Main Benefactor Research Articles

TSIVILSK TIKHVIN BOGORODITSKY MONASTERY DURING THE TRANSFORMATION PERIOD OF THE 1860s – 1870s

Studying the history of churches and monasteries in modern conditions is of scientific and practical interest. The purpose of the study is to examine the history of transformation of the Tsivilsk Tikhvin Monastery into a women’s monastery against the background of bourgeois modernization of the Russian society, intensification of the policy and practice of Orthodox missionary work, to show the contribution of spiritual and secular persons to the revival of monastic life in Tsivilsk monastery and to assess its religious and social significance in establishing Orthodoxy among the population of Chuvashia. Materials and methods. The article is based on the analysis of literary and documentary materials. The main sources of the work were archival documents, publications of periodicals, materials of the website of the Chuvash metropolis. Theoretical generalizations and conclusions are made using the chronological, institutional and cultural-anthropological approaches. Study results. Tsivilsk Bogoroditsky Tikhvin Monastery of the Chuvash Metropolis is one of the oldest in the Middle Volga region. It was founded by Tsivilsk inhabitants in memory of the town’s miraculous deliverance in 1671 by the God’s Mother’s intercession from the devastation by S.T. Razin’s detachments. Tsivilsk monastery has gone through different times: it was on the verge of closure more than once, and was abolished during the Soviet period. In this study, based on the study of special literature and a set of sources, the author examined one of the most difficult periods in the history of the monastery. At the end of the 1860s, the monastery’s economy turned out to be in a critical condition. Neither the monastery nor the municipal authorities had the financial means and material resources to restore it. The brethren were small in number, they did not see any prospects for the change for the better, so violations to the rules of monastic life took place among them. The diocesan leadership in the person of Archbishop Anthony of Kazan (Ya.G. Amphiteatrov), having visited the monastery in 1869, made a proposal to the consistory to close it. However, in the conditions of bourgeois reforms and intensification of missionary and educational activities, closure of the monastery in the uyezd, where predominantly the Chuvash population lived, could have negative consequences for Orthodoxy establishment. At the same time, the residents of Tsivilsk and many neighboring villages did not want to lose the monastery, which had not only religious, but also symbolic significance. These circumstances, in the author’s opinion, forced to look for other solutions to its fate. The idea of converting a male monastery into a female one turned out to be promising. The events of the monastery economy’s revival are described in detail, the role of the abbess Kheruvima, the main benefactor V.N. Nikitin is shown, the progress of construction and repair works is covered, the celebrations in honor of the renovated monastery consecration are described in detail, its characteristics at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries are given. Conclusions. One of the ancient centers of Orthodoxy in the territory of Chuvashia, Tsivilsk Bogoroditsky Tikhvin Monastery became a women’s monastery as a result of transformations in 1871–1872. Preservation of the historical monastery became possible thanks to the support of the diocesan leadership, the presence of benefactors, a positive attitude of Tsivilsk residents, as well as believers of Tsivilsk and neighboring uyezds. As a result of the renovation, Tsivilsk Tikhvin Convent turned into a center of missionary educational activities in the Chuvash Region. The modern restoration of the monastery became possible due to preservation of the monastery complex, built mainly in the historical period under consideration.

Structure and Functioning of Urban Local Bodies in Infrastructure and its Challenges

India's society is now characterised by widespread urbanisation. Millions of people are moving to cities in search of employment because cities are the main benefactors of globalisation and are growing in population. This shows that Indian cities must act as the engine for the country's economy's structural change. Infrastructure has to be improved and upgraded, which necessitates active cooperation from both the state and federal governments. The 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution, which aim to establish an institutional framework for bringing about grass- roots democracy through the use of genuinely self-governing local bodies in both urban and rural areas of the nation, provide a clear mandate for democratic decentralisation in addition to the directive principle of state policy. The subjects covered in this research study include various urban local bodies, their relevance, their organisation, their tasks and responsibilities, and their problems and difficulties. Urban Local Bodies must deal with issues such financial scarcity, unplanned urbanisation, excessive state government control, and the proliferation of agencies, Low level of People’s Participation in socio-economic development. And how can the financial independence of urban local governments be increased? By incorporating technology, e-governance, financial instruments like municipal bonds, ensuring active citizen participation, and improving grievance redressal mechanisms. Keywords—urban local bodies, municipal corporation, municipal council, municipal bonds

The Romanian Orthodox Church between the Alliance for the Union of Romanians and the Putinist Temptation: Ultranationalist Propaganda Among Orthodox Clergymen and the Russian War Agaianst Ukraine

The present essay details the intricate relationship between the Romanian Orthodox hierarchy and the conflict in Ukraine on various levels (philanthropic, social, ecclesiological, political). While most of the Orthodox bishops in Romania continue to voice their concern about the war, few condemn the complicity of the Russian Orthodox Church in endorsing the military involvement of Russia in Ukraine. Another factor that contributed to the moral anaesthesia of the Orthodox bishops has to do with the silent political preference for the pro-Russian, ultranationalist Alliance of the Union of Romanians party (AUR). While the Romanian Patriarchate condemned vehemently the political instrumentalization of Orthodoxy, against the official position of the hierarchy, a part of the regular and monastic clergy still nurtures admiration for Vladimir Putin, seen as the main benefactor of the Orthodox Church worldwide and his pro-Christian policies.

The Macroeconomic Impact of the 1918–19 Influenza Pandemic in Sweden

Abstract In this paper, we develop an overlapping generations model with endogenous fertility and calibrate it to the Swedish historical data in order to estimate the economic cost of the 1918–19 influenza pandemic. The model identifies survivors from younger cohorts as main benefactors of the windfall bequests following the influenza mortality shock. We also show that the general equilibrium effects of the pandemic reveal themselves over the wage channel rather than the interest rate, fertility or labor supply channels. Finally, we demonstrate that the influenza mortality shock becomes persistent, driving the aggregate variables to lower steady states which costs the economy 1.819% of the output loss over the next century.

Trust-aware process design: the case of GoFood

PurposeTrust is an increasingly important requirement for any business and as a result has become a contemporary design criterion for business processes. However, the literature to date is very much focused on the technical (security) aspects, which are provider centric, as opposed to trust that is customer centric. In this paper, the authors extended an initial meta-model of trust-aware process design by proposing a way to capture trust-intensity for four trust dimensions, i.e. input, people, process and output and an organizational trust position. The authors also investigate the deployment of the extended meta-model in practice.Design/methodology/approachAn extensive literature study is conducted to derive an understanding of the dimension's customer trust when interacting with an organization. Based on the findings of the literature review and a previously developed trust meta-model, the authors propose a way to describe an organizational trust position, i.e. the depiction of how much uncertainty is prevalent in the trust dimensions. Next, the authors conducted an exploratory case study using secondary data to validate the extended meta-model.FindingsThe case study demonstrated the applicability of the extended trust meta-model and derived actionable practices. In this case, the Indonesian food delivery company GoFood, the authors identified trust concerns in the input, process, resources and output of their business at the start of their operations. Since then, GoFood took specific actions to reduce their operational, behavioral and perceived uncertainty and these identified trust concerns. To a lesser degree, GoFood has managed vulnerability issues and invested in measures to increase customers' confidence. As a result of reduced uncertainties, GoFood's business has grown and became the number one in food service delivery in Indonesia.Research limitations/implicationsThe approach to capture trust (in the trust dimensions) is still a simplified version and a pre-step for a fully developed management tool or method. The use of a secondary data from a single case study also limits the validity and generalizability of the findings.Practical implicationsThe extended meta-model proposed in this paper has several implications related to the organization's BPM capabilities. The result also demonstrates how trust measures related to reducing uncertainty, reducing vulnerability and increasing confidence can be applied in practice. Strategies used by the case company presented here such as rating systems to increase confidence can be used by other firms within a similar context.Social implicationsHaving an empirically validated framework for the management of trust, allows organizations to execute an operational model for the development of trusted engagement with the main benefactor being the customer.Originality/valuePrevious trust-related studies focused on conceptual ideas only, relied on fictive examples or were very much focused on the technical (security) aspects of business processes. This study is the first empirical validation of a trust meta-model that serves managers to understand their trust position and to guide trust-building actions.

Life of Russian Orthodox Clergy in the United States at the End of the 19th Century (Reflected in the correspondence of the Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod Konstantin Pobedonostsev)

Using little-known correspondence of the Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod Konstantin Pobedonostsev with the bishop Nickolay (Ziorov) — head of Russian Orthodox Church in the United States in 1892–1898 — the article explores the everyday life of Russian clergy in America. This correspondence is deposited at the Russian State Historical Archive in St. Petersburg and has not been published or studied before. The author analyzes Pobedonostsev’s role in the diocese affairs. This examination is new both in the Church’s history and recently published literature on Pobedonostsev. Yet the Ober-Procurator’s supervision was of utmost importance for the Russian mission in the United States, faced with the crucial challenge of adapting itself to the alien cultural environment. Pobedonostsev was well informed about the situation with the Russian mission, helped to solve many personnel, financial and organizational problems, was a chief promoter of its interests before the Russian imperial government — Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Finance, the State Council, and the Tzar’s court. Pobedonostsev also stayed in touch with the US diplomatic mission in Russia and Russian diplomats in the United States. He was very close with bishop Nickolay who regarded the Ober-Procurator as his main benefactor and constantly turned to him for advice and assistance. Pobedonostsev strongly supported the bishop’s reforms of missionary activities in education, parish life, and propagation of Orthodoxy, as well as his efforts to defend the Russian Orthodox mission’s interests before American authorities. No wonder their extensive correspondence richly reflected the diocese’s life with all its problems and needs. The article highlights their close cooperation in recruiting qualified clergymen for American service, which was the key task for the mission that suffered from a shortage of reliable professional personnel. Pobedonostsev-Nickolay cooperation greatly contributed to the diocese progress, which later reached its peak under Nickolay’s successor bishop Tikhon (Bellavin). Their correspondence sheds new light on the personalities of both men united by their fervent devotion to the Orthodox Church and highly conservative views. It also presents a revealing case study of the interaction between Russian ecclesiastic and state authorities as well as their perception of American culture. The author’s main methodological approach consisted in text analysis of the archival documents juxtaposed against the context of Russian-American relations and the realities of American life.

Is the self-read water meter a pro-poor innovation? Evidence from a low-income settlement in Nairobi

This study investigates the Jisomee Mita, an innovation based on ICT-powered metering at property level aimed at increasing access to piped water and sewerage in low-income areas in Nairobi, Kenya. We present empirical findings from field investigations and actor interviews, which are analysed using a novel framework drawing on studies of business models, sustainability transition, and the history of technology. We explore the critical interface between utility infrastructure and potential customers as a locus of innovation. We find that the property owners are the main benefactors of self-read meters, while low-income end-users still depend on over-priced and unsafe water. The Jisomee Mita thus cannot be called a pro-poor innovation in its current implementation and context.

Power in the Council of the EU: organizing theory, a new index, and Brexit

We aim to estimate the power distribution in the Council of the European Union—both a priori and a posteriori. With respect to the latter, our analysis suggests that several previously used indices are ill-suited for this application. By introducing minimal modifications, we propose a new index and compare it with previous constructions in a unified framework. Empirically, we find that that all countries gain a priori voting power in the Council as a result of Brexit. We rely on data from the Chapel Hill Expert survey to compute a posteriori power and find that it is more unequally distributed than a priori power. Specifically, a posteriori power is almost exclusively held by relatively few rather populous states (yet not the United Kingdom). As regards Brexit, France appears as the main benefactor in terms of gaining a posteriori power; Poland loses substantive power in several areas but remains one of the most powerful EU member states.

A Posteriori Power Indices: Organizing Theory, a New Index, and Brexit

We propose a simple new a posteriori power index and apply it to the Council of the European Union as a case in point. Our index is developed within a framework that allows for a systematization and generalization of several existing a posteriori voting power indices as well as a transparent and intuitive connection with standard a priori power indices. Critically, our analysis reveals various conceptual difficulties of existing approaches to which our own index can be seen as a minimal remedy. Empirical results are based on data from the Chapel Hill Expert survey and indicate that a posteriori power in the Council is more unequally distributed than a priori power. More precisely, it is almost exclusively held by relatively few rather populous states, predominantly by France, Germany and Poland. The United Kingdom, by contrast, is usually found to be significantly less powerful. As regards Brexit, France appears as the main benefactor in terms of gaining a posteriori power; Poland loses substantive power in several areas but remains one of the most powerful EU member states.

Just-In-Time Compilation of NumPy Vector Operations

AbstractIn this paper, we introduce JIT compilation for the high-productivity framework Python/NumPy in order to boost the performance significantly. The JIT compilation of Python/NumPy is completely transparent to the user – the runtime system will automatically JIT compile and execute the NumPy instructions encountered in a Python application. In other words, we introduce a framework that provides the high-productivity from Python while maintaining the high-performance of a low-level, compiled language.We transforms NumPy vector instruction into an Abstract Syntax Tree representation that creates the basis for further optimizations. From the AST we auto-generate C code which we compile into computational kernels and execute. These incorporate temporary array removal and loop-fusion which are main benefactors in the achieved speedups. In order to amortize the overhead of creation, we also implement a cache for the compiled kernels.We evaluate the JIT compilation by executing several scientific computing benchmarks on an AMD. Compared to NumPy, we achieve speedups of a factor 4.72 for a N-Body application and 7.51 for a Jacobi Stencil application executing on a single CPU core.

The high and low globalisation of The frail Africa and the Brawny West: A rhapsody of the fantasy

The glowing ambers of globalisation have helped hitherto protected economies to benefit from improved product qualities at far lower prices, as a result of foreign competition. Essentially, the technological and spillover effects of improved production processes have led to better quality products, national economic growth and better labour remuneration across the world. The drivers of globalisation, essentially technological innovation has helped to reduce poverty and the effects of its antecedents throughout the world. Evidence suggests that there has been an improvement in the level and prevalence of poverty throughout the world as a result of global integration of economies and interdependence of nations that globalisation galvanises. However, the benefits of globalisation have been observed to be lopsided. While the West have benefited substantially from globalisation, the less developed countries, which were purportedly identified as the main benefactors, have been deprived of the proceeds of this process. This article highlights the controversy that surrounds globalisation as a concept and ideology, drawing special lessons from the practical impacts and effects of globalisation on the diverse global regions (both in the developed and third-world countries). The article demonstrates that while globalisation has facilitated the current unsurpassed global prosperity and wealth creation; the process has also been criticised (inter alia) for the lopsidedness of global trade benefits, the prejudice of global institutions against the world’s poor, and its socio-political implications on national sovereignty and citizens in the developing world (especially Africa). Key words: Globalization, economic growth, capital flow, information and communications technology (ICT), Africa.

Franciscans and Medieval Serbia: Evidence of Art

Sporadic presence of the Franciscans in medieval Serbia was due to the latter’s strict Orthodox Orientation. However, during the 13th C. their activity has been significant as their main benefactor was the Serbian queen Helen, herself of the Western origin. The sources provide various data on her restoring Roman Catholic monasteries in the Littoral, and she built her own foundation, the monastery Gradac, in Gothic style. The friars assisted royalty to combat heretics. In the 14th C. contacts would lessen although the chief architect of Decani was Vita, the Franciscan friar again. In the 15th C. with the Ottoman advance, the religious strife between the Orthodox Christians on one side and the Roman Catholic Christians on the other unfortunately became more serious which may have resulted in extreme visual propaganda as argued by an enigmatic fresco in the monastery Josanica. On the other hand, there were other, more interesting examples with mixed Eastern and Western elements as in the Virgin’s church in M...

Income, Wealth, and Political Power in North Korea

IntroductionThe joint determination of the distribution of income, wealth, and political power is a phenomenon that can be observed across countries and economic sys- tems; however, it is far from being the same in every economic system. In a market economy and democracy, access to the political process might be enhanced by wealth, but citizenship is not defined by wealth and income. The greater the political influence on economic institutions and economic outcomes, the greater will also be the likelihood that income and wealth are positively correlated to political power. North Korea is a prime example of this relation. Almost nowhere else in the world have economic processes been so thoroughly politicized and dominated by political aims, which led to a widespread famine from the mid-1990s onward. However, North Korea offers interesting insights through its experiences with economic reform due to the breakdown of central planning, which took place in the 1990s. The reform process has neither been gradual, nor has it taken the form of shock therapy, but it has been rather uneven and experimental, with survival of the regime at the top of the agenda. The distributional consequences have been tremendous. The politically influenced distribution of wealth and income has sometimes been challenged and sometimes enhanced by the spontaneous structures emerging alongside the official economy. In absolute terms, hyperinflation and famine make North Korea one of the poorest countries in the world, which leads to huge differences in wealth and income between those having access to foreign currency and those depending on the state for distribution of food.Nevertheless, while North Korea has experienced a strong reduction in its state capacity, basic state functions have remained intact and, recently, the state has seemed to regain some of its economic and political control. Paradoxically, despite its reputation as an alleged rogue state, foreign aid from the international community, particularly from China and South Korea, plays an important role in that stabilization process. In addition to humanitarian considerations, fear of nuclear weapons and potential military tactics are a driving factor for this aid. One of the main benefactors from South Korea has also pointed out that fear of the possible need for a German-style absorption of North Korea and its associated costs is a compelling element in foreign aid. At the culmination of the aid flows, the United Nations World Food Program was feeding approximately 7 million North Koreans, or one third of the population of the country. Therefore, North Korea is also an interesting case for discussion of the distributional consequences of large foreign aid flows and their connection to political institutions. Given the military threat by North Korea, aid has been quite closely and often critically observed.By the end of 2005, North Korea had ended most humanitarian activities because it was concerned about the enhanced flow of information in and out of the country through aid workers and their monitoring activities. Free flows of information have been considered a threat to the regime ever since they caused Eastern Europe- particularly East Germany and Romania-to collapse in the late 1980s. However, the statistical blackout (Eberstadt, 2000) of North Korea began long before that. It is one of the great ironies of history that the original economic system envisaged by North Korea, the centrally planned economy, is the system with the highest possible degree of centralization of information, but at the same time requires a high degree of data dissemination for planning purposes. In the 1960s, as South Korea, the arch enemy, began to show higher growth rates, North Korea stopped all data dissemination.In addition to the consequences for economic policy-making and foreign aid planning, this also calls into question the ability to discuss the relations between income, wealth, and political power in North Korea in a meaningful way. …

MISSIONARY BENEFACTOR AND STRANGE BEDFELLOW

Very little is known about Isaac Hollis, the eighteenth-century English Baptist who was the main benefactor of the Stockbridge Mission in Massachusetts where Jonathan Edwards was a missionary for the last eight years of his life. However, a study of contemporary journals, wills and other documents provides interesting facts about Hollis, not least his involvement in the exotic activities of the French Prophets. There is uncertainty as to whether he was a minister (as his American correspondents assume) or a layman (as indicated by English references.) A recent discovery sheds new light on this.

Tyrwhitt of Kettleby, Part II: Robert Tyrwhitt, A Main Benefactor of Fr John Gerard SJ, 1600–1605

Our earlier article discussed the family of Sir Robert Tyrwhitt (d. 1581) of Kettleby in Lincolnshire and the imprisonment of Sir Robert and several of his sons by the Privy Council in June 1580. The Council was acting on a report of Catholic activities associated with the wedding of Edmund, Lord Sheffield and Ursula Tyrwhitt at the Tyrwhitt family homes of Kettleby and Twigmore. Sir Robert’s son Goddard died in a London gaol, and Goddard’s elder brothers William and Robert were imprisoned for years in the Tower and elsewhere. We turn now to the next generation of the same family, and show that Sir Robert’s grandson and heir, Robert Tyrwhitt, became a strong supporter of John Gerard SJ and the Jesuits in England during the years c.1600 to early 1606. Fr Gerard’s autobiography strains to make this clear, within the necessary limits of discretion. But just as the identity of the Tyrwhitt martyr of 1580 was soon totally lost to view, so Gerard’s identification of ‘one of my main benefactors’ as a Tyrwhitt has remained undecoded—hidden, indeed, by loose translation, and inattention to the different ways one can be a ‘brother in law’.

Investigating students' approval of a geometrical approach to differential equations and their solutions

The advancement of computer graphics in the past decade has contributed to an enormous change in the way mathematics is taught at the college level. Although Calculus has been the main benefactor of this advancement, the topic of ordinary differential equations has undergone fundamental changes in its curriculum in favour of the visual and numerical aspects of the course. This paper investigates students' acceptance of solving a differential equation geometrically. The setting is an introductory course on ordinary differential equations offered to engineering students, in which a reformed approach was adopted. Data were gathered from exams, and interviews were conducted with six students who volunteered to take part in the study. Results show that students initially showed reluctance to accept this geometric approach, but many of them eventually accepted it, appreciated its usefulness, and wished that other math courses be offered in a similar way.

Female Troubles and Troubled Men in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century France

Book Reviews Female Troubles and Troubled Men in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century France Lindsay Wilson. Women and Medicine in the French Enlightenment: The Debate over Maladies des Femmes. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. 246 pp. ISBN 0-8018-4438-x; $38.50 (d). Rachel G. Fuchs. Poor and Pregnant in Paris: Strategies for Survival in the Nineteenth Century. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1992. 405 pp.; ill. ISBN 0-8135-1779-6 (cl); 0-8135-1780-x (pb); $45.00 (cl); $18.00 (pb). Barbara Conrado Pope In the 1960s and '70s Michel Foucault and Jacques Donzelot wrote powerful accounts of how helping professionals in France defined, pohced, and disciplined the poor, the sick, and the deviant.1 They reversed the old story, in which medicine, social work, and psychiatry evolved to the greater good of aU, and showed instead how the main benefactors of this alleged progress were the helpers themselves who gained the power to set the rules and inscribe specific fields of action, be they hospitals, asylums, prisons, or poor neighborhoods and local social agencies. Lindsay Wilson's Women and Medicine in the French Enlightenment and Rachel Fuchs's Poor and Pregnant in Paris revisit the same geographical and analytical territory. But their accounts are much more complex, in part because they excel where Donzelot and Foucault were at their weakest, in their analysis of gender and the roles that women played both as agents and subjects of the helping professions. Maladies des femmes are the diseases connected to women's reproductive cycles and sexual organs. Wilson's book focuses on three major controversies surrounding these maladies in the eighteenth century. Throughout the book, Wilson is careful to integrate the work of female commentators, demonstrating how important women—as salonieres, journalists, and pamphleteers—were to the formation of what she calls "public opinion." But the book's real subject is not women or female agency. It is the medical profession and the Enlightenment, which Wilson avers were more complex than some Foucaultian or feminist scholars might think. The first controversy concerned the pubhc clamor caused by the claims of miraculous healings at the St. Médard cemetery in Paris, where © 1994 Journal of Women's History, Vol 6 No. 3 (Fall) 1994 BOOK REVIEW: BARBARA CORRADO POPE 127 a certain Jansenist deacon, François de Paris, came to rest in 1727. Those who visited his grave were largely lower class and held radical communitarian and egalitarian beliefs. Since the healings were accompanied by cries, moans, and quaking, their beneficiaries became known as the Convulsionarles . One of the threads that Wilson weaves through her narrative is the theme of secularization. It is notable that the government called in doctors, not priests, to investigate. But it is not at all surprising that these learned men were motivated as much by the desire to queU pubhc disorder as by the search for physical proofs. Indeed, Philippe Hecquet, a doctor who wrote five books on the subject, did not even feel it necessary to examine any of the miraculés. He had God and science on his side. Later, although order and morality continued to inform medical opinion, rehgious orthodoxy would not. Because women were so prominent among the Convulsionarles, Hecquet and others had httle trouble proving that the so-called miracles were only a "natural" result of the female tendency to hysteria. Yet the doctors condemned women, despite their aUeged physical frailties, for willfully surrendering themselves to erotic and disorderly impulses. Thus the controversy became the vehicle by which the traditional link between women, disorder, and reUgious fanaticism was reinforced and brought into the enlightened age. The core of Wilson's book is devoted to an analysis of a series of court decisions on 'late births." On the face of it, this is the least dramatic of the three controversies: the cases were sprinkled throughout the century, and they affected only the individual families involved in the suits. Yet it is this controversy that is most central to Wilson's thesis that there was no single tendency that defined Enlightenment medicine. Governments and ruling class men would have liked a once-and-forall definition of "late...

At the Creation of a New Germany: From Adenauer to Brandt—An Ambassador's Account (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 183 main benefactors— the Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia —suffering problems of their own, it has become increasingly difficult for the regime to reward its loyalists with the spoils of executive privilege. However, Asad remains, as Seale effectively demonstrates, one of the most important figures in the Middle East today. Seale's biography conveys to international policymakers a better understanding of Asad's background and future plans. Most importantly, Seale explores the reasons behind Asad's actions and policies. Despite its forbidding length and sometimes difficult style, Seale's book is worthwhile for its valuable insights into the mind of one of the region's most formidable leaders, and as a guide through the labyrinth of Middle Eastern politics. At the Creation of a New Germany: From Adenauer to Brandt—An Ambassador 's Account. By George McGhee. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. 289 pp. $25.00/cloth. Reviewed by Michael Lenz, M.A. Candidate, SAIS. During his stint in Germany, former U.S. Ambassador George McGhee was actively involved in foreign affairs when historical changes were taking place in German politics and in the country's world status. McGhee has proven to be an able reporter, chronicling for future generations the period from May 1963 to September 1969, years of much change, movement, and turmoil within West German society and the world as a whole. McGhee structures his account along chronological lines, beginning with his first meetings with Konrad Adenauer, at that time still the dominating personality in German politics. His brief insider's account of President John F. Kennedy's historic visit to Berlin includes Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner"speech, one of the most well-known historical documents in Germany. For the younger generation of Germans, this speech epitomizes the Kennedy Image. McGhee relates how Kennedy received a crash course in German at a party the evening before his tribute to the German people. McGhee follows the rapid fall of Adenauer's leadership and the experiences of the Erhard government. As U.S. ambassador, he had ready access to the German leadership and consequently is able to paint a picture of the mosaic of personalities. But he also addresses many of the then-timely issues in American-West European relations, especially the Multilateral Force (MLF) dispute and negotiations of the Limited Test Ban Agreement and the Nonproliferation Treaty. Through McGhee's account, one learns about Germany's resistance behind the scenes. The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) wanted assurances that the Nonproliferation Treaty would not hinder creation of the MLF. In addition, trade issues played an important role in world affairs, and McGhee presents perspectives on the delicate triangle relationship between France, West Germany, and the United States. With the mid-1960s came Johnson's demands for stronger West German support of the American effort in Vietnam. In the context of a fledgling student 184 SAIS REVIEW movement, these demands sparked domestic protests against German government policies supportive of U.S. interests. McGhee reports that his frequent speeches at German universities became more and more difficult to deliver. But McGhee adapted well to the changing conditions; at one point, he writes, "I avoided trouble at the Free University of Berlin by speaking on an apolitical subject." Of course, this attitude does little to express official American points of view to the German people. McGhee does not comment on the formation of opposition movements outside the government. The coalidon formed by major German political parties left little room for effective opposition within the Parliament. With the advent of these domestic movements within Germany's political system came a revamping of obsolete and antiquated foreign policy concepts, and West Germany tried to come to terms with its eastern neighbors. When McGhee first came to Germany, the Hallstein doctrine was still official politics , meaning that the FRG would break relations with any state that recognized East Germany. The next few years saw the dismantling of this doctrine. McGhee observed the cautious steps toward establishing relations with East European countries, and gives insights on the U.S. perspective during the transition period to the Grand Coalition and the first signs of a Social Democratic Coalition . Frequently, German politicians...