Suchergebnisse

Smoke and Mirrors -- Mimetic excess -- The exposition of the non-dogmatic cannot be dogmatic -- Nietzsche's tuning fork, Kafka's sirens -- Twilight of the idols -- Catastrophe : the solar inversion of satanic denial -- Metamorphic sublimity -- Re-enchantment of nature -- In your bones you know otherwise -- Planetarium -- Sunset -- In the beginning Was the firefly -- The sun Is an Indian shaman -- Lightning -- Is magic domination of nature? -- The alpha and omega of all mastery -- Art versus art -- Subterranean cities of sleep -- Magic hour -- Julio Reyes's phantom ship.

OBSERVERS OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY HAVE GIVEN PRESIDENT BUSH HIGH MARKS FOR HIS RELATIVE INACTION WITH REGARDS TO THE CRUMBLING SOVIET EMPIRE, AND FOR HIS SWIFT ACTION IN THE PERSIAN GULF. THIS ARTICLE REASSESSES THESE TWO POLICIES. IT CONCLUDES THAT, AT LEAST UNTIL DISORDER BECOMES WIDESPREAD AND VIOLENT, A POLICY OF INACTION WITH REGARDS TO THE USSR IS PRUDENT. HOWEVER, THE AUTHOR DISAGREES WITH THE DRAMATIC U.S. RESPONSE TO SADDAM HUSSEIN'S AGGRESSION FOR THREE REASONS: THE SWIFTNESS OF THE U.S. DEPLOYMENT AND DIPLOMATIC COMMITMENT TO KUWAIT PRECLUDED ANY SUBSTANTIVE ACTION BY U.S. ALLIES; THE RELIANCE ON THE UN FOR LEGITIMACY, WHILE A GOOD SHORT TERM TACTIC, WILL HAVE DETRIMENTAL CONSEQUENCES FOR THE U.S. IN THE FUTURE; AND THE U.S. RESPONSE HAS BEEN DISPROPORTIONATE TO THE CRIME AND TO THE THREAT.

This book attempts to combine geopolitics, modernization theory and the primacy of foreign policy to provide a fresh perspective on the struggle for mastery in Germany before 1850. Any form of rigid determinism is eschewed; the outcome of this contest was still relatively open in 1780. Nevertheless, the book shows why after the upheavals - domestic and internal - of the revolutionary period, and the geopolitical revolution of 1815, Prussia and not Austria was on the verge of winning the struggle for mastery by mid-century. At every decisive stage along the way, it was Prussia rather than Austria or the "Third Germany" which showed itself capable of socio-economic and (partial) political modernization in order to adapt to external pressures and opportunities.