Cuban Miami on the Air: Narratives of Cubanía

Radio has been a fundamental aspect of Cuban culture on and off the island since the first broadcast in Havana in 1922. When Cubans fled the island after the revolution of 1959 for the USA, particularly Miami, radio quickly became a vital medium for navigating a new country and for consolidating a Cuban exile identity. Politically, radio in Miami has been an effective means for articulating hardline exile politics. But with generational turnover and increasingly moderate stances on Cuba by more recent arrivals and US-born Cuban Americans, how is radio changing? How are narratives of what constitutes cubanía – Cubanness – shifting in an increasingly diverse Cuban Miami? This article takes up these questions through an examination of an immensely popular morning program that aired in 2009 in southern Florida called the Enrique y Joe Show. I examine how the Enrique y Joe Show, produced and performed by US-born Cuban Americans, utilized a form of irreverent Cuban humor called choteo to represent and satirize the hardline Cuban exile politics that have been dominant on Miami's radio waves for decades. Ultimately, their performances deploy choteo to articulate Cuban American identity divorced from a particular political orthodoxy. The coda reflects on changes in Miami's radio landscape since 2009.     

The Conservation of English Cultural Built Heritage: A Force for Social Inclusion?

Debates about the socially inclusionary potential of heritage have to date focused principally on heritage sites and museums. Relatively little attention has been paid to the wider Cultural Built Heritage (CBH) that surrounds us in our everyday lives. This paper starts with a brief theoretical exploration of the social role of heritage and the key policy background. Then, based on an understanding of policy and action in England, this paper sets out a framework for considering how this wider CBH might contribute to social inclusion. A fundamental binary divide is made between the role of CBH as historic places and opportunity spaces in which regeneration may occur. However, in neither case is action necessarily socially inclusive. The paper concludes that a greater clarity of objectives and definitions is necessary if CBH is to meet its potential to be socially inclusionary.     

Imperial Airs: Leo Amery,Air Power and Empire, 1873–1945

In January 1904, at a lecture by a famous geographer, only a few weeks after the first flight of the Wright brothers, a young journalist named Leo Amery argued that air power would become a major ingredient of world power. His prescient comment is often quoted, but only to be glossed over. This article elaborates on it. The origins of Amery's views on air power lay in his childhood, his experience covering the South African War and the ‘national efficiency’ movement of Edwardian Britain. His views developed through his service in a variety of government appointments, including Lloyd George's Cabinet in the First World War and Churchill's Cabinet in the Second World War, and he occasionally managed to get his ideas turned into actions. Thus contextualised, Amery's views on air power illuminate both the man and the times through which he lived.     

Psychoanalyzing Iran: Kennedy's Iran Task Force and the Modernization of Orientalism, 1961–3

Between 1961 and 1963, a political crisis in Iran prompted U.S. foreign-policy makers to briefly consider supporting political reform that would have pushed the Shah toward a more constitutional role and moved Iran toward democracy. Yet Washington instead decided to bolster the Shah's regime to carry out social and economic reforms that coalesced as the Shah's White Revolution in 1963. Policy-makers relied in part on a psychological profile of Iran to shape their decisions, believing that the Iranian people were psychologically unprepared to rule, and that the Shah was psychologically unprepared to give up power. This article encourages diplomatic historians to explore how the language and ideas of psychology influenced the modernization theories and policies that U.S. policy-makers applied to Iran, the Middle East, and the wider ‘Third World.’ After briefly exploring the history of U.S. racial, religious, and cultural perceptions of Iran - many of which fit traditional stereotypes of Orientalism - the article examines the influence of political and developmental psychology at a time when racial and religious bias were increasingly taboo. Psychology offered more acceptable, scientific ways to understand Iran and the Middle East, though it led to familiar conclusions. While attempting to modernize Iran, policy-makers modernized Orientalism.     

Those Who Dared: A Reappraisal of Britain's Special Air Service, 1950–80

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the United Kingdom embarked upon a policy of rapid demobilisation, reducing its armed forces from a wartime high of 5 million in 1945 to just 375,000 by 1963. Yet in these same years it faced conflict in Palestine, Malaya, Korea, Kenya, Cyprus, Oman, Aden, and Egypt, to name just a few trouble spots where British soldiers were sent. To account for the shortfall between the availability of soldiers and the need, the armed forces turned in part to Special Force units, particularly the army's Special Air Service (SAS). As British formal control receded throughout the world, so the SAS became ever more active. In so doing, it played an integral - if often misunderstood - role in contemporary British history. This paper examines the rebirth of the Special Air Service in post-war Britain and re-evaluates its role from 1950–80.     

‘The Wind has been Gathering Force’: Iain Macleod and his Policy Change on Tanganyika

This article examines the decision in May 1960 by the British colonial secretary, Iain Macleod, to accelerate dramatically the independence timetable for Tanganyika. Making extensive use of recently released archive material, it looks at the key factors behind this largely neglected but nevertheless significant episode, seeking to demonstrate that, despite Macleod's subsequent recollection of events, there was a clear policy change in May 1960; that it was for the main part external nationalist and internationalist pressures which led to the policy change; that, importantly, newly identified short-term factors of a change of heart by nationalist leader Julius Nyerere, events in Somaliland and the need to demonstrate positive Commonwealth credentials were the immediate and decisive reasons behind the acceleration; and that, in explaining the advancement, it is valuable to understand why and how individual factors contributed to the policy change and how they worked together.     

The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force: reshaping China’s approach to strategic deterrence

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is in the midst of a sweeping reform programme to significantly transform its organisation, force posture, command and control structures, and internal politics. Among the many important aspects of this effort is the establishment of the PLA Rocket Force (PLARF). Creation of the PLARF solidified China’s missile forces as a critical element of China’s evolving strategic deterrent posture, portends continued significant investment in PLARF modernisation, and points to a more concerted effort to integrate PLARF capabilities into more effective PLA-wide joint operations—all key developments in the fundamental reshaping of China’s approach to strategic deterrence. These developments will affect U.S. strategic and extended deterrence postures, U.S.-China strategic stability, allied conventional force operations, information dominance and security, critical infrastructure, and other key aspects of national security. This study details the organisational, technological, and doctrinal changes afoot for the PLARF, and analyses how—if successful—they affect U.S. and U.S-allied military strategy in the Indo-Pacific region.     

Missed Opportunities: Winston Churchill,the Air Ministry,and Africa, 1919–1921

Relying on a thorough examination of relevant archival documents housed in several European archives, this paper analyses Austrian Chancellor Metternich's Near Eastern policy from 1829 to 1833 with special attention paid to Austria's relations with Russia. Its primary goal is to refute some already deep-rooted claims relating to Metternich's attitudes towards Russia and the Ottoman Empire from 1829 to 1833 and to offer a different assessment of his role in the diplomatic concert to the one generally held by proving firstly that Metternich did not fear Russia's policy towards the Ottoman Empire during this period, secondly that his policy was consistent and the meeting in Münchengrätz in 1833 was not such an important turning point in the Austrian—Russian relations but simply the climax of the already existing good relationship between the two conservative Powers, and, finally, that no Austro-Russian quid pro quo was agreed upon in this North Bohemian town, which means that Metternich did not have to give up Austrian interests in the Near East for the Russian support in the West because both countries' interests in the two areas were identical. Finally, the paper attempts to point out the fact that though Metternich's policy definitely was conservative, it cannot be sufficiently explained by such a superficial single-word labelling because much of his rationality based upon an in-depth analysis of the affairs lay beyond it, at least of those issues concerning the Eastern Question in the early 1830s.     

Civiliser en Grèce Ancienne Adoucir la Nature et Naturaliser la Force

Ancient Greeks had neither a single notion nor a single word to express the idea of civilization. As a process of living since the origins, civilization appears as a serie of acquisitions or losses that lead to an ambivalent human condition. As a state, it is a blend of three factors: a diet and an education that tame nature; a legal political system and just foreign politics. But in the Greek language, the same word expresses a political system and domination (archê). Dionysius of Halicarnassus by speaking of the Roman domination as a just and natural phenomena, makes it a civilizing power.     

Imperial Outposts and the War Beyond: Singapore,Hong Kong and the British Empire’s Land Force Contribution to the Korean War

Histories of the British Empire’s strategic outposts in the Far East have traditionally focused on their traumatic loss to the Japanese adversary during the Second World War. Only in the past decade-and-a-half have historians begun to examine the post-Second World War importance of these outposts to the continued defence and security of Britain’s empire in the Far East. In taking this line of historical enquiry still further, the article examines how Singapore and Hong Kong were used to project British military power, specifically army deployments, across the Far East, and far beyond the imperial frontier, in support of Britain’s involvement in the 1950–53 Korean War and therefore in pursuit of the empire’s foreign and defence policy objectives. It adopts an essentially operational analysis to this end, relying on operational and army ‘ground-level’ sources from the records of the Colonial, Foreign, and War Offices at the British National Archives. It uncovers the hidden workings of the mechanisms of imperial military power projection through strategic outposts, which ranged from training to logistical support to the exercise of command and control, and how these mechanisms and outposts were utilised by the British Far Eastern land forces involved in the Korean War. In so doing, the article sheds much valuable and original light on the historical importance of these strategic outposts to imperial defence.     

Studies in the Politics of Environmental Protection: The Historical Roots of the British Clean Air Act, 1956: III. The Ripening of Public Opinion, 1898–1952

Abstract

This is the last of three articles about the campaign to abate smoke in the cities of England which began early in the 19th century and culminated in the Clean Air Act 1956. It describes the third sustained wave of activity by lobbies for smoke abatement and the way the public conscience was raised to a level which made it practicable to bring in laws to control domestic as well as industrial smoke. The impediments to this evolution of public opinion were (a) social: the Englishman's sentimental attachment to an inefficient and wasteful way to heat and cook in his home; (b) technological: the practical difficulties in producing a solid smokeless fuel which could be used in an open grate; and (c) administrative: the difficulties in enforcing laws against smoke when smoke could be neither defined nor measured with the precision necessary in a court of law.     

FightingFit? Diet,Disease, and Disability in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914–18

In spite of considerable period propaganda to the otherwise, the average member of the Canadian Expeditionary Force was far from a northern superman. Some, in fact, were quite the opposite. A close analysis of enlistment records indicates that majority of Canada’s would-be warriors not only were — as one might expect — of average height and build, but also that many suffered from a wide variety of health concerns ranging from poor eyesight and dentition through to serious musculoskeletal, neurological, and psychiatric disorders. Moreover, evidence suggests that many recruits were poorly nourished. Indeed, despite the very real horrors and dangers that the Great War presented, the enlistment and discharge weights of CEF members suggests that joining the military was actually good for many Canadian males. This analysis is based on summary statistical examination of the medical and attestation papers of over 20,000 servicemen and a close textual analysis of the full file for a smaller number of men.     

Studies in the Politics of Environmenta Protection: The Historical Roots of the British Clean Air Act, 1956: I. The Awakening of Public Opinion over Industrial Smoke, 1843–1853

Abstract

This is the first of three articles about the campaign to abate smoke in the cities of England. It began early in the 19th centnry and culminated in the Clean Air Act, 1956. Between 1844 and 1850 no fewer than six Bills were introduced into parliament to compel furnaces to ‘consume their own smoke’. All failed to pass into law although enough was known about the science and technology of combustion to justify legislation for furnace used to raise steam-power. In 1853 Palmerston succeeded in putting on the statute book the first really elfective clean air act for the metropolis of London. It did not cover dwelling houses; the campaign to bring the e under the law—to be described in the second essay—had to await improvements in the design of domestic grates. It was during the decade 1843–1853 that the public conscience was awakened to the need for laws to protect the environment against pollution.     

‘Get into a Crack Force and earn £20 a Month and all found…’: The Influence of the Palestine Police upon Colonial Policing 1922–19481

The development of a ‘colonial’ police model has typically been linked to the Irish Constabularies. Little consideration has been given to the influences of the Palestine Police. The British section of the Palestine Gendarmerie was created in 1920 with the recruitment of former members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and Black and Tans. Meanwhile training for colonial police officers continued in Northern Ireland until 1932. At this point it was the Palestine Police that provided the recruiting and training ground for senior colonial policemen until its disbandment in 1948. Thereafter, its ‘colonial’ policing practices and traditions were carried throughout the British Empire and Commonwealth by its former members.     

Atomic Force Microscopy for High Resolution Imaging of Collagen Fibrils—A New Technique to Investigate Collagen Structure in Historic Bone Tissues

In this study, we present a new technique for the structural analysis of the collagen compound in historic tissues. We therefore used atomic force microscopy (AFM), a new high resolution technique which offers significant information on the fibrillar assembly and ultrastructure of collagen fibrils, which may provide insight into both the physiological and eventually pathogenic pattern of collagen fibrils, but also into possible diagenetic destructive changes of those fibrils. AFM figures three-dimensionally the surface of a sample with high resolution down to a nanometer scale. In our investigation we used the AFM to image paraffin embedded tissue sections from femoral bone tissue of a recent case and an age determined historic sample in ambient conditions. With this technique we were able to identify unambiguously collagen bundles and to determine their diameter. These results led us to differentiate the bundling pattern of collagen type I from that of collagen type II. In addition, we identified collagen type I in the historic sample, which provided a fibrillar pattern as that of recent bone. The results were compared to standard immunohistochemical staining techniques of the respective collagen types. In conclusion, our study presents circumstantial evidence that AFM analysis as a novel morphological technique can successfully be applied to historic tissue specimens.     

Informing Airmen? The US Army Air Forces’ Intelligence on Japanese Fighter Tactics in The Pacific Theatre, 1941–5

This article traces the development of US air intelligence on the tactics and weapons of Japan's fighter forces during the Pacific War. During the opening stages of the conflict, the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) struggled to set up an intelligence network in the Pacific theater because they were unprepared to wage a large scale conflict against the Japanese. Prior to December 1941, most American air commanders expected Japan to refrain from initiating hostilities with the western powers, and were thus caught unawares when faced with the onslaught of the Japanese air services. The setbacks which US forces suffered in the western Pacific regions during the opening stages of the conflict persuaded air commanders to create a more efficient apparatus that was designed to make good use of the information which aircrews gathered in their encounters with enemy forces. By the end of 1942, observations of the Japanese air forces' performance in combat enabled the Americans to acquire a rudimentary knowledge of the tactical procedures which pilots needed to follow in order to neutralize their opponent. After 1943, the tide of the air war turned decisively in favor of the Allies, owing to the fact that Japan's strengths were stretched to the limit, and its industries could not replace the planes and equipment which the armed forces had lost during the battle of Midway and the Solomons campaign. As the conflict progressed, US aviators noticed how the Japanese had suffered losses to the point where they could no longer defend the skies above their occupied territories, as evidenced by the fact that enemy interceptors were appearing in ever-decreasing numbers. The development motivated airmen to seek ways to destroy the remnants of Japan's air forces as quickly as possible and thereby hasten the tempo of the campaign in the Pacific theater. However, the USAAF remained mindful of the difficulties they faced in fighting the Japanese. This was mainly because the intelligence secured via encounters with enemy forces continued to suggest that they still possessed a good number of serviceable planes, along with trained pilots who were able to cause significant disruption for US air missions. The evidence was taken as a clear indication that the Americans needed to deploy sufficient aircraft strengths and simultaneously develop the tactical methods needed to protect friendly forces against unnecessary casualties.     

The Contribution of Reinhold Niebuhr's ‘Moral Ambiguity’ to Contemporary Discussions on the Morality of Intervention and the Use of Force in a Post-Cold War World

Abstract

The post-Cold War world poses challenges to traditional principles guiding the ethics of the use of force. Military intervention and the current war on terror are two phenomena that challenge just war criteria such as just cause, right authority, and reasonable hope for success. The just war tradition is helpful but needs to be expanded and re-thought to address the pressing issues of our time. This paper suggests Reinhold Niebuhr's category of ‘moral ambiguity’ as a contribution to the discussion. His application of moral ambiguity to his situation during World War II and the Cold War witnesses to the depth that such a category can add to current international circumstances fraught with moral complexity. Though it too requires critique, contemporary discussions on military intervention reflect many of Niebuhr's evaluations of the ambiguity in the use of force as different global actors seek humane alternatives to provide relief to intense human suffering.