Covert Action and Grand Strategy

Throughout history, covert action has been a critically important instrument used by states to achieve their strategic aims without the use of military force. This chapter explores the little-known role that covert action played during the rise of the United States from the American Revolution to the First World War, as well their use by Great Britain and Germany to influence US foreign policy after the United States had become a great power. The chapter explores how covert operations aided US efforts to expand across North America and European covert missions to block America’s rise through exploiting divisions within US society and derailing American plans to expand its borders to the Pacific Ocean. The chapter then explores how prior to the First World War, Britain and Germany used covert psychological operations to sway American opinion to their respective sides. Once war broke out, these operations intensified as Britain sought to convince the United States to enter the conflict as their ally while German operations sought to encourage American neutrality. Once America entered the war, Germany switched to sabotaging American operations to derail US war production. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the future of covert action in the digital age and the role of cyberattacks in light of the Russian attack on the 2016 US presidential election.

Economic and Political Reconstruction and Development of FRG in the Period after World War II

In the first post-war years, the policy of the Western occupying powers towards Germany was aimed at preventing the economic revival of their former formidable competitor. As a result of these efforts, West Germany rebuilt its economy to the pre-war level later than Great Britain or France. The undoubted shift in the economic development of West Germany began in mid-1948. The impetus for the rapid growth of industrial production was the monetary reform carried out by the Western occupying powers, as well as the inflow of funds under the Marshall Plan. The monetary reform carried out in June 1948 favoured the strengthening of the financial market and was an incentive to invest. The influx of capital under the Marshall Plan had a similar impact on the West Germany’s economy during this period. The western zones of Germany played a special role in this plan. The United States, striving to strengthen its position in these zones as much as possible and use them as a strategic base (aimed, inter alia, against the communist bloc), provided West Germany with a sum of loans and subsidies significantly exceeding the amount of aid provided to other Western European countries. An extremely serious burden for the Western occupation zones was the influx of refugees from neighbouring areas (a total of about 10 million people) and the need to maintain the occupation troops, which directly led to a huge deficit in food resources. Agricultural production fell and ranged only from 66% to 75% of the pre-war production level.

Introduction

On June 22, 1941, the Nazis launched Operation Barbarossa with the mightiest military force ever concentrated in a single theater of war. They occupied large swathes of Soviet territory; surrounded Leningrad in the longest siege in modern history; and reached the outskirts of Moscow. Soviet leaders adopted a policy of total war in which every resource, including labor, was mobilized for war production. The civilian toll was great. The Soviet Union lost more people, in absolute numbers and as a percentage of its population, than any other combatant nation: an estimated 26 million to 27 million people. Almost every Soviet family was affected in some terrible way. This book is the first archivally based history of the home front to explore the relationship of state and society from invasion to liberation. Focusing on the cities and industrial towns, it shows how ordinary citizens, mobilized for “total war,” became central to the Allied victory.

Vases, Caskets, and Decorative Lamps of the Leningrad Factory of Porcelain in 1956–1966: Context, Attribution, Interpretation

This paper focuses on two stages in the development of post-war production interior porcelain. The first stage is the completion of the development in the decorative and industrial arts of the grand style. The second stage is the development of modern style, which is reflected in the works of mass porcelain. The research refers to the Leningrad Factory of Porcelain and the production of the enterprise from 1956–1966. The products of the plant have not been studied sufficiently so far. However, the factory was one of the many Soviet porcelain enterprises that was involved in the creation of a new living environment. Two stages in the development of industrial art related to the organisation of the residential interior were reflected in the company’s products, i.e. works of small porcelain plastics, utilitarian porcelain, i.e. vases, boxes, bottles, night lamps, etc. The first stage is filled with works of small plastic arts (second half of the 1950s). The second stage is associated with the interior, in which porcelain goods played the role of accents in the interior, emphasising empty space (first half of the 1960s). The author of the article carries out analysis of caskets and vials of the enterprise (40 Years of October caskets, casket with a lion, Matryoshka casket, Summer Garden, a series of bottles and caskets), vases and pots (Lines planters, decorative vases, damask, and stacks), lamps (Chinese Pagoda night light, Golden Cockerel night light). Based on the interpretation of the value of the enterprise in the formation of the interior, the value of products in the processes of transition from the grand style to the modern style, a conclusion is drawn about the importance of the plant in the formation of the living environment. The massive nature of the works of the plant influenced the fact that the current stylistic trends were available to a vast number of Soviet citizens, who perceived new aesthetic norms.

About the Work of Leningrad Industrial Enterprises in 1941

Before the Great Patriotic War (GPW) at least 1/3 of cumulative total yield of Leningrad factories was the products of ―defense‖ or ―special‖ function, i.e. military ones. A significant proportion of civilian products could also be used for the army, navy or the NKVD troop’s demands. Pre-war production planning provided for the all-round increase in the output of military products.In this regard, the city's enterprises experienced an acute shortage of production and office premises, electricity and personnel. Plants and factories operated with external raw materials and fuel which made them critically dependent on the functioning of the logistics chains connecting Leningrad with the regions of the USSR. The main criterion of evaluating the work of an industrial enterprise was the amount of output and the mandatory fulfillment or over-fulfillment of production plan. At the factories the problems of quality were ignored and this led to the necessity of conducting periodic campaigns of "struggle for quality" by senior management. However, such campaigns turned to be useless and did not result in the required demands due to the initially defective system of goal-setting in industry. The peculiarities of conducting economic activities in wartime, on the one hand, deepened the previous problems, on the other hand, made the processes of deploying new industries more dynamicby reducing the number of management links and lengthening work shifts,. The main role in setting production tasks to the enterprises was transferred from the specialized People's Commissariats to the City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party and the Military Council of the Front; factories were often forced to execute three parallel production plans. The establishment of the blockade regime focused the industry of Leningrad almost exclusively on the interests of the Leningrad Front. Mobilization into the army and recruitment into the people's militia deprived enterprises of the number of qualified personnel; at first, the replacement of experienced workers by housewives and adolescents could not be considered complete and equivalent. In September – October 1941 the reserves of fuelwere exhausted in the city and this led to a fuel and energy crisis in November – December 1941 and an almost complete shutdown of heavy and light industry enterprises in the first quarter of 1942. The factors which influenced the manufacturing processes of Leningrad industrial enterprises in the pre-war, war and blockade periods of 1941 have been considered in the present article.

Experiences of Polish Forced Laborers from Łódź Employed for Telefunken in Ulm in Years 1944–1945 with Consideration of Medical Care

In years 1944–1945, more than 1.400 girls and young women from the Polish city of Łódź were displaced to Ulm in Germany and forced to work there. During their stay, the girls had to endure severe living conditions, and were exposed to diseases. Through deprivation and exploitation, forced laborers for Telefunken were condemned to daily suffering. Such a system of exploitation was symptomatic for the late phase of the war, during which efforts towards increasing war production came at the cost of sacrificing the health of foreign workers. The goal of this paper is a historical reappraisal of their experiences, with special attention paid to the medical care that they received. We present the extent of the medical treatment provided for the laborers, the aim of which was only the restoration of their further ability to work.

Water powers: the Second World War and the mobilization of hydroelectricity in Canada, the United States, and Germany

Comparing three of the major hydroelectric power-producing countries during the war – Canada, the United States, and Germany – this article considers the implications of expanding hydroelectricity for war production and strategy, and how wartime decisions structured the longer-term evolution of large technological systems. Despite different starting points, all three countries pursued similar strategies in attempting to mobilize hydroelectricity for the war effort. The different access to and use of hydro in these states produced a vital economic and ultimately military advantage or disadvantage. The global dimensions of hydroelectric development during the war, moreover, demonstrate that this conflict was a turning point in the history of electrification.

New Perspectives on the II CIAM onwards: How Does Housing Build Cities?

Far from nostalgically celebrate the 90th anniversary of the second CIAM, which indeed opened in October 1929 in Frankfurt, the present issue is intended as collective work, a springboard which aims to widen the debate over housing experiences beyond geographical and temporal frameworks. The focus of that event, the Existenzminimum, has often been cited as representing a fundamental contribution to the rational design of the modern dwelling. But the debates during that event went beyond the definition of this concept, because demonstrated, on the one hand, how the responsibility of architects would imply the resolution of multiple technical aspects, starting from the typological concern stretching towards the town planning aspects, and on the other hand, the calling to develop a multifaceted intellectual vision of society. Though the title selected for the present issue, namely ‘Housing Builds Cities’, denotes the different scales of the project, the aim is to achieve a something more. First and foremost, the objective is not strictly confined to a historical understanding of facts around the 1929 congress. Today a critically objective approach is useful to examine past contributions and, if applicable, their actualization. Secondly, this special issue intends to address the CIAMs’ theoretical and architectural legacy. The hypothesis on their interpretation suggests that these are still topical issues today. The issue comprises fourteen articles which investigate, through different applied methodologies, the years from the first steps of the CIAMs to the 1929 aftermath, analyze the post-war production and explore many case-studies, of which some are also geographically far from a Euro-centric vision as well as contemporary realities.

War Economy in the Contemporary Wars: In the Context of Central African Republic

Purpose: Ideally, the war economy is a set of contingencies undertaken by a state to mobilize its economy for war production or to support the war. However, the existing explanation of war economy does not fit in the conflicts of the modern era. In modern days ‘new war’ or ‘contemporary war’ are mostly intrastate and fought amongst the brutal unregulated non-state actors. This paper discussed different aspects of contemporary war economy focusing on the ongoing civil war of Central African Republic. Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper is developed on the basis of published literature and authors own work experiences in the Central African Republic. A qualitative analytical method has been followed to develop this paper. Findings: This paper identifies the economic system that has been developed in the Central African Republic amidst the civil war for the last two decades. Findings of this analysis show that this war economy is self- financing and parasitic in nature where there is ‘more to war than winning’. Limitations: Due to political unrest and several civil wars for more than two decades, no actual survey could be done in the recent past. Therefore, further study can be conducted to statistically prove the points made in this study. Implications: By studying the war economy of any contemporary war, one can understand the nature of the war as well as the types of trade that govern the war. Originality/Value: There are few works of literature on the war economy, contemporary wars and also conflicts of Central African Republic. The paper tries to view the said civil war from the economic perspective and identifies a different aspect of the contemporary war economy.