From Young Turks to modern Turkey: the story of Hüseyin Aziz Akyürek (Aziz Bey), the last director of the Ottoman General Security Service

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, was one of the early leaders of the Young Turk movement. Nevertheless, when he founded modern Turkey as a nation-state he pushed the veterans of the Young Turks aside, as their pan-Turanian ideology no longer suited the basics of the new state. The leaders of the Young Turks represented the past and their perceptions no longer corresponded with the change of circumstances and the new objects of the nascent state. While Armenian activists assassinated some of the top leaders of the Young Turks as a revenge for the Armenian genocide, second-rank leaders had now to find their way in modern Turkey. Aziz Bey was one of the seniors of the Ottoman security system during the Young Turks period and eventually reached the most senior position of director of the Ottoman General Security Service. When modern Turkey emerged, because of his remarkable talents, he managed to fit in middle-level positions in the new state (province governor, mayor and MP), but never regained elite status.     

From kanun-ı kadim (ancient law) to umumun kuvveti (force of people): historical context of the Ottoman constitutionalism

This paper attempts to examine the prevailing scholarly view on the Young Ottoman and the Young Turk movements, which postulates that the concept of constitutionalism was solely and directly based on the western model, imported by the constitutionalist movements to the Ottoman Empire. As a child of the ‘modernization theory’, this approach mostly concentrates on European impact in an isolated manner, thus overlooking not only the manifold sources of the Ottoman constitutionalism, but also the means of legitimation that the Young Ottomans and the Young Turks cultivated. In view of this, I seek to shed light on the historical context of the Ottoman constitutionalism, by pointing out how the Young Ottomans and the Young Turks perceived the power struggles in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and built continuity between themselves and the political position that aimed to restrict the royal prerogative before the nineteenth century.     

试论缅甸佛教青年协会

通过对缅甸佛教青年协会产生的背景、诞生及其活动的论述和分析,本文认为:缅甸佛教青年协会在缅甸近代历史上具有特殊的历史意义,即它是缅甸历史上第一个具有近代民族主义性质的组织;它对缅甸人民民族主义意识的普遍形成起了重要作用;通过它缅甸人了解和认识了缅甸以外的世界,使缅甸近代民族主义运动在发展之初就与世界的近代民族主义运动,尤其是与亚洲的近代民族主义运动产生了密切的联系.另外,佛教青年协会的性质及其活动使得缅甸近代民族主义运动从诞生的那一刻起就打上了宗教的深深印痕,该会的领导策略和方法也为以后的缅甸近代民族主义运动提供了有益的借鉴.     

日本对华高技术出口政策与中日关系探析

长期以来 ,日本对华高技术出口政策不是以经济利益为动因 ,而是受到种种非经济因素的影响 ,极大地制约了对华高技术出口和与中国经贸关系的发展 ,反过来又对政治关系产生了严重影响。本文描述了这一政策的演变和现状 ,试图从日本的对华外交战略以及日本处理中美日大三角关系的角度分析其根源 ,并展望了中日高技术合作的发展大势 ,提出了中国的对策建议。     

缅甸国内政治与对外关系现状

按照联合国宪章规定 ,非选举政府的执政期限不得超过 5年 ,但如今 1 0年过去了 ,缅甸军政府依然我行我素 ,敢冒天下之大不韪 ,拒绝和美国欧盟提出的承认 1 990年 5月大选结果并将政权移交给全国民主联盟的条件。缅甸军政府反复声称 ,它将完全按照自己的既定方式和时间表移交政权。为此 ,它致力于制订一部有力于自己的新宪法 ,一旦制宪完毕 ,将再举行新一轮选举 ,把自己 1 0年来苦心经营的政党 (联邦巩固发展协会 )推向政治舞台。尽管缅甸军政府至今仍被国际社会所遗弃 ,同东盟的关系微妙 ,但同中国的关系则是牢固的。     

中越关系的回顾与展望

今年是中越建交 5 0周年。这 5 0年来 ,中越关系既经历了“同志加兄弟”的亲密时期 ,也经历了相互敌视的低潮阶段 ,90年代以后 ,两国关系才得以恢复和发展。本文在对这一阶段的历史做了简要回顾的同时 ,对中越关系的现状进行了分析、阐述 ,认为中越关系在历经曲折之后 ,正逐步走上理性、务实、稳定的发展道路     

El Ejercicio de Pensar: The Rise and Fall of Pensamiento Crítico

In 'El ejercicio de pensar'(the exercise of thinking), Fernando Martínez Heredia ( El Caimán Barbudo 1967: 2–5) made reference to the words of Enrique Varona to describe what, in his view, was the appropriate role of the intellectual in the Cuban Revolution. Varona had argued that thinking was a rare human trait as it went against basic desires that preferred dogmas to ideas. Martínez Heredia's position on the role of the intellectual would have a prophetic character, for, soon after, given responsibility for the direction of the newly created Department of Philosophy at the University of Havana, he led a young group of academics gathered around the journal Pensamiento Crítico . In their heyday, both the group and their publication came to be identified with the concept of the revolutionary (and the Revolution's) intellectual. This article examines the formative process of this new, politically committed, intellectual in the Revolution and explores the role played by this group in the intervening years, including the special relationship it established with the European New Left.     

Institutional journalism in a revolutionary crisis: the press as an aide to the Muslim Brotherhood 2011–2012

This article is based on the hypothesis that the Egyptian institutional media played an active role in the Egyptian ‘Arab Spring’ revolution in 2011 and analyzes how Egypt's official newspapers constructed and presented a moderate and positive image of the Muslim Brotherhood (hereinafter the Brotherhood) despite the fact that they had labeled the Brotherhood ‘the outlawed movement’ a year earlier. In order to examine whether their attitudes changed after the downfall of the Mubarak regime, a critical discourse analysis of newspaper texts has been made of the news columns written throughout 2011 of two of the most popular Egyptian newspapers – al-Ahram (n = 115) and al-Gumhuriyya (n = 94) both of which identify with the Egyptian government's official policy. In addition, an analysis made of three of the Brotherhood's publications (n = 72) (N = 281) revealed that the Brotherhood exploited the printed media not only to replace the regime but also to gain control of its narrative. Ultimately, by controlling the shaping of public opinion, the media contributed to the drawing of a parallel between the motivation that formed the basis of the mass protest and the Brotherhood's agenda.     

Freedom of Expression in South Korea

South Korea is widely considered a consolidated democracy, but there is growing evidence that freedom of expression in South Korea has lagged behind that of comparable Asian countries and that it has deteriorated since 2008. Freedom House downgraded South Korea’s “freedom of the press” status from “free” to “partly free” in 2010 and other international reports also raised concerns on the status of freedom of expression in the country. We identify five problems that have contributed to the deterioration in South Korea’s rankings with respect to civil liberties: abuse of criminal defamation, the rules governing election campaigns, national security limitations on free speech, restrictions related to the internet and partisan use of state power to control the media. We close by considering possible explanations of the phenomenon, ranging from more distant cultural factors and the influence of the Japanese legal systems through the enduring impact of the Cold War. However, the main problems appear political. Governments on both the political right and left have placed limits on freedom of expression in order to contain political opposition, and constitutional, legal and political checks have proven insufficient to stop them.     

The Social Function of Carlos Fuentes: A Critical Intellectual or in the ‘Shadow of the State’?

This article seeks to raise meaningful questions about the role, or wider social function, of the intellectual within state–civil society relations in Latin America characterised by conditions of socio–economic modernisation. It does so by pursuing such questions through a detailed examination of the social function of Carlos Fuentes as an intellectual in Mexico. Through a focus on the social function of Carlos Fuentes, it is possible to distinguish the role intellectual activity can play in the construction and contestation of hegemony in Mexico. Most crucially, the article prompts consideration of the social basis of hegemony and the agency of intellectuals organically tied to particular social forces functioning through state–civil society relations in the struggle over hegemony. Put differently, it is possible to grant due regard to the mixture of critical opposition and accommodation that has often confronted the intellectual within Latin America.     

关于1960年代中国与东欧五国关系的若干问题——来自中国档案文献的新证据

1960年代中苏关系走向分裂时期,中国与苏联东欧集团中的保、捷、东德、匈、波五国的关系,受到中苏关系演变的约束,随着中苏两党两国关系的变化而起伏波动。1960年代初期中苏关系一度实现缓和后,中国与东欧五国的关系也随之呈现冷热交替,以争取缓和为主的特点。1962年末63年初,中苏围绕古巴导弹危机和中印边界冲突问题开始酝酿新的斗争。中共将对苏方针调整为以斗争、进攻为基调,准备与苏共进行论战;苏共则部署东欧五国在东欧四国党代会上对中共展开批判。中共与苏东集团意识形态公开论战开始。随着中国文化大革命运动的启动,中苏边界冲突逐步升级为局部战争,中苏关系进入敌对状态,中国与东欧五国关系也严重恶化。1960年代中国对东欧五国方针的变化,总体上与中国的对苏方针同步发展,但也有不同的内容和特点,根据时期的演进呈现出不同的变化。中国以分化苏东集团为主要目的而采取的区别对待方针突出反映在中波关系上。就总体言之,1960年代中共对东欧五国的方针既不断变化,又相互矛盾,其结果非但没有达到分化苏东集团的目的,反而在某种程度上加强了苏东集团的凝聚力。     

"金三角"禁毒背后的中美泰缅四边关系

早春是罂粟花开的时节.当金三角的罂粟花盛开的时候,小小的金三角却在中南半岛激起了一个不大不小的政治漩涡.为了安抚当地少数民族、巩固边境,缅甸在禁毒中一直采取极为谨慎的姿态;泰国深受缅甸毒品之害,与缅甸还存在领土纠纷,在反毒过程中不得不权衡自己的得失;美国当然重视禁毒,不过对于美国而言,让缅甸现政府倒台或许更重要;中国积极帮助缅甸禁毒,但对于影响边境安宁的迹象却也不得不加以警觉.     

The Cuban Experience in East Germany: Academic Migration from 1960 to 2000

The partnership between revolutionary Cuba and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) offered a route for migration that had not been possible before. While academic exchange aimed to construct a socialist society in Cuba and strengthen the Socialist Bloc, as well as serving the economic and political interests of both states, the creation of a transnational academic elite and of intellectual collectives across borders also occurred as a by‐product of the exchange. This article shows how these ‘by‐products’ came into existence, and how academic exchange can be influenced by political, financial and organisational limitations.     

The 1972 Memorandum to the United Nations and its repercussions: Émigré politics and Soviet Estonian dissent during the ‘era of stagnation’

The Estonian dissidents’ Memorandum to the United Nations, drafted as a call for national self-determination in 1972, set new standards for the émigré community’s campaigns. Although its political message was initially dismissed as utopian, the subsequently emerging cooperation between émigré and homeland activists via intricate courier networks significantly strengthened the authority of Estonian voices in the West. By the early 1980s, the political alliances across the Iron Curtain eventually bore fruit. The Memorandum’s core demands reappeared in political debates on Baltic issues on both sides of the Atlantic, foreshadowing the massive Western support for the Baltic cause during the Singing Revolutions.     

Lessons from Ugandan indigenous knowledge systems regarding the management of HIV and AIDS

Abstract

Health is one of the major challenges facing Africa today. Solutions need to come from within and outside Africa, drawing from Africa's indigenous knowledge systems. This article describes the life cycles of malaria, tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and presents some strategies for the control and prevention of these diseases that are lessons and experiences from African countries.