Commercial Treaties Research Articles

Argentina, Israel, and the Jews: Peron, the Eichmann Capture and After (review)

Reviewed by: Argentina, Israel, and the Jews: Peron, the Eichmann Capture and After Ariel de la Fuente Argentina, Israel, and the Jews: Peron, the Eichmann Capture and After, by Raanan Rein, translated by Martha Grenzeback. University Press of Maryland, 2003. 274 pp. $25.00. In Argentina, Israel, and the Jews, Raanan Rein studies the relations between the Argentine Government, the Jewish community in Argentina, and the state [End Page 175] of Israel, from the mid 1940s to the early 1960s. The work mainly deals with these questions during the first two administrations of Juan Domingo Peron (1946–1955), the military dictatorship that overthrew him, the government of President Frondizi (1958–1962), the capture in Argentina of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, and the diplomatic conflict and the antisemitic reaction that followed. The book is an illuminating piece that both fills an important gap in Argentine and Israeli diplomatic history and revises established (but largely unfounded and inaccurate) images of the relationship between these actors. The author supports his challenging arguments with solid research in Israeli, Argentine, European, and American government archives, as well as newspapers, memoirs, and personal interviews. Rein makes some major statements on the subject. On the one hand, the author argues that the political interests and the strategies of both the Jewish community in Argentina and the state of Israel were often at odds with each other (Israeli governments tended to be more pragmatic). On the other, he says, the policies of Argentine administrations (regardless of the ideological orientation) towards Israel and the Jewish were guided by the (often wrong) assessment of the capacity of the Israelis or the international Jewish community to intervene on behalf of Argentina before the U.S. government or American public opinion. Rein's analysis of Juan Peron's policies is, probably, the richest and most revealing section of the book. The author shows that far from conducting the antisemitic policies often attributed to his government (powerfully fictionalized by Jorge Luis Borges in "La Fiesta del Monstruo"), Peron waged a very explicit and largely successful campaign of suppression against antisemitism in Argentina, to the extent that antisemitic manifestations of all sorts consistently declined (and almost disappeared) during his first two administrations. At the same time his government tried (and failed) to fully attract the political support of the local Jewish community. As part of the strategy his administration helped organize and supported the peronist Argentine Jewish Organization (OIA) that competed with the political independent Delegation of Jewish Argentine Organizations (DAIA) for the representation of the Jewish community, a muted conflict in which the latter was more successful. How to explain Peron's failure in spite of his numerous and unequivocal friendly gestures toward the Jewish community? (In relation to Peron's commitment an Israeli official saw "decisive evidence that Peron attitude to Jewish issues is positive, at any rate, and serious to the point that he does not settle for declarations or empty gestures, but is ready to go much further" [p. 89].) The author rightly points to several factors, from a logical distrust toward the officer that had participated in the nationalistic military government of 1943, which was [End Page 176] sympathetic to the Axis, and Peron's own autocratic and personalistic policies to his pro working-class policies that alienated the mostly urban educated Argentine middle-class, to which most Jews belonged (in a very interesting footnote that suggests the importance of this last factor, the author does note that although Peronism failed to capture the Jewish vote in Buenos Aires, "in the Jewish agricultural settlements in [the provinces of] Santa Fe and Entre Rios, Peronism won a majority" [p. 65]). Contrary to what happened with the local Jewish community, Peron's government succeeded in the establishment of very friedly relations with the state of Israel: it soon recognized the State of Israel, it was the first Latin American nation to open a diplomatic mission in the new nation (to which Peron appointed the first Jewish ambassador of Argentina), and Argentine and Israel signed a crucial commercial treaty (the first between a Latin American nation and the new state). Moreover, the author argues, Peron praised Israel as an evidence of...

Hugo Grotius' Theory of Trans-Oceanic Trade Regulation: Revisiting Mare Liberum (1609)

Four hundred years ago, the Dutch humanist and jurisconsult Hugo Grotius was commissioned by the United Netherlands' East India Company (VOC) to write a defence of Admiral Jakob van Heemskerk's seizure of a Portuguese merchant carrack in the Straits of Singapore (February 1603). At the time he was twenty-one years old. What Grotius produced between 1604 and 1606 is a comprehensive political and historical expose on war. Today, this work is known as De Jure Praedae Commentarius, or Commentary on Law of Prize and Booty. Only part of this comprehensive manuscript was published during its author's lifetime and is known as Mare Liberum or Free Sea (1609). Mare Liberum is essentially a propagandistic treatise and argues for Holland's merchants to freely access emporia in Asia by unimpeded navigation across the high seas. The freedom of navigation forms a subset to the overarching arguments on the freedom of access and trade. This particular assessment of Mare Liberum stands in sharp contrast to past interpretations, insofar as these have placed the 'freedom of the seas' - and not the broader issues surrounding 'free trade' - at the forefront of scholarly attention. From this vantage point, Grotius was surprisingly consistent in his thinking on the broader issues of maritime trade and navigation. During the first two decades of the seventeenth century, Grotius lent a helping hand in the process of forging political and commercial treaties between the VOC and Asian rulers. Far from championing peace and the freedom of navigation on the high seas for which the Dutch humanist is best remembered in modern times, Grotius should also assume a place among the intellectual fathers of Dutch colonial rule in Asia.

Československo-západoněmecké obchodněpolitické a dopravněpolitické vztahy v období 1949-1967

Vznik obou německých států v roce 1949 vážně poznamenal hospodářské, zvláště obchodní a dopravní vztahy ve střední Evropě na celá desetiletí. Příslušnost Československa a Spolkové republiky Německo k různým vojenskopolitickým a hospodářskopolitickým, tedy i dopravnětarifním uskupením vytvořila určitý rámec, resp. limity vzájemných obchodněpolitických a dopravněpolitických vztahů.Vysvětlení zachování hospodářských a dopravních kontaktů obou států tkví jednak ve formě a obsahu uzavřených smluv. První smlouvy totiž uzavíraly britská a americká a francouzská vojenská okupační administrativa a tyto smlouvy nebyly vypovězeny. Naopak se tyto smlouvy staly vlastně základem, který nezpochybňovala ani jedna ze stran. Jednak se jednalo o geografickou blízkost, podobnou a současně se doplňující strukturu ekonomiky.Ve srovnání s předválečným vývojem byl československo-západoněmecký objem zbožního obchodu nesrovnatelně malý, resp. mizivý. Zatímco československý podíl zahraničního obchodu na obchodu Spolkové republiky nečinil ani jedno procento, západoněmecký podíl na obchodu Československa dosáhl 5-6 %.Základním prostředkem dopravního styku zůstala ve sledovaném období ještě železnice. Doprava se realizovala přes tři pohraniční stanice. Postupně se stabilizoval železniční provoz po stránce technické, provozní a tarifní.V oblasti vodní dopravy nedošlo po dobu studené války kromě období berlínské blokády k přerušení labské plavby. I když nebyla po roce 1945 dohodnuta nová plavební akta na Labi, nestala se tato skutečnost zásadní překážkou plavby na Labi. V praxi se uznávala internacionalizace Labe. Hamburk zůstal pro Československo nejvýznamnějším západoevropským námořním přístavem. Objem tranzitu i exportu a importu přes Hamburk postupně vzrůstal a dokonce v polovině padesátých let překročil předválečný objem. Význam Hamburku pro československý tranzit tkvěl na jedné straně v geografické blízkosti, v kvalitě poskytovaných služeb a v nabídce širokého obchodního spojení se světem a v neposlední řadě v úspoře deviz. Na straně druhé představoval československý tranzit přes Hamburk důležitý faktor nejen z hlediska hospodářského, ale i obchodněpolitického, neboť umožňoval rozvíjet hospodářskodopravní kontakty mezi Československem a Spolkovou republikou. Uzavření smlouvy o zřízení obchodních zastoupení a regulaci zbožového a platebního styku v roce 1967 předznamenalo navázání diplomatických vztahů na počátku sedmdesátých let a stabilizovalo vzájemné hospodářské a potažmo i dopravní vztahy.

Negotiating with imperialism: the unequal treaties and the culture of Japanese diplomacy

Japan's modern international history began in 1858 with the signing of the unequal commercial treaty with the United States. Over the next fifteen years, Japanese diplomacy was reshaped to respond to the Western imperialist challenge. Negotiating with Imperialism is the first book to explain the emergence of modern Japan through this early period of treaty relations. Michael Auslin dispels the myth that the Tokugawa bakufu was diplomatically incompetent. Refusing to surrender to the West's power, bakufu diplomats employed negotiation as a weapon to defend Japan's interests. Tracing various visions of Japan's international identity, Auslin examines the evolution of the culture of Japanese diplomacy. Further, he demonstrates the limits of nineteenth-century imperialist power by examining the responses of British, French, and American diplomats. After replacing the Tokugawa in 1868, Meiji leaders initially utilized bakufu tactics. However, their 1872 failure to revise the treaties led them to focus on domestic reform as a way of maintaining independence and gaining equality with the West. In a compelling analysis of the interplay among assassinations, Western bombardment of Japanese cities, fertile cultural exchange, and intellectual discovery, Auslin offers a persuasive reading of the birth of modern Japan and its struggle to determine its future relations with the world.

Papers of John Adams. Volume 12: October 1781-April 1782 (review)

Papers of John Adams. Volume 12: October 1781-April 1782. Edited by Gregg L. Lint, Richard Alan Ryerson, Anne Decker Cecere, C.James Taylor, Jennifer Shea, Celeste Walker, Margaret A. Hogan. (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004. Pp. 533. Illustrations. Cloth, $85.00.)Reading John Adams's writing in this twelfth volume of the Papers of John Adams has been both pleasurable and instructive. Adams's abilities have long been recognized: his intelligence, his mental energy, his broad knowledge, his capacity for work. He had less attractive traits as well: vanity, hypersensitivity to slight, and, in his later years, an obsession with reputation. In the seven months between October 1781 and April 1782, which this volume covers, Adams and his correspondents produced enough writing to fill 500 pages of printed text. Throughout, Adams's unique qualities of personality and character that make him such a notable and interesting person are vividly displayed.The papers published in volume 12 continue the story of Adams's diplomatic assignment in the Netherlands begun in volumes 10 and 11. The items cover a variety of subjects and include most importantly Adams's correspondence with Congress arid secretary for Foreign Affairs Robert R. Livingstoii; with U.S. envoys John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, and Francis Dana; with various Dutch and French officials and notables; with Dutch bankers about an American loan; and Adams's letters critiquing a recently published history of the American Revolution.Adams was alone in the Netherlands, without wife or sons, commissioned by Congress to negotiate treaties of commerce and alliance with the Dutch States General. Although at war with Great Britain, the Netherlands had not recognized U.S. independence, and Adams was in the awkward position of serving as an informal envoy of the United States without official recognition. As such, he could talk informally with Dutch authorities but could not conduct official business. On his own initiative, without instructions, Adams insisted that formal recognition of U.S. independence must precede any treaty negotiation. To this end, Adams wrote and dispatched memorials, lobbied Dutch officials, courted the French ambassador at The Hague, cultivated Dutch and French politicians and newspaper editors, and wrote and circulated anonymous articles advocating recognition. Success finally came in the spring of 1782 when the States General officially recognized the independence of the United States and received Adams. This set the stage for subsequent Dutch loans that provided crucial financial aid to Congress during the Confederation era.Adams's quest for his country's recognition was the more complicated because of Holland's decentralized government. Power was exercised by an oligarchy of mercantile and financial elites and by the stadtholder, William V, Prince of Orange, George Ill's pro-British nephew. Power was diffused both at the top and throughout the provinces where local assemblies and municipal governments were key. Complicating matters further was the existence of rival factions of Patriots and Orangists predisposed for and against the United States. Adams thus had to deal with a bewildering array of authorities, bodies, officials, and groups, all of whom had to approve whether the United States should be recognized. …

Japan's Early Experience of Contract Management in the Treaty Ports (review)

Reviewed by: Japan's Early Experience of Contract Management in the Treaty Ports Junko Ando Japan's Early Experience of Contract Management in the Treaty Ports. By Yuki Allyson Honjo. London: Japan Library, 2003. xxiii + 238 pages. Hardcover £45.00. With the signing in 1859 of commercial treaties with the United States, Great Britain, France, Russia, and the Netherlands, Japan entered into trade relations with these countries. Treaties with other Western countries followed thereafter. The treaties, however, limited trade between Western and Japanese merchants to treaty ports such as those established in Kanagawa (Yokohama), Nagasaki, and Hakodate. Honjo's study deals with contract management in the early years after the opening of these ports (1859-1876). She focuses on trade practices, e.g., the way Western and Japanese merchants entered into business relations, and the role consular officials played in the solution of business disputes. Although she uses reports on business complaints in the treaty port press and information about the treaty port trade found in private writings (letters, diaries), the distinctive feature of Honjo's study is that she analyzes the mechanism of merchant interactions first and foremost by means of court documents. In that these documents record the statements of both parties to the dispute, use of them enables Honjo to take a more impartial and balanced view of the reality of the trade relationship between Westerners and Japanese than is afforded by the local press or private writings that express primarily the viewpoint of Westerners. The court statements also reveal, the author proposes, the conception of trade behavior each side assumed to be proper. Establishing a successful trade relationship requires merchants to manage expectations and information in such a way as to reduce risks, but in the treaty ports both Western and Japanese merchants faced many difficulties in this regard. While foreigners were permitted to reside, establish businesses, and purchase or build private as well as mercantile houses within the defined area of the treaty ports, they were generally not allowed to leave the enclave and travel freely in the interior. Japanese, for their part, were forbidden to live within the treaty port enclave. Thus, over and above the language barrier, there was a boundary between the Japanese and foreign communities that hindered social contact and mutual communication. Lack of market information and ignorance of cultural differences in business practices added to [End Page 267] mutual misunderstandings and made the establishment of good trade relations difficult. After 250 years of seclusion under the Tokugawa regime, there was a scarcity not only of interpreters but of the kind of middlemen who in China specialized in trade with foreigners and provided them with pertinent information. As a result, the costs of obtaining information and drawing up written contracts were often prohibitive. In addition, the instability of the political situation in Japan up to the 1860s meant that the possibility that the treaty ports might be closed could not be ruled out. Under such conditions, many merchants, both foreign and Japanese, must have doubted whether it was worthwhile investing in long-term business ties. Honjo points out that, to avoid the high costs of written contracts, merchants often opted for vaguely defined oral arrangements. Instead of drawing up contracts grounded on inadequate information, they made "a leap of faith" and entered into trade agreements assuming a degree of trust (p. 198). Although such trust might prove to be misplaced, an underdefined contract remained a preferable alternative to a detailed written contract that might prevent future trouble but was costly. Underdefined contracts also allowed for flexibility. Without resolution of the fundamental problems arising from the language barrier and lack of reliable information, however, friction was inevitable. Honjo offers a telling account of such friction in her description in chapter 7 of the 1875-1876 court case of Itô Hachibei vs. Walsh, Hall, and Co. Itô Hachibei was a rich merchant with influential connections in financial and political circles. In 1871 he had entered into a partnership in speculative transactions with the American firm Walsh, Hall, and Co. The latter argued that the partnership had been dissolved after the first loss and money advanced thereafter was a loan Itô was obliged to...

Modernización ecológica, cambio tecnológico y globalización

Este artículo muestra las tendencias de las políticas tecnológicas en materia ambiental y su relación con el proceso de globalización. La historia de los últimos 30 años y las tendencias de globalización de la economía parecen mostrar que las políticas de control de emisiones, end of pipe technologies, son las prioritarias. Al mismo tiempo, las corporaciones transnacionales apoyadas en la creciente liberalización del comercio tienen un papel cada vez más significativo en las políticas ambientales nacionales e internacionales, y presionan para que sean incorporados a los tratados de comercio sólo aquellos problemas del ambiente que interesan a los países desarrollados.

Resistance in the neoliberal city

“Democracy generally stops both at the gates of the workplace and the borders of a state.” (Anderson, 2002 , p. 34) “The border seemed to move with me, hanging overhead like a cloud.” (Blaise, 1990 , p. 5) “I now understand that a man’s place in society is the one he takes.” (Tar Angel, 2001)1 Borders, and their iconic images of gates, walls and fences, are ubiquitous representations of immigration policy and experiences. They express the control of territorial boundaries of a nation‐state and its people, distinguishing those inside from those outside. They also represent the physical, social and cultural transition in the lives of those who cross a border to settle in a new nation, and in the lives of the people left behind (Chavez, 2001). Points of arrival are perpetual points of departure in the journey of a migrant. Powerful metaphors of the immigrant journey, borders are determined and maintained by economic and political imperatives constructing the flows of capital, goods, ideas, technologies, etc. (Appadurai, 1996). International commercial treaties, such as the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, affirm the permeability of borders. Post‐September 11 discussion on the creation of a North American security perimeter that would allow for a multinational harmonization of counterterrorism efforts without impeding economic relations has generated particular pressures to re‐examine the security of continental borders. Increased border enforcement and technology have been the main harmonization strategies that bring a “high visibility and symbolic value of the border deterrence effort” and thus affirm the control of (some) people’s mobility and flow (Andreas, 2003, p. 6). Economic borders have largely been dismantled under the banner of free trade while security borders have been refortified under the threat of terrorism (even though the north and south borders had very little to do with the September 11 attacks). National security issues have expanded the criminalization of immigration even though legality and illegality are integrally constructed in immigration policy. As Samers (2003, p. 556) argues, “[t]here can be no undocumented immigration without immigration policy, and thus those who are deemed to be ‘illegal’, ‘irregular’, ‘sans papiers’ or indeed ‘undocumented’ shift with the nature of immigration policy”.

The Tsar in England: Peter the Great's Visit to London in 1698

Although it has been suggested that England was included - along with Rome and Venice - in the earliest itineraries planned for the 'Great Embassy' mounted by Peter the Great in 1696, there is no evidence that it remained a priority by the time the 200-strong party left Moscow in the following year. The decision that he should undertake the voyage across the North Sea seems rather to have been an impetuous one, conceived while the Tsar and his party were already settled in Amsterdam, developed at a hastily arranged meeting on 11 September 1697 with the English monarch King William III, who happened fortuitously to be at Utrecht, and concluded shortly afterwards. The encounter between the two rulers was quickly recognized as of significant diplomatic importance and led to the striking of a medal to commemorate the occasion (Fig. 1).Two considerations predominated in the Tsar's mind in seeking to develop a bond with Britain, of which the principal was his long-term desire to forge alliances with other European powers in his protracted struggle against the Turks, a matter made suddenly all the more acute by France's conclusion of an alliance with the Ottoman Empire. In this context, Peter's meeting with William III was a timely one: the King had played a prominent role in the War of the Grand Alliance against France, which was drawn to a successful conclusion with the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick nine days later, on 20 September 1697, while France's naval forces had been effectively confined to port. We need not doubt the sincerity of Peter's expressions of admiration for British military prowess - not even his claim to regret that 'since the peace is so nearly concluded, he would not have the opportunity . . . of fighting under the banner of England against France', or his declaration that 'if the war continued, he and his armies were at his majesty's service'.2The second motive Peter had for visiting England - more prosaic than the first though not unrelated to it - was prompted by his hunger for knowledge of western technology, and particularly of ship-building techniques, a preoccupation born of his desire to build a navy that would hold in check the Turkish fleet in the Black Sea. The experience he had gained at first hand while working in the Dutch shipyards, although valuable, had ultimately proved frustrating. Dutch ships of the period were as good as any, but Peter evidently found that dockyard practice in the Netherlands involved a disconcerting measure of intuition and unwritten custom that was difficult to codify with a view to introducing these same practices to Russia: according to the Introduction to a contemporary translation of Peter's Naval Regulation of 1720, he found that in Holland 'this art was not taught in the mathematical way, but only some principles of it, so that the rest must be acquired by long practice and experience'. This discovery, it was said, 'gave him a great uneasiness, that he had undertaken so long a journey for that purpose, and had failed in this end, so much desired'.3We can well believe the same report when it mentions that when Peter was told that in England 'this kind of practice is raised to the same perfection as other arts and sciences, and might be learned in a short time',4 his mind would quickly have been made up.For their part the English had quite a different agenda in cultivating the Tsar, one that was dominated by considerations of trade. Earlier commercial treaties between Muscovy and England had been abrogated by Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich half a century earlier, ostensibly in response to the overthrow of King Charles I and his execution in 1649. As a result, the fortunes of England's Russia Company had declined considerably and its former monopoly on trade was now under attack from a new generation of entrepreneurs eager to break the Company's strangle-hold on commercial relations.5 The Muscovy merchants, on the other hand, doubtless would have been immensely eager to capitalize on the Tsar's presence on their home territory:6 there existed a healthy demand in England for Russian raw materials, especially from the ship-building industry,7 while English tobacco merchants had already expressed ambitions to penetrate the vast, under-developed market in Russia with a view to marketing their rapidly expanding stocks of Virginiagrown tobacco. …

Liberal Diplomacy and German Unification. The Early Career of Robert Morier

Preface Introduction Unspoken Assumptions: The Oxford Background Politics I -- The Organic Roots of German Constitutionalism Politics II -- Prussian Constitutional Conflict to Kreisordnung Nationality and the German Question Free Trade and Commercial Treaties, 1860-1864 Free Trade and Commercial Treaties, 1864-1870 Vatican Politics and the Kulturkampf, 1870-1876 Conclusions Select Bibliography Index

Laying the Foundation of U.S. Power in the Pacific

Book reviewed in this article: David M. Pletcher, The Diplomacy of Involvement: American Economic Expansion across the Pacific, 1784–1900 This is the third volume in David Pletcher's trilogy on U.S. territorial and economic expansion in the nineteenth century. The first1 dealt with the acquisition of Texas, Oregon, and California, the second2 with the expansion of trade and investment in Latin America from 1865 to 1900. The volume under review covers American economic and territorial expansion across the Pacific before 1900. The process began with the voyage of the Empress of China to Canton in 1784. Through subsequent decades, the China market drew the United States to other Pacific regions, from the northwest coast of North America to Japan and India. Yet for Americans generally, the huge Pacific basin—much of it still uncharted—long remained an abstraction. American trade with China led the way to the Orient, but that trade never favored the United States. Chinese tea, porcelains, nankeens, and silks enjoyed a more lucrative market in the United States than did American exports of ginseng, sea otter and other furs, sandalwood, and opium—most acquired outside the United States—find markets in China. What hampered the China trade was the monopoly exercised by the Hong merchants in Canton and the Chinese restrictions on trade outside Canton. Following Britain's success in gaining access to other Chinese ports through its naval victory over China in the Opium War of 1839–1842, U.S. merchants in Canton pressed Congress for a naval force and a commercial treaty to give American merchants greater security against mistreatment, as well as wider access to the China market. These objectives the United States gained in the Treaty of Wang-hsia in July 1844. The treaty granted the United States all essential privileges won by the British. The American treaty became the model for all subsequent Chinese commercial agreements. The treaties never operated consistently because Westerners and Chinese never shared their ultimate intent: whether to expand Western trade or to protect Chinese interests and traditions.

Brokering Postnationalist Culture: An Introduction

Nationalisms Guest Editor: Teresa Vitaros Brokering Postnationalist Culture: An Introduction1 In his seminal 1939 speech "What is a Nation?" Ernest Renan stated that race, language, religion, commerce, geography, dynasty and military deeds, while playing a considerable role in the making of a nation, do not suffice to explain what a nation is or might be. Stepping outside of the material, Renan envisioned the nation as a principle, a soul or a spiritual unit and, as such, something uncontainable by politics or economics. For him the nation works as a spiritual unit, a complex whole that is "the result of the intricate workings of history" (153). Renan's speech attempted to answer die nation question within the civic humanist paradigm of nineteenth-century French nationalism. Rejecting the idea of empire promoted by the Fascist/Nazi Axis, Renan's concept of nation called for an everyday negotiation based on a democratic plebiscite. For Renan, the nation is a unit clearly uncontainable by the material. Although he understood the nation as that resulting from the intricate workings of history, Renan's very modern notion of civil nationalism refused to be defined by material history. Stepping aside all things material in what he consciously qualified as an old-fashioned move, he clearly affirmed: Community of interests is certainly a powerful bond between men, but do interests suffice to make a nation? I do not believe it. Community of interests brings about commercial treaties. Nationality, which is body and soul together, has its sentimental side: and a Union of Custom is not a country. (152) Notwithstanding Renan's slippage between country and nation (which in Renan's time is deeply engrained within the nation-state model) I would like to bring to the fore his remarks on sentimentality. The sentimental, in Renan's schema, is presented as a powerful energy that not only wraps the nation within it, but advances it forward into the historical as a spiritual organism. The sentimental side of the nation seems to be for Renan an almost spiritual force; a pure force that would always be beyond the concrete materiality surrounding the everyday negotiations in which a nation is involved from trade to war. Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies Volume 7, 2003 112 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies It is therefore somewhat perplexing that Renan's strong move away from material historical discourses and toward a sentimental/spiritual version of civic nationalism can provide the intellectual basis from which to envision a European confederation . Nations, Renan believed, are not eternal; and, although he emphatically stated that "a Union of Customs" is not a nation, in a premonition of today's European Union he continued: "They [nations ] have had beginnings and will have ends; and will probably be replaced by a confederation of Europe" (154). Nations are indeed perishable units. So are empires and nation-states, for that matter. Almost fifty years after Renan's speech, and born out of the postmodern paradigm shift signaling a new global economy and the dominance of a new empire (that of the United States), the European Union became a reality. Founded mostly or solely on economic needs and principles and following up on Renan's arguments, we could concur with him in stating that because the social fabric of the economically united Europe does not seem as of yet to have generated a fully new and coherent "European" sentimental side, the European Union is not a nation . And yet, as an unsentimental organism , Renan's appeal to the sentimental seems to also apply to the European Union. It is emerging as a site of contention and desire. Its economic configuration steadily continues to attract a considerable number of continental and noncontinental nations (Turkey, for example) who want to become members. It is becoming a powerful contender of the United States, as Susan George has recently pointed out.2 It also functions as a symbolic recipient, as a wishing well for many of those historical nationalities of Europe without states of their own. A sentimental side of the nation is often conveyed in many nationalist discourses intent on achieving cultural and/or linguistic visibility. Small historical nations in Europe understand that claims for...

Solving the "Accursed Riddle" of the Diplomatic Relations between Catalonia and Egypt around 1430

The last Arabic diplomatic document in Barcelona's Crown of Aragon Archive (ACA) that is still to be edited and studied is ACA Arabic doc. 164. The document is a preliminary draft of the commercial and peace treaty drawn up in 1430 by Alfons the Magnanimous, King of Aragon, Naples and Sicily (1396-1458), and the Mamluk Sultan al-Ashraf Sayf al-Din Barsbāy (825-841/1422-1437), signed in Rhodes (Ramadān 7 833/30 May 1430, ACA Arabic doc. 145), and published in 1939 by Ruíz Orsatti. Document 164 contained 111 folios, which were not in order, and for this reason specialists called it the "accursed riddle". The document was probably prepared for discussion during the summer of 1429, a few months before the definitive version was signed. It is longer than the final agreement, and contains an additional Chapter (33) which has not been published to date. Little documentary evidence of diplomatic negotiation between Muslim and Christian powers in Medieval times has survived, and this chapter provides us with a highly unusual example. In the first part of this study the document is described and its contents outlined. In sections 2 and 3 we edit and analyse the contents of the additional Chapter 33 and the Explicit that goes with it, which is absent from Ruíz Orsatti's version. We then present some historical data regarding the Catalan embassy to Rhodes, which will shed light on the diplomatic negotiations that concern us and the historical reasons for the censoring of Chapter 33.

Translating Liberty in Nineteenth-Century Japan

A concept of liberty was but one element of the Japanese engagement with western political theory after the Perry intrusion of 1853, when United States warships led by Commodore Matthew Perry forced Japan to negotiate a commercial treaty with the U.S. This scandal, which ultimately led to the Meiji Restoration of 1867, immediately reorganized scholarly priorities among those intellectuals interested in western knowledge and technology. Western learning under the "feudal" Tokugawa regime (1603-1867) was organized as "Dutch studies" because the Dutch were the sole European trading partner of Japan from 1641 to 1854. Dutch studies paid particular attention to European mathematics, astronomy, geography, natural history, and the Dutch language. The Perry intrusion, however, prompted the rise of "western learning": language study quickly expanded to include English, French, and German; and the content of learning emphasized European law and political philosophy. But the concepts that defined this content of western thought did not translate well; they did not fit naturally with existing Japanese concepts. Hence the translation of western political theory necessitated the invention of new terminology with which to engage the new political language. Accordingly, Japanese efforts to translate western political theory must be understood as both problems of language, the creation and circulation of new concepts, as well as problems of action, and the usage of new concepts in debates about the programs and policies to be implemented in a "westernizing" Japan. 1 [End Page 161]

A Comparative Study of <I>A Pocket Dictionary of theEnglish and Japanese Language</I> (sic) and <I>Dictionnaire Francais-Anglais-Japonais</I>

In the preface of Dictionnaire Francais-Anglais-Japonais (DFAJ) by Mermet de Cachon, in 1866, Léon Pagès, who was in charge of its Japanese translation, mentioned the precedent work of lexicography including A Pocket Dictionary of the English and Japanese Language (PDEJ) by 'japonais Hori Tatsnokay' (sic), in 1862.Mermet de Cachon played an important role as an interpreter at the time of the conclusion of the Commercial Treaty between France and Japan.Since he had made up his mind to compile a French-Japanese dictionary, when PDEJ was published in 1862, he must have secured a copy in Edo. It is highly probable that after he went back to France he handed the book to Léon Pagès, a Japanologist, so that Pagès could translate the English part of DFAJ into Japanese referring PDEJ.By making a comparison between DFAJ and PDEJ, the writer explicitly points out that 33.8 % of the translations in DFAJ are quite the same as those of PDEJ. In consequence, the comparative study reveals the fact that PDEJ had influence not only on English and Chinese Dictionary by W. Lobscheid published in Hongkong, but also on DFAJ by Mermet de Cachon published in Paris.The writer also attempted to decipher the handwriting in Roman letters in French style on every page and that in French on the page of Explanations of abbreviations found in a copy of PDEJ which is currently in the possession of Tenri Central Library.This report is based on the paper read by the writer at the regular monthly meeting on Dec. 2, 2000.

Impacts of international trade, services and investment treaties on alcohol regulation.

There is an underlying incompatibility between government efforts to minimize the harm associated with alcohol, particularly by regulating its supply, and international commercial treaties that promote the freer flow of goods, services and investment. These treaties have already forced changes to many government measures affecting alcohol availability and control, primarily by constraining the activities of government alcohol monopolies and by altering taxation regimes. The North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization agreements open new avenues for challenges against alcohol control measures. Some of these agreements extend beyond trade, border measures and differential taxation and allow challenges that intrude into areas of non-discriminatory domestic regulation affecting market access, intellectual property, investment and services. Effective protection from these agreements for vital public health measures has rarely been obtained, although it is increasingly essential. The WTO "services" agreement, basically unknown to the public, is currently being re-negotiated and poses the gravest new challenge to policies designed to influence patterns of alcohol use and minimize alcohol-related harm. In future, these international agreements will probably affect adversely those alcohol approaches considered to be the most effective or promising. These include: maintaining effective state monopolies, restricting the number and locations of retail outlets, taxing and regulating beverages according to alcohol strength, restricting commercial advertising, and maintaining and enhancing public alcohol education and treatment programs. These effects can, in turn, be expected to increase the availability and access to alcohol, to lower alcohol taxes, and to increase advertising and promotion, resulting in increased alcohol consumption and associated health problems. Until more balanced international rules are developed, the challenge facing alcohol policy researchers is to defend national and local alcohol measures from further erosion. This will require greater coordination with researchers in other affected sectors, intervention with government representatives in health and related areas and the promotion of alternative approaches to current international commercial agreements.

Decadence or Crisis in the Luso-Brazilian Empire: A New Model of Colonization in the Eighteenth Century

Decadence or Crisis in the Luso-Brazilian Empire: A New Model of Colonization in the Eighteenth Century

Sino-American Economic Relations, 1944-1949

Preface China's Postwar Reconstruction Policy-Making American Postwar Economic Policy Toward China UNRRA and CNRRA The Negotiation of the Sino-American Commercial Treaty The Practice of American Capitalist Economic Liberalism in China American Economic Policy Toward China, 1947-1949 American Approaches Toward China in Conflict Conclusion Bibliography Index

Bonds over Bondage: British Opposition to the Annexation of Texas

By 1840, Palmerston thought it decent to recognize Texas. He did not think that commercial treaties with the republic would necessarily prevent annexation, however, and doubted whether Britain could ever exert much influence on the destiny of Texas.1 Palmerston's remarks make it difficult to reconcile the grandiose designs attributed to British interest in Texas with the realities of its diplomatic policy. Britain simply tried to persuade Mexico to accept the loss of Texas through a series of modest diplomatic initiatives. According to diplomatic historians, however, Britain resisted the annexation of Texas to blunt the growth of an American empire, establish a balance of power in North America, and secure an alternative supply of cotton in Texas. Britain

Evolución del comercio exterior del vino del campo de Cariñena

En este artículo se exponen las vicisitudes por las que ha atravesado el vino de Cariñena para su comercialización desde el siglo pasado. Comienza con el éxito y los altos precios del vino conseguidos por la demanda francesa, tras la invasión filoxérica del país vecino, favorecidos también por la inauguración del ferrocarril de vía estrecha Zaragoza-Cariñena y seguidos de la crisis de superproducción y consiguiente descenso de los precios tras finalizar el Tratado de Comercio con Francia. Luego se explica la lenta recuperación a lo largo de este siglo, se facilitan las cantidades exportadas en el último cuarto del mismo, para analizar de forma más exhaustiva la situación del mercado exterior en la actualidad, donde el comercio europeo ha vuelto a ser el más importante y de modo especial el de la Unión Europea.In this article the different mishaps that the Cariñena wine has undergone to be commercialized since the last century are shown. The study begins with the success and the high price of the wine, due to the French demand, after the phylloxera invasión in the neighbouring country, also favoured by the opening of the narrow-gauge railway Zaragoza-Cariñena, and followed by the superproduction crises and the subsequent fall of the prices after the end of the Commercial Treaty with France. Afterwards, we explain the slow recovery along this century, giving the exported quantities in the last quarter of the century, and then analyzing more thoroughiy the situation of the foreign market nowadays, since the European trade has regained importance, specially the one in the European Union.