The Origin of Alliances: From Sparta to the EU’s Solidarity Clause

Abstract

According to the International Relations theory known as Realism, interstate interactions, whether ancient or modern, are motivated by the pursuit of hegemony of individual states, which act as monolithic groups in articulating their foreign policy decisions. The application of Realism to the study of Spartan foreign policy in the third century BC shows the validity of this theory in explaining certain aspects of ancient interstate interactions, as illustrated by the two alliances discussed in this article. The first, earlier alliance, between King of Macedonia Antigonos Gonatas and Sparta and some Peloponnesian cities, was made in response to the threat posed by King Pyrrhus of Epirus who was set on conquering them. The later alliance, between Sparta and other states, was made to stop the ambitions of King Antigonos Gonatas who controlled many cities of the Peloponnese and sought to conquer the whole of Greece. In forging such alliances, according to the Realist view, the states acted as large monolithic groups, yet a broader assessment of the available evidence shows the presence of smaller, subtler networks of individuals, which were paramount in articulating important foreign policy decisions. The comparison of Spartan decision making with the activation in 2009 of the EU’s Solidarity Clause, included in Article 222 of The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), indicates that the activation of this clause too required the consensus of several European governing bodies. By bringing to light the critical role played by smaller networks of power in foreign policy decision making in the ancient and the current-day EU alliances, this article exposes both the merits and the limits of the Realist international relations theory.     

Effectiveness of FRCM Reinforcement Applied to Masonry Walls Subject to Axial Force and Out-Of-Plane Loads Evaluated by Experimental and Numerical Studies

ABSTRACT

An experimental campaign and a numerical analysis devoted to the investigation of the out-of-plane behavior of masonry walls reinforced with Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM) are presented here. The main goal of this study is to analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the strengthening system, by discussing failure modes and capacity of strengthened masonry walls, in order to assess their behavior under out-of-plane horizontal actions, such as, for example, seismic actions. A purposely designed experimental set-up, able to separately and independently apply an axial force and out-of-plane horizontal actions on masonry walls, was used. Experimental results are discussed and compared with the outcomes of nonlinear analyses performed on simplified finite element models of the walls. A proper evaluation of the flexural capacity of FRCM strengthened walls is the first step of the ongoing process of drawing reliable code guidelines leading to a safe design of strengthened masonry structures.     

Masonry Italian Code-Conforming Buildings. Part 2: Nonlinear Modelling and Time-History Analysis

ABSTRACT

The unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings designed to be conforming with the Italian building code, as illustrated in the companion paper, were analyzed by performing time-history analyses on models realized using an equivalent frame approach and by adopting two different constitutive laws. Both the effect of record-to-record variability and of epistemic and aleatory uncertainties in modelling were explored. The achieved results constitute the basis for the evaluation of the risk level implicit in Italian code-conforming buildings. Two main performance conditions are considered, namely usability-preventing damage and global collapse limit states.     

Modeling and Seismic Response Analysis of Italian Code-Conforming Single-Storey Steel Buildings

ABSTRACT

This article describes the structural design, nonlinear modeling, and seismic analysis of prototype single-storey non-residential steel buildings made of moment-resisting portal frames in the transverse direction and concentric braces in the longitudinal direction. Various design parameters (building geometry, seismic hazard, foundation soil category) and different modeling assumptions (bare frame model, model including cladding elements, ground motions including vertical accelerations, and modeling uncertainties) were considered to investigate their effects on the simulated seismic performance.     

Seismic Reliability of Code-Conforming Italian Buildings

ABSTRACT

This paper presents and discusses some research results related to the seismic failure risk of standard, residential and industrial, buildings designed for damage, and life-safety according to the Italian seismic code, which is somewhat similar to Eurocode 8. The five considered structural typologies are as follows: masonry, cast-in-place reinforced concrete, precast reinforced concrete, steel, and base-isolated buildings. The archetype structures have been designed according to standard practice at three sites, representative of the seismic hazard across the country. Seismic risk is defined here as the annual rate of earthquakes able to cause structural failure in terms of usability-preventing damage and global collapse. For each structure, the failure rates have been evaluated in the framework of performance-based earthquake engineering, that is, via integration of site’s probabilistic hazard and structural fragility. The former has been computed consistently with the official hazard model for Italy that is also used to define design actions in the code. The latter has been addressed via nonlinear dynamic analysis of three-dimensional numerical structural models. Results indicate that, generally, design procedures are such that seismic structural reliability tends to decrease with increasing seismic hazard of the building site, despite the homogeneous return period of exceedance of the design seismic ground-motion.     

‘Those European Chicken Littles’: Reagan,NATO, and the Polish Crisis, 1981–2

This article focuses on transatlantic relations in the run-up to and aftermath of the imposition of Martial Law in Poland in December 1981. Through an analysis of British, US, German, and NATO sources, this article highlights the fundamental differences and consequent disagreements that occurred between the Reagan administration and its European allies in 1981–2. It argues that these divergences originated from economic considerations, from a fundamentally discrepant conception of détente on the two sides of the Atlantic, and from the Reagan administration's mismanagement of the crisis. Not only did Reagan disregard NATO's contingency plans dating from 1980 and did not consult the allies, he also designed US sanctions specifically to dash a joint agreement between the Europeans and the Soviet Union for the construction of a pipeline that was to deliver Siberian gas into Western Europe.     

Making room for rubbers: Gender,technology, and birth control before the pill

Before the Food and Drug Administration approved in 1960 the distribution of oral contraceptives, the most popular form of birth control in the United States was the condom. Scholars have often downplayed men's involvement in the history of birth control, relegating knowledge and use of contraceptive technology to a separate "female domain." This article explores the role of condoms in the evolution of the American birth control business, attitudes toward public health, and everyday sexual behavior, and suggests why the full complexities of the history of birth control are best captured by an approach that is attentive to broad gender dynamics as well as to the diversity of technological change.     

Francesco è vivo,e lotta insieme a noi! Rebuilding local identities in the aftermath of the 1977 student protests in Bologna

The decade spanning from 1968 to 1980, known also as the anni di piombo, is among the most difficult and traumatic periods in Italian post-war history. One of the most memorable years of this decade was 1977, when a new student movement stood up against the established order. The so-called Movement of ’77 manifested itself among others in Bologna, where it had a predominantly creative and joyful character. Nevertheless, the protests were violently struck down when left-wing student Francesco Lorusso was killed by police forces during clashes, resulting in an urban guerriglia. This incident worsened the relationship between the historical left and younger generations of (more radical) left-wing activists, and marked the beginning of the end of the Movement of ’77. The chapter on 1977 was, however, never really closed, and a ‘counter-memory’ has continued to divide the local community ever since. In this article, we shall see how different memory communities in Bologna have dealt with this ‘collective trauma’, focusing on the former Movement of ’77 and the way it has used public commemorative rituals to rebuild a collective identity for itself in subsequent years.     

A Daily Revision of the Past: Fascism,Anti-Fascism,and Memory in Contemporary Italy

Recent cultural and political debate in contemporary Italy, which has often been focused on Fascism and the Resistance, has seen an attempt to reconsider the importance of the constitutive moment of the Republic, namely the Liberazione from Nazism–Fascism, and to equate the memories of Fascism and anti-Fascism. The direct consequence of these confused revisionist approaches is either to rehabilitate many aspects of the Duce's regime, or on the contrary to assign this shady page of history to oblivion. The effect of this would be to marginalize anti-Fascism, and even to depict Fascism as relatively ‘harmless’ or ‘apolitical’. The danger is that this trend may construct an artificial and distorted history and thus a ‘manipulated’ public memory for Italian society. The purpose of this article is not to defend anti-Fascism but to restore the reality of ‘Fascism in action’, and to challenge distorted revisionist perceptions of the past.