The New Polish-German Treaties and the Changing Political Structure of Europe

1992 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wladyslaw Czaplinski

The bilateral treaties concluded by Poland and Germany on November 14, 1990, and June 17, 1991, are an ideal illustration of the political and social changes in Central Europe. They were intended to constitute a turning point in the relations between the two neighbors, enemies for centuries that are now starting to construct a common future.

Author(s):  
Paweł Sitkiewicz

The text describes the backstage of the legendary International Experimental Film Competition in Brussels, which accompanied the Expo-58 Exhibition at a turning point of the political thaw in Eastern and Central Europe. The most important representatives of avant-garde cinema and auteur animation of three generations took part in this event. The Grand Prix was awarded to The House of Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica. The prize became the ticket to a European career for these two young filmmakers. The competition was also remembered as a symbolic beginning of the “Polish school of animation” (or the so-called “Polish school of experimental film”) on the global film market. The author of the article also writes about a difficult return to Poland, about a cash prize that caused many problems, about the successes of Polish films in Brussels, and about the reception of The House in Poland and abroad. Finally, he tries to demonstrate why this bleak and difficult to understand film, which builds opposition to the optimism of Expo Exhibitions, won the main prize, beating over 300 competitors from around the world.


Author(s):  
Lara Deeb ◽  
Mona Harb

South Beirut has recently become a vibrant leisure destination with a plethora of cafés and restaurants that cater to the young, fashionable, and pious. What effects have these establishments had on the moral norms, spatial practices, and urban experiences of this Lebanese community? From the diverse voices of young Shi'i Muslims searching for places to hang out, to the Hezbollah officials who want this media-savvy generation to be more politically involved, to the religious leaders worried that Lebanese youth are losing their moral compasses, this book provides a sophisticated and original look at leisure in the Lebanese capital. What makes a café morally appropriate? How do people negotiate morality in relation to different places? And under what circumstances might a pious Muslim go to a café that serves alcohol? This book highlights tensions and complexities exacerbated by the presence of multiple religious authorities, a fraught sectarian political context, class mobility, and a generation that takes religion for granted but wants to have fun. The book elucidates the political, economic, religious, and social changes that have taken place since 2000, and examines leisure's influence on Lebanese sociopolitical and urban situations. Asserting that morality and geography cannot be fully understood in isolation from one another, the book offers a colorful new understanding of the most powerful community in Lebanon today.


2005 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert D. Burrowes

This article is a study of the several hundred North Yemenis who went out from isolated Yemen for education between 1947 and 1959. It focuses on their backgrounds, what and where they studied, the impact on them of this experience, what they did when they returned and, finally, the impact they have had on the Yemen most hoped to change. The major conclusion is that their impact has been modest and that this is best explained by Yemen's socio-cultural system and the political structure it supports.


Author(s):  
Tom Scott

Renewed interest in Swiss history has sought to overcome the old stereotypes of peasant liberty and republican exceptionalism. The heroic age of the Confederation in the fifteenth century is now seen as a turning point as the Swiss polity achieved a measure of institutional consolidation and stability, and began to mark out clear frontiers. This book questions both assumptions. It argues that the administration of the common lordships by the cantons collectively gave rise to as much discord as cooperation, and remained a pragmatic device not a political principle. It argues that the Swiss War of 1499 was an avoidable catastrophe, from which developed a modus vivendi between the Swiss and the Empire as the Rhine became a buffer zone, not a boundary. It then investigates the background to Bern’s conquest of the Vaud in 1536, under the guise of relieving Geneva from beleaguerment, to suggest that Bern’s actions were driven not by predeterminate territorial expansion but by the need to halt French designs upon Geneva and Savoy. The geopolitical balance of the Confederation was fundamentally altered by Bern’s acquisition of the Vaud and adjacent lands. Nevertheless, the political fabric of the Confederation, which had been tested to the brink during the Reformation, proved itself flexible enough to absorb such a major reorientation, not least because what held the Confederation together was not so much institutions as a sense of common identity and mutual obligation forged during the Burgundian Wars of the 1470s.


Author(s):  
Supriya Mukherjee

This chapter focuses on Indian historical writing. The end of colonial rule in 1947 was a turning point in Indian historical writing and culture. History emerged as a professional discipline with the establishment of new state-sponsored institutions of research and teaching. Attached to the institutionalization was the political imperative of a newly independent nation in search of a coherent and comprehensive historical narrative to support its nation-building efforts. At the same time, there was a desire to establish an autonomous Indian perspective, free of colonial constraints and distortions. In this, post-independence historiography owed much to earlier strands of nationalist historiography. During the first two decades after independence, three main trajectories of historical writing emerged: an official and largely secular nationalist historiography, a cultural nationalist historiography with strong religious overtones, and a critical Marxist trajectory based on analyses of social forms.


1998 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naditn Rouhana ◽  
Asʿad Ghanem

The vast majority of states in the international system, democratic and non-democratic, are multi-ethnic (Gurr 1993). A liberal-democratic multi-ethnic state serves the collective needs of all its citizens regardless of their ethnic affiliation, and citizenship—legally recognized membership in the political structure called a state—is the single criterion for belonging to the state and for granting equal opportunity to all members of the system. Whether a multi-ethnic democratic state should provide group rights above and beyond individual legal equality is an ongoing debate (Gurr & Harff 1994).


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Dmytriieva Valeriia

<p>The article is aimed at scrutinizing a variety of modernistic writings in a Bluebeard fairytale tradition. It is intended to show what is to be gained by studying texts in relation to the contexts in which they were produced. The period considered here is that of the late XIX and early XX centuries. This takes us into discussing patriarchal authority in the political thought of the early modern time in France and that of the Victorian England.The “Bluebeard” fairytale changes in the domain of gender as a response to certain historical and psychological changes are analyzed. A wide range of writings is investigated to reveal the contribution made by the French and English authors in the field of literature. The analysis implies that certain feministic ideas which grew out of social changes in the society of France and England have provoked some archetypal alterations in the texts of French and English modernists.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-18
Author(s):  
Liviu CORCIU ◽  
Ion GIURCĂ

In the middle of the campaign for Transylvania’s liberation, Consiliul Dirigent (the political structure designated to temporarily govern the province) of Sibiu had decided to support the efforts of the Romanian army and ordered the establishment of a Territorial General Commandment meant to begin recruitment in Transylvania, Banat and within the territories in Hungary inhabited by Romanians, in order to constitute some volunteers’ units. Out of their ranks, 6th and 7th Army Corps were established, recruited exclusively from Transylvanians regardless of their nationality. Based on 1st Decree passed by the Consiliul Dirigent of Sibiu, all the former Austro-Hungarian laws, ordinances, regulations and legal statutes issued prior to December 18th1918, when Transylvania was proclaimed independent of Budapest, were kept temporarily in force. Within this context, militaries of the divisions recruited from Transylvanian were subject to military jurisdiction under Austro-Hungarian Military Criminal Code of 1855, whereas Romanian militaries who were under the command of Transylvanian Headquarters were subject to the jurisdiction of Romanian laws, implicitly to the Code of military justice


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document