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42. Shackled Liberties, or: How Security Came to Trump Everything Else
- Author:
- Jan-Peter Hartung
- Publication Date:
- 12-2016
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Review of Human Rights
- Institution:
- Society of Social Science Academics (SSSA)
- Abstract:
- In this paper, the origins of the “security narrative” in contemporary German political discourse is traced back to the early modern conception of “natural law,” first emphasized by Thomas Hobbes. Underlying this conception is that individuals would – by acknowledgment of their inborn “natural law” – sacrifice their individual liberties for the sake of public security. It is shown that a conception of state based on such a metaphysical premise discounts the existence of any discontent as valid within a society, and allows for top-down coercive measures against anyone who does not buy into this narrative. Those measures, exemplified by political rhetoric in Germany and beyond in the wake of recent mass migration and “terrorist threat,” do quite often impair with even fundamental human rights and appear at odds with the simultaneous claim to represent a liberaldemocratic constitution.
- Topic:
- Security, Donald Trump, and Civil Liberties
- Political Geography:
- Germany and United States of America
43. The Rise of Intelligence Studies: A Model for Germany? Download
- Author:
- Alessandro Corvaja, Brigita Jeraj, and Uwe M. Borghoff
- Publication Date:
- 01-2016
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Connections
- Institution:
- Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
- Abstract:
- Intelligence Studies have established themselves as a common subject in higher education in the Anglosphere. Germany so far offers no dedicated program in the field. A postgraduate program that promotes an understanding of the role and context of intelligence, strengthens analytical skills and deepens subject-matter expertise would combine the best features of various educational models, and provide a real contribution to building a cadre of highly qualified intelligence professionals. In this research report, the authors succinctly document the state of the discipline, present examples of some twelve degree programs, and, finally, develop initial proposals for an intelligence curriculum for German universities.
- Topic:
- Education, Intelligence, and Higher Education
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Germany, and Central Europe
44. Germany and the Challenge of Mass Immigration
- Author:
- Zoltán Eperjesi
- Publication Date:
- 01-2016
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Hiperboreea
- Institution:
- Balkan History Association
- Abstract:
- This article gives an insight into the problematic origins of the term multiculturalism, a brief summary of integration of foreigners in Germany by presenting certain debates about incorporation, assimilation and dominant culture in order to ultimately see the critique of the model of multiculturalism.
- Topic:
- Immigration, Multiculturalism, Democracy, Immigrants, and Pluralism
- Political Geography:
- Germany
45. A Scrap of Paper: Breaking and Making International Law during the Great War, Isabel V. Hull
- Author:
- Tanisha M. Fazal
- Publication Date:
- 01-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Political Science Quarterly
- Institution:
- Academy of Political Science
- Abstract:
- Isabel Hull's analysis of international law during World War I is a welcome and valuable contribution to an emerging body of scholarship on the laws of war. This is not to undercut its place in the historiography of World War I. Hull rightly points out that most histories of the war have tended to gloss over or even dismiss the role of international law in the war. Hull corrects this bias by delving into British, French, and particularly German archives to show that international law was very much on the minds of all parties to the conflict. Indeed, she argues that preserving the existing structure of international law was a major reason for the outbreak of war. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19345#sthash.HizIRkHF.dpuf
- Topic:
- International Law and War
- Political Geography:
- France and Germany
46. The German Moment in a Fragile World
- Author:
- Thomas Bagger
- Publication Date:
- 03-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Washington Quarterly
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
- Abstract:
- “Germany is Weltmeister ” or world champion, wrote Roger Cohen in his July 2014 New York Times column—and he meant much more than just the immediate euphoria following Germany's first soccer world championship since the summer of unification in 1990. Fifteen years earlier, in the summer of 1999, the Economist magazine's title story depicted Germany as the “Sick Man of the Euro”. Analysis after analysis piled onto the pessimism: supposedly sclerotic, its machines were of high quality but too expensive to sell in a world of multiplying competitors and low-wage manufacturing. Germany seemed a hopeless case, a country stuck in the 20th century with a blocked society that had not adapted to the new world of the 21st century, or worse, a society that was not even adaptable.
- Political Geography:
- Germany
47. In The Shadow Of Empire: Reflecting On The Political-Strategic Position Of The Small States In Europe And The Caribbean Basin During The Cold War
- Author:
- Mitchell Belfer
- Publication Date:
- 04-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
- Institution:
- Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
- Abstract:
- Any evaluation of 20 th century international political and socio - economic engagements inevitably draws heavily on the literature depicting the relations between and within the Cold War blocs. Such cognitive benchmarking has become so extensive that even the earth - shattering World Wars, which preceded US - Soviet brinkmanship, have been sewn together to the Cold War so as to produce a meta - narrative as a means of understanding the dynamics of international relations themselves. For instance, WWI has not merely entered the history books for what it produced; it has also come to be seen as producing the right conditions for Russia's communist revolution and the US's rise to inherit the position of Western leadership — two necessary prequels to the half century of Cold War. But not before these two ideologically opposed blocs join forces to rid the world of fascism and the German pivot in European affairs. WWII has come to represent three chapters in the story of civilisation: the story of genocide (re: Nazi Germany's quest to exterminate world Jewry), the story of non - nationalistic secular ideological struggles and the story of power beyond the pale of power (re: the nuclearisation of power). In other words, WWII has also, largely, been included as a necessary chapter to the Cold War. And certainly it was. Without WWII it is difficult to imagine how, or if, the USSR would have driven west and occupied Central Europe, whether the West European states would not have deployed East, if the US would have deepened its engagements to Europe or any number of dynamics would have unfolded. It is clear that the Cold War is a defining period of international relations history.
- Political Geography:
- Russia, United States, Europe, Soviet Union, Germany, and Caribbean
48. The Higher the Better? A Comparative Analysis of Sociodemographic Characteristics and Human Capital of German Federal Government Members
- Author:
- Katrin Scharfenkamp and Alexander Dilger
- Publication Date:
- 04-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- German Politics and Society
- Institution:
- German Politics and Society Journal
- Abstract:
- Are the highest politicians better qualified than their peers? In this article, we analyze differences between chancellors, vice chancellors, and ministers of the inner or residual cabinets of the German federal governments between 1949 and 2009 with respect to their social backgrounds and educational, economic, as well as political human capital. Different statistical methods reveal no clear primacy of chancellors or vice chancellors over other members of government. Interestingly, inner cabinets have higher qualifications than residual cabinets, as well as partly chancellors and vice chancellors.
- Political Geography:
- Germany
49. Losing Literature: The Reduction of the GDR to History
- Author:
- Elizabeth Priester Steding
- Publication Date:
- 04-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- German Politics and Society
- Institution:
- German Politics and Society Journal
- Abstract:
- Federal and state curricula not only determine much of what is taught in school, they also reveal what is important to political and cultural leaders and ultimately help shape a country's narrative. This article examines how the GDR currently is addressed in history and literature curricula for the Oberstufe. While state history curricula consistently require coverage of the GDR, literature curricula vary widely, with a few states clearly including GDR literature and many states completely omitting it. If GDR literature is ignored in state curricula, it risks being ignored in the classroom, limiting student understanding of the GDR to historical facts and depriving them of an opportunity to better understand both past and current German society.
- Political Geography:
- Germany
50. Eastern German Cooperative Farming: On the Cusp of a New Generation
- Author:
- Dylan Bennett
- Publication Date:
- 04-2015
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- German Politics and Society
- Institution:
- German Politics and Society Journal
- Abstract:
- The decline and dissolution of eastern Germany's agricultural production cooperatives (APC s) has been anticipated by formal economic theory since reunification on the grounds of inefficiency. 1 Yet, more recent scholarship on the varieties of capitalism tells us that efficiency does not lead to simple convergence of market forms, but rather that different institutional solutions and social systems of production can achieve desired ends—including efficiency—with varied designs. 2 Today, the cooperative farm sector, under- pinned by conservative, democratic governance, persists without naiveté and little nostalgia on the cusp of a new postcommunist generation and still accounts for the largest share of agricultural production in eastern Germany. Even if the cooperative farming sector follows a slow decline, the firms will convert or persist depending less on their ability to achieve efficiency as on their ability to maintain productive land holdings, and to promote a new generation of management and enthusiastic members committed not to nostalgia but toward the future of their own lives, their firms, and their local communities. Some of the cooperatives are likely to persist for a long time. In this article, in an effort to understand the environment in which cooperatives face the future, I provide an eyewitness account of the internal politics between workers and bosses, highlight survival strategies, consider the institutional constraints and supports facing cooperatives, and sketch portraits of the farmers who face the task of carrying the cooperative tradition forward.
- Political Geography:
- Germany