Territorial and Non-territorial Aspects in the Autonomist Proposals of the Sudeten German Party, 1937–38

The article focuses on two sets of autonomist demands that the far-right Sudeten German Party (SdP) in Czechoslovakia put forward during 1937–38. Its central thesis being that both sets were marked by a profoundly close interplay between territorial and non-territorial approaches at accommodating national diversity, it sets to explore this relationship, highlighting the underlying dynamic. Although the 1937 Volksschutzgesetze posed as an ostensibly “pure” case of non-territorial autonomy, whereas the 1938 Skizze über Neuordnung der innerstaatlichen Verhältnisse entailed major territorial provisions, in both cases the practical end-goal implied territorial autonomy. A closer look into their inner logic and intellectual origins however, also reveals a shared, essentially non-territorial underpinning. While the SdP agenda was firmly centered on national territory, its specific völkisch and organicist understanding of nationality manifested a clear preponderance of non-territoriality. Both sets of autonomist demands may thus be treated as a potentially maximalist combination of territorial and non-territorial arrangements resting on a fundamentally non-territorial notion of Volkspersönlichkeit. Encompassing all the members of the national group, the latter was simultaneously conceived as the basic carrier of political will. Volksschutzgesetze and Skizze thus represented clear examples of illiberal (re-)conceptualization of national autonomy, informed by contemporary völkisch sociological, legal, and political thought.

From National Autonomy to Independent State: The Bund in the Face of the State of Israel, 1948-1989

The title of the article ’From National Autonomy to Independent State‘ refers to the gradual change that occurred in the wake of the Holocaust with respect to the Bund’s refusal to recognize the State of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people during its first forty years. Yet notwithstanding the historical anti-Zionism ideology of the Bund, the movement never wavered in its identification with the State while remaining critical of Israel’s policy towards the Arab refugee problem created by the War of Independence (1948-1949).

Akaki Tsereteli’s unknown letter about repressions of year 1906

Part of Akaki Tsereteli’s creative legacy is still spread in different foundations or private collections. Difficulty about finding these writings is that some documents in various binders do not have description. Currently foundations are intensively being studied in order to create digital catalogues and whenever this process is finished, many interesting documents will be displayed. “Burning down Imereti during movement” is one of Akaki’s public letters which remained unknown until today. It will be published after 115 years in corresponding value of the writer's new academic publication of his works. Manuscript is being held at Kutaisi’s historic museum.“Burning down Imereti during movement” is about revolutionary movements and its echoes in Georgia, which took place in the years 1905-1907. On the one hand it is a bold protest against King’s cruel policy; Also, the article contains Akaki Tsereteli’s especially significant observations and thoughts about ongoing political processes.In the first paragraph of the article there is a very interesting observation of the author. According to his words, the Russian empire from the very beginning intended absolute occupation and annexation of Georgia. According to that, the friendly condition which led King Irakli of Kartli-Kakheti to let Russians in our country without war and blood, was definitely going to break. Akaki thought that everything that was done by Russian governance in our country, was provocative and its goal was to drag Georgian people into armed conflict.Events occurred in 1905 led to logical conclusions. Georgian nobles decided to officially demand national autonomy. On their emergency gathering they created an appropriate document and presented it to the emperor. Surely, the empire would not let Georgia restore their autonomy. They needed a reason to finally destroy us and the reason found out to be that revolutionary movement which was widespread not only in Russia, but also its subordinate countries including Georgia.According to Akaki Tsereteli, a significant part of society was against Georgia’s partaking in revolt from the beginning. They had reasonable suspicion that if the revolutionary movement would be defeated, this would totally change the perspective of Georgian-Russian relationship. Unfortunately, following events proved the correctness of this assumption - Georgians were pled guilty for separatism and it led to very brutal repressions. The events that occurred in Georgia were outrageous for Akaki. That is why he makes fun of Russia in his article and boldly declares that the decision of the government - campaigning against unarmed and helpless people, is worthless and unseemly.

Integrating through Crises

EMU was a brainchild of contrasting parental personalities. Integrationist European ambition joined disparate national pursuits to create an imperfect EMU architecture, though one amenable to correction through crises. When the debt crisis hit the periphery, recessionary national adjustment was supported by insufficient Eurozone-level reforms. The EU opted for incremental crisis management and paid a price in terms of fragmentation. The Eurozone debt crisis bequeathed a contradictory legacy of both raising the visibility of the reform agenda and raising the bar of political difficulty in bringing it about, having divided Europe between (heartless) ‘creditor’ and (reckless) ‘borrower’ countries. By raising the stakes of EU failure, the Covid-19 crisis operated as a reform accelerator. The joint reaction demonstrated that the EU maintained its survival instinct, drawing on the political capital invested in its preservation. The Eurozone’s reform conundrum remains the glaring gap between what is widely admitted as necessary and what is realized as politically feasible. Consecutive reform attempts have been frustrated by country coalitions that resist movement towards further risk sharing (through the fiscal, financial or monetary channel) or deny any further transfer of national autonomy. There are ways out of the EMU straitjacket. One is formally deferring the rules. Another is saying things without doing them. A third strategy is doing things without saying them. The momentous leap of ‘Next Generation EU’ notwithstanding, EMU remains incomplete, even though confidence in its ability to survive has been greatly boosted by its resilience in the face of the two severe, consecutive crises.

‘A False and Perverse Doctrine’

Chapter 5 explores the origins of Jacob Robinson and Shabtai Rosenne’s ambivalence towards the Genocide Convention and Raphael Lemkin. At its core was their reading of the Convention as the extension of interwar protection of minority rights—in essence, as a programme of Diaspora Nationalism. The Convention was predicated on a competing model of Jewish nationalism that, following Simon Dubnow, identified the Diaspora—not Palestine—as the proper locus for Jewish national revival. It challenged Zionism’s core assumptions about the Jewish condition and the solution it prescribed to the ‘Jewish Question’. A return to minority rights, after the Holocaust, undermined Zionism’s achievement of majority status in Palestine and negated the need for a Jewish state to guarantee the protection of Jews. Both Robinson and Rosenne had previously subscribed to Dubnow’s teachings; the chapter traces their ideological transformations: from investment in to disenchantment with national autonomy, minority rights, and Dubnow’s theories.

Capital Account Regulation and National Autonomy: The Political Economy of the New Welfare Economics

The 2007-2009 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) eroded the consensus around the benefits of capital mobility within mainstream economics. Against this background, this paper discusses to what extent the new mainstream position on capital flow management measures, based on the New Welfare Economics, expands the policy space of developing and emerging economies (DEEs). This paper argues that the new position can be classified as an embedded neoliberal one, given that it keeps liberalization as its ultimate goal, while nonetheless accepting to mitigate some of its harmful consequences. After comparing the capital account policies of China and Brazil, this paper concludes that the policy prescriptions of the New Welfare Economics do not lead to higher levels of national autonomy for DEEs and are likewise unable to curb financial instability in these countries.

Shipping Nationalism in India and China, 1920–52

The steamship networks that linked China and India from the mid-nineteenth century were a key facet of the British colonial presence in both places. By the early twentieth century, shipping was an important arena of nationalist mobilization in both as well. In China and India, the nationalist shipping entrepreneurs Lu Zuofu and Walchand Hirachand used both commercial and political means to dismantle the colonial shipping system, foster national autonomy, and envision decolonized futures. Although these entrepreneurs did not a have any direct contact with one another, the unmistakable parallels in their actions and arguments underscore the importance of the historical and structural connections between China and India between the 1920s and 1950s as these entrepreneurs contended with a shipping system of global reach. This chapter compares Lu and Hirachand’s strategies to develop national shipping power under colonial/semi-colonial rule and as a part of decolonization.

Slave of the Colonizer

This chapter reads Chinese poetry, short stories, and novels (1900–30) that engage the much-despised figure of the Indian policeman stationed by the British in China’s semi-colonial treaty ports. Grappling with the challenge of apprehending this Indian figure—who held the unique capacity to frustrate entrenched binaries of colonized and colonizer, brother and enemy, self and other—the Chinese texts articulate an antagonism at once founded upon intimacy and yet in expression of conflict. The texts engage in an exercise of thinking China and India together outside the tenets of pan-Asianist solidarity, extending a form of relation born out of repulsion. Although it erodes friendly ties, this mode of China–India thought proves generative, reshaping debates on literary language, national autonomy, and revolution underway in late Qing and early Republican China, and telling the story of modern Chinese literature’s development anew from the perspective of this unlikely Indian interlocuter.

Switzerland in Europe and the World

The final chapter looks at Switzerland in Europe and the world. The first section discusses the reasons why Switzerland is not a member of the EU. The second and third sections analyse the reasons and political consequences of Switzerland’s selective participation without membership and try to answer the question whether or not ‘bilateralism’ is a sustainable strategy for the Swiss preference: utmost economic integration and least political loss of national autonomy. The final section addresses the growing interest in the institutions of Swiss democracy from abroad, be it regarding decentralisation, direct democracy or political power-sharing. Instead of wanting to export democracy, the chapter proposes the ‘dialogue model’ as a discourse between equals. Through this approach, others can draw from the ‘Swiss experience’ as a base for autochthonal developments of their institutions. And the Swiss can be inspired, in turn.