Suchergebnisse

At a meeting of the Association for Asian Studies in March 1961, Professor Bernard Morris read a paper on Sino-Soviet relations which began as follows:Almost a decade ago, the late Franz Borkenau wrote that a profound conflict between the communist regimes of Russia and China is in the long run as certain as anything in politics. He based his prediction on the strength of two arguments. First, it is in the very nature of totalitarian regimes to establish their absolute control as far as they can; they therefore cannot have genuine allies but must seek to dominate. Secondly, the unity of the communist world movement is axiomatic for every Leninist. Hence it follows that the Kremlin must exert control over all communist parties. This thrust of Soviet totalitarianism, Borkenau argued, is therefore incompatible with Mao Tse-tung's clear desire to be a leader in his own right and to preserve Chinese national independence.

Two integrative approaches to the study of Western political theory are briefly described. The first, deriving from comparative philology & historical anthropology, is commended for providing an overview of political philosophy in the Indo-European cultures; the importance of treaties on statecraft in this tradition is underscored. The second perspective focuses on the cultural & anthropological bases of Western political writings; a comparative mythology comprising both substantive & conceptual aspects of these writings is advanced to explain both the coherence & internal differentiation of this tradition. Applications of a genetic model in the second approach are also considered. L. Whittemore.

Today the termpolitical theoryhas two main meanings. It means the study of great thinkers who have, more or less systematically or polemically, written on matters political. This is the sense in which the term has been used in this century, down to the "behavioral revolution." We shall adhere to that usage. Since the "behavioral revolution," the term has also come to mean a theory, or theories, formal or axiomatic in structure, on subjects political but not traditionally dealt with by political theory in the first sense. This kind of political thought we shall call formal (political) theory.

An analysis of some of the terms of discourse of war and peace leads the author, Associate Scientist at Technical Operations, Inc., Washington, D.C., to suggest that both the USA and USSR are too technocratic to know how to subject arms problems to policy science and political wisdom.