scholarly journals Will the global economic crisis induce seismic geopolitical changes?

2011 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-236
Author(s):  
Goran Nikolic ◽  
Predrag Petrovic

The paper begins with an analysis of the causes of strong rebalancing of the world economy at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, which leads to weakening of the relative economic importance of developed countries. Then, the authors analyze whether we are in the process of creating a new multilateral geopolitical stage and how much has become important the role of some groups of countries (BRIC and G20). The authors analyze the changes in the global financial architecture defined after World War II under the predominant US influence. In the next two sections the authors first discus how the global crisis will affect the geopolitical constellation and second, they present some estimates that the U.S. dominance, with some dispersion of its global power, could be retained. The authors have concluded that not any of constant geopolitical elements in the leading world countries has substantially changed since 2007, although the economic supremacy of developed economies has significantly decreased in comparison with developing countries and China, in particular. The U.S. leadership is not just a result of its economic and military superiority, but it also results from the relative attractiveness of its ideas and values. So, it is hard to believe that a strong geopolitical reconfiguration could be caused by the global economic crisis, especially in the medium term.

1971 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter F. Abboud

The last fifteen years have witnessed rapid growth in the number of students studying Arabic and of programs concerned with the teaching of the language. This is directly attributable to the awakened interest in the United States in the Middle East in general, and the Arab world in particular, as a result of the entry of the U.S. in World War II and its emergence as a global power with strategic, economical, and political interests in the area. This is not to say that the teaching of Arabic is a new phenomenon in the U.S. As an indespensible tool of Orientalistic scholarship, Arabic was taught for many years in a few institutions which offered programs in Oriental and Semitic Studies.


Author(s):  
Ioana DRĂGULIN ◽  

World War II produced a major shift in global power relations and led to the emergence of bipolarism. The agreements reached by the Allies in Yalta in February 1945 sanctioned the USSR's rule over Eastern Europe. In this context, the takeover of political power and the changes imposed in the economy by the communists in Romania, with the direct help of the USSR was a logical consequence. All the events that took place in Romania between August 23, 1944 and December 31, 1947 were part of the logic of communizing the Romanian society and state on the Soviet model. The communization of Romania followed a path that provided for the invalidation of the liberal, democratic, bourgeois, capitalist model of society and the imposition of another communist, undemocratic, egalitarian, totalitarian model. In order to achieve this goal, measures had been brutally applied to restrict citizens' rights, both politically and in terms of expression or property. In this context, the change of the historical role of the Royal Palace from Cotroceni to the Palace of the Pioneers was part of the propagandistic activity of a totalitarian regime which, in the absence of popular legitimacy, by vote, had to "fabricate" a history to legitimize it in front of the Romanian people.


Author(s):  
Jim Glassman

Jim Glassman addresses the role of the state in the industrial transformation of what was, before the economic crisis of 1997-98, one of Southeast Asia's fastest growing economies. Analyzing the Cold War period, the period of the economic boom, as well as the economic crisis and its political aftershock, Thailand at the Margins recasts the story of the Thai state's post-World War II development performance by focusing on uneven industrialization and the interaction between internationalization and the transformation of Thai labor.


2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuhiro Izumikawa

Since the late 1990s, Japan has sent increasing numbers of its military forces overseas. It has also assumed a more active military role in the U.S.-Japan alliance. Neither conventional constructivist nor realist approaches in international relations theory can adequately explain these changes or, more generally, changes in Japan's security policy since the end of World War II. Instead, Japan's postwar security policy has been driven by the country's powerful antimilitarism, which reflects the following normative and realist factors: pacifism, antitraditionalism, and fear of entrapment. An understanding of the influence of these three factors makes it possible to explain both Japan's past reluctance to play a military role overseas and its increasing activism over the last decade. Four case studies—the revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in 1960, the anti–Vietnam War period, increases in U.S.-Japan military cooperation during détente, and actions taken during the administration of Junichiro Koizumi to enhance Japan's security profile—illustrate the role of antimilitarism in Japan's security policy. Only through a theoretical approach based on analytical eclecticism—a research strategy that considers factors from different paradigms—can scholars explain specific puzzles in international politics.


Geografie ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-132
Author(s):  
Zdeněk Čermák

The article overviews the role of internal migration in the development of Prague with special regard to the period of transition in the 1990s. At the beginning, the general development trends of urban agglomerations and its new features in developed countries after World War II are outlined. The recent structure of Prague's migration and its territorial aspects are analysed. The reasons why Prague's migration balance has changed in 1990s are also discussed.


2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (139) ◽  
pp. 247-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Jürgen Bieling

Recent theoretical conceptions of imperialism may be useful correctives against idealising and harmonising views of international interdependency and co-operation. Analytically, however, they are not necessarily helpful. In terms of the EU, they do not really comprehend its particular international role. Despite improved financial and military capacities, the EU represents not yet an imperial power. Instead, it still pursues a rather hegemonic foreign policy approach due to internal economic restrictions, fragmented political sovereignty and the historical experiences of beneficial economic and political co-operation after World War II. Eventually, however, it remains an open question, whether the multilateralist, law-based and co-operative posture of the EU will prevail even under conditions of economic crisis and further military conflicts in the adjacent neighbourhood.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Henrietta Bannerman

John Cranko's dramatic and theatrically powerful Antigone (1959) disappeared from the ballet repertory in 1966 and this essay calls for a reappraisal and restaging of the work for 21st century audiences. Created in a post-World War II environment, and in the wake of appearances in London by the Martha Graham Company and Jerome Robbins’ Ballets USA, I point to American influences in Cranko's choreography. However, the discussion of the Greek-themed Antigone involves detailed consideration of the relationship between the ballet and the ancient dramas which inspired it, especially as the programme notes accompanying performances emphasised its Sophoclean source but failed to recognise that Cranko mainly based his ballet on an early play by Jean Racine. As Antigone derives from tragic drama, the essay investigates catharsis, one of the many principles that Aristotle delineated in the Poetics. This well-known effect is produced by Greek tragedies but the critics of the era complained about its lack in Cranko's ballet – views which I challenge. There is also an investigation of the role of Antigone, both in the play and in the ballet, and since Cranko created the role for Svetlana Beriosova, I reflect on memories of Beriosova's interpretation supported by more recent viewings of Edmée Wood's 1959 film.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 26-29
Author(s):  
mayer kirshenblatt ◽  
barbara kirshenblatt-gimblett

Mayer Kirshenblatt remembers in words and paintings the daily diet of Jews in Poland before the Holocaust. Born in 1916 in Opatóów (Apt in Yiddish), a small Polish city, this self-taught artist describes and paints how women bought chickens from the peasants and brought them to the shoykhet (ritual slaughterer), where they plucked the feathers; the custom of shlogn kapores (transferring one's sins to a chicken) before Yom Kippur; and the role of herring and root vegetables in the diet, especially during the winter. Mayer describes how his family planted and harvested potatoes on leased land, stored them in a root cellar, and the variety of dishes prepared from this important staple, as well as how to make a kratsborsht or scratch borsht from the milt (semen sack) of a herring. In the course of a forty-year conversation with his daughter, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, who also interviewed Mayer's mother, a picture emerges of the daily, weekly, seasonal, and holiday cuisine of Jews who lived in southeastern Poland before World War II.


2020 ◽  
pp. 79-92
Author(s):  
Burhanettin Duran

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the domestic and foreign policy agendas of all countries have been turned upside down. The pandemic has brought new problems and competition areas to states and to the international system. While the pandemic politically calls to mind the post-World War II era, it can also be compared with the 2008 crisis due to its economic effects such as unemployment and the disruption of global supply chains. A debate immediately began for a new international system; however, it seems that the current international system will be affected, but will not experience a radical change. That is, a new international order is not expected, while disorder is most likely in the post-pandemic period. In an atmosphere of global instability where debates on the U.S.-led international system have been worn for a while, in the post-pandemic period states will invest in self-sufficiency and redefine their strategic areas, especially in health security. The decline of U.S. leadership, the challenging policies of China, the effects of Chinese policies on the U.S.-China relations and the EU’s deepening crisis are going to be the main discussion topics that will determine the future of the international system.


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