than 1 percent of the US population. However, with the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of the United States as the sole superpower in the world, the United States has come into military conflict with Muslim-majority countries and has been the target of attacks by militant Muslim organizations. This has led to the cultivation of the binaries of “Islam and the West” and of “good” Islam and “bad” Islam, which have contributed to the racialization of American Muslims. It has also interpolated them into a reality external to their history and lived experiences as Muslims and Americans.

From Iron Curtain to Golden Curtain

2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Allina-Pisano
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Iron Curtain ◽  
World War ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Recent Project ◽  
International Border ◽  
The Village

The village of Kisszelmenc, a historically Magyar settlement at the edge of southwestern Ukraine, has been separated by an international border from its sister village of Nagyszelmenc, now in Slovakia, since just after World War II. A recent project to reconnect the two villages sought to support Magyar identity in the region through the reunification of village families. The opening of a border crossing project instead drove economic changes that resulted in the Ukrainianization and the Slovakization of Kisszelmenc. This article shows how the reconfiguration of economic relations stemming from changes in political institutions can generate unexpected shifts in the enactment of ethno-cultural identity on a given territory.

Terrorism in the Context of Conflicts in the Modern World

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-132
Author(s):  
Waldemar Zubrzycki
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The Political ◽  
World War ◽  
Islamic Fundamentalism ◽  
Regional Specificity ◽  
Global Threat ◽  
Frequent Reason

Contrary to popular expectations, armed conflicts persisted after the end of World War II. Some countries are fighting for independence, others for influence, and others are experiencing civil wars. This is determined by cultural, ethnic and religious differences. The modern world is tormented by many conflicts which, despite their regional scope, have an impact on the political and military situation on the entire globe. The functioning of formal borders that do not coincide with national borders, the low sense of nationality compared to ethnicity, poverty and political instability are also conducive to the use of terrorist methods. Terrorism is almost as old as civilisation. However, unlike in the past, today’s terrorists use violence on an unprecedented scale. Terrorism in many cases shows its regional specificity, varying according to the cultural and civilisation area in which it occurs. Reasons for resorting to terrorist methods may be a need for freedom, protection of one’s heritage, sense of harm done by the occupier, a need to express dissatisfaction with the political system or changes being made, or, finally, a mere desire to draw attention to the problems of countries and societies that have not yet been noticed or have been ignored by public opinion. Religion is also a frequent reason for resorting to terrorism. Contemporary terrorism is represented mainly by extremist Islamic fundamentalism and is based on the clash of two cultures. It is a global threat, and anyone can become its potential victim today. Numerous signals of the emergence of new, hitherto unknown organisations prove that in the future, unfortunately, the escalation of the phenomenon will have to be taken into account.

When Croatia Needed Serbs: Nationalism and Genocide in Sarajevo, 1941-1942

Slavic Review ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Greble Balić
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
State Policies ◽  
The State ◽  
Local Identity ◽  
World War ◽  
Independent State

While a central policy of the Independent State of Croatia during World War II called for the removal of “Serbs,” the majority of people who identified themselves (or were identified by the regime) as Serbs in Sarajevo—the second largest city in the state—remained “safe.” In order to understand why this was the case, Emily Greble Balic examines the interplay between local identity politics and state policies of genocide and nation-building. In so doing, she sheds light on such broad issues as the ambiguity of national identity at the local level; the limitations of traditional understandings of “resistance”; and the options open to members of the victim, or “foreign” group, as a result of the disjunction between national and local agendas.

scholarly journals Channeling Janus: The Birth of the West German State and Rebirth of the German Nation

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Jacovou
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
German History ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Extremism ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
German State ◽  
Basic Law ◽  
German Nation

CESAA Essay Competition 2018 – Undergraduate winner: Jack JacovouThis essay will submit three arguments which will sustain this thesis respectively: 1) the incorporation of expellees, the expellee movement, and their irredentism which romanticised the Nazi period, saw a form political extremism rise as a direct consequence of the breakup of Germany after World War II (WWII)1; 2) the decline of the German Communist Party (KPD) and National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) reflected Germans becoming critical of the political extremism prevalent between the 1919 until 19452; 3) influenced by both the War and German history wholistically, the Allies and Germans crafted a Basic Law (Grundgesetz) which embodied a strong parliamentary and federal system.3 With all this in mind, the first argument to highlight how Germany drew upon its history to craft new political institutions and a new culture, is the incorporation of the expellees and their irredentism.

scholarly journals Hiroshima’s Hibakusha: The Costs of Human Health in a Nuclear Age

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Powell
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Atomic Bomb ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
World War ◽  
Nuclear War ◽  
Nuclear Age ◽  
The World ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Many

At the end of World War II, Japan, as well as the rest of the world, was thrust into a new age of unbelievably destructive possibilities: the first use of nuclear weapons against human beings. Not only could such a bomb flatten an entire city, it could do so in only an instant. The poorly understood scars that were left showed a new level of war that the world needs to come to terms with. By considering the many medical effects of the atomic bomb on the victims of Hiroshima City, which encompasses the initial blast, radiation, and traumatic effects, we can gain a better understanding of the terrible costs of human health in nuclear war.

scholarly journals The EU: Towards a United States of Europe

Federalism-E ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-21
Author(s):  
Eric Servais
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
The European Union ◽  
World War ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Structural Framework ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Collective Decisions ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
The Eu

The European Union (EU), a contested “European” political construct, is contemporarily positioned at a critical juncture that presents three options that may determine its status as a supranational actor: stagnation, dissolution, or deeper and wider integration. The myriad pressures antagonizing the European Union and its structural foundations parallel those that the project sought to address following World War II. The unprecedented level of devastation caused by advanced military technologies and totalitarian ideologies in the war provided the impetus for increased cooperation amongst independent nation-states. Institutional cooperation encourages the deconstruction of destructive socio-political forces including racism, nationalism, and primordial cultural identities. These essentialist forces emerge in the absence of effective governance and encourage internal and external hostilities. The EU is intended to provide a structural framework for liberal-democratic countries to make collective decisions to increase economic prosperity, freedom, security, and justice [...]

scholarly journals Group-Based Guilt and Shame and Outgroup Attitudes in Russian Context

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.K. Grigoryan ◽  
M.V. Efremova
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Northern Caucasus ◽  
World War ◽  
General Attitude ◽  
Russian People ◽  
The World

This research explores group-based emotions of guilt and shame in the Russian context. The aim was to reveal the relations between these emotions and outgroup attitudes in individuals with different degrees of collective identity strength. The survey was carried out on the sample of Russian people (N = 89; 53,9% females; average age 35 years). The respondents were asked to answer questions concerning their experiences of group-based emotions of guilt, moral shame and image shame in relation to the deportation of Chechen and Ingush populations of the Northern Caucasus during the World War II. We measured outgroup attitudes towards groups both related (Caucasus populations) and unrelated (migrants) to emotion-provoking events; general attitude towards multiculturalism; and strength of collective identity. The results show that the experiences of guilt and moral shame are positively correlated both with the attitudes towards Caucasus populations (0,396*** and 0,304*** respectively) and with the attitudes towards migrants (0,330*** and 0,322*** respectively). Image shame is positively correlated only with the attitudes to migrants (0,326**). It was also found that collective identity moderates these relations: there were no correlations found between emotions and attitudes in the group of subjects with stronger collective identity.

scholarly journals Political masculinities and Brexit

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Higgins
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
The European Union ◽  
World War ◽  
Cultural Discourses ◽  
British Experience ◽  
The Right

Abstract This article examines the discourses of masculinity to pervade debates on the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. The article outlines an association between excessive forms of masculinity and popular cultural discourses around conflict and war, constructing and reproducing a popular lexicon on the British experience of World War II in ways that are widely interpreted as symptomatic of a coarsening of political discussion. However, the article also emphasises the performative quality of these masculine discourses in line with the personalisation of politics, and stresses the scope for contestation and ridicule. The article thereby identifies the articulation of a performative masculinity with a nation-based politics of the right. While disputable and occasionally subject to derision, this produces a gendered component in any antagonistic turn in contemporary political culture.

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