Expansionism

About: Expansionism is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 979 publications have been published within this topic receiving 11169 citations.

Relocating Socialism: Asia, Socialism, Communism, and the PAP Departure from the Socialist International in 1976

Abstract: The connections between the Cold War and spatiality, geography, and the geopolitical have seldom been far apart, yet in conventional analyses they have tended to be more ambivalent. On the one hand, the Cold War could not be understood without its location within a territorial, material, and grounded context. For instance, geography allowed intellectuals to visualize where adherents to capitalism or communism were located, make sense of how communist expansionism was taking place, and frame the global extent of the Cold War itself and the annihilist potential of the ensuing arms race. Yet, on the other hand, space and geography have often always been peripheralized, so in this case, all phenomena have been explained as part of an unfolding historical narrative spanning the time of Yalta to Reykjavik, and on to either the liberal triumphalist or civilizationally conflicting present. One does not have to look far beyond the theses of Fukuyama and Huntington to locate the preferred temporal explanations of Cold War phenomena.

A Cultural History of Cuba during the US Occupation, 1898-1902

Abstract: Marial Iglesias Utset, A Cultural History of Cuba during the US Occupation, 1898-1902. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011. xi + 202 pp.REVIEWED BY ROBERT SIERAKOWSKmarial Iglesias utset pushes the study of modern Cuba in an exciting new direction with this monograph on the United States' military occupation of the island between 1898 and 1902. The author argues that these years were a time of rapid cultural change, as Cuba found itself "between two centuries and two ruling powers", with the exit of Spanish colonialism and the declaration of the "neo-colonial" republic still on the horizon (28). Iglesias Utset examines not the large-scale economic and political changes traditionally emphasised for this time period (and in the Cuban historiography as a whole) but the cultural practices of everyday life: rimais, symbols, gestures, fashions, rites, processions, clothing, dancing and hygiene. To access this angle, the author draws on traditional sources such as US and Cuban archives and the Havana press, but also examines much less studied sources such as provincial newspapers, printed ephemera, almanacs, photographs, poetry and advertising.This historical interregnum was inaugurated with the fall of Spain's direct influence on the island. Its flag was removed from public spaces, its insignias stripped from buildings, its military barracks transformed into schools, and stames to its queen toppled. A debate quickly emerged: which cultural, social and political values were to replace four hundred years of Hispanic hegemony? For many Cubans who had spent decades struggling against the Iberian metropole, North American practices were seen as carriers of "modernity" and "social progress" to replace the colonial heritage (8). This "Americanisation" (82) was seen in innumerable ways, from the occupation authorities' "hygienic" (56) transformations of public space to the increasing access to American consumer goods. Even English words (with 'meeting' replacing reunion and 'barber shop' in place of barberia) began to crop up in everyday conversation.Iglesias Utset argues that Cubans had a highly ambiguous relationship with the US presence, with the occupying power "at once hated and admired, rejected and imitated" (8). Rather than simply swallowing the project of assimilation, she claims, many Cubans sought to "absorb and accommodate" attractive elements without abandoning their national identity (74). For instance, new pedagogical techniques imported from the United States were widely embraced, while attempts to impose the study of English or other US content were roundly rejected. Many who wanted to be "like the Americans" in certain ways were also adamantly opposed to the expansionism and imperialism rep- resented by the occupation (86). The occupiers' racist and annexationist actions led many Cubans to increasingly perceive US imperialism as the most significant threat to their national identity of Cubania.Contrary to historians who have posed those years as a time of thoroughgoing Americanisation and national humiliation - symbolised by the raising of the US flag over the Moro fortress on 1 January 1899 - Iglesias Utset demonstrates that the period between colony and nation-statehood was in fact marked by intense and widespread nationalist fervour. While Havana was under the direct domination of the occupying military and its policies, provincial and rural town councils were largely led by former Cuban rebels who had participated in the War of Liberation (1895-1898). …

Eastward Motion of Peter the Great's Empire

Abstract: The time of Peter the Great is notable not only for the reforms that transformed the country, but also for the emergence of new ideas of the place of Russia as a great power in the world. Peter the Great's imperial dreams went far beyond the establishment of Russia’s domination in the Baltic. He was mindful of the problem of the West-East relationship. It is important to take into account the tsar’s economic considerations. He was fascinated by the ideas of mercantilism and dreamed of turning Russia into a transit space between the West and the East. It would allow enriching the country. He wanted to create a unified transport system (mainly waterway) that would connect the Baltic and the East. In addition, the myths about the fabulous wealth of the East heated Peter the Great's imperial imagination. It manifested itself in sending expeditions to Central Asia and the Caspian Sea. Their purpose was not only to explore, but also to annex new territories. Peter the Great's imperial dreams were expressed most vividly during the Persian campaign, the aim of which was not only to conquer the northern part of Persia, but also to create a base there for an expansionist campaign to India. Peter the Great's plans were extensive. He intended to create a new city-port in the mouth of the Kura similar to St. Petersburg and a center of eastern trade. Thus, he planned to transfer the traditional trade routes between the East and the West to the territory of Russia. However, the tsar’s death prevented him from realizing these and other grandiose plans of conquest.

Militarization and the Paramilitarization of Culture: Accounting for New Civil–Military Complexity

Abstract: After what was historically a relatively peaceful end to the twentieth century, the first two decades of the new millennium has seen prolonged conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, rising military tensions in East Asia, and Russia aggressively deploying its military as well as paramilitary groups in support of an expansionist foreign policy. At the same time, the role of the military in the social memory of nations is increasingly being challenged and reimagined as a consequence of generational change, consumer capitalism and the rise of desecularisation. In order to comprehend how sociologists can grapple with such developments, this chapter evaluates the dominant ways that social scientists and cultural scholars have charted the intersections between culture, war and the military. It is argued that a more multidimensional understanding of militarisation is required, one that can appreciate the diverse consequences of cultural engagement with military traditions and the changing status and role of the institutional military. Distinguishing between the processes of militarisation and paramilitarisation of culture is proposed as an important step in this direction.