Which Land Is Our Land? Domestic Politics and Change in the Territorial Claims of Stateless Nationalist Movements

Why do stateless nationalist movements change the area they see as appropriately constituting the nation-state they aspire to establish? This article draws a number of hypotheses from the literature on nationalism and state formation and compares the predictions of each about the timing, direction, and process of change to the empirical record in two stateless national movements in the post-Ottoman space: Fatah and the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. Based on this investigation, the article argues that shifts in the areas stateless nationalist movements seek as their nation-states occur as a byproduct of the politically competitive domestic environment in which these movements are embedded. As nationalist movements engage in the competition for mundane power and survival, their leaders may alter their rhetoric about the extent of the desired national state to meet immediate political challenges that are often only loosely related to territorial issues. If these, initially tactical, rhetorical modulations successfully resolve the short-term challenges that spurred their adoption, they can become institutionalized as comprising the new territorial scope of the desired national state.     

Catalan Independence and the Challenge of Credibility: The Causes and Consequences of Catalan Nationalist Parties’ Strategic Behavior

This contribution examines the role of Convergència i Unió and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya in putting the issue of Catalonia's constitutional relationship with the rest of Spain at the top of the Catalan and Spanish political agenda. It focuses on the strategic behavior of these two parties in pursuit of their territorial goals since 1978 and identifies the complex dynamics that led both parties to converge around a shared commitment to Catalan sovereignty. It is argued that the extent to which past strategic decisions have strengthened or weakened nationalist parties’ credibility on their core business of territorial empowerment has a significant impact on the options currently available to them as they seek a satisfactory answer to the Catalan question.     

Anglo–French Imperial Relations in the Arab World: Intelligence Liaison and Nationalist Disorder, 1920–1939

Faced with intractable problems of popular protest and nationalist insurgency, French and British imperial administrations across the Arab world frequently exchanged various forms of covert intelligence with one another. Much of this information was open source human intelligence relating to local political activity. Higher grade material, and particularly signals intelligence was less regularly shared, not least as the Entente partners continued to spy on each other throughout the inter-war years. Ironically, while the French and British colonial security services shared similar pre-occupations and objectives, their common threat perceptions were not enough to break down the abiding mutual suspicions between them. As a result, their networks of information exchange remained patchy. This only made the tasks of imperial government and the containment of disorder harder than might otherwise have been the case.     

A Fiscal Path to Sovereignty? The Basque Economic Agreement and Nationalist Politics

Bilateral Spanish-Basque relations over the Basque model of near fiscal autonomy (Concierto Económico or Economic Agreement) have been characterized by more tension than harmony since the 1980s. The main source of discord lies in different conceptions of the model: While the Basque nationalists seek increasing fiscal autonomy verging on sovereignty within Europe, Spanish governments see it as a form of fiscal decentralization within Spain remaining subordinate to Spanish legislation. These different conceptions cannot easily coexist in a loose relationship of mutual tolerance because the development of the model continues to bring them into conflict, feeding into the broader political clash over how best to accommodate the Basque region within or with Spain.     

Features of the International Situation at the Turn of the Century

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Feeling the Pulse of the World

Dizziness from preoccupation with the 20th century robbed us of the time to contemplate the 21st century. This is a well-known dictum early back in the 1960s by the late French strategist Raymond Aron. Now the new century is upon us. What were believed to be irrelevant then have turned out into hot topics these days. An early warning for the unfolding century, the September 11 events represent but only a prelude     

Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Founding of the United Nations

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Reflections on the Return of the China-Japan Relationship to the Normal Track

The China-Japan relationship has swung between deterioration and improvement in the 21st century while Japanese leaders'cognition and Japanese public opinion remain operative at a deep level.The return of the bilateral relationship in 2018 to the normal development track was aided by Japan's shift toward coordination,China's re-shaped policy,and a boost by the Trump administration.Though the China-Japan relationship will continue improving in the short run,it is unlikely“deterioratiomimprovcment”cycles will end since too many glaring structural contradictions exist.While memories of their intense history and today's territorial issues linger,the fluctuation of Japan*s diplomatic options and weak Japanese public opinion for improved relations with China will continue the same cyclical,but not forward,momentum.     

Strengthen the Communication Among the Youth and Enhance the Mutual Understanding and Trust

AttheinvitationoftheInternationalInitiativesofChangeAssociationofJapanIICAJIaccompa-niedMr.LiYangCouncilMemberofChineseAs-sociationforInternationalUnderstandingCAFIUonthevisittoJapanfromJune10to18andat-tendedthe27thInternationalConferenceoftheInitiativeofChangeinOdawara.DuringourstaythereweseparatelymetwithTutomuHataAdvi-sortotheIICAJandformerPrimeMinisterofJapanSomaYukikaHonoraryPresidentofIICAJToruHashimotoPresidentofIICAJandAdvisortotheJapanMizuhoFinancialGroupandD…     

Policy Measures for the Implementation of the Development Strategy of the Western Region

Editorial note: The State Council of the People's Republic of China has published the Circular of the State Council on Policy Measures for the Implementation of the Development Strategy of the Western Region on December 27, 2000. The following is the full text (unofficial translation).The implementation of the development strategy of the western region for speeding up development of the central and western regions, is an important component of the modernization strategy in China. It is …     

Diversity of the Model of Development and the Choice in the Harmonious Development

Since the end of the cold war, the world has undergone extensive, complex and profound changes. The features of such changes are multi -polarization, globalization and diversification. These three features are interconnected and closely linked. They influence each other and promote each other. Muhipolarization, globalization and diversification are still in the process of development, and are therefore fluid and constantly changing. Generally speaking, the development of the world situation is in favour of world peace and stability. But in the process of multi-polarization, globalization and diversification, various unprecedentedly complicated contradictions and new problems crop up, so we still need to jointly and appropriately handle the situation.     

America''''s Difficulties after the War and the International Political Consequences of the War

The U. S. A will succeed militarily in the Iraq war. However, it is far away from the true meaning of victory in war defined by distinguished strategic thinker B. H. Liddell Hart, even inaccessible. Using Hart's own word, the true victory in war is to attain a better state of peace and improve the quality of life for the survivors after the war is over. What await America after the basic success in Iraq are grave military and political difficulties. Moreover, there may be bigger economic and financial troubles as well.     

Graceful Bearing of the Pearl of the Orient

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Walking on the Other Side of the Sea

From December 12 to 18, a seven people publication delegation of the Chinese Association for International Understanding, led by Mr. Song Zude, visited Japan with the focus on the publication industry and other cultural industries at the warm invitation o…     

Sino-American-Russian Triangle at the Turn of the Century

On the verge of the new century, the renewed triangular relations between China, the United States and Russia are of significance to the international relations as the world's three big powers have readjusted their ties in recent years.rather long time to come, the state that the United States is strong, Russia re-mains weak, and China is rising will remain unchanged by and large, and so willthe triangle. Readjustments of the Triangle Since the end of the Kosovo war, China, America and Russia, with differentstrategic considerations in mind, have stepped up restoration of mutual relations     

Welcome the Friends from the Japan Anti-War Alliance

Invited by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), theDelegation of Japan Anti- War Alliance (JAWA) came to Beijing to attend the assembly celebrating the60th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggressionand the World Anti- Fascist War. On Sept. 2, the delegation visited the Chinese Association for Inter-national Understanding(CAFIU) and was met by Mr. Li Chengren, Executive Vice- Pre…     

The Turnaround of the DPRK Nuclear Issue and the Prospect of the Six-Party Talks

The Korean nuclear issue has entered a phase of substantive settlement. Neither the DPRK nor the United States wanted the     

The dragon in the room: the China factor in the development of US–India ties in the Cold War

ABSTRACT

In recent years, as China has continued to rise as an economic, political and military power, there has been increasing consideration of its role in shaping US–India relations over the last two decades. However, this article, considering the period 1949–1979, shows that American and Indian perceptions of and policy toward China shaped the US–India relationship even during the Cold War. In doing so, the article seeks not just to bring China back into the story of past US–India relations, but also shed light on the China–India–US triangle of today and of tomorrow.     

Putting the nation back into ‘the international’

Alex Callinicos and Justin Rosenberg have both drawn on the concept of uneven and combined development to resolve what they see as deficiencies in international relations theory: in the case of the former, the absence of a non-realist explanation for the persistence of the states system; in the case of the latter, the absence of a sociological dimension to geopolitics. However, Callinicos omits any consideration of the ‘combined’ aspect of uneven and combined development, while Rosenberg ascribes characteristics of transhistoricity and internationality to uneven and combined development which it does not possess. Against attempts to either restrict or over-extend use of the concept, I will argue that its theoretical usefulness depends on understanding the limits of its spatial and chronological reach. An alternative, if still partial, explanation for the continued existence of the states system will emphasize the continuing indispensability of nationalism as a means of both containing class conflict within capitalist states and mobilizing support for ‘national capitals’ engaged in geoeconomic and geopolitical competition.