The politics of reconciliation: Germany in central‐east Europe

The role of united Germany in the new Europe has been the source of considerable debate and speculation. This study analyses the impact of Germany's continued commitment to reconciliation with its neighbours in central‐east Europe (CEE) on traditional power relations in the region. It argues that the politics of reconciliation scramble conventional power calculations in substantive ways to elevate CEE authority in their relations with Germany. Moreover, the politics of reconciliation highlight the intersection of domestic and foreign policy which, since 1990, have favoured the ability of domestic factors in Germany and CEE to promote or impede reconciliation. The Treaties of Friendship, signed by Germany with Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary after unification provide the empirical benchmark used to compare the different trajectories in bilateral relations which have developed under the umbrella of reconciliation.     

The Commonwealth Caribbean and Europe: The End of the Affair?

Abstract

The institutional relationship between the Commonwealth Caribbean and the European Union (EU) dates back to the mid-1970s, when the Lomé Convention was signed. The agreement was seen as a high water mark in First–Third World relations. However, since then the bond has come under concerted pressure. The consequence is that today the particularism that underpinned relations for so long has almost vanished and the EU is beginning to treat the Caribbean like any other relatively marginal region of the world. The article evaluates the reasons for this change, in particular: the scrapping of the trade protocols; the erosion of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) preference due to free trade agreements signed by the EU; the refocusing of EU development policy towards the least developed countries; and the split in the ACP group with the creation of an ill-designed regional Economic Partnership Agreement. The article places these changes into starker relief by assessing briefly the deepening links between the United Kingdom Overseas Territories and the EU. However, as the article highlights, this link will neither reboot nor sustain the more important Commonwealth Caribbean–EU relationship.     

The Bedouins in the Galilee in the War of Independence of Israel 1948–1950

The relations of the Bedouins with the Jewish population during the War of Independence were very complex. The Bedouins were both opponents and friends. Bedouin groups helped the Jews in their struggle against the Palestinian national movement and against the Arab armies like Arab-al-Hib. Before the foundation of the state, these Bedouins had already participated in the protection of the security of the Jewish population. They supplied intelligence on events of the Arab and Palestinian sides, and also fought by the side of the Jews in the War of Independence, but at that time other groups joined the Palestinian national movement and took part in the struggle against the Jewish population, more so after the declaration of the partition plan in the United Nations. Subsequently, Bedouin fighting gangs were established and they joined the Palestinian struggle with the Jewish population.

The Bedouin positions during the war had implications for their fate in the State of Israel. The War of Independence allowed a significant part of the Bedouin tribes to escape to the neighbouring Arab states – Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Many of the Bedouin tribes that escaped did so as they were connected with fighting with the Arab gangs and the Arab Liberation Army. The Bedouins who were in the Zionist camp during the war or who adopted a neutral position stayed in the territory of the borders of the State of Israel.     

The ‘European Turks’: identities of high-skilled Turkish migrants in Europe

Using exceptionally rich qualitative data coming from the FP7 EUCROSS project on the ‘Europeanization of the Everyday Life’, this paper focuses on high-skilled and highly transnational Turkish migrants who reside in the UK, Romania and Italy. The article analyses participants’ discursive constructions of Europe and Europeanness and shows how specific images and symbols of Europe and Turkey influence their own relationship to Europe. We argue that understanding Turkish migrants’ identification with Europe requires a comprehensive analysis of the development of a Westernization discourse in Turkey that has framed people’s identities. This discourse symbolizes the desire for being part of the Western world, and especially Western Europe, but, at the same time, the fear of being dominated by the very same world. We show that we need to grasp the values, images, symbols and discourses that underline transnational practices to understand the making of European identity among migrants.     

From the Hague Congress to the Council of Europe: hopes,achievements and disappointments in the parliamentary way to European integration (1948–51)

SUMMARY

This article examines the commitment of many parliamentarians from Western countries after the Second World War in favour of European integration and the role played by the first European representative assembly, the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, from its foundation in 1949 to the resignation of its first president, Paul-Henri Spaak, in 1951. The Hague Congress of May 1948 proposed the creation of an assembly elected by national parliaments which was to be the core of an integration process. The Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe, established by the Treaty of London of 5 May 1949, was far from satisfying the promoters of a parliament-led Europe, as the Committee of Ministers was the main decision-making body of the new international organization. The members of the Consultative Assembly (many of whom were leading political figures such as Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan, Guy Mollet, Georges Bidault, Eamon de Valera, Ugo La Malfa and Ferruccio Parri) made an important contribution, however, to creating a supranational forum of discussion, and the Assembly's proposals led to the Convention on Human Rights, signed in November 1950, and to other European conventions. However, the Assembly was unable to share a common vision about the institutional perspectives of European integration. This article examines how the debate about the political structure of Europe was influenced by national traditions.     

Adopting Same-Sex Unions in Catholic Malta: Pointing the Finger at ‘Europe’

In 2013 the Maltese Labour Party returned to power after 15 years in opposition, securing the single largest majority in the island's post-independence history and on a platform promising civil unions for same-sex couples. Asking how LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights became mainstream in a country synonymous with Catholicism, the article examines whether the adoption of the Civil Union Act is the culmination of ten years of European Union membership. Employing concepts of policy and institutional fit as well as social constructivist theories of elite socialisation and epistemic communities, it concludes that while policy fit accounts for the introduction of equality laws, the Civil Union Act depended on the social democrats' need to retake the progressive agenda. Elite socialisation – particularly among Members of the European Parliament – helped reframe the issue, encouraging the party to adopt this policy while the Europeanisation of the LGBT lobby reminded the social democrats that the LGBT minority, long hidden and browbeaten by Church teaching, now sought recognition and equality.     

Description of the peasants’ sexual behavior in August Wilhelm Hupel’s Topographical Messages in the context of the history of the Estonian family

The aim of this article is to introduce the work of August Wilhem Hupel, a Baltic German author of the 18th century. The article focuses on the sections in his most voluminous work Topographische Nachrichten von Lief- und Ehstland (1774–1782) that describe Estonian peasants’ sexuality. Hupel’s writings belong to the sources of the history of the Estonian family, a field that has been rediscovered at the beginning of the 21st century. Thanks to the work of Marika Mägi and Nils Blomkvist, a new paradigm for research in this field has been opened up. This article adheres to that paradigm.     

The Jewish–Arab Conflict and the Disintegration of the Ancient Jewish Community in the Village of Peqi‘in

The fate of the last community of Arabized Jews in Palestine, in the Galilee village of Peqi’in is surveyed. Peqi’in (al-Baqi’a in Arabic) is still known as the “Village of the Four Religions,” because of its unique mix of Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Druze, who lived together for centuries in good neighborly relations. Although the Arab-Jewish conflict might not have seemed relevant to the Peqi’in Jews, who had lived there for centuries, they were ultimately pushed out of the village. This pioneering study describes how the Peqi’in Jews, who had became a symbol for the Zionist enterprise, were forced from their home, although senior Zionist leaders strove to protect them and even made them a test of the alliance between the Zionists and the Druze. The sequence of events is recounted, from the start of the Mandate through the stillborn attempt to return the Peqi’in Jews to the village after the establishment of Israel.     

Russia’s energy relations in Southeastern Europe: an analysis of motives in Bulgaria and Greece

Although officially Russian state-owned energy companies operate as independent entities, their actions often lead to suspicion that they are acting as a tool of Russian state foreign policy. Countries on the southeastern borders of Europe – Bulgaria and Greece – are prime examples of where this might be the case, since they not only have a central position in Russia’s plans to penetrate European markets through new transport infrastructure but are also part of competing plans for routing non-Russian gas to Western markets. The main focus of the present research is on the natural gas and oil sectors, as these are the traditional foundation of Russian energy exports to Europe. The aim of this paper is thus to provide an objective, evidence-based analysis of Russian activities in the natural gas and oil sectors of Greece and Bulgaria in order to establish whether its actions have been implicitly or explicitly politicized and have served to strengthen Russian influence in the region.     

The Return of ‘Social Europe’: Ideas and Positions of German Parties towards the Future of European Integration

Politics in Eastern Europe. By George Schöpflin. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. £12.99 pb.

Eastern Europe since 1945. By Geoffrey Swain and Nigel Swain. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1993. £10 pb.

Revolution in East‐Central Europe. The Rise and Fall of Communism and the Cold War. By David S. Mason. Boulder, San Francisco and Oxford: Westview Press, 1992. £9.50 pb.

Surge to Freedom: The End of Communist Rule in Eastern Europe. By J.F. Brown. Twickenham: Adamantine Press, 1991. £18.40 pb.

The New Democracies in Eastern Europe. Party Systems and Political Cleavages. Edited by Sten Berglund and Jan Åke Dellenbrant. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1991. £39.95 hb.

Developments in Eastern European Politics. Edited by Stephen White, Judy Batt and Paul G. Lewis. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1993. £11.99 pb.     

The position of the states in the political thought of the Dutch revolt 1555–1581

Summary

In 1846 the Conservative party split over Peel's decision to repeal the Corn Laws. While over a third of Conservative peers voted for repeal from a variety of motives, not least out of loyalty to the Duke of Wellington, a clear majority rallied to the protectionist standard raised by the Duke of Richmond. The Protectionists elected Lord Stanley (the future fourteenth Earl of Derby) as their leader. Stanley's policy was to reunite the Conservative party in the House of Lords in opposition to the Whig government and to use this as a forge on which to work the reunion of the whole party. In 1846 this seemed to be a sensible policy with a reasonable chance of success. A majority of Peelite peers favoured reconciliation with the Protectionists and Stanley maintained generally good relations with the most prominent Peelites in the Lords during this period. Yet despite these advantages Stanley's policy failed. Although the Peelite peers did not organise as a political party they retained a separate identity and few of them joined the Protectionist government formed in 1852. Stanley failed because the strength of feeling associated with protectionism and free trade was too deep to be overcome, even in the Lords.     

Islamist radicalism in the provinces of Iran 1906–9: a stage in the development of Islamism

Islamist radicalism emerged in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906–9. This article examines the early stages of its emergence with particular reference to the provinces of Iran. It looks at the subject thematically and traces the development of an Islamist notion of the state, characterized by Islamic law, and the shaping of new views on nationalism, absolutism and the economy. Increasingly politicized ordinary people also influenced ideological change. The article begins by establishing the background and influence of individuals and groups who played a leading role in developing an Islamist radical political perspective and identity. It then discusses their vision for an alternative state in terms of the authority to govern, its institutions and its laws and considers their methods of organization and propagation to oppose the existing system, and their attempts to change it. Since the article is intended primarily for those interested in the history of Islamism, it ends by evaluating the stage it had reached in 1909.     

The role of peace journalism in the deconstruction of elections and the “national question” in Nigeria

Nigeria, a very fragile country, is constantly teetering towards dissolution. For several decades post-independence, the country has been plagued by protracted disputations among the diverse ethnic nationalities, which have been attributed to the inadvertent merger of the Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914 by the British colonialists. Since the merger, there has been intense unrest among the various ethnic groups with tensions for greater resource control and self-determination. The country has also witnessed the intense politicisation of religion in ways that have continued to aggravate the deepening antagonism between Christians and Muslims, further broadening already existing fault lines. The longdrawn-out bickering has led to calls for a renegotiation of the terms of cohabitation among the various ethnic nationalities; and this has given rise to the “national question”, a term used to describe the quest to review the dilemmas associated with accommodating multipleidentity communities within the framework of a single, integrated, national political system. This article argues that traditional media reportage of the “national question” in Nigeria has been more divisive than uniting. The article proposes the adoption of a peace journalism approach to reporting the “national question” to ensure that members of the various ethnic nationalities consider and value non-violent responses to conflict.     

Public Research Projects in Europe and East Asia: Cooperation or Competition? A Comparative Analysis of the ITER and Galileo Experiences

The projects discussed in this paper, Galileo and ITER, are two contrasting experiences of Euro-Asian cooperation within Very Large (Public) Scientific Enterprises. They offer key insights into the deepening relations which have given shape to the rapidly expanding field of Euro-Asian collaborative interregional projects. Cooperative agendas within such "Big Science" endeavors heighten the question of the political considerations supporting the decision to engage specific forms of international cooperation. As the main driving force behind both projects, the EU's choices have resulted in the establishment of novel and distinct forms of Euro-Asian scientific cooperation. A better understanding of how such Euro-Asian initiatives emerge can logically be garnered by confronting the Euro-Chinese cooperation within Galileo, and the Euro-Japanese partnership within ITER. This comparison will show that the agendas and institutions of these two interregional policies vary greatly. Within the same policy field - in casu Large Scientific Projects - and in relationship to the same region - i.e. East Asia - this study shows that fundamentally different policies are practiced side-by-side. If in both cases Euro-Asian scientific cooperation has provided its participants with renewed leverage and unprecedented opportunities, the exact scope and function of these interregional collaborations range from the merely tactical in the Euro-Chinese Galileo experience, to the substantial in the Euro-Japanese ITER experience.     

Understanding the War in Syria and the Roles of External Players: Way Out of the Quagmire?

With Western commentators, media and think tanks still being the predominant determinant of the global international relations discourse and therefore also of the discourse relating to Syria, discerning actual realities coherently from the fog of a very biased narrative presents great challenges. Deciphering the complexities of West Asia has never been easy and the situation in Syria is particularly complicated. This article argues inter alia that the Commonwealth as an entity needs to add its efforts, voice and prestige to the global effort to prioritize the restoration of peace in West Asia in general and Syria in particular.     

The Atlantic economy after German unification: Cooperation or the rise of ‘Fortress Europe’

With the end of the cold war and the weakening of the security bond between Europe and the United States, economic relations assume increasing importance. As Europe's dominant economic power, Germany has a central role in the management of the trans‐Atlantic economy. This analysis of economic relations between Germany and the United States shows that whilst investment flows between the two economies suggest common interests and mutual dependence, the structure of German and American trade reveals a strong potential for conflict. Moreover, the experience of the 1980s suggests that economic ties between Germany and the United States are not sufficiently intense to guarantee unconditional cooperation in the management of the Atlantic economy. Divergence in macroeconomic policy has inevitably led to tensions over trade, exchange rates and interest rates. Unless this tendency is checked, the result will be the emergence of ‘Fortress Europe’ with a heightened potential for conflict with the United States.     

The representation of the female body in the multimedia works of Regina José Galindo

The female body is central to the performance art, poetry and blog site interventions of Guatemalan Regina José Galindo. While Galindo is best known for her performance work, this article compares the hereto overlooked, distinctive and often shocking representations of the female body across her multimedia outputs. We first consider the ways in which, in all three media, Galindo presents an ‘excessive’, carnivalised, grotesque and abject female body. Second, we analyse representations of the female body that has been subjected to violence at a private and public level. In so doing, we show how Galindo not only contests hegemonic visions of gender and (national) identity but also challenges the viewer/reader to engage with, rather than look away from, the violence to which women are subjected in patriarchal society.     

Losing the Power of Parliament? Participation of the Bundestag in the Decision-Making Process Concerning Out-of-Area Military Operations

The article analyses the role of the German Bundestag in decision making on out-of-area military operations since 1994. It is framed by the research question whether the power of the parliament has been weakened by the building of international rapid reaction forces such as the European Battle Groups or the NATO Response Force. In the first part, the position of the Bundestag in the decisions since 1994 is explained. The second part is mainly focused on the decision-making process pertaining to the 2006 EUFOR operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2006, the German Battle Group was not sent to Congo due to domestic constraints. On the basis of this incident and a more general analysis, the article underlines the crucial role of the Bundestag in the decision-making process. It disputes the claim that the Bundestag is losing its power in favour of the government.