Showing papers on "Nation-building published in 2003"

Empire Lite: Nation Building in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan

Abstract: In Empire Lite, Michael Ignatieff explores both sides of what he sees as a new global empire - the imperial and the humanitarian - and argues that the international community has failed to engage intelligently with the problems of nation building in the aftermath of apocalyptic events. The collapse of political order around the world is now seen as a major threat, and a new international order is emerging, one that is crafted to suit American imperial objectives. This presents humanitarian agencies with the dilemma of how to keep their programs from being suborned to imperial interests. Yet they know that it was American air-power that made an uneasy peace and humanitarian reconstruction possible, first in Bosnia, then in Kosovo, and finally in Afghanistan. This is the new world of geopolitics we live in and must try to grasp. The vivid, cogent essays in this book attempt to understand the phenomenon of state collapse and state failure in the world's zones of danger and the gradual emergence of an American led humanitarian empire. Focussing on nation building in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, Ignatieff reveals how American military power, European money and humanitarian motive have combined to produce a form of imperial rule for a post-imperial age. Drawing on his own experiences of war zones, and with an extraordinary account of life in Afghanistan, Ignatieff identifies the illusions that make a genuine act of solidarity so difficult and asks what can be done to help people in war-torn societies enjoy the essential right to rule themselves.

Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied

Abstract: If we think there is a fast solution to changing the governance of Iraq, warned U.S. Marine General Anthony Zinni in the months before the United States and Britain invaded Iraq, "then we don't understand history." Never has the old line about those who fail to understand the past being condemned to repeat it seemed more urgently relevant than in Iraq today, with potentially catastrophic consequences for the Iraqi people, the Middle East region, and the world. Examining the construction of the modern state of Iraq under the auspices of the British empire—the first attempt by a Western power to remake Mesopotamia in its own image—renowned Iraq expert Toby Dodge uncovers a series of shocking parallels between the policies of a declining British empire and those of the current American administration. Between 1920 and 1932, Britain endeavored unsuccessfully to create a modern democratic state from three former provinces of the Ottoman Empire, which it had conquered and occupied during the First World War. Caught between the conflicting imperatives of controlling a region of great strategic importance (Iraq straddled the land and air route between British India and the Mediterranean) and reconstituting international order through the liberal ideal of modern state sovereignty under the League of Nations Mandate system, British administrators undertook an extremely difficult task. To compound matters, they did so without the benefit of detailed information about the people and society they sought to remake. Blinded by potent cultural stereotypes and subject to mounting pressures from home, these administrators found themselves increasingly dependent on a mediating class of shaikhs to whom they transferred considerable power and on whom they relied for the maintenance of order. When order broke down, as it routinely did, the British turned to the airplane. (This was Winston Churchill’s lasting contribution to the British enterprise in Iraq: the concerted use of air power—of what would in a later context be called "shock and awe"—to terrorize and subdue dissident factions of the Iraqi people.) Ultimately, Dodge shows, the state the British created held all the seeds of a violent, corrupt, and relentlessly oppressive future for the Iraqi people, one that has continued to unfold. Like the British empire eight decades before, the United States and Britain have taken upon themselves today the grand task of transforming Iraq and, by extension, the political landscape of the Middle East. Dodge contends that this effort can succeed only with a combination of experienced local knowledge, significant deployment of financial and human resources, and resolute staying power. Already, he suggests, ominous signs point to a repetition of the sequence of events that led to the long nightmare of Saddam Hussein’s murderous tyranny.

Grand national narratives and the project of truth commissions: a comparative analysis

Abstract: This article will compare the narrative projects of nation building and dismantling as represented in the truth commissions of South Africa and East Germany. One of the most important aspects of truth commissions is that personal suffering on a wide scale is publicly acknowledged and written into the national fabric. The relationship between individual and collective memory is a powerful one; through the testimonies that it has documented, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has created the possibility for South African citizens to participate in the writing of a new official version of their country’s recent history. It has helped to establish a break with the past, so that the country as a whole can move forward. In contrast, the truth commission set up in East Germany was important in the dismantling of that country. While most truth commissions cover a relatively limited period of time, the truth commission of East Germany was unusual, if not unique, in that it covered the whole of that country’s history. And unlike South Africa, and other countries, where truth commissions function as a pivotal bridge between past and future, in East Germany, the truth commission marked the completion of the national narrative.

Nation building at play : sport as a tool for social integration in post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract: Archbishop Desmond Tutu states that this work shows us another road to a future of equality and democracy for all South Africans, a road not filled with the hurt of our long discussions that carry us into the night, but equally important in its capacity to heal. It maintains that through properly organized sport we can learn to play together with respect and with laughter, we can learn to be all on the same team, and in the process, we can contribute to building a new South Africa that is a just nation for all. Its conclusion - and its commitment - is as clear as it is strong. Sport does have a meaningful and powerful role to play in the social transformation of South African society if care is taken to provide the necessary conditions for success. It offers us those conditions and at the conclusion some carefully thought out recommendations for providing a level playing field for all our futures. [...]

Re-engaging Chineseness: Political, Economic and Cultural Imperatives of Nation-building in Singapore

Abstract: This article examines the management of Chinese identity and culture since Singapore attained independence in 1965. Due to the delicate regional environment, ethnic Chinese identity has been closely managed by the ruling elites, which have been dominated by the English-educated Chinese. There is the evolution from a deliberate policy of maintaining a low-key ethnic Chinese profile to the recent effort to re-sinicize – in form – the majority ethnic group. The article examines the policy impulses and implications for such a landmark change in reconceptualizing the Chinese-Singapore identity, which can be attributed to the needs of regime maintenance buttressed by Confucian ethos as well as the security and economic demands of nation-building.

The New Imperialism: Violence, Norms, and the "Rule of Law"

Abstract: 2. Nazism and the Order of Terror 2307 3. Urban America and "The Code of the Street" 2307 4. Bloodfeuds and Martyrs 2309 5. "Anarchy" and State Dissolution 2310 C. The Moral Meaning of Violence . 2311 D. Auto "Accidents" and Felony "Murders" 2314 E. Terrorism and Torture 2316 F. Atrocity and Duress 2318 IV. TAKING NORMS SERIOUSLY ...... 2321

Eurasian bridge or murky waters between east and west? Ideas, identity and output in Kazakhstan's foreign policy

Abstract: Kazakhstan's policies on both nation building and foreign policy have carried in-built contradictions. Both sets of policies have attempted to strengthen simultaneously an ethnic Kazakh national identity and a civic Kazakhstani state identity. They serve the dual challenge of consolidating the ethnic Kazakh nation and appeasing the large non-Kazakh, primarily Russian, minority. Nation building and foreign policy have proved symbiotic. President Nazarbaev has been able to trade strong relations with Russia for domestic ethnic Kazakh concessions. Generally, foreign policy content has been strongly pragmatic rather than ideological, dictated primarily by the government’s prioritizaton of securing new economic partners and multiple pipeline routes. Rhetoric and policies indicate a country that is floating between, rather than anchoring, East and West.

The Federal Spending Power in Canada: Nation-Building or Nation-Destroying?

Abstract: For the past 40 years, the federal spending power in Canada has been one of the most contentious issues in federal-provincial relations, and it has been central to Quebec's dissatisfaction with the Canadian federation. The dispute is rooted in two different conceptions of federalism and different perceptions of the federal compact in Canada. English-speaking Canadians tend to view the federal spending power as the source of highly valued “national” social programs, while the government of Quebec maintains that the federal spending power constitutes an invasion of provincial autonomy and, as such, poses a threat to the cultural distinctiveness of the Quebec nation. The governments of Canada and Quebec have reached a tenuous modus operandi, but the fundamental conflict remains unsolved. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.

The Challenge of the Russian Minority: Emerging Multicultural Democracy in Estonia

Abstract: The Challenge of the Russian Minority: Emerging Multicultural Democracy in Estonia, Marju Lauristin and Mati Heidmets, eds. Tartu: Tartu University Press, 2002. 396 pp.A new stage in Estonia's post-Soviet development began in 1998 when the state embarked on an official policy of nation building, seeking to integrate Estonia's large Russian-speaking settler community with the rest of the country. The expressed goal of this project was to create a democratic nation-state with a multicultural society. It emphasized naturalization for noncitizens through the acquisition of Estonian language skills while simultaneously offering opportunities for Russian speakers to maintain their own language skills and culture. This complex process is summarized in The Challenge of the Russian Minority. A collection of essays written by more than a dozen prominent Estonian scholars, this book contains a wealth of information on ethnic relations in Estonia. The nineteen essays cover a wide range of topics, including theoretical approaches to nationalism, the ethnic dimension of the economic transition from a command to a market economy, and the role of the media and educational system in the process of nation building and cultural integration.The editors argue that the Estonian case deserves close attention because its success in achieving stability and averting severe ethnic conflict defies many of its expectations. Many observers predicted that conflict would emerge, given the sharp ethnic cleavage characterized by a potentially volatile mix of native Estonians' historic resentments and Russians' anger at their loss of status. Further tension was caused by a citizenship policy based on the legal continuity of the prewar Estonian state (made possible by the nonrecognition of the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states by most Western governments). Based on a restored state approach, automatic citizenship was granted to prewar citizens of Estonia and their descendants, thereby excluding a majority of Russian speakers who settled in Estonia during the Soviet era. They were eligible for permanent residence permits but would have to apply for citizenship through naturalization.The authors do not question the legitimacy of the restorationist approach to citizenship, but they do admit that it had exclusionary consequences for most nonEstonians (at least politically). They also point out that the starting point in 1991 was not a pre-existing integrated society in Estonia. Rather, the legacy of Soviet rule was that Estonians and Russians tended to live in mutual isolation. Russians enjoyed the benefits of a comprehensive cultural infrastructure that allowed them to live comfortably anywhere in the USSR without having to learn the local languages. Due to this Soviet legacy of ethnic separation, Russians would have remained linguistically excluded from the rest of Estonian society even if they all had been granted automatic citizenship in 1991. The Estonian integration model assumes that a common civic identity will be instilled most effectively among Russians who are culturally integrated and fully able to participate in all spheres of Estonian social life.The theoretical assumptions of the model are summarized in chapter 3 by Raivo Vetik. In essence, the integration strategy seeks to move away from the Soviet legacy of the separation and isolation of the Russian community and to replace Russian with Estonian as the language of interethnic communication. The main tools for achieving this are a citizenship law that links naturalization with knowledge of Estonian and government plans for bilingual education to ensure that Russian children growing up in Estonia are able to speak the official language. This is why the integration approach is inclusive in nature; if the goal is to maintain the exclusion of Russians from mainstream society, then there would be no encouragement for them to learn Estonian.A key question is what has caused the shift from the relatively more exclusionary or defensive posture on the part of Estonians in the early 1990s to the more liberal multicultural paradigm of the late 199Os? …

The Changing Face of Sport and Physical Education in Post-Colonial Singapore

Abstract: This paper examines paternalism through the political development of sport and physical education in post-colonial Singapore. Initial consideration is given to demography, post 2nd World War development, prevailing political ideology, economic factors and the social characteristics of Singaporeans. Through the stewardship of the current Prime Minister, Mr. Goh Chok Tong, elite sport in Singapore has only recently been accepted by the government as having a level of national and cultural importance. The whole area of sport and active recreation emerged in the 19th century as a feature of the cultural imposition of the British colonial settlers and their armed forces and was identified with social differentiation rather than social cohesion. In independent Singapore sport was initially viewed as a means of ameliorating racial tension, it became a facilitator of class distinction (based on wealth) but is now considered to be a cornerstone of nation building. One of the first direct incursions of the Singapore government into sport was the formation of the Singapore Sports Council in 1973. At that time it was enlisting sport as a politico-economic tool by promoting nation building through productivity. In 1984 a College of Physical Education was set up to produce specialist teachers in physical education. However, many school programmes prioritise fitness training and testing as the central dimension of physical education. The notion still receives wider political support as it is of paramount importance to the Ministry of Defence that male students are fit for military national service. Significantly, in 2000, a sport portfolio was given to the Ministry of Community Development as success in regional and international sport was identified as an important pillar of nation building as well as an expression of the nation’s coming of age as a developed nation. Against this background for sport, physical education and recreation, Singaporeans are socialised into fitness conditioning and elite sports through a functional and serious perspective with ‘sport for life’ (previously ‘sport for all’) remaining the most important dimension. This paper also addresses recent sport policy, including the issue of ‘foreign’ talent and current innovations, such as the development of a sports industry, the Athletes Career and Training (ACT) programme (2002), and the creation of a ‘sport school’ to be opened in 2004.

Australian 'Aboriginal' Reconciliation: The Latest Phase in the Colonial Project

Abstract: In the 1990s several countries that had been divided by episodes of mass violence or gross human rights violations instigated projects of national ‘reconciliation’. Reconciliation initiatives sought to provide an alternative to traditional state diplomacy and realpolitik by focusing on restoring and rebuilding relationships in novel and context sensitive ways that promoted state legitimacy, forgiveness and social stability. In 1991 the Australian parliament unanimously passed the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act, which heralded the start of a process of reconciliation between the indigenous peoples and wider society. The Preamble to the Act founded the need for a reconciliation process on the injustice of colonial dispossession and on the continuing dispersal of indigenous people from their traditional lands. Yet, as this paper will show, the notion of ‘justice’ was deemed inappropriate from the start, and the resulting process was framed in a nation building discourse that placed a definite ceil...

Literacy, Imagined Nations, and Imperialism: Frontier College and the Construction of British Canada, 1899-1933:

Abstract: Print capitalism, languages-of-power, and the development of widespread literacy have been understood to be key historical forces in the construction of imagined national communities(Anderson). In Canada, the convergence of the newspaper publishing industry, English as a language-of-power, and literacy set the stage in the late 19th century for the emergence of an imagined Canadian nation, embedded both in Anglo-Protestant ideals of identity and British imperialist aspirations. Frontier College, in providing literacy and citizenship education to laboring immigrant men on the resource frontier, was the quintessential embodiment of the grand project of Anglo-Canadian nation building. Based on research in the Frontier College fonds of the Canadian National Archives, this article discusses the nature of the imagined community constructed in the literacy programs of Frontier College from 1899 to 1933, the means by which this image was promoted, and the particular conceptions of race, class, and gender that sha...

'Namibia, land of the brave' : selective memories on war and violence within nation building

Abstract: In this chapter, the limits to the memory of liberation are investigated with regard to the factors affecting a liberation movement in the process of achieving legitimate power in a postcolonial society. The case of Namibia is explored in the transition from anticolonial resistance to comprehensive control by the former liberation movement over the State. The concepts of political rule, the State and democracy are tested against the impact of a liberation struggle in terms of the applied understanding of political dominance, once access to power has been achieved. The political culture under a government with a record of liberation struggle suggests limitations to the implementation of democracy. Notes, ref., sum. [Book abstract]

The art of nation-building: (re)presenting political transition at the South African National Gallery

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between museums and representations of national identity in South Africa. From their early development in Western Europe in the nineteenth century there has been a close relationship between museums and other exhibitionary spaces and the production of national identities. In South Africa, museum displays have historically supported colonial and apartheid ideologies, but with the transition to a post-apartheid society museums have reassessed their divisive roles and repositioned themselves within South Africa’s contemporary nation-building project, organized around building unity from diversity. The development of this new relationship between museums and democratic nation-building is examined here through discussing the attempts of South Africa’s museums to become more inclusive in their exhibitions, and analysing debates in the museological community concerning the challenges facing museums in a post apartheid society. These issues then inform an analysis of an exhibi...

Central Asia: Aspects of Transition

Abstract: 1. Turkfront: Frunze and the development of Soviet counter-insurgency in Central Asia 2. The Kokand autonomy, 1917-18: political background, aims and reasons for failure 3. Ethno-territorial claims in the Ferghana valley during the process of delimitation, 1924-27 4. Land and water 'reform' in the 1920s: agrarian revolution or social engineering? 5. Nation building in Turkey and Uzbekistan: the use of language and history in the creation of national identity 6. Nation building and identity in the Kyrgyz Republic 7. The use of history: the Soviet historiography of Khan Kenesary Kasimov 8. Soviet development in Central Asia: the classic colonial syndrome? 9. Environmental issues in Central Asia: a source of hope or despair? 10. Identity and instability in the post-Soviet world: Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan 11. The Uzbek Mahalla: between state and society 12. 'Fundamentalism' in Central Asia: reasons, reality and prospects 13. Water: the difficult path to a sustainable future for Central Asia

In Search of a Usable Past: The Question of National Identity in Romanian Studies, 1990-2000

Abstract: This article offers an overview of the scholarly debates on Romanian nation building and national ideology during the first post-communist decade. It argues that the globalization of history writing and the increasing access of local intellectual discourses to the international “market of ideas” had a powerful impact on both Eastern European history writing and on the Western scholarly literature dealing with the region. In regard to Romanian historiography, the article identifies a conflict between an emerging reformist school that has gained significant terrain in the last decade and a traditionalist canon, based on the national-communist heritage of the Ceausescu regime, preserving a considerable influence at the institutional level. In analyzing their clash, the article proposes an analytical framework that relativizes the traditional dichotomy between “Westernizers” and “autochthonists,” accounting for a multitude of ideological combinations in the post-1989 Romanian cultural space. In view of the We...

National Identity Issues in the New German Elites: A Study of German University Students

Abstract: This empirical study treats German university students as a rising elite. After discussing the broader sociohistorical context of German national identity in recent decades, this study analyzes (a) students’ attitudes and perceptions on issues related to nationalism, national identity, and inclusion, and (b) the extent to which the “Wall in the Mind” as a psychological chasm persists in the new post-cold war generation of West and East Germans. Survey data were obtained from a sample of 544 students at 11 universities in the three areas of Germany: West Germany, East Germany, and Berlin.A major finding on the issue of national identity, as manifested in common symbols and common tasks, is a blurring of regional differences, with no significant differences found by age or gender. Overall, students reject “traditional” nationalism in favor of a “post-national” commitment to transnational values such as human rights and social equality for all. A significant majority feel there is a common German culture and...

Race & nation in modern Latin America

Abstract: This collection brings together innovative historical work on race and national identity in Latin America and the Caribbean and places this scholarship in the context of interdisciplinary and transnational discussions regarding race and nation in the Americas. Moving beyond debates about whether ideologies of racial democracy have actually served to obscure discrimination, the book shows how notions of race and nationhood have varied over time across Latin America's political landscapes. Framing the themes and questions explored in the volume, the editors' introduction also provides an overview of the current state of the interdisciplinary literature on race and nation-state formation. Essays on the postindependence period in Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and Peru consider how popular and elite racial constructs have developed in relation to one another and to processes of nation building. Contributors also examine how ideas regarding racial and national identities have been gendered and ask how racialized constructions of nationhood have shaped and limited the citizenship rights of subordinated groups.

Mediated management of meaning: on‐line nation building in Malaysia

Abstract: In Malaysia, the Internet figures prominently in the imagery of modernity. Associated with a high-tech future where the country is positioned in the midst of regional and global flows, the Internet represents the way forward. The Malaysian middle classes are at the forefront of this process of social transformation, their wired lifestyles serving as a model for society. Having readily adapted the Internet, the middle classes have been acculturated in the global culture of networking that it denotes. Their exposure to the world at large has heightened their sense of national identity. Meanwhile, their experience in decentralized interaction has provided them with the means to participate in the construction and reconstruction of national imageries. A medium for on-line nation building, the Internet has evolved into a machinery of meaning that allows Malaysians to participate in the cultural management of their nation.

Nation, state, and the economy in history

Abstract: Introduction Alice Teichova and Herbert Matis Part I: 1 Political structures and grand strategies for the growth of the British economy, 1688-1815 Patrick K O'Brien 2 Economic factors and the building of the French nation state Francois Crouzet 3 Nation building in Germany: the economic dimension Gerd Hardach 4 The harmony liberal era 1845-1880: the case of Norway and Sweden Goran B Nilsson 5 Nationalism in the epoch of organised capitalism: Norway and Sweden choosing different paths Francis Sejersted 6 Economic development and the problems of the national state formation: the case of Spain Clara Eugenia Nunez and Gabriel Tortella Part II: 7 The state and economic development in Central and Eastern Europe David F Good 8 Concepts of economic integration in Austria during the twentieth century Ernst Bruckmuller and Roman Sandgruber 9 The economy and the rise and fall of a small multinational state: Czechoslovakia, 1918-92 Vaclav Prucha 10 Economic retardation, peasant farming and the nation state in the Balkans: Serbia, 1815-1912 and 1991-9 Michael Palairet 11 National and non-national dimensions of economic development in nineteenth and twentieth century Russia Peter Gatrell and Boris Anan'ich Part III: 12 Nation without a state and state without a nation: the case of Africa south of the Sahara Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch 13 The economic foundation of the nation state in Senegal Ibrahima Thioub 14 From the Jewish national home to the state of Israel: some economic aspects of nation and state building Jacob Metzer Part IV: 15 Economic change and the formation of states and nations in South Asia 1919-47: India and Pakistan B R Tomlinson 16 State transformation, reforms and economic performance in China, 1840-1910 Kent G Deng 17 Japan's unstable course during her remarkable economic development Hidemasa Morikawa Part V: 18 The state and economic growth in Latin America: Brazil and Mexico, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Carlos Marichal and Steven Topik 19 Building the Brazilian nation state: from colony to globalisation Domingos A Giroletti 20 The role of nationhood in the economic development of the USA Gavin Wright 21 Economic policy and Australian state building: from labourist protectionism to globalisation Christopher Lloyd

III. Nation-State Building in Central Asia: A lost Case?

Abstract: With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the five Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have entered a period of nationstate building, which had been started to a large extend by the political elites of the former Soviet Union These republics were not prepared for independence that came to the region suddenly The former communist leaders of the Soviet era became the new national elites to take their countries by publicly declared goals and policies through the path of independent nationhood and independent statehood However, it remains unclear whether this top-to-bottom approach will prove successful in the long run This article discusses nationstate building in the region by first looking at problems of external sovereignty Second, domestic state building policies and structures, more specifically, the newly formulated official discourse on-building nation- and the political-legal framework to develop that discourse, are analyzed Then, the limitations of this process with specific emphasis on supranational identities (basically religious identity of Islam), subnational identities (local and/or tribal identities), and ethnic minorities (with a specific on the Russians in these five countries) are examined It is concluded that the process of nation-state building in Central Asia is not complete yet and that each republic has unique problems that may challenge this process For the time being, there exist certain frictions between the goals of the official discourse and nonofficial levels of identity that may hinder the success of the nation building process in the region

Introduction: Multi-Level Electoral Competition: Elections and Parties in Decentralized States

Abstract: The study of parties and elections has traditionally focused on the national, or statewide, arena.1 The reasons for this are obvious enough. As Reif and Schmitt (1980: 8) put it, there is in most cases simply more at stake in statewide elections. National parliaments and government are (still) the most important decision-making fora. So we want to know how they are formed. And that means looking at the factors that shape statewide election outcomes, and the ways political parties negotiate the statewide electoral arena. But there is also a disguised normative element at play here. Processes of nation building in Western Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries typically understood regional identities as conservative anachronisms set to disappear as the modern national state established common standards of public services and an overarching, statewide process of opinion formation. In these circumstances political parties emerged or adapted to articulate social interests generated around standard, statewide cleavages: class, religion and so on (Lipset and Rokkan, 1967). Parties became ‘nationalized’ (Hopkin, this issue), focused on statewide controversies, and focused on winning the big prize of national-level government.

Language education and ‘nation building’ in multilingual Malaysia

Abstract: This chapter details the multilingual milieu found in Malaysia, and the complex issues surrounding language policies that seem to be at odds with one another as the nation’s leaders grapple with the need to balance nation building and the desire to be in line with globalization, a process that will shape the economies of the future. A discussion of language educationrelated issues in Malaysia may turn out to be reductionist in nature if historical roots and the political set-up of this multiracial nation are not foregrounded. The relevant background information is presented in the first section of this chapter. The second section contains an assessment of the language policies and other key issues related to language education. The concluding section recommends changes that can synergize the peoples towards greater integration and nation building.

U.S. Peacekeeping and Nation-Building: The Evolution of Self-Interested Multilateralism

Abstract: In the days leading up to the 2000 presidential election, George W. Bush declared that, if elected, one of his first actions would be to withdraw American troops from peacekeeping operations in faraway places, especially U.S. troops in Kosovo and the former Yugoslavia. This did not happen. Two years later, the United States remains as ensconced in peacekeeping operations as it was during the Clinton administration. A combination of factors, foremost among them the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, has caused Bush to reconsider his unilateralist and isolationist stance and to remain committed to peacekeeping operations across the globe. Peacekeeping and nation-building operations, which require extensive logistical planning and military resources, have generally been the responsibility of international organizations, namely the United Nations. The U.N. authorizes peacekeeping operations on the principle that an impartial multilateral presence supporting a truce will increase the willingness of those in conflict to follow through with their negotiations. The U.N. adds legitimacy to a peacekeeping operation since \"action [is] taken on behalf of a global organization rather than on the basis of national or regional interests.\"' Unilateral action, to the contrary, is not only less desirable, but also less effective. Quite simply, solitary states do not have the financial wherewithal, military capacity, or political capital to effectively undertake such comprehensive and complex operations. In assessing the U.S. role in peacekeeping, the question, then, does not turn on whether it conducts peacekeeping missions in a unilateral or multilateral fashion, since the United States has never undertaken a peacekeeping operation on its own. Instead, the examination turns on the extent to which the United States participates in such operations at all, and whether U.S. cooperation is based on a traditional multilateral perspective, which this paper defines as a willingness to consistently support international peacekeeping forces in order to promote global peace and security, even when it does not necessarily serve immediate or vital U.S. interests.

Race Against Memory: Katherine Mayo, Jabez Sunderland, and Indian Independence

Abstract: A major event in the American debate over India's independence was the 1927 publication of Mother India, an explicitly pro-imperialist book by conservative Pennsylvania journalist Katherine Mayo. In the controversy over her book that ensued, American intellectuals struggled to understand India's culture, history, and national liberation movement in light of their nation's own historic experiences with revolution, nation building and civil war. Fawning in its support of British rule, and extravagantly critical of India's social practices, Mayo's book denied any analogy between India's quest for independence and America's own revolutionary past. Indeed, Mayo's engagement with India rested firmly upon a racially exclusive reading of American traditions that reflected deep contemporary concerns about America's role in the Philippines, immigration to the United States, and other domestic conditions. Responding to Mayo in his best-known work India in Bondage, Unitarian minister and long-time pro-India activist Jabez Sunderland sought not only to rehabilitate Indian culture in the wake of Mayo's attacks but also to position the mirror of American history to reflect more positively India's struggle for independence. Skillfully using the language of American collective memory that had emerged as the staple discourse of the American pro-India movement during the inter-war years, Sunderland rejected Mayo's racial nationalism and made direct comparisons between Indian leaders and the American revolutionaries.1

Laboring for the Colony and Nation The Historicized Political Consciousness of Youth in Madagascar

Abstract: Throughout the colonial era in Francophone Africa, male youth were prime targets for exploitative labor practices, and Madagascar stands as an especially pertinent example, where young men and boys were regularly forced to serve the French empire as foot soldiers and corvee laborers. Their work efforts – and lives – were essential to the defense of France in wartime; further, it is they who built the complex infrastructure that simultaneously served the needs of the island’s domestic army, foreign-owned plantations and a colonial administrative network. Colonial policies were driven, too, by the ideological assumption that manual labor would prove transformative to Malagasy, among whom such experiences were believed to implant a new enthusiasm for capitalist production. From a Malagasy perspective, however, enforced labor practices were simply poorly disguised forms of enslavement. The legacy of these oppressive practices proved troubling to subsequent efforts at nation building where, again, youth – and ...

Nation-Building, Propaganda, and Literature in Francophone Africa

Abstract: Preliminary Table of Contents: Preface and Acknowledgments Note on Translations List of Abbreviations and Acronyms 1. Introduction: Engineering History and Engineering Literature 2. Official Writers: The Engineers of the Congolese Soul 3. Sony Labou Tansi: Commitment, Oppositionality and Resistance 4. Henri Lopes: Collaboration, Confession and Testimony 5. Emmanuel Dongala: History, Memory and Reconciliation 6. National Conferences and Media Decentralization in Francophone Africa Notes Bibliography Index