The Return of Mess O’Potamia: Time,Space, and Politics in Modern Uses of Ancient Mesopotamia†

Taking its cue from Jon Stewart's satire on the Da'esh insurgence, the essay explores how the term ‘Mesopotamia’ is used in contemporary discourse on Iraqi conflict, and particularly, how the term is used to construct a complex set of temporal and spatial differences and identities.

Building on the seminal work of Zainab Bahrani, Rune Rattenborg, and Sara Pursley, the essay explores different aspects of the term ‘Mesopotamia’ and their various political consequences. It is argued that the idea of a single ‘Mesopotamian’ culture both effaces the internal differences between the various cultures of ancient Iraq, and constructs an external difference from subsequent Iraqi history. It is further shown that ‘Mesopotamia’ only came to refer to the land ‘between the rivers’ in comparatively recent times, and only definitively so during World War I. Lastly, it is argued that the attempt to base the modern unity of Iraq on ancient Mesopotamia is misguided, and sidesteps the complex history of how Iraq came to have its current form.

These various temporal and spatial threads are brought together in a final analysis of the reactions to the destruction of the ancient Iraqi past by Da'esh in 2015 and during the US occupation in 2003.     

Denmark,Norway and Sweden in 1814: a geopolitical and contemporary perspective

1814 is the ‘year of miracles’ in Norwegian history. The transition from Danish to Swedish rule was transformed into a union between a Norwegian kingdom and the Swedish one. Seen in a contemporary and regional perspective, the outcome of 1814 seems less of a Norwegian victory, but even less of a Danish tragedy or a Swedish triumph.

It was a geopolitical and geographical adjustment from one set of imagined ‘natural’ borders – in which Sweden/Finland were tied together by the Baltic Sea, and the Kattegat and the North Sea tied together the Danish composite state from the Danish islands and the Jutland peninsula to Norway and the North Atlantic islands – towards a new definition of ‘natural borders’, in which the Baltic and the Kattegat were the enemy areas. The Scandinavian state system became split between two peninsula states that turned their backs on one another.

Denmark was banished southwards; Sweden gravitated northwards. She was compensated with Norway in a twin union, explained as geographically ‘natural’, held together by the Scandinavian mountain range that had been nature’s own fortification wall for centuries.

The renegotiation processes of ‘natural’ borders in connection with the upheavals in 1814 shows the predominance of politics over nature in region formation. 1814 is, in the Scandinavian region-building history, a manifestation of the political changeability of constructed state borders.     

Culture as a variable in comparative politics: A review of some recent literature

Bringing culture into the analysis remains a problem for comparative political science. The notion is too vague and elusive — we are reluctant to evoke that amorphous mass of beliefs, institutions and actions which comprise the political culture of any nation when trying to compare policy processes. Only when the interplay of familiar political variables fails to correlate is culture introduced as an explanation of last resort

Recent work seeks more rigour for a cultural variable. Drawing on the anthropology of Mary Douglas and the public policy of Aaron Wildav‐sky, ‘cultural theory’ argues that groups fashion their world in limited and predictable ways. Regime, belief and economy are subsumed by more fundamental choices about the organisation of collective life. Culture is people sharing values which justify social relations.

This paper sketches the premises and findings of cultural theory. It suggests some possibilities for comparative research — and the problems of testing this ambitious reformulation of political culture.     

No Permission to Cross: Cypriot women's dialogue across the divide

Much scholarly attention has been given to the study of the gendered aspect of ethno-national conflicts trying to understand the experiences of men and women in a conflict situation and to what extent these shape different types of intervention for peacemaking and peace-building. Are women's experiences of conflict different from men's? Do women have a different voice than the mainstream dominant discourses produced by patriarchal systems? Do women in conflict societies respond to militarism and the violation of human rights differently from men? Are women's needs for identity and peace different depending on which ethnic–religious group they belong to? Are their needs different from those of men? This article will try to answer the above questions focusing on a feminist understanding of conflict in Cyprus. The main contention put forward in the article is that gender is an important factor to take into account when conflict societies are engaging in peace processes. To this end, data are analysed from different inter-ethnic women's workshops in which the author was either a participant–observer, or a facilitator. This analysis of the data demonstrates that Greek and Turkish Cypriot women's voices and experiences are diverse and multiple. Both men and women are socialised in the same nationalist paradigms, a fact that can explain how in the initial phases of the dialogue processes both groups of women tended to reproduce official discourses. Their own experiences and differentiated voices began to emerge only after a gendered understanding of the conflict was introduced and trust and conflict resolution skills were instituted in the dialogue process. Drawing attention to the gradual shift of perspectives in the context of inter-ethnic workshops, the article concludes by arguing that women's dialogue can challenge the omnipotence of the state and may open up a new space whereby a diversity of perspectives and mutual trust can emerge.

Flying Away to the Other Side

Our birthplace is split in two and we

Are caught on barbed wire-hybrids

Turk and Greek alike     

From Steering Capitalism to Seeking Market Acceptance

This article puts into a historical context the employment conceptions and policies of leading Social Democrats in Finland from 1975 to 1998. It takes into account both the strategic decision-making and public argumentation of the Social Democrats in employment-sensitive issues related to economic, employment, labour market, state company, competition, globalization and integration policies.

Finland’s Social Democrats moved towards emphasizing private sector-led employment, approached the middle classes, adopted monetarist ideas, accepted the ‘market economy’ and favoured ‘controlled restructuring’ over counter-cyclical measures in a series of steps in 1975–1998. The deregulation of financial markets meant a shifting of the basis of Social Democratic employment policy from steering the capitalist economy to seeking market acceptance of the party’s politics. This did not manage to guarantee full employment in Finland during the period.

Furthermore, Finland’s Social Democrats seemed initially to practise a ‘third way’ type of ‘Bad Sillanpää’ policy long before its adherents in the UK. such as Tony Blair. After the mid-1970s, the Finnish Social Democrat-led governments no longer imitated Sweden, while implementing many reforms which were followed by the Swedish Social Democrats.     

The main components of the situation in Poland: 1980–1983

The paper consists of five parts. Part I describes the situation on the eve of martial law. Its main conclusion says: The release of this enormous tension could be achieved only through free elections, but it was absolutely clear that such a solution, tantamount to the total surrender of Communism in Poland, would never be accepted by the Russians’.

Part II describes the evolution of the system of ‘partocracy’ in Poland from the early 1950s to the late 1970s. This evolution consisted in the gradual de‐ideologization of the party and the consequent change in the basic principle of legitimation. In the beginning it legitimized its rule by the Marxist theory of historical progress, in later years this was replaced by invoking the objective interests of the nation in given historical conditions. A positive feature of this development was the de‐ideologization of many spheres of life; this, however, did not entail their de‐politicization, in the sense of replacing changing and arbitrary political commands by stable and general rules of law. In the economic sphere it resulted in a series of irresponsible decisions, the rule of fiction and widespread corruption.

Part III deals with some features of the historically‐formed national character of the Poles, concluding that it was peculiarly uncongenial to Soviet‐type socialism.

Part IV describes the attitudes of the main strata of the population. It shows the Solidarity movement as a populist movement, often anti‐socialist at a conscious level but almost always deeply socialist at an unconscious one. The author sees the main contradiction of this movement in the fact that its hostility towards ‘really existing socialism’ as a political system was not combined with a readiness to accept a consistent de‐politicization of the economy, i.e. the replacement of political commands by market mechanisms. The author also shows the plight of the Polish peasantry and the attitudes dominant among the intelligentsia.

The last part, ‘The Effects of Martial Law and the Prospects for the Future’, presents the efforts of Jaruzelski's government to introduce economic reform and to base its rule on the principle of ‘socialist constitutionalism’. The author is pessimistic about the chances of economic reform and stresses the necessity of a minimum of political and moral consensus. He concludes: ‘The experiment in participatory democracy and in dual power has failed, but the only acceptable alternative is the greatest possible liberalization’.     

A Kind of Queer Geography/Räume Durchqueeren: The Doreen Massey Reading Weekends

This paper recounts an experiment in learning together, which took place over a series of six reading weekends in different cities over a period of 6 years. The participants were German-speaking geography students plus one English academic. The aim was to discuss issues (beginning with queer theory) that could not be discussed within the German academy and to do so in a way which was open, questioning, cooperative and based on friendship.

Una Clase de Geografía /Räume Durchqueeren: los fines de semanas de la lectura de Doreen Massey

Este artículo relata un experimento de aprendizaje colectivo, que sucedió en una serie de seis fines de semanas en diferentes ciudades durantes seis años. Los y las participantes eran estudiantes de habla alemana de geografía más una académica inglesa. La meta era discutir los asuntos (empezando con la teoría ‘queer’) que no se podrían discutir adentro de la academia alemana y hacerlo en una manera abierta, interrogatoria, cooperativa, y basada en amistad.

Räume Durchqueeren: Die Doreen Massey Reading Weekends

Dieser Artikel handelt von einem Experiment geminsamen Lernens, welches über sechs Jahre hinweg an verschiedenen Orten in der Schweiz, in Deutschland und in Holland durchgeführt wurde. Die Teilnehmenden waren grösstenteils deutschsprachige Geografiestudentinnen plus eine englische Professorin. Das Ziel der Veranstaltungen war es, Themen zur Sprache zu bringen (angefangen bei Queer Theory), welche im deutschen Sprachraum nicht innerhalb universitärer Institutionen diskutiert werden konnten. Das Experiment bestand dabei nicht nur im Inhalt, sondern auch in der Form der Treffen, welche auf grösstmögliche Offenheit, Kooperation und Freundschaft setzten     

‘The dilemmas and paradoxes of public bodies performing commercial tasks’: The rhetoric of rationality and the rejection of traditional labor philosophy on the role of the state.

Traditionally a commitment to an active public sector has been a centrepiece of Labor's official thinking. Rhetorical conflict between Labor and non‐Labor has always focused upon the role of the State. The most recent instance of this was the debate between Labor and non‐Labor over the Fraser Government's Review of Commonwealth Functions (commonly known as the ‘Razor Gang').

Traditions have been changing and developing on both sides. The changes made by E. G. Whitlam have been widely discussed. Three years and as many months after the election of the first Hawke Government Labor traditions themselves are being rewritten.

In this paper I shall use the policy area of the function and administration of public sector enterprises in order to demonstrate the depth and significance of this change. It has been said also that the Hawke Government has reduced politics to pronouncements from the Kirribilli Cabinet and non‐productive factional squabbling. The ‘fourth graders’ of the Hawke Government, which apparently includes members of the outer Cabinet as well as the backbenchers, have been excluded from the policy‐making process. This is notwithstanding the firm intentions of the Report of Task Force on Government Administration.

The public sector area can be used to demonstrate shifts along four axes, (i) Significant frontbenchers have been bent upon changing the rhetoric, so that the activities of public sector enterprises are assessed in terms like ‘efficiency’ and ‘dollar rationality’. Change in rhetoric is part of a wider tendency to reject appeals to traditional Labor imagery (such as equality, welfare, the public sector as a good in its own right and other social as opposed to economic goals).

(ii) This, in turn, is related to a rejection of the traditional Labor practices whereby the Labor Party Platform (which could broadly be seen as a pro‐public enterprise document) is no longer seen by significant members of the Labor front‐bench as the most important guide to policy, (iii) Other sources of policy have become more salient, in the case of public sector enterprises, the rhetoric and ideas of the Department of Finance have become prominent (iv) The changing tone of the rhetoric has reflected to a small extent changes being made to official party theology as expressed in the Party Platform. Key individuals have successfully opposed left‐wing challenges to maintain and to shore up the role of the public sector and of public sector enterprises. To the extent that the Platform will retain its traditional symbolic role these activities are significant.

Policy‐making has been about domination from above and the ‘crowding out’ of traditional ideas and their sources. Control, however, has not always been successful. Sources of objection have included the Left Faction of Caucus, key Ministerial Departments (viz. Transport and Communications) dealing with public sector enterprises, and the Ministers themselves.     

The communist party of Australia and the eighty‐one parties conference

In November 1960 a conference of eighty‐one communist parties convened in Moscow to try to resolve serious differences which had arisen between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the Communist Party of China (CPC or CCP). It was ‘probably the most important gathering of its kind in the entire history of Communism’ (Zagoria 1962:343).

Several years later the position adopted at that conference by the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) became the subject of an acrimonious and inconclusive controversy between pro‐Soviet and pro‐Chinese elements in the Australian party.

Of various scholars who commented on the CPA's stance, almost all ([Rigby] 1964:37; Mayo‐Wren 1981:87; Turner 1961:7; Turner 1965:154) claimed categorically that the CPA's delegates, Sharkey and Dixon, backed China. However in one exhaustive account of the conference (Griffith 1962) the CPA did not appear among the CPC's partisans. Most observers outside Australia relied heavily on Kremlinologist Edward Crankshaw. Crankshaw originally omitted the CPA from his list of pro‐Chinese parties (1962:10) but later revised his account (1963:61; 1965:120, 134).¹

In the standard historical work on the CPA Davidson (1969:160,152) qualified the notion that the CPA had supported China. ‘After a careful study of various views’ he concluded:

At the conference of eighty‐one communist parties in Moscow in 1960 the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) supported the Chinese interpretation of Marxist‐Leninist doctrine in preference to that of the Soviet party. Previous emphasis on the CPA's commitment to international communist unity has tended to obscure and even deny this.     

John Howard and the ‘Anglospherist’ reshaping of Australia

The conceptual category of the Anglosphere never found explicit currency in John Howard's narrative when he was prime minister. While in office, he ostentatiously avoided ‘putting Australia into a particular sphere – Anglo or otherwise’. This article suggests instead that his endeavour to reshape Australia drew on an Anglospherist perspective. The reshaping of Australia he undertook when he won office rested on two pillars of Anglospherism: the rejection of multiculturalism and the alignment to countries with ‘shared values’ in Australia's external relations. The article traces how these two Anglospherist precepts found actual implementation in Howard's re-framing of ‘Australian multiculturalism’ and re-conceptualisation of ‘Australia's engagement with Asia’.

约翰·霍华德担任总理期间,英语圈的说法在他的叙述里并不通行。在他的官方官样文章里,他明确地避免把澳大利亚放进特定的圈子——英语圈也好,别的圈也好。霍华德在职的时候重塑澳大利亚的努力,其实是基于英语圈的视角。他赢得竞选时要重塑澳大利亚的事业,有两个英语圈的支柱：拒绝多元文化;对外关系中优先“持共同价值观”的国家。本文研究了霍华德如何将这两个英语圈思路落实到对“澳大利亚多元文化”的重新塑造、对“澳大利亚与亚洲关系”的重新思考中的。     

The poverty of Australian defence and security studies: The ‘secure Australia project’ and its critics

Graeme Cheeseman and StJohn Kettle (eds), The New Australian Militarism: Undermining Our Future Security (Sydney: Pluto Press, 1990).

Gary Smith and StJohn Kettle (eds), Threats Without Enemies: Rethinking Australia's Security (Sydney: Pluto Press, 1992).

Peter Jennings, Searching For Insecurity: Why the ‘Secure Australia Project’ is Wrong About Defence (Current Issues, Institute of Public Affairs, June 1994).     

Afghanistan observed

Barnett R. Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. xvii + 378 pp. No price given.

Barnett R. Rubin, The Search for Peace in Afghanistan: From Buffer State to Failed State. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. xi + 190 pp. US$25.00 (paper).

David B. Edwards, Heroes of the Age: Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Frontier. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996. xviii + 306 pp. No price given.

J.L. Lee, The ‘Ancient Supremacy’: Bukhara, Afghanistan and the Battle for Balkh, 1731–1901. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996. i + 695 pp. No price given.     

Vulnerability Index: A New Approach for Preventive Conservation of Monuments

A new approach is developed for vulnerability analysis of monuments based on a matrix model and the relationships with static and structural factors, climatic conditions, air quality, urban planning and social agents for preventive conservation of cultural heritage in urban centers.

The objective is to provide tools for decision-makers in the current recession to allow them to prioritize strategies for cultural heritage preservation in a town, where territorial policies are applied and regions where restoration budget is distributed. This new tool allows to classify monuments in order to prioritize restoration and is useful in deeper analysis associated to risks assessment.

The degradation of building materials and structures is mainly due to deterioration caused by structural instability, weathering, pollution, and anthropogenic damage. The vulnerability approach of each monument (vulnerability indexes) was calculated, based on a Leopold matrix that depends on intrinsic variables and the life of the monuments. For the very first time, the influence of different deterioration agents has been balanced with a Delphi forecast based on architects’ opinions.

The result is a new pre-Artificial Intelligence tool that enables users to reproduce human reasoning to study relations between vulnerability factors, risk factors, and the historical parameters of the monuments.     

Publications briefly noted

B. A. HUSSAINMIYA. The Brunei Constitution of 1959: an Inside History. Bandar Seri Begawan: Brunei Press, 2000. xvi, 81 pp. B$8.90, paper.

DAVID E. POLLARD. The Chinese Essay. Hong Kong: Research Centre for Translation, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. US$50.00, hardcover.

EVA HUNG (ed). City Women: contemporary Taiwan Women Writers. Hong Kong: Rendition Paperbacks, 2001. 160 pp. No price given, paper.

P. J. MOORE. A Concise History of Dutch Mauritius, 1598-1710: a Fruitful and Healthy Land. London: Kegan Paul International for the International Institute of Asian Studies, 1998. x, 127 pp. Illustrations. £55.00/US$93.50, hardcover.

HENRY YUHUAI HE. Dictionary of the Political Thought of the People's Republic of China. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2001. 727 pp. US$124.95, hardcover.

WILLIAM DUIKER. Historical Dictionary of Vietnam. Asian/Oceanian Historical Dictionaries No. 27, 2nd edition. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1998. 512 pp. US$68.00, hardcover.

RIZAL SUKMA. Indonesia and China: the Politics of a Troubled Relationship. London: Routledge, 1999. xiv, 224 pp. £55.00, hardcover.

NICHOLAS TARLING (ed). Indonesia after Soeharto. Auckland: New Zealand Asia Institute, 1999. 168 pp. No price given, paper.

ROY DAVIS LINVILLE JUMPER. Orang Asli Now: the Orang Asli in the Malaysian Political World. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1999. US$48.00, hardcover.

LIANG XIAOSHENG. Panic and Deaf: two Modern Satires. Hanming Chen, trans; James O. Belcher, ed. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001. 157 pp. US$14.95, paper.

LEO DOUW, CEN HUANG and MICHAEL R. GODLEY (eds). Qiaoxiang Ties: interdisciplinary Approaches to ‘Cultural Capitalism’ in South China. London: Kegan Paul International, 1999. 346 pp. No price given, hardcover.

CYRIL BIRCH. Scenes for Mandarins: the Elite Theatre of the Ming. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. xiii, 262 pp. US$20.50, paper.

JI GILES UNGPAKORN. Thailand: class Struggle in an Era of Economic Crisis. Hongkong: Asia Resources Monitor Center; Bangkok: Workers' Democracy Book Club, 1999. 118 pp. Thai baht 150.

JI UNGPAKORN. The Struggle for Democracy and Social Justice in Thailand. Bangkok: Arom Pongpangan Foundation, 1997. 130 pp. Thai baht 150.     

Book reviews

Isfahan Is Half the World; Memories of a Persian Boyhood. By Sayyed Mohammad ‘Ali Jamalzadeh. Translated by W. L. Heston. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983.

Sorayya dar Eghma [Sorayya in a Coma]. By Esma'il Fasih. Tehran: Nashr‐e No, 1983. 321 pp.

Klidar. 5 volumes. By Mahmud Dowlatabadi. Tehran: Nashr‐e Parsi, 1978–1983.

False Dawn: Selected Poems. By Nader Naderpur. In Literature East and West 22 (1985).     

Book reviews—Comptes rendus

Early Europe—L'Europe antique

Maurice SARTRE, L'Asie Mineure et l'Anatolie d'Alexandre à Dioclétien (IVe siècle av. JC—IIIe siècle op. JC), Annand Colin, Collection U, Paris, 1995.

Peter KINGSLEY, Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic Empedocles and Pythagorean tradition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995, ix + 422 p., ISBN 0–19–814988–3.

Central and eastern Europe—L'Europe centrale et orientate

Catharina LIS, Jan LUCASSEN & Hugo SOLY eds, Before the Unions: wage earners and collective action in Europe 1300–1850, Cambridge University Press, International Review of History Supplements, Cambridge, 1994,194 p., ISBN 0–521–47954–1.

M.S. ANDERSON, The War of the Austrian Succession, 1740–1748, Longman, London & New York, 1995, xi + 248 p., ISBN 0–582–05951–8.

C.W. INGRAO, ed., State and Society in Early Modern Austria, Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, Indiana, 1994, xvi + 339 p., ISBN 1–55753–047–5.

P.W. SCHROEDER, The Transformation of European Politics, 1763–1848, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994, xxii + 894 p,. ISBN 0–19–822119–3.

David E. BARCLAY, Frederick William IV and the Prussian Monarchy 1840–1861, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1995, 335 p., ISBN 0–19–820430–2 (German ed., Anarchie und guter Wille. Friedrich Wilhelm IV. und die preussische Monarchic, trartsl. by Marion Müller, Siedler Verlag, Berlin 1995, 535 p., ISBN 3–88680–463–1).

Jörg BABEROWSKI, Autokratie und Justiz. Zum Verhältnis von Rechtsstaatlichkeit und Rückständigkeit im ausgehenden Zarenreieh 1864–1914, Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt/M. (Veröffentlichungen des Max‐Planck‐Instituts für Europälsche Rechtsgeschichte, Ius Commune. Sonderhefte, Srudien zur Europäischen Rechtsgeschichte 78), 1996, xi + 845 p., ISBN 3465028325.

La vision de Ian Kershaw sur le pouvoir d'Hitler sur les Allemands. Deux ouvrages novateurs sur le nazisme traduits en français

Ian KERSHAW, L‘opinion allemande sous le nazisme: Bavière 1933–1945, CNRS‐Editions, collection “Histoire du XXe siècle”, Paris, 1995, 160 p.

Ian KERSHAW, Hitler: essai sur le charisme en politique, traduit de l'anglais par Jacqueline Carnaux, Gallimard, collection “NRF essais”, Paris, 1995, 240 p.

The idea of ‘Mitteleuropa’

Joseph ROTHSCHILD, Return to Diversity: a political history of East Central Europe since World War II, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York, 1993, 299 p., ISBN 0–19–507382–7.

Peter STIRK, ed., Mitteleuropa. History and prospects, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1994, 176 p., ISBN 0–7486–0449–9.

Europe since 1945—L ‘Europe depute 1945

Geoffrey BEST, Law and War since 1945, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994, xiv + 434 p., ISBN 0198219911.

Anne‐Marie DURANTON‐CRABOL, L'Europe de l'extrême droite de 1945 à nos jours, Editions Complexe, Paris, 1991. 222 p.

Themes in cultural history—Etudes d'histoire culturelle

Mario MIEGGE, Il sogno del re di Babilonia, Feltrinelli, Milan, 1995, 210 p., ISBN 88–07–10178‐S.

Reba N. SOFTER, Discipline and Power: the university, history, and the making of an English elite, 1870–1930, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1994, viii + 308 p., ISBN 0–8047–2383–4.

Robert WOHL, A Passion for Wings: aviation and the western imagination, 1908–1918, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1994, vii + 320 p., ISBN 0300057784.     

Book reviews‐comptes rendus

Peter GARNSEY & Richard SALLER, L'Empire romain. Economie, société, culture, Paris, La Découverte / Textes à l'appui, 1994.

Morris SLAVIN, The Hébertistes to the Guillotine: anatomy of a ‘conspiracy’ in Revolutionary France, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge and London, 1994, xvii + 280 p., ISBN 0–8071–1838–9.

Philippe BURRIN, La France à l'heure allemande, 1940–1944, Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1995.

Emmanuel LE ROY LADURIE, Le siècle des Platter 1499–1628, t.1 “Le mendiant et le professeur”, Paris, Fayard, 1995, 529 p., 170 FF., ISBN 2–213–01444–2.     

Blood,Mud and Futility? Patrick MacGill and the Experience of the Great War

Despite a growing body of detailed studies of key aspects of the Great War, there remains a dominant image of the war as a major tragedy in which the idealism of a generation of young men was exploited by their incompetent and callous elders and out of which there emerged a profound disillusionment and rejection of past values. Such an interpretation rests on the evidence of a small, and untypical, number of ‘soldier-writers’. By exploring the contemporaneous writings of a relatively unknown figure, Patrick MacGill, this article offers an alternative perspective that recognises both the well-known horrors of the Great War but also the persistence of certain ‘heroic’ values that have been misleadingly obscured by the well-known retrospective accounts of the war.

Résumé:?Malgré de nombreuses études détaillées sur la grande guerre, une image domine qui présente le conflit comme le tombeau des idéalismes et dont ne sortiraient que la désillusion et le rejet des valeurs du passé. Bien des éléments de cette interprétation dépendent des écrits de quelques auteurs atypiques. Une lecture de Patrick MacGill permet de voir en son contexte la persistance des valeurs héroïques de la grande guerre souvent minimisées par la suite.     

The Trump administration and outer space: promoting US leadership or heading towards isolation?

In a relatively short period of time, the Trump administration has been fairly active in the field of space. The reconstitution of the National Space Council, under the direction of Vice President Pence, the President’s signing of Space Policy Directive 1, that calls for the return of humans to the Moon, and the announcement of a National Space Strategy that calls for an ‘America first’ approach in space, have been the highlights of this process. A key component of the administration’s approach has been the promotion of commercial (private) space activities through an effort of regulatory reform intended to facilitate free enterprise and individual initiative in space.

Overall, it is evident that the Trump administration views a consolidated US leadership in space as instrumental to ‘Make America Great Again’. However, due to the lack of cohesion in the management of the US space program, the controversial interpretation of international principles and the US-centred view of space endorsed by the administration, doubts remain as to whether the space policy of the Trump administration will foster US leadership in space or lead to its progressive isolation.