Post-war Settlement Research Articles

Nie tylko do szuflady. Maria Dąbrowska o Ziemiach Zachodnich po 1945 roku

Abstract This article attempts to trace and characterize Maria Dąbrowska’s interest in the so-called Western Territories, ie. the eastern provinces of the German Reich handed over to Poland in 1945 as part of the post-war settlement. The analysis, based on the text of her Diaries, tries to establish the relative size and importance of her references to the WT, identify their themes and their contemporary social, political and cultural contexts. The article also examines Dąbrowska’s more or less explicit judgments of the policies of Poland’s postwar communist government with regard to the Western Territories

Lost Freedom: The Landscape of the Child and the British Post-War Settlement

Lost Freedom: The Landscape of the Child and the British Post-War Settlement

Adeus à classe trabalhadora?

No início da década de 1980, a política centrada em classes da tradição socialista estava em crise, e comentadores importantes adotaram tons apocalípticos. No final da década, a esquerda permanecia profundamente dividida entre os advogados da mudança e os defensores da fé. Em meados dos anos 1990, os primeiros tinham, de modo geral, ganhado a batalha. O artigo busca apresentar essa mudança contemporânea não como a 'morte da classe', mas como o desaparecimento de um tipo particular de sociedade de classes, marcado pelo processo de formação da classe trabalhadora entre os anos 1880 e 1940 e pelo alinhamento político daí resultante, atingindo seu apogeu na construção social-democrata do acordo do pós-guerra. Quando mudanças de longo prazo na economia se combinaram com o ataque ao keynesianismo na política de recessão a partir de meados da década de 1970, a unidade da classe trabalhadora deixou de estar disponível da forma antiga e bastante utilizada, como o terreno natural da política de esquerda. Enquanto uma coletividade dominante da classe trabalhadora entrou em declínio, outra se corporificou de modo lento e desigual para tomar o lugar daquela. Mas a unidade operacional dessa nova agregação da classe trabalhadora ainda está, em grande parte, em formação. Para recuperar a eficácia política da tradição socialista, alguma nova visão de agência política coletiva será necessária, uma visão imaginativamente ajustada às condições emergentes da produção e acumulação capitalista no início do século XXI.

A ‘blank cheque'? Portuguese Second World War sterling balances, 1940–73

The British effort in the Second World War required massive external financing which depended on Lend‐Lease and the accumulation of sterling balances. Indebtedness in sterling balances corresponded to almost 38 per cent of this total at the end of the war. Portuguese sterling balances, although a small share of the total, were important because of pre‐emptive purchases, especially of wolfram, and because of the ‘gold clause’ which was to be applied to outstanding balances. Portugal's willingness to finance British purchases contrasts with the requirement of German payments in goods or cash for their purchases in Portugal. The settlement of Portuguese sterling balances in August 1945 was singular as it preceded the Anglo‐American settlement of December 1945 which had important consequences for sterling balance holders, as the US insisted that the US$3.75 billion loan should not be used to settle British war debts. Postwar settlement of British debt through a long‐term loan from Portugal to Britain contrasts with settlements that involved the sale of British assets. Salazar's concerns about the postwar international position of Portugal, the Portuguese Empire, and the survival of the Portuguese regime are relevant in explaining his pro‐British stance during and after the war.

To Build a Notion: US State Department Nation Building Expertise and Postwar Settlements in 20th Century East Central Europe

This article offers a contribution to the sociology of social science knowledge practices and expertise through the empirical lens of US nation building policies. Drawing on archival materials, including the State Department's Freedom of Information Act documents, and interviews with key policymakers we offer a comparative historical sociology of the US State Department as a site of nation building knowledge and expertise. In examining the evolving character of nation building expertise in three key moments across the twentieth century, we find that as nation building expertise and its attendant knowledge practices were redefined and institutionally relocated, the essential character of the expertise and data collection practices that were valorized shifted from social scientism in the 1910s to geopolitical empiricism in the 1940s to liberal legalism in the 1990s. This changing character of nation building knowledge practices at the State Department had an effect on the substance of US nation building policy.

Conserving Dirty Concrete: The Decline and Rise of Pasmore's Apollo Pavilion, Peterlee

The Apollo Pavilion, Peterlee, is a large sculpture built to the designs of artist Victor Pasmore. Always controversial, the pavilion has been under threat for much of its life. However, it is recently restored and in December 2011 it was granted Grade II* listing. This might be seen as a story of an artwork and monument rescued from ruin by an artistic and cultural elite similar to the one which created it, as part of a wider “authorized heritage discourse” that has sought to revalorize avant-garde modernist structures despite public hostility. However, the paper argues that the pavilion also needs to be understood in other ways. First, the impetus for creating a positive future for the pavilion has been generated locally. Second, there is a need to understand it in the wider context of the landscape in which it sits; as the visual culmination of an ambitious collaboration between artist and architect. Third, the pavilion should be seen as a monument embodying progressive values, as part of the post-war settlement that strove to create better living environments for all. Fourth, it is argued, it is an object that will continue to provoke, rather than becoming part of a warm, comforting blanket of heritage.

The New Contractualism, the Privatization of the Welfare State, and the Barriers to Open Source Planning

This paper argues that the UK government's Open Source Planning reforms are founded on a caricatured vision of state–society relationships. Simple binaries are deployed that present political power as a zero-sum game with ‘communities’ on the one side and state ‘bureaucracies’ on the other. There has been little recognition of the complex public–private sector entanglements left by the previous Labour government and the power of the ‘new contractualism’ in shaping the provision and ownership of welfare services and assets. The paper assesses the legacies of privatization under Labour and the structural limits that contracts and private financing now put on the governance and management of the welfare state and the planning system. It contends that the principle sources of state power and accountability that underpinned the post-war settlement are being eroded. Paradoxically, this will not devolve power to local communities and citizens but create new forms of distancing and disempowerment.

British world or new world?

This paper suggests that in discussing the formation of national identity in the decades prior to the First World War, we should move beyond the analytic binary of ‘Australian radical nationalism’ on the one hand and ‘British race patriotism’ on the other. It is suggested, furthermore, that the recent promotion of the idea of ‘British race patriotism’ as the basis of Australian national identity misses the importance of a transnational Anglo-Saxonism — theorised by historians such as E. A. Freeman — that underpinned strong identification on the part of an influential group of Australian radical liberals — women and men — with the independent New World republic of the United States. The First World War disrupted these identifications and locked Australia into a revivified British empire. Overnight ‘Teutonic cousins’ became ‘barbarous Huns’; German-Australians were demonised as ‘enemy aliens’ and thousands deported. Pre-war Anglo-Saxon identifications with Germany and the United States gave way to new incitements to imperial loyalty and White Britishness symbolised by the visit to Australia of Sir Henry Rider Haggard on behalf of the Royal Colonial Institute to promote a post-war imperial settlement scheme.This article has been peer-reviewed.

From ‘Consensus’ to ‘Common Ground’: The Rhetoric of the Postwar Settlement and its Collapse

There has been much historical debate about whether or not there was a ‘political consensus’ in Britain in the postwar decades. However, surprisingly little attention has been paid to what politicians said about ‘consensus’ at the time and what this indicated about the nature of political argument. This article shows that ‘consensus’ and similar terms (such as ‘the middle way’) were in use from the 1940s, but it does not assume that consensus existed just because some contemporaries asserted that it did. Rather, it examines how differing interpretations of consensus were invoked in political debate in order to advance a range of partisan agendas. It further shows how right-wing Conservatives from the late 1960s sought both to attack the consensus rhetorically and to reach out (in Keith Joseph’s phrase) to ‘the common ground’ that New Right policies supposedly represented. It concludes that Thatcher, as Conservative leader and Prime Minister, did not abandon the structure of consensus rhetoric so much as repopulate it with exclusively ‘national’ terms.

Literature of the 1950s: good, brave causes

Acknowledgements Chapter 1. Introduction: 'All this, and Everest too!' I. The Voice of the Young Chapter 2. The Metaphorical Utility of Youth Chapter 3. Angering Aunt Edna: 1950s Theatre Chapter 4. First Writing: 1950s Fiction III. The Less Deceived Chapter 5. Women, Children and Home Chapter 6. The Sensation of Movement: Poetry in the 50s Chapter 7. Evil Men: Literature and Homosexuality II. Postwar Settlements Chapter 8. Coming Home: The Literature of Immigration Chapter 9. Organic Communities: Regional Literature Chapter 10. The Scholarship Class: Literature and Social Mobility IV. Other Uses of Literacy Chapter 11. Criticism Under Scrutiny Chapter 12. The Dedicated Man: Publishing, Media and Reviewing Chapter 13. Where East Meets West: Literature, the New Left and the Cold War Chapter 14. Conclusions Works Cited.

‘The highest flights of circumlocutory art’: Britain, Latvia and Recognizing the Soviet Annexation of 1940

The British Government never recognized the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States in June 1940, but almost did so early in 1942 and was ready to do so again in 1944, when it took at face value Stalin's revision of the Soviet constitution. The result was ‘trouble’ from the Baltic ambassadors in London, particularly the Latvian ambassador. The British Government changed its stance in autumn 1945 when the revisions to the Soviet constitution proved to be sham. Thereafter British policy amounted to procrastination, as the developing Cold War prevented a final post-war settlement.

Why Progressives Should be Pro‐Family

For egalitarians, families are part of the problem. By bringing together advantages and passing on to their children, families redouble and (literally) reproduce inequalities. And, by cordoning off a private sphere into which government cannot roam, the family marks the limits of any progressive agenda. But defending families should be part of any answer to social injustice. Family relationships should be seen as a primary good: we need close, caring committed relationships no matter what else we want in life. Families are also increasingly important to one's chances in life. The gulf is widening between those rich and those poor in family life. This should worry egalitarians because lacking good, stable family relationships is a major disadvantage, and one that holds back progress towards other aspects of social justice.

‘This age is the age of associations’: committees, petitions, and the roots of interwar Middle Eastern internationalism

AbstractThis article examines three diasporic campaigns orchestrated by Middle Eastern political entrepreneurs in Paris, New York, and Cairo, in the years bookending the First World War. Mobilizing across borders, their organizers were exemplary denizens of the transnational public sphere created by Ottoman migrants from the 1880s onwards. Exponents of globalism, they regarded the body politic as a diasporic construct unconstrained by territory. Furthermore, they saw the associations that they founded both as instruments of civility capable of reforming society and as practical political vehicles, mouthpieces for the claims that they communicated to the ‘community of nations’ through petitions and telegrams. Such strategies of appeal suggest that many of the features of ‘interwar’ Middle Eastern internationalism emerged not in response to the post-war settlement but in the last decades of Ottoman rule. This article therefore contributes to our understanding of the histories of globalism, the practices and perceptions of public life, and the engagement of non-Western people with international society.

The Labour Party and Strategic Bombing in the Second World War

The Second World War had a central role in the history of Britain's Labour Party. The experience culminated in the party's success in the 1945 general election, a victory that was held to have been the result of its concentration on domestic policy planning and in promising the public a welfarist post-war settlement. It has almost been assumed that Labour was not involved in the strategic or operational conduct of the war, including what was the first, became the longest-standing, and has remained the most controversial, aspect of Britain's waging of war: strategic, area, or ‘obliteration’ bombing. The disposition of what some maintained was - or should be - an internationalist party of working people towards the mass killing of civilians has not formally been considered before: whether the party approved of the policy or how far it merely had other (it may have felt) more-pressing priorities. Such an examination illustrates ‘labourism’ in the war and in its ambivalence towards Europe and Europeans also, ...

Шиитский фактор во внешней политике Ирана

Special emphasis in the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) is laid on the Shia factor. Its role increased significantly after the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq was overthrown in 2003, and also as a result of both strengthening of Shiite radical organizations (“Hezbollah”), and a common rise of Shiite Muslims' civil consciousness in the Middle East during that period. As the biggest Shia country in the world, Iran lends support to groups of its adherents in the Persian Gulf region. Without its contribution, the post-war settlement process in Iraq may become much more complicated. Besides, Iran is bound by long-lasting cooperation ties with Bashar al-Assad Alawite regime in Syria. The whole range of issues is the focus of the author's attention in the article.

Beyond War Crimes: Denazification, ‘Obnoxious’ Germans and US Policy in Franco's Spain after the Second World War

AbstractThis work links the western Allies’ policy of denazification in occupied Germany to efforts to repatriate German intelligence agents and Nazi Party officials – so-called ‘obnoxious’ Germans – from the neutral states of Europe after the Second World War. Once on German soil, these individuals would be subject to internment and investigation as outlined in occupation policy. Using the situation in Franco's Spain as a case study, the article argues that new ideas of neutrality following the war and a strong commitment to the concept of denazification led to the creation of the repatriation policy, especially within the United States. Repatriation was also a way to measure the extent to which Franco's Spain accepted the Allied victory and the defeat of Nazism and fascism. The US perception was that the continued presence of individual Nazis meant the continued influence of Nazism itself. Spain responded half-heartedly, at best. Despite the fact that in terms of numbers repatriated the policy was a failure, the Spanish example demonstrates that the attempted repatriation of ‘obnoxious’ Germans from neutral Europe, although overlooked, was significant not only as part of the immediate post-war settlement but also in its bearing on US ideas about Nazism, security and perceived collaboration of neutral states like Spain.

Dimensions of Publicness and Organizational Performance: A Review of the Evidence

Debates about the merits of publicness have dominated the public administration landscape since the foundation of the modern state. The extent of organizational publicness (ownership, funding, and control) has waxed and waned in developed countries: it rose following the postwar settlement and fell under the policies of New Right government and the popularity of the notions of New Public Management. We argue that publicness effects are likely to diminish in the face of organizational and contextual characteristics and that what matters for performance is management and organization. To this end, we examine the evidence base by undertaking a review of academic studies of publicness and organizational performance. The results suggest that publicness makes a difference to efficiency and equity, but the magnitude and direction of this effect varies with the characteristics of the empirical studies. Our findings clearly point toward the need for research that includes all dimensions of publicness, a variety of performance measures, and the moderating effects of management, organization, and external constraints.

The postwar settlement in Taiwan

The postwar settlement in Taiwan

High coverage of mass drug administration for lymphatic filariasis in rural and non-rural settings in the Western Area, Sierra Leone

BackgroundLymphatic filariasis elimination programs are based upon preventative chemotherapy annually in populations with prevalence more than or equal to 1%. The goal is to treat 80% of the eligible, at risk population yearly, for at least 5 years, in order to interrupt transmission and prevent children from becoming infected. This level of coverage has been a challenge in urban settings. Assessing the coverage in a rapidly growing urban/non-rural setting with inadequate population data is also problematic. In Sierra Leone, a 5-day preventative chemotherapy campaign was carried out in the Western Area including the capital: Freetown. An intensive, social mobilization strategy combined traditional and modern communication channels. To aid dissemination of appropriate information Frequently Asked Questions were developed and widely circulated. The population of the Western Area has grown faster than projected by the 2004 National Census due to the post-war settlement of internally displaced persons. As a reliable denominator was not available, independent monitoring was adapted and performed "in process" to aid program performance and "end process" to assess final coverage.ResultsIn 5 days 1,104,407 eligible persons were treated. Using the projected population from the 2004 census this figure represented coverage of 116% in the Urban Western Area and 129% in the Rural Western Area. Independent monitors interviewed a total of 9,253 persons during the 2 End Process days representing 1% of the projected population. Of these, 85.8% recalled taking both ivermectin and albendazole (Urban: 85.2%, Rural: 87.1%). No serious adverse drug reactions were reported.ConclusionThe paper presents the key elements of success of the social mobilization and implementation strategy and describes the independent monitoring used to estimate final coverage in this urban/non-rural setting where the current population size is uncertain. This implementation strategy and Independent Monitoring tool could be useful in similar, rapidly growing cities implementing lymphatic filariasis elimination programs.

American Approaches to the European Post-war Settlement in the Light of Relations with the Soviet Union in 1943-1945

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