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The chapter examines the communist period of Eastern European states’ political history, with a special focus on late communism. Institutional factors of divergence and convergence are scrutinized with an emphasis on paradoxes of communism as an ideology leading to both unity and conflict. The countries in the region are divided into members of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO), subjugated by the Soviet Union, and “independent” communist countries, Yugoslavia and Albania. Among WTO members distinction is made between northern tier countries of East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, and the Balkan countries of Bulgaria and Romania. While the Soviet position in the north was basically stable, even though nationalist uprisings had to be put down in all member states in WTO, the Soviets were weak in the Balkans, where only one country, Bulgaria, was a faithful Soviet ally. Finally, different factors and histories of extrication from communism are examined, emphasizing factors leading to different outcomes in different countries. The erosion of the Soviet position in the northern tier countries was decisive in the destruction of the Soviet empire and WTO.
For over five decades, the Cold War security agenda was distinguished by the principal strategic balance, that of a structure of bipolarity, between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR). This book seeks to draw from current developments in critical security studies in order to establish a new framework of inquiry for security in the Middle East. It addresses the need to redefine security in the Middle East. The focus is squarely on the Arab-Israeli context in general, and the Palestinian-Israeli context in particular. The character of Arab-Israeli relations are measured by the Israeli foreign policy debate from the 1950s to the 1990s. A dialogue between Islam and Islamism as a means to broaden the terrain on which conflict resolution and post-bipolar security in the Middle East is to be understood is presented. The Middle East peace process (MEPP) was an additional factor in problematizing the military-strategic concept of security in the Middle East. The shift in analysis from national security to human security reflects the transformations of the post-Cold War era by combining military with non-military concerns such as environmental damage, social unrest, economic mismanagement, cultural conflict, gender inequity and radical fundamentalism. By way of contrast to realist international relations (IR) theory, developing-world theorists have proposed a different set of variables to explain the unique challenges facing developing states. Finally, the book examines the significance of ecopolitics in security agendas in the Middle East.
Identity is often regarded as something that is possessed by individuals, states, and other agents. In this edited collection, identity is explored across a range of approaches and under-explored case studies with a view to making visible its fractured, contingent, and dynamic features. The book brings together themes of belonging and exclusion, identity formation and fragmentation. It also examines how identity functions in discourse, and the effects it produces, both materially and in ideational terms. Taking in case studies from Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, the various chapters interrogate identity through formal governing mechanisms, popular culture and place. These studies demonstrate the complex and fluid nature of identity and identity practices, as well as implications for theorising identity.
This book explores the evolving African security paradigm in light of the multitude of diverse threats facing the continent and the international community today and in the decades ahead. It challenges current thinking and traditional security constructs as woefully inadequate to meet the real security concerns and needs of African governments in a globalized world. The continent has becoming increasingly integrated into an international security architecture, whereby Africans are just as vulnerable to threats emanating from outside the continent as they are from home-grown ones. Thus, Africa and what happens there, matters more than ever. Through an in-depth examination and analysis of the continent’s most pressing traditional and non-traditional security challenges—from failing states and identity and resource conflict to terrorism, health, and the environment—it provides a solid intellectual foundation, as well as practical examples of the complexities of the modern African security environment. Not only does it assess current progress at the local, regional, and international level in meeting these challenges, it also explores new strategies and tools for more effectively engaging Africans and the global community through the human security approach.
and parcel of the extension of security community on a potentially pan-European basis. As such, this is a fundamental switch from how security was both conceived and organised in Europe during the long period of the Cold War. This theme is taken up in more detail in Chapter 2 , but briefly stated, during the Cold War security was associated with military threats directed against the state and against which the state was obliged
assert that now is the time for a departure from analysis as well as policy predicated upon Realist conceptions of security. More to the point, many of these scholars lend urgency to this agenda by attributing much of the developing world’s present ‘security predicament’ to the powerful influence of Realism in shaping the doctrines and policies of the superpowers – particularly the USA – with regard to Cold War security.15 This may be an important criticism of the Cold War in general terms, but in respect to Washington’s security assistance policy it is largely
In conclusion, Japan’s post-Cold War security partnerships do not constitute competing security structures to the US–Japan alliance, and do not directly serve to balance against Chinese military power in East Asia. These new alignments are flexible, and some may strengthen or weaken over time in reaction to moves by the US and China, or in reaction to the increase or decrease of security threats from countries such as North Korea or Russia, or emanating from regions such as the Middle East. Nonetheless, these security partnerships represent the cornerstone of Japan
., 1988; Binter, 1989 , 1992; Joenniemi, 1988, 1989b, 1993). The literature on neutrality as an alternative to alliance membership and as a different approach to peace and security is sparse. 8 Some scholars have considered how neutrality is still relevant for post-Cold War security (Bebler, 1992 ; Binter, 1989, 1992; Joenniemi, 1993 ; Windsor, 1989 ), or that neutrality is part of embedded ‘national identity
collapse of its key Cold War antagonist? What are the new opportunities for US security that lend interest to a sophisticated shield to protect the US against ballistic missiles? One of the biggest political changes in US security has been to declare the Cold War security objective of protecting against a full-scale Soviet attack obsolete. With the demise of the Soviet Union, a direct military conflict between the US and Russia has been judged unlikely. In a statement to a Senate Subcommittee in early 1997, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Walter Slocombe, made
internal cohesion and legitimacy. Central to this objective was the promotion of political and economic development. True, economic development often was simply equated with economic growth. Development was in turn linked to Cold War security calculations via one of what Robert Packenham later referred to as ‘poverty theses’, popular arguments relating economic deprivation to political instability that, in turn, would be exploited by the communists.7 Packenham’s critique of the poverty theses largely rests upon a perception of developing societies that seemed quite