Mobilising Social Movement for Peace

Informed by the resource mobilisation theory, this article conducts a case study on Christianity in Korea, in order to explore the nexus between religion and social movements, and how this nexus could contribute to peace, rather than violence. Given its geopolitical dimensions, involving nuclear weapons and the legacy of the Cold War, the role of religion in the Korean conflict has been under-researched. Nonetheless, Christianity has influenced the Korean conflict, with its association with anticommunism, as well as with peace movements. This article argues that Christian ecumenical organisations in the context of the Korean conflict utilised their social resources for peace and reconciliation, when they rediscovered the just peace tradition in Christianity. This article contributes to theoretical and practical discussions surrounding religion, war, and peace, by conceptualising just peace in the Christian tradition, and by adding empirical substance to the nexus between ecumenism and social movement for just peace.

Introduction: Peace Movements in Southern Europe during the 1970s and 1980s

The introduction to this special section discusses the state of the art in recent historiography on peace movements during the 1970s and 1980s, and recent attempts to conceptualise Southern Europe as a geographical or political space.

The Romanian Peace Movements as Ecumenical Initiatives Reflected in Református Szemle

"The Bucharest Conference convened by Iustinian, the Patriarch of the Romani-an Orthodox Church, on 23 June 1949 marked the starting point of meetings be-tween the leaders of the Christian and non-Christian faiths in the country, and, ac-cording to the higher orders, these conferences took place annually during the communist period that followed, also being known as “peace conferences”. At the first conference, representatives of seven Christian denominations and those of the Jewish and Muslim communities signed a statement expressing their appreciation of religious freedom built on popular democracy and affirmed the equality of the vari-ous churches. In this “local ecumenism” that was prescribed by the state, the interconfessional conferences of the Orthodox and Protestant theology professors, which started in 1964 and alternately took place in Bucharest, Cluj, and Sibiu, proved to be very important. The topics of discussions at these conferences were theological issues; there was a forced search for aspects linking the two churches, and the guidelines prescribed for the churches by the state apparatus were also introduced. This study analyses the nature of the conference topics, namely the political im-plications by which “they wanted or had to please the state”. The conference presentations are even more significant as they served as a basis for the annual train-ing of priests and ministers, and the studies were published in the scientific journals of the churches as well. Keywords: communist regime, communist dictatorship, church history, peace conferences, interconfessional dialogue."

Walls of Anxiety: The Iconography of Anti-NATO protests in Spain, 1981–6

This article addresses the protest culture of the Spanish anti-NATO movement during the first half of the 1980s. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, it focuses on the collective practice of painting murals and graffiti ( pintadas) on walls in the outskirts of Spanish cities. This was done by neighbourhood associations, together with local artists, in order to display and disseminate the widespread angst regarding entering and remaining in NATO. Murals constituted a grassroots multi-layered phenomenon that emerged through the interaction of different communicative actors, social processes and semiotic forms. The article explores three themes. Firstly, the political iconography of anti-NATO murals in Spain whilst comparing it with the aesthetics of other European peace movements. Secondly, the domestic reframing of anti-war and antinuclear icons as well as anti-American clichés, violence and the army, gender relations, Spanish national sovereignty and, more generally, the process of modernisation and westernisation that was rapidly affecting post-Francoist society. Finally, the analysis of these visual expressions offers a bottom-up picture of the final stage of the Cold War and a better understanding of the role of Spanish civil society during the period of democratic consolidation.

German Angst

German Angst analyzes the relationship of fear and democracy in postwar West Germany. While fear has historically been associated with authoritarian regimes, the book highlights the role of fear and anxiety in a democratizing society: these emotions undermined democracy and stabilized it at the same time. By taking seriously postwar Germans’ uncertainties about the future, the book challenges dominant linear and teleological narratives of postwar West German “success.” It highlights the prospective function of memories of war and defeat, of National Socialism and the Holocaust. Fears and anxieties derived from memories of a catastrophic past that postwar Germans projected into the future. Based on case studies from the 1940s to the present, the book provides a new interpretive synthesis of the Federal Republic. It tells the history of the Federal Republic as a series of recurring crises, in which specific fears and anxieties emerged, served a variety of political functions, and then again abated. Drawing on recent interdisciplinary insights of emotion studies, the book transcends the dichotomy of “reason” and “emotion.” Fear and anxiety were not exclusively irrational and dysfunctional but served important roles in postwar democracy. These emotions sensitized postwar Germans to the dangers of an authoritarian transformation, and they also served as the emotional engine of the environmental and peace movements. The book also provides an original analysis of the emotional basis of right-wing populism in Germany today, and it explores the possibilities of a democratic politics of emotion.

German Angst

This chapter analyzes contemporary fears in the post-unification Berlin Republic since 1990. It first historicizes the slogan of a “German angst” that is often used to diagnose a German collective pathology. Instead, the chapter argues that the concept emerged in the 1980s and 1990s as part of a conservative critique of the West German environmental and peace movements. The chapter then analyzes the emergence of deterritorialized fears that were no longer primarily bound to a national context. These deterritorialized fears manifested themselves above all in the discussion of unified Germany’s place in the world, especially with respect to the question of German participation in military interventions. Similar fears emerged with respect to the increasing presence of the world in Germany—that is, with respect to immigrants and refugees. The chapter then seeks to locate the current mobilization of such fears by right-wing populist parties in the longer history of fear in postwar Germany. Right-wing populism is part of, and draws on, an expressive emotional culture, but it turns these fears against an ethnic or religious “other,” and at times also against the democratic state itself. The chapter concludes with a reflection on what a democratic politics of emotion might look like.

Herbert Hoover and the Archives of the Great War

Established in 1919, the Hoover Institution Library & Archives at Stanford University is perhaps the world's largest repository of materials related to war, revolution, and peace movements across the globe, with especially rich collections related to the First World War. This article explains the origin and mission of the library, which was created by Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover following their World War I–era work in humanitarian aid, food relief, and diplomacy. Outlining significant holdings related to the war—including not just official records but rare ephemera such as posters, lace, and propaganda—this article explains the Hoovers’ vision of building a vast and varied repository of material that would establish the library as a hub of research on war and revolution. By acquiring significant historical material, the founders and curators sought to encourage future generations of scholars to theorize and employ solutions for building peace worldwide. The article also discusses the library's holdings related to Stanford students who served as ambulance drivers, pilots, soldiers, and nurses during the war—collections that provide valuable insight into the lived experience of the war and document Stanford's contributions to interventionist/anti-interventionist discussions before America's entry into the war in 1917 and, later, to the Allied war effort.