non-European States Research Articles

Zionism in an Arab Country: Jews in Iraq in the 1940s (review)

Reviewed by: Zionism in an Arab Country: Jews in Iraq in the 1940s Michael Eppel Zionism in an Arab Country: Jews in Iraq in the 1940s, by Esther Meir-Glitzenstein. London and New York: Routledge, 2004. 285 pp. $100.00. This important book by Esther Meir-Glitzenstein deals with the activity of the Zionist movement in Iraq in the last decade of existence of the Jewish community in that country. The book focuses on the struggles between the Zionist emissaries and the community's traditional leadership and those forces within the community which sought to preserve its existence in Iraq, as well as the challenge posed by the Communists. Her details and comprehensive research are based on documents from British, Zionist, and Israeli archives, memoirs, and previous studies. After the 1920s, the Arab-Jewish conflict in Mandatory Palestine and anti-Zionism as a paradigm, interwoven with the growth of Arabic national consciousness and pan-Arab ideological discourse, became an emotional issue in the internal politics of Iraq. Identification with the Palestinian Arabs and anti-Zionism became an aspect of Iraqi domestic politics, ideologically justified by the pan-Arab dimension of Iraqi nationalism, anti-British nationalism, and processes and contradictions in Iraqi society and its conservative ruling elite and regime. Established Zionist activity began in Iraq in 1942, with the arrival of the first Zionist emissaries from Palestine. The Jewish community of Iraq had undergone a severe trauma as a result of the farhud riots during the Iraqi-British war early in June 1941. Notwithstanding that shock, which had undermined the self-confidence of the Jews of Iraq, most of those Jews still saw their future within Iraq—that is, they sought to preserve their Jewish identity within the multicultural mosaic of that country. The historic axis of the book is the way in which the Zionist activists, operating from the assumption that the Jews of Iraq had no future in that country and would have to emigrate to Palestine/Eretz Israel, coped with the traditional leadership of the Iraqi Jewish community, the modernized rich elite, which continued to be involved in the Iraqi ruling elite and in the Establishment, and the majority of the modern middle stratum. [End Page 197] Most of the success of the Zionist activists took place among young Jews from the modern middle stratum. However, up to 1948, the number of Iraqi Jews who were integrated or organized within the activity of the various branches of the Zionist Movement was no more than 2,000. The turning point in this struggle resulted from developments outside the Jewish community which changed the political and ideological conditions in Iraq: the establishment of the State of Israel, the 1948 War, and the growing inability of the conservative ruling elite and regime in Iraq to respond to the needs and distresses of the middle and poorer classes. The anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist trends in Iraq and other Arab states during the 1930s and 1940s were related to the historical predicament of the conservative regimes and the ruling elites which led to their collapse in Egypt, Iraq, and Syria in a series of military coups during the 1950s. Zionism in Iraq fulfilled the classic role of the revolutionary-pioneering movement, which draws radical conclusions from its perception of historical and social reality, weaves a vision and a plan of action, but is not capable of changing the historical conditions. Only after the establishment of the State of Israel and the 1948 War, which provoked a wave of anti-Jewish sentiment in Iraq backed by politicians from among the conservative elite, did most of Iraq's Jews reach the conclusion that it was no longer possible to preserve Jewish identity and the Jewish community within the framework of the Iraqi State. The role and function of the Zionist movement and Zionist activity in creating the conditions for the dramatic mass emigration between 1949 and 1951 is an important historical issue in understanding the role of the Zionist movement in the development of modern Jewish nationalism in non-European states. Among the most fascinating chapters in the book are those which describe the struggles among the political forces within the Zionist movement...

Slavery and the League of Nations: Ethiopia as a Civilised Nation

In 1949, the United Nations International Law Commission quietly decided to “refrain from using the e�pression ‘civilized countries’”1 in its deliberations. An era had apparently died away, only to be resurrected as part of the discourse of the post-September 11, 2001, United States’ “War on Terror”. Despite the resurgence of rhetorical use of “civilisation”, the notion of “civilised nation” never truly left the stage of international relations, as it remains on the books today, a part of international law. Article 38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice mandates that the International Court apply international law from three sources, not only treaty and customary law, but also: “(c) the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations”. This provision is a much needed window onto a bygone era, as some have said an embarrassing reminder that international law acted as an instrument of imperial design. Much needed, as at the time such a designation as “civilised nations” would have appeared neutral and benign. This begs the questions: Is international law, and does it remain, structurally biased in favour of the West and its informal empire, while couched in more benevolent, universal language of, say, human rights? This article considers an instance of the transition from the “law of Christian nations” and the “public law of Europe” of the nineteenth century to “international law” of the twentieth century wherein non-European States were allowed to join the international qua European system of international relations on the basis of a fluctuating rule of “civilisation” dictated by European colonial powers. The standard of civilisation which was applied in the Ethiopian conte�t, upon which its admission to the League of Nations was predicated and later used to justify Italian aggression, was the abolition of slavery and the slave trade on its territory. The Ethiopian e�perience is considered here as a vehicle to study the emergence of slavery as the “first” human right given voice internationally; the manner in which the League of Nations, having established the abolition of slavery and the slave trade as a criteria of “civilisation” moved to codify it;

Japan’s Socialization into Janus-Faced European International Society

This article joins the debate on the entry of non-European states into International Society by examining the socialization of Japan into the normative framework of European International Society during the Meiji period. Despite recent arguments that the English School has pioneered an interpretivist approach in the study of international politics, their conceptualization of the expansion of International Society has paid scant regard to non-European perspectives. As a consequence, International Society is commonly portrayed as playing a progressive role in mitigating conflict and enhancing world order. The article challenges the lopsided portrayal of how non-European states were socialized into International Society. It illustrates that Japan was socialized into a Janus-faced International Society. Finally, it argues that the English School’s normative commitment to international order and exclusion of non-European perspectives is in danger of undermining its interpretivist credentials.

Diffusion of HRM to Europe and the Role of US MNCs: Introduction to the Special Issue

There has been considerable debate both among scholars and policy makers concerning the extent to which national systems of industrial relations (IR) and human resource management (HRM) systems are converging. In Europe this debate has concerned both convergence within Europe and convergence between European systems and those of non-European states, most notably the USA. The convergence thesis rests essentially on the notion of competitive isomorphism: that is as firms are increasingly faced with similar competitive environments globally, they will adopt similar (optimally efficient) management practices. For example, a significant part of the European convergence debate concerns whether, in Europe, collective employee relations, mediated by representative institutions are being replaced by HRM management systems designed to establish a direct and individualised relationship between organization and employee. Some commentators have attributed this trend to the influence of a model of HRM derived from practices in the USA and increasingly adopted in Europe. Multinational companies (MNCs) have become of particular importance to this thesis. First, they are often seen as an important channel for the transmission of management practices from one country to another, in particular from the USA to Europe. Second, the transferability of management practices from one national context to another is a matter of considerable practical importance for managers in MNCs. Third, the economic importance of large MNCs and their border spanning nature means that their activities have particular salience to legislators and regulators. This special issue addresses these concerns in three ways. First reviews of the development of HRM in the USA and in Germany and evidence on convergence of HRM practices in Europe help us consider both what may be being transmitted from the USA and the evidence for its transmission. Second three papers, provide different kinds of evidence on the convergence or barriers to convergence of HRM practices between Europe and the USA and the role of MNCs in that transmission. Finally, the special issue concludes with three reviews of in all six books each of which are relevant to the concerns of this special issue.

Current national initiatives about drug policies and cost control in Europe: the Italy example.

Pharmaceutical expenditure is a challenge to the financial compatibility of health systems because it is growing faster (+11% per year in the last 5 years in Italy) than any other health sector. In order to curb public pharmaceutical expenditure 2 interventions are commonly used: delisting (de-reimbursement) and reference price, with the difference being paid by patients. The Italian Ministry of Health implemented a set of interventions with the general aim of pharmaceutical governance based on the following criteria: (a) to assure a complete coverage of all clinically and epidemiologically relevant diseases; (b) to provide health professionals with a range of different active drugs with the same therapeutic indications within the same therapeutic class; and (c) to identify a reimbursement threshold in order to save public money by narrowing the (wide) price differentials among drugs with comparable efficacy and safety. In this context, interventions have been undertaken at several levels including drug price reduction, generic drug promotion, delisting of drugs reimbursed, and direct distribution of medicines (by hospital services). Furthermore, a new National Pharmaceutical Formulary has been implemented. Medicines have been classified into homogeneous categories (ie, medicines with the same main indication(s) and with similar clinical efficacy and safety profile). Within each homogeneous category, a reimbursement level (cutoff) was then identified and, accordingly, pharmaceutical companies were asked to adjust their price. This adjustment was based on price per daily drug dose (DDD), cumulative expenditure (at least 50%), and cumulative utilization (at least 60%). This readjustment, at no cost for patients, is expected to save more than Euro 280 million of public money. Seventy-seven percent of this saving will be due to price readjustment of antiulcers, calcium channel blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, and some antibiotics (mainly cephalosporins). The Italian system was able to cover all relevant diseases and ensured citizens and health professionals a choice among a wide range of valid pharmacological therapies. At the same time it was able to save public money by narrowing wide price differentials among drugs with comparable clinical properties. The set of interventions yielded a new national formulary that was able to have a significant influence on the trend of drug expenditure in Italy. This experience can be a useful reference for other European and non-European states.

Global Disorder: An Important Agenda for 21st Century Population Studies

Poor underprivileged countries face a long period of high population increase, while poverty and natural resource limits provide growing constraints to the management of population increase. Demography appears increasingly to turn to the study of populations well underway in the fertility transition. The "development optimism" implied in this shift needs to be set against the evidence of rapidly growing inequalities, between and within countries. The question needs to be raised whether fertility reductions will reach replacement levels everywhere. Das Gupta's recent contribution on the role of institutional and socio-political change for the demographic transition appears to offer a very viable framework for further research on historical Europe as well as current non-European states. However, it needs to be extended in the direction given by Castells' theories on the process of social exclusion in the information age in order to incorporate situations where fertility stabilises well over replacement level. The social implications of such a scenario are a challenge to both science and politics.

The free circulation of Individuals between the European Community member states: The practical implications for social security schemes

Freedom of movement in an integrated European Economic Area created the need to coordinate social security legislations by means of complex regulations. Improving their application calls for innovative solutions based on the experience of ISSA member institutions, ILO standards and the initiative of non-governmental organizations. These solutions are also of interest to institutions in states — even non-European states — linked to the Community by bilateral or multilateral conventions. The main objective is to simplify and speed up administrative procedures, notably for the award of pensions to migrants, given the desirability of identifying them and reconstructing their working careers at the earliest opportunity. Teleprocessing must gradually replace the international circulation of forms, facilitating in particular the provision of medical care during a temporary stay. Recipients’effective access to benefits can also be improved through the personal intervention of liaison offices, the use of migrants’own language and the aid of social services.

The Expansion of International Society

The work of a study group of distinguished scholars, this book is a systematic investigation of the origins and nature of the international society today. The first section of the book describes the flood tide of European expansion that began in the 16th century and united the world for the first time in a single economic strategic, and political unit. The second section analyzes the process whereby the non-European states came to take their place as members of the same society, while the third section examines the repudiation of European, Russian, and American domination by states and peoples of the Third World, and the subsequent transition from a system based on European hegemony to one that is not. The book concludes with a discussion of the international order that has emerged from the ebb tide of European dominance.