The Politics of Restitution: The 1964–66 Labour Government’s Policy Towards Ireland

This article analyzes Harold Wilson’s policy towards the Republic of Ireland during the first eighteen months of his government. This article will demonstrate that the Labour government embarked upon a concerted effort to improve Anglo-Irish relations. In particular, the Labour government acceded to the Irish government’s time-honoured request to repatriate the remains of Roger Casement, and returned the flag that had flown over the General Post Office during the 1916 Rising. How successful these gestures were is a moot point. In the short-term it almost certainly did create a climate of goodwill between the British and Irish governments. In the longer-term, however, it could be argued these gestures served to stimulate republican sentiment in Ireland, and perhaps contributed to heightening the tensions within Northern Ireland in the late 1960s.     

The Role and Influence of the Orthodoxy in Russian Politics

The Orthodoxy has been in existence in Russia for more than 1000years and has fully merged itself into the nation,creating a strongsense of religious culture.During the long years of the reigns by differ-ent regimes from the Czarist Russia to the Soviet Union and then to thenew Russia,the religion went through the process of ups and downs inits development.Having once played a very important role in the social     

The “New Look” of German Diplomacy: The West German Foreign Service after the Second World War

When established in 1951, the West German Foreign Office resembled its pre-1945 Berlin Ministry predecessor in many ways. Notably, about 45 percent of Bonn’s diplomats came from the old service. Such continuities raised concerns about a restoration of old diplomatic traditions and attitudes. However, significant changes in German diplomacy—its West German variant—soon became evident, not least in terms of diplomatic style and methods. This analysis explores how the Foreign Office’s staff adopted, promoted, or rejected such changes. It assesses institutional processes of transformation and examines why diplomats were willing to “re-learn” diplomacy after the Second World War. Likewise evaluated are the problems and limits of re-orientation. By focussing on (dis)continuities within the Foreign Service in the 1950s and 1960s, the analysis contributes to the general field of research on processes of transition in West Germany after the end of the Third Reich.     

“The Movement Moves Against you”: Coercive Spoiler Management in the Northern Ireland Peace Process

More than a decade on, the Northern Ireland peace process can largely be considered a success. Despite the failure of the Provisional Republican Movement to achieve a united Ireland free of British control, the large-scale violence of “The Troubles” has been relegated to the past. Applying the logic of coercive diplomacy, this study examines the role of threats and the use of selective and limited violence by the Provisional Movement to manage real and potential opponents and challengers that have emerged within its own ideological ranks to maintain its position of dominance and prevent a spoiling of the peace process. This study shows that the Provisional Movement retained the capability to employ violence and demonstrated the credibility of coercive threat through a willingness to use force against its opponents on the Republican spectrum, and was able to do so with a high degree of impunity.     

“The United States Stands Ready to Be of Assistance”: On the Politics and Humanitarianism of Natural Disaster

This article asks how American understandings of foreign natural disaster have evolved over time. Are the political and humanitarian concerns surrounding disaster and disaster aid radically different now from what they were a century ago? Through an analysis of presidential statements and major newspaper editorials following foreign natural disaster, I find that there has indeed been significant change. Notions of post-disaster humanitarianism have broadened significantly, with, among other things, disaster aid going from being discussed as an act of charity to an understood responsibility. Furthermore, the political side of foreign natural disaster has moved beyond the political effects of disaster itself to include the political causes of “natural” disaster and the political causes and effects of disaster aid. These and other patterns are used to consider the relationship between politics and humanitarianism more generally.     

Defining the “queers” in India: The politics of academic representation

ABSTRACT

In the last 20 years, research and academic writing on “non-heterosexual” lives, identifications, and sexualities have developed considerably in India, in a context where lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and queer politics have become more and more visible in the public sphere. When it comes to gender and sexuality, researchers are often activists, and scholarship is highly political. In particular, by documenting non-heterosexual lives, practices, and groups, social scientists participate in the construction of social categories that can be mobilized in the public sphere. Using both Pierre Bourdieu’s and Stuart Hall’s views on representation as a discursive process by which representatives shape the group they claim to represent, this article contends that social scientists are engaged in a “work of representation” when it comes to LGBT and queer individuals and groups. Yet, this process is not without tensions, as there is a deep contradiction between the making of an “object of study” that is spoken about, and the promotion of a political subject, who can speak for him- or herself. Drawing on a corpus of about 45 academic publications on LGBT and queer people and issues in the last 25 years, this article explores the contentious discursive formation of “LGBT” and “queer” as analytical and political categories.     

Radicalisation in the Philippines: The Cotabato Cell of the “East Asia Wilayah”

ABSTRACT

The backgrounds of seven suspects arrested in connection with a September 2016 bombing in Davao, Philippines provide clues to how extremist ideology and support for ISIS took root in a middle-class urban environment. The seven men, part of the coalition that eventually took over Marawi in 2017, were drawn in by the idea of a caliphate, propaganda videos that became discussion material for charismatic young religious scholars, and the pull of friends and family. They represented overlapping networks of neighbours, business partners, and students. Their interwoven journeys to violent extremism provide a glimpse into how ISIS managed to transcend traditional clan and regional loyalties in the Philippines, but much more research is needed among pro-ISIS detainees to understand the phenomenon and take measures to address it.     

The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty in Jeopardy? Internal Divisions and the Impact of World Politics

The frustration of non-nuclear weapon states about the lack of progress in nuclear disarmament has reached boiling point: a vast majority of them have supported a resolution in the UN General Assembly that establishes a negotiation forum for concluding a prohibition of nuclear weapons in 2017. Rising tension among the nuclear powers and populist movements feeding nationalist emotions make it unlikely that the situation will change for the better in the near future. It is thus possible that the NPT might be eroded or, in the worst case scenario, simply collapse because of diminishing support.     

The Role of the Alternative Press in the Agenda‐building Process: Spill‐over Effects and Media Opinion Leadership

Rainer Mathes and Barbara Pfetsch. (1991). “The Role of the Alternative Press in the Agenda‐building Process: Spill‐over Effects and Media Opinion Leadership.” European Journal of Communication, 6, 1, 33–63.