Building Military Doctrine based on History and Experience: 20th century examples from Germany, France, Israel and the US

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 114-150
Author(s):  
Łukasz Przybyło
Author(s):  
Anna Igorevna Filimonova

After the collapse of the USSR, fundamentally new phenomena appeared on the world arena, which became a watershed separating the bipolar order from the monopolar order associated with the establishment of the US global hegemony. Such phenomena were the events that are most often called «revolutions» in connection with the scale of the changes being made — «velvet revolutions» in the former Eastern Bloc, as well as revolutions of a different type, which ended in a change in the current regimes with such serious consequences that we are also talking about revolutionary transformations. These are technologies of «color revolutions» that allow organizing artificial and seemingly spontaneous mass protests leading to the removal of the legitimate government operating in the country and, in fact, to the seizure of power by a pro-American forces that ensure the Westernization of the country and the implementation of "neoliberal modernization", which essentially means the opening of national markets and the provision of natural resources for the undivided use of the Western factor (TNC and TNB). «Color revolutions» are inseparable from the strategic documents of the United States, in which, from the end of the 20th century, even before the collapse of the USSR, two main tendencies were clearly traced: the expansion of the right to unilateral use of force up to a preemptive strike, which is inextricably linked with the ideological justification of «missionary» American foreign policy, and the right to «assess» the internal state of affairs in countries and change it to a «democratic format», that is, «democratization». «Color revolutions», although they are not directly mentioned in strategic documents, but, being a «technical package of actions», straightforwardly follow from the right, assigned to itself by Washington, to unilateral use of force, which is gradually expanding from exclusively military actions to a comprehensive impact on an opponent country, i.e. essentially a hybrid war. Thus, the «color revolutions» clearly fit into the strategic concept of Washington on the use of force across the entire spectrum (conventional and unconventional war) under the pretext of «democratization». The article examines the period of registration and expansion of the US right to use force (which, according to the current international law, is a crime without a statute of limitations) in the time interval from the end of the twentieth century until 2014, filling semantic content about the need for «democratic transformations» of other states, with which the United States approached the key point of the events of the «Arab spring» and «color revolutions» in the post-Soviet space, the last and most ambitious of which was the «Euromaidan» in Ukraine in 2014. The article presents the material for the preparation of lectures and seminars in the framework of the training fields «International Relations» and «Political Science».


Lateral ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Moriah

Kristin Moriah’s essay is rooted in extensive archival work in the US and Germany, examining the transatlantic circulation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin through markets of performance and literature in and between Germany and the United States. The essay follows the performative tropes of Uncle Tom’s Cabin from its originary political resonances to the present-day restaurants, train-stops, and housing projects named for the novel. Moriah reveals how the figurations of blackness arising from these texts are foundational to the construction of Germanness and American-German relations in the early 20th century and beyond.


2018 ◽  
Vol 146 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 351-355
Author(s):  
Gordana Teofilovski-Parapid ◽  
Maria Miglino

Liberato J. A. DiDio (1920?2004) was one of the most prominent figures of anatomy belonging to the 20th century?s second half and an open-minded man. In 1984, during the era of communism in Yugoslavia, he opened the doors of the Medical College of Ohio (MCO) in Toledo, OH, USA, to a Serbian doctor. During the troubled times for people and anatomists in Serbia in 1994, he saved their association from being expelled from the International Federation of Anatomical Associations. In 1999, only a few months after the bombing of Yugoslavia, he helped them to get the organization of the XVIII International Symposium on Morphological Sciences in 2005, the meeting of the leaders in the field. Serbian anatomists and clinicians proved that he was right when considering them on a par with their peers in the international anatomical and medical community. Professor DiDio first showed talent with Gold Medal ? top graduate at his high school, and La Royale Award (Graduation Golden Ring) ? top graduate MD. He was trained in Brazil, Italy, and the US. He was the Founding Chairman ? Department of Topographical Anatomy, Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil; Head of Gross and Surgical Anatomy, Northwestern University Medical, Dental, and Graduate Schools; Founding Chairman, Department of Anatomy, MCO; Professor Emeritus at the age of 70 (1990), Assistant to the President of the MCO, Consultant to the President and the Emeritus Dean (1992?2004). He was a member of editorial boards of 34 journals, academic adviser in 92 M.S. and Ph.D. theses.


Text Matters ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 374-392
Author(s):  
Magdalena Szuster

It was in the mid-twentieth century that the independent theatrical form based entirely on improvisation, known now as improvisational/improvised theatre, impro or improv, came into existence and took shape. Viola Spolin, the intellectual and the logician behind the improvisational movement, first used her improvised games as a WPA worker running theater classes for underprivileged youth in Chicago in 1939. But it was not until 1955 that her son, Paul Sills, together with a college theater group, the Compass Players, used Spolin’s games on stage. In the 1970s Sills made the format famous with his other project, the Second City. Since the emergence of improv in the US coincides with the renaissance of improvisation in theater, in this paper, I will look back at what may have prepared and propelled the emergence of improvised theater in the United States. Hence, this article is an attempt to look at the use of improvisation in theater and performing arts in the United States in the second half of the 20th century in order to highlight the various roles and functions of improvisation in the experimental theater of the day by analyzing how some of the most influential experimental theaters used improvisation as a means of play development, a component of actor training and an important element of the rehearsal process.


Author(s):  
C. C. W. Taylor

‘The iconic Socrates’ considers Socrates’ role as a gay icon and an icon for civil disobedience. In the Platonism revival of the Florentine Renaissance, the high-minded picture of Platonic/Socratic love focused on the spiritual and intellectual perfection of the beloved, but in an alternative ancient tradition Socrates was presented as a sexual enthusiast, with a penchant for attractive boys. The context of Socrates’ emergence as a major political icon of the 20th century was provided by the US civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement, but there is no evidence that Socrates ever actually espoused civil disobedience as a political ideology or performed any act of civil disobedience. Socrates remains a pioneer of systematic ethical thought and a paragon of moral and intellectual integrity.


Author(s):  
William H. Brock

‘Synthesis’ considers how the shape and scale of chemistry has been transformed since the start of the 20th century. A series of world wars; a shift from coal to oil as the feedstock for the chemical industry; the introduction of physical instrumentation, quantum mechanics, and electronic theories; the organization of academia and industry to create Big Science as opposed to the more individualized research of previous centuries; a shift from European dominance of the subject to the US and then Russia, Japan, and China; and more women joining the profession have all been important. Underlying these changes was the theme of synthesis of natural chemicals and the creation of artificial materials.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 732-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Butler

In 1925, then-Captain AW Stevens of the US Army Air Corps took low-angle, oblique aerial photographs of the spectacular landscape of Glacier National Park, Montana (USA). Two of those photographs, of astonishing clarity, were used in a US Geological Survey Professional Paper published in 1959, but were subsequently assigned to the US National Archives and never utilized again. This paper advocates the usefulness of Stevens’ photographs for documenting landscape change from the early 20th century to the present. Stevens’ photographs illustrate the “state” of numerous Park glaciers in 1925, and are the first known aerial photographs of the Park glaciers. These photographs can be used in comparison to modern photographs to illustrate the extent of glacial recession that has occurred in the Park since 1925.


Author(s):  
Diana Wylie

The Tangier American Legation Museum reflects the evolution of Moroccan–American relations over two centuries. Morocco, the first country to recognize the independence of the United States (1777), became the site of the first overseas American diplomatic mission in 1821 when the sultan gave the US government title to the museum’s current home—8 rue d’Amérique (zankat America)—in the old city of Tangier. The building went on to house the US consulate (1821–1905), legation (1905–1956), a State Department Foreign Service language school (1961–1970), and a Peace Corps training center (1970–1973), before becoming a museum dedicated to displaying art and artifacts about Morocco and Moroccan–American relations (1976). Despite the official story of the origin of the forty-one-room museum, its holdings and activities since the late 20th century derive more from unofficial American relationships with Morocco than from US government policy. The private actions of individual Americans and Moroccans, with some State Department support, led the museum to become in the late 20th century a research and cultural center serving academics and the broad public, including the people in its neighborhood (Beni Ider). In 1981 the US Department of the Interior put the Legation on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1982 it became the only site outside the United States designated as a National Historic Landmark due to its past diplomatic and military significance, as well as to the building’s blend of Moroccan and Spanish architectural styles.


2020 ◽  
pp. 001083672097545
Author(s):  
Akos Kopper

Today diplomacy increasingly relies on tweets. Yet, as tweets only allow for 280 characters, statements must be brief and impactful, which encourages the use of humour in conveying one’s message. This article scrutinizes irony and ridicule in diplomatic interactions. Even though these forms of humour may antagonize parties and even turn issues into a security concern, this article points out that they also have an affiliative aspect and could play a conflict-mediating role. Because humour, especially irony, is easy to misunderstand (especially in cross-cultural settings), many warn against using them in diplomatic exchanges. Nevertheless, I will argue that they are ideal for expressing multi-layered messages, enabling the speaker to rely on what is often called ‘constructive ambiguity’, which is often useful in diplomatic conduct. Two case studies illustrate the argument. The first focuses on cartoons ridiculing President Wilson in the early 20th century for his reluctance to commit the US to join WWI (suggesting that cartoons of the time might be predecessors of today’s tweets), and the second on tweets published by the British Embassy in London apropos of the Skripal case (offering an example how humorous tweets can convey multi-layered, complex messages).


2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (142) ◽  
pp. 7-22
Author(s):  
"Mónica Bruckmann ◽  
Theotonio Dos Santos

At the beginning of the 20th century, social movements in Latin America were heavily influenced by anarchist immigrants from Europe and then by the ideological struggles around the Russian revolution. Beginning in the 1930s, many social movements started to incorporate into leftwing and populist parties and governments, such as the Cardenismo in Mexico. Facing the shift of many governments towards the left and the 'threat' of socialist Cuba, ultrarightwing groups and the military, supported by the US, responded in many countries with brutal repression and opened the neoliberal era. Today, after 30 years of repression and neoliberal hegemony, the social movements are gaining strength again in many Latin American countries. With the anti-globalization movement, new insurrections like the Zapatismo in Mexico, and some leftwing governments coming into power in Venezuela, Brasil and other countries, there appears to be a new turn in Latin America's road to the future.


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