Suchergebnisse

Emperor Carl's peace initiative via Prince Sixt of Bourbon is one of the most intriguing & insufficiently explained diplomatic episodes of WWI. By forging a quick peace, the Emperor wanted to eliminate the German tutelage & save the Habsburg Monarchy from the inevitable collapse in case of the Central Powers' defeat. The peace initiative failed largely due to Italy's reluctance to cede the territories promised to it by the London Peace Agreement, but also because it was not clear whether Austro-Hungary wanted a separate or universal peace in agreement with Germany. The failure of the Emperor's peace initiative politically discredited him, & at the same time made the Dual Monarchy even more politically & militarily dependent on Germany as well as on the outcome of the war itself. Adapted from the source document.

The contrast in responses to Milosevic's aggression toward Bosnia & Saddam Hussein in Iraq under the Blair government in GB is instructive: discussed is the extent to which media coverage of the wars of Yugoslavia affected official policy toward, variously, Croatian secession & war, Bosnia, & Kosovo. Reviewed are several leftist analyses of Western reaction to the Yugoslav crises, among them N. Chomsky's A New Generation Draws the Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the Standards of the West (London: Verso, 2000), P. Hammon & E. S. Herman's Degraded Capability: the Media and the Kosovo Crisis (London: Pluto, 2000), & M. Parenti's To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia (London: Verso, 2000). A. Siegel

This paper considers the role of money, particularly the role of monetary analysis in monetary policy-making. During the last three decades, many central banks changed their monetary policy considerably. In the late 1970s, money & the long-run effects of its movements on inflation were in the center-stage of economic policy. Given the breakdown of the relationship between monetary aggregates & goal variables such as inflation, many countries in the world have recently adopted inflation targeting as their monetary policy regime. The direct control of money supply lost importance. Central bankers operate in an environment of high uncertainty regarding the functioning of the economy. In such a complex environment, a single model or a limited set of indicators is not a sufficient guide for monetary policy. Monetary aggregates continue to be an important indicator variable, concludes the author. References. Adapted from the source document.

The author compares two political parties, one from Eastern/Central Europe, and the other from Western Europe - Hungarian Jobbik and Dutch Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders - to portray some of the similarities, as well as the differences, between radical right parties in Western and Eastern European countries. The article is divided into three parts. In the first part, the author presents the contemporary radical right. Contemporary radical right, in comparison to the interwar radical right, is not necessary anti-systemic, but mainly ultra-nationalistic, xenophobic and homophobic. Although the term radical right describes one party family, this party family has significant internal differences. Therefore, there are many definitions, which are trying to grasp this political phenomenon. The second part of the article analyses the Hungarian Jobbik. The author concludes that Jobbik satisfies all the characteristics of the radical right, and therefore represents a truly radical right party. The third part of the article is devoted to the Dutch Party for Freedom. The author concludes that this party can also be regarded as a radical right party. Adapted from the source document.

Understanding Central Europe as a particular European region is based on historical & cultural heritage of the Mitteleuropa & on the revival of the Central European identity in the 1980s. Central European regional cooperation has been promoted in the late 1980s & early 1990s, particularly through the following cooperation schemes: Pentagonale/Central European Initiative (now dissolved), the Vishegrad Group, & the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA). These schemes have been supported by the European Union & they fit its strategy of widening that is now based on the differentiated integration, which implies strengthening of economic & monetary union & defense union. The European Union tends to link the Central European region to the Baltic countries, rather than connect it with Southeastern Europe, which is regarded as a special case, covered by the peace restoration strategy. Central Europe is a region of uneven development & very diversified cultures & peoples. It is therefore difficult to treat it as a structured European region. EU focuses on a number of states that form "the intersection of different areas of integration," & in this respect Central Europe may be best understood as a development & transformation project that might create a new type of differentiated relationships among states & cultures within Central Europe & between Central Europe & the European Union. Focusing on Central Europe may turn the region into the central project of European development. Adapted from the source document.