American Involvement Research Articles

The Opinio Juris and Opinio Moris in the Anglo-American Interventions During the Greek Civil War: An Archival Study of Legal Narratives

Abstract This article investigates the British and American interventions in Greece during the Greek Civil War, examining their legal and moral justifications. Using archival documents, the study uncovers two primary layers of discourse: the official diplomatic language of opinio juris (conviction of legality) and opinio moris (conviction of morality), alongside the covert political interests that drove these interventions. The research argues that British and American actions were primarily motivated by a ‘conviction of interest,’ with legal and moral narratives used tactically to justify their interventions. The archival materials reveal a notable lack of empathy and understanding from British and American officials regarding the trauma endured by the Greek populace due to the German occupation and collaborationist violence. Additionally, there was a significant neglect of the will of the Greek people. The study critically examines the Caserta and Civil Affairs Agreements, which provided a legal basis for British intervention, arguing that these agreements, when viewed in light of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, fail to justify the extent of foreign interference, thus questioning the authenticity of Greek consent. The article also explores the transition from British to American dominance in Greek affairs. As Britain faced economic constraints after the end of WWII, it ceded its role to the U.S., leading to the formulation of the Truman Doctrine and the implementation of the Marshall Plan. The U.S. intervention is analyzed through legal and geopolitical lenses, revealing a strategic focus on preventing communist expansion rather than providing purely legal or moral support for Greece’s recovery. Similar to British actions, American involvement often overlooked the political situation and the will of the Greek people, thereby contributing to prolonged instability.

‘For the Farmers of the Country’: Indian Agricultural Universities at the Cusp of Nation-Building Plans and the Cold War, 1947–67

Agricultural universities are integral to the history of modern India. The aspiration of the Indian state to be economically and socially modern is coincident with the origin of agricultural universities. This paper explores the making of agricultural universities from the Radhakrishnan Committee to the New Agricultural Strategy and shows their connections to the political and economic needs of the nation. Also, the Cold War imperatives encouraged American involvement in India’s agricultural reforms. However, this paper argues that neither the Indian state nor the American experts determined the evolution of these institutes as per their developmental goals. Geopolitical events, like the Partition, the Union-state relationship and the history of marginalisation of agricultural scientists combined and produced varying dynamics. It is within these historical contexts that the paper has analysed the growth trajectory of agricultural institutions, with particular reference to the Punjab Agricultural University—the pivot of the agricultural modernisation programme.

Latin American Involvement in the 21st Century Geoeconomic Turn: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis

In the past decade, profound political and economic transformations have reshaped the landscape of globalization and challenged the conventional notions of the liberal international order. The traditional boundaries between the economy and security realms have become blurred, giving place to a geoeconomic turn illustrated by the high utilization of economic statecraft in international politics. While much scholarly attention has been devoted to understanding the geoeconomic strategies of global powers like the US and China, the agency and roles of emerging and developing countries, notably those in Latin America, have often been overlooked. This article addresses this gap by examining how Latin American nations engage in 21st-century geoeconomic dynamics. Using qualitative comparative analysis across 18 case studies, the study assesses the conditions and key characteristics of geoeconomic actions involving Latin American countries since 2017. The article presents a typology that sheds light on the mechanisms at play within economic statecraft in the region through six different situations: (a) local geopolitical-driven economic statecraft, (b) Latin American value-driven economic statecraft, (c) extra-regional sanctions, (d) economic inducement strategy, (e) coercive strategy for strategic assets and technologies, and (f) precautionary defensive economic statecraft. The contribution is twofold: On the one hand, the article casts light on the different facets Latin American countries have in the geo-economic trends; on the other hand, the analysis and classification of these situations help understand the links between economic and strategic policies.

Deficit of Trust in Pakistan-Afghanistan Bilateral Relations: An Evaluation from a Security and Economic Perspective from 2001 to 2021

At the crossroads of Central and Southern Asia lie two Muslim neighbors i.e., Pakistan and Afghanistan. Similarities in religion, culture, ethnicity, race, and history were predicted to cement the harmonious bilateral connection between the two countries. There have been a lot of obstacles to the development of positive relations between the two republics ever since they were established. Afghanistan's alone neighbor and a key commercial partner, Pakistan and the two countries have a difficult history despite Afghanistan's reliance on Pakistan's seaports and international trade. Tense relations began with the conflicts over the Durand line and Pakhtunistan stunt supported by Afghan government and were exacerbated by subsequent events like the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the American involvement in the country after September 11, 2001. A large number of refugees fled to Pakistan as a result of these invasions, shaking up the country's politics and economy. India's involvement in Afghan politics has had a major effect on Pakistan's interests in the country and the surrounding region, especially after September 11th, when the United States attempted to offset Chinese influence in the area. India's engagement in Afghanistan and Pakistan's support in the US invasion of Afghanistan are at the root of the current state of bilateral ties. Normalizing bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan may require the involvement of a third party or agreement on confidence-building measures to enhance the welfare of persons living on the other side of the Durand line and encourage amicable interactions between the two countries. Using a qualitative approach, this article investigates the causes and consequences of the current mistrust in bilateral ties, with a particular emphasis on economic and security problems in the wake of 9/11.

Unwilling to Quit: The Long Unwinding of American Involvement in Vietnam by David L. Prentice

<i>Unwilling to Quit: The Long Unwinding of American Involvement in Vietnam</i> by David L. Prentice

“Only Dead Men Can Tell the Truth in This World”: The Growth of Mark Twain’s Anger

Abstract As the writer known as Mark Twain neared the end of his life and career, the changing circumstances of the nation caused his criticism to sharpen and move from somewhat covert to brutally overt. The ways in which American nationalism and false piety were becoming ever more entwined seemed to have led to an increased infusion of anger within his satire. In the last decade of his life, his satire of American exceptionalism grew sharper with the “The War Prayer” and “To the Person Sitting in Darkness.” The latter, originally an essay published in the North American Review in February 1901 satirizing imperialism, religion, and the myth of American innocence, was published just a month after the writer had been appointed the vice-president of the Anti-Imperialist League of New York. His disappointment, to put it mildly, at the American involvement in the Philippines and China has been well documented, but in these pieces Mark Twain attacks the Christian missionary zeal that is used as a cover for capitalism and imperialism abroad. Through his scathing response to Reverend William Scott Ament, the article instantiates his growth, with some of his most scathing and direct criticism of the missionary project and its connections with imperialist capitalism. With his latest works, Mark Twain suggests that if only Americans were able to unlearn their inherited mythologies, they might be able to avoid the most atrocious outcroppings of patriotism and Christianity.

On the Education and Culture of Immigrants to the United States

There was an increase in Asian immigration to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries because new policies were implemented, loosening some of the restrictions around immigration for Asian people. As they arrived in the United States, they were subjected to cultural and educational shocks; they had to learn how to assimilate into American culture because they wanted to become a part of American society. The question arises about why many Asian people chose to immigrate to the United States and how they managed to assimilate into American culture, and through an in-depth analysis of the existing literature, it was found that due to the American involvement in Asia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Asian people were drawn to the United States because they wanted to achieve the American dream, and they were able to succeed because of their emphasis on education and collectivistic culture.

Factors influencing the use of introduced black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) for slope stabilization in post-war South Korea

Following Japanese Imperial occupation of Korea and the Korean War, South Korea's forests faced substantial decline due to bombing and shelling, illegal logging, and overharvesting of trees and non-timer forest products. Around rural communities, fuel scarcity over the course of 20th century conflict caused fuel deprivation. Reforestation attempts following the Korean War saw the use of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), an introduced species native to the United States which would eventually become invasive to South Korea. This study used an elite interview and archival research to determine why the United States became a vocal proponent of black locust in reforestation campaigns. Archival documents highlight the issues following denudation of South Korea's forested mountains, including changes in flood frequency and severity. Eroded soils and sands caused changes to streambanks and riverbanks, resulting in geomorphic failure. The erosion and flooding issues provide context for the need for reforestation. While American involvement in reforestation is evident from the archival documents, it is clear that the use of black locust initially occurred prior to the arrival of American specialists and advisors. This case study highlights the impacts of fuel scarcity on post-war recovery of ecosystems, and the importance of socioeconomic factors in the study of warfare ecology.

A Supporter in Vienna: Simon Wiesenthal and the War in Bosnia

Abstract The author gives an inventory of Simon Wiesenthal’s advocacy for Bosnia during the 1992–1995 war. Though Wiesenthal played an active role in speaking up for Bosnia, his activism has been largely neglected in the existing literature. Based on primary sources at the Simon Wiesenthal Archive in Vienna, this article pieces together the story of how the famed Nazi hunter supported Bosnia-Herzegovina. Wiesenthal acted by speaking up about the atrocities in Bosnia, writing letters to influential decision-makers, and keeping Bosnia on the agenda. He supported a greater and more assertive American involvement to end the war and was a strong advocate of a UN war crimes tribunal, which materialized as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). By lending his voice and moral stature, Wiesenthal helped shape public opinion in favour of a more assertive international reaction to the war.

Pyramid Schemes: Resurrecting Tikal through the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex

ABSTRACT Carved out of the jungle by American big business, Penn Museum’s project at Tikal to restore massive pyramids and showcase Maya civilization was a direct outgrowth of government, military, and corporate connections. The story of Pennsylvania in the Petén is about American involvement in developing tourism, infrastructure, research stations, training, and the making of Guatemalan heritage citizens. It is also about increasing US government vigilance south of the border after the 1954 CIA-backed coup, whether in forging anti-communist alliances or commercial concessions. Philanthropists supporting Tikal were themselves representatives from US banking, oil, agriculture, aviation, and tourism sectors, making it impossible to disentangle archaeology from industrial and political adventurism. Extractive economies involving archaeology, oil, chicle, and bananas all ferried equipment and products back and forth to the Petén via American boats and planes, along dirt roads and airstrips built by American firms. Sold as the first great city of the Americas and costing almost a million dollars, the resurrection of Tikal underlines the ineluctable dependencies between security, espionage, international politics, corporations, conservation, and donor economies.

Introduction to Special issue

Introduction to Special issue

Public Confessions: The Religious Conversions That Changed American Politics by Rebecca L. Davis

Reviewed by: Public Confessions: The Religious Conversions That Changed American Politics by Rebecca L. Davis Benjamin Baker (bio) Public Confessions: The Religious Conversions That Changed American Politics. By Rebecca L. Davis. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2021. 248 pp. Public Confessions appeared as the United States was experiencing Covid-19 quarantines and pitched battles over national identity. Among Americans, the pandemic raised—or revealed, depending on how one looks at it—fierce disputes about the nature of freedom, democracy, and partisanship, while on other fronts Americans just as vigorously debated race, gender, sexuality, and cancel culture. Appropriately, then, Rebecca Davis's volume explores these very issues from the lens of high profile religious conversions of last century. What do Clare Boothe Luce, Whittaker Chambers, Sammy Davis, Jr., Muhammad Ali, Marilyn Monroe, Eldridge Cleaver, and Chuck Colson have in common? According to Davis, all experienced religious conversions ("confessions") in Cold War America that "moved claims of religious authenticity to the center of American political debates" and raised "questions of whether and how different kinds of faith variously anchored or undermined American freedoms" (4). Davis does not provide a working definition of the contested term "conversion," although there is rich material throughout the work to grapple with its meaning(s). Instead, in the prologue, Davis suggests that religious conversions discussed in the volume may be seen as "self-discovery," "self-invention," "self-transformation," or a kind of authenticity (1–11). [End Page 309] These notions of conversion are evident in Davis's treatment of religious conversion as not a single event, but rather a whole life lived up to the conversion event. This is in keeping with the long tradition of conversion narratives, with the requisite mention of St. Augustine, exemplar of the genre. However, discrete developments always seem to precipitate conversion, at least in retrospect. Consider Davis's subjects. Luce's daughter tragically died in a car accident in 1944, and Luce was nearing a mental collapse and attempted suicide twice. Chambers felt tremendous pressure from his double life as a Soviet spy and gay man. Davis, Jr. was nearly killed in a car accident in Los Angeles in 1954. Ali grappled with identity issues around being black in America. Colson was mired in the Watergate scandal and awaiting a legal verdict. Davis shows how these celebrities adroitly curated their personal religious conversions for the American public to further political ends. Luce presented Roman Catholicism as a democratic check to the peril of communism, with "Catholic converts [holding] the future for American power and democracy" (13). Likewise, Chambers claimed his conversion to Christianity caused him to inform on his Communist conspirators and champion conservatism. Davis, Jr. practiced and literally performed Judaism to achieve civil rights for African Americans. Ali used his conversion to the Nation of Islam to promote black power and freedom and critique American involvement in the Vietnam War. Colson parlayed his conversion to evangelical Christianity to promote white neoliberal masculinity. In an era when Americans questioned the compatibility of some faiths with democracy, namely, any faiths other than mainline Protestantism, these figures argued that their new faiths were quintessentially democratic. Public Confessions excels in demonstrating how these celebrity conversions, though from diverse backgrounds and varied faiths, all revealed essential aspects of American politics and ultimately shaped American identity. Luce shows how an America that was largely male chauvinist and anti-Catholic was moved, if only incrementally, to view women as serious religious figures and more than sexual objects, and to a consideration that Catholics could be genuinely American. Ali and Davis, Jr. defy the narrow possibilities that racism imposed on blacks and widened religious heterodoxy and political expression for African Americans. Colson demonstrates how white Christian men had the privilege to reinvent themselves despite epic wrongdoing and contributed to the rise and dominance of the Religious Right in the Reagan era and beyond. Public Confessions's strength is that it takes a complex era, group of individuals, and subject matter, and produces an intriguing volume for scholarly and non-scholarly audiences. It is the latest offering in a [End Page 310] growing literature that treats religious conversions as more than religious, per se, demonstrating their...

Living With the Flu: Public Health and Civic Life During the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918.

Most studies of how United States cities responded to the first deadly wave of Spanish influenza focus on the ways public health officials and their allies reacted to the crisis. This study expands our understanding of the pandemic by focusing on how members of the public responded to those efforts to contain the flu. It does so through a close look at social and civil life in a small city in the southern Midwest during the thirty-two days the flu was epidemic there. Shifting the focus in this way brings previously obscured gaps in the public health response into the light. Specifically, this study finds that while compliance in most areas was high there were two places where it was low: activities in support of American involvement in the European War, and participation in social or civic activities. From the first day of the epidemic to the last the society pages of the local newspapers reported a stream of activities that clearly violated emergency measures. Despite the ban on public gatherings, social clubs, fraternal societies, and civic groups all regularly met. The local college football team practiced, and people continued to turn out for weddings, funerals, birthday parties, dinner parties, and extended visits from out-of-town friends and family. With one possible exception, none of the social or civic activities were carried out as protests against health regulations. Instead local newspapers reported these activities as items of social interest.

History of the Ownership and Management of Tijeras Pueblo

Across seventy years of research, the site of Tijeras Pueblo has become an important place for understanding the transformations that impacted Rio Grande Pueblo society during the fourteenth century A.D. During that time, the course of research at the pueblo has been guided in part by its changing ownership and management of the site. While the first investigations were conducted while the site was privately owned federal acquisition of the pueblo facilitated the major excavations that took place there in the late 1960s and 1970s. As federal objectives for research evolved with new legislation, the involvement of Native Americans resulted in a major shift in how the last excavations in 2000 were conducted. While sustained interest in Tijeras Pueblo has been driven by its role in addressing major questions about the course of Pueblo history, its ownership and management have shaped, and continue to shape, how we know this important place.

An Interethnic Paradox: Chicago's Irish and Everyone Else

An Interethnic Paradox: Chicago's Irish and Everyone Else

Project Eagle: Polscy wywiadowcy w raportach i dokumentach wojennych amerykańskiego Biura Służb Strategicznych [Project Eagle: Polish Agents in the Reports and Wartime Documents of the American Office of Strategic Services

<i>Project Eagle: Polscy wywiadowcy w raportach i dokumentach wojennych amerykańskiego Biura Służb Strategicznych</i> [Project Eagle: Polish Agents in the Reports and Wartime Documents of the American Office of Strategic Services

Iraq as a Lab: a Critique of the New American Way of War

This paper analysis the evolution of the US force structure after 1975 in two core aspects: foreign policy and military modernization. Building on the works of Clausewitz (2003) and Mearsheimer (1981), we argue that a country's force structure should be based mainly on foreign policy considerations. The evolution of the US Army followed this logic until its defeat in Vietnam (1975), but this traumatic event precipitated reforms in the US military force before a proper reformulation of the country’s foreign policy objectives had been achieved. Therefore, these reforms created a "syndrome" that would deform and reform the US strategic culture inadequately. The new military doctrine, Air-Land Battle (ALB) was not oriented towards long-term political objectives, but rather by purely operational and tactical issues of combat, which proved harmful for the US interests in the long-run. Hence, we propose to analyze the Iraq Wars (1991-2003) as labs for this New American Way of War, the first empirical applications of ALB. We conclude by demonstrating that the disregard for post-war planning ended up forcing a prolonged and costly American involvement in the Middle East and damaging the country’s international image.

Do Politics Repel Truth? Hannah Arendt on Political Controversies in Dialogue with Plato

This article uncovers Hannah Arendt’s debt to Plato’s work in her analyses of political controversies of her time, as Nazi propaganda and state lies on American involvement in the Vietnam War, and her assessment of the failure of the French Revolution. While her relation to Plato’s oeuvre when she tackles political issues most often took the form of a stormy and one-sided dialogue resembling a monologue, her treatment of these controversies shows that Arendt had at times an authentic, open, and fruitful dialogue with the Greek philosopher. To make sense of these phenomena and events, she uses a range of concepts and philosophical motives first developed through her account of the antagonism between the philosopher and the polis and draws from Plato’s discussions of the relations between truth and opinion. Uncovering this crucial source of Arendt’s thinking allows a more nuanced and perceptive grasp of her political thought.

To the East Turn: The Russian Revolution and the Black Radical Imagination in the United States, 1917–1924

Abstract The last three decades have witnessed a burgeoning scholarship on Black radicalism in the United States and abroad. Much of it concerns Black radicalism’s relationship to international and transnational currents linked to the Soviet Union. The vast bulk of this literature is concerned with the years 1928–1935—dubbed the Third Period by the Communist International (Comintern). This essay registers and analyzes the responses of US-based Black radicals to the Russian Revolution, Comintern policies, and developments in early Soviet Russia and its successor, the Soviet Union (1922–91). It focuses on a moment truncated in the literature: the outbreak of both the February and October Revolutions of 1917 up to Vladimir Lenin’s death in January 1924. Important in its own right, that moment also laid the foundations for the later and more substantial involvement of African Americans in leftist politics in the United States. The essay examines the policies of the Bolsheviks—especially as articulated through the Comintern—that proved particularly compelling to Black radicals. What was Bolshevism’s attraction for Black radicals, both leftists and Black nationalists? The answer is less self-evident than it may at first appear. The profound impact of the “heroic period” of Bolshevism (1917–24) set in place Black radical loyalties to the Soviet Union that became entrenched and difficult to disavow.

Polsko-amerykańska współpraca miast

The article analyzes contemporary cooperation of Polish and American cities. Thus, it contributes to the research on the participation of non-state actors in the international relations. Currently, only 10 Polish cities conduct active cooperation with partners from the USA. These relationships focus on cooperation on issues such as culture, art, science and business. In most cases, these contacts were initiated by the Polish side, and they were based primarily on direct interpersonal contacts. Most partnership agreements were signed in the 1990s and resulted from the collapse of the Soviet block and deep political changes in Poland. Currently, the main obstacles to the intensification of these local governments transatlantic relations is a weak American involvement, geographic distance and a lack of state support.