This is the first major exploration of how – and if – colonialism can be a useful concept in analysing Antarctica, and whether Antarctica can help reveal the analytical limits of colonialism as a concept. It is a contribution to the wider project of critical Antarctic studies, which challenges Antarctic exceptionalism and argues that Antarctica has always been integrated within global political and economic structures. In the introduction the editors lay out the justification for the book and the questions to be examined, followed by 12 substantive chapters. The first set of chapters focuses on case studies from Latin America, France, the USSR, eastern Europe and China, with analytical approaches from heritage studies, political philosophy, international relations and history. The second set takes up thematic questions related to animals and colonialism, bordering and frontiers, capitalism, field science practices and identities, religion, political domination, and knowledge practices. Finally, a postscript takes a more reflective approach to the relationship between colonialism and Antarctica and places it within the larger context of ongoing scholarly discussions. Overall the book provides an argument for the relevance of colonialism for thinking about Antarctica, and vice versa, and a set of perspectives on both the advantages and the potential limitations of such approaches.
A focus on religion can offer a helpful perspective for thinking about colonialism in Antarctica. Using case studies from Britain, Argentina, Chile and the United States, this chapter explores the relationship between colonialism and religion in the twentieth-century history of Antarctica. Although Antarctica is in many ways quite different from examples of the close relationship that colonialism and religion have had in many other parts of the world, the chapter argues that religion has nonetheless supported colonial practices in Antarctica. Religion has provided a motivation for colonial engagement with Antarctica, has supported colonial claims to the continent and has played a role in domesticating Antarctic space as part of the process of settler colonialism. Reflecting the inherent imprecision of the words ‘colonialism’ and ‘imperialism’ in Antarctic history, a study of religion can help to demonstrate the colonial roots of Antarctic activities, even when the protagonists themselves may not have thought of themselves as involved in a colonial enterprise. Ultimately, however, it is science and not religion that has done most to support colonialism in Antarctica, meaning that the religious history of the continent has frequently been overlooked.
This chapter analyses women and democratisation in post-Communist Russia and explains the strength and importance of the Soldiers' Mothers. It first places democratisation in its historical context and explains the barriers to women's participation that have developed during democratisation. The chapter then examines the political discourses available to women during democratisation, specifically feminism and women's rights, human rights and motherhood. It seeks to explain why motherhood has provided Russian women with a potent mobilising ideology through which they are able to challenge the Russian state. Finally, the chapter examines the activities of the Soldiers' Mothers and explains why their activities are important to women's exercise of citizenship and to the development of civil society in Russia's 'managed democracy'. The strength of the Soldiers' Mothers is their network of committees, which provide Russian mothers with the information, skills and an organisation through which they can seek to protect their sons.
This chapter examines what leadership means for two middle-sized powers which both aspire to be recognised as states with global responsibilities, and the strategies they have used to maintain this status. It looks at how Britain and France applied these strategies during two vital periods for the future of European defence, the conflict in Kosovo and the US-UK invasion of Iraq. It will be argued that in the final analysis, British and French aspirations to lead the emerging European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) are closely linked to managing their relationship with the US. Most of the measures laid out in the Berlin compromise had been adopted. For the British, the vital point was to clarify the European Union (EU)-North Atlantic Treaty Organization institutional arrangements and to limit both the evolution towards the setting up of a totally autonomous EU military headquarters and a two-speed ESDP.
This chapter examines the evolution of peace-making in Cyprus over forty years and shows how the Annan Plan, with its eventual failure, raises questions about the future of peace-making, not just in Cyprus but also elsewhere. It explores the way in which United Nations (UN) evolved from a mediating mission in the 1960s into an attempt at direct arbitration in 2004. The chapter argues that, at the time of the referendum campaign, a deliberate effort was mounted to discredit the UN Secretary-General in southern Cyprus because of the association of his name with the Annan Plan, in order to ensure that the proposed agreement was rejected by the electorate. In a broader context, Annan's decision to develop an arbitration role has thrown up interesting questions regarding the ability of the UN to take a more robust approach towards peacemaking, and indeed the desirability of it doing so.
The gender lens works differently for men and things masculine than it does for women and things feminine. While masculinism and gender inequality works to subordinate women as such, it is crucial for the way this works that a further hierarchy among men is defined, described, naturalised and defended. The chapters in this book have presented some evidence for this, and have analysed some of the ways in which this works. In sum, the obvious conclusion is that political theory is already about men, but the chapters have shown that the masculinised dynamics of politics depend on concepts of 'man' that are inflected with other factors. These vary from an attribute of supposed 'de-genderedness' to markers of race/ethnicity, class, sexuality and culture that are intriguingly deployed. The emphasis on metaphor throughout has been crucial to utilising the gender lens and to drawing out the gender politics in each text.
Under the aegis of neo-liberalism and in the shadow of the question of debt repayment, the state's boundaries have been transformed, but to the benefit of the rich and privileged, and in the context of a political economy which connects with global processes, institutions and actors rather than making domestic development its priority. Indeed, its vulnerability to international recession, the impact of protectionist policies introduced in the North and the exigencies of the debt will combine to undermine any future attempts by the Latin American state to turn away from neo-liberalism in favour of a more distribution-oriented political economy. The transformation of the state and its submission to the market has had profound repercussions upon the ability of popular movements to have an impact upon politics. The tenuous condition of the 'new politics' is addressed by Chalmers, Martin and Piester, who introduce the concept of 'associative networks' of social movements.
Human rights issues have almost constantly existed in Cyprus since the island's independence in 1960. This chapter, through an analysis of its judgements on property-related Greek-Cypriot cases against Turkey, analyses how the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) became an arena for a complicated interplay of politics and law. It examines the major recurring political elements in the positions and arguments of the parties involved in the proceedings, and the Court's handling of these. The chapter also discuss the present – and quite possibly future – consequences of the Court's rulings for the Cyprus negotiations under United Nations auspices. It demonstrates that the ECHR proceedings in the property-related Greek-Cypriot cases against Turkey have not been a purely legal affair. Nor have they ever been viewed by the parties concerned – except for the Court itself – as being solely about the legal protection of individual human rights.
Neoclassical realism employs as intervening variables both the incentives provided by the international system and the internal proclivities facing states, and through this generates more nuanced explanations of the making of foreign policy. The case studies illustrate that national interests - also when they are conducted in concert - arise to no small degree from exactly these kinds of particularism. Neoclassical realism represents an attempt to recapture the classic tradition of realism. Raymond Aron is put forth as the intellectual forefather of European neoclassical realism. Despite British inter-war idealism, the intellectual enterprise of international relations theory is little more than sixty years old. It is the product of a particular historical context - the 1950s - and part of a wider effort to come to terms with a new international system sown in the ashes of two world wars. In different places, theorizing took different forms.
This book has sought to develop a critical perspective on these constitutive dimensions of European polity formation and identity-building and to provide analytical frameworks which help us develop a greater understanding of the political evolution of the European Union. It suggested a theoretical framework for European citizenship which sheds light upon its present limitations and its unfinished agenda, and a set of policy proposals for institutional reform. The author sought to develop a paradigm for a principled and non-restrictive European migration policy, which is theoretically consistent, practical in meeting policy concerns and consonant with the norms underpinning the European Union's and the Member States' constitutional orders. Both realism and post-modernism quite rightly acknowledge the importance of 'particular' contexts in shaping European policy outcome. They question the appropriateness as well as the effectiveness of utopian thinking. Utopias are idealised accounts of society.