Containment and intensification in political war: Carl Schmitt and the Clausewitzian heritage

This article provides the first comprehensive and chronological analysis of Carl Schmitt’s reception of Carl von Clausewitz. While earlier scholarship has mostly stressed Schmitt’s shift from Clausewitzian ‘instrumentality’ to an ‘existential’ view of war, I note some inherent difficulties in this dichotomy and instead promote the parallel distinction between two argument types: those of containment and intensification. Schmitt theorized both limited political war and the intensification of war out of traditional bounds, and focusing on one should not eclipse the other. Further, both elements are identifiable already in Clausewitz. I analyse Schmitt’s oscillation between containment and intensification arguments chronologically from the mid-1920s to the 1960s. Despite sometimes nominally rejecting Clausewitz’s famous thesis of war as the continuation of politics, Schmitt nevertheless affirmed the idea of war’s political nature. I conclude that Schmitt’s view can be read as a radicalized version of the Clausewitzian political theory of war rather than a strict deviation from it. This becomes evident as soon as we place Schmitt’s partly incoherent observations on Clausewitz in their argumentative contexts.     

Arriving at the Dawn of the New Economy: Is Knowledge-Based Industrial Renewal Possible in a Peripheral Region?

In the contemporary knowledge economy, characterized by both globalization and localization of economic activities, the ability of both firms and their respective regions to adapt to changes in their external environment and to retain their competitiveness is closely related to their capacity to innovate and to continually upgrade existing structures, practices and knowledge bases. In this respect, co-location of firms operating in the new knowledge-intensive sectors is typically considered to be beneficial for both the firms themselves and for their respective regional economies. In this study, we considered whether knowledge-based industrial renewal is possible in peripheral regions. The empirical study was designed to identify tendencies towards and potential concentrations of new knowledge-intensive industries in the relatively peripheral region of Pohjois-Savo in Finland. The strength of such tendencies was determined by employing the Herfindahl index and location-quotient methods. The analysis indicates that while the more traditional industries still appear to be dominating the region's economic landscape, the new knowledge-intensive industries have gained at least a foothold in the region, indicating a potential target for local policymakers' further development efforts. Pohjois-Savo can be considered to be a typical Finnish region, characterized by a large central city with a university, a few smaller sub-regional centres and the surrounding large rural periphery. However, earlier literature with the same focus is lacking and regional strategies and entrepreneurial structures differ in different regions; thus, we cannot establish whether these conclusions hold in other regions in Finland or how applicable these results are in an international context.     

Pigments, dyes, and black enamel—the colorants of reverse paintings on glass

Nondestructive analyses of medieval reverse paintings on glass revealed the same dyes and pigments customarily used in panel paintings. However, there is one exception: the black colorant is not a carbon-based pigment, but black enamel. In this respect, the stylistic as well as the technical influence of stained glass artwork can clearly be seen on reverse paintings on glass. However, there is a crucial difference: in reverse paintings, the black enamel is not fired onto the glass but painted (cold painting). Additional analyses confirmed these findings. Based on these results, the art form “reverse painting on glass” has technically to be characterized as a mixture of “stained glass” and “panel painting” that nonetheless develops into a genre of its own.     

Rhetoric and Corpuscularism in Berkeley's Siris

Berkeley's Siris may be an unduly neglected treatise. Yet it reveals and confirms its author's philosophical ambitions and achievements. The greatest of them is his theory of causality. Berkeley tries to show that agents can influence the world by using ethereal corpuscles as their instruments. These particles are both material but also in some sense immaterial or occult because they both follow and do not follow the laws of nature. Siris is a rhetorical text which uses analogy, metaphor, paradox, and ambiguity to illuminate the reader. I argue that the universe in Siris is ambiguous with respect to its material and immaterial essence. The world is at the same time scientific and material and metaphysical and immaterial. Berkeley fights against scientific mechanistic materialism when he subordinates science to God's will. I try to clarify how ambiguity works for Berkeley the metaphysician in establishing the superiority of minds or agents over matter and mechamisms.     

More flexible,less coherent: NATO after Lisbon

At its 2010 Lisbon summit, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) took significant steps towards becoming a modern alliance. In the face of a changing security environment and divergent strategic interests among 28 members, NATO adapted its strategic concept and reformed its way of formulating strategy. The new strategic concept advances conflict management as a core task for the alliance. In combination with a greater emphasis on developing partnerships, NATO conceptually strengthened its profile as a global security actor. The summit also reflected a new approach to formulating NATO strategy by providing the Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen with a strong role in setting the strategic agenda. Indeed, he assumed a more supranational function rather than acting as a representative of all allies. But as the Libya operation demonstrates, NATO will struggle to maintain cohesion in an increasingly ‘polycentric’ alliance. While the focus on conflict management will make the alliance more flexible, it will also become a less coherent global security actor.     

Reviews

Dansk socialhistorie 1‐7 (A social history of Denmark 1—7). København, (1979–82). ISBN 87–01–82331–0. Vol. 1: Jørgen Jensen, Oldtidens samfund. Tiden indtil år 800 (Prehistoric society, before 800 AD) 271 pp. Vol. 2: Niels Lund and Kai Hørby, Samfundet i vikingetid og middelalder 800–1500 (Society in the viking and middle ages 800–1500) 322 pp. Vol. 3: Ladewig Petersen, Fra standssamfund til rangssamfund 1500–1700 (From classes to ranks, 1500–1700). 447 pp. Vol. 4: Hans Chr. Johansen, En samfundsorganisation i opbrud 1700–1870 (A society on the move 1700–1780) 333 pp. Vol. 5: Vagn Dybdahl, Det nye samfund på vej 1871–1913 (The new society in the making 1871–1913) 310 pp. Vol. 6: Svend Aage Hansen and Ingrid Henriksen, Sociale brydninger 1914–39 (Social conflicts 1914–39) 424 pp. Vol. 7: Svend Aage Hansen and Ingrid Henriksen, Velfærdsstaten 1940–78 (The welfare state 1940–78) 399 pp. Register, ved Annegrete Dybdahl (Indices) 106 pp.

Fenger, Ole, Gammeldansk ret. Dansk rets historie i oldtid og middelalder (Old Danish law. The history of prehistoric and medieval Danish law). Århus, (1983). ISBN 87–583–0172–0. 156 pp.

Petersson, Birgit, Den farliga underklassen. Studier i fattigdom och brottslighet i 1800‐tale ts Sverige (The dangerous classes. Studies in poverty and crime in 19th century Sweden). Acta Universitatis Umensis. Umeå Studies in the Humanities 53. Umeå, (1983). ISBN 91–7174–133‐X. 306 pp. English summary.

Brändström, Anders, "De kärlekslösa mödrarna.” Spädbamsdödligheten i Sverige under 1800‐talet med särskild hänsyn till Nedertornea ("The loveless mothers.” Infant mortality in Sweden during the 19th century with special attention to the parish of Nedertorneå). Acta Universitatis Umensis. Umeå Studies in the Humanities 62. Umeå, (1984). ISBN 91–7174–162–3. ix+271 pp. English summary.

Hinkkanen‐Lievoncn, Merja‐Liisa, Britisk Trade and Enterprise in the Baltic States 1919–1925. Studia Historka, 14. Helsinki, (1984). ISBN 951–9254–54–4. 312 pp.

Kero, Reino, Neuvosto‐Karjalaa rakentamassa. Pohjois‐Amerikan suomalaiset tekniikan tuojina 1930‐luvun Neuuosto‐Karjalassa (Building Soviet Karelia. North American Finns as the introducers of new techniques to Soviet Karelia during the 1930's). Historiallisia tutkimuksia 122. (Helsinki, 1983). ISBN 951–92544–44–7. 231 pp. English summary.

Ekholm, Curt, Balt‐ och tyskutlämningen 1945–46. Omståndigheter kring interneringen i läger i Sverige och utlämningen till Sovjetunionen av f.d. tyska krigsdeltagare (The deportation of Baltic and German military internees in 1945–46. Circumstances concerning the internment in camps in Sweden and the deportation of former German soldiers to the Soviet Union).

Part 1. Ankomsten och interneringen (The arrival and the internment). Studia historica upsaliensia 136. (Uppsala, 1984). ISBN 91–554–1533–4. 220 pp. English summary.

Part 2. Utlämningen och efterspelet (The deportation and the sequel). Studia historica Upsaliensia 137. (Uppsala, 1984). ISBN 91–554–1534–2. 440 pp. English summary.     

Biological and Epistemological Models of Localization in the Nineteenth Century: From Gall to Charcot

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the localizationist doctrines became closely associated with the memory trace paradigm. The analysis of the texts dealing with the localization and the nature of ‘the loss of articulated speech’ (motor aphasia) by Bouillaud, Lordat, Dax, Broca, Trousseau, Baillarger, Charcot and Wernicke shows how the biological paradigm of localization presented by Gall and based on the notion of organ-function correspondence was transformed into a model based on localizable memory traces. This change resulted in the theoretical unification of the mechanisms of motor and non-motor forms of aphasia. These forms, which the earlier authors tended to separate in their analyses of the underlying mechanisms, were now regarded as involving similar mechanisms related to the loss of mnestic images. The crucial step in this development was taken by Broca who presented the hypothesis that the faculty of coordination of speech movements, which according to his predecessors was the faculty lost in motor aphasia, was actually an intellectual faculty and a specific form of memory, and motor aphasia consequently a selective kind of amnesia. Theorists like Charcot and Wernicke generalized this idea into a comprehensive theory of the nature of localization based on the notion of memory traces. Thus, the localization of function was reduced to the localization of representations. Instead of biological paradigms, this model of localization is rooted in the epistemological tradition of psychology represented by Locke and Condillac, who were primarily interested in the problem of representation. In physiology, this approach usually resulted in attempts at localizing representations instead of functions.