Demilitarization in the Contemporary World

2013 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
World History ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Assumption ◽  
The Political ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Regional Conflicts ◽  
Global Cold War

Contemporary world history has highlighted militarization in many ways, from the global Cold War and numerous regional conflicts to the general assumption that nationhood implies a significant and growing military. Yet the twentieth century also offers notable examples of large-scale demilitarization, both imposed and voluntary. This book fills a key gap in current historical understanding by examining demilitarization programs in Germany, Japan, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. The chapters outline each nation's demilitarization choices and how they were made. The book investigates factors such as military defeat, border security risks, economic pressures, and the development of strong peace cultures among citizenry. Also at center stage is the influence of the United States, which fills a paradoxical role as both an enabler of demilitarization and a leader in steadily accelerating militarization. The book explores what true demilitarization means and how it impacts a society at all levels, military and civilian, political and private. The examples chosen reveal that successful demilitarization must go beyond mere troop demobilization or arms reduction to generate significant political and even psychological shifts in the culture at large. Exemplifying the political difficulties of demilitarization in both its failures and successes, it provides a possible roadmap for future policies and practices.

Worse Than a Monolith

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Burden Sharing ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Coercive Diplomacy ◽  
Regional Conflicts ◽  
Security Relations ◽  
Opposing Camp ◽  
The Cold War

In brute-force struggles for survival, such as the two world wars, disorganization and divisions within an enemy alliance are to one's own advantage. However, most international security politics involve coercive diplomacy and negotiations short of all-out war. This book demonstrates that when states are engaged in coercive diplomacy—combining threats and assurances to influence the behavior of real or potential adversaries—divisions, rivalries, and lack of coordination within the opposing camp often make it more difficult to prevent the onset of regional conflicts, to prevent existing conflicts from escalating, and to negotiate the end to those conflicts promptly. Focusing on relations between the Communist and anti-Communist alliances in Asia during the Cold War, the book explores how internal divisions and lack of cohesion in the two alliances complicated and undercut coercive diplomacy by sending confusing signals about strength, resolve, and intent. In the case of the Communist camp, internal mistrust and rivalries catalyzed the movement's aggressiveness in ways that we would not have expected from a more cohesive movement under Moscow's clear control. Reviewing newly available archival material, the book examines the instability in relations across the Asian Cold War divide, and sheds new light on the Korean and Vietnam wars. While recognizing clear differences between the Cold War and post-Cold War environments, the book investigates how efforts to adjust burden-sharing roles among the United States and its Asian security partners have complicated U.S. security relations with the People's Republic of China since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Israel's Moment

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Herf
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Cold War

Israel's Moment is a major new account of how a Jewish state came to be forged in the shadow of World War Two and the Holocaust and the onset of the Cold War. Drawing on new research in government, public and private archives, Jeffrey Herf exposes the political realities that underpinned support for and opposition to Zionist aspirations in Palestine. In an unprecedented international account, he explores the role of the United States, the Arab States, the Palestine Arabs, the Zionists, and key European governments from Britain and France to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Poland. His findings reveal a spectrum of support and opposition that stood in sharp contrast to the political coordinates that emerged during the Cold War, shedding new light on how and why the state of Israel was established in 1948 and challenging conventional associations of left and right, imperialism and anti-imperialism, and racism and anti-racism.

Chilean Copper and U.S. Companies

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-117
Author(s):  
Sebastián Hurtado-Torres
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Democratic Government ◽  
Chilean Copper ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

This chapter focuses on the role of copper policies in the relations between the United States and Chile during the Frei administration, especially as they relate to the developmental efforts of the Christian Democratic project. During the Frei administration, the political debate on copper policies reached a climax. Since U.S. capitals were among the most significant actors in the story, the discussions around the issue of copper converged with the ideological visions of the United States and the Cold War held by the different Chilean political parties. As the Frei administration tried to introduce the most comprehensive and consistent reform around the structure of the property of the Gran Minería del Cobre, the forces in competition in the arena of Chilean politics stood by their ideological convictions, regarding both copper and the United States, in their opposition or grudging support for the policies proposed by the Christian Democratic government. Moreover, the U.S. government became deeply involved in the matter of copper in Chile, first by pressuring the Chilean government into rolling back a price increase in 1965 and then, mostly through the personal efforts of Ambassador Edward Korry, by mediating in the negotiation between the Frei administration and Anaconda on the nationalization of the U.S. company's largest mine, Chuquicamata, in 1969.

Since 1945: New Amenities, New Hazards

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
William B. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Scientist ◽  
World History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Role ◽  
The Past ◽  
American Society ◽  
Service Employment

If the average citizen's surroundings defined the national climate, then the United States grew markedly warmer and drier in the postwar decades. Migration continued to carry the center of population west and began pulling it southward as well. The growth of what came to be called the Sunbelt at the "Snowbelt's" expense passed a landmark in the early 1960s when California replaced New York as the most populous state. Another landmark was established in the early 1990s when Texas moved ahead of New York. In popular discussion, it was taken for granted that finding a change of climate was one of the motives for relocating as well as one of the results. It was not until 1954, though, that an American social scientist first seriously considered the possibility. The twentieth-century flow of Americans to the West Coast, the geographer Edward L. Ullman observed in that year, had no precedent in world history. It could not be explained by the theories of settlement that had worked well in the past, for a substantial share of it represented something entirely new, "the first large-scale in-migration to be drawn by the lure of a pleasant climate." If it was the first of its kind, it was unlikely to be the last. For a set of changes in American society, Ullman suggested, had transformed the economic role of climate. The key changes included a growth in the numbers of pensioned retirees; an increase in trade and service employment, much more "footloose" than agriculture or manufacturing was; developments in technology making manufacturing itself more footloose; and a great increase in mobility brought about by the automobile and the highway. All in one way or another had weakened the bonds of place and made Americans far freer than before to choose where to live. Whatever qualities made life in any spot particularly pleasant thus attracted migration more than in the past. Ullman grouped such qualities together as "amenities." They ranged from mountains to beaches to cultural attractions, but climate appeared to be the most important, not least because it was key to the enjoyment of many of the rest. Ullman did not suppose that all Americans desired the same climate. For most people, in this as in other respects, "where one was born and lives is the best place in the world, no matter how forsaken a hole it may appear to an outsider."

Latin America between the Second World War and the Cold War: Some Reflections on the 1945–8 Conjuncture

1988 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Bethell ◽  
Ian Roxborough
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Political ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Second World

The importance of the years of political and social upheaval immediately following the end of the Second World War and coinciding with the beginnings of the Cold War, that is to say, the period from 1944 or 1945 to 1948 or 1949, for the history of Europe (East and West), the Near and Middle East, Asia (Japan, China, South and East Asia), even Africa (certainly South Africa) in the second half of the twentieth century has long been generally recognised. In recent years historians of the United States, which had not, of course, been a theatre of war and which alone among the major belligerents emerged from the Second World War stronger and more prosperous, have begun to focus attention on the political, social and ideological conflict there in the postwar period – and the long term significance for the United States of the basis on which it was resolved. In contrast, except for Argentina, where Perón's rise to power has always attracted the interest of historians, the immediate postwar years in Latin America, which had been relatively untouched by, and had played a relatively minor role in, the Second World War, remain to a large extent neglected. It is our view that these years constituted a critical conjuncture in the political and social history of Latin America just as they did for much of the rest of the world. In a forthcoming collection of case studies, which we are currently editing, the main features of the immediate postwar period in Latin America, and especially the role played by labour and the Left, will be explored in some detail, country by country.1In this article, somewhat speculative and intentionally polemical, we present the broad outlines of our thesis.

Beyond Paradigms

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asher Orkaby
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Civil War ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
The United States ◽  
New Republic ◽  
Global Cold War ◽  
The Doors

September 26, 1962, marked the end of a thousand-year religious dynasty in Yemen. Muhammad al-Badr, the last ruling imam, was overthrown and replaced by a weak republic. Over the next six years, Yemen was dominated by a civil war between al-Badr’s royalists and the supporters of the new republic. The conflict in Yemen did not conform to the ideological divides of either the Global Cold War, between the United States and the USSR, or the Arab Cold War, between Saudi-led Arab monarchies and Egypt-led Arab nationalists. Rather, the chaos of the Yemen Civil War opened the doors of this previously isolated country to a combination of international organizations, clandestine operations, and visionary individuals who transformed Yemen into an arena for global conflict.

The Politics of Richard Wright

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Richard Wright ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Institutionalized Racism ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Social Connectivity ◽  
Black Authors

Richard Wright left readers with a trove of fictional and nonfictional works about suffering, abuse, and anger in the United States and around the globe. He composed unforgettable images of institutionalized racism, postwar capitalist culture, Cold War neo-imperialism, gender roles and their violent consequences, and the economic and psychological preconditions for personal freedom. He insisted that humans unflinchingly confront and responsibly reconstruct their worlds. He therefore offered not only honest social criticisms but unromantic explorations of political options. The book is organized in five sections. It opens with a series of broad discussions about the content, style, and impact of Wright’s social criticism. Then the book shifts to particular dimensions of and topics in Wright’s writings, such as his interest in postcolonial politics, his approach to gendered forms of oppression, and his creative use of different literary genres to convey his warnings. The anthology closes with discussions of the different political agendas and courses of action that Wright’s thinking prompts—in particular, how his distinctive understanding of psychological life and death fosters opposition to neoslavery, efforts at social connectivity, and experiments in communal refusal. Most of the book’s chapters are original pieces written for this volume. Other entries are excerpts from influential, earlier published works, including four difficult-to-locate writings by Wright on labor solidarity, a miscarriage of justice, the cultural significance Joe Louis, and the political duties of black authors. The contributors include experts in Africana studies, history, literature, philosophy, political science, and psychoanalysis.

Dealings with ccp and kmt in British Hong Kong: The Shanghai Bankers, 1948–1951 (在英屬香港面對中國共產黨和中國國民黨──上海銀行家的抉擇與挑戰,1948〜1951年)

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-149
Author(s):  
Pui-Tak Lee (李培德)
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
The United States ◽  
General Assumption ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Final Destination ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Modern Chinese History

The year 1949 was a great divide in modern Chinese history. How Shanghai bankers responded to it is an interesting question to address. For those bankers who chose to leave Shanghai and settle in British Hong Kong, can we suppose they were permanently separated from China or Taiwan? It is generally assumed that once the Shanghai bankers confined themselves to their new home in Hong Kong or moved on to other locations in the United States or elsewhere, they immediately severed all ties with either mainland China under the ccp (Chinese Communist Party) or Taiwan under the kmt (Kuomintang or Guomindang). Such an assumption leads to a mistaken argument that the departure of Chinese bankers from Shanghai cut short their involvements in China politics. Perhaps it is true that some emigrant bankers never returned, but others remained in touch with their home in China, whether because they were solicited by the agents who were sent to the colony by the ccp in China and the kmt in Taiwan, or, because they took the initiative in reaching across the borders to mainland China or Taiwan. From their sanctuary in Hong Kong, how did the bankers conduct cross-border relations after 1949? This paper will go beyond the general assumption that the Shanghai bankers turned to Hong Kong solely for the colony’s being a sanctuary during the political and economic turmoil of the 1940s. Instead, these bankers continued to engage in political confrontation to the ccp and the kmt after they fled Shanghai. This paper argues that once they were in the colony, they had to address several problems. These included, first, to choose their final destination in either Shanghai, Hong Kong or Taipei; second, whether to continue or quit their banking careers and thirdly, to find a solution in order to counteract the alignment with either the ccp or the kmt. 1949年是中國近代史的分水嶺，上海銀行家對面對動盪不安的局勢會作出怎樣的回應，是一個很值得討論的問題。一旦銀行家選擇離開上海，轉移到英屬香港，他們就可完全脫離國共內戰的地理範疇──中國大陸或臺灣嗎？一般的研究無不認為已從香港轉移到香港的上海銀行家，目的為遠離包括在大陸執政的中國共產黨或撤退至臺灣的國民黨。本文指出，這樣的設想是對當時處於動盪政治經濟局勢的上海銀行家的錯誤理解。事實上，當時是有一部份從上海撤離的銀行家並不願意再被捲入政治，但是有更多已在境外的銀行家，透過自己在國共兩黨的代表，與中國大陸或臺灣保持緊密之聯繫，也有許多銀行家是主動地發展出跨境的管道來維持與中國大陸或臺灣的關係。值得探討的是，1949年之後，這些以英屬香港為基地的跨境聯繫是如何運作的呢？ 本文探討1940年代末在中國變動的政治與經濟局勢下，香港不僅為離開上海的銀行家提供一個安全的庇護所，同時更是這些銀行家在離開上海後繼續面對中國共產黨和國民黨，進行各種活動的最重要境外基地。本文指出這些上海銀行家在移居香港之際所要面對的諸多問題。首先，如何在上海、香港和臺北三地之間作出選擇，哪裏是他們最佳的落腳處？其次，是否要繼續和如何維持銀行的業務？最後，應如何因應中國共產黨和中國國民黨向他們的統戰而作出適當的反應？ (This article is in English).

International relations in Spanish physics from 1900 to the Cold War

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joséé M. Sáánchez-Ron
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Civil War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Cold War

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.

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