Showing papers on "Expansionism published in 2007"

Blood and soil : a world history of genocide and extermination from Sparta to Darfur

Abstract: A book of surpassing importance that should be required reading for leaders and policymakers throughout the world For thirty years Ben Kiernan has been deeply involved in the study of genocide and crimes against humanity. He has played a key role in unearthing confidential documentation of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. His writings have transformed our understanding not only of twentieth-century Cambodia but also of the historical phenomenon of genocide. This new book-the first global history of genocide and extermination from ancient times-is among his most important achievements. Kiernan examines outbreaks of mass violence from the classical era to the present, focusing on worldwide colonial exterminations and twentieth-century case studies including the Armenian genocide, the Nazi Holocaust, Stalin's mass murders, and the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides. He identifies connections, patterns, and features that in nearly every case gave early warning of the catastrophe to come: racism or religious prejudice, territorial expansionism, and cults of antiquity and agrarianism. The ideologies that have motivated perpetrators of mass killings in the past persist in our new century, says Kiernan. He urges that we heed the rich historical evidence with its telltale signs for predicting and preventing future genocides.

In What Ways Is 'The New Imperialism' Really New?

Abstract: This essay argues that it is a matter of vital concern to develop a theoretical apparatus that is adequate to the inherent spatiotemporal dynamics of capital accumulation and the changing practices developed to manage the crisis tendencies of those dynamics. This requires integrating the a-spatial theory of capital accumulation and its internal contradictions with the spatial/geographical theory of imperialism that invokes geopolitical and geo-economic struggles between nation-states. I argue that the two are linked by the way capital deals with the problem of absorbing capital surpluses, namely through geographical (and temporal) fixes. The geographical fix requires imperialist expansionism and the battering down of all barriers to the spatial movement of capital. Such a conception provides the necessary clarity in formulating the relations between capital and state that are sometimes missing from Ellen M. Wood's arguments in Empire of Capital.

Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy

Abstract: Often remembered as the president who died shortly after taking office, William Henry Harrison remains misunderstood by most Americans. Before becoming the ninth president of the United States in 1841, Harrison was instrumental in shaping the early years of westward expansion. Robert M. Owens now explores that era through the lens of Harrison's career, providing a new synthesis of his role in the political development of Indiana Territory and in shaping Indian policy in the Old Northwest. Owens traces Harrison's political career as secretary of the Northwest Territory, territorial delegate to Congress, and governor of Indiana Territory, as well as his military leadership and involvement with Indian relations. Thomas Jefferson, who was president during the first decade of the nineteenth century, found in Harrison the ideal agent to carry out his administration's ruthless campaign to extinguish Indian land titles. More than a study of the man, Mr. Jefferson's Hammer is a cultural biography of his fellow settlers, telling how this first generation of post-Revolutionary Americans realized their vision of progress and expansionism. It surveys the military, political, and social world of the early Ohio Valley and shows that Harrison's attitudes and behavior reflected his Virginia background and its eighteenth-century notions as much as his frontier milieu. To this day, we live with the echoes of Harrison's proclamations, the boundaries set by his treaties, and the ramifications of his actions. Mr. Jefferson's Hammer offers a much needed reappraisal of Harrison's impact on the nation's development and key lessons for understanding American sentiments in the early republic.

Israel's wall and the logic of encystation: Sovereign exception or wild sovereignty?

Abstract: It seems vital, in the face of escalating Israeli expansionism in the Palestinian Territories and obstructionism in the "Peace Process," to theorize the cultural foundations of a process of containment and dispossession of Pales- tinians that can no longer convincingly be seen as mere strategy. Symptomatic of the Israeli state program is the "wall" (a.k.a., "the Security Fence" or the "Apartheid Wall") and its radical encroachment into territory designated as the grounds of a future Palestinian state. The following essay attempts an anthropo- logical analysis of the concept of "border" in contemporary Israeli thought and practice, and, in so doing, assesses the impact of a limitless sovereignty on both an encompassed minority population and on international relations more generally.

A military history of Italy

Abstract: This book follows Italy's military history from the late Renaissance through the present day, arguing that its leaders have consistently looked back to the power of Imperial Rome as they sought to bolster Italy's status and influence in the world. As early as the late 15th century, Italian city-states played important roles in European conflicts. After unification in 1861, the military would become the nation's unifying force, the melting pot of the state. Italy's industrial and then colonial expansion brought it into the wars of the 20th century. The rise of fascist movement was the disastrous consequence of Italy's desire for colonial and military power, a history that the nation still confronts as it seeks to play a role in world politics. Wealthy, urban Italy has always had great political, cultural, and strategic importance for Europe. The leaders of its independent city-states intervened militarily in struggles among the European powers to its north and west but also against the expanding Muslim empires to its south and east. Italian culture supported military innovation, developing (for instance) new fortifications and naval organizations. After centuries of division, which limited Italy's power against the larger, unified European nations, the military played an important role in the nationalist unification of the entire country. Rapid industrialization followed, and along with it Italy's forays into overseas colonialism. Italy became a major power, but its turn to militant fascism during its expansionist era continues to haunt its state and military.

Assistance of a Different Kind: Chinese Political Warfare in Ghana, 1958–1966

Abstract: The recent spotlight on Communist China's relations with African nations is not the first time it has occurred, nor will it be the last. In the 1960s, similar commentators and supposed scholars on the subject brought attention to the “Red Peril” or “Red Invasion” descending onto Africa. The past obsession was with Communist expansionism; the current one, with access to raw materials and natural resources. What past and current assessments fail to account for fully, however, is Chinese grand strategy—and one grand strategic instrument, in particular, called political warfare. Long ago discarded and ignored by the Western powers, political warfare, rightly understood, is a nonviolent instrument of grand strategy involving coordinated activities that have tangible effects on intended targets. China on the African continent used this assistance of a different kind in the past and continues to use it today. This historical case study of Chinese political warfare in Ghana sheds light on China's past operations ...

9. Korea And China

Abstract: This chapter discusses Yamaji Aizan's view of Korea and China and argues that it is misleading to regard Yamaji simply as an imperialist who supported territorial expansionism. Although being critical of Japan's bureaucratic administration of Korea, which tended to neglect the Koreans, Yamaji Aizan supported Japan's annexation of Korea. Like Naitō Konan, Yamaji Aizan wrote about the ever-changing conditions of contemporary China. Yamaji further discussed differences in tradition, society and education between China and Japan, and pointed out some difficulties in unifying China. Yamaji asserted that the Han people, namely the core Chinese, had been ruled by minority peoples such as Manchurians and Mongolians. He thought that Japan's policy towards China also delayed the unification of the country. Yamaji supported Yuan Shikai's plan to establish a monarchical government in China, but Yamaji argued that the monarchical government should be established for the Chinese people.Keywords: contemporary China; Japan's annexation; Korea; monarchical government; Naitō Konan; territorial expansionism; Yamaji Aizan

Constructing communism in the Romanian People's Republic. Orthodoxy and state, 1948 – 49

Abstract: This article analyses the ambiguous and contradictory relationship between the Orthodox Church and the communist regime during the first two years of the Romanian People's Republic. The installation of communism and the process of Stalinisation led to an unprecedented control of the church. The church was actively employed in propaganda and the regime imposed its own people in the hierarchy. On the one hand, Romanian communists followed the Soviet model regarding the place of the church in the communist state while, on the other hand, the church hierarchy adapted to the new political system by creating a theory of 'social apostolate'. Lacking popular support, the communists used the church as an instrument through which they could acquire the political support of the masses. The church thus enjoyed a favoured position in society mainly because the communists employed it in their ideological expansionism and confrontation with the West.

Envisioning a Liberal Empire in East Asia: Yoshino Sakuzō in Taisho Japan

Abstract: This essay re-examines the ideas and activities of Yoshino Sakuzō, who provided theoretical underpinning for Taisho Democracy. It explores Yoshino's writings on international and regional politics along with his analysis of domestic politics to bring to light the neglected dimension of Yoshino's work as a China specialist. His commentary and analysis on China-Japan relations reveal the centrality of Asian questions in the tenets of Taisho Democracy. I argue that Yoshino's understanding of China-Japan relations in terms of peaceful expansionism led him to conceptualize a new state-society relation within Japan.

The Last Empire? From nation-building compulsion to nation-wrecking futility and beyond

Abstract: Even as the literature on US imperialism proliferates, US military and political failures in Iraq and Afghanistan have become apparent, and the hollowness of the economic and financial foundations of the US imperial enterprise has been revealed. This article attempts a new interpretation of the more important dynamics of US imperialism from the birth of the republic to its present quagmire in the oil-lands of the East, focusing on its weaknesses. It argues that, while the US state has been expansionist and imperial from its earliest days the reality of its imperial achievement has been shallower than that of any previous empire, prompting the need for qualifiers like ‘empire like no other’, ‘soft power’, etc. The article concludes tentatively by pointing to the chief elements in the contemporary conjuncture which lead us to expect the end of empires altogether.

British and Italian Imperial Rivalry in the Mediterranean, 1912–14: The Case of Egypt

Abstract: Although it is known that serious imperial rivalry between Britain and Italy in the Mediterranean only began in the Fascist period, this article argues that Italian expansionism had already begun to pose a threat to British interests in the Mediterranean in 1912 following Italy's colonization of Libya. While the Italian state was still militarily and financially weak at this time, an Italian private financial institution, the Banco di Roma, engaged in a number of ventures in Egypt that led to complications in state-to-state relations. The article shows that the seeds of Anglo–Italian antagonism were sown in the hostile climate of the Egyptian–Libyan border through a series of incidents in the period between 1912 and 1914.

The Union Of Calmar —Nordic Great Power Or Northern German Outpost?

Abstract: Many Scandinavian historians, particularly Danish and Swedish ones, hold that the fourteenth-century unification of the three Nordic kingdoms was a response to German expansionism in the Baltic, and that the Union of Calmar (1388/97-1523) was one of the reasons why the Scandinavian peoples were able to preserve their national identities and Scandinavia its "Scandinavian-ness". There is reason to suspect that the historians who encouraged this view had the Germany of Bismarck and Hitler in mind rather than the patchwork of principalities and communes that was late medieval and early modern Germany. This chapter questions this traditional view of late medieval Scandinavia and the Union of Calmar as a bulwark against Germany. It uses the term Norden instead of Scandinavia, since Scandinavia strictly speaking is Norway and Sweden. The chapter outlines the history of this Union of Calmar in Norden and discusses its historiography, and the political and national character. Keywords: German expansionism; Norden; Nordic kingdoms; scandinavian historians; Union of Calmar

Revisiting Modernisation: the European Commission, Policy Change and the Reform of EC Competition Policy

Abstract: The modernisation of EC antitrust rules timed to coincide with the 2004 enlargement of the European Union is widely recognised as an historic and revolutionary reform. According to the dominant view that has emerged in both law and political science, the change is to be explained in terms of the interest and ability of the European Commission to engineer a reform that, behind the guise of decentralisation to national authorities, has in practice extended its power and influence over the control of anti-competitive agreements. Drawing on original research, this paper contests the conventional wisdom and the image of the Commission as an imperialistic actor that underlines it. It argues that such a view dramatically overstates the Commission's power and that a more sophisticated explanation is required. First, the Commission was motivated more by changes in the thinking within an epistemic community of competition practitioners and lawyers than by an impulse to expand its authority. Second, contrary to the monolithic conception of the Commission on which the dominant view depends, the Commission was internally differentiated and the development of its reform proposals the product of internal negotiation and conflict, rather than the expression of an inner drive to expansionism. Third, scrutiny reveals the Commission to be a constrained organisation, rather than a body able to re-write competition law

Turning Point: The Arab World's Marginalization and International Security After 9/11

Abstract: The danger raised by the terrorist threat is real, existential, and vital to the United States. But the attacks on 9/11 have been broadly misunderstood. In assessing the meaning and significance of the war on terror, Tschirgi raises many issues related to the Middle East and American policy toward that area. For example, he debunks the entire exceptionalist approach to the Arab world (the presumption that Arab societies fail to be fathomed by Western social science). While Tschirgi stresses the need for resolving the war on terrorism favorably, he also suggests two broad policy recommendations. First, he argues that while the United States should maintain its firm commitment to Israel's preservation as a Jewish state, it has no corresponding duty to support Israeli expansionism. U.S.-Israeli relations should proceed on this basis and should be informed by a greater American reliance on principles of international law. Second, Tschirgi concludes that an American withdrawal from Iraq must be effected as early as possible. Tschirgi's provocative thesis is that the attacks of 9/11 were not as unique an event as we commonly believe. Rather, they were understandable-though deplorable-human reactions to a combination of factors that fueled the Arab world's marginalization and led to a generalized feeling among the people of that region that the West (and particularly the United States) posed a mortal threat to their identity. Employing three case studies of marginalized violent conflict-Mexico's Zapatista conflict, Egypt's struggle against the Gama'a al-Islamiyya in Upper Egypt, and Nigeria's fight against the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta-Tschirgi demonstrates the dynamics through which traditional peoples have in modern times opted to wage hopeless struggle against objectively more powerful states. The parallels between the dynamics that informed each of these situations and those marking the international Muslim insurgency against the West are striking, as are the significant differences between the two phenomena. The parallels are found in the mechanics of marginalization and resistance. The differences lie, first, in the Muslim insurgency's identification of the West as a total enemy and the struggle with it as having a zero-sum nature and, second, in the modern terrorists' potential access to lethal means of mass destruction. Both the parallels and differences that mark the two phenomena help deepen a real understanding of the meaning of 9/11.

`Pre-History' of International Relations in Japan: Yanaihara Tadao's Dual Perspective of Empire

Abstract: This article seeks to locate the work and contribution of Yanaihara Tadao (1893-1961) within a distinct tradition of International Relations in Japan. It challenges the conventional view that Japanese International Relations originates in the US academic discipline. Yanaihara's view of empire was influenced by two academic traditions in Japan: the Staatslehre and Marxism, and by his humanist, moral view derived from a Christian faith. According to Yanaihara, any empire should be built upon an organic, moral society, which provides an overarching framework for peaceful coexistence between nations and ethnic nations within the empire. Yet, he also made it clear that the existing empires were essentially an outflow of economic and/or ideological imperialism. Such a perspective allowed him to avoid justifying the disastrous Japanese expansionism of the 1930s. The article highlights implications for the debate on the role of US Empire in today's International Relations.

Manifest destiny and the expansion of America

Abstract: In this unique reference, leading historians describe not only how the expansion of the American nation in the early 19th century was a turning point in U.S. history that led to the Civil War, but also alternative scenarios-what happened and what almost happened. This volume poses "what if" questions about ten crucial "tipping points" in the history of U.S. expansionism between 1800 and the Civil War. It not only describes what happened-in the case of Lewis and Clark, the War of 1812, the Monroe Doctrine, railroads and telegraphs, the Mexican War, the gold rush, the Compromise of 1850-it also offers alternative scenarios, essays on what could have happened. In this exciting and imaginative approach to history, students not only develop analytical skills by tracing the causes and effects of crucial events; they are empowered by the knowledge that at moments when history hangs in the balance, many paths are possible, and that they, as citizens, can tip the scale. Each chapter presents the actual history along with a "what if" scenario of what may have happened had a crucial point turned out differently Primary sources include the complete text of one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and a chronology details key events during the Era of Expansion

The London Press and the American Civil War

Abstract: British opinion on the American Civil War was decidedly mixed and did not necessarily conform to traditional political or social cleavages. Scholars have explored how a variety of important issues, such as antislavery, democratic politics, American expansionism, and economic self-interest affected British reactions to the conflict, though not always in the manner that one might expect.1 Older accounts of the war and Anglo-American relations offered a rather simplified dichotomy, with aristocratic and conservative groups supporting the South and radicals and members of the working classes backing the North.2 More recent studies reveal a much more complex and shifting set of opinions on the civil war and American society. These studies persuasively argue that although sharp criticism of, or even hostility toward, the North was widespread in Britain, particularly after the winter of 1861–62, this rarely translated into genuine support for the South, primarily because of a deeply felt antipathy for slavery. In fact, as the conflict dragged on and certainly by the end of 1863 the majority of British journalists, politicians, and public intellectuals had reached the limits of their patience and simply declared a plague on both their houses.

The terrorist conjunction : the United States, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and al-Qā'ida

Abstract: Missing from many contemporary analyses of the causes of terrorism is any mention of the role of U.S. foreign policy, an examination of which is seen by some critics as inherently unpatriotic. Even less attention is paid to the role of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Gerteiny, who has lived in the Middle East and has studied the region for more than four decades, does not shy away from such controversies. In this book, he discusses the seminal causes of contemporary transnational terrorism, particularly the grievances inherent in the persistent Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Gerteiny examines state and anti-state forms of terrorism, and he carefully distinguishes between terrorism carried out in pursuit of national liberation by the Palestinians and the theologically driven jihadism that feeds on it. He considers anti-Western Islamism as being reactive to a U.S. Middle East policy inordinately influenced by the Zionist lobby. He reflects on Muslim and Islamist world views and assesses the U.S. reaction to terrorism after 9/11, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Israel's unchecked expansionism at the expense of Palestine and its suffocating grip over its population, carried out under the cover of U.S. protection, constitute ethnic cleansing in Gerteiny's view. This, and the ill-conceived U.S. strategy in the Gulf region, in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the lack of communications with Syria and Iran are perceived by most Muslims as harbingers of an ongoing new crusade. They constitute the main pernicious elements upon which the wider-reaching vengeful Islamist theopolitical jihadism thrives, ultimately threatening the spread of democracy, the survival of Israel in the Middle East, and peaceful coexistence with the Muslim world.

ICOM's Universal Heritage

Abstract: 11. The Terms A critical approach to the term Universal is - particularly related to museums – of great importance. In this regard, international museum expansionism is both a challenge and a warning signal. 2 Universum was derived from the Latin words unus (the only thing) and versus (turned round), an etymology equating the universe with the cosmos: the boundlessness and infinity of time and space. European museum development has been affected by evolving concepts of universality, notably as of the Enlightenment. Voltaire’s Essais sur l’histoire generale et sur les mœurs et l’esprit des nations… (1756), considered as the first Universal History, led to the encyclopaedic thought informing comparative methodologies or descriptions of similarly structured phenomena. During the 20 th century, sciences, technologies and mass-communication have likewise supported the global connections linking humanity as a whole. All of these notions of globalism concern and affect museums.

Creating the Chinese Myth : the tug of war of Sino-Japanese soft power in China's comics market

Abstract: This paper was based upon a study of a Hong Kong-based comic enterprise entering the PRC comics market. By taking the advantages of cross-border production in Suzhou and Shenzhen, the enterprise is supposed to produce comic content related to Chinese mythic stories in the direction of the mainland cultural authority. Such a maneuver implies (1) eliminating the provincial differences on the tastes of the contents and capturing the wider, barely literate, and rural audiences, and (2) diluting and even dispelling the cultural influences of manga and anime in China pointing to any disguised Japanese expansionism perceived as “soft power”. Drawing upon analyses by Ronald Robertson and Naoki Sakai, we suggest the interactive dynamics of such “soft power” of China and Japan lies in the fundamental question of inter-state rivalry and/or reconciliation in imitation of western modernity, and more precisely, in the politics of cultural nationalism. Conference Paper presented in 15 July, 2007, in University of Tokyo, jointly organized by UMAT, University of Tokyo, and Theory, Culture and Society.

Pan-Asianism in international relations: Prewar, postwar, and present

Abstract: Introduction Pan-Asianism has been defined as a set of ideas, feelings, or attitudes appropriated by Asians to promote solidarity and cooperation within “Asia,” usually against the political, economic, and cultural influence of “the West,” i.e., the Western powers that encroached upon Asia during the modern era. PanAsianism, or Asianism, has national, international, and transnational dimensions. Particularly in Japan, at times it has overlapped with nationalism, in the form of expansionism; at times it has been above all a reaction to Western dominance in Asia; sometimes it is little more than a vague identification with other Asian people(s) or “Asian values.” While Pan-Asianism is expressed in political, economic, and cultural terms, above all it has been determined by changes in international relations.

THE PARADOX OF EXPANSIONIST STATUTORY INTERPRETATIONS[dagger]

Abstract: INTRODUCTION 1207 I. A POSITIVE POLITICAL MODEL OF LEGISLATIVE BEHAVIOR AND STATUTORY ENACTMENT 1212 A. Legislative Coalitions 1213 B. Legislative Bargaining 1215 C. Legislative Rhetoric 1219 D. Implications of the Theory 1222 II. WHAT is STATUTORY EXPANSIONISM? 1223 A. Modeling Statutory Expansionism 1223 B. Legislative Intent Revisited 1226 C. From Simple to Sophisticated Intentionalism... 1229 III. THE PARADOX OF STATUTORY EXPANSIONISM 1234 A. A Model of Judicial Expansionism and Congressional Polarization ........ 1235 B. Illustrations of the General Thesis 1241 IV. IMPLICATIONS 1250 A. Policy Tradeoffs Implied By Judicial Expansionism 1251 B. Reinforcing Polarization. 1253 CONCLUSION 1254 INTRODUCTION For scholars interested in the currents of modern public policy, the recent history of progressive social legislation at the national level provides a workable paradigm. The 1960s and 1970s were the well-advertised heyday of progressive public policy at the federal level. In this relatively short period, Congress transformed the relationship between the federal government and both the economy and the rights of American minorities by enacting the modern era's central pieces of social legislation, including1 the Civil Rights Act,2 the Voting Rights Act,3 the Clean Air Act, and other watershed statutes.4 This transformation has waned significantly, however, over the next quarter century. The twenty-five years since the end of the 1970s are notable for the absence of watershed social legislation, which raises a puzzling question: Why the relative paucity of progressive social legislation following the orgy of statutory enactments in the mid-1960s to late- 1970s period? One explanation for this phenomenon is that Congress has become more polarized. To be sure, partisanship and polarization increased sharply over this period; and we can expect, therefore, that it would be much more difficult to reach the sort of compromise illustrative of the 89th through 92nd Congresses.5 Yet, this explanation merely raises a second question: What explains this growing divide within the contemporary Congress? To say that a polarized legislature made legislative compromise implausible begs the question of why legislators first became so polarized. Moreover, the polarization explanation is hard to square with the evidence that the American public is considerably less polarized than are their elected officials.6 In this Article, we suggest an explanation for the first question, and, in so doing, shed new light on the second. Moreover, we draw prescriptive lessons for scholars interested in promoting progressive social agendas through their exhortations to courts and legislators. …