Liberals and nationalism: E. H. Carr,Walter Lippmann and the Baltic States from 1918 to 1944

The Baltic states were among the ‘new’ states that were created after the First World War; they were the only states to lose their sovereignty during the Second World War. Most historians explain the birth and demise of the Baltic states in terms of their relative strength vis-à-vis the great powers. This article places the short-lived independence of the Baltic states into the perspective of intellectual history by focusing on two Western thinkers: E. H. Carr and Walter Lippmann. The analysis assumes that ideas matter in international politics. It adds to our understanding of the forces that led to the creation and later to the extinction of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the period of the two world wars.     

King Wenceslas’ relations with the Teutonic Order in light of the dispute over the Archbishopric of Riga (1392–1397)

King Wenceslas of the Romans (1378–1400) and of Bohemia (1378–1419) supported the Teutonic Knights, but his involvement in the Eastern Baltic region during the 1390s turned him into an enemy of the Knights. This paper argues that the change in Wenceslas’ policy was solely in the interests of his courtier Duke Swantibor of Pomerania-Stettin, who sought to establish his son as Archbishop of Riga. Wenceslas’ support for Swantibor owed to the traditions of courtly favor and instability in Bohemia, not out of any personal grudge against the Knights, as was claimed in earlier historiography.     

External Actors and the Provision of Public Health Services in Somalia

Concentrating on the health sector, this article argues that the provision of collective goods through external actors depends on the level of state capacity and the complexity of the service that external actors intend to provide. It shows that external actors can contribute most effectively to collective good provision when the service is simple, and that simple services can even be provided under conditions of failed statehood. Effectively delivering complex services requires greater levels of state capacity. The article also indicates that legitimacy is a key factor to explain variance in health service delivery. To demonstrate this, the article assesses health projects in Somalia. It shows that simple services—malaria prevention and tuberculosis control—are provided effectively in all three Somali regions, including the war‐torn South‐Central region. In contrast, the HIV/AIDS project only achieved substantial results in Somaliland, the only region with a comparatively higher level of state capacity, and failed in the South‐Central region and Puntland.     

A heroic male and a beautiful woman. Teemu Mäki,Orlan and the ambivalence of the grotesque body

In this article two performances are analysed, Finnish artist Teemu Mäki's video performance The Good Friday (1989) and French artist Orlan's performance of metamorphosis The Re-incarnation of Saint Orlan or Image(s)/New Image(s) . The concept of heroic masculinity is problematized through Mäki's masochistic performance. Orlan undergoes cosmetic surgery in the name of art. Her performances are treated as a cultural statement about gender and as a visualization of the contemporary, commercial ideals of female beauty. This interpretation is framed by the art theoretical concept of the grotesque. In the article the grotesque is approached through the works of Mikhail Bakhtin, Wolfgang Kayser and feminist appropriations of them by Mary Russo and Rosemarie Garland Thomson. Through these works the grotesque is defined as a concept by which phenomena are described in a state of transformation, a state in which they no longer fit into any fixed category. The ambivalence of the performances is stressed in this analysis. The grotesque is defined as a thoroughly political term. The politics of the grotesque is such that the term can be used to indicate that phenomena - bodies, genders and sexualities - are not as natural and self-evident as we would often like to think.     

Southeast Asia and conflict prevention. Is ASEAN running out of steam?

Abstract

If the assessment of ASEAN's success in the past is difficult, speculations on whether ASEAN will be a success will be close to impossibility. Yet this is what is intended in this article. However, this is done by first defining robust criteria of success of conflict prevention. Conflict prevention is successful if conflicts and battle deaths can be avoided, either by means of conflict resolution or transformation, or simply by means of conflict avoidance. By starting with this criterion the article will argue that ASEAN peacefulness cannot be explained by durable objective conditions. Instead, it is built on imagined realities. The imagined realities of the ASEAN Way are getting more difficult to sustain due to their interaction with material and normative/institutional developments. Many of the constructed foundations of the ASEAN Way are unsustainable in the new realities where communication has become easy and uncontrollable, and societies have become wealthier and more democratized. However, the article will show that evidence of existing conflict violence suggests that ASEAN has started to reformulate its approach to conflict prevention and that this has largely been successful.