Suchergebnisse

This is the first translation into any foreign language of the perhaps most important testimony written by Edvard Beneš from his London exile in the second half of November 1938 shortly after the Munich tragedy. Challenged by a sincere young politician from Prague, Ladislav Rašín, the ex-President of Czechoslovakia replies by providing a comprehensive defence of his foreign and domestic policy. His comments on the appeasement policy of the French and British governments, on the chances of reaching an agreement with `our Germans', as well as with Hitler, with the Slovaks seeking an autonomous status, as well as with Poland, requesting territorial adjustment, provide indispensable source material for any historian of the Sudeten crisis. Of the three choices he faced in September 1938 — military defeat from a combined German-Polish invasion, a humiliating settlement if Hitler's outrageous terms were accepted, or approval of the conditions imposed by the Great Powers rather than by Hitler alone — Beneš was passionately convinced that the last option was the optimal one. Unlike young Czech patriots, including Rašín, Beneš did not believe in the military alternative.

Sechs Beiträge der CEREDAF Konferenz (27.-29. November 1986) in Paris, die sich mit der geostrategischen Situation Afghanistans, der sowjetischen Besetzung und der Außenpolitik Afghanistans beschäftigen: Milan L. Hauner: Soviet geostrategic position in the Southern Tier and the occupation of Afghanistan; Alexandre Bennigsen: L'Asie Centrale Sovietique durant la periode 1956-1986; Anthony Arnold: Parallels and divergences between the US experience in Vietnam and the Soviet experience in Afghanistan; Günther Knabe: The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; Louis Dupree: Myth and reality in Afghan "neutralism"; Raja Ehsan Aziz: Pakistan's relations with Afghanistan. (DÜI-Sdt)

The increased interest in Afghanistan, highlighted by the Soviet invasion of that country in December 1979, calls for the reassessment of the more recent political history of Afghanistan, particularly its relations with the great powers. In this connection the period of World War 11 has often been treated superficially, and until today there has been only one book (L. W. Adamec, Afghanistan's Foreign Affairs to the Mid- Twentieth Century: Relations with the USSR, Germany, and Britain [Tucson, 1974]) which contains adequate coverage of the war years. These years ought to be considered as a watershed for the entire region since they clearly foreshadowed the events to come, which we are observing today with great amazement and alarm.