Suchergebnisse

The widespread assumption that peoples of many nations are growing ever more like twenty-first-century Euro-Americans, that these are identical with Western civilization, and that something like Western civilization is mankind's future may well be the biggest barrier to understanding our world. In fact, the most important question of all, whether the West can remain the West, is as uncertain as how other civilizations may develop. Confidence in universal, permanent Westernization is supported by appearances. Anyone traveling across the continents notices diminishing differences in how disparate peoples dress and in the technology they use in daily life. Here, Codevilla determines whether and to what extent the West itself may retain the qualities and that heritage. Adapted from the source document.

"Angesichts der Herausforderung des Westens durch alternative Ordnungsentwürfe, emporstrebende staatliche Akteure und Volkswirtschaften gilt es, seine angestammte Führungsposition als globales Rollenmodell für Frieden, Rechtsstaatlichkeit und Prosperität zu verteidigen. Eine wesentliche Chance zur Konsolidierung des Westens könnte darin bestehen, den Menschen mit seiner angeborenen Würde in den Mittelpunkt der Rechtsordnung zu stellen und seinen Entfaltungskräften zu vertrauen. Dies könnte im Rahmen einer privat-autonomen Ordnung der sozialen Marktwirtschaft und im inneren Frieden des offenen demokratischen Rechtsstaates erfolgen. Denn es ist dieses Alleinstellungsmerkmal des Westens, mit dem er die Zukunft gewinnen kann." (Autorenreferat)

Angesichts der neuen geopolitischen Rahmenbedingungen und strategischen Herausforderungen des 21. Jahrhunderts wird die Haltung der neuen US-Regierung unter Barack Obama gegenüber der NATO untersucht. Dabei geht es sowohl um die Grundorientierungen des neuen Präsidenten, die im Wesentlichen in einer längerfristigen Tradition amerikanischer Außenpolitik stehen und sich in einem instrumentellen Multilateralismus äußern, als auch um Ideen zur Erneuerung der NATO. Da aus amerikanischer Perspektive die transatlantische Allianz gefordert ist, neue Bedrohungen zu erkennen und ihnen mit politischer Entschlossenheit effektiv und kosteneffizient und in Kooperation mit Gleichgesinnten zu begegnen, ist das Ziel eine neue Bedrohungswahrnehmung, eine neue Raison d'Etre, mehr Fähigkeiten und Ressourcen sowie eine verbesserte Kooperation mit der EU, Russland und Staaten außerhalb des NATO-Gebiets. In einem abschließenden Ausblick wird die Legitimierung der bislang vorherrschenden US-Strategie des instrumentellen bzw. selektiven Multilateralismus kritisch beleuchtet und die im Zuge des innen- und fiskalpolitischen Drucks durch die Wirtschaftskrise in den USA zu erwartende transatlantische Lastenverteilungsdebatte angesprochen. (ICH)

For a long time now discussions on European identity have been deeply embedded in political discourses of the old continent. It has often been said that Europe has always been the idea present in the minds of the enlightened Europeans (not to mention rulers of holy empires), and that the present process of integration is only a natural realisation of a spiritual condition called European culture. Leaving alone the question whether it makes sense to speak of European culture in the times when the classical model of education has largely gone out of use, we nevertheless have to have a closer look at the origin of our contemporary situation and ask ourselves the uneasy question whether the Europe we are talking about here, the Europe of the last fifty years, the post-war Europe of market economy and post-colonial nostalgia has been, in fact, European at all. [fragm. tekstu]

Western Australia, like Tasmania, can slip too easily off the map, a periphery on the periphery, its significance occluded by the hegemony of the eastern states of Australia. Yet Western Australia is core to Australia's economy, not least through mining, and through its proximity to Asia. The West is itself connected more closely to region, in both the local and transnational senses. Its tradition of secessionist thinking indicates a kind of exceptionalist culture. This is a difference which begs for explanation. This essay introduces some motifs and themes of this special issue of Thesis Eleven, entitled 'Way Out West: Mapping Western Australia'. It locates the West in some recent historical, geographical and narrative context. It gestures toward the biography of its editors, Jon Stratton and Peter Beilharz, and their locations spread across the west and east of the continent. It calls for further scrutiny of these, and other antipodes.

"One man finds himself torn between two cultures in this sweeping tale of frontier life in post-Civil War era Texas. In the years following the American War Between the States, the once vacated military presence in west Texas is on the rise to protect the waves of settlers moving into the region. Living peaceably with the Mescalero Apache, half-breed former military scout Holton Lang promotes the tentative harmony between the US cavalry and the Native American population. But when the delicate peace between the two nations is broken, Holton is asked to negotiate a new agreement with the US military at Fort Davis. Angered by Holton and his respected position in the Apache camp, brave Stalking Wolf joins other hostile warriors in bloody warfare against the white settlers and blue-coated military. Leaving behind his Apache wife and the domestic life he was building, Holton journeys back to his former home in white civilization for talks of peace. When the battle becomes personal, Holton is finally forced to confront the chasm that separates the two worlds into which he was born. Written in the style of the traditional John Ford/John Wayne cavalry pictures, West to Bravo evokes an era of classic Western fiction and paints an exciting and touching tale of one man stuck in the middle of a terrible conflict"--