East-west Division Research Articles

Leadership in the UN, 1997: The Secretary-General and the U.S. — A Symbiotic Relationship under Stress

THE SECRETARY-GENERALSHIP As Kofi Annan settles into office as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations, the challenge he faces is not merely to cope with 'the most impossible job' -- which is how Trygve Lie, the first secretary-general, described his position nearly fifty years ago -- but to keep the United Nations from becoming irrelevant. His predicament does not reflect on him personally, but on the state of the United Nations in 1997 and on its relationship to the United States which occupies a unique position vis-a-vis the world body. As the sole superpower, the United States fills the role in the United Nations that exists within all multilateral organizations that of the catalytic dominant power that provides the leadership which is 'necessary for the institution to function. This leadership, referred to in the literature as hegemonic, calls for a moral commitment supported by significant human and financial resources.(f.1) In the United Nations, the United States has occupied this role from the beginning. Although other nations were involved in the Dumbarton Oaks and San Francisco conferences which produced the United Nations Charter, the primary inspiration came from Franklin D. Roosevelt's 'four freedoms -- of speech, of religion, from want, and from fear' -- infused with American ideals and organizational principles. It was not only a reaffirmation of Wilsonian internationalism, but it carried Roosevelt's New Deal into the international arena by broadening the idea of collective security to include the 'promotion of social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.'(f.2) Trygve Lie did not explain why he thought his position was 'the most impossible job in the world,' but over the years his judgement has been shared by most of his successors. The secretary-general's task has become increasingly difficult as the office is called upon to deal with increasingly complex issues: reconciling disparate and conflicting views among the member sovereign states whose number has grown from 511 to 185; balancing East-West and North-South divisions; managing an unwieldy bureaucracy under the inhibiting recruitment principles of state sovereignty and equitable geographic distribution; undertaking operations under vague mandates; promoting and defending multilateralism in a resistant world; and maintaining United Nations impartiality.(f.3) Any one of these problems is vexing enough; how much more so when a number of them have to be dealt with simultaneously. For the last two secretaries-general, Javier Perez de Ceullar and Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the impossibility of the secretary-generalship was compounded by the gnawing financial crisis brought on primarily by the failure of the United States to live up to its treaty obligations to pay its dues and clear up its arrears. This remains the new secretary general's most formidable challenge. To lead the United Nations in its multifaceted activities -- conflict management, peacekeeping, economic development, promotion of human rights, humanitarian assistance, environmental protection, and so on -- a wide range of financial and human resources is required. The secretary-general does not command such resources. He is answerable to the member-states of the organization. They decide the policy direction, and they have to provide the resources. The policies of the member-states, each essentially pursuing its own national interest, 'constrain the development of the United Nations as a much more central organization in international politics.(f.4) The secretary-general may propose but the other principal organs of the United Nations, notably the Security Council, the General Assembly, and the Economic and Social Council, dispose. Clearly, the leadership capability of the secretary-general is much more circumscribed than that of chief of state or government who is responsible to an elected legislative body. Nor does the secretary-general have a political party or direct access to a public to rally to his side. …

Sir Hersch Lauterpacht: An Appraisal

Despite our family connections,1 I was never closely associated with Hersch Lauterpacht I recall him as a kind and considerate uncle to my children, with whom he established close relations, and of course his renown as a giant in the field of international law culminating in his accession to the International Court of Justice in the Hague. Despite his lifelong connection with Zionist affairs and with Israel, Hersch Lauterpacht must be remembered as an international lawyer of universal outlook. The third of a century from the publication of his first book in 1927 to his untimely death in 1960 was a period largely unaffected by the North-South, anti-colonialist and East-West divisions that marked the following thirty years from 1960 to 1990. Nor were the massive substantive developments of those years, particularly in the fields of the environment, the law of the sea, the extension of protection of human rights, disarmament and confidence-building measures, foreseeable during his lifetime. But although he wrote during a time when international law was relatively static, set in a mould formed more than half a century before his immersion in the subject, he wrote with a unique sense of legal principle and especially a novel, even in his time daring, belief in the position of the individual as a subject of international law. This belief was translated into a proposal, published in 1945, for the establishment of an international bill of human rights. This document had an immediate impact upon the emerging European commitment to the formal protection of individual rights in the shape of the European Convention on Human Rights concluded in 1950. Lauterpacht's ideas on this subject began to evolve even in his student days in Vienna. There, as a leader of the Jewish student movement, he took a particular interest in the then recently developed concept of the 'mandate' in relation to Palestine and other Turkish and German colonies. This led to his first book on Private Law Sources and Analogies of International Law (1927). The loss of his own family in Poland during the Holocaust undoubtedly influenced the development of his ideas regarding individual responsibility for war

Can the spread of agriculture in Europe be followed by tracing the spread of the weed Silene latifolia. A RAPD study

On the basis of gene frequency data of three flavone glycosylating genes, populations of the agricultural weed Silene latifolia (Caryophyllaceae) in Europe can be divided into two chemical races: an eastern and a western race. Morphological data also show a clear east-west division. When the two datasets are combined at least nine different geographical races can be distinguished using cluster analysis. Because these observations are hard to explain by selection, it has been proposed that these different races probably originated as a consequence of migration during the spread of agriculture over Europe in the past. To discriminate between selection and genetic drift many more selectively neutral easy-to-score characters are needed. In order to test whether random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs) might be suitable for this purpose, we performed a small-scale RAPD analysis on 16 geographical different populations. Using Jaccard's coefficient of similarity, we calculated genetic distances by pair-wise comparisons of both unique and shared amplification products, and a dendrogram was subsequently constructed using an unweighted pair-group method with arithmetical averages (UPGMA). On the basis of the dendrogram two clusters were discerned that clearly coincide with the aforementioned east-west division in populations. As there has been little or no artificial selection on this weed, its migration routes may be a good reflection of the different geographical routes agriculture has taken. We propose that a phylogenetic analysis of RAPD data of many more populations may provide additional information on the spread of agriculture over Europe.

Torn Between East and West: The Regional Factor in Ukrainian Politics

Two issues that are central to an understanding of post-Soviet party politics in Ukraine are examined in detail within the context of their regional variation. First is the lack of an organizational culture, which reflects the continued dominance of the former Communist Party nomenklatura in party politics in Ukraine. No powerful popular movements or parties have been able or willing to seriously challenge this dominance. Second is the split between Eastern and Western Ukraine, which becomes quite apparent in a review of returns from the 1994 parliamentary elections. Few political parties poll strongly in all parts of Ukraine; instead, there is a growing division between a nationalist West and a Russian-oriented East. The paper assesses the implications of the nomenklatura dominance and East-West division for the future of pluralist party democracy in Ukraine. 6 figures, 3 tables, 21 references.

Moscow's acceptance of NATO: The catalytic role of German unification

DURING THE POSTWAR PERIOD relations in Europe were shaped by both East-West confrontation and Germany's division. The two phenomena were rooted in the systemic conflict between the West and the USSR. Two Western schools of thought emerged as to how the rift might be overcome. The first held that a fair deal was possible with the communists. The second doubted whether such an option existed. Only a crisis of communism would create the conditions for a substantial and lasting accommodation. The two sides' ideas on the kind of solution differed as well. The fair

A New Interpretation of the East-West Division of Majapahit in the Late Fourteenth Century

A New Interpretation of the East-West Division of Majapahit in the Late Fourteenth Century

THE GEOGRAPHY OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA VARIATION IN TWO SYMPATRIC SPARROWS.

Geographic variation in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) restriction sites was studied in samples of two sympatric passerine birds, fox (Passerella iliaca) and song (Melospiza melodia) sparrows, collected at the same sites in the western United States. Different levels of variation and differentiation were observed in each species. In 46 fox sparrows taken at nine sites, five clones were observed, partitioned into two distinct east-west groups that meet at the Great Basin-Sierra Nevada interface; percent nucleotide divergence was 0.86 between groups and 0.08 within groups. An additional 43 individuals were examined using at least one of seven diagnostic endonucleases, and all supported the east-west groupings. Considering common mtDNA haplotypes as alleles, an FST of 0.50 was computed, which is an order of magnitude greater than that computed from allozyme comparisons (0.019); mtDNA analyses suggest little intergroup gene exchange. Compared to allozymic variation, analysis of mtDNA revealed a greater degree of population structuring and greater consistency with broad patterns of morphological variation. Fifteen clones were observed in 27 song sparrows taken at seven of the same sites at which fox sparrows were sampled; the percent nucleotide divergence averaged 0.27. There was no detectable geographic pattern to the variation, and no evidence of an east-west division as in the fox sparrow. However, the mosaic nature of mtDNA variation in song sparrows suggests limited gene exchange. Considering the 15 clones as alleles yielded an Fst of 0.24, which is reduced to 0.039 when corrected for sampling error. In spite of occupying the same geographic area, mtDNA analyses showed that the two species (or at least their mtDNA gene genealogies) have had different evolutionary histories.

The united states naval blockade of Iraq: A foreign policy and international law analysis

The current Persian Gulf crisis may signal a new period in human history in which the United Nations is viewed as the forum of first resort for the resolution of international harms and disputes. This is particularly striking since the Security Council, because of east-west divisions, has been unable to act in a collective manner to addresses serious international breaches of the peace. This two part essay deals with the events leading up to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the step-by-step reaction by the U.S. Government, the imposition of the U.S. Navy blockade of Kuwaiti shipping, and the legal justification for the introduction of forces. The reader is left to decide whether the Rule of Law and Charter ideals of collective security, are the real victors in the current conflict. Part 1 of the essay examines the detailed economic and political causes for the Iraqi invasion. Even though some commentators have characterized Saddam Hussein's entry into Kuwait as “naked aggression” which was driven by Saddam Hussein's hamartia to become the new Nasser, OPEC production disputes, allegations of excessive Kuwaiti pumping of the Rumalia oil field (straddles both countries), the need for an Iraqi coastline, and large Iraqi debt to Kuwait are seen as “rational” reasons for the invasion. A historical examination of the Iran-Iraq conflict is grafted into part one to assist the reader in appreciating the fact that belligerent conduct is viewed in Iraq as a normative mode of conflict resolution and that in the context of all current and future military and diplomatic interchanges, the proven bellicosity of Iraq should figure prominently in the approaches which are taken. The U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf must be viewed in the context of the U.S.'s diplomatic and economic interests in the region. The essay concludes that the actions of the United States in the first forty days after the Iraqi invasion were masterful because of the skilled use of the U.N. security council (to build a broad political base) as well as the introduction of limited force (imposition of a naval blockade) to signal to Saddam Hussein that the international community was serious in its resolve. The shooting which is taking place is most unfortunate; but U.S. efforts were properly tailored to keep the world coalition intact and prevent a shooting war. Until approximately 3 weeks into the actual conflict, the level of anti-U.S. rhetoric was noticeably small- a triumph for U.S. foreign policy makers in forming a world-wide consensus and maintaining it and a triumph for international respect for law. The final portion of Part 1 deals with the history of blockades before and after the 1945 U.N. Charter. Blockade actions have been used since the Middle Ages but the 1856 Pact of Paris and the 1909 Declaration of London are the modern sources for the Law of Blockade. Becuase of the sheer intensity of conflict in the First and Second World Wars, the normative rules contained in the two written sources of law fell into disuse. Even so, most of the substantive provisions from the 19th and early 20th century doctrines are incorporated into contemporary law and policy. Commander Rosen argues strenuously for a modernization of the international conventions to codify the rules of blockade since, given the utter destructiveness of modern warfare, blockades remain a relatively benign use of force in those situations in which use of force is legally justified. But, however laudable the U.N. Charter ideals are to sharply restrict the use of force to exceptionally limited circumstances and make state aggression illegal, situations will arise in which use of force will be necessary to respond to illegal aggression. Resurrection of the old concept of pacific blockade (similar to the naval action taken in connection with the Cuban Missile Crisis) is urged because unanimity in the U.N. is transitory and nations, particularly superpowers, need the legal flexibility to react to illegal aggression with limited uses of force--below the threshold uses of force authorized by the U.N. Charter.

Regional Variation in Hip Fracture: Is It due to Increased Milk Consumption in the North, 50 Years Ago?

In Reply.— Dr Bierlein makes a good point that the decreased incidence of hip fracture in the North is striking, with historical milk and milk product consumption providing an attractive etiologic hypothesis. As we mentioned, however, good data with which to test this hypothesis are, to our knowledge, lacking. We have, however, been able to locate state-specific milk production data dating back to 1909. 1 These data show that of an estimated 7.5 million gallons of milk produced, 3.2 million gallons was produced in the East North Central and West North Central census divisions, and an additional 1.3 million gallons was produced in the Middle Atlantic states. The South Atlantic, East South Central, and West South Central combined to produce an estimated 1.5 million gallons of milk. While these data are suggestive, the association is tenuous at best. Data on milk production may not necessarily reflect milk consumption. For example,

East Europe's Reforms and Developing Countries' Trade Prospects: A Medium Term Perspective

After years of grim dullness, the European polity is producing so many sensations totally unpredictable developments - that it is hard to pick the biggest. Who would have thought, for instance, death of communism in the Eastern block and rebirth of democracy? Who would have thought that Soviet empire in the East? Who would have thought that Soviet Union and its Warsaw pact - cousins would begin their journey to a common European home? Who would have thought that the great communist countries like the Soviet Union would uphold the sanctity of market? And yet, we are curious witnesses to spectacle of aevelopments happening in the central and eastern Europe at break-neck-speed - Tearing the East-West division and the post-1945 order of political stability.

‘Some Pamphlets on Dead Greek Dialects’: R.M. Dawkins and Modern Greek Dialectology

After a brief account of the life and personality of R.M. Dawkins (Director of the British School at Athens, 1906–1914), based partly on unpublished material, the author summarizes Dawkins's career as an archaeologist, philologist, and folklorist. There follows a critical account of his work on the Greek dialects of Cappadocia and of other regions in central Asia Minor; Dawkins's magnum opus, Modern Greek in Asia Minor (1916) was the most thorough study ever made of this topic. Mention is made of Dawkins's contribution to the study of Pontic, which he was prevented by events from exploring thoroughly in situ. Apart from his work on individual dialects, his reputation as a dialectologist rests on his accumulation of evidence in support of his hypothesis that there is a fundamental east-west division in the Modern Greek dialects. The limitations of Dawkins's accumulative method are alluded to; he described a corpus rather than formulating rules for the generation of utterances. His contribution to the collection and classification of Greek folk tales – his second most important achievement – is also assessed. Finally mention is made of developments in Modern Greek studies since Dawkins's time.

Disarmament and Development: An Analysis Using GLOBUS

The East-West and North-South divisions of the globe have structured a large percentage of global political and economic conflict throughout the post-World War II period and appear likely to do so for the foreseeable future. Many propositions for disarmament and development, often proposed as approaches to bridging the two gaps, fall generally into an Idealist/Internationalist model of international political economy. In a project using the GLOBUS world computer simulation, we have examined six propositions from that model. At the aggregate level, some results support and some generally contradict the Idealist/Internationalist propositions. More detailed examination often reveals complex patterns hidden by the aggregate results. This article summarizes project results and sketches a revised international political economy model.

Spheres of Influence in Soviet Wartime Diplomacy

Previous articleNext article No AccessSpheres of Influence in Soviet Wartime DiplomacyAlbert ResisAlbert Resis Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 53, Number 3Sep., 1981 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/242324 Views: 32Total views on this site Citations: 9Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1981 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Etleva Babameto, Gentjana Taraj Deklarata e dhjetorit 1942 e tre të mëdhenjve për njohjen e shtetit të pavarur shqiptar dhe statusin e ardhshëm të tij, Optime 12, no.1-21-2 (Oct 2021): 112–127.https://doi.org/10.55312/op.v12i1-2.201Van Jackson Understanding spheres of influence in international politics, European Journal of International Security 5, no.33 (Oct 2019): 255–273.https://doi.org/10.1017/eis.2019.21 The Tehran Conference and the Anglo-American Struggle over the Invasion of Southern France, (Feb 2014): 158–174.https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107358546.009 Bibliography, (Dec 2007): 461–542.https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470999042.biblioMark A. Stoler World War II, (Dec 2007): 188–214.https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470999042.ch12Wolfgang Mueller Stalin and Austria: New Evidence on Soviet Policy in a Secondary Theatre of the Cold War, 1938–53/55, Cold War History 6, no.11 (Aug 2006): 63–84.https://doi.org/10.1080/14682740500395444Mark Percival Churchill and Romania: The myth of the October 1944 ‘betrayal’, Contemporary British History 12, no.33 (Jun 2008): 41–61.https://doi.org/10.1080/13619469808581488MARK A. STOLER A Half Century of Conflict: Interpretations of U.S. World War II Diplomacy, Diplomatic History 18, no.33 (Jul 1994): 375–403.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7709.1994.tb00219.xDavid Reynolds The ‘Big Three’ and the division of Europe, 1945–48: An overview, Diplomacy & Statecraft 1, no.22 (Jul 1990): 111–136.https://doi.org/10.1080/09592299008405788

Winter Biogeography of North American Fringillidae (Aves): A Numerical Analysis

Bock, C. E., J. B. Mitton, and L. W. Lepthien (Department of Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309). Winter biogeography of North American Fringillidae (Aves): a numerical analysis. Syst. Zool. 27:411-420.-Winter distribution and abundance patterns were generated for 65 species of fringillid songbirds, using results of 2,732 Christmas bird counts grouped into 59 latitude-longitude blocks. Similarity coefficients were computed among the blocks, based upon the species occurring in each block and their abundances. Similarity matrices were subjected to cluster and principal components analyses. Results showed four major biogeographic regions: the north, mid-latitudes (with some east-west separations), the southeast, and the southwest. With analyses of abundance, areas of high similarity were those in which the same fringillids were the commonest species in the blocks; in more traditional analyses of presence-absence data, similar areas were those which shared large numbers of species regardless of their relative abundances. Because of these differences, abundance data showed the northern and southeastern regions as larger and more distinctive, while presence-absence data emphasized the extent and patchiness of the southwestern region. Eastern and western latitude-longitude blocks were regularly and increasingly dissimilar with decreasing latitude, a result best shown by principal components analysis of abundance data. This east-west division occurred along the 100th meridian, and the southernmost block along this boundary (southern Texas) had a highly distinctive winter fringillid avifauna. [Biogeography; Fringillidae; cluster analysis; principal components; winter; abundance patterns.] This study describes avian biogeographic regions of North America, as revealed by winter distribution and abundance patterns of birds in the family Fringillidae. We selected this group for two reasons. First, it is a diverse family, well represented in virtually every terrestrial habitat (e.g., Shugart and Patten, 1972). Second, there is ecological and morphological evidence suggesting that the winter season is critical for these birds (Fretwell, 1968, 1969), so that their winter habitat preferences would be finely tuned by strong selection pressures. While breeding ranges of birds have been used most frequently in studies of avian biogeography (e.g., Udvardy, 1963), there is no reason to ignore winter patterns a priori. Indeed, it is only in a highly mobile group such as birds that we can hope to factor out the influences of winter versus summer seasons upon the biogeographies of species or groups of species. North American patterns of avian species diversity are more striking in winter than they are in summer (Bock and Lepthien, 1975). This appears to be a reflection of steep environmental gradients that characteristically are found during the winter season (Bock and Lepthien, 1974; Tramer, 1974a, 1974b). These gradients should have an equally strong influence on the location and distinctness of the biogeographic regions we have attempted to describe. We have analyzed data extracted from the results of Audubon Society Christmas bird counts (see Methods). Count results were grouped into 59 blocks of latitude and longitude (Fig. 1). These blocks then served as operational taxonomic units (OTUs; Sneath and Sokal, 1973) for cluster and principal components analysis. Some biogeographers have used cluster analysis to define regions or provinces in North America (Hagmeier and Stults, 1964; Hagmeier, 1966; Kaiser et al., 1972), while other workers have preferred principal components analysis or factor analysis (e.g., Fisher, 1968; Thaler and Plowright, 1973; Stevenson et al., 1974; Schnell et al., 1977). Regardless of

The prehistorical, implications of Guthrie's comparative Bantu Part I: Problems of internal relationship

After a brief survey of the organization of Guthrie's Comparative Bantu, consideration is devoted to the putative prehistorical interrelationships of the Bantu languages, in the light of Guthrie's and subsequent scholarship. The intended ‘introductory’ nature of Guthrie's work is stressed, his comprehensive survey covering only 28 Test Languages (among over 350). Recent criticisms of and divergences from Guthrie's prehistorical conclusions are considered, together with the inadequacy of the ‘genealogical tree’ approach. The apparent contradiction of Guthrie by Henrici and Heine in particular is shown to be less substantial than at first appears: maps based on the work of all three confirm the remoter relationship of NW. Bantu to the remainder, and also a basic East-West division (but with Luba and Bemba occupying an intermediate position). It seems probable that some NW. languages are to be traced directly to a proto-language in the Cameroun area, rather than to Guthrie's Katangan nucleus, but this means only that Guthrie cast his net too wide, not that his whole thesis is false. It is recommended that the use of the term ‘Proto-Bantu’ be clarified by use of the term ‘Proto-Bantu 1’ for an original NW. nucleus, ‘Proto-Bantu 2’ for a secondary nucleus S. of the Congo forest, and ‘Proto-Bantu 3’ for a tertiary (and overlapping) nucleus to the east of 2. An amended version of Guthrie's sequence of Bantu linguistic expansion is proposed, although attention is drawn to the hazards of necessarily basing this on the evidence of modern Bantu languages only. Henrici's statistical treatment of Guthrie's data assists in distinguishing temporal from spatial distance among the Test Languages.