post-Cold War Politics Research Articles

Reading Russia: The Wounds of Lost Empire

Reading RussiaThe Wounds of Lost Empire Ghia Nodia (bio) Broadly understood, Russia is another one of the many hybrid regimes that hover in the "gray zone" between liberal democracy and autocracy. In recent years, it has moved so close to full-fledged autocracy that the democratic element, without being fully forsaken, has worn exceedingly thin. But this does not make Russia a unique case, either in its region or globally. Russia is also a "petrostate," in the sense that oil and natural-gas riches have underpinned the political regime's stability. While one cannot deduce a regime's character simply by counting its mineral resources, the weight of evidence suggests that if a regime harbors autocratic tendencies, the availability of vast mineral wealth will reinforce rather than dilute them. But this "hybrid regime" formula, even when augmented by observations concerning Russia as a petrostate, is too broad and indistinct to advance our understanding very much. The regime's hybrid character can be explained by a number of structural factors that are no more applicable to Russia than they are to a number of its neighbors: Democratic traditions and civil society are weak; the middle class is small; people long for a strong hand after the misery and instability of the 1990s; and so on. All of this is true enough, but it is also true about a lot of places besides Russia, whose specific case therefore remains to be explained. I believe that the crucial factor in explaining the peculiarity of the Russian case (or, to use the Churchillian words, the "key" to the Russian "enigma") has to do with developments in Russian nationalism, or the Russian perception of the world and Russia's place in it. The concept of nationalism mostly brings to mind small nations striving for independence from larger ones. But big-nation nationalism is [End Page 34] no less important, even if many contemporary analysts of international relations fail to gauge its significance. Small-nation nationalism is typically about sovereignty, about being recognized as a player that can make its own choices. But great-power nationalism is about participation in determining the world order, about having a voice in setting international norms. It is about the recognition not merely of sovereignty, but of greatness. Failure to attain such recognition leads to deep feelings of resentment: It is the note of resentment that makes this variety of nationalism the most powerful factor in international politics, especially post–Cold War politics. The syndrome is mostly characteristic of nations that once had, but have now lost, great-power status. Russia is one of the most conspicuous cases of great-power resentment, though certainly not the only one. Such resentment expresses itself in various ways in the behavior of nations as different as France, Turkey, Iran, and China. The Mainspring of Policy The most popular target of such resentment is the United States—not necessarily because it has done something wrong (it may have done so, of course, but that is not at issue here) but because it is the great power of the day. The resentment may also take as its target a vaguer entity called "the West," because in the modern world, "the West" has acquired the collective moral power to set norms in politics and much more besides. This feeling of resentment, rather than some rational calculation of national self-interest of a type familiar to Westerners, is the major explanatory factor behind many of the steps that Russia has been taking in the international arena. Moscow's August 2008 invasion of Georgia and subsequent recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, for instance, was meant as a direct response to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia a decade ago and the subsequent Western recognition of Kosovo after it declared independence in February 2008. Striking at Georgia certainly brought psychological satisfaction: Russia wanted to make a point to the West, and it did so. Whether this served Russia's "national interest" in some objective sense is another matter entirely. Russia's predicament as a fallen great power is also relevant to understanding its domestic politics. What is notable about the trajectory of Russia's development since communism gave...

History Textbooks of Transitional States in Central Asia: Comparison of Kazakh and Uzbek Perspectives of Contemporary Korean History

This paper examines how Kazakh and Uzbek textbooks deal with the Korean War after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Rich in natural resources, these two countries are not only inhabited by a large number of ethnic Koreans but also have close relations with South Korea. The two countries show differences in the transitional process from a closed socialist system to a market economy system. In the case of Kazakhstan that opened its doors to the world and moved away from one-sided relations, its textbooks reflect post-Cold War politics and have removed many of the former USSR's influences. In dealing with the Korean War, the textbooks maintain a neutral position that tries not to assert anyone-sided view. In contrast, being a relatively more homogeneous nation and, consequently, more nationalistic, Uzbekistan retains many of the former USSR's influences in its textbook narratives. According to these textbooks, South Korea is very much dependent on the U.S., and in dealing with the independence movement, the North Korean influence is noticeable as only Kim Il-sung's struggles against the Japanese are highlighted. The two countries' textbooks are critical of the bourgeoisie characteristics of South Korean democracy. In particular, Uzbekistan points to the problems of inequality in wealth, labor policy, social welfare policy, and the unification policy. Certainly, these comments are a valuable feedback for South Korea. More exchanges and dialogues with an open mind will improve relations and help everyone gain objectivity and fairness in understanding each other's country in the post-Cold War era. Specifically, correcting any fallacies and misinformation contained in each other's textbooks will improve understanding.

Limited Knowledge

Limited Knowledge Robert Fyne Repicturing the Second World War: Representations in Film and Television. Michael Paris, Editor. Palgrave, 2007. 235 pages; $85.00 In the festive, nocturnal hours of January 12, 2005, a bright-eyed, twenty-yearold, third in line to the British crown partygoer, showed up at a Wiltshire costume ball dressed in a spiffy Nazi uniform much to the glee of some paparazzi lurking in the nearby shadows. Moving stealthily, these photographers soon spotted the gregarious prince soul-kissing another reveler, a smiling female, also dressed in Third Reich regalia. When these pictures appeared the next morning, on the front page of The Sun, under the headline, Harry the Nazi, the Royal family, who lived through the 1940 [End Page 93] Blitz, gasped. Why did Prince Harry behave so irresponsibly? Was he trying to impress the girls? Did he feel robust and daring wearing an Afrika Korps swastika? Or, was he simply another silly undergraduate playing the role of the big cheese? Within hours, Buckingham Palace proffered an apology. Young people—the monarchy lamented—have a limited knowledge of World War II. Why wouldn’t they? For many young people World War II resembles a distant blur, a shapeless, one-paragraph entry in some textbook, about forgotten places. And what about the heroes and villains? The opposing forces? Altering world history events? Did the conflict really matter or were they faded memories, resurrected like the Punic Wars, for end-of-the-semester examinations? But what about Prince Harry? Isn’t he hooked up to a cable television network? Doesn’t he watch World War II reruns? Did he enjoy Raid on Rommel? Probably. After all, he wore the North Afrika Korps outfit to the soirée. For Harry’s generation, popular movies probably explain everything. Want to learn about Pearl Harbor? Watch Tora! Tora! Tora! The Arnhem debacle? Check out A Bridge too Far. Need information about the Normandy invasion? Look at The Longest Day. But World War II motion pictures, like slow-moving lava, often change direction, creating revisionist storylines or facile interpretations. As Professor Michael Paris explains, “the Second World War has been shaped more by the moving image than by any other form of cultural transmission.” To expand his point, Professor Paris brings together fifteen wonderful essays in a 2008 anthology examining cinema and the global conflict. As an innovative study, Repicturing the Second World War offers contemporary interpretations about events that are now three decades old. Film titles such as Land Girls and Foyle’s War take a hard look at British home front life while Tea With Mussolini and Mediterraneo concentrate on Il Duce’s expansionism. Similarly, a French photoplay Safe Conduct and two German productions Aimée and Jaguar and Sophie Scholl detail life under the iron boot, while an American made-for-television drama, The Tuskegee Airmen, glorifies the exploits of an all-volunteer Black fighter squadron even though another U.S. production, Come See the Paradise takes some nasty swipes at Executive Order 9066, the federal law authorizing the Japanese internment camps. Finally, an HBO screenplay Conspiracy documents the infamous 1942 Wannsee Conference where top-ranking Nazis plotted the final solution while an Italian drama, Life is Beautiful and a French title, Train of Life approach the Shoah experience in a frivolous manner. On the Eastern Front, Enemy at the Gates contains many examples of post-Cold War politics and BBC’s Bomber Harris disputes the famed British general’s tactical air war against Germany while two other motion pictures, Saving Private Ryan and Downfall, examine the Normandy invasion and the Führer’s final days. In all, these essays reiterate the oft proclaimed notion that both motion pictures and television productions provide twenty-first century viewers their World War II history even though a great deal of superficial and inaccurate information emanates from these media. And with each passing generation—as the events of this global conflict edge toward oblivion—it comes as no surprise that a young man, who someday might wear the crown of England, would masquerade as a Nazi. Maybe the rubescent youth should take a look at Repicturing the Second World War. Why not...

Subversion or Reinvention? Dilemmas and Debates in the Context of UNHCR's Increasing Involvement with IDPs

The Statute of 1950 deliberately excludes persons who have not crossed an international border from UNHCR’s competence and yet, nearly half the people assisted by UNHCR today are internally displaced. This important evolution rests in part on the restrictive and impractical nature of UNHCR’s original Statute, which necessitated a mandate extension. Additionally, UNHCR’s reorientation is a product of underlying post-Cold War political and international sociological factors, in particular the emergence of international humanitarianism, the erosion of the principle of absolute sovereignty, the emergence of ‘new wars’, and asylum fatigue. Undoubtedly, UNHCR’s involvement with IDPs is contentious. Critics claim that it lacks a legal basis and that it ultimately undermines the institution of asylum. Proponents highlight that in many of today’s complex emergencies it is impossible to distinguish between people who have crossed an international border and those who have not. In this context, UNHCR should act pragmatically based on humanitarian necessity, as opposed to rigid normative criteria.

Nation building and the politics of Islamic internationalism in Guinea: toward an understanding of Muslims’ experience of globalization in Africa

This article discusses the historical role of Islam in the political evolution of Guinea in the broader context of Muslims’ experience of nation/state building and globalization in Africa. This role is examined on the premise that Islam is one of the major globalizing forces (more in the body of the paper on this idea of Islam as a globalizing force) responsible for the formation of what experts have conceptualized as Africa’s “triple heritage” or the juncture of African traditional values, Islamic influence, and the legacy of Western colonialism. The article examines Islam’s role in the creation of cultural identities, territorial polities, and complex regional and trans-continental networks of trade and scholarship in pre-colonial West Africa; the formation of fronts of resistance to European colonial conquest and occupation; and the mobilization of new nationalist forces which sparked the national liberation struggle of the 1940s and 1950s in the region. The discussion of key concepts such as nationalism, nation/state building, internationalism, and globalization exposes the limited applicability of existing theories to the African experience by highlighting the complexity of post-colonial cultural reconstruction and nation building on the continent. From this perspective, the article focuses upon the political and ideological contradictions having marked the relations of the regime of the Parti Democratique de Guinee (PDG) under President Ahmed Sekou Toure and conservative Guinean Muslim circles in the early years of independence, due in part to Toure’s Marxist and socialist leanings of the time. Also comprehensively discussed is this regime’s subsequent ideological incorporation and diplomatic use of Islam in an effort to curb anti-PDG opposition at home and abroad and to free itself from isolation by the West. Hence, President Toure’s successful policy of “offensive diplomatique” geared primarily toward Arab and Muslim nations and organizations but also, though somewhat indirectly, toward Western powers, serves as an example of the dynamics of Islamic internationalism in Cold War global affairs. Past experiences of party-centered and state-controlled regimentation of religious organizations under Toure’s state-party regime is compared to the current trend of self-decentralization and self-internationalization of Islamic forces in light of the challenges of religious radicalism and post-Cold War politics in Africa.

The analysis of protracted social conflict: a tribute to Edward Azar

The aim of this article is to draw attention to the work of a conflict analyst whose theory of ‘protracted social conflict’ – developed in a sustained series of publications over a twenty-year period from the early-1970s – has been neglected in mainstream international relations, strategic studies and security studies circles. The first section offers a conceptual context for assessing the originality and significance of Azar's approach. The second section outlines his theory of protracted social conflict. The third section evaluates his theory in the light of developments in conflict analysis in the 13 years since his death. The conclusion is that Azar's work does not merit such neglect and that it still offers useful pointers for an understanding of the sources of major armed conflict in the turbulent and contested arena of post-Cold War politics.

Globalization and Multi-spatial Trends in the Coverage of Protected-Area Conservation (1980–2000)

This study is focused on the global expansion of protected-area coverage that occurred during the 1980--2000 period. We examine the multi-scale patterning of four of the basic facets of this expansion: i) estimated increases at the world-regional and country-level scales of total protected-area coverage; ii) transboundary protected areas; iii) conservation corridor projects; and iv) type of conservation management. Geospatial patterning of protected-area designations is a reflection of the priorities of global conservation organizations and the globalization of post-Cold War political and economic arrangements. Local and national-level factors (political leadership and infrastructure) as well as international relations such as multilateral and bilateral aid combine with these globalization processes to impact the extent, type, and location of protected-area designations. We conclude that the interaction of these factors led to the creation and reinforcement of marked spatial differences (rather than tendencies toward worldwide evenness or homogenization) in the course of protected-area expansion during the 1980--2000 period.

The Post-National Constellation: Habermas and ``the Second Modernity''

For some years now, Jurgen Habermas, possibly the most influential European philosopher of today, has been producing a growing number of publications on world politics. In the historical context of the collapse of bipolarity and the advent of the triad, along with the punitive wars in the Gulf and Yugoslavia, he is very far from being alone: Jacques Derrida and Noberto Bobbio,Michael Walzer and John Rawls, to name only the most forceful, have also been thinking out loud about the new political configurations beyond the nation-state. The characteristic feature of Habermas’s thought is to perceive a radically new historical configuration, which he calls a‘post-national constellation’ and which would justify the development of a new political project, as a transition to a new cosmopolitan law. In what follows, I examine the precise modalities that are supposed to transform his philosophical design into political and legal arrangements, attempting to dissect the Habermasian vision of a post-Cold War politics better adapted to the challenges of the new century, and to throw light on the ideology behind it, as a prolegomenon to the larger project Habermas invites us to undertake.

The Merits of Ownership; or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Intellectual Property Law

This review essay of Lawrence Lessig's The Future of Ideas and Siva Vaidhyanathan's Copyrights and Copywrongs highlights the common themes in the two books and demonstrates how they represent together a current critique of copyright law in specific and intellectual property more broadly. The author summarizes the principal arguments in the books, situates them in post-Cold War politics, and suggests that both books ignore the important questions of distributive justice raised by intellectual property. After laying out his general critique of the two books, the author turns to a point by point analysis of Professor Lessig's reform proposals.

The Transnational Ga(y)ze: Constructing the East European Object of Desire in Gay Film and Pornography after the Fall of the Wall

Gay pornography employing men from formerly Communist Eastern Europe, including My Polish Waiter (1994), can be seen as acculturation narratives in which the Eastern European acts as a marker in the construction of American gay identities. These films thus formulate contemporary gay culture at the center of post-Cold War political and economic relations.

From imperial gifts to sex slaves: theorizing symbolic representations of the 'comfort women'

Since 1992, owing largely to the activism of Korean and Japanese women leaders, ex-comfort women and legal experts, a precedent-setting international debate has raged at the United Nations with regard to defining the 'comfort women' issue as a war crime and gross violation of women's human rights.The UN debate has radically shifted the paradigm for representing the comfort women, from prostitutes to sex slaves.This paper examines the multiple, competing symbolic representations of comfort women by theorizing the ideologies of three principal parties implicated in the debate as'patriarchal fascism','masculinist sexism' and 'feminist humanitarianism'. As a historical reality, the comfort women issue is complex, interpenetrating the dimensions of gender, social class, ethnicity and state powerThis paper argues that the categorical representations of comfort women as either prostitutes or sex slaves are only partial truths deriving from narrative frames that not only reveal the ideological stances of the opposing camps but also serve their partisan interests in the global post-Cold War politics of women's rights as human rights. The androcentric euphemism 'comfort women' (ianfu), an official coinage of imperial Japan, was used to refer categorically to young females of various ethnic and national backgrounds and social circumstances who became sexual laborers for the Japanese troops before and during the Second World War. In contrast, the soldiers came to refer to these women as the 'pi' (pronounced 'pea'), a Chinese term meaning goods or articles, which, as a slang term, stood for female genitals (Nishino 1992: 46). The issue of the comfort women used in wartime by the military of imperial Japan leaped to the attention of the world community nearly half a century after the end of the War, with a series of hearings by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), beginning in 1992. Since then, several formal hearings have been held by the UNCHR Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, as well as the UNCHR Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (see Soh 1996). In addition, official investigations have been conducted by 'special rapporteurs' appointed by the UN. A 1996 report submitted by the special rapporteur Radhika Coomaraswamy defined the comfort system as a practice of 'military sexual slavery'.' The

Need for New Materials in Aging Aircraft Structures

Post-Cold War political and economic considerations have resulted in efforts to extend the life of many aircraft that are the backboneof NATOoperational forces. Although some aredesignated to be replaced with new aircraft, the replacement schedule for many often requires an unprecedented life span of up to 80 years before retirement. Aircraft within these older e eets have had, and continue to experience with growing frequency, fatigue and corrosion related cracking problems that are of concern to operators. To sustain their airworthiness and reduce the maintenanceburden, structural componentsundergoing theseaging problemswill haveto berepairedorreplaced. Material development that has taken place since most of the older vintage military aircraft entered service has resulted in improved alloys and processes that can be used to upgrade life expectation, performance, and affordability of older systems. Someof these newer materials and theadvantages they offerovertheirolder counterparts are described.

Taking Apart the 'Roads Ahead'

How often have futurologists ever succeeded in making accurate global predictions? Bell’s utopian vision of a leisure-laden ‘Post-Industrial’ society now seems hopelessly naive; Fukuyama’s ‘End of history’ thesis was arguably just a fleeting Reaganite delusion about the stabilization of post Cold War politics. Notwithstanding the failure of such widely hailed prophesies, and despite the lack of any well-attested laws about the historical development of information technologies, a brazenly upbeat futurology pervades many debates on new IT. This is most obviously the case in Bill Gates’ recently updated The Road Ahead. To challenge Gates’ prognostications about the future of information technologies, I will argue for the importance of users (vis-a-vis producers) in the social shaping and ‘consumption’ of IT, especially the power of many (if not necessarily all) such users to resist falling into futures that others prescribe for them. I contend that the non-passivity of IT users undermines the cogency of any claims about the inevitability of technological change, and helps to explain why so many past ‘futures’ of IT have never fully materialized.

Post-Cold War Political and Economic Dimensions of the New Technological Order

Post-Cold War Political and Economic Dimensions of the New Technological Order

Africa in World Politics: Post-Cold War Challenges

Introduction Africa in World Politics: Amidst Renewal, Deepening Crisis (John W. Harbeson.) Parameters Of African Peripheralization The Heritage of Colonialism (Crawford Young.) Africa and the World Political Economy: Still Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Thomas M. Callaghy.) Africa and Other Civilizations: Conquest and Counterconquest (Ali A. Mazrui.) Dependent by Default: Africas Relations with the European Union (John Ravenhill.) Regional Theaters Of African International Relations PostCold War Politics in the Horn of Africa: The Quest for Political Identity Intensified (J. W. Harbeson.) South Africa and Southern Africa After Apartheid (Jeffrey Herbst.) Francophone Africa in the Context of Franco-African Relations (Guy Martin.) The Lagos Three: Economic Regionalism in Sub-Saharan Africa (Carol Lancaster.) Major Issues The United States and Conflict Management in Africa (Donald Rothchild.) Inter-African Negotiation (I. William Zartman.) Promoting Democracy in Africa: U.S. and International Policies in Transition (Larry Diamond.) Political and Military Security (Herman J. Cohen.) Reconciling Sovereignty with Responsibility: A Basis for International Humanitarian Action (Francis M. Deng.).

Leadership, Post-Cold War Politics, and Psychology

Several psychological processes will play important roles in determining the shape of the post-Cold War world. This world will be more structurally and cognitively complex than the previous era, will call for more value trade-offs, and will require greater tolerance for ambiguity. Beliefs about security and the causes of war will also be important. The psychological biases of risk aversion, the assimilation of evidence to fit beliefs, and the propensity to see what one needs to see will operate strongly. Because the external environment is less compelling than it was, the range of choice and role for values will be increased.

Power transition in Northeast Asia: U.S.-China security perceptions and the challenges of systemic adjustment and stability

This article argues that the rise of China and the changing North-east Asian balance of power are creating the classical adjustment problems of Great Power international relations historically associated with power transitions and that three types of misperceptions across five important issues in the Sino-American security relationship are interfering with the prospects of achieving the systemic adjustments required for long-term stability. Power transition and the rise of China are seen as potentially undermining stability in four ways: (1) by generating security dilemmas and arms races, (2) by contributing to increased incidence of conflicting security interests, (3) by aggravating South china Sea maritime disputes, and (4) by undermining Chinese domestic stability in a manner which potentially results in a hostile regime that adopts an aggressive foreign policy coming to power at some point in the future. Systemic adjustment is defined as the process by which major powers peacefully reconcile their opposing interests and is viewed as being an essential feature of stability over the long term. The article argues that three types of misperceptions concerning: (1) salient issues, (2) security interests, and (3) the influence of domestic politics on foreign policy are manifesting themselves in misunderstandings of five security issues that are impeding the systemic adjustment process. These five issues are: (1) the nature of post-cold war Sino-American security relations and international politics, (2) the role of democracy and U.S. human rights in foreign policy, (3) the significance of China’s South China Sea policy, (4) Middle East diplomacy and arms sales, and (5) nuclear weapons and arms control policy. The article concludes with a discussion of policy implications that stresses the importance of consultation and dialogue to reduce misperceptions.

The New Configuration of the Asia-Pacific Economy and Sino-American Economic Relations I. Position of the Asia-Pacific Region in the World Economy

Beginning in the 1990s, post-cold war global politics and economics shaped a new configuration. The formerly antagonistic bipolar environment was replaced by a multipolar one. This was concretely manifested in the fact that the three large economic groups of Western Europe, North America, and East Asia were dominating the world economy, making up two-thirds of the world's manufacture and trade. However, politically, the United States and the European Community (EC) were still playing a major role. An unexpected economic recession followed in the wake of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the old order in Eastern Europe. Long-suppressed national conflicts exploded, leading to political turmoil, wars, and even national dismemberment. On the international political and economic stage, the Soviet Union and East European bloc lost their influence. Disappointingly, the end of the cold war did not bring the stability and prosperity of the world economy that people expected, or the often-d...

Dateline Campaign '92: Post-Cold War Politics

Dateline Campaign '92: Post-Cold War Politics