20世纪30年代法国军事辩论的惨痛教训

1940年法国战败,军事理论落后是其重要原因之一,而祸根在30年代的军事辩论时就已经种下。30年代法国军事辩论的主要内容是如何认识坦克集群战争。艾蒂安纳、杜芒克、戴高乐等人根据当时欧洲新的军事思潮,主张坦克战;反对派昧于历史新趋势,简单化地、过分乐观地认为,法国已经建立可靠的防线,法军已拥有足够的坦克,坦克只需掩护步兵,而组织坦克部队进攻将是一种冒险,敌人即使突破或绕过防线仍旧无法取胜。1940年法国的溃败,对这场军事辩论做了实际的总结。法国关于坦克集群战争的辩论和它屈服于坦克集群的事实,为我们提供了若干颇有价值的启示：军事理论的辩论一般具有长远意义;必须认识传统的力量及其限度;军事上的正确判断是打败对手的基本条件之一;必须看到军事理论、战争皆和社会生产、国家经济密切相关;落后的军事理论与压制先进军事思想的政策,势必对国家民族造成不可弥补的损失。     

Existentialist manifesto or conservative political science? Problems in interpreting Raymond Aron's Introduction à la philosophie de l'histoire

Raymond Aron's Introduction à la philosophie de l'histoire is often held to be a paradigmatic book because of either its rejection of positivism in the social sciences, or its anticipation of existentialism in philosophy. The common denominator in these paradigmatic interpretations of the work is its use of various German philosophical influences that, though relatively obscure in France at the time of its first publication in 1938, became prominent features of the postwar Parisian intellectual landscape. During the Cold War, however, Aron was not only a peripheral figure within the Parisian intelligentsia, but also one of its harshest critics. The apparent mismatch between the paradigmatic status claimed for the Introduction as the first French existentialist book and Aron's subsequent critical position towards the leading figures of existentialism in France forms the starting point for a critical re-examination of the book and its paradigmatic interpretations. After seeking an explanation for these interpretations of the Introduction in deeper trends of generational thought, this article suggests that the history of the idea of intellectual engagement offers a more useful angle from which to approach this challenging book.     

A Single Thread of Meaning: Esperanza Ortega's Hilo solo

Scholarship on Marie de France's Lai de Lanval has long held Guinevere's accusation of homosexuality against Lanval to have been motivated by hurt feelings: it is made, in the words of one commentator, "in the fury of a woman scorned." This article suggests that subtler motives may have been apparent to the text's earliest audiences. By the twelfth century, sodomy was increasingly categorized by ecclesiastical legislation as a kind of treason. Accordingly, it is likely that Guinevere's charge is meant to counter Lanval's insinuation that, in attempting to seduce him, she has tried to lure him into an act of treason as well.     

Le grand mal de l'époque: Tocqueville on French Political Corruption

During the years he was involved in French parliamentary politics, Alexis de Tocqueville was obsessed with the issue of political corruption. This article presents the first sustained analysis of Tocqueville’s speeches and writings on French corruption. It examines Tocqueville’s initial encounter with corruption during his run for parliamentary office, his sophisticated account of the sources of corruption, and his strategies for reforming French politics. The article contends that taking seriously Tocqueville’s struggle against corruption has the effect of complicating several conventional interpretations of his thought. In his speeches and writings on corruption Tocqueville shows himself remarkably willing to compromise with, even to work with, centralisation. And he argues that in a nation like France which lacks substantial local self-government, a vibrant parliamentary politics could be an effective means for promoting energetic civic participation.     

1936年法国防范德国重占莱茵非军事区的决策

1936年初,大量有关德国即将重占莱茵非军事区的情报促使法国政府着手研究防范对策,其结果是法国内阁在2月27日做出了“不单独行动”的决定。该决定是日后法国政府应对危机的基本出发点,也是其最终妥协退让的前兆。法国政府的这一决策源于英国的不合作、法国军方的消极畏战以及萨罗政府自身的软弱等因素,是20世纪30年代法国日趋没落的现实在政府决策层面的集中反映。     

Spain's and Poland's Road to NATO: the problem of continuity and change in the foreign policy of a democratising state

The aim of this article is to compare the Spanish and Polish road to NATO from the perspective of the shape of the foreign policy and its possible restructuring in states undergoing the process of democratic transformation. The study of both cases shows that the reorientation of the foreign policy of a democratising state results to a large extent from external conditions at the global and regional levels although the internal conditions may hinder or accelerate the reorientation. The example of Spain demonstrates that in a firm and stable international system (the bipolar system) it is extremely difficult to change the direction of foreign policy, even if there are internal premises such as democratisation, well-organised opposition supporting the change and social support. In the case of Poland, the flexible and unstable international system made it possible to radically change the direction of its foreign policy. The existing internal premises without the appropriate external context would not have been enough to generate the reorientation of foreign policy. The comparative study of Spanish and Polish cases should be treated as an introduction to the broader analysis on the subject of the restructuring of foreign policy in the democratising state. Democratic transformation processes which took place in Europe from the mid-1970s provide broad empirical material for further scientific work in this area.     

Anglo-American Rivalry in the Middle East: The Struggle for the Buraimi Oasis, 1952–1957

Some French writers, most notably Jean-Baptiste Duroselle and André Tardieu, have argued that French strategic interests during the early decades of the twentieth century had been seriously harmed because, alone among the Great Powers of Europe, France lacked a ‘diaspora’ in the United States. As a result of this, they have claimed, France had no advocacy group prepared to defend the interests of the European ‘kin state’ at a time when France’s great rival, Germany, was amply endowed with a sizeable demographic presence in the United States, willing to speak out in defence of Germany and its foreign policy. Moreover, a second large European diaspora had become established in the United States, whose numbers would swell after the mid nineteenth century: the Irish. Not necessarily committed to promoting German interests, the Irish-Americans did militate strongly and consistently against British interests, such that by the time France and Britain had become close security partners preceding and during the First World War, what worked against British interests would also work against French ones. This article constitutes a critical examination of the Duroselle-Tardieu thesis regarding France's allegedly ‘missing’ diaspora, and cautions against attributing too much geo-strategic influence to either the German-American or Irish-American ‘lobby’.     

The foreign policy of First Republic Italy: new approaches

This introductory article deals with the most recent contributions by Italian historians on the Italian Republic's international role. It aims mainly to demonstrate that a new generation of younger Italian historians is successfully offering new views and interpretations on First Republic Italy's role in the international system, and is also focusing on aspects such as the culture of Italy's political parties, the economic dimension, the role of public opinion, and the influence of external actors on domestic Italian politics – in short, that there has been a turn away from traditional diplomatic history based upon the archives of the Foreign Ministry.     

Opération Amérique: Québec’s Soft Power Applied to French Language Teaching in the United States

ABSTRACT

Opération Amérique refers to the coordinated efforts of René Lévesque’s Parti Québécois government beginning late 1970s to promote Québec’s interests in the United States. The general goals and strategies of Opération Amérique suggest that it presents a case of soft power. However, the specific actions implemented as well as their effects have barely been explored. An analysis of original documents pertaining to Opération Amérique indicates that specific groups in the United States—namely, French professors—were targeted with the hope that they would improve perceptions of Québec in the United States. An examination of French textbooks used in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s shows an increase in Canada/Québec content, which may reflect the influence of Opération Amérique on French teaching practices.     

On the side of the angels: altruism in Danish development aid 1960–2005

Based on a theoretical definition of altruism the article investigates the relationship between this and other motives in Danish official development assistance 1960–2005. In the historical unfolding and general mode of operation of the Danish aid regime altruism has been an important, but only vaguely specified motive, endorsed by those involved on all levels: politicians, interest groups, specialists, activists and voters. However, other important motives, of an economic and political and even structural-systemic nature, both national and international, can also be identified. Some of these are deemed reconcilable with an altruistic core motivation while others exercised a disruptive and competing influence. The multiplicity of agency and the derived need for consensus has tended to obstruct accountability and dilute responsibility in the aid system. Unfortunately, the frequent invocations of altruism in order to justify the aid programme may have served to downplay the importance of problems with aid efficiency and to marginalise criticism.     

1933年希特勒在德国上台与法国的反应

1933年1月30日,希特勒就任魏玛共和国总理,标志着德国纳粹化的开始。德国国内形势的恶化引起了法国的严重不安。但是．由于法国当时正面临严重的财政危机,因此,在希特勒上台次日组阁的达拉第政府不得不将如何恢复财政平衡视为第一要务;同时法国国内相当一部分人对与希特勒新政权达成和解还抱有幻想,这最终促使法国政府在对德政策方面采取了“理智而冷静”的政策,没有作出过激的反应。     

The intellectual origins of Leninism, 1977

This essay is a general introduction to the special number on recent research on Atlantic history. While the topics here presented are diverse, most focusing on the first French Empire, particularly in North America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the authors share several common themes: (1) In Africa and the Americas, they seek to view the question of the Empire as a series of contested, temporary, and uncertain alliances and collaborations, in which negotiation rather than submission was most often the basis of power relations; (2) In the realm of political economy in theory and practice, the authors refuse pre-established notions of an Atlantic “community” of commodities and merchants functioning within an Atlantic “system.” Instead, they focus on closed networks of merchants functioning within the dynamics of merchant capitalism. (3) The authors seek alternatives to traditional approaches focusing on the nation-state and its institutions. Instead, they examine communities and regions in the Atlantic that include social elites, such as, merchants, the nobility, the gentry, and intellectuals, as well as neglected native peoples and forgotten spaces such as Africa.