post-Cold War Environment Research Articles

Sino-Israel Relations in a Second Cold War Perspective

All states' foreign policies during the Cold War were influenced by the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. Few nations sided with the USSR, while the vast majority of states in the world supported the United States. The post-Cold War environment has an equal impact on the nature of relations between states. One economic alliance is commanded by the People's Republic of China, while the other is led by the United States. After 1992, economic competition between China and the United States defines the second Cold War. From a second Cold War perspective, this paper claims that the relations between China and Israel face multiple challenges. Israel was the United State's closest ally during the Cold War, and it remains one of the United States's closest allies in the current international context. China is not an old ally of Israel, but the two countries have developed extensive cooperation in many areas in recent years. Economic competition between the United States and China will determine the future of Sino-Israeli relations.

Democracia e a Agenda de Desenvolvimento 2063 em África. Do passado ao futuro

Democracy and development are two intertwined concepts and processes, especially since the advent of neo-liberalism in the late 1980s. On the African continent, the adoption of an economic development model and system of governance based on neo-liberalism was not the result of a free choice of most local political entourages adhering to the socialist model and one-party regimes, but rather of the diktats of a post-Cold War environment in which state and institutional neo-liberalism dominated, notably the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and of states in the Global North. As a result of this, many African states were forced to carry out reforms and openings in a hurry contrary to their preferences for schemes that would guarantee the survival of their regimes, the development of a local matrix, territorial integrity, and the possibility of maturing internal democratic processes and a local bourgeois class that would later sustain both liberal democracy and a market economy. The failure of the openings operated in that context led to collective decisions within the Organization of African Unity/African Union (OAU/AU) to relaunch a development model based on local reality, whose AU Agenda 2063 appears as a response to this challenge. Therefore, with this article, I bring to reflection, through the historical method and contextualization, some elements that allow us to understand the attempt to move towards a local development model guided by Africans, amidst the difficulties of continental integration processes, of generational transition, in a continent where half the population is under 25 years old, but the gerontocracy seems not interested in yielding power.

Israel’s Relations with Angola: From Portuguese Colony to the Present

Angola, which achieved its independence in 1975 following an armed struggle of thirteen years and the military overthrow of a dictatorship in Portugal a year earlier, is one of eleven countries in sub-Saharan Africa hosting an Israeli embassy. It is also one of fifteen countries in sub-Saharan Africa that has an embassy in Israel. It is obvious that Israel and Angola acknowledge the importance of their relationship and understand well each country’s respective influence in their own regions. While formal diplomatic ties only began in the early stages of the post-Cold War, Angola and Israel – or more exactly the Jewish people – have had a much longer connection. Before the Balfour Declaration, some seeking a place of refuge for the Jewish people considered Angola. During the era of decolonisation in Africa, which began in the late 1950s, while Israel eagerly pursued relations with the newly independent states, diplomatic activity continued with Portugal; its actions were also connected with the Cold War politics of the United States. Initially, Israel supported forces in Angola opposed to the ultimate victor in the civil war which followed the war for independence. Yet, in the post-Cold War environment, with the cooperation of Israeli businesspeople and intelligence assistance, Angola and Israel engaged in developing mutually beneficial relations, though in the case of defence-related connections somewhat secretive ones. In recent years, with South Africa’s promotion of the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement, and being the country most critical of Israel’s policies outside the Arab and Muslim worlds, Israel’s ties with Angola have taken on greater importance for the Jewish state’s relations with other countries in Southern Africa.

Brave New World Order: The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Rise of Iraqi Shī‘ī Identity Politics

ABSTRACT This article uses the history of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the largest Shī‘ī Islamist organization within the exiled Iraqi opposition movement, as a case study to delineate how the meaning, function, and salience of sectarian identities are affected by political and social changes at the local, regional, and international level. To this end, this work identifies and explains a discursive shift observed in SCIRI’s publications produced during its tenure as an Iraqi opposition group. Whereas SCIRI’s publications during the Iran-Iraq War emphasized that its brand of Islamic government would represent all Iraqis regardless of their religious or ethnic affiliation, following the war’s conclusion the Council strove to portray its leaders as the primary defenders of Shī‘ī interests in Iraq and focused near exclusively on the need to protect the rights of Iraq Shī‘ī. It argues that several key developments account for the Supreme Council’s adoption of a Shī‘ī-centric political stance during the 1990s, namely: the internationalization and unification of the Iraqi opposition movement in the aftermath of the 1991 March Uprisings and the post-Cold War environment within which the exiled Iraqi opposition was operating. When considered collectively, beyond demonstrating the contingency and complexity of the advent of Shī‘ī identity politics within Iraqi opposition circles throughout the 1990s, these findings suggest the importance of taking into consideration larger, global trends as contributing factors when conceptualizing how subnational forms of identification acquire heighted social and political salience.

Rethinking Intersections of Crime and Terrorism: Insights from Political Economies of Violence

AbstractThe post–Cold War environment has ushered in an era of threats from terrorism, organized crime, and their intersections giving rise to the growing literature on the so-called crime–terror nexus. This article takes stock of this literature, assesses its accomplishments and limitations, and considers ways to deepen it conceptually, theoretically, and empirically. To challenge assumptions informing the crime–terror studies and suggest avenues for future research, the article draws on ideas from the scholarship on political economies of violence. These insights are used to probe the (1) non-state actors that form the crime–terror nexus, (2) conditions under which the nexus is likely to emerge, and (3) varied effects of criminal–terrorist intersections. The article emphasizes the ties of criminal and terrorist groups to local politics, society, and economy, and relationships of competition, rather than cooperation, which often characterize these ties. The conditions under which these groups operate cannot be understood without considering the role of the state in criminal–terrorist constellations. The structure of resource economies influences both the preferences of terrorist groups for crime and the consequences of terrorist–criminal convergence, which are also mediated by state participation in crime.

Introduction: Layers and Varieties of Internationalism in the 20th Century

ABSTRACT Any number of issues raise the question of internationalism today – from the Corona virus to the nationalist waves in contemporary politics to the general nature of the post-Cold War environment. However, in the face of meaningful election cycles, debates over Brexit, torsions of ‘nationalism’ versus ‘globalism’, and skepticism towards international institutions, it’s useful to perspectivize the issue in relation to not only intellectual history, but a diverse range of takes on the topic. Here, we provide an overview of a special issue dedicated to that task – thinking through layers and varieties of internationalism vis-a-vis figures, locales, and thematics less-explored or asking to be rethought.

Totalitarian Transhumanism versus Christian Theosis: From Russian Orthodoxy with Love

AbstractTechnological change and the growth of technocratic approaches to government have gone hand-in-hand with the development of secular transhumanism in the West. The result is a perfect storm for the onset of cultural or “soft” totalitarianism in what during the Cold War was known as the “Free World.” Accelerating political opposition to traditional and biological definitions of sex, and to traditional marriage and family networks in Christian contexts, has undermined anthropological and value assumptions basic to self-government. Paradoxically, in this post-Cold War environment, Russian culture now provides a model for renewing the Christian understanding of sex related to defining freedom as self-restraint. Specifically, that model is that of the Russian Orthodox Christian anthropology of sex and its related theological tradition.

Cambodia’s hegemonic-party system: How and why the CPP became dominant

This article seeks to shed light on how and why the Cambodian People’s Party (the CPP) emerged and became dominant in the multi-party system formally introduced to Cambodia when the United Nations intervened in the early 1990s. Historical factors, relative power, leadership, and tactics matter a great deal. Hun Sen has been in power for more than 30 years and his effectiveness can be attributed to three tactics: coercion, co-option, and control. The post-Cold War environment also made it possible for the CPP government to use these tactics successfully, as major powers preferred to work with Hun Sen or did little to undermine him.

Book Review: Short-Changed? South Africa since Apartheid by Colin Bundy

Colin Bundy Short-Changed? South Africa since Apartheid, Athens: Ohio University Press, 2015; 174 pp.: ISBN 9780821421550, $14.95 (pbk) In this pocket-sized book, Colin Bundy addresses a burning question which has generated an abundance of literature over the last two decades--have South Africans been short-changed by the negotiated end to Apartheid, and if so, who is to blame? In the years immediately following the end of Apartheid, seriously questioning the intentions or legitimacy of the African National Congress (ANC)-led government was less common within left-leaning circles. Inevitably, many of those who campaigned against Apartheid were reluctant to criticise the new democratic government in too harsh a tone. Some voiced the opinion that the ANC, struggling in a neoliberal post-Cold War environment, with a deeply dysfunctional economy inherited from the Apartheid regime, were doing their best in highly unfavourable conditions. Others, especially commentators based in developed countries, perhaps felt that it wasn't their place to judge. Twenty years on, in the post-Marikana landscape, such reluctance has fallen away even for those with deep ties to the tripartite alliance (Pillay 2014). Of course, the problem of postcolonial governments failing to live up to expectations developed by socialists during struggles for national liberation isn't one unique to South Africa (Arrighi et al. 1989: 66). Yet the particularities of the struggle against South Africa's settler colonialism, the ANC's overtures to socialism and the strength of the South African trade union movement led many to hope that South Africa could potentially move beyond the authoritarian impasse that characterised its neighbours. This optimism was certainly not baseless, but it makes the inequality, corruption and violence that persist today even more disappointing and repugnant. Bundy does an excellent job of addressing this situation in a measured tone while emphasising the true extent of South Africa's political, social and economic ills. No original research is presented per se, yet value can be found in the manner that Short-Changed? throws new light onto well-rehearsed debates. In part, this is achieved because Bundy places structure and agency, and the push and pull which this engenders, at the centre of his analytical framework. A historian by training, the topics highlighted by Bundy are always contextualised as part of a history that doesn't presume a profound break in the year of 1994, and an international frame which reminds us of South Africa's position within world order. Throughout Short-Changed? it is reiterated that while the decisions of political actors are important, they are made 'under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past' (p. 18). Rather than simply splitting the Post-Apartheid era into chronological periods, Bundy puts forward four chapters that deal with specific themes: the negotiated settlement, dilemmas of power, cities as sites of contestation and the issue of crime. Given the brevity of the book, these matters aren't dealt with in a comprehensive manner, yet Bundy still manages to intervene authoritatively in each, providing thought-provoking summaries that speak directly to the weaknesses of current literature. The first chapter, which focuses on the negotiated settlement that led to the transitional Government of National Unity, is structured by three questions: why did the ANC and National Party enter negotiations, what was the content of the settlement and how much change did this entail? Contrary to explanations which put 'Great Men' to the fore, Bundy proposes that a 'hurting stalemate' was the primary factor leading to negotiations (p. 31). The outcome was a system which largely mirrored the ANC's political demands, but which left social and economic structures untouched. In the second chapter, Bundy primarily focuses upon two aspects of the ANC's governance: their macroeconomic policy and their electoral performance. …

US missile defence strategy: engaging the debate. By Michael Mayer

This book is likely to be of particular interest to readers who are new to the topic of ballistic missile defence (BMD), or who, after a period away, wish to catch up with recent developments. In the relatively short time it takes to read it, the book provides a valuable, clear and authoritative assessment of where BMD has got to and of its prospects. It also properly reflects competing views in the literature to give readers a clear understanding of the nature and scope of the contemporary debate. Michael Mayer addresses ballistic missile defence policies at the grand strategic level, noting that threat and strategy are logically linked and asking whether strategic missile defence (MD) goals make sense from a US grand strategic perspective. Chapter two looks at the core concepts that underpin the US approach to missile defence in turn. Reflecting competing views throughout, the chapter identifies defence, deterrence, dissuasion—inducing restraint and thus potentially obviating deterrence—and assurance as core concepts and lays out the factors and thinking that are employed in order to seek to achieve effective defence. Mayer's evaluation of successive policies relies on a wealth of authoritative sources. He takes care to explain terms and concepts in light of the relevant strategic considerations, including the complications associated with the post-Cold War environment.

Transforming the Spanish military

The article analyses the Spanish military transformation. This process started in 2004 as a means to adapt the force structure, organization and capabilities of the Spanish military to meet present and future threats in compliance with NATO’s initiatives, thus ensuring the continuity of the equipment modernization, professionalization and the adjustment of the country’s defence architecture to the post-cold war environment. A decade later, although transformation is still a priority for the Ministry of Defence, limited political will, a lack of strategic guidance, poor resource management and the effects of the economic crisis are compromising its development. This article describes the Spanish military transformation and assesses its value in adapting the country’s armed forces to the current and prospective security environment.

Sanctions Busters in the Post-Cold War Environment

The Cold War being over caused the Soviet empire to break down and rearranged foreign challenges to the United States. However, the passage of time did not decrease the use of economic sanctions, there was even a peak in the annual number of sanctions cases in the first half of the 1990’s. The international economy has become even more integrated and new goals and armed conflicts arise all over the world that may change the focus of economic sanctions policy. Next to that, growing interdependence may have increased the freedom of movement and the ability to sanctions-bust for third party countries (Early 2009, 68). This paper offers a comprehensive explanation of the incentives of sanctions busters that have emerged in the pre-Cold War and post-Cold War period, and demonstrates the effect of sanctions-busters incentives on the effectiveness of economic sanctions.

The Economics of Power Transitions: Australia between China and the United States

This article examines Sino–Australian economic relations, and their impact on the ties between the United States and Australia. First, drawing on power transition theory, it is argued that in a post-Cold War environment, economic ties play as great a role as strategic relations in determining the orientation of third-party states. Second, it is also argued that Australia's deeper economic and commercial ties with China have usurped a role previously held by the United States. This has forced Australia to pursue a bifurcated foreign policy—one split between its economic and national security needs. Third, these deeper ties with China have generated a degree of alliance drift between Australia and the United States. As a result, there is now a significant debate in Australia over the future of both bilateral relations—even as its space for policy innovation remains limited.

Bill Clinton: building a bridge to the new millennium

Prologue: Inauguration 1993 Chapter 1 Boy from Becomes The Man from Hope Chapter 2 To the White House Chapter 3 Building the Bridge: Clinton's Domestic Agenda Chapter 4 Foreign Challenges in a Post-Cold War Environment Chapter 5 Politics of Scandal and the Impeachment Crisis Chapter 6 After the White House Epilogue: On the Question of Presidential Greatness Documents Bibliography Index

Modern warfare: Armed groups, private militaries, humanitarian organizations, and the law, by Benjamin Perrin, ed.

Benjamin Perrin, ed. Modern warfare: Armed groups, private militaries, humanitarian organizations, and the law Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012. 395 pp $99.00 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0774822329For over two decades now, academics and policy makers have been confronted with the challenges - such as security privatization, endemic urban violence, and lowlevel insurgencies - that come with the application of international humanitarian law in the post-Cold War environment. The contributions in Modem Warfare address the gap between the theory and the practice of international humanitarian law across contexts. Three central contributions set this book apart: first, it analyzes emerging issues by drawing from multidisciplinary perspectives; second, it assesses the impact of non-state actors on the prevailing humanitarian framework; and third, it tackles ongoing debates as they relate to humanitarian organizations, security privatization, humanitarian space, and urban violence.In the first section, the contributors explore the question of how to persuade nonstate armed groups to observe international humanitarian law in various contexts. Rene Provost concludes that what he refers to as asymmetrical non-reciprocity has proven inadequate in persuading non-state armed groups to obey international humanitarian law in armed conflicts. He argues instead for broadening the participation of non-state actors, which will not merely promote normative convergence but will also reach a more effective consensus than one that originates in a single category of participants (33). As Sophie Rondeau suggests, beyond the call for broader participation, it is necessary to include non-state armed groups in decisions about how the rules of international humanitarian law can be complied with. This solution, she argues, would be more constructive in fostering a culture of compliance.Some contributors express a different view. For example, Sandesh Sivakumaran argues that the involvement of non-state armed groups in the enforcement of international humanitarian law would cause unintended problems related to sovereignty and public international law. In Colombia and Myanmar, the challenges involved in negotiations with non-state armed groups, as discussed in the chapters by Elisabeth Decrey Warner, Jonathan Somer, and Pascal Bongard, illustrate this point.The volume also addresses the legitimacy of certain practices of modern warfare, such as humanitarian organizations hiring private security companies (PSCs). Benjamin Perrin analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of PSC involvement in humanitarian assistance and then advances two critical questions. First, if humanitarian organizations hire PSCs, would humanitarian personnel lose their protected status under international humanitarian law? Second, would PSC involvement affect humanitarian assistance? These questions will no doubt guide future scholarship that is at the intersection of international law and politics, addressing the security functions of non-state actors. …

Scaling CAMEO: Psychophysical Magnitude Scaling of Conflict and Cooperation

Event data is the preferred method of characterizing directed-dyadic behavior through time and is a very versatile approach able to handle both state and nonstate actors. By scaling and aggregating values on a conflict and cooperation continuum, event data can provide a net measure of conflict between two parties for a set time interval. The CAMEO coding scheme was created to address structural flaws in the WEIS coding scheme and to handle better the post-Cold War environment. However, no systematic study has been completed for assigning fixed-weight conflict–cooperation scale values to the newer coding scheme, leaving an ad hoc transliteration of Goldstein scale values for WEIS as the best option. This paper reports the results of a psycho-physical magnitude scaling survey of 158 students from two universities where the students scaled CAMEO categories for conflict and cooperation. In addition to providing empirically based scale values for CAMEO, the paper also tests whether or not conflict and cooperation exist on a single continuum and whether or not a gender difference exists in perceptions of conflict and cooperation.

Explaining NATO's Resilience: Is International Relations Theory Useful?

Over the past two decades, NATO's membership and mission have expanded. Practitioners and scholars have extensively debated the pros and cons of the changes, but few have sought to explain why the alliance is so resilient. This paper directly asks and answers the question: Why has NATO mission and membership expanded since the end of the Cold War? Three leading approaches of international relations are used to answer this question. The empirical analysis finds that in isolation, none of the theories perform well at predicting or explaining NATO's adaptation to the post-Cold War environment. However, when combined, they do offer a coherent explanation for the alliance's enlargement and the development of out-of-area operations.

Prudence and Presidential Ethics: The Decisions on Iraq of the Two Presidents Bush

are counterparts in personal life to these attributes, the prudence of political leaders has a further dimension because of their responsibility for the welfare of the polity, whether a city or an entire nation. The importance ofpolitical prudence in the U. S. presidency is illustrated by a comparative analysis of the decision-making processes regarding Iraq in the administrations of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. The sharp contrasts between them suggest that prudence and other political virtues may be substantially independent of ideology, class, and social background. This essay discusses the importance of the virtue of prudence to presidential ethics. It examines the nature of prudence through an analysis of the decision making of Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and George Walker Bush to go to war with the Republic of Iraq. The wars began only 12 years apart; the presidents shared a father-son connection; they also shared many advisors, party affiliation, and moderate conservatism. Both viewed themselves as charting new courses, one in a post—Cold War environment, and one in a world changed by 9/11. Both presidents had initiated changes earlier: George H. W. Bush overthrew Manuel Noriega in Panama, and George W. Bush overthrew the Taliban regime in Afghanistan; both faced a military reluctant to embark on war. The similarities of personnel and situations provide a unique opportunity for comparative analysis. This essay studies the two decisions to go to war through the lens of the virtue of political prudence. The analysis will illustrate the central role that prudence should have in the ethics of presidential leadership by demonstrating how

From Lab to iPod: A Story of Discovery and Commercialization in the Post–Cold War Era

The 1988 discovery, made simultaneously in two European laboratories, of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) became the basis for the Nobel prize in physics two decades later. Companies like IBM rapidly commercialized the discovery, which paved the way for major advances in data storage commonly seen in computers and portable music players. GMR also helped catalyze a new field of research known as “spintronics” and provided a rationale for a major global investment in nanotechnology. This article examines the process through which a basic physics discovery was made and then commercialized. In this narrative, military agencies and commercial firms acting as “institutional entrepreneurs” fostered the growth of spintronics (and nanotechnology) in the post-Cold War environment. Finally, it concludes by exploring the validity of the linear model for research and the shifting boundaries between contemporary science and technology.

Discourse of global governance

This article is based on the view that in the post-Cold War period, a US-defined New World Order discourse has been in formation. Adopting a critical discourse analytical perspective, the paper examines the deployment of American liberal democratic political ideology, which forms the basis of the New World Order discourse. American liberal democracy is construed vis--vis the articulation of illiberal global threats (namely, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein); through international consensus-building based on universalized American principles of freedom and democracy; and through Americas self-election to global leadership. While the primary focus of the study is on the speeches of President George W. Bush since the 11 September 2001 attacks, the analysis also includes speeches by the former post-Cold War presidents, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, in the context of earlier historic events. An intertextual analysis of the speeches shows the hegemonic form(ul)ation of American liberal democratic internationalism in the post-Cold War environment.