Middle Eastern terrorism in Europe: Trends and prospects

Abstract

Europe has been the preferred operational area for Middle Eastern terrorist groups—some 418 attacks from 1980–1989. Unlike European Marxist revolutionary or separatist terrorist groups, the Middle Eastern groups present Europe with a regional security problem. The most dangerous element in this Middle Eastern terrorist threat is the state‐sponsored activities of Iran, Libya, Syria, and Iraq. These countries provided the fuel for a decade of Middle Eastern terrorist bloodshed in Europe. Given the problems of solving the various political conflicts and feuds in the Middle East and the continuing attractiveness of Europe as a substitute battlefield for Middle Eastern terrorist elements, the threat of Middle Eastern terrorist activity in Europe should continue into the 1990s.     

Yassir Arafat

Development Theory and the Three Worlds. by Bjorn Hittne, London: Longman. 1990. 296pp.

Eurocentrism. by Samir Amin, London: Zed Books. 1989. 157pp.

Communist Agriculture: farming in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. edited by Karl‐Eugen Wädekin, London: Routledge. 1990. 131pp. £25.00hb

The Informal Economy: studies in advanced and less developed countries. edited by Alejandro Portes, Manual Castells and Lauren A Benton, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1989. 327pp. £12.00pb

The Next Generation: lives of Third World children. by Judith Ennew and Brian Milne, London: Zed. 1990. 226pp. £7.95pb

Ethnicity in World Politics. Third World Quarterly 11 (4), October 1989

Uprooting Poverty: the South African challenge. by Francis Wilson and Mamphele Ramphele, London: W W Norton. 1989. 400pp. £18.95hb

Yours for the Union: class and community struggles in South Africa. by Baruch Hirson, London: Zed. 1989. 230pp     

Legacies of State Socialism: A Comparative Study of Elite Attitudes towards EU Economic Competitiveness in Western and Central Eastern Europe

Abstract

The elites of Western Europe prefer social security for all citizens as the major aim of the EU, while the preference of Central and Eastern European elites is for a more globally competitive European economy. This disparity between elite preferences may be accounted for by the distinct electorates and elites’ responsive strategic calculations, or by the process of socialisation Central and Eastern European elites undergo during exposure to the EU. This article argues that the predominant reason for the difference in elite attitudes towards economic competition is the lasting effect of state socialism in Central and Eastern European countries.     

Twenty years after 1989: moving on from transitology

This article sets within a qualitative framework part of the social sciences research that has been carried out on Central and Eastern Europe since 1989. This qualitative study relies upon quantitative data from journal monitoring carried out on a number of thematic journals on post-Communist Europe. What the article demonstrates is that political science research on post-Communist Europe has advanced from the stage of transitology to methodological approaches more deeply entrenched within the European whole. Sociological research, on the other hand, has recently started to position the East European regional inside the European or global more emphatically.     

Poland,Germany and the EU: Reimagining Central Europe

Abstract

In this article, we look at the fissures in United Europe from both sides of the region where a post-Cold War ‘Middle/Central Europe’ should have been forged. How do leading German and Polish newspapers treat the categories of ‘Central’ or ‘Middle’ Europe relative to the concept of the Eastern–Western European divide and what are the discourses associated with these perspectives? At the time of a looming redefinition of the entire European project, what can media reports from Germany and Poland tell us about its future? We conclude that the media narratives in these two countries portend further tensions for European unity, since the new divisions now overlap the old ones. Our findings have implications for the future of democracy in the newly democratic countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland.     

Leninist beneficiaries? Pre-1989 legacies and the radical right in post-1989 Central and Eastern Europe. Some introductory observations

A central topos in the study of Central and Eastern European contemporary politics in general, and of its radical right politics in particular is the emphasis on the extraordinary relevance of history and geography. In fact, the entire transformation process after 1989 is often clothed in terms of historical and geographical categories, either as a “return of history” or a “return to Europe”, or both. In these various scenarios, the radical right claims a prominent place in this politics of return, and the study of this current echoes the more general concern, in the analyses of the region, with historical analogies and the role of legacies. Sometimes analogies are drawn between the post-1989 radical right and interwar fascism, in terms of a “Weimarization” of the transformation countries and the return of the pre-socialist, ultranationalist or even fascist past – the “return of history”. Others argue that since some Central and Eastern European party systems increasingly resemble their Western European counterparts, so does the radical right, at least where it is electorally successful – the “return to Europe”. According to yet another line of thought, the radical right in the region is a phenomenon sui generis, inherently shaped by the historical forces of state socialism and the transformation process and, as a result and in contrast to Western Europe, ideologically more extreme and anti-democratic while organizationally more a movement than a party phenomenon. In all these approaches, the key concepts of “legacies” and the radical right are often underspecified. This volume takes a closer look at the intersection of history or particular legacies, and the mobilization of the radical right in the post-1989 world of the region, while attempting to provide a sharper focus on key concepts. Regardless of the different approaches, all contributions show that with the radical right, a peculiar “syncretic construct” (Tismaneanu) has emerged in Central and Eastern Europe after 1989, which is derived from both pre-communist and communist legacies.     

Jihadism in Western Europe After the Invasion of Iraq: Tracing Motivational Influences from the Iraq War on Jihadist Terrorism in Western Europe

Abstract

This article investigates the importance of the invasion and occupation of Iraq as motivation for recent acts of jihadist terrorism in Western Europe. It analyses the mass casualty terrorist attack attributed to a group of Islamist militants in Madrid on 11 March 2004, and the killing of a Dutch filmmaker on the streets of Amsterdam by an Al Qaeda–inspired terrorist network. The first case has been assumed to be mainly motivated by the Iraq war, whereas the other case has been perceived as an act by an individual, motivated by domestic factors in Holland. The article situates these acts of terrorism within the theory of so-called spillover effects from armed conflicts to international terrorism. It argues that the Iraq war was a significant motivational factor for the terrorists in both cases, but that the terrorists linked the Iraq issue with perceived injustices against Muslims in Europe and globally.     

China’s Economic Diplomacy in Central and Eastern Europe: A Case of Offensive Mercantilism?

Abstract

Since China launched the 16?+?1 forum for meetings with Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in 2012, European observers have struggled to understand the Chinese approach. In contrast to its oft-repeated claim of ‘win–win’ cooperation, some believe China is pursuing an assertive strategy of ‘divide and conquer’ designed to benefit China at Europe’s expense. China’s economic diplomacy in CEE is examined through the critical lens of Holslag’s ‘offensive mercantilism’ framework, finding it useful for assessing empirical aspects of China’s approach to CEE, but failing to find evidence for the assertion that China’s economic diplomacy is divisive and bad for Europe.     

Leaders without Leadership: Surrogate Governments in Poland

Abstract

The subject of this analysis is a situation observed in Poland and, in recent years, other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, in which the leadership of the executive is located outside a constitutionally defined government. A representative situation in which a prime minister is controlled by a party leader without a formal government position is defined as a ‘surrogate government’. Five Polish cabinets in the period 1991–2019 met the preliminary criteria of ‘surrogate government’; of these, the cabinets of Beata Szyd?o and Mateusz Morawiecki come closest to fulfilling the criteria completely.     

The Comparative Survey of Freedom: Experiences and Suggestions

The article describes the Comparative Survey of Freedom, produced from 1975 to 1989 in article form, and from 1978 to 1989 in book form as well. The survey rates annually all independent states and dependent territories. It is a loose, intuitive rating system for levels of freedom or democracy, as defined by the traditional political rights and civil liberties of the Western democracies. The checklists used for political rights and civil liberties are discussed point by point. Although open to criticism, the ratings are quite similar to those produced by other analysts from different perspectives during this time period., Unlike other studies, the survey's regular production provides a useful and consistent time series. Democracy is a moving target. Extensions of the survey in, time or levels of discrimination would force the investigator to address a variety of new and difficult problems in comparability that are not faced by the survey in its present form. After receiving a degree in social science and Middle Eastern, Studies at Harvard University, Dr. Gastil taught anthropology and honors social science at the University of Oregon, For seven years he analyzed national security and other policy issues at Hudson Institute. Basic research at Battelle Seattle Research Center led to the publication ofCultural Regions of the United States, andSocial Humanities.: Toward an Integrative Discipline of Science and Values, as well as numerous scholarly articles. From 1977 to 1989, Dr. Gastil was director of the Comparative Survey of Freedom at Freedom House. In this capacity he wrote and produced an annual yearbook entitledFreedom in the World: Political Rights and Civil Liberties, and held conferences on supporting liberalization in the Soviet Union, Muslim Central Asia, China, and Eastern Europe, as well as on the problem of political participatin, in the United States.     

Network Politics,Political Capital,and Democracy

Abstract

Is network politics a good or a bad thing for democracy? Seen from a narrow perspective of democracy the answer is clear. It is a bad thing. However, seen from broader perpsective the answer is more complex since it does not only focus on the preservation of representative democracy but also on the promotion of organizational democracy in civil society and on the enhancement of the citizens' political capital, that is their endowment, empowerment and political identity. The complexity of the relationship between democracy and network politics is apparent in a case study of political decision making in Skanderborg, a small town in Denmark.     

Sustaining Free Market Economic Education in a Transition Economy: A Romanian Experience

Abstract

Following the collapse of the socialist governments of Eastern Europe, the United States provided aid to assist those countries transition to a free market economy. A common model was to provide expert assistance for a defined period with the expectation that changes would be sustained after the project ended. In Romania U.S. aid included assistance to universities to revise curriculum and teaching pedagogy and to establish small business development centers. Ten years later only one small business development center still exists. The experience of the surviving center indicates that commitment to the continuance of the bureau is as important as the quality of service delivery in maintaining small business assistance programs.     

Multiple Winning Formulae? Far Right Voters and Parties in Eastern Europe

Abstract

Can theories explaining far right voting in Western Europe be extended to post-communist Eastern Europe? We address this question with a comparative demand-side analysis of far right parties and their voters in four post-communist countries: Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia. Our findings indicate the emergence of two distinct types of far right party. While the Latvian and Lithuanian far right resemble the new radical right (NRR) model, the Bulgarian far right comes closer to the welfare chauvinist ideal type. The far right mobilised anti-Semitic voters in Latvia, Slovakia and Bulgaria. In all four cases, the far right was especially successful in capturing the votes of ethnic majority members who are the most opposed to their country’s formerly dominant ethnic group.     

Exile and globalization in the poetry of Tanure Ojaide: a case study of When it no longer matters where you live

Abstract

The twin concepts of exile and globalization are of great significance to contemporary African literature, as some African writers live and write in exile, while others deploy themes and styles that they believe make their works relevant to the global community. Since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the end of the cold war at the end of the twentieth century, there has been a triumphalism of liberal democracy, free-market economy and other norms of the capitalist world order. Consequently there appears to be an increasing tendency among scholars to homogenize or globalize the practices and values canvassed by the advanced countries of the West.

In Ojaide's When It No Longer Matters Where You Live, the poet acknowledges the inevitability of some African elites living in exile in Western cosmopolitan centers, but rejects the uncritical notion inherent in globalization that western culture and values were synonymous with universal norms or superior to those of the Africans.     

Networks in the Policy Process: An International Perspective

Abstract

This article (and more broadly this special issue) indicate that various types of policy networks, including governance networks, social networks, proto‐networks, and issue networks are defining the way that policy processes take place in various parts of the world. By focusing on network behavior in Africa, eastern Europe, and Denmark, it is clear that interorganizational cohesion, accesibility, trust generation, and “framing” issues are central to understanding network policy outcomes. Important implications regarding links between network characteristics and democracy are also suggested.     

Patterns of Ethnic Homogenisation,Fragmentation and Polarisation and the Vote Shares for Nationalist Parties in Latvia

Abstract

The focus of this article is on ethnic diversity and polarisation in Latvia after 1989. Our fundamental question is that if we interpret diversification as a dynamic process, and include polarisation as a potential direction of diversification, how much will the results differ, compared to the explanations usually proposed in the literature? The recognition that apparent homogenisation results, in particular cases, in polarisation (in this case in 35% of Latvia’s entire population) is the major contribution of our empirical analysis. Taking into account the broad scale of the potential impact of polarisation, our findings raise significant questions for the classification mechanisms that may be employed in further investigations.     

Innovative ambiguities: NGOs’ use of interactive technology in Eastern Europe

This article examines the co-evolution of interactive technology and non-governmental organizations in Eastern Europe. It addresses, on the one side, the emergence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as actors who exhibit new organizational topographies and, on the other side, the emergence of the Internet and related interactive technologies that not only provide a new medium of representation in a virtual public sphere but also make possible fundamental changes in the character of organization. We explore how organizations of civil society can be a source of organizational and technological innovation necessary for their societies’ ongoing adaptability in a rapidly changing global economy. As such, NGOs can use new technologies within and beyond their existing roles as safety nets (to mitigate the new social problems of emerging market economies) and as safety valves (to give voice to social groups underrepresented in the newly competitive polities) to function as social entrepreneurs exploring new organizational forms as ongoing sources of innovation. Jonathan Bach is a postdoctoral research scholar at the Center for Organizational Innovation at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University. He is the author ofBetween Sovereignty and Integration: German Foreign Policy and National Identity after 1989. David Stark is Arnold A. Saltzman Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Columbia University and an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute. His current research examines the co-evolution of collaborative organization and interactive technologies in various settings, including new media startups in Manhattan and trading rooms on Wall Street, as well as NGOs in Eastern Europe.     

National Sentiments in Eastern and Western Europe

In a world of presumed nation-states nation has been, and still is, an intrinsic part of political legitimization. The claim of nationality has played an important role in such legitimization for the last two centuries. More than this, it has also constituted a fundamental collective entity for an individual's understanding of who they are in relation to those who are perceived as not sharing the nationality. This is nothing new, but in an era of globalization we are witnessing the rebirth of nationalism and nationality (Castells, 1997), where the power struggle over the political agenda will increasingly be about the struggle for the right to identity and the risks of exclusion from the national community. Even if this is the case it stands clear that everyday nationalism and nationalist struggles take different forms in different parts of the world. It has often been claimed that there are two types of nationalism prevalent in different parts of Europe, one in the so-called West and one in the so-called East. Kohn (1945) claimed that the rise of nationalism in the West was a political occurrence based on the democratic creation of the modern nation-state whereas the rise of nationalism in Eastern Europe was of a more backward type drawing its power from the struggle for cultural hegemony. The legacy of Kohn is taken up by Smith (1986; 1991) in his classical division of civic and ethnic national identities and nationalism, claiming that the former is a Western product and the latter mainly an Eastern one (see also Ignatieff, 1993). More recently, White (2000) claims that national identities in Eastern Europe have been strongly influenced by romanticism. The emphasis on ethnic nationalism in Eastern Europe not only is related to historical nation formation, but also has been claimed to be of great importance in the postcommunist era (Lovell, 1999). It is widely realized that national identities and nationalism differ within the West as well as within the East, but it is still assumed that there are fundamental differences between Western and Eastern European nation formation and that these have influenced the types of national identity and nationalism prevalent in the different geographical areas. For example, Sugar (1969) claims that there are differences between the Eastern European states; nonetheless, there are also commonalties that make them differ from Western European states.     

Corruption,Privatisation and Economic Growth in Post-communist Countries

Abstract

This article empirically investigates the effects of corruption and privatisation on economic growth in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former USSR. We use a corruption and privatisation augmented open-economy leader–follower endogenous growth model to derive our research hypotheses. In this setting, corruption, privatisation and external openness jointly determine the per capita income in the follower economy. This model predicts that economies with higher shares of private ownership, lower corruption, and higher external openness enjoy higher rates of growth. Our empirical verification of these predictions is based on a panel of 29 post-communist countries during the period 1996–2014. Our estimation results confirm the negative effects of corruption, while the positive effects of privatisation are limited to small-scale privatisation.     

Aspirations and Hope Distribution in the Emigration of Maghrebi Europeans in Montreal

Abstract

The article addresses contemporary forms of European emigration more specifically of Belgian and French ‘second-generation’ migrant youngsters of Maghrebi background leaving Europe for Montreal (Canada). Building on an ethnographic field research conducted in France, Belgium and Montreal over a period of four years, this article explores the aspirations that participants pursued through migration and how these aspirations evolved in the course of the migration trajectory. This article describes young Maghrebi European’s experiences as unfolding in different configurations of hope distribution in Europe and Canada. While the emergence of emigration desires is connected with the shrinking hope for desirable futures in Europe, moving to Montreal is experienced as an opening of new hopes albeit with mixed results in terms of actual economic or professional upward mobility.