Suchergebnisse

SOME HAVE ARGUED THAT THE POST-COLD WAR PERIOD HAS BEEN MUCH MORE UNSTABLE OR VIOLENT THAN WHAT CAME BEFORE. CERTAINLY THE NUMBER OF WARS HAS INCREASED IN THE 1980S AND 1990S, ESPECIALLY IN EUROPE AND AFRICA. MORE IMPORTANT, HOWEVER, THE NATURE OF WARS HAS CHANGED. OVERALL CASUALTIES AND DIRECT PARTICIPATION IN WARS TEND TO BE LOWER BUT THE RATIO OF CIVILIAN TO MILITARY CASUALTIES HAS RISEN QUITE DRAMATICALLY. WARS TEND TO BE LONGER, MORE PERVASIVE AND LESS DECISIVE.

THE AUTHOR EXAMINES THE NEW AND EXCLUSIVIST NATIONALIST COMPLEXES THAT ARE LOCKED IN CONFLICT IN THE TERRITORIES OF THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA. SHE ARGUES THAT THE ATTEMPT TO CONSTRUCT ETHNICALLY-EXCLUSIVE STATES SERVES THE INTERESTS OF NEW POLITICAL AND MILITARY ELITES BUT FAILS TO REGISTER THE VALUE OF DIVERSITY AND IGNORES THE NEED TO NEGOTIATE NEW WAYS OF CO-EXISTING AND COOPERATING.

Both East and West were moulded into Fordist patterns of production by the common experience of World War II. The new Cold War of the early 1980s was a victory for the neo-liberal Right, legitimising its belief in deregulation and privatisation in terms of a contrast with 'socialism' under Labourist and Social Democratic governments, which were equated with Socialism in the East. (SJK)

THE AUTHOR POINTS TO THE ROLE OF THE PEACE MOVEMENTS IN OPENING THE SPACE FOR DETENTE AND ENCOURAGING THE POLITICS OF SELF-DETERMINATION. SHE ARGUES THAT THE POLITICAL LIBERATION OF EASTERN EUROPE MUST NOW BE FOLLOWED BY A WATCHFUL SOLIDARITY WITH THE POTENTIAL VICTIMS OF THE SWEEPING MONETARIST AND LAISSEZ-FAIRE EXPERIMENT UNDERWAY IN THE POST-COMMUNIST SOCIETIES.

MANY OF THE GOALS ARTICULATED BY THE WEST EUROPEAN PEACE MOVEMENT HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED. THE COLD WAR IS OVER; THE TOTALITARIAN REGIMES OF EASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE HAVE COLLAPSED; AND A DISARMAMENT PROCESS HAS BEGUN, INVOLVING BOTH UNILATERAL AND MULTILATERAL STEPS. HOWEVER DEMOCRACY CAN BE SUSTAINED IN THE EAST ONLY IF THE WEST CHANGES TOO. IF THE WEST FAILS TO DO SO, THERE IS A REAL DANGER THAT EUROPE WILL ONCE AGAIN BE DIVIDED--THIS TIME BETWEEN A RICH, CONSUMERIST "FORTRESS WESTERN EUROPE" AND A POOR, ENVIRONMENTALLY DEVASTATED EASTER EUROPE PLAGUED BY AUTHORITARIAN GOVERNMENTS AND A VARIETY OF ETHNIC, NATIONAL, AND RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS.

THIS PAPER EXPLORES THE POSSIBILITY THAT EUROPE IS IN A CIVILIZATIONAL CRISIS, AND SUGGESTS THAT THERE IS CURRENTLY AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PROFOUND CHANGE IN EUROPE, AND THAT THE NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, ESPECIALLY THE PEACE MOVEMENT, COULD PLAY A POTENTIALLY CATALYTICAL ROLE IN BRINGING ABOUT CHANGES WITH CIVILIZATIONAL RAMIFICATIONS. THE PAPER STUDIES THE MILITARY DIMENSION OF STATE RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN A FRAMEWORK OF LONG CYCLE CHANGE. THE ROLE OF DETERRENCE, MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, THE EUROPEAN PEACE MOVEMENTS, AND OTHER FACTORS ARE DISCUSSED.