East German Intelligence and Ireland, 1949–90: Espionage,Terrorism and Diplomacy

This article analyses the writings of a prominent German social and political theorist ‐ Jürgen Habermas ‐ on the process of (reunification in Germany and examines responses to his interventions by right‐wing thinkers opposed to his views. (Re)unification is a setting of rapidly developing and changing events which present a challenge to Habermas’ thinking. Put simply, Habermas is highly critical of the ‘rush towards (re)unification’ and the process which has followed it. In particular, he objects to attempts by right‐wing thinkers, predominantly historians, to rewrite German history and which elude German responsibility in respect of the horrors of the Holocaust. Equally, he has explicitly shown the links between questions of German identity and the rewriting of German history and argues that the only viable identity for Germany post‐(re)Unification is that of ‘constitutional identity’ and not national identity. His writings have, however, been the subject of sometimes vehement and vitriolic critiques and this article seeks not only to engage with these but also to examine the interventions of Habermas in relation to his earlier more theoretical writings.     

Sport,Alcohol and Women: An Emerging Research Agenda

ABSTRACT

This article describes an emerging research agenda for defining the relationship between women, sport and alcohol as a feminist issue. Characterised as a “holy trinity”, the relationship between sport, drinking, particularly heavy drinking, and masculinity remains a popular orthodoxy. While not disputing the enduring and influential symbolic, economic, political and cultural power relations between men, sport and alcohol, the article argues that our proclivity towards framing drinking and sport through the lens of “hegemonic masculinity” gives rise to a theoretical and empirical silence when it comes to research on women, sport and alcohol in the Australian context and beyond. We interrogate four key interrelated research problems for feminist scholars of sport: i) the framing of sport-related drinking as hegemonic masculinity; ii) the need for new theoretical/conceptual/analytical frameworks that have emerged from the framing of women’s relationship to alcohol as invariably problematic; iii) a recognition that sport-related drinking for women is as pleasurable and problematic as it is for men; and iv) the relationship between sport and alcohol relative to a growing emphasis on cultural and gender diversity in Australian sport.     

Pursuing justice in a free society: Part one—power vs. liberty

John Kaplan, The Hardest Drug: Heroin and Public Policy Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983, xi + 247 pp.