Reconfiguring the French nation: Public debates on the Left and national identity

Since the 1980s, neoliberal globalisation has shaped the fate of local and national cultural productions, from movies to music, from entertainment to food. How did French intellectual and political elites respond to this unprecedented challenge? What were the implications for the politics of nationalism and national identity? Two books respond to these questions, although in very different ways – the first directly and the second indirectly. Vincent Martigny's Dire la France explains how a new way of narrating French national identity emerged in the 1980s within an internationally oriented French Left, attentive of the coming challenges of cultural pluralism. Patrick Boucheron's (ed.) Histoire mondiale de la France advances into a more challenging direction by skilfully unsettling the ‘our ancestors the Gauls’ clichéd narrative. French history is thus redefined by moving away from the Frankish/Gallic myth of descent, thereby reconfiguring national identity along new lines. This article identifies how crucial debates on the cultural nation and cultural identity emerged in the wake of the May 1968 uprising, asking how much they contributed to the current shape and meaning of French national identity. It thus reviews what can be described as a new historiographical turn in French history.     

The state and internal conflict

Research into the causes of contemporary international conflict faces a number of conceptual limitations, which in turn limits the effectiveness of international conflict resolution efforts. Typically, today's internal conflicts are conceived of as irrational outbursts of 'ethnic' hatred, or the breakdown of normally peaceful political systems. In this paper, I argue that the causes of internal conflicts are, in fact, located in the structures of weak states and the actions of weak state elites, who may deliberately engender conflict as a rational response to the internal and external demands brought on by the intrusive processes of globalisation. In this sense, internal conflict is a 'normal' aspect of weak state politics. The weak state framework not only provides a more satisfying explanation of internal conflict, but it has profound implications for conflict resolution. It suggests that conflict resolution must be focused on state reconstruction activities, rather than on saving failing states. It also suggests that there are likely to be many more internal conflicts which demand international action in the future.     

Labor and globalisation: from Keating to Latham

This paper documents the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party's (FPLP) approach to globalisation under four different leaders, starting with Paul Keating in the early 1990s, and ending at the early stages of Mark Latham's leadership in 2004. It argues that, despite some notable differences, there was a considerable degree of consistency in Labor attitudes to globalisation under successive party leaders: globalisation was seen as inevitable, irreversible, as beneficial for the majority of the population, and as destructive to states' capacity to intervene in the economy. The paper suggests that a number of factors explain Labor's continued support for globalisation in the face of growing public discontent, including the pressures of international institutions such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and big business, ideological factors, and comparatively low levels of economic growth, both in Australia and internationally.     

The ummah as nation: a reappraisal in the wake of the ‘Cartoons Affair’†

ABSTRACT. In the wake of the 2006 ‘Cartoons Affair’ which saw international protests by Muslims against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, it is clear that identity based on membership in the Islamic ummah goes far beyond simple religious affiliation. This essay presents a novel argument for treating the ummah (the transnational community of Muslim believers) as a nation. I begin with a theoretical treatment of the ummah as nation which employs historic and current interpretations of what constitutes nationhood. I then turn to the current state of the ummah; my findings present a potent nexus of information and communications technology (ICT), emergent elites, and Muslim migration to the West that has facilitated a hitherto impossible reification of the ummah. I also discuss how globalisation, Western media practices, and the nature of European society allow ‘ummahist’ elites to marginalise other voices in the transnational Muslim community. Based on the global events surrounding the Danish cartoons controversy of 2005–06, I conclude that there is need to recognise ummah‐based identity as more than just a profession of faith – it represents a new form of postnational, political identity which is as profound as any extant nationalism.     

Modernisation without ‘banalisation’: Towards a new era in French African aid relations?

This article considers recent changes in France's assistance programme to black Africa. It looks at the historic logic underpinning France's aid policies and structures; examines the latest reforms; and attributes these to the election of a reformist socialist government, a favourable political climate, globalisation and the constraints of EMU. The main obstacle to reform is said to be President Chirac who remains attached to the old logic of French African relations. Ultimately, however, it is not the struggle between modernisers and traditionalists but pressures from France's African and European partners which will determine the future of French aid policy.     

South Africa’s form of globalisation: a continental posture paradox for insertion and dependence

The fashionable form of globalisation has perpetuated Africa’s incapacity for auto-centeredness. As promises of political and economic reforms did not materialize and as economically powerful states continued to be indifferent, most African states resorted to the strategy of self-interest for international legitimacy and faith in foreign direct investment (FDI) and aid. Departing from its portrayal as a relatively developed, competitive and civil-minded state in Africa, South Africa reinvented modernity in the hope of servicing similar self-interests. I argue that South Africa’s form of globalisation is paradoxical. While positing as a voice for the voiceless and leader of African renaissance, that country simultaneously mediated Africa’s relations for appropriation of neo-liberal principles. Occurring predominantly through political and economic liberalisation, globalisation of Africa is ‘an old story’ of insertion for dependence on foreign capital. I show that South Africa’s neo-liberal agenda in Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR), as well, engendered openness to imports. Given the commonalities between GEAR and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), I argue that the latter is South Africa’s instrument of ‘reintegrating’ Africa. I also illustrate that South Africa’s foreign economic policy in Africa and NEPAD are founded on the marginalisation thesis, misreading of the paradoxical operations of neo-orthodoxy globalisation in Africa and the thinking that South Africa is suffering due to its geographical association with Africa. I conclude that that country’s form of globalisation will further empty Africa of its capacity of auto-centeredness and engender openness to imports, which are yet to deliver continental recovery.     

First Lessons in Neo-Colonialism: The Personalisation of Relations between African Politicians and French Officials in sub-Saharan Africa, 1956–66

In scholarly debates, ‘French neo-colonialism’ is defined as the social history of relations between Francophile African elites and French decision-makers in African policy, and it is frequently interpreted as a sinister manipulation of rather passive African populations. Exploring the newly accessible French archival documents, it is now possible to understand better how French officials became neo-colonial players, from the frustration of the last days of colonialism, to a new model of friend and foe in sub-Saharan Africa. A complex and highly emotional interplay of relations with African leaders accounted for the seemingly rational ‘neo-colonialist’ behaviour of French civil servants from 1955 at least to the decade after decolonisation.     

Representing Paris

As a series of related processes, all bearing on the political autonomy of nation states, globalisation has clear implications for parties, historically accustomed to acting within the framework of the nation state. Yet little has been written on French political parties in this context. This survey of their understanding of and responses to globalisation finds a highly differentiated pattern, in accord with old ideological traditions, with the most articulate critiques coming from the liberal Right and the communists. Europe is seen as the major site of resistance to globalisation, but not by the most ideological forces (Greens and national-populists). Generally the parties' discourse needs further development.     

‘Touche pas à mon pain au chocolat!’ The theme of food in current French political discourses

Current French political discourses contain numerous references to food. The phenomenon began in the late 1990s with the issue of food safety and references to ‘la malbouffe’, as the population became increasingly anxious about the consequences of globalisation. In the 2010s the phenomenon gained momentum, particularly during the 2012 presidential elections as the debate focused on French identity and the place of Islam in France. Today, both the far right and the mainstream right include the issue of food in their discourses. Careful analysis suggests that the Identitaires, an electorally weak but ideologically influential political movement, were ahead of the tide before being followed by the Front National, which focused on the issue of halal meat, and finally other key figures from the former Union pour un Mouvement Populaire. This study highlights how the parties on the right appropriated the theme of food at different times and underscores similarities with regards to their frequent recourse to discursive strategies based on a dichotomy between ‘us’ and ‘them’. The topic of food therefore represents a new strand in the right’s and far right’s traditional discourses on immigration and identity and can be viewed as a new rhetorical tool to mark otherness.     

The Australian National University's Department of International Relations: the early years

This article is a contribution to the re-evaluation of the formative years of the emergent international relations discipline. Work on this topic, extensive over the past decade and a half, has overturned a number of the foundational myths of the global discipline, especially regarding the period between the two world wars. The literature on international relations in Australia, slow to reflect this re-evaluation, generally still locates the first important developments in the 1960s, and characterises the scholarship that emerged as predominantly ‘realist’. This study both pushes back the boundaries and challenges the theoretical perspectives used to categorise thinking in Australia at that time. A student of C. A. W. Manning and thus conversant with British ideas of ‘international society’, George Modelski's early exposure to theoretical work in the USA and his endeavours to give his department a strongly regional focus gave his work a richness and multifaceted character not easily captured by the ‘realist–rationalist’ dichotomy. Modelski went on from the Australian National University to become a major figure in international relations in the USA, contributing to the original debates on globalisation and best known for his work on ‘long cycles’ in world politics.     

Franco-German relations,Europe and globalisation

The new world order, characterised by the internationalisation of markets and national economies, challenges the socio-economic models of nation states and imposes new rules. Both 'Rhineland capitalism' and 'capitalisme à la française' are forced to adapt to these rapidly changing circumstances. This article analyses respective French and German differences in their approach to globalisation, with particular reference to foreign direct investment and industrial cooperation in Europe. It investigates whether Franco-German bilateralism is still a relevant approach to European integration as it seeks to respond to globalisation.     

La mode du ping-pong en France en 1902: une autre façon de questionner les classiques transferts culturels dans le domaine du sport

This study offers to follow the path of a parlour game and allows to seize the cultural transfers of this physical practise and to measure the part of the ambient anglomania in its reconfiguration in France at the beginning of the twentieth century. The ping-pong become a fashion within the French high society in 1902. By joining the bourgeois codes, this parlour game contributes to the perpetuation of the uses of this select population far from the effort of English sport. This fashion seduces because it’s not only perpetuation of the social conventions of elites. It’s also built on the idea of emancipation which the impossible meets between men and women symbolise. Fashion is surprisingly fed with paradox.     

French and British Security: Mirror Images in a Globalized World

The French government is reassessing the whole basis on which it trains and equips its diplomats for their calling, driven by a growing perception that French diplomacy has not been performing well. The 'Heisbourg Report' on the state of French diplomacy pulled no punches and accused French diplomats of being closed to international influences, untrained for modern diplomacy and stifled by a state-centrist view of modern international relations. On the face of it this can all be interpreted as a milestone in an underlying convergence between Francophone and Anglophone approaches to modern diplomacy and security. In very important respects, however, Britain and France are mirror images of each other. What is defined here as mirror imaging can be seen to exist at three different levels which are self-reinforcing, though not in obvious ways: in the pros and cons of each others' policy-making style; in their inextricable fate to develop the European Security and Defence Policy project; and even at the most abstract levels in the predicaments they face in the light of globalization. Seen in this context, it is evident that it is not merely the skills and techniques of French and British policy-makers that need to be re-examined, but rather their way of thinking about their own state and about the nature of the international system around them in an era when globalization is symptomatic of deep structural change.     

Globalisation and the decline of national identity? An exploration across sixty‐three countries

The relationship between globalisation and national identity is puzzling. While some observers have found that globalisation reduces people's identification with their nation, others have reached the opposite conclusion. This article explores this conundrum by examining the relationship between globalisation and people's feelings towards national identity. Using data from the International Social Survey Program National Identity II ( 2003 ) and the World Values Survey ( 2005 ), it analyses these relations across sixty‐three countries. Employing a multilevel approach, it investigates how a country's level of globalisation is related to its public perceptions towards different dimensions of national identity. The results suggest that a country's level of globalisation is not related to national identification or nationalism but it is related negatively to patriotism, the willingness to fight for the country and ethnic conceptions of membership in the nation. An examination of alternative explanations indicates that globalisation has a distinct impact on national identity.     

理解革命发生学的新路径和新视阈——18世纪法国的政治、话语和公众舆论研究

早在旧制度末期,法国启蒙精英阶层就已意识到公众舆论在当时政治与社会中的重要影响。19世纪以来,史学家们也在不断地谈论旧制度末期的社会精神或公众舆论,希图从中找出革命的精神源流。但直到20世纪80年代左右,法国旧制度末期的公众舆论才成为史学家专门关注的对象。西方学者或追踪政治话语的变化,或关注民众的日常言论,或研究旧制度下的公共交往机制,以把握该时期法国社会集体政治意识的转变状况。     

The history of the book and publishing in eighteenth-century Italy

Based on published and untapped sources, the article sets out to explore the cultural and material conditions of the book trade in Italy during the eighteenth century. Special concern is given to the import of French printed works and pamphlets as a means to diffuse the Enlightenment south of the Alps. The text does not address problems of authorial status, but provides a general assessment of the literary market and its impact on the reading habits of the elites. Critical and bibliographical information is also provided about the renewal of interest for the history of the book and reading in Italy since the 1980s.     

A trans-national machine on the world stage: representing McCormick's reaper through world's fairs, 1851–1902

The McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. displayed its harvesting machinery at world fairs and agricultural fairs, using these events to build respectability for its machines and in support of sales and advertising claims. Records of the company reveal the firm's competitive behaviour at these fairs and their associated field trials for agricultural machinery. Analysis of company advertisements, catalogues, and correspondence on fairs and field trials reveals the way McCormick used these events, the extent and nature of international competition, and the nature of the world stage for industrial competition. Cyrus Hall McCormick, founder of the company, learning from his Crystal Palace success of 1851 and his even earlier experience with fairs in the USA, represented his reaper as a global product, made in America and internationally successful. Indeed, at the fairs McCormick's machines were embroiled in internecine warfare among an international brotherhood of manufacturers in pursuit of common goals and using a common repertoire of tactics, if not identical machines. This is because ‘American harvesting machines’ were a trans-national phenomenon. The paper concludes that globalisation was occurring in harvesting machinery and suggests that problems emerge from considering international competition in this industry as a contest among distinct national economies.     

Scoping and conceptualising retailer internationalisation

The impacts and activities of international retailers have beenlargely ignored in the globalisation discourse. A possible reasonfor this is the absence, in international retailing, of conceptand theory that does not hang on the coat-tails of internationalproduction. The paper attempts to consider international retailingin its own right. Three linked questions are explored. Has theinternationalisation process of the large retailers resultedin an increase in the global concentration of sales? In whatways does the process of retailer internationalisation differfrom the internationalisation of production? What does the committedinternational retailer transfer to the host country during theinternationalisation process?     

Embedded Internationalisms: Building Transnational Solidarity in the British and Norwegian Trade Union Movements

There has been growing interest in the prospects for a new trade union internationalism in recent years, following the end of the Cold War and the coming together of the main national union organisations into one confederation, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). For the first time in decades, geopolitical straitjackets and defensive nationalistic postures are giving way to more open, internationalist perspectives as unions attempt to get to grips with global capitalism. However, despite some well‐publicised grassroots globalisation campaigns, effective international labour organising and networking remains thin on the ground. One of the reasons for this is that, despite the rhetoric of globalisation and the reality of multi‐layered governance, the "national" space remains the critical scale at which unions operate. Variations in both union organisation and the politico‐institutional context within which unions operate nationally continue to shape international solidarity activities. This theme is pursued in this paper through the contrasting cases of the UK and Norwegian trade union movements. Although both union movements have been subject to similar problems in recent years, in terms of membership decline and the pressures of increasing global economic integration, the different national political and economic contexts within which unions are embedded have been important in facilitating or constraining international strategies.     

China challenges global capitalism

This paper establishes a novel understanding of the nature and implications of China's rise. By borrowing Robert Gilpin's concept of sub-optimisation, it is argued that China is the most prominent player in a non-Western subgroup's suboptimisation strategy, which undermines the Western-dominated neoliberal capitalist system, or the Washington Consensus, and liberal democratic values, taken as gospel by Western economists, governments and industry for the past 30 years. While China and other non-Western states are a part of this system, a consequence of their actions within the system, and particularly in the international energy markets, is that they are increasing their relative gains at the expense of the larger group. China-led subgroup's suboptimisation strategy may result in direct competition between the predominant neoliberal Western paradigm, which is synonymous with globalisation, and which has entered into a structural crisis, and the emerging non-Western economic and political capitalist model.