Showing papers on "Expansionism published in 2000"

Fascist Ideology: Territory and Expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922-1945

Abstract: Fascist Ideology is a comparative study of the expansionist foreign policies of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany from 1922-1945. Fascist Ideology provides a comparative investigation of fascist expansionism by focusing on the close relations between ideology and action under Mussolini and Hitler. With an overview of the ideological motivations behind fascist expansionism and their impact on fascist policies, this book explores the two main issues which have dominated the historiographical debates on the nature of fascist expansionism: whether Italy's and Germany's particular expansionist tendancies can be attributed to a set of generic fascist values, or were shaped by the long term, uniquely national ambitions and developments since unification; whether the pursuit of expansion was opportunistic or followed a grand design in each case.

Namibia from colonisation to statehood: The paradoxical relationship between law and power in international society.

Abstract: On March 21 1990, Namibia became an independent state after 70 years of being a mandated territory under South African control. This thesis examines the dialectical relationship between power politics and international law in securing this outcome. From the beginning when South West Africa became a pawn in the European balance of power in the late 19th century, its atypical nature amongst other colonial territories reflected the ambiguous relationship between power politics and law. The Namibia conflict was essentially driven by balance of power politics. As this thesis demonstrates, it was at once a creation, a victim and a beneficiary of power politics. Nonetheless, while power drove the conflict, law constrained it. Indeed, its history paradoxically demonstrated a degree of complementarity between the two. By itself, international law was impotent to secure change in opposition to the realities of power and the interests of the great powers. On the other hand, the Namibian question was posed within the legal framework of the international arrangements for the transfer of power, i. e. mandate system, trusteeship, and decolonization regimes. At each stage, the complex and changing relationship between power and law became manifest. From the establishment of the mandate system in 1920, the ideas of self-determination and international accountability were ingrained in the consciousness of the metropolitan power. These ideas survived to influence much of the transfer of power debate. They did not stop power politics, but over the long term, they changed the legal framework within which it operated. Consequently, international law served as an institutional device for communicating the prevailing norms of the international community to the South Africa government and restrained South Africa from annexing Namibia. Yet international law alone could never create the optimal balance of incentives and costs necessary to resolve the Namibian issue. However, as the conflict became externalized within the Cold War, the United States, acting out of self-interest in containing Soviet expansionism in Southern Africa, discovered that a solution was an effective means of achieving this objective. Thus Namibia was a beneficiary of power politics, and the international community finally sanctioned the outcome.

Cultural imperialism: A critical theory of interorganizational change

Abstract: Current theories of organization tend to discuss the management of change across networks in a grammar of instrumental reason, thereby offering legitimacy to the imperialism that emerges when groups come together in a shared‐change experience. However, by adopting principles of critical theory, the social research project initiated by a group of scholars known as the “Frankfurt School”, we may challenge this degradation of knowledge and its companion, human domination. A critical theory of interorganizational change reveals three forms of organizational imperialism: cultural domination, cultural imposition, and cultural fragmentation. From this perspective, we may understand the deleterious human, social and cultural consequences of organizational expansionism, and thereby initiate a dialogue for cultural emancipation, a more meaningful, culturally sensitive approach to change.

Interculturalism and Resistance in the London Theater, 1660-1800: Identity, Performance, Empire

Abstract: This book argues that the eighteenth-century British theater is a dynamic expression and a powerful register of the anxieties and tensions of a culture poised for global supremacy. It also argues that nationalism, as both active movement and contemplative ideology, cannot be separated from the themes of expansionism that propel the many incentives, principles, and sites of performance.

US foreign policy in world history

Abstract: US Foreign Policy in World History is a survey of US foreign relations and its perceived crusade to spread liberty and democracy in the two hundred years since the American Revolution. David Ryan undertakes a systematic and material analysis of US foreign policy, whilst also explaining the policymakers' grand ideas, ideologies and constructs that have shaped US diplomacy.US Foreign Policy explores these arguments by taking a thematic approach structured around central episodes and ideas in the history of US foreign relations and policy making, including:* The Monroe Doctrine, its philisophical goals and impact* Imperialism and expansionism* Decolonization and self-determination* the Cold War* Third World development* the Soviet 'evil empire', the Sandinistas and the 'rogue' regime of Saddam Hussein* the place of goal for economic integration within foreign affairs.

Text and Context in the 1952 Presidential Campaign: Eisenhower's "I Shall Go to Korea" Speech

Abstract: It is not often the case that a single speech is credited with exerting a decisive effect on a presidential election. But Dwight Eisenhower's address of October 24, 1952 is one such speech. Both the Republican strategists who crafted and approved the speech and the Democratic strategists who tried to respond to it have testified to the electric--and possibly definitive--effect that the announcement of Eisenhower's intention to visit the battlefield in Korea had on the electorate, particularly the large group of undecided voters (Hughes 1957; McKeever 1989, 244). Scholars, too, have pointed to the "I Shall Go to Korea" speech as "one of the most effective campaign speeches of modern times" (Donovan 1982, 401; Greene 1985, 219; Caridi, 1968, 234). Barton J. Bernstein (1971) represents a broad scholarly consensus when he argues that "the great impact of the speech rested upon the military prestige of the General, a man whom many believed could end the war' (pp. 3249-50; Alexander 1975; Ambrose 1983). There can be little doubt that Eisenhower's personal ethos played a large role in voter response to the Republican campaign generally and the speech of October 24 in particular. However, to leave it at that is to miss much of the rhetorical dynamism that characterized the 1952 presidential campaign. It is my contention that the public reaction to Ike's speech of October 24 can best be understood by considering four interlocking contexts of discourse, contexts that formed a large portion of the conceptual, emotional, and interpretive schemata by which voters in 1952 understood and acted upon their world. These four contexts are (1) the discourse of cold war as it had been practiced from 1946 to 1952; (2) the discourse of foreign policy debate, especially as that debate concerned Asia; (3) the discourse of the Korean conflict as practiced from June 25, 1950 to 1952; and (4) the discourse of Dwight D. Eisenhower, formed from 1942 to 1952, but especially those aspects of the discourse revealed during the 1952 campaign and featuring an appeal to ethos. All four contexts inform the text of "I Shall Go to Korea" and together constitute the "mind" of the era--and therefore of the electorate--that found the speech so powerful. By examining the interrelationships between and among this single text and its contexts--rhetorical, historical, psychological, and ideological--I hope to illustrate how texts that may on first encounter appear discrete and self-contained should, in fact, be conceived as "sites" where contending discursive forces meet and in that meeting form rhetorical alloys that, by virtue of their combinations, possess more potency than any single element. The Korean Conflict and Contextual Discourses Korea was a hot war that broke out in the midst of the ongoing cold war. Indeed, the Korean conflict cannot be understood at all apart from the strategic dimensions that motivated American intervention. Richard Whelan (1990) puts the matter succinctly when he notes: In retrospect, we may say that the rescue of South Korea was not an end in itself. It was a means to an end, or rather to several ends: (1) to convince the Soviets that they didn't dare to make any further aggressive moves and (2) thus to prevent World War III; (3) to uphold America's prestige in the eyes of the entire world; (4) as Truman later put it, "to demonstrate to the world that the friendship of the United States is of inestimable value in time of adversity"; and (5) to squelch domestic, and specifically Republican, criticism of the Truman administration. To these ends must be added one more ...: to demonstrate the ability of the UN to halt aggression (not merely to denounce it) and thus to bolster the Western system of collective security. (Pp. 119-20) Implicit in these goals were the perceptions of the enemy held by both Democrats and Republicans in cold war America: that the Soviet Union was an aggressive power that sought to conquer not only its neighbors but the entire world; that unless Soviet expansionism could be "contained," a third wood war was likely; that only America could lead the "free wood" against such Communist aggression; and that only a united "free world," gathered under the banner of collective security, could hope to prevail over the numerically superior armies of the Soviet Union and Red China (Halle 1967; Feis 1970; Gaddis 1972; Levering 1982; Gaddis 1987; Gaddis 1997). …

Are Pro-Welfare State and Full-Employment Policies Possible in the Era of Globalization?:

Abstract: There is a widely held belief in U.S. and European economic, political, and academic circles that economic globalization has considerably diminished states' power to follow public policies identified with the social democratic tradition, such as full-employment policies, comprehensive and universal provision of welfare state services, and state regulatory interventions in labor markets and economic policies. And large sectors of the European center-left and left parties believe that European monetary integration made expansionist and full-employment policies practically impossible, except when realized at the European continental level. This article presents empirical information that questions these positions. It documents how specific governments in Europe have been able to carry out such public policies during these years of economic globalization and monetary integration. Some countries (such as Sweden and Finland) that had carried out these policies then later weakened their implementation did so in response to political changes mostly unrelated to globalization of the economy or monetary integration. The article also analyzes and documents how countries that had followed expansionist and full-employment policies have responded to the globalization of financial markets.

Business and empire: a reassessment of the british conquest of burma in 1885

Abstract: Drawing upon recently published research and previously unseen archival sources, the article provides a new explanation of the British conquest of Burma in 1885. Previous explanations have attributed British motives for conquest to either the need to defend the eastern borders of Britain's Indian empire from French expansion in mainland south-east Asia, or the desire to open Burma and China to British trade and investment at a time of perceived economic depression. The article contends that while French expansionism certainly loomed large in the British decision to invade, commercial interests and considerations were pivotal in persuading the British government of the French threat. In particular, the role of London-based ‘gentlemanly capitalists’ in shaping government policy is emphasized and explored. In the process, new insights into the methods and strategies of City financiers are revealed. Besides contributing to the debate surrounding the ‘gentlemanly capitalism’ thesis of Cain and Hopkins, the article also evaluates the importance of socio-economic conditions in Burma itself as a factor which stimulated British expansion.

The Making of the National Geographic: Sciece, Culture, and Expansionism

Abstract: Five days before Christmas, in 1905, the National Geographic Society held an elaborate dinner in Washington, D.C. With over 200 guests—including explorers, diplomats, senators and congressmen—the Society was celebrating a membership that had grown from 3,400 to 11,000 in that year alone. The Society ' s President, Willis Moore, attributed this success to the character of its members, \"the thinking, intellectual people of this city, of the nation, and somewhat from all nations—those who wish to keep abreast with the thought and activities of the world at large.\" For Moore, the public's interest in geography—as defined by the Society—fed the intellectual wealth of American civilization, which had since 1898 broken beyond its continental confines and \"leaped forward from this island to that, [until] today we find the free institutions of this country planted at the very doors of the Orient.\" In turn, the nation's new role abroad intensified the need for the Society to translate the meaning of these changes, to illuminate \"the world and all that is in it.\" The evening's guest of honor, Secretary of War William Howard

Why the Canon Should Be Expanded to Include the Insular Cases and the Saga of American Expansionism

Abstract: All disciplines are constituted by their canonsthat series of "set texts" that comprises the core materials of any given academic area. As Jack Balkin and I have written elsewhere, debates about the canon are rife in many contemporary disciplines, most notably, perhaps (at least in terms of public attention), in English and American literature, but most certainly including legal studies. One can ask very generally what legal materials all law students should be exposed to, or one can ask the more limited question as to what students studying constitutional law should be expected to read. That is, what should constitute the canon of constitutional law? Even this way of putting the question may be too broad, though, for we argue that one cannot begin constructing a set of

Border Crossings in the Mexican American War

Abstract: Rosemary King [*] One seldom opens up a newspaper today without noticing the prevalence of violence erupting in or around international borders, as in the case of the Balkans, central Africa, and the former republics of the Soviet Union. Even in the Americas, the United States-Mexico border has become increasingly militarized. An investigation into the origins of the border is useful in understanding the current conflicts between multiple communities in the United States-Mexico borderlands as we approach the twenty-first century. This paper explores the origin of the border and its manifestations through an application of Benedict Anderson's theory of a nation, set forth in Imagined Communities, to various first-hand accounts of the Mexican American War (1846-48) written by U.S. and Mexican citizens. The following three snapshots in time offer a useful case study for such an analysis: General Scott's landing at Vera Cruz, the capture of the San Patricios, and the American occupation of Mexico City. Recognizing the patterns of how communities created the border approximately 150 years ago from the crucible of the Mexican American War may improve our understanding of the contentious United States-Mexico border today: if we recognize how borders are constructed, perhaps we may facilitate better our own crossings. The War in Context: Manifest Destiny In the nineteenth century, newly independent nations throughout the Americas had problems populating isolated regions located in outlying border zones. Mexico was no exception. Following the war of independence with Spain in the 1820s, Mexico had difficulty settling its northern provinces of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Texas (Skidmore, 228). In an effort to populate the region, the Mexican government continued a policy initiated by Spain that allowed Americans to settle in the region (Martfnez, 11; Eisenhower, 196). The fledgling nation's liberal policy backfired when Texas declared its independence from Mexico, and the United States annexed the state in 1845 (Skidmore, 228). The Mexican government viewed the annexation as a hostile act and severed relations with the United States for two reasons (McAfee, 1). [1] First, Mexican politicians felt U.S. settlers in Texas had taken advantage of Mexican good will efforts allowing them to homestead in the area. Second, Mexicans feared the United S tates would make further land claims on Mexican territory. These fears were exacerbated by the fact that the western frontier of Texas was not clearly delineated. According to Mexican historian Enrique Krauze, "at the start of its independence, [Mexico] was not even close to having a reliable map of its territories and borders" (131). The disputed land between the United States and Mexico ultimately became the site of conflict that sparked the war (Skidmore, 229; Martinez, 12). During this period, American expansionists interested in laying claim to Mexican territory became increasingly vocal and aggressive. Secretary of State James Buchanan, for instance, recommended U.S. territorial goals be pursued through a policy of "firmness and action accompanied by moderation of language" toward Mexico such that the "[p]ower and true greatness [that] belong to our country ought never waste themselves in words towards a feeble and distracted sister republic" (McAfee, 2-3). Expansionists used the ideology of Manifest Destiny to back claims on Mexican territory, arguing that the United States had a moral duty to spread westward to the Pacific Ocean (Eisenhower, 196). This moral duty took many forms, depending on the particular biases and motives of the source. For example, some argued Americans should share their "superior [political] institutions with those less favored;" some claimed the Mexican people were inferior and needed paternal guidance; others argued "Providence" called on the Unite d States to expand as a nation; finally, still others believed the United States had a duty to "civilize" the wild Mexican frontier (Eisenhower, 198). …

Theodore Roosevelt, Congress, and the Military: U.S. Civil‐Military Relations in the Early Twentieth Century

Abstract: "Someone should kick ... Rosevelt [sic]," complained one naval officer about the assistant secretary of the navy in 1898 (Davis 1898). Hunter Davis disliked Theodore Roosevelt's efforts to end the squabbling over status between the navy's line and engineering officers in the late nineteenth century. Davis's protest foreshadowed the sentiments of many officers toward Theodore Roosevelt, once he became their commander in chief in September 1901. Although Roosevelt was one of the best friends of the military services ever to reside in the White House, civil-military relations were not always harmonious during his presidency. In fact, he presided during a period of notable stress, uncertainty, and adjustment in civil-military affairs, and his actions--and sometimes inaction--prompted considerable debate and tension.(1) A confluence of factors at the turn of the twentieth century made Roosevelt's presidency, and those of his immediate successors, a time that tested old boundaries and established new ones in civil-military affairs. The period itself, the Progressive Era, brought transition and adjustment in American life. Reformers attacked the myriad problems associated with urbanization and industrialization; a new, post-Civil War generation assumed the mantle of political leadership; and the United States solidified its newly asserted status as a great power and protector of a modest overseas empire. During this period of rapid change, stress was inevitable, and military affairs were not immune. Tensions in military matters became especially great around the turn of the twentieth century because four elements that went straight to the heart of civil-military relations managed to converge at the same time. The new brand of overseas expansionism in American foreign policy generated an emotional political debate and questions about resources and missions for the military services. In addition, jealousy over constitutional prerogatives flared as the executive branch under Roosevelt challenged congressional influence over the organization of the War and Navy Departments and the development of military policies. Officers, for their part, split into alliances (often self-serving) with members of the executive or legislative branches. At the same time, a generational shift in both people and values complicated the picture and divided loyalties. Those Americans raised in a largely preindustrial, preurban nation--and forged into a distinct generation by the fires of the Civil War--were gradually making way for a new crop of leaders, although without a complete surrender of the older values that they represented. Finally, the press added an extra dimension to the traditional civil-military troika of president, Congress, and uniformed military in the form of mass circulation newspapers and national magazines. Participants in civil-military disputes could sometimes find a ready ally in the press, or sometimes they found it to be an independent agent that, through the force of public opinion, brought new emphasis to the "civil" side in civil-military relations. Theodore Roosevelt represented the principal axis around which civil-military relations turned in the first decade of the twentieth century. He assumed several roles, some official and others unofficial, that frequently made him the focus of civil-military debates. Officially, Roosevelt served, of course, as commander in chief and functioned, as well, as chief diplomat, but he also behaved as what could best be termed "chief dilettante," for he frequently dabbled in detailed aspects of military technology, training, planning, and operations (Oyos 1993). His expansive view of executive authority and his talent at generating publicity also contributed to his active role in remolding the civil-military architecture. All in all, across the range of military affairs, Roosevelt helped define debates, fuel controversies, solve problems, and focus expectations, although his ideas sometimes created more difficulties and disappointment than resolution and satisfaction. …

FASCIST FOREIGN POLICY AND OFFICAL ITALIAN VIEWS OF ANTHONY EDEN IN THE 1930s

Abstract: This article examines the relationship between Anthony Eden, British minister for League of Nations' affairs (1935) and foreign secretary (1935–8), and Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime within the context of Italian foreign policy in the later 1930s. It outlines the precise aims and objectives of Mussolini's expansionist policies over the period 1935–8, assesses the accuracy of Eden's interpretation of them and, in turn, discusses official Italian diplomatic perceptions of Eden. It specifically challenges Renzo De Felice's view that for Mussolini, the Italian conquest of Ethiopia (1935–6) marked the limit of Fascist expansionism. Furthermore, it contests his theory that the dictator did not pursue an Italo–German alliance that would drive an Italian imperialist war against Britain and France in the Mediterranean and Red Sea. Anthony Eden had been fully aware of such an intention, and had been targeted by the regime as Italy's ‘public enemy number one’, precisely because he fully comprehended what lay at the heart of Mussolini's brand of Fascism.

The Baltimore/Pongo connection: American entrepreneurism, colonial expansionism, or African opportunism?

Abstract: From the beginning of the republic, American interests covered all of Africa's western coast. Its principal commerce, however, focused upon a section bordered by the Gambia River to the north and Cape Palmas to the south. Nowhere was that influence greater than in the Rio Nunez to Iles de Los region of present GuineaConakry. For this limited area, a prominent American presence was accepted by the British between 1794 and 1818. In the early 1820s, however, after the American Colonization Society had established a settlement at what was to become Liberia, the British began to see American actions in settling free and freed African-Americans as part of a covert attempt to undercut British power and influence at Sierra Leone and to weaken British control over its own African-American settlers and commerce. As a result, the British accused American commercial and emigrationist interests of planning outright encirclement and subversion.

Nazism and polarization: the left and the third reich

Abstract: This review provides an overview and critique of recent scholarship on German National Socialism. It focuses on four problems through which historians have recently challenged the Marxist scholarship that played a significant role in shaping debates on Nazism in the sixties and seventies : the composition of the Nazi electorate, the Nazi ‘racial state’, Nazi social policy, and the Holocaust. Although acknowledging the importance of such themes in recent work as the Nazi regime's racism, anti-Semitism, and modernity, the review maintains that the key issue in Marxist scholarship, the polarization between left and right during the interwar period in Europe, provides the essential context for understanding the Nazi regime's ideological extremes and racial practices. To make its case, it explores four examples of the left's influence, the German left's relative cohesion as political and social movements, its place in the discourse of ‘racial hygiene’, its role in debates on the ‘standard of living’, and finally, its relevance to Nazi expansionism and the ‘Final Solution’.

Austria 1950: Strikes, ‘Putsch’ and their Political Context:

Abstract: In 1950 occupied Austria experienced the most dangerous wave of labour protest in its post-war history The government reacted by accusing the Communist Party of attempting to destabilize democracy, seize power and draw the country into the Eastern Bloc For decades the events were known as the ‘1950 “Putsch”’ and came to symbolize both Austria’s geopolitical vulnerability to Soviet expansionism, and the strength of her post-war national cohesion This article examines the background to the strikes, their development and the reaction to them, and argues that they were a grassroots protest against the system of centrally negotiated wages and prices agreements which was the precursor of the Austrian Social Partnership Despite protests against earlier agreements, the government was forced to adopt further controls in the summer of 1950 to reconcile the conflict between removing subsidies and controlling prices When the strikes broke out, it exaggerated Communist and Soviet intervention in order to deflate

The Underwood stereograph travel system : a historical and cultural analysis

Abstract: This study considers the implications of the "stereoscopic tours" and Travel System produced by the American photographic concern Underwood & Underwood, c. 1897-1912 from the perspective of social and cultural history. After providing an account of the history of the European and American stereo industries, a cultural-contextual reading of stereoscopic tourism is offered. This reading focuses on two main aspects of late 19 th century American society: middle-class tourism, and burgeoning U.S. expansionism. A conclusion points the way to further study by considering the stereograph's role in the shift towards the visual bias of knowledge.

The Soviet Union in Southeast Asia: National Perspectives from the Region*

Abstract: It is often tempting to describe Soviet-Southeast Asian relations as if a single view exists. Equally prevalent is the belief that the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries are unanimous in opposing Soviet "expansionism" in the region. While this statement may be true in general terms, differences in nuances and, at times, genuine clashes of interest drastically alter this basic scenario. This paper aims to analyse the ASEAN member states' perspectives on Soviet involve ment in the region, especially in terms of how they perceive the "Soviet threat''. As for the views of the Indochinese states, especially Vietnam, and Burma, it is only possible to make educated guesses because relatively little is known about the goals and perceptions of their leaders. But whenever the term Southeast Asia appears in the paper, it refers to all regional countries except when specific reference is made.

Writing the Wrongs of French Colonial Africa: Voyage au Congo and Le Retour du Tchad

Abstract: Andre Gide’s 1926–1927 Congo journey began as a pleasure jaunt into the exotic and the erotic: “Everything here seems to hold the promise of bliss, voluptuousness, and forgetting.”1 It survives as a text, a travel narrative addressed primarily to a European readership about the author’s close encounter with the social and political reality of French colonial Africa. Gide’s very decision to publish his travel writings and to take a public position based on his personal observations reveals a political strategy that he will pursue over the subsequent decade. The epistemological shift necessary for him to engage in this public debate carries with it a fundamental assumption about the writer’s role in the social and political community. “What is at stake in writing is the very structure of authority itself,” affirms Barbara Johnson (48). Gide had made strategic use of writing as a way to self-knowledge and revelation throughout his career. He now had to turn to the revelation of a different kind of scene of compelling dramatic importance, one that only tangentially overlapped with his personal concerns: the colonial situation in French Equatorial Africa. Political discourse exerts its power in the public sphere when it becomes visibly and tangibly connected to the author’s presence. Gide’s maneuvering and positioning vis-a-vis the colonial power structure, while overtly dealing with abuses witnessed during his travels in French Equatorial Africa, have a more direct bearing on his own cultural politics. His strategic opposition to colonial practices and policies underscores his desire to establish his own authority in a public debate taking place not in the Congo but in Paris, intellectual, cultural, and political capital of France’s colonial empire. In a highly self-referential way, Gide inscribes his opposition to the very culture of French expansionism in which he gravitates and to which he addresses his critiques.

Vietnam and the Spratly Islands Dispute Since 1992

Abstract: : The sovereignty dispute over the Spratlys Islands and jurisdiction in the South China Sea remains an important issue in Asia-Pacific security today. The race to establish the validity of claims has increased diplomatic discord and resulted in armed conflict. Hanoi's behavior in the Spratlys has implications for its relations with Vietnam's neighbors and for regional arrangements generally. This thesis examines Vietnam's approach to the Spratlys dispute since 1992. It concludes that: Hanoi's wooing of ASEAN has helped restrain China and the other claimants in the dispute; that Hanoi's rapprochement with Beijing has helped to limit China from seizing areas in the Spratlys occupied by Vietnam; that Hanoi's diplomacy has slowed Chinese expansionism in the Spratlys, while Hanoi's military build-up since 1992 has not; and Hanoi's appeal to UNCLOS has not helped resolve the dispute on its terms. To resolve the dispute in a peaceful manner, Hanoi must collaborate with the ASEAN states, Taiwan, and the larger Asia-Pacific community to prevent Beijing from dominating the Spratlys and the South China Sea.

Seeking Green Societies: From Expansionism to Holistic Ecology - eScholarship

Abstract: This essay opens the window to some of the economic, social and 'natural' components of the dominant ideology. It discusses these components as barriers that inhibit the creation of green societies, and proposes some solutions towards achieving a more preferable future. Specifically, it maintains that there is a need for expansionist (ever-expanding) societies to undergo a paradigm shift from the current industrial conception of nature to a more holistic and ecologically based interpretation of nature. It also argues that expansionist societies should renounce neoclassical economics in favour of ecological economics, as well as reject homogeneity and universalism in order to sustain cultural, biological and epistemological diversity. II Between the 16th and 18th centuries, expansionist societies began to perceive the world as a machine-like entity composed of physical properties and inanimate, dead matter. Life, consciousness, and humanity were to be explained, constructed, and examined as physical interchangeable parts. Organic ideologies which perceived the cosmos, nature, and humanity as a nurturing living whole embodying a soul, spirit, and emotions were to be suppressed by a dominant ideology that was overly linear in orientation. Economic life was to become mechanical in nature and disconnected from earthly processes. Nature and humanity (primarily along lines of race, class, and gender) were to be shaped by a mechanistic, 'scientific,' and 'rational' ideology. The dominant ideology with its associated values of power and control sanctioned the management of both nature and humanity (Merchant, 1990). Nature, women, people of colour, and wage labourers, to name a few, were set on a path towards a new status as natural and as human 'resources' for the expansionist system (Merchant, 1992). Moreover, consciousness itself had become just another 'resource' to be exploited (Tokar, 1987). This history of control, manipulation and management plagues contemporary praxis (theory and practice). The dominant ideology is not only more evident, but it is more destructive than ever before. This active and tangible ideology supported and reinforced by key actors, institutions, and processes has, for example, dramatically reduced biological and cultural diversity; legitimized mass tropical, temperate and boreal deforestation; created and accelerated stratospheric ozone layer depletion; and polluted the earth's air, land and water. In order to achieve sustainability, the dominant ideology will need to be challenged. It will need to be overcome by the strength of a more earthly praxis. The contemporary dominant ideology's construction of nature threatens any movement towards sustainability. For one, it positions humanity outside of nature. It attempts to separate human beings from the natural world, and suggests that human beings are fundamentally different from all other creatures on earth, over which they have authority. Moreover, the dominant ideology gives the impression that relationships are largely human-centred and disconnected from the natural world. It suggests that human affairs are not reliant on the lives of plants, animals, and the soil (Zimmerman, 1997). The dominant ideology also reinforces the perception that nature can be managed (particularly by powerful actors) (Drengson, 1983). Nature cannot be managed. Those who are in the position of power to manage are only managing their interactions with nature. Nature is not some static entity trapped under controlled conditions, but rather contains ever-changing self-organizing processes. Management goals that involve maintaining some fixed state in an ecosystem or maximizing some function (biomass, productivity, number of species) or minimising some other function (pest outbreak) will always lead to disaster at some point, no matter how well meaning they are (Kay & Schneider, 1994, p. 37). Nature contains balances, optimum points of operation, and these balances are constantly adjusting to suit changing environments. …

Warfare at Sea, 1500-1650: Maritime Conflicts and the Transformation of Europe/The Anglo-Dutch Naval Wars 1652-1764

Abstract: Jan Glete, Warfare at Sea, 1500-1650: Maritime Conflicts and the Transformation of Europe, Routledge, London, 2000, pp. viii + 231, pb. £15.99, ISBN: 0415214556; Roger Hainsworth and Christine Churches, The Anglo- Dutch Naval Wars 1652-1764, Stroud, Sutton Publishing, 1998, xi + 212, £20, ISBN: 0750917873Ever since A. T. Mahan linked the rise of the Western European empires of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to their ability to effectively harness and exercise naval power, colonial, economic and military historians have sought to unravel the complex connections between technological advance and territorial expansionism which afforded a disproportionate advantage to the dominant maritime states of England and Holland in their single-minded pursuit of diplomacy, as well as of trade, by other means.1 Yet the foundation of permanent national fleets, staffed by professional officers and laid down as the result of central planning, expertise and direction, had its origins in a much earlier period and can be located in the struggles of the Ottoman and Habsburg empires to eliminate competition and to secure the prime Mediterranean trade routes for themselves. As Jan Glete emphasises in his thoroughly revisionist re-opening of the debate upon the 'Military Revolution', naval warfare has always been primarily about establishing control over maritime lines of communication; however, from the sixteenth to the seventeenth centuries, innovations in hull design, the art of navigation, seamanship, and the introduction of light weight, mass produced, artillery pieces presented the opportunity to effectively convoy merchantmen - free from the depredations of corsairs and commercial rivals - to exercise near total command of the sea lanes, and to guarantee the resupply of far-flung colonies with at least a degree of certainty.The relative reluctance of previous scholars to acknowledge these seminal influences, or to seek to prematurely dismiss or downgrade the effectiveness of the Ottoman and Venetian galleys, is forcefully exposed by the author who contrasts the technological parity enjoyed by navies of the late middle ages with the rapid divergence in design, range and armament which was characteristic of the early modern period. These changes were significant contributory factors to the expansion of longdistance commerce and the shift away from the traditional northern European markets, such as the Hanseatic ports, to the far more lucrative entrepots afforded by the Mediterranean, the Atlantic rim and Asia. Were Glete to have stopped at an analysis of the rise of the square-rigged ship and the growing influence of the Dutch Republic, then this, in itself, would have been a substantial and rewarding study. What sets his work apart is the sheer scope of its remit. In charting the rise of, and challenges to, Swedish and Danish-Norwegian pre-eminence in the Baltic, the rapid expansion and flowering of the Portuguese empire and the first European inroads into the continents of America and Asia, he masters an enormous range of disparate and often complex sources, succinctly marshalling them in order to support his major thesis. In revealing the struggle over 'the monopoly of violence' between private and national interest groups, and the perils inherent in the ultimate failure of the Habsburg and Ottoman empires through their unwillingness - or simply inability - to pursue this new arms race to its logical conclusion, Glete advances a well founded and persuasive argument which restores maritime endeavour to prominence in any future discussion of state and empire building.That the victors and beneficiaries of these advances in applied science should very quickly fall out amongst themselves and seek to wrest commercial advantages from their opponents by force, as the first option, appears in this light as no great surprise. By the close of Glete's study, England and the United Provinces had already established their dominance over the northern European carrying trades and were looking to expand their influence into the territories of the New World and Asia which had, hitherto, been the sole preserve of Spain and Portugal. …

Introduction: Agonizing Reappraisals

Abstract: In the late 1940s, as Cold War tensions mounted in Europe, British and American policymakers gave increasing consideration to the possible use of West German troops to augment the defences of Western Europe. The fact that Britain and the United States were prepared to countenance such an idea so soon after the end of the Second World War bears testimony to the scale of the deterioration in their relations with the Soviet Union. Indeed, by 1947, the extent of the schism had become so great that both sides gave up even the pretence of co-operation on international matters. With the promulgation of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, the United States signalled a new activist approach to the containment of potential Soviet expansionism. Viewed from Moscow, however, the American policy declarations seemed to herald the beginnings of a US-led anti-Soviet bloc in Western Europe. The Soviet response was the so-called ‘left turn’ in its foreign policy in the autumn of 1947: anti-Western propaganda became virulent and vitriolic; the Comintern was reconstituted as the Cominform to encourage the spread of revolution in countries beyond the Soviet Union; and Moscow openly declared its belief that the world was now divided into ‘two camps’, the socialist and the capitalist, and that the former would assuredly triumph over the latter.

The Security Challenge of the 1980s

Abstract: At the beginning of the 1980s Francois Mitterrand was acutely aware of the challenges facing the international security environment, and France’s position within it. The period of detente which had characterised superpower relations for the greater part of the 1970s had ended, replaced by a resurgence of Cold War tensions between the USA and the USSR. Soviet aggression and expansionism had been reinstated through military involvement in Angola and Ethiopia in the later 1970s, and had been reiterated by the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Moscow’s threat to Europe was perceived to have increased with the deployment of intermediate-range nuclear force systems such as SS-20 missiles and Backfire bombers. In the West, the twin-track decision taken by NATO in December 19791 heightened the sense of confrontation. In addition, the electoral victories of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 and Ronald Reagan in 1980 indicated that a stronger line would be taken against Soviet belligerence in the future.