非洲的反政府武装问题

反政府武装问题是非洲政治发展进程中的一个巨大的挑战。在非洲“前民族国家”的“新家长制”下,既得利益集团维护私利而损害了大多数民众的福祉,迫使民众寻求家族、部落、宗教集团等的庇护,导致反政府武装兴起并与政府对抗。而经济发展困境、非洲民众与国家在经济关系上的脱节,及西方经济发展模式对非洲主动性的扼杀,则滋生出反政府武装兴起与发展的社会经济因素。被边缘化群体的不满情绪,某些突出人物的领导力,以及独特的士兵群体的参与,则为反政府武装提供了人员、智力与武力支持,使反政府武装具有了强大的破坏力。而“本土性、独立性”的认同则为反政府武装提供了斗争的合法性理由,并以此赢得部分民众的认可与同情。     

Without Faith,Tsar, and Fatherland

This book excerpt explores the impact of the February revolution on periodical publishing in wartime Russia. It briefly considers the publishing activities of various political parties, but the main focus is publications by and for the active-duty army. The new freedom of the press allowed for dozens of new publications produced by soldiers themselves. Numerous other entities, including the civil authorities and public and private organizations, also published papers intended for the army, often with a pro-war message. But worsening problems with transport and supplies made it difficult to satisfy soldiers’ deep desire for news.     

Ivan the Terrible's Struggle for International Recognition as Tsar in the Latter Half of the Sixteenth Century

Russia's coronation of Ivan IV as tsar in 1547 created a series of problems in diplomatic relations, including whether foreign powers would accept the title and whether foreign kings could be considered the equals ("brothers") of the Muscovite ruler.     

The Russia of the Tsar and North Norway. "The Russian Danger" Revisited

The fear of Russia in Norway goes back far beyond the Russian Revolution. It played an important role in Norwegian Swedish foreign policies towards Russia from the 1830s and up to 1905 (and in Norwegian conceptions of threat between 1905 and 1917 as well, although the threat seems to have been more down-played in that period) (Nielsen 1994 95). In particular, there has been a fear of a possible attack on North-Norway. Roald Berg, in his recently published work entitled Norsk forsvarshistorie 1814-1905 (The History of the Norwegian Defence 1814 1905) presents evidence that the conception of a Russian danger was an issue in Norwegian military considerations as far back as in the 1820s and 1830s. According to Berg, it is evident that this idea was central in Norwegian military-strategic thought in the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century (Berg 2001: 112 115, 307-308). My purpose in this paper is to try to establish whether there was reason for this fear, that is, if there were any plans among the Russian authorities to conquer Norwegian territory in the period between the Eidsvoll Assembly and the storming of the Winter Palace (1814 1917).     

Preaching the Name: the influence of a sermon on the Holy Name of Christ

This article discusses a unique fifteenth-century sermon which provides important evidence for the development and transmission of the cult of the Holy Name and the place of Rollean mysticism within it. The author of the sermon was an Augustinian canon who sought to bring monastic ideals to an urban and knightly audience. His sermon offers guidance on the contemplative life, echoing the mysticism of Richard Rolle and promoting a personified Holy Name of Christ as an active agent of salvation. There are martial elements to the sermon which suggest an imagined audience including, but not limited to, the knightly class.     

Between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander: The Polish Question at Tilsit, 1807

Abstract

The defeat of Prussia by Napoleon in 1806 and the resulting insurrection in Prussian Poland re-opened the complex ‘Polish Question’. The former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had been wiped off the map only eleven years earlier. The large size and the civic traditions of the Polish ‘political nation’ meant that the three partitioning powers (Austria, Prussia, Russia) were bound to be alarmed by the developments in Prussian Poland. Napoleon’s attitude to the Poles was cautious, but, as the campaign against Russia (Prussia’s new ally) continued into 1807, he authorized the creation of a Polish army and of a quasi-government in Warsaw. The article examines the negotiations over the future of Prussia’s Polish lands held between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I at Tilsit in June–July 1807. Hard geopolitical considerations influenced the negotiations which eventually produced a compromise solution in the form of a so-called ‘Duchy of Warsaw’ under the King of Saxony. Although the Poles had no direct influence on the negotiations, the Polish military effort on the side of France was an important factor in the outcome of the settlement. The Russians remained deeply wary of the new duchy, especially after its enlargement in 1809. With the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire in 1814–15, Tsar Alexander acquired most of the duchy which was to survive for many years under Russian rule as the so-called ‘Congress’ Kingdom of Poland.     

Rebels without a cause: North Korea, Iran and the NPT

Unchecked nuclear weapons development in North Korea and the incipient nuclear weapons programme in Iran currently pose seminal challenges to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The disposition of these cases may determine the future of the NPT and will shape non-proliferation and disarmament efforts for the next decade or more. This article assesses these two challenges, focusing on the actions concerned European states might take to leverage and guide the inevitably central US role. The article concludes that, by smoothing the sharper edges of US nuclear and strategic policies, European states can promote political conditions more favourable to non-proliferation solutions in both critical cases and help reduce reliance on nuclear weapons threats in global security relations more broadly.     

'The Rebels Turkish Tyranny': Understanding Sexual Violence in Ireland during the 1640s

This article analyses gendered violence both in the testimonies of English Protestant settlers displaced during the 1641 Irish rebellion and in the pamphlets written shortly afterwards. It argues that, given the settlers' anxiety to highlight their vulnerability and innocence in the face of perceived native Irish barbarism, sexual violence with its suggestions of possible female acquiescence or complicity had an insecure place in their testimonies. Yet contemporary pamphlet writers described the rape of Protestant women as widespread and indiscriminate, using such narratives to question the masculinity of Catholic Irish men. By investigating personal testimonies of the sexual violence suffered by women, as well as the subsequent use of such information in narratives sensationalising the ordeal of Protestants in Ireland in 1641, the complex meanings attached to sexual violence during the mid-seventeenth century can be better appreciated.