The social relevance of knowledge: Science and the formation of modern Iran, 1910s–40s

Turkish area studies in the US developed in parallel with the diplomatic rapprochement between Turkey and the US after the Second World War. This article scrutinizes the relation between Turkish studies and American public diplomacy in Turkey with special emphasis on the latter. Unlike cultural programmes in Europe, which focused on satisfying intellectuals' taste for high culture, in Turkey the concentration of the cultural activities was on bureaucrats, educators and technical personnel. The article argues that this was because of a modernization approach and the priority given to the needs of US aid programmes. Following the revolutions in Asia, the programme was further oriented to strengthen the collaboration between Americans and the technocratic elites of Turkey.     

Britain's Policy in Southern Kurdistan: The Formation and the Termination of the First Kurdish Government, 1918–1919

The end of the First World War and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 signalled the downfall of the old order in the Middle East. The consolidation of Britain's strategic, economic and political position in that region was bound to affect Kurdistan's political future, given its determination to re-construct a new regional order. In the absence of a well-defined British policy towards Kurdistan's future certain British officials on the ground were able to play an important part in influencing the political situation in southern Kurdistan, which came under British political control. Therefore, the examination of Britain's policy on the ground through the concepts of indirect and direct control is central to any understanding of the reasons for the establishment and the subsequent termination of the first Kurdish government in the period 1918-1919.     

Peeresses,Parliament and prejudice: the admission of women to the House of Lords, 1918–1963

SUMMARY

In this article Duncan Sutherland examines a subject that has been almost entirely ignored by British constitutional historians, the admission of women to the House of Lords. There had always been hereditary peeresses, their status as peeresses did not confer the right to sit in the House of Lords. The womens' suffrage movement had ignored the issue, and attempts to use the right of women to sit as MPs in the Acts of 1918 and 1919 to entitle peeresses to sit in the Lords failed. So did subsequent attempts to have them admitted by legislation: the political parties did not see it as an important issue, and it was inextricably mixed up with the wider question of general reform of the House of Lords. Only after the creation of life peerages, after 1958, were women admitted to the House, and even then the hereditary peeresses had to wait until 1963 for admission. The article concludes by considering the kinds of arguments advanced for continuing the exclusion of women. The long delay, in light of the feebleness and inconsistencies of the case for continuing the exclusion of women, seems to indicate the low importance that the political Establishment attached to the issue.     

Committees and deputations in the assemblies of the Dutch republic, 1660–1668. 1

SUMMARY

In this article Henryk Olszewski reviews the main developments of the parliamentary constitution in Poland-Lithuania from the later middle ages to the abortive reform period after 1760. It is argued that at least until the end of the Jagellinian dynasty in 1572, a healthy and viable constitutional tradition had developed, combining an effective kingship with a vigorous gentry democracy. It goes on to argue that the subsequent degeneration of this political system, symbolised by the adoption of the liberum veto in 1652 was not an inevitability but the result of contingency.     

Under the conflicting pressures of the ideals of the era and the burdens of history: Ethnic relations in Estonia, 1918–1925

Abstract

One of the many challenges that Estonia faced when it gained independence was the minority question. The history of certain minorities, above all that of the Baltic Germans, has already been studied fairly intensively. Nevertheless, the scope of all previous studies has been rather narrow (the position of a single minority). This article traces the history of all ethnic minorities in Estonia and views them from a broader perspective. Answers are sought to the following questions: What were the ethnic relations like in Estonia in 1918–1925? Why were they so? Did they change in the course of time? The article is based on the systematic study of Estonian press and archival sources. It constitutes an expanded version of the conclusion of the author's Finnish-language monograph Ajan ihanteiden ja historian rasitteiden ristipaineissa: Viron etniset suhteet vuosina 1918–1925.     

Migration and Power Politics: The Settlement of Georgian Immigrants in Turkey (1878–1908)

This study is an examination of the relationship between migration and politics, focusing on the case of Georgian immigrants settled in the central Black Sea districts of Ottoman Turkey during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Based on the extensive use of Ottoman and British archival material as well as interviews conducted in the region, the study reveals insights into the intriguing power politics behind migration in the Ottoman Empire. Scrutinizing certain characteristics of the settlement process, it also demonstrates the complex imperial network of power that linked the most distant border districts of the Batum-Çürüksu (modern Kobuleti) region of Ottoman Caucasus directly to Istanbul via the Black Sea region of Ordu. The central argument of the study is that the leader of the immigrant group, namely Çürüksulu Ali Pasha, not only successfully managed the settlement process of his fellow Georgians but also masterfully manipulated all the stages of migration and settlement, making use of the conditions in his fierce power struggle against the appointed Ottoman governors as well as the native Muslim nobility of the region. The study thus shows how the personal agenda and the central position of a local Pasha in such a struggle for domination can dangerously destabilize life in an Ottoman province and sow the seeds of animosity between the immigrant community and the natives that eventually accelerated into warfare in the 1890s, creating a serious ‘Immigrant Problem’, the legacy of which lasted up to the early Republican period.     

China and swapo: The role of the people's republic in Namibia's liberation and post‐independence relations

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of the People's Republic of China's relations with Namibia. Prior to liberation, China maintained cordial links with SWAPO, yet was constrained by the close ties the organisation had with Moscow and its allies. However, the absence of any alternative to SWAPO meant that China refrained from supporting any rival organisation to the Soviet‐backed movement, as it did in Zimbabwe or Angola, and the struggle for independence was largely devoid of the Sino‐Soviet dispute found elsewhere in Southern Africa liberation struggles. Upon independence, China was thus in a position where it sought to continue linkages with the SWAPO government, as part of its policy of bolstering itself internationally through the utilization of Third World support. Namibia for its part was eager for investment and economic development, and China has been seen as a useful country to do business with.     

The Dead Hand of the Treasury: The Economic and Social Development of the Trucial States, 1948–60

This paper addresses an aspect of British policy in the Trucial States that has received scant scholarly attention. It examines British attempts to promote economic and social development in the Trucial States, and places this policy within the context of British attitudes towards the economic development of the colonial empire. During the 1950s Britain's interest in the Arabian Peninsula expanded, in notable contrast with the rest of the Middle East. One aspect of this expanded role was British efforts to improve the economic and social conditions prior to the discovery of oil in Abu Dhabi in 1958. British officials on the ground were concerned to improve the lot of the population of these impoverished shaikhdoms for a combination of political and strategic and ethical reasons. This article shows that attempts to introduce a modicum of economic and social development in the Trucial States were hindered by the Treasury's refusal to provide adequate funds, and because of inherent problems in finding suitable development projects. Nonetheless, the plans put in place during the 1950s did provide the foundations for subsequent development programmes, which, in turn, drastically expanded as a result of oil wealth.     

The sword,the pen,and the uterus: multidirectional feminist culture and the Argentine dictatorship of 1976–1983

During the period 1982–1999, a cohort of feminist cultural activists highlighted parallels between the political, gendered, racial, and linguistic frameworks used to justify state violence in Argentina of 1976–1983 and in Germany of 1933–1945. Their cultural works indicate the transnational aspects of Argentina’s failures of modernity, and the parallel responsibilities to trauma memory assumed by women and Jews as marginalized members of society, who consequently emerge as both local and transnational agents of democratization. A number of scholars have noted Argentine writers’ and playwrights’ adoption of Holocaust cultural constructs to represent the 1976–1983 dictatorship, yet these cultural contributions have not yet been studied from the combined perspectives of post-Holocaust and post-dictatorship feminist scholarship. By providing a gendered analysis of “Holocaust multidirectionality” within a global arena of “postmemory,” this article shows the convergence of the two terms in the cultural production of women who remember, represent, and transmit the experience and meaning of the Argentine military dictatorship.     

The making of the Basque political and representative institution (1853–1874), Part IV

SUMMARY

During the liberal revolution in Spain the national parliament was formed. In the Basque provinces some aspects of the Historical Foral law remained in force, like the provincial representative assemblies, and in the same period the New Foral Law emerges. This paper analyses the dialectical and problematic relation between the Spanish and Basque public political powers before the dissolution of the representative assemblies in 1877.     

The Cycle of Terror in Estonia, 1917–1919: On its Preconditions and Major Stages

World War I changed more than just the political map of Europe. One noteworthy consequence of the revolutions and war in East and Central Europe was the brutalization of human relations. Estonia saw three major “paroxysms” of violence in 1918–1919, which, although relatively limited in scale, are examples of the brutalization of human relations that occurred in the postwar period. The years 1918 and 1919 marked the first explosion of mass terror in Estonia, which led to the death of almost 2000 civilians. This article explores the preconditions and the stages of this terror focusing on the relationship between occupation, revolution, and land distribution. The author argues that the cycle of violence was unleashed by the radical transformation of landownership at the end of 1917. The previous owners often took advantage of the arrival of the German forces in February 1918 to exact revenge on those who had seized their property. The temporary return of the Bolsheviks at the beginning of the Estonian War of Independence was often seen as a pretext to avenge the injustices suffered under German occupation. The liberation of Estonia from the Red Army at the beginning of 1919 resulted in yet another wave of violence. The terror abated with the strengthening of state authority and the coming to power of a democratically elected government in April 1919.     

The institutionalization of relative advantage: formal institutions,subconstitutional presidential powers,and the rise of authoritarian politics in Russia, 1994–2012

What role do formal institutions play in the consolidation of authoritarian regimes such as the Russian Federation? Oftentimes, it is assumed that autocrats, usually potent presidents, wield informal powers and control far-flung patron–client networks that undermine formal institutions and bolster their rule. After the institutional turn in authoritarianism studies, elections, parties, legislatures, or courts have taken center stage, yet presidencies and public law are still on the margins of this research paradigm. This paper proposes a method for measuring subconstitutional presidential power and its change by federal law, decrees, and Constitutional Court rulings as well as a theoretical framework for explaining when and under which conditions subconstitutional presidential power expands. It is argued that as a result of a gradual, small-scale, and slow-moving process of layering, presidential powers have been accumulated over time. This furthers the institutionalization of presidential advantage toward other federal and regional institutions, which in turn contributes to the consolidation of authoritarianism.     

Secularizing Islamism and Islamizing Democracy: The Political and Ideational Evolution of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers 1984–2012

The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) emerged in Egypt in the early twentieth century to resist secularism and political pluralism in favour of religious revival and a unitary Islamic state. After three decades of political participation culminating in its formation of a government in Egypt, the MB has prioritized electoral paths to power, while claiming to defend individual rights, popular majorities and a civil state. Nevertheless, the MB's discourse continues to straddle religious and secular terrain: in recent election campaigns, MB leaders promised to build an ‘Islamic state’ and a ‘caliphate’, all the while insisting that the people, not God are the source of all power. What explains these contradictions, and what do they tell us about the Brotherhood's apparent adoption of political and ideational pluralism and democratic values? The article contends that the MB's ambivalence about democracy is not a sign of dissimulation or lack of ideological evolution. Instead, it has its roots in a 30-year process of partially adapting to democratic and ‘secular’ political ideas by reframing them in religious terms which, however, resulted in creating what the article discusses as a hybrid ‘secularized’ Islamism. This hybridization has both enabled and constrained the Brothers' adaptation to democracy in the post-Mubarak period.     

The evolving narrative of denial: the Fraser government and the Timorese genocide, 1975–1980

As research by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor documents, the years 1975–1980 constituted the worst period of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, during which grave human rights took place involving a high loss of life. In Australia, the government headed by Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser (1975–1983) sought to present itself as a supporter of human rights and the international rule of law. It also prioritized relations with the Suharto regime, which it saw as key to its policy position in Southeast Asia. These two positions came into conflict due to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. The Fraser government therefore worked to propagate a narrative concerning East Timor which denied the seriousness of the situation, distorted the historical narrative, deflected blame from Indonesia, and depicted the Australian position as principled and realistic. This paper examines the development of this narrative as events progressed and information concerning the crisis in East Timor came to the attention of the outside world. It also examines how the Fraser government employed this narrative internationally in order to protect the Suharto regime from scrutiny.     

Professor John Roskell,FBA: The re-birth of the British Sub-Committee of the Commission and the History of Parliament, 1948–1960

SUMMARY

In this article J. Agirreazkuenaga examines the events in the Basque provinces of Spain during the attempted Carlist coup d'état of 1833. Essentially the coup was a failure, although its partial early success did give the Carlists a territorial basis substantial enough to sustain six years of civil war. The result of the coup was not the intended instant displacement of the legitimate, constitutional authorities throughout the region. The Carlists had made their preparations in advance, in anticipation of the death of the absolutist Ferdinand VII, and the threat of the introduction of a liberal constitutionalist regime under his daughter. They had recruited a local militia, the ‘Armed Countrymen’ which carried out the actual coup. But although these units were mainly volunteers, and paid for their service, they proved unreliable in action, being unwilling to engage in serious combat. In consequence during the first 100 days of the uprising, the early successes, based on the absence of serious resistance from the constitutional authorities, were reversed when they were confronted by troops loyal to the government. The article presents some conclusions about the state of development of traditional Basque society which were revealed by the failure of the original coup and the beginning of civil war.