Suchergebnisse

The article aims to analyze representational practices which relied upon a series of relations that helped to legitimate U.S. foreign policy towards revolutionary Cuba in the years 1959-1960. Thinking of the U.S.-Cuban relations in terms of representational practices, the study deals with the representations of Cuba and explores how they were connected with certain strategies of political legitimization in the U.S. discourse. This attitude highlights an aspect of power as a producer of meanings, subject identities, their relationships and a range of imaginable conduct. For that matter, the analysis endorses the representational practices used to depict "the other" as a basis for conceptualization of the strategies. Adapted from the source document.

Aus tschechischer Sicht

The level of political participation of American citizens is commonly considered to be high. However, voter turnout is in fact relatively low, even in highly attractive presidential elections. The article focuses on this phenomenon and the particular factors that, according to the literature, affect turnout negatively. The first part describes various methods being used to measure voter turnout in the USA. The difference can even be several percentage points, depending on the method of calculation. With regard to these distinctions, American data cannot be directly compared with voter turnout statistics in European countries that use a different methodology. The main part of the article analyses several factors that are generally considered to influence voter turnout in the USA negatively, and counts their real impact. One important factor is that voter registration methods can lower the turnout by up to 11 per cent. Also significant is the lowering of the voting-age limit in 1971. Neither gradual changes in population age structure nor enactment of election-day holidays have proven to negatively influence turnout. The principal findings reveal a permanent increase of inhabitants without voting rights (esp. non-citizens). These persons are included in voting-age population figures, and due to inexact methodology, cause a merely statistical decrease at the level of at least 3 per cent of voter turnout. Adapted from the source document.

The key argument of the presented text is the idea that the reform of the US security policy that started after 9/11; the US participation on counter-insurgency, stabilization and nation--building operations in Iraq and Afghanistan; and the big pressure on the domestic security structure led to a reorganization of the US security policy and a transformation of the domestic governance structures and practices according to the model of security governance. In an effort to defend the US against possible future terrorist attacks and formulate the robust counter-insurgency operation in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US Government started to create a new model of security policy organization and integrate diplomacy, development and defense instruments. While security policy used to have a clear chain of command, security governance is marked by a non-linear, horizontal, and networked policy coordination. Adapted from the source document.

The Committee for Free Europe (CFE) was established by the USA State Department with the financial support of the CIA with the purpose to unite emigré organizations from Eastern Europe. The major purpose of the CFE was the establishment of Radio Free Europe broadcasts to the nations left behind the Iron Curtain. The formation of the Baltic states' national committees was left open until the final set of the foreign policy of the USA towards these countries. The Lithuanian Consultative Pannel was established in 1951. Soon after the establishment, the USA State Department postponed the Radio Free Europe broadcasts to Lithuania. Although this decision was unexpected to the Baltic émigré groups and the National Committee of Free Europe, the Consultative Panel continued its activities. The Committee for Free Lithuania was established in 1952, became a body of the CFE, and started its activities towards the liberation of captivated Lithuania. The basic fields of the Committee for Free Lithuania were to rise the question of the Baltic states' occupation in international organizations, to monitor the press, to prepare news packages for the broadcasts of the Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America. The activities of the Committee for Free Lithuania were most unsuccessful in the unification of Lithuanian émigré groups in the USA. The activities of the Committee for Free Lithuania were restricted by the general foreign policy of the USA. By the end of the sixties, due to the structural changes in the Committee for Free Europe, the activities of the national Committees, including Lithuanian, were transferred to the framework of the Assembly of Captive European Nations.