Download or read book Thinking History Fighting Evil written by David B. MacDonald and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2009-05-16 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thinking History, Fighting Evil presents the most thorough exploration to date of how World War II analogies, particularly those focused on the Holocaust, have colored American foreign policy-making after 9/11. In particular, this book highlights how influential neoconservatives inside and outside the Bush administration used analogies of the 'Good War' to reinterpret domestic and international events, often with disastrous consequences. On the surface, World War II promotes a simple but compelling range of images and symbols: valiant Roosevelts and Churchills, appeasing Chamberlains, evil Hitlers, Jewish victims, European bystanders, and American liberators. However, the simplistic use of analogies was precisely what doomed the neoconservative project to failure. This book explores the misuse of ten key analogies arising from World War II and charts their problematic deployment after the 9/11 attacks. Divided into eight chapters, Thinking History, Fighting Evil engages with timely issues such as the moral legacies of the civil rights era, identity politics movements, the representation of the Holocaust in American life, the rise of victim politics on the neoconservative right, the instrumentalization of anti-American and anti-Semitic discourses, the trans-Atlantic rift between Europe and the United States, and the war on terror. While the book focuses on the post-9/11 security environment, it also explores the history of negative exceptionalism in U.S. history and politics, tracing back Manichean conceptions of good and evil to the foundation of the early colonies.
Download or read book The Fourth Reich written by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-14 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first history of postwar fears of a Nazi return to power in Western political, intellectual, and cultural life.
Download or read book Civilizing Missions in the Twentieth Century written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-09-25 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributions in Civilizing Missions in the Twentieth Century discuss how top-down interventions to “improve” societies were justified in terms such as nation building, social engineering, humanitarianism, modernization or the spread of democracy.
Download or read book Memory in Transatlantic Relations written by Kryštof Kozák and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-02-13 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on the uses of collective memory in transatlantic relations between the United States, and Western and Central European nations in the period from the Cold War to the present day. Sitting at the intersection of international relations, history, memory studies and various "area" studies, Memory in Transatlantic Relations examines the role of memory in an international context, including the ways in which policy and decision makers utilize memory; the relationship between trauma, memory and international politics; the multiplicity of actors who shape memory; and the role of memory in the conflicts in post-Cold War Europe. Thematically organized and presenting studies centered on the U.S., Hungary, France, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the authors explore the built environment (memorials) and performances of memory (commemorations), shedding light on the ways in which memories are mobilized to frame relations between the U.S. and nations in Western and Central Europe. As such, it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences and historians with interests in memory studies, foreign policy and international relations.
Download or read book The Bush Leadership the Power of Ideas and the War on Terror written by Dirk Nabers and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foreign policy success or failure is often attributed to the role of leadership. This volume explores the relationship between President George W. Bush's leadership, the administration's stated belief in the power of ideas (and the ideas of power) and its approach to the war on terror. Drawing on the international expertise of ten American foreign policy and security specialists, this incisive and timely book combines theoretical perspectives on political leadership with rigorous empirical analysis of selected aspects of the Bush administration's post 9/11 foreign policy. As a result, this book sheds considerable light not just on the limited impact of President Bush's war on terror strategy, but also, more importantly, on why key ideas underpinning the strategy, such as US global primacy and pre-emptive war, largely failed to gel in a globalizing world.
Download or read book Evil in Modern Thought written by Susan Neiman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-25 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether expressed in theological or secular terms, evil poses a problem about the world's intelligibility. It confronts philosophy with fundamental questions: Can there be meaning in a world where innocents suffer? Can belief in divine power or human progress survive a cataloging of evil? Is evil profound or banal? Neiman argues that these questions impelled modern philosophy. Traditional philosophers from Leibniz to Hegel sought to defend the Creator of a world containing evil. Inevitably, their efforts--combined with those of more literary figures like Pope, Voltaire, and the Marquis de Sade--eroded belief in God's benevolence, power, and relevance, until Nietzsche claimed He had been murdered. They also yielded the distinction between natural and moral evil that we now take for granted. Neiman turns to consider philosophy's response to the Holocaust as a final moral evil, concluding that two basic stances run through modern thought. One, from Rousseau to Arendt, insists that morality demands we make evil intelligible. The other, from Voltaire to Adorno, insists that morality demands that we don't.
Download or read book Replicating Atonement written by Mischa Gabowitsch and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-12-07 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection examines what happens when one country’s experience of dealing with its traumatic past is held up as a model for others to follow. In regional and country studies covering Argentina, Canada, Japan, Lebanon, Rwanda, Russia, Turkey, the United States and former Yugoslavia, the authors look at the pitfalls, misunderstandings and perverse effects–but also the promise–of trying to replicate atonement. Going beyond the idea of a global or transnational memory, this book examines the significance of foreign models in atonement practices, and analyses the role of national governments, international organisations, museums, foundations, NGOs and public intellectuals in shaping the idea that good practices of atonement can be learned. The volume also demonstrates how one can productively learn from others by appreciating the complex and contested nature of atonement practices such as Germany’s, and also by finding the necessary resources in the history of one’s own country.
Download or read book Japan s Wartime Medical Atrocities written by Jing Bao Nie and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-03 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Japan’s wartime medical atrocities and their postwar aftermath from a comparative perspective and inquires into perennial issues of historical memory, science, politics, society and ethics elicited by these rebarbative events.
Download or read book Canada and Colonial Genocide written by Andrew Woolford and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-19 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Settler colonialism in Canada has traditionally been portrayed as a gentler, if not benevolent, colonialism—especially in contrast to the Indian Wars in the United States. This national mythology has penetrated into comparative genocide studies, where Canadian case studies are rarely discussed in edited volumes, genocide journals, or multi-national studies. Indeed, much of the extant literature on genocide in Canada rests at the level of self-justification, whereby authors draw on the U.N Genocide Convention or some other rubric to demonstrate that Canadian genocides are a legitimate topic of scholarly concern. In recent years, however, discussion of genocide in Canada has become more pronounced, particularly in the wake of the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. This volume contributes to this ongoing discourse, providing scholarly analyses of the multiple dimensions or processes of colonial destruction and their aftermaths in Canada. Various acts of genocidal violence are covered, including residential schools, repressive legal or governmental controls, ecological destruction, and disease spread. Additionally, contributors draw comparisons to patterns of colonial destruction in other contexts, examine the ways in which Canada has sought to redress and commemorate colonial harms, and present novel theoretical and conceptual insights on colonial/settler genocides in Canada. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Journal of Genocide Research.
Download or read book Colonial Genocide in Indigenous North America written by Alexander Laban Hinton and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-31 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important collection of essays expands the geographic, demographic, and analytic scope of the term genocide to encompass the effects of colonialism and settler colonialism in North America. Colonists made multiple and interconnected attempts to destroy Indigenous peoples as groups. The contributors examine these efforts through the lens of genocide. Considering some of the most destructive aspects of the colonization and subsequent settlement of North America, several essays address Indigenous boarding school systems imposed by both the Canadian and U.S. governments in attempts to "civilize" or "assimilate" Indigenous children. Contributors examine some of the most egregious assaults on Indigenous peoples and the natural environment, including massacres, land appropriation, the spread of disease, the near-extinction of the buffalo, and forced political restructuring of Indigenous communities. Assessing the record of these appalling events, the contributors maintain that North Americans must reckon with colonial and settler colonial attempts to annihilate Indigenous peoples. Contributors. Jeff Benvenuto, Robbie Ethridge, Theodore Fontaine, Joseph P. Gone, Alexander Laban Hinton, Tasha Hubbard, Margaret D. Jabobs, Kiera L. Ladner, Tricia E. Logan, David B. MacDonald, Benjamin Madley, Jeremy Patzer, Julia Peristerakis, Christopher Powell, Colin Samson, Gray H. Whaley, Andrew Woolford
Download or read book Regional Powers and Regional Orders written by Nadine Godehardt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-05-12 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regional Powers and Regional Orders presents a re-examination and re-conceptualization of the concept of 'region' and its function within power and order systems. Utilising a comparative and case study approach, the volume examines 'new' regional powers such as Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa. These territories as regional powers are novel phenomenon in the field of international politics and even more so in the field of international relations. The book focuses on the emerging role of these new regional powers within their respective region, and asks how other members of these regions cope with and react to that role. Regional Powers and Regional Orders will be of interest to students and scholars of international and regional politics and power, and international relations.
Download or read book Streets Without Joy written by Michael A. Innes and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-01 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's wars after the 9/11 attacks were marked by a political obsession with terrorist 'sanctuaries' and 'safe havens'. From mountain redoubts in Afghanistan to the deserts of Iraq, Washington's policy-makers maintained an unwavering focus on finding and destroying the refuges, bases and citadels of modern guerrilla movements, and holding their sponsors to account. This was a preoccupation embedded in nearly every official speech and document of the time, a corpus of material that offered a new logic for thinking about the world. As an exercise in political communication, it was a spectacular success. From 2001 to 2009, President George W. Bush and his closest advisors set terms of reference that cascaded down from the White House, through government and into the hearts and minds of Americans. 'Sanctuary' was the red thread running through all of it, permeating the decisions and discourses of the day. Where did this obsession come from? How did it become such an important feature of American political life? In this new political history, Michael A. Innes explores precedents, from Saigon to Baghdad, and traces how decision-makers and their advisors used ideas of sanctuary to redefine American foreign policy, national security, and enemies real and imagined.
Download or read book New Zealand And The World Past Present And Future written by Robert G Patman and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2017-12-28 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this book is to provide the reader with an overview of New Zealand's international relations. It is a country that has often shown an international presence that is out of proportion to the modest spectrum of national economic, military and diplomatic capabilities at its disposal.In this volume, the editors have called upon a range of specialists representing a range of views drawn from the worlds of academia, policy-making, and civil society. It is an attempt to present a rounded picture of New Zealand's place in the world, one that does not rely exclusively on any particular perspective. The book does not claim to be exhaustive. But it does seek to present a more wide-ranging treatment of New Zealand's foreign relations than has generally been the case in the past.Five broad themes help shape and organize the contributions to the text:
Download or read book A Poststructuralist Discourse Theory of Global Politics written by Dirk Nabers and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-10-07 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book develops a discourse theory of crisis and change in global politics. Crisis is conceptualized as structural dislocation, resting on difference and incompleteness. Change is seen as the continuous but ultimately futile effort to gain a full identity. The incompleteness and contingent character of the social represents the most important condition for democratic politics to become possible and for a theory of crisis and change to become conceivable. In this new understanding, crisis loses its everyday meaning of a periodically occurring event. Instead, crisis becomes an omnipresent feature of the social fabric. It represents the absence of ground, of social foundation, and it rests within the subject as well as within the social whole.
Download or read book The Pathologies of Power written by Christopher J. Fettweis and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-30 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses how deeply held beliefs guide American foreign policy and identifies the foundations of those beliefs, explaining how they have inspired poor strategic decisions in Washington.
Download or read book Sharing Power written by Patrick Porter and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subject of U.S. grand strategy has been getting increasing attention from the policy and academic communities. However, too often the debate suffers from being too reductionist, limiting America's choices to worldwide hegemony or narrow isolation. There is a wide spectrum of choices before Washington that lie "somewhere in the middle." Frequently, not enough thought is given to how such alternative strategies should be designed and implemented. The future cannot be known, and earlier predictions of American decline have proven to be premature. However, there is a shift in wealth and power to the extent that America may not be able to hold on to its position as an unrivaled unipolar superpower. Therefore, it is worth thinking about how the United States could shape and adjust to the changing landscape around it. What is more, there are a number of interlocking factors that mean such a shift would make sense: transnational problems needing collaborative efforts, the military advantages of defenders, the reluctance of states to engage in unbridled competition, and "hegemony fatigue" among the American people. Alternative strategies that are smaller than global hegemony, but bigger than narrow isolationism, would be defined by the logic of "concerts" and "balancing," in other words, some mixture of collaboration and competition. Can the United States adjust to a concert-balance grand strategy that made space for other rising powers without sacrificing too much of its forward military presence, without unleashing too much regional instability, and without losing the domestic political will? It is not certain that a cumulative shift to a new grand strategy would necessarily succeed, since other powers might turn down the chance to cooperate. But with soaring budget deficits and national debt, increasing burdens on social security, and possible agonizing choices in the future between guns and butter, it is surely worth a try.
