NATO Regional peacekeeping center in Central and Eastern Europe: A proposal

Abstract

The article asks what the evolution of NATO–Swedish relations signifies for the understanding of the evolution of security communities. Given the astonishing evolution of NATO and Sweden as a community of practise, it is logical to imagine the two as forming part of the same security community. It could then be argued that common practise can bring about new security communities rather hastily. Analysing NATO's and Sweden's recent discourses on security, the author identifies a significant gap between a principally realist and a predominantly idealist discourse that indicates that the two parties do not share key characteristics of a security community – identities, values and meanings. However, if Libya is the case of the future, the discursive differences may fade and Sweden could more easily pursue its journey towards inclusion in NATO, not as a member of an Alliance, but as a member of NATO as a security community.     

Patterns of Internet and Traditional News Media Use in a Networked Community

Abstract

International communication has come increasingly under the impact of at least three major technological, socio‐economic, and political forces: expanded channels of communication provided by technological developments, democratizing pressures that have brought new voices to be heard in international media and forums, and new but as yet weak mechanisms for the conduct of meaningful dialogue and negotiations. Power politics has been thus increasingly supplemented or supplanted by image politics, questioning traditional boundaries between domestic and international politics, and creating image fixations that have proved occasionally inimical to accommodation of real interests. The symbolic uses of images, on the other hand, have served at least three kinds of cognitive interests: national solidarity, and domestic instrumental and global community. The Iranian hostage crisis, among a number of other contemporary examples, illustrates how these interests were served, symbolically and actually, in domestic as well as international politics. Through a case study of the hostage crisis, me paper concludes with some warnings on the potentials as well as menaces of image politics.     

Human security of the Sámi in the new Sámi Arctic Strategy

ABSTRACT

Recent plans and enterprises of the Arctic States of Sweden, Norway and Finland – such as the Finnish plan to build a controversial rail line from Rovaniemi to Kirkenes in Norway, relocation of Swedish Kiruna (already in progress), building Markbydgen windfarm in Sweden or construction of a copper mine in Kvalsund, Norway - have put into question the human security of the Sámi. In this paper, the author examines the contents of the new document The Sámi Arctic Strategy. Securing enduring influence for the Sámi people in the Arctic through partnerships, education and advocacy adopted in 2019. Special emphasis is put on the reflections and references to human security of the Sámi. Then the author briefly examines the above examples and how they may or already affect human security of the Sámi. The research questions are: which parts of the new Sámi Arctic Strategy refer to human security? What is the importance of self-determination to human security of the Sámi? Could this Strategy facilitate implementation of the right of the Sámi to self-determination, and as a result improve their human security? The paper attempts to answer these questions in Concluding Remarks.     

Media and tutor-learner interaction in distance education

SUMMARY

Technological developments in recent years have provided greater scope in the selection and combination of media for presenting courses in distance education. This article explores the uses and limitations of a number of ‘old’ and ‘new’ media in distance education from the perspective of their educational and communication advantages. The main emphasis is not on technological developments, but on the potential of various media to create a greater degree of interaction between tutor and student than has previously been possible through traditional media such as print and audio-visual media.     

Carving a Diplomatic Niche?: The April 1956 Soviet Visit to Britain

Abstract

Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin's visit to Britain in April 1956 was the first by the new Soviet leadership to a Western bloc country after Josef Stalin's death. It presented British policy-makers with a unique opportunity for insight and discussion. However, British self-deception regarding their scope for independent action as well as excessive focus on events in the Middle East hampered efforts to build a rapport with Khrushchev and Bulganin. This analysis explores the planning and conduct of what turned out to be a fruitless diplomatic initiative. The visit illustrates British and Soviet policy at the time, as well as Britain's already clear position as the junior partner in the Anglo-American “special relationship” on the eve of Suez.     

Afrikaans as televisietaal in Suid-Afrika: 'n toekomsperspektief

ABSTRACT

This article deals with an investigation into the need for Afrikaans television programmes among Afrikaans viewers in the changing media environment in South Africa. Viewers' needs were researched by means of a case study among grade 10 learners in Pretoria. The uses and gratifications approach serves as the theoretical framework of the study and a number of variables affecting respondents' need with regard to Afrikaans television programmes are investigated. These variables are television driven (supply, content and structure of Afrikaans programmes), technology driven (new media technologies such as satellite television and the Internet) and viewer driven (socio-cultural, personal and demographic factors). The study finds a relation between these variables and the need for Afrikaans programmes among respondents. The supply, content and structure of Afrikaans programmes do not gratify respondents' needs. New media technologies broaden respondents' socio-cultural horizons, enabling them to watch, interpret, associate with, and enjoy English programmes comfortably. The changing socio-cultural and demographic environment is liberalising traditional Afrikaans views on television use and is exposing an increasing number of Afrikaans viewers to global television. Within this context the need for Afrikaans programmes is diminishing, placing a question mark over the future of Afrikaans as a television language.     

Purposefully Triggering Unintended Consequences: the European Commission and the Uncertain Future of the EU-ACP Partnership

ABSTRACT

The EU’s proposal to renew the EU-ACP Agreement in spite of a number of signals pointing in the opposite direction is, inter alia, the unintended consequence of independent decisions taken in three different policy areas (trade, environment, and foreign and security affairs). The common unintended consequence that the three decisions shared would not have materialised if the European Commission had not purposefully triggered it to justify its vision of future EU-ACP relations. These findings challenge the prevailing and superficial usage of the notion of the unintended as a synonym for unanticipated and undesirable, and demonstrate that unintended consequences do not necessarily presuppose lack of anticipation, but may well be the result of calculation by policymakers.     

India's Role in the South China Sea: Geopolitics and Geoeconomics in Play

This article looks at the South China Sea, an area of dispute between China and other littoral states, as a new area of geopolitical and geoeconomic interest for India. The article follows the strategic discourse on the South China Sea circulating in the Indian government and wider strategic community, and brings in Chinese responses and interpretations of India's involvement. India's role in the South China Sea is four-fold: first, naval deployments; second, increasing strategic-military links with littoral states like Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam; third, economic involvement of Indian energy companies in South China Sea waters; and fourth, discussions between India and other regional and extra-regional China-concerned powers about the South China Sea. India's involvement in the South China Sea represents a new development in its Look East Policy, a new balancing factor in the interplay of actors within these waters, and a new friction factor within India-China relations.     

Creating norms around the Eastern Mediterranean energy resources as a necessary means of security

ABSTRACT

The energy discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean since the 2000s have placed the long-standing rivalry between Turkey and Cyprus (and by extension Greece) in a new context, bringing also Egypt and Israel into the geopolitical equation. Turkey, on the one hand, has adopted an assertive profile, whereas, on the other hand, two axes of cooperation have been formed, Greece-Cyprus-Egypt and Greece-Cyprus-Israel, convening trilateral summits and signing agreements. In view of that, it is currently upheld that the confluence of energy interests among the actors of the trilateral summits has facilitated a legalisation throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, propelling states towards the development of the energy resources according to the UNCLOS, and the implementation of the international law in the Cyprus problem, as a necessary means of guaranteeing the actors’ sovereignty, creating norms, and enhancing security, without targeting any third country. The argument shows how legalisation, as a special form of institutionalisation, and soft law, in particular, nurture regional cooperation and place it under the “protective wings” of international institutions.     

Television as a substitute: loneliness,need intensity,mobility, life-satisfaction and the elderly television viewer

ABSTRACT

This study examines television viewing motivations and patterns for a sample of 284 persons aged over 60. Results indicate that respondents watch television for about four hours each day, which is almost twice as much as the general population. A considerable number of respondents see television as a temporal and social substitute. Parasocial interaction, loneliness relief, passing time, boredom avoidance and activity substitution are obvious viewing motivations. In addition, correlational analysis shows specific relationships between living conditions and viewing motives. Interaction potential, mobility and need intensity are related to both temporal and social viewing motives. For instance, widow(er)s seem to watch television to substitute both the lack of social contacts and deficient time structuring. An attenuated integration in society and low life satisfaction are correlated with watching for parasocial interaction and activity substitution as well.     

“The future of events data mareiages: A question of compatibility”

The paper examines the performance of tit‐for‐tat in iterated plays of prisoners’ dilemma and chicken. In particular, the paper examines, via computer simulations, a space of surrogate Axelrod‐type tournaments over these games. The surrogate tournaments are specified in terms of characteristics of strategies similar to those Axelrod identifies as fundamental.

The paper shows that the zones of optimality for tit‐for‐tat in tournament play of both prisoners’ dilemma and chicken remarkably constrained, but that tit‐for‐tat generally does well relative to other strategies. Furthermore, our results show that the success of tit‐for‐tat is sensitive to the number of players and the assignment of payoff values.     

AVOIDING TRAGEDY IN POWER POLITICS:

When and why do states adopt new grand strategies? According to a “neoclassical realist” model, changes in international conditions are the chief cause of long-term adjustments in grand strategy, while domestic political-military cultures help specify the precise grand strategies chosen by state officials. What results are outcomes that appear surprising or skewed from a realist perspective. I test the neoclassical realist model against the cases of u.s. strategic adjustment in 1918–1921 as well as 1945–1948 and find that the long-term trajectory of America's rise to world power is best explained by international pressures. The precise strategies chosen in each period, however, were heavily influenced by American political-military culture. The implication is that theoretically inclusive forms of realism can provide convincing explanations for changes in grand strategy; furthermore, states can remain somewhat “differentiated” in terms of their foreign policy behavior, for cultural reasons, and in spite of international pressures to the contrary.     

A territorial history of the international system

This article charts the evolution of the international system from the post‐Napoleonic wars to the present, with special reference to growth in the number and configuration of states as well as changes in territorial sovereignty involving those states. Growth and change in the international system was found to occur largely in the 20th century. In that time, war plays a major role in precipitating the growth of the international system, although war is less significant in changes in territorial sovereignty. Finally, it was noted that major powers were involved in one half of the territorial changes. Implications for the future of the international system are discussed.     

Narratives of collapse and generation: Komatsu Sakyō's disaster novels and the Metabolist movement

Abstract

In the summer following the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster of March 2011, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo opened the exhibition ‘Metabolism: The City of the Future’, a major retrospective of the works of architects, designers and critics associated with the Metabolist movement. As suggested by its subtitle ‘Dreams and Visions of Reconstruction in Postwar and Present-Day Japan’, the exhibition provided a unique opportunity to examine the legacy of postwar Japanese avant-garde architecture and city planning, in the context of the serious questioning of Japan's future direction regarding the built and natural environments, life styles, and social structures following the triple disaster.

This article examines the writings and designs of the Metabolists, as well as the works of science fiction and disaster novel author Komatsu Sakyō, who collaborated with a number of Metabolist architects in the preparations for the 1970 Osaka Expo. Like the writings of the Metabolists, Komatsu's works, such as the seismic disaster novel Nihon Chinbotsu (Japan sinks, 1973), expose new links between the built environment and the geological and biological environments, pointing to both the vulnerability of the human domain as well as its generative and adaptive capabilities. In the process, Komatsu's works both critique and reproduce elements of the Japanese postwar reconstruction ethos, while offering avenues for re-imagining the future through dramatic inversions of center and periphery. I will argue that Metabolist works and Komatsu's novels challenge us not only to expand our imagination of both construction and catastrophe on a grand scale, but also to see isomorphic patterns and triggering events on the molecular level – a multi-scaled vision that could be generative in imagining the future beyond the disasters of March 2011.     

French defence reforms after Kosovo: On track or derailed?

How well prepared has France been politically for the operational implications of its efforts to build a military instrument designed for extra‐territorial interventions such as that conducted by NATO in Yugoslavia in 1999? Did the prolonged bombing campaign and the question of deploying ground troops provoke severe criticism and controversies? This article assesses the French Kosovo debate both in the political centre and the broader elite public. The analysis finds that the new French military instrument receives solid backing from key policymakers who now race to claim parenthood of the military reform programme. The utility of a new military instrument was at one stage developing into a major concern to the elite public. However, an engineered anti‐American agenda hijacked the debate, failed to address military issues, and ultimately could not mobilize the elite public. The conclusion outlines that an energized political centre has an opportunity to press ahead with military reforms but also points out that the relationship between France, Europe, and NATO requires careful political management.     

Media Logic and Political Communication

Abstract

The election of 1952 saw the beginning of the age of telepolitics. In that year the medium of television played a decisive role in the nomination by the Republican Party of Dwight D. Eisenhower since it exposed convention proceedings to a national audience and gave that national audience, as well as representatives of the media, major influence over convention events. In the post‐convention period, Eisenhower's public relations advisors used television to soften the General's military image, reach Democrats and Independents, and increase the pro‐Eisenhower voter turnout. Whereas Stevenson never fully mastered the demands of television, Eisenhower was adept and skillful at using the medium as a major new campaign vehicle.     

Book reviews

European Democratization since 1800 edited by J. Garrard, V. Tolz and R. White. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000. Pp.x + 292; index. £45 (hardback). ISBN 0 3337 3894 2

Changing Party Systems in Western Europe edited by David Broughton and Mark Donovan. London: Pinter, 1999. Pp.315; index. £55 (hardback); £16.99 (paperback). ISBN 1 85567 327 4 and 328 2

How France Votes edited by M. Lewis‐Beck. New York and London: Chatham House, 2000. Pp.xi + 292; index. £18.99 (paperback). ISBN 1 56643 069 0

Democracy the Swedish Way: The 1999 SNS Democratic Audit of Sweden by Olof Petersson, Klaus von Beyme, Lauri Karvonen, Birgitta Nedelmann and Eivind Smith (trans. by Frank G. Perry). Stockholm: SNS Forlag, 1999. Pp.165; bibliography. SEK (Swedish crowns) 300 (paperback). ISBN 91 7150 7612

On My Country and the World by M. Gorbachev (trans. by G. Shriver). New York and Chichester: Columbia University Press and John Wiley, 2000. Pp.278; index. £19.00 (hardback). ISBN 0 231 11514 8

The Limits of Empire: The United States and Southeast Asia since World War II by Robert J. McMahon. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Pp.ix + 276; index; bibliographic essay; map. £36 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 231 10880 X and 10881 8

China's Political System: Modernization and Tradition by June Teufel Dreyer. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 2000. Pp xvii + 347; index. £16.50 (paperback). ISBN 0 333 91287 X

The Postcommunist Citizen edited by Samuel H. Barnes and Janos Simon. Budapest: Erasmus Foundation and Institute for Political Science of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1998. Pp.272; index. NP (paperback). ISBN 963 03 5551 5

Federal Practice: Exploring Alternatives for Georgia and Abkhazia edited by Bruno Coppieters, David Darchiashvili and Natella Akaba. Brussels: VUB University Press, 2000. Pp.281. £14.45 (paperback). ISBN 90 5487 2381

Intellectual Politics in Post‐Tiananmen China, Social Text, No.55 edited by Xudong Zhang. Durham: Duke University Press, 1998. Pp.14. US$12 (paperback). ISBN 0 8223 6463 8

Mass Politics and Culture in Democratizing Korea by Doh C. Shin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.Xxxv +335; index. £37.50 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback). ISBN 0521 651468 and 67823 2

Towards Mexico's Democratization: Parties, Campaigns, Elections and Public Opinion edited by Jorge Domínguez and Alejandro Poiré. London: Routledge, 1999. Pp.xii + 251; index. £45 (hardback); £14.99 (paperback). ISBN: 0 415 92159 7 and 92158 9

Democratization in Africa edited by L. Diamond and M.F. Plattner. Baltimore, MD and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Pp.xxvii + 244; index. £32.50 (hardback); £12.50 (paperback). ISBN 0 8018 6272 8 and 6273 6

Democracy and Decentralisation in South Asia and West Africa: Participation, Accountability and Performance by Richard C. Crook and James Manor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xvi + 335; index; bibliography. £45 (hardback); £15.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 521 63157 2 and 63647 7

Predatory Globalization: A Critique by Richard Falk. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999. Pp.x + 217; index. £49.50 (hardback); £14.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 7456 0935 X and 0936 8

The Myth of Global Chaos by Y. Sadowski. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1998. Pp.xv + 267; index. NP (hardback) ISBN 0 8157 7664 0

Political Economy and the Changing Global Order, Second Edition edited by Richard Stubbs and Geoffrey R.D. Underhill. Ontario: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp.x + 422. £18.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 19 541 4640

Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Governance edited by Pippa Norris. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Pp.xv + 303; index. £45.00 (hardback); £16.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 19 829479 4 and 829568 5

Democracy's Edges edited by I. Shapiro and C. Hacker‐Cordón. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp.xiii + 297; index. £35 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 521 64356 and 64389 9

Revitalizing the State: A Menu of Options by Pradip N. Khandwalla. New Delhi and London: Sage Publications, 1999. Pp.304; index. £27.50 (hardback). ISBN 0 7619 9316 9

The Self‐Restraining State edited by A. Schedler, L. Diamond and M.F. Plattner. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1999. Pp.x + 393; index. US$59.95 (hardback); US$24.95 (paperback). ISBN 1 55587 773 7 and 774 5

Technology and Popular Participation edited by Brian Martin. Wollongong: University of Wollongong, Science and Technology Studies, 1999. Pp.263. Gratis (paperback). ISBN 0 86418 559 6

Contemporary Social and Political Theory: An Introduction by F. Ashe et al. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1999. Pp.xi + 209; glossary; bibliography; index. £45 (hardback); £14.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 335 19625 X and 19624 1

The New Political Culture edited by Terry Nichols Clark and Vincent Hoffman‐Martinot. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1998. Pp.298; index. $65 (hardback); $26.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8133 2814 4 and 6694 1     

Towards a common-sense typology and democratic philosophy for South Africa's ‘community media’

SUMMARY

This article focusses on the ways in which political cartoons, especially in South Africa, are used for political communication. To start with an indication is given of what is meant by political communication and how it forms part of the political socialisation process. Thereafter the focus shifts to the role of cartoons in this process. Emphasis is placed on the procedure of determining a theme or central idea for a cartoon. Three general functions of cartoons are also identified which concentrate on the condensation and simplification of a confusing perceived reality as well as acting as a medium for the mobilisation of political support. Besides, three specific functions are isolated which are determined by the cartoonist's appreciation of the status quo. In conclusion, a few methods available to the cartoonist for designing cartoons to perform these functions are mentioned.     

Turning down the heat: Influences on conflict management in enduring rivalries

Enduring rivalries represent the most difficult challenges for policy makers seeking to promote international peace and security. Once in place, enduring rivalries account for a disproportionate number of crises, militarized disputes, as well as wars, and include conflicts that are more likely to escalate than those falling in other conflict contexts. Unfortunately, we know very little about conflict management in enduring rivalries from either a theoretical or policy perspective. This study seeks to account for why some rivalries are successfully managed while others persist at high and unabated levels of conflict In addressing these concerns, we explore 35 enduring rivalries over the period 1945–1992. We find that although enduring rivalries are quite resistant to influences that produce changes in their dynamics, both endogenous and contextual influences can exercise a significant impact upon the prospects for conflict management between enduring rivals.     

The EU Battle Groups in Sweden and the Czech Republic: What National Defense Reforms Tell Us about European Rapid Reaction Capabilities

Abstract

This article fills an important empirical gap concerning a key building block of the EU's Headline Goal 2010, the EU Battlegroups. It asks whether the Battlegroup concept has been robust enough to drive significant changes in two smaller EU member state militaries. We find that it has, though with important qualifications, in the Swedish case, but much less in the Czech case. We stress the importance of linkages between the Battlegroup concept and the prevailing defense reform ideas in each state. We argue that Battlegroup deployment would lead to even greater transformation but that European leaders currently have not faced powerful incentives to deploy the kinds of precise assets the Battlegroups provide. The article also addresses both the fiscal priorities that hamper military readiness and delay deployments and the substantial and enduring gap between word and deed for which EU military efforts have become known.