National Self-determination Research Articles

Moscow Treaty of the USSR-Germany and «Letter on German Unity». From Conflict to Compromise

The article considers the course and results of the Soviet-West German negotiations that led to the conclusion of the Moscow Treaty of August 12, 1970, which became an important factor in defusing international tensions on the European continent. Special attention is paid to the problem of the genesis of the so-called "Letter on German unity", the adoption of which the Soviet side stubbornly insisted on the representatives of Germany. The article reveals the flexible tactics of the Soviet delegation, which was headed by the Minister of foreign Affairs of the USSR AA. Gromyko: taking into account, in particular, the position of the GDR, the diplomats opposed the inclusion in the text of the Treaty of any provisions relating to the unification of Germany, but left open the prospect of such unification in the future. Some realism and willingness to compromise showed and West German negotiators, among whom special credit belongs to the personal emissary of Chancellor Brandt E. Bahr. On the basis of these compromises, a common position of the parties on the conclusion and subsequent ratification of the Moscow Treaty was worked out. The article pays due attention to the "US factor" in Soviet-West German relations. Formally declaring a positive attitude to the" new Eastern policy " of Germany, in fact the American side tried to compromise it in every possible way and complicate the process of preparing the Moscow Treaty. There is also some inconsistency in the German diplomacy in departing from previous political dogmas, primarily from the claims to the sole representation of all Germans. The main conclusion of the article is that as a result of the complex and sometimes conflicting Soviet-West German negotiation process, its participants managed to overcome the real contradiction between the principle of inviolability of borders and the right to national self-determination. In the current international situation, when this contradiction is artificially aggravated by the supporters of confrontation, the experience gained in the development and coordination of the provisions of the Moscow Treaty is of actual practical importance. The work is written on the basis of previously not entered into scientific circulation of primary sources from the Archive of foreign policy of the Russian Federation, as well as published West German documents.The author declares absence of conflict of interests.

What Do the Palestinians Want?

Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 43, No.3, Spring 2020 What Do the Palestinians Want? Sam Bahour* Palestinians’ Strategic Choice Palestinians today, as represented by their political agency ever since the 16th session of the Palestinian National Congress in Algiers in November 1988 and their subsequent issuance of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, have two very straight forward demands: 1. Full rights between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, including the right for Palestinian refugees to return to their homes; 2. Statehood in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip; post-November 29, 2012, one could claim Palestine has already been codified in the international system of governance and now only requires the extraction of the Israeli military occupation from its lands. If one defines the second point as the Palestinian right to self-determination , then it may be lumped into the first point and, all together, the issue of rights, full rights, is the Palestinian single demand. To some unfamiliar with Palestinian history, this may seem like a lot, however, it is merely a portion of what was taken from them by force over the last seven decades. It is noteworthy to mention that the majority of the world’s peoples and the majority of the world’s countries stand with the Palestinians here; it is the global superpower, the United States, which stands in the way of the achievement of these goals. In the meantime, while the Palestinian struggle remains, Palestinians want to be treated as equal human beings wherever they reside, from the refugee camps in South Lebanon to the refugee camps in South Gaza, and everywhere in between, near and far. Collectively, these demands are the Palestinians’ strategic choice. It is a politically inspired choice, one that was developed on the heels of decades 26 *Sam Bahour serves as a policy adviser to Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network and does business consulting in Palestine as Applied Information Management (AIM). He is chair of the board of Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (AVPE) and co-editor of HOMELAND: Oral History of Palestine and Palestinians. He writes frequently on Palestinian affairs and blogs at www.epalestine.com. @SamBahour 27 of emotional reactions to the events imposed upon them. This strategic choice is not etched in stone, it is a product of a distinct Palestinian political system. No one can guarantee that this choice will not be modified or changed if deemed unachievable for any reason. A rights-based approach is the most conducive one to the current Palestinian national agenda and a political end-game cannot be openended . Moreover, the struggle for national self-determination cannot come at the expense of the struggle for rights—and vice versa. These two processes are simultaneous dynamics: one process focuses on the rights of the individual (political, human, and civil), while the second focuses on the rights of the nation (national rights, specifically self-determination). The mutuality of these processes—rights and politics—are two asynchronous and inseparable tracks. One’s personal conviction of what political path the Palestinian leadership should have taken throughout its history is immaterial for this analysis. Until and unless today’s Palestinian political system can reconstitute itself and declare an alternative strategy, it is imperative upon anyone engaged in the imperfect world of realpolitik to accept the current Palestinian political agency’s strategic choice and act accordingly. This current strategic choice of establishing a Palestinian state on 22 percent of British-mandated historic Palestine has international legitimacy and has witnessed the majority of the world’s nations recognizing this “New” State of Palestine based on that international legitimacy. It is therefore not an academic choice, but rather the result of already spent Palestinian political capital that has resulted in a matter of law. Thus, the current polarized discourse about the choice between a onestate solution or a two-state solution is a red herring that has, not innocently, been adopted by the highest level of the powers-to-be at a time when Palestine is systematically being codified and recognized in the international sphere. Simultaneously, the rights of Palestinians cannot remain at the mercy of the need to...

Османская империя и кемалистская Турция: проблема преемственности и национального строительства

The confessional homogeneity (90% of the population were Muslims) was characteristic for the Republic of Turkey at the moment of its appearance, while the ethnic diversity of the population was extreme. The creation of a single nation, the establishment of the institution of citizenship and instilling a sense of patriotism was one of the two goals of the Kemalists. Their other goal was to make Turkish society modern and civilized. Both of these terms refer to modern European civilization, which the Kemalists, being radical Westerners, regarded as the only viable. These goals could be achieved only by educating the masses, requiring compulsory secularization of people's consciousness, which resulted in a policy aimed at the abolition of mystical fraternities and the introduction of the Swiss civil code in place of religious law. All this required the reorganization of the state and a number of reforms that completely changed the Ottoman society on the basis of which a new Turkish society was created. These reforms set a definite direction for the development of the Republic of Turkey. Significant changes in society led to a number of problems, many of which have not been resolved until today. At present, issues of national selfdetermination are very acute, not only in the Republic of Turkey itself, but also in its neighbouring regions. The ideas of a number of Western politicians about the identity of each nation and calls for self-determination and separation determine the development of separatist tendencies in the Middle East.

Red, Black, White: The Alabama Communist Party, 1930–1950 by Mary Stanton

Reviewed by: Red, Black, White: The Alabama Communist Party, 1930–1950 by Mary Stanton Meredith L. Roman Red, Black, White: The Alabama Communist Party, 1930–1950. By Mary Stanton. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2019. Pp. xiv, 215. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-8203-5617-4; cloth, $99.95, ISBN 978-0-8203-5616-7.) Mary Stanton has conducted ten years of research to chronicle the twenty-year history of District 17 of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), which was based in Birmingham, Alabama, and tasked with organizing steel workers, miners, and sharecroppers across racial lines in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. Much of Stanton's detailed history focuses on the early 1930s—years that are the focus of sixteen of the study's nineteen chapters—when the Communist Party was consumed with championing workers' rights as well as seeking justice for the victims of massacres, lynching, judicial violence, and other forms of racial terrorism. This CPUSA activism was exemplified in the Scottsboro Boys' case of 1931. Stanton was inspired to write this collective biography of District 17's organizers because of the research she first conducted to mark Scottsboro's eightieth anniversary, which led her to the pages of the CPUSA newspaper the Southern Worker. The impassioned commitment to social justice of the Southern Worker's contributors (many of whom were from New York City) reminded Stanton of her Brooklyn high school newspaper colleagues of African American, Jewish, and Latinx backgrounds, who encouraged her to abandon her self-described "proto-conservative" positions to advocate the causes of the progressive Left (p. 3). Although the monograph's endnotes are minimal, Stanton has consulted an array of primary sources that include newspaper articles, oral history interviews, memoirs, and the archival papers of some of her protagonists, such as James S. Allen, Harry Haywood, and Angelo Herndon. [End Page 746] In this narrative history, Stanton rejects the traditional Cold War historiographical interpretation that casts the CPUSA as a puppet of Moscow. Instead, she draws on the critically important work of historians like Robin D. G. Kelley, Mark Solomon, and Michael Kazin to demonstrate that the party operated as a dynamic organization throughout much of the 1930s, since members creatively adapted the party's internationalist demands to the local prerogatives, interests, and needs of the people whom they served. Indeed, Stanton's work reminds readers that many black southerners expressed indifference toward the Comintern's policy of national self-determination for African Americans in the black belt, which included the right to secede from the United States. Black people found appealing, however, southern communist organizers' dedication to the everyday struggle against racial violence, unemployment, hunger, evictions, and exorbitant utility bills, even as they faced fierce resistance from law enforcement officials, Ku Klux Klan members, local politicians, and industrialists who condemned the communists as a major threat to the southern way of life. To be sure, antiblack racism, anti-Semitism, and anticommunism converged in this story and fueled the various security measures that the white southern establishment employed to thwart real change. Stanton, like many of the aforementioned historians on whose work she draws, insists that black southerners were not mere pawns of the Communist Party but rather that they exploited the organization to advance their own interests. She concludes that, even though the CPUSA was of course not without its many faults, it occupies an important yet underappreciated place in U.S. history, not only because of its on-the-ground efforts to ameliorate the hardships of those who bore the brunt of the Great Depression, but also because of its challenges to mainstream organizations to pay greater attention to workers' rights, social justice, and racial equality. Stanton takes this argument further to contend that organizations like the Congress of Racial Equality and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee that emerged during and after World War II bear the indelible mark of the CPUSA's political, economic, and social activist legacy. Meredith L. Roman The College at Brockport, SUNY Copyright © 2020 The Southern Historical Association

European Choice of Ukraine: Prerequisites, Contents and Main Factors

The proclamation of the Act on State Independence of Ukraine is a significant milestone in the history of the Ukrainian people on their way to national self-determination. A new phase of development has begun since 1991 when institutional factors have become crucial. First of all the creation of the Ukrainian state as a new national-state phenomenon takes place. During the years of independencethe process of Ukrainian state development was accompanied by opposition of political forces, which defended the multidirectional vectors of civilization development.The article deals with the issues of the European choice of Ukraine, as a strategic orientation of the socio-political development of the country, a priority direction of its national-state self-determination. The authors set out to analyze the prerequisites, substantive aspects, major internal and external factors that have influenced Ukraine's choice of a European vector of development.The study is based on the principles of objectivity, dialectics, historicism, social determinism, pluralism. The authors use general scientific methods, including inductive-deductive, analogies, modeling, etc. The comparative method has become an instrument of comparison, and consequently knowledge of the peculiarities of the state-political systems of Ukraine and other countries, which have become the benchmarks in the process of Ukraine's foreign policy self-determination.The article analyzes the attitude of Ukrainian citizens to the foreign policy and foreign economic development vectors of our country. It is revealed that the general rejection of the multilateralismpolicy significantly changed due to the Orange Revolution, when a sharp polarization occurred in society. The denial of the negative practices of V. Yanukovych's regime was manifested in the non-alternative choice of the European vector of Ukraine's development. The period of the presidency of P. Poroshenko has once again proved that only a radical implementation of the political, legal and social norms and standards of the EU will make it possible to overcome the oligarchic traits of the state – political system of Ukraine.Ukraine's European integration aspirations, such as a manifestation of its national-state self-determination, began to gain international legal prominence from the moment when the EU embarked on an enlargement to the East course. Ukraine, as a candidate for membership in a united Europe, has to undergo a series of transformations to adapt to EU norms and standards.However, the European choice as a project of national self-determination was confronted with a number of contradictions and inconsistencies between the mutual expectations of the subjects of this process, which led to the crisis of the whole project and political crises in Ukraine. A number of factors have hindered the implementation of the European integration plan, ranging from the internal instability of Western orientations within the country itself, the unwillingness of European Union members to further enlargement, and the massive opposition from Russia seeking to keep Ukraine in its political orbit.

«DOBRUDJA QUESTION» IN FOREIGN POLICY OF ROMANIA AND POSITION OF THE GREAT BRITAIN EVE OF AND DURING A PERIOD WORK PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE (1918–1919)

In the presented article the author highlights the main direction of its foreign policy Romania on Southern Dobrudja lands at the end of the First World War and the period of the Paris Peace Conference (1918–1919 ). The article highlights the work and the struggle for peace with the Balkan states of Romania and Britain politicians, diplomats and civil society towards preserving peaceful relations in the period of operation of the Paris Peace Conference.The most radical departure from the principle of national self-determination which practiced Foreign-Office came in relation to Romania’s frontier with Bulgaria. The tasks are to characterize the content of the work of the Romanian diplomatic commission in the direction of the defending the rights to South Dobrudja and the determination of the position of Great Britain as for territorial independence of the region. The main thesis of the article is that after First World War Romania sought to large an alliance with t least on of the Great Powers in case of an attack on South Dobrudja, in this sense, Romania’s diplomatic success was only partial. The Romanian government realized that only the permission of the Great Powers, such as Great Britain, would strength its presence in the region.The Great Britain treated ambiguously towards such aspirations of Romania. For the first, Foreign Office was not forgotten for Bucharest the separate peace with the Central Powers in 1918. For the second, Britain diplomatic and military mission at Southern Dobrudja did not take the politics of the terror of Romanian in Bessarabia. The Great Britain provided a summary of the position in Southern Dobrudja: provisional British military occupation is the only possible solution for the moment, in spite of the unrest this causes to the Rumanian Government.From the first of the being in Paris, the Romanian diplomats were sounded actively the question how the Great Britain and France would see the future status of Southern Dobrudja. The Romanian demand for Southern Dobrudja was strongly citing national self-determination and protecting peace in Balkan. Most in the British delegation hoped that this could be agreed.However, the British and French refused absolutely to compel an ally to surrender territory to an enemy. The decision, British politics believed, lay with Romania: such readjustment could only be made after friendly conversations with the Rumanian Government. It is important that the Rumanian politics themselves should be a consenting party to the cession of Southern Dobrudja and that Romanians should not be left with the feeling that they have been robbed by their Allies to placate their enemies.In the Parice Peace Conference Foreign Office took the legalistic view that, because Southern Dobrudja was secured by Romania before the war, its future was beyond the remit of the Peace Conference. The Britain Commission stated in its projects that it was not authorized to recommend a modification of the frontier which would involve the cession to an enemy State of a territory forming de facto et de jure an integral part of an Allied State.The Romanians, angry about losing part of the Banat, never offered to give up Southern Dobrudja. The Americans pushed their view in the Council of Heads of Delegations between July and November, but the British were unyielding. The issue was not even mentioned in the Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria in November. Thus, in the words of a member of the Bulgarian Delegation, the settlement proclaimed the principle that no land can be claimed from the victors. It has been argued here that Bucharest gained territory not because of the wartime treaty that promised her so much, and not because of the dubious diplomatic skills of Romanian delegation, but because the Roma nians had a strong case and it was effectively presented by Romanophiles like Britain delegation. There was one other reason, however, that tended to shine its harsh light on every issue, the simple idea that these people are our friends and those are our enemies. This was stated most starkly and frequently by the French, but it was also evident in the British unwillingness to coerce the Romanians over Southern Dobrudja.The consequence of making a settlement which dealt severely with losers was that they became revisionist and eventually allied themselves with those who would undo the hated treaties. Romania remains much bigger than she was in 1918, but the settlement that created Greater Romania did not survive the vengeance of its enemies.

Introducing the Strategies of Resistance Data Project

This article introduces the Strategies of Resistance Data Project (SRDP), a global dataset on organizational behavior in self-determination disputes. This dataset is actor-focused and spans periods of relative peace and violence in self-determination conflicts. By linking tactics to specific actors in broader campaigns for political change, we can better understand how these struggles unfold over time, and the conditions under which organizations use conventional politics, violent tactics, nonviolent tactics, or some combination of these. SRDP comprises 1,124 organizations participating in movements for greater national self-determination around the world, from 1960 to 2005. Despite the fact that few self-determination movements engage in mass nonviolent campaigns, SRDP shows that more organizations employ nonviolent tactics at some point in time (about 40%) than employ violence (about 30%). Many organizations switch among tactics or use both at the same time. This dataset will allow analysts to examine the use of different combinations of tactics and patterns of change. We compare the data with the most-used dataset on nonviolence, the NAVCO 2.0 Data Project, to demonstrate what we gain by employing an organization-level dataset on tactics. We present a set of descriptive analyses highlighting the utility of the SRDP, including an examination of tactic switching. We show that more organizations change from violence to nonviolence than the reverse – challenging the widely held assumption that organizations ‘resort’ to violence. SRDP allows scholars to examine organizational choices about tactics, and trends in these tactics, with much greater nuance.

Sprachgruppen und die Selbstbestimmung Wilson’scher Prägung

In a perhaps precipitated move President Wilson borrowed from other leaders at war the phrase of the self-determination of nations. Yet, it is his idea of self-determination which proved the most lasting, up to our days, in spite of or thanks to its lack of conceptual precision. In this article, some of the beliefs which Wilson arrived at during his time as a Professor in Princeton, which contributed in 1918 to his vision of a world order based on self-determination, are highlighted. In addition, an attempt is made to investigate the connection between the peculiar nation that a linguistic group is and the Wilsonian self-determination.

The Politics of Exclusion and Localization: The Palestinian Minority in Israel and the Oslo Accords

What impact did the Oslo Accords have on the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel? With no avenue for expressing their views inside Israel, and with no recognition in Oslo, the minority responded by reconceptualizing its politics, campaigning for equal rights as a national indigenous minority. Oslo has led to a dual process: it has accelerated the ‘localization’ of their struggle, focusing on minority rights and justice within Israel—while simultaneously openly supporting the wider Palestinian struggle for national rights and self-determination and a two-state solution. As a reaction to the Oslo Accords, there has also been a ‘localization’ of Arab citizens’ voting patterns in favour of Arab parties, such as the Joint List, rather than the Zionist parties.

National Policy in a Multinational state: Balance of Interests or Hegemony of Powers that Be?

The article is devoted to the basic principles and types of implementation of national policies in multinational states . We give examples from world practice that reveal the problems of the coexistence of various nations in a single political space . In the article, the authors analyse in detail the well-known causes and models of the formation of large multi-ethnic states, in which there is an urgent need for a national policy based on certain principles that directly depend on the strategy of building the leading political institution . The author draws attention to the evolutionary variability of approaches to state-building while maintaining significant features, but adapted to modern realities . The Russian experience of interethnic interaction, national self-determination and attempts to unify cultural, confessional, linguistic identity, suppression of separatist sentiments, the reasons for the appearance of which are particularly highlighted as one of the main categories characterizing the feasibility, relevance, and foresight of the development strategy of national relations, are examined in detail . Legal consolidation of the Concept of state national policy of the Russian Federation stands out as the most democratic event in Modern Russia, aimed at maintaining state integrity, preventing separatist sentiments . We also give the classification of interethnic conflicts on various grounds known in world practice . Finally, we propose a set of measures for the long-term harmonisation of interethnic interaction in the Russian Federation .

Re-producing territory: Between resource nationalism and indigenous self-determination in Bolivia

In 2005, indigenous leader Evo Morales was elected president on a dual promise of nationalising extractive industries to direct resource wealth to the country’s poor and enacting long-held indigenous demands for a plurinational state. Each project has relied on two contrasting and contested understandings and practices of territorial sovereignty, however. On the one hand, resource nationalism has rested on the state’s ability to re-seat and extend national sovereignty over non-renewable natural resources and concomitantly national territory. On the other hand, plurinationalism entails the departure from a liberal multicultural framing of the nation-state toward a model that recognises the territorial self-determination and political autonomy of indigenous nations, including over decisions of extractive development. Resource nationalism has quickly shown its centralising tendencies, as economic concerns have been put before a more radical reorganisation of the modern, colonial model of territorial sovereignty. From an analysis of the territorial geographies articulated by the lowland indigenous movement in the TIPNIS (Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure; Isiboro Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park) conflict over a road project – and the potential for hydrocarbon exploitation this could enable – this paper demonstrates that indigenous protestors constantly sought to de- and re-territorialise political space in their efforts for the decolonisation of the nation-state. This engagement not only highlights some of the tensions between resource nationalism and indigenous self-determination, but also illustrates how territorial visions are fashioned within the changing political conditions of Latin America’s era of the extractive imperative.

Modern Chinese nationalism and the awakening of self-consciousness of the Chinese Nation

The concept of “Chinese nation” has a close relationship with the rise, development and upsurge of modern Chinese nationalism from its proposition to establishment, and to universal identification among people of all ethnic groups. The period of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China was the formation stage of modern Chinese nationalism and also the stage of the proposition and initial usage of the concept of “Chinese nation”: Modern Chinese nationalism developed around the period of the May 4th Movement. Under the impetus of the establishment of national self-determination theory, especially the rise of a national self-determination movement, the concept of “Chinese nation” was accepted and adopted by more and more people and finally established and formed. After the September 18th Incident, especially after the North China Incident and the July 7th Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the worsening national crisis promoted the upsurge of modern Chinese nationalism, and this upsurge made the concept of “Chinese nation” more widely and deeply disseminated and accepted.

National Self Determination and Justice: Rawls and Tagore

Abstract This essay is a study on national self-determination and justice from the differing perspectives of John Rawls and Rabindranath Tagore. Both thinkers have addressed the problem of conflict caused by national loyalties. Influenced by Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of cosmopolitanism, John Rawls articulates the “Law of People(s)” that suggests that mutual consent consists in economic interdependence among nations and tolerance for cultural diversity under monitored conditions of the international relations. Such an arrangement is not inclusive as it excludes the subaltern perspectives and reinforces the hierarchies between East and West. Tagore offers post-colonial versions of nationalism and cosmopolitanism that call for a creative and spiritual unity of nations through cultural exchange where each is equal in dialogue. The essay makes a case for Tagore’s cosmopolitanism being more inclusive than Rawls, yet, limited in its accommodation of the “other” as Tagore’s creative unity domesticates this “other” on the basis of spiritual familiarity. The essay also critiques Martha Nussbaum’s cosmopolitanism that suggests reconciliation of both. It makes a case for a paradoxical understanding of hospitality, friendship and otherness theorized by Jacques Derrida (influenced by Kant) as the basis of self-determination and global justice.

The Principle of the New World Order

The First World War created no other principles for world formation than an abstract notion of national self-determination. Such an abstract notion could not solve the historical challenges the world faced, of which the outbreak of the Second World War provided evidence. Each state/nation must realize its world-historical mission to construct the world-historical world in which states/nations would be united to form ‘a global world (sekai-teki sekai)’ while maintaining their own historical uniqueness. For such historically unique entities to be united into the whole without losing their uniqueness, it would be necessary an intermediate process of forming ‘a particular world (tokushu-teki sekai)’. In this process, each state/nation transcends itself, connects to neighboring states/nations, and follows its own regional (supra-national) tradition at the same time, leading to the establishment of non-Western worlds. East Asian nations must realize their world-historical mission and construct a particular world based on the idea of East Asian culture. There must be a central player to tackle such challenges and no country but Japan would be in the position to play such a role.

Comparative Analysis of Two Basic Principles of International Law - Territorial Integrity of State and Selfdetermination of Nations on Example of Kosovo and Abkhazia

The main goal of the research is to analyze in details and present the two basic principles of internationallaw - the right to self-determination of nations and territorial integrity of the state on the example of theKosovo and Abkhazia conflicts. In particular, a significant part of the paper is devoted to the legalassessment of the Kosovo and Abkhazian conflicts and revealing the main differences that are linked tothe legal aspects of Kosovo conflict, on the one hand, and the conflict in Abkhazia, on the other hand.The article focuses on a detailed analysis of facts why the West, particularly North Atlantic TreatyOrganization (NATO) 3 involvement in the Kosovo conflict and recognition of Kosovo's independence bythe majority of the international community is partly legitimate and, on the other hand, from theinternational legal and political viewpoints, Russia's involvement in the Abkhazian conflict and therecognition of the so-called "independence" of Abkhazia has no legal basis at all. The final part of thework discusses what the international community should do in the future regarding the protection of theprinciples of international law.

윌슨의 민족자결주의가 대한민국 임시헌장에 미친 영향: 기독교적 민주주의 국가 건설

최근 일부 한국사 학자들이나 정치사학자들은 대한민국 임시정부의 정신적 기원을 주로 1917년의 대동단결선언에서 찾고 있다. 하지만 이런 노력은 위의 선언서가 실질적으로 국내외 동포들에게 별로 큰 영향을 주지 못하였을 뿐만이 아니라 1918년 제1차 세계대전의 종전으로 인하여 새롭게 전개되는 국제정세를 제대로 파악하지 못했다는 데에 한계가 있다. 따라서 필자는 전통적인 견해대로 제1차 세계대전을 승리로 이끌고 전후 새로운 국제질서를 만들려고 했던 우드로 윌슨의 민족자결주의가 보다 직접적으로 3·1운동과 임시정부의 성격을 형성하는데 중요한 역할을 했다고 본다. 윌슨은 기독교적인 계약사상에 바탕을 둔 서구 민주주의의 원칙, “통치자는 피통치자의 동의에 근거해서 통치”해야 한다는 원칙에 의거해서 민족자결주의를 외쳤다. 이런 정치철학을 가장 잘 표현한 것이 미국식 민주주의, 곧 자유민주주의이며, 미국은 이것을 온 세계에 전파하려 하였다. 윌슨의 이런 정신은 미국, 상해, 일본의 한국인들에게 알려졌고, 이들은 미국 대통령과 국제사회에 청원서를 보내며 조선의 독립을 강조하였다. 한국인의 독립만세운동은 곧 바로 새로운 정부를 세우려는 운동으로 이어졌다. 1919년 4월 11일에 성립된 상해 임시정부는 먼저 인적인 구성에서 기독교인들이 매우 중요한 위치를 차지하고 있었다. 당시 정부를 대표하는 인물은 이승만, 실질적인 살림을 맡은 내무총장은 안창호, 가장 중요한 외교를 담당하는 외교총장은 김규식이 맡았다. 대종교인도 여기에 가담하였지만 기독교만큼 중요한 위치에 있지 않았다. 임시헌장의 내용을 보면 첫째, 넓게 보면 종교적인 성격, 구체적으로 말하면 기독교적인 성격이 잘 나타나 있었다. 전문, 제 7조, 선언문에는 대한민국의 신의 뜻을 따라서 만들어진 나라이며, 그 사명은 인류의 문화와 평화를 증진시키는 것이고, 궁극적으로는 신의 나라의 기초가 된다고 밝히고 있다. 이 문구는 보편적인 종교적 표현이라고 볼 수도 있지만, 임시정부의 구성원 가운데 많은 사람들이 기독교인이었음으로 기독교적인 표현이라고 볼 수 있다. 둘째, 임시헌장은 미국식 헌법을 따라서 자유민주주의적인 정부를 지향하고 있었다는 것이다. 중요한 몇 가지만 지적한다면, 1) 대한민국은 민주공화국이며, 2) 권력은 의정원의 결의로 정부가 통치하며, (이것은 9월 11일 헌법에 는 대통령제와 삼권분립으로 발전함), 3) 주권은 남녀, 귀천, 빈부의 모든 계급을 뛰어넘어 평등하며, 4) 종교와 소유의 자유(이것은 9월 헌법에는 영업의 자유를 첨가함)를 포함한 개인의 기본권은 보장되어야 한다는 것이다. 1919년 4월 11일에 만들어진 대한민국 임시헌장은 미국식 헌법과 많이 유사하며, 자유민주주의의 기본질서를 따르고 있다. 이 임시의정원의 헌법은 그 뒤 많은 굴곡에도 불구하고 기본적인 정신을 그대로 유지하고 있고, 이것이 1948년 대한민국 헌법으로 이어지고 있는 것이다. 1919년 대한민국 임시헌장이 어떤 과정을 거쳐서 1948년의 헌법으로 이어지고 있는지는 앞으로 더욱 연구할 과제이다.

MICROCOSM OF A WOMAN IN L. TARAN’S NOVELS: PHILOSOPHICAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL DIMENSION (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF THE ’ARTHEMIDA WITH A FALLOW DEER’ COLLECTION)

The article analyzes L. Taran’s short stories ’Confession of Sophia Oksamytna’, ’Mirror Maze’ and ’Ulyana and the Two’, which are part of the collection ’Artemis with a Fallow Deer’. These novels haven’t been at the center of literary critics’ scientific interest before. The peculiarities of artistic realization of a woman’s microcosm through the prism of philosophical and psychological problems are investigated. The topic is relevant both in the context of the study of L. Taran’s work in particular and women’s prose in general (which is extremely popular in Ukrainian literature at the moment). The main motive of the author’s works is the motive of the split: the heroines are often deprived of their inner integrity, become ambivalent, because they perceive the outside world ambiguously. Therefore they doubt, seek for themselves, and the internal struggle between different ’I’ becomes their essential feature. As a rule, the motive of the split is unfolded in the context of existential and psychological problems of choosing and finding oneself; connected as well with the problem of national self-determination in the ’Confession of Sophia Oksamytna’ novel.The key in heroines’ psychological space modelling are artistic techniques of sleep and mirrors. Thanks to sleep technique, a subconscious ’second reality’ arises, which is a reflection of the real. The mirror acts as a boundary between the outer and inner worlds of the heroines, the identifier of the personal. The images-symbols of the lizard, the maze, the Siamese twins have the particular importance. The image of the lizard is a projection of the Shadow archetype and a symbol of duality and flexibility of the heroine (’Confession of Sophia Oksamytna’). The labyrinth is interpreted ambiguously: the outer labyrinth is the real topos — the ’mirror maze’, from which the heroine finds a way out, and the inner one — the labyrinth of the soul, from which it is more difficult to do (’Mirror Maze’). The most striking symbol of the split is the image of Siamese twins. The use of artistic details (lack of face, soul detachment from the body, stranger, etc.) expresses the main motive of the novels. Semantic oppositions of ’I — Another’, ’my own — someone else’sare the integral part of the heroine’s personality structure.

The Chinese Unitary Multinational State: A Normative Reappraisal

AbstractThis article provides a normative analysis of the rationale behind the creation of the Chinese unitary multinational state. Far from being irrelevant in the face of the well-known aversion of scientific socialism for normative thinking, such analysis illuminates the Chinese Communist Party’s long-standing commitment to the unitary multinational state as the best response to the national question. It shows that the Party’s leadership, in a conscious effort to adapt Stalin’s theory of nationality to Chinese revolutionary praxis, substantially revised the standard conception of national self-determination. Relying on its own materialist logic, it made participation in the struggle against alienation the normative basis to justify granting ethnic minorities special rights of regional autonomy under a common state. The creation of the Chinese unitary multinational state appears in this light as a normatively coherent attempt to guarantee that all ethnic groups that contributed to national liberation benefit equally from their imprescriptible right to collective self-determination.

The neighbor as mirror: Representations of the Korean March First Movement in modern Chinese discourses of nationalism

The outbreak of the Korean March First Movement in 1919 was followed by intensive reporting and commentary in Chinese media, presenting striking images of the brutality of the Japanese colonizers, the resolve for independence among the Korean people, and the concept of national self-determination. The March First Movement provided the Chinese people with a vivid example of the transformation of the abstract concept of “universal principles” into the practice of “national self-determination,” and strengthened consciousness of “national independence” among the Chinese people. Over the ensuing two or three decades, the “March First Movement” gradually seeped into the Chinese nationalist movement and discourses on national liberation, playing the role of “the neighbor as mirror,” and continuing to provide both positive inspiration and negative reference points for the Chinese people following the path of national independence. This linkage and interaction between “weak nations” aids in understanding the modern Chinese nationalist movement, as well as the mechanisms for development of the national independence movements among colonized peoples which swept across the globe in the early 20th century.

Northern Ireland, Brexit, and the Interpretation of Self-Determination

The legitimacy of the partition of Ireland has been inextricably bound up with interpretations of self-determination. The creation of Northern Ireland following the First World War was just about defensible in terms of the understanding of the principle of national self-determination prevalent at the time. But in the context of the post-colonial emphasis on territory in establishing who was entitled to self-determination, Northern Ireland’s status as a conditional part of the United Kingdom appeared anomalous and facilitated the province’s portrayal as a colonial leftover. The Troubles compounded Northern Ireland’s lack of international legitimacy. In the 1990s there were further changes, including a post–Cold War easing of the anathema against secession. This and other alterations in the interpretation of self-determination meant that Northern Ireland no longer stood out as a relic of imperialism, creating the space for the acceptance of Northern Ireland as an internationally legitimate political entity under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. This favorable external environment for the settlement did not endure. Of the external challenges to the accord, the most serious is Brexit. Its implementation would end what was taken for granted in the 1998 accord, that British and Irish management of the Northern Ireland problem would continue to be facilitated by the two countries’ common interests arising from their membership of the European Union. The article explores the implications of this potential disruption and its bearing on the issue of Irish self-determination.