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This article examines two pairs of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exercises--Teamwork/Bonded Item 76 and Northern Wedding/Bold Guard 78--that had a significant impact on the United States Marine Corps of the late Cold War. These exercises reversed the service's previous ineptitude, repairing its reputation in NATO and helping to quiet U.S. critics of the corps. More importantly, they spurred innovation and boosted deterrence, inspiring enduring changes in service training, equipment, and doctrine while also increasing Soviet perceptions of the conventional threat posed to their flanks. This article adds both to the study of peacetime military change and the historiography of the late Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1948, the United States military government (OMGUS) played a crucial but invisible role in helping Germans in the western zones of occupation celebrate the centennial of the German Revolution of 1848. American officials viewed these celebrations as an important component in the democratization of Germany and as a means of demonstrating German-American cultural reconciliation in a highly public manner. Caught in an ambiguous, transitional period between punitive occupation and full civilian control, OMGUS pursued cultural diplomacy in the hopes that concretizing an ideological and cultural relationship based on history and shared values would help reorient German democracy and create a stable partner in central Europe, thereby serving long-term strategic goals in the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we want to show our appreciation for a major figure in our discipline by reading his work carefully, juxtaposing this material with historical narratives that place him in context. We think he would have appreciated the imbrication of his ideas with those of pertinent scholarly forebears, the reactions against socialism, impact of the Cold War, as well as the philanthropic politics that have shaped our intellectual parameters. As we make clear, M.J. Baker was a pioneer, justifying and extending the reach of marketing in the United Kingdom. He wore many hats: academic, editor, entrepreneur, and institution builder. Core themes in his writing are outlined, with attention devoted to his paradigmatic, epistemological and ethical commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1970s, the United States and West Germany developed a vital transatlantic partnership focused on new military doctrines and technology that met the challenges of the late Cold War. Due to domestic politics and strategic concerns, the United States never recreated this type of relationship with countries in the Indo-Pacific region--specifically with South Korea. Using a unique synthesis of American, German, and Korean sources, this article argues that another partnership is required in Asia today. Rather than fall back on European partners, Washington should collaborate with Seoul to develop a new generation of doctrine and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the multifaceted exchanges between the American and Chilean armies from 1961 to 1969, asserting that they were strictly professional, devoid of political indoctrination, and aligned with both nations' foreign policy interests. Utilizing declassified diplomatic and military documents, this research diverges from prior works by integrating an in-depth understanding of military codes and culture with global, regional, and national contexts. It challenges the politicized narratives of the Cold War in Latin America, especially in Chile. This research offers insights into the actual impacts of international military policies on future military exchange programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the late 1940s to the late 1950s, the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) turned vigorously to the Arctic archipelago, expanding and confirming the colonial premise that the islands of the High Arctic were an extractive frontier for oil and gas. In this paper, the first of a planned pair, we show how the efforts of the GSC were hugely consequential for subsequent corporate hydrocarbon exploration, but were also intimately entangled with other, concurrent strands of militarization and Arctic colonialism. Numerous histories celebrate GSC geologists as heroic pioneers of extraction and northern field science. Both the militarization of the Arctic in the 1950s and the concurrent, infamous High Arctic Relocations have been discussed at length. This paper has a more precise, interstitial objective: to show that the GSC's fieldwork depended on both the infrastructure of Cold War geopolitics and the labour of Inuit who were moved to the region under duress—particularly to the new community of Qausuittuq (Resolute). Regardless of specific commercial outcomes, the version and vision of the Arctic installed by the GSC continues to foreground certain future geographies of the archipelago, while forestalling or marginalizing others. Key messages: The intensive efforts of the Geological Survey of Canada in the middle of the 20th century solidified the southern understanding of the Arctic archipelago as a potential extractive frontier.This mid‐century geological fieldwork was entangled with Cold War militarization and dependent on the coerced relocation of Inuit to the High Arctic.The practices and productions of this fieldwork continue to shape some versions of the Arctic future while forestalling or marginalizing others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freedom of information (FOI) rose to saliency in the early Cold War period as the presidency grappled with controlling what government information was made public or available to Congress. A lack of formal structures and authority provided presidents with the opportunity to unilaterally shape new policies and structures. One such structure was the Office of Strategic Information (OSI), created by a National Security Council directive and housed in the Commerce Department. Congress utilized its oversight power by creating the Moss Subcommittee on Government Information to investigate these new policies and structures. Over a 4‐year period in the mid‐1950s, an interbranch power struggle emerged over what authority existed within the executive branch to deny information and testimony to Congress. OSI is one example in a larger context of FOI that left Congress seeking to clarify executive authority within existing statutes and among new structures, leading to the passage of the first freedom of information law in 1958. Original archival research is used to provide insight into the complexities of governing in a separation of powers system. This early case study informs contemporary politics on congressional access to executive information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even during the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union cooperated on nuclear safety and security. Since accidental or unauthorized nuclear detonations anywhere threaten peace everywhere, it seems straightforward that states more experienced in developing nuclear safety and security technologies would transfer such methods to other states. Yet, the historical record is mixed. Why? While existing explanations focus on the political costs and proliferation risks faced by the transferring state, this article argues that specific technological features condition the feasibility of assistance. For more complex nuclear safety and security technologies, robust technical cooperation is crucial to build the necessary trust for scientists to transfer tacit knowledge without divulging sensitive information. Leveraging elite interviews and archival evidence, my theory is supported by four case studies: US sharing of basic nuclear safety and security technologies with the Soviet Union (1961–1963); US withholding of complex nuclear safety and security technologies from China (1990–1999) and Pakistan (1998–2003); and US sharing of complex nuclear safety and security technologies with Russia (1994–2007). My findings suggest the need to examine not only the motivations behind nuclear assistance but also the process by which it occurs and the features of the technologies involved, with implications for how states cooperate to manage the global risks of emerging technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on NATO burden sharing comprises dozens of works. Since the end of the cold war, NATO adapted, enlarged, and institutionally complexified its mandates and area of operations. Yet, burden sharing research rarely accounts for such aspects given the political and scholarly focus on NATO's target of 2% of GDP on military spending since the 2000s. This research merges rational institutionalism with collective action models on club goods production to study NATO Centres of Excellence. These 30 institutions are externally funded, independently run, and address the collective strategic problems associated with Alliance Transformation using informal arrangements, the Memorandum of Understanding. The contents of those agreements are compared using rational institutional design theory. This article offers original data reconceptualising the NATO burdens partners undertake beyond military expenditures using COE participation and hosting while offering a framework for a future examination of how the COE institutional agreements manage strategic problems (i.e. enforcement, allocation, uncertainty, etc.) with expanded data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese people played a much more important role in shaping events during the Allied Occupation of Japan (1945-1952) than is often recognized. This article examines the movement for democratization of the labor unions in order to demonstrate the extent to which the Japanese shaped their own destiny. Domestic politics is often overlooked due to an emphasis on the start of the Cold War in this period. Indeed, US policy is usually given the predominant role in narratives of the period and is blamed for the decline of mass movements such as the labor movement but an examination of the evidence for Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) involvement in the period reveals that the Occupation authorities, especially those in the General Headquarters (GHQ) of SCAP, played a much smaller role than has been alleged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the end of the Second World War in 1945, the phantom of the Cold War loomed over the international relations of countries and created tensions, both foreign and domestic. In the case of Iran, the so-called Azerbaijan Crisis (1946) brought Iran-US relations into a new phase which changed power equations. Iran's strategic importance as part of the 'Northern Circle' of countries was known to both the United States and the Soviet Union; therefore, they struggled to gain a firmer foothold in Iran by any means. There were four main political discourses of power in Iran from September 1943 to August 1955: Royalist, Marxist, Islamist, and Nationalist. This article examines how they clashed and interacted and how these tensions were reflected in a literary work of the time: Karim Roshaniyan's roman feuilleton I Was a Soviet Spy in Iran, published serially in Tehran-e Mosavvar weekly from May 1949 to May 1950. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing the Foucauldian term 'conduct', this article explores how social resilience and morale became a target of state intervention in Denmark during the Cold War. 'Psychological defence' was a Cold War phenomenon designed to bring an imagined future war into a space of control as well as a tool for the authorities' exercise of power in case another world war became a reality. Advocating a methodological internationalism, the article analyses how the concept of psychological defence travelled from Sweden to Denmark via Norway and NATO, and in a complex process of translation, mixing and hybridization was adapted and appropriated to Danish security policy conditions, preparedness culture, and historical experiences. Ultimately, psychological defence was replaced with a more practical or even cynical approach to public information and media preparedness, even if the objectives remained the same. The article employs source material from Danish, Swedish, and NATO archives and combines Scandinavian Cold War history with media history and the history of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay will examine Cold War sport links between two relatively small-sized, satellite countries: Hungary and Cuba, via the activities of Hungarian coaches on the island. These started in the 1960s after the establishment of diplomatic relations and show a concentration in the first half of and the middle of the 1970s. The investigation aims to find out the main reasons and objectives for the presence of Hungarian sport professionals on the island as well as to evaluate the impact of their work. The study begins with providing a brief overview of the evolution of the foreign relations of the Socialist bloc in the 1950s and 1960s and within this context, of Hungarian-Cuban bilateral links, finally narrowing down the analysis on sport relations. In this context, two case studies are presented: one on football and the other on water polo, traditional fields of success for Hungarians, but little known / not popular on the island. The investigation – based on documents of the Hungarian National Archive and contemporary press articles – aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of international (sport) relations in the 1960s and 1970s, adding both to Sport History and New Cold War Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although World War II intelligence and action services are an important research topic in current Belgian intelligence studies, researchers until recently never focused solely on the Benoît network in their studies. However, this organization was of vital importance for the successful transmission of the intelligence that had been gathered by the Belgian government and State Security in London. One of Benoît's key members was Albert Van Buylaere who was considered "brilliant" by his superiors. This article gives an overview of his motives and actions and gives a first impression of why he was so sought after by various intelligence agencies during the Cold War. After a brief discussion on the organization and activities of this network and the main events around it, the focus will shift to his activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following its defeat at the 2024 general election, the Conservative Party will likely look for lessons either in its past—specifically its successful response to Labour's landslide victory in 1945—or from sister parties overseas, notably the Australian Liberal Party. The article argues that Britain and the Conservative Party have changed so fundamentally since the end of the World War Two—and indeed since 1997—to make any comparison meaningless. Highlighting the growing ‘Australianisation’ of British and especially Tory politics in the last three decades, it suggests instead that the Conservative Party would be better looking ‘down under’ for a guide on how to respond, even though critical differences remain between the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between Portugal and South Africa significantly shaped the regional politics of twentieth-century southern Africa. Notably, Exercise Alcora, the military alliance between Rhodesia, Portugal, and South Africa, is a well-documented aspect of Cold War history that has recently garnered increased scholarly attention. The availability of previously classified materials has revealed a more complex and nuanced account of the collaboration between Portugal and South Africa, whose early partnership laid the foundation for a broader supranational alliance in the region. This research delves into the genesis and evolution of South African–Portuguese ties, scrutinising the progressively strengthening connections from the 1950s to the early 1960s. It posits that, before the late 1940s, no substantial or well-defined relations existed between Portugal and South Africa. Establishing these ties was neither straightforward nor effortless; instead, it was a multifaceted and labour-intensive process influenced by critical factors. Both nations were united by shared ideological tenets rooted in nationalism. They concurrently experienced a waning of ties with democratic powers, notably Britain and the United States. Moreover, the apparent indifference of these Western states to the communist threat in Africa catalysed closer bonds between Lisbon and Pretoria, marking a significant shift in their geopolitical alignments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores a turning point in Soviet-Turkish relations during the Cold War: the 1967 interstate agreement that enabled construction of the backbone of Turkey’s post-war state-owned industry, including the petroleum refinery in Aliağa, the steel plant in İskenderun, and the aluminium plant in Seydişehir. It shows that Turkish leaders were not unusual in their balancing of Western and Soviet aid, nor in their attempt to use state intervention to overcome underdevelopment. During the 1950s and 1960s, Jawaharlal Nehru and Gamal Abdel Nasser employed similar tactics for similar ends. What was indeed unusual, was that Turkey was the only NATO member to receive such significant Soviet industrial aid. To explore the Soviet approach and the Turkish response, the article uses recently declassified records from the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (RGANI) and the Turkish state archives (BCA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the epoch-making trial against the German Communist Party (KPD) in 1954–56 – a process with unmistakable political, ideological, and political-theoretical aspects. Both the government and the party's representatives used metaphorical arguments to publicly state their case for or against the eventual party ban. Citing classics of Marxism-Leninism for evidence, the government blamed the KPD for planning a violent revolution and described its activities metaphorically in military terms. The party retorted by ridiculing the government for reading metaphors literally and, more methodologically, rejected the government's non-contextual approach as ‘Talmudism' and ‘hodgepodge', while simultaneously promoting the Leninist doctrine of tactical ‘elasticity' to secure their own argumentative leeway. The government depicted communism as an infection to be removed by amputation – a metaphor the KPD reappropriated and used to present itself as integral to West-German democracy and the guarantor of German unification. Rather than being superficial rhetoric, these interlinked metaphorical arguments captured the gist of the ideological disagreement. The metaphors can be understood properly only by reading them together and considering the underlying argumentative functions that are identifiable by analyzing the explicit proposition each side put forth. The metaphors transcended mere legal argumentation and exemplify the trial’s inherent political nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term ‘Arms Race’ describes the Cold War’s intricate geostrategic landscape, wherein the United States and Soviet Union were the principal contenders. The New Arms Race, in which China and the USA are major players, demonstrates the shifting dynamics of the global geostrategic landscape and symbolizes the current global geostrategic environment. This study, therefore, investigates the intricacies of the emerging Sino-U.S. arms race and how Xi Jinping's foreign policy and the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation influence China's military modernization. Considering China's recent military modernization, how has the US adapted its military modernization and strategic outlook to contain China? Furthermore, this study assesses President Trump's and Biden's diverse strategic outlooks in their approaches to China's military advancement and the geopolitical implications of the Sino-US Arms Race for global security and strategic stability. Moreover, this study highlights that a new bipolar world order analogous to the Cold War is emerging. The escalating New Arms Race will not only alter the regional balance of power but also encourage higher defense spending and strategic partnerships among like-minded nations, with consequences for the global arms control architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South Korean Vietnam War deployment (1965–73), typically understood as a mercenary expedition, was also an exercise in the management of refugees and other displaced populations. While the South Korean Army managed its own refugee villages in South Vietnam, the overseas dispatch of military labor also promised to ameliorate the problem of mass displacement at home, an ongoing legacy of the Korean War (1950–53). The northern exile writer Sŏnu Hwi (1922–86) was a notable proponent of this vision of the war as a frontier, framing Vietnam as a surrogate for an inaccessible North Korea and an outlet for the social contradictions of Cold War developmentalism in South Korea. Focusing on the embedded novel Wave to the Mekong River (1966–67), this article argues that Sŏnu's expansionist fantasy deviated from official justifications of Vietnam as a war for development. At the same time, it suggests, Sŏnu's ideological equalization of exile and displacement also informed an emergent antiwar literature showing that the deployment aggravated, rather than resolved, the marginalization of mobilized youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the development of Sino-Russian military cooperation since the end of the Cold War. It focuses on the evolution of their geopolitical alignment, military interactions, arms trade, joint military exercises, and ally dynamics. The research reveals the driving forces behind the emergence of a China-Russia military axis and its underlying synergy. It concludes that China and Russia have redefined the notion of alliance beyond its traditional understanding, creating a new paradigm of allied relations in international affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Where are Chinese Australians in Australian history? Australia's Chinese past is persistently framed as 'forgotten' in public debate, a perpetual newness which ignores forty years of scholarship in the field. Contemporary works on Sino-Australian relations proliferate, resurrecting Cold War mentalities but avoiding Australia's colonial history of Chinese migration and settlement. This article accounts for this forgetfulness while also drawing attention to a spate of recently unearthed Chinese-language sources written by Chinese Australians. These sources, newly translated, invite us to see Australia's past in a Chinese context, revealing a propensity in Australia to organise historical time along European lines, obscuring ties of causality between events in Asia and Australia. Multilingual archives challenge the primacy of English-language sources in the narration of Australia's past, humanising Chinese Australians and destabilising China as the proxy for Australian security fears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In October 1958, seven Japanese writers attended the first great cultural event of the Bandung era, the week-long Afro-Asian Writers Conference held in Tashkent, the capital of Soviet Uzbekistan. The 'literary Bandung' resulted in the creation of the Afro-Asian Writers Association (AAWA), a source of growing interest among historians of anti-colonialism for the institutions it founded to support a literary culture unmediated by London, Paris or New York, and thereby advance political solidarity among colonized and newly independent countries in the so-called Third World. The participation of writers from Japan, a former empire aligned with the United States, has no place in the historiography of post-war Japan, the Cold War or decolonization. Japanese participants and observers used the conference and the AAWA as a means of dissent equally unfamiliar in received narratives. They argued that commitment to the decolonization of Asia and Africa offered a means to resist amnesia about Japan's colonialist history and obstruct its role in the American empire. The work of Japanese writers in Tashkent and after reveals a broader genealogy of Afro-Asianism and anti-colonial internationalism and opportunities for dissent made possible by crossing between post-imperial and postcolonial worlds in the Bandung era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distinctiveness of the post-communist region has been hotly debated since the end of the Cold War. Using cluster analysis with a wide range of demographic, political, socioeconomic, and attitudinal variables, we find that 28 post-communist countries do not form a distinct region along most of these dimensions. This analysis suggests that the "transition" paradigm is outdated, and researchers should use the concept of "post-communism" with caution. Yet, we do not dismiss the concept of a communist legacy, which may exist on dimensions not captured by conventional indicators. We also emphasize that regional knowledge on post-communist countries remains vital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The information behind the Dutch governmental telex message security 1945–1960 was stored in private hidden archives, our national General Intelligence and Security Service and the National Archive. Therefore, it became unknow information. The article describes the reasons behind the need for a national developed secure cryptosystem. But also, the obstacles and politics behind the developing and the producing of the OTP-systems at the national PTT for the Ministry of Foreign affairs and the Royal Dutch Navy. It also reveals the politics to transfer the subject cryptography to the national IT industry: Philips, which became the start of the commercial crypto industry in the Netherlands in 1957. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the contribution of Wertkritik, a contemporary tendency in German critical Marxist thought, to the theorisation of capitalism, and in particular its relationship with geopolitical conflict and war. Against traditional Marxist and liberal determinism, Wertkritik emphasises how the rationally organised 'forces of production' do not motivate the historical development of capitalism, but rather the forces of destruction. This article suggests that Wertkritik illuminates contemporary capitalist development insofar as it lays bare how the apparent 'post-neoliberal' turn to state-driven industrial policy is motivated less by a drive to unleash the productive forces in pursuit of a more dynamic or green economy and more by the management of the unfolding destructive forces represented in the new forms of conflict and competition arising between warring military and economic powers. The explanation this offers of the cultural dynamics shaping a context of authoritarian convergence provides vital materials towards a critical theory of a capitalism conditioned by increasing geopolitical tensions. Offering the concept of a 'world civil war' as an alternative to the rationalisations inherent in prevailing notions of a 'new' or 'second' cold war, this theorisation also offers pointers for an emancipatory praxis attuned to the current context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to descriptions of Japan as a country that shied away from involvement in international political affairs during the Cold War, this article shows that since the 1960s, Japan has actively engaged in diplomacy to resolve conflicts in Southeast Asia. What motivated these efforts? What role did Japan play? What are the characteristics of Japan's diplomacy? Drawing on declassified diplomatic documents, these questions are addressed by investigating Japan's peace brokering in four conflicts during the Cold War era. The findings deepen our understanding of Japan's contribution to conflict-resolution and its political role in Southeast Asia during the Cold War, which was much more active than claimed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1985, Dutch businessman Frans Lurvink created the Alerdinck Foundation and its Centre for East-West Communications. A private venture, Alerdinck set out to achieve greater understanding between Eastern and Western media to reduce Cold War tensions. An example of citizen diplomacy aimed at promoting peace, Alerdinck's story illustrates the strengths of a private initiative in creating spaces for dialogue and relationship-building, and the limitations of a non-state actor aiming to alter international relations. The article chronicles the formation, ambitions and obstacles faced by Alerdinck as it endeavoured to improve cross-bloc dialogue through its conferences, bilingual newspaper, and journalist exchange programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1983 a group of East European dissidents convened Resistance International (RI); a one-of-a-kind Cold War organisation designed to wage a global struggle against communism. Later, in 1984, a US branch of the group was formed with wealthy anti-communist conservative backers. Historians have begun to highlight the complexity of the partnership between East European dissidents and US anti-communists. This article conducts the first detailed study of RI and provides a new opportunity to study how dissident-anti-communist cooperation functioned. The article examines how dissidents involved in RI managed their relationship with US-based anti-communists alongside their relationships with the wider dissident community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian politics tried to benefit from the competition between the two Cold War Blocs by gaining beneficial terms for economic cooperation and assistance. At times, Soviet and Central and Eastern European designs could prove more successful on the ground than their direct competitors from the West. This paper analyses cooperation schemes in the steel sector and scrutinises the reasons why this was the case. Economic cooperation between East and South was vibrant and could be mutually beneficial during the whole period of the Cold War, thereby calling into question a narrative of steady decline inherent in state socialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper continues the discussions on landscape and subjectivity in war films from a comparative perspective. By juxtaposing the battlefield experiences of the soldier as subjects in two films, Apocalypse Now Redux (2001; 1979) and Don't Burn (2009), the article demonstrates how the landscape contributes to the creation of insecure subjects with experiences of strangeness and danger, where their desires and hopes are shattered. In contrast to previous studies on Vietnam War films that primarily focus on genre, theme, Vietnamese imagery, gender, and ideology, this article employs the theoretical lens of subjectivity as rooted in Deleuze and Guattari to explore the connections that constitute subjects through sensory perceptions, memories, dreams, traumas, and fears manifested through the battlefield landscape as experienced by the characters in the films. This comparative perspective not only challenges previous notions of Don't Burn [2009] as a film that reflects the views and policies of the state, wherein individual subjectivity is emphasised to promote nationalism as a propagandistic purpose, but also offers multidimensional reflections on the Vietnam War while deeply questioning the ideological system constructed by state institutions within the context of the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Second World War, in Germany, Turkey and a number of other European countries, the struggle to learn the positions and interests of both sides regarding the Cold War continued. One of the most urgent issues in this period was the struggle for freedom of the peoples invaded by the Soviet Union, former national minorities. One of the magazines published for this purpose was Kafkasya magazine, the press organ of the North Caucasus National Committee organized by Caucasian political emigrants in Munich. The article briefly talks about the history and importance of the Caucasian union, the joint struggle of the Caucasian peoples in the 50s of the 20th century. The Caucasus is a geographical space consisting of many ethnic groups and sub-ethnic groups. The importance of this place for Central Asia and Europe is immense. In order to be independent and to remain independent for a long time, political immigrants who knew the importance of forming a confederal institution by uniting in this area fought from time to time. Kafkasia magazine was one of the magazines that propagated the idea of confederation. This topic is comprehensively explored in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, China's engagement beyond its geographical periphery, especially with Asian regions, has grown exceptionally, which is best evident in the Gulf sub-region and Western Asian nations. Indeed, energy-based interactions were the first to be established with Gulf Arab countries, and today, more than two decades after the Cold War, such relationships have evolved into tighter partnerships and engagement networks. Thus, in the last decade, China has increased its economic and political footprint in the Gulf region, as it has become one of the region's largest external investors and trade partners. In its relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, China faces varying challenges as each country pursues its interests, making the Chinese strategy in the region more complex. The Gulf countries have had to balance their relationship between the US as a security guarantor and China as an important economic partner. They strive to maximize their political and economic interests in the process. The main contention of this paper is that the GCC should not be viewed as a homogenous entity and that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a flexible approach designed to bolster China's economic objectives in each Gulf country. Our research scrutinizes China's geo-economic strategy and geopolitical aims about the Gulf States' aspirations to maximize their economic ties with China. Against this background, this paper discusses the political and economic relationships between the People's Republic of China and the Gulf Arab states: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines two conflicting perspectives on home cooking in Cold War America. The 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow featured a vocal exchange between Richard Nixon and his Soviet rival Nikita Khruschev, during a tour of a model American home. This "Kitchen Debate," positioned American food and cooking as part of an outpouring of consumerism, demonstrating capitalist superiority by providing for the conveniences and comforts of housewives. In contrast, humorist Peg Bracken's 1960 I Hate to Cook Book argued that American women could pursue a lifestyle and self-identity that didn't focus on daily meals or culinary panache. Although her recipes (relying on mixes and canned ingredients) were similar to other popular cookbook authors and relied on the same products showcased at the Moscow exhibition, Bracken differed from mainstream food writers and political ideologues, insisting that cooking was a tedious chore that should be side-stepped whenever possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractA culminating moment in the post-Stalin struggle for power was the abrupt removal in May 1953 of the Ukrainian party boss Leonid Mel’nykov. With no clear succession procedure in place, the main contenders, Beria and Khrushchev, grasped for control over the institutions that might provide them a crucial advantage. Mel’nykov’s sacking became a focus of speculation in Cold War Kremlinology, viewed as a fatal political error by Beria. Utilising more recently available archival sources and the current scholarship of Soviet patronage politics and nationality policy, this article reassesses the clash over the Ukrainian SSR and the likely motivations of the primary actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how science and technology, especially nuclear energy and space travel, materialised as concrete things and were embedded into everyday life through exhibitions and three-dimensional experiences in Japan during the cold war. In the historical and geopolitical context of Japan in the late 1950s and 1960s, the United States (US)–Japan alliance required that American propaganda agencies such as the US Information Service (USIS) in Japan operate effectively. To this end, science and technology were embodied as specific materials by being reproduced and circulated as tactile objects through exhibitions and displayable models, which formed a desirable environment that involved not only aesthetically attractive designs but also the implicative meanings of the geopolitical dynamics of the time. In particular, the article scrutinises how several exhibitions displayed new materiality in the form of miniatures and models under a newly proposed and constructed techno-environment. It does so by analysing records of exhibitions, expositions, and three-dimensional models that were displayed in Japan in the late 1950s and 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1949 and 1980, voluntariness became a key element in West Germany’s post-fascist migration regime, intended to ethically frame the forced deportations of migrants. Voluntariness appeared in German migration legislation as a euphemistic term for forced removals. Politicians and lawyers emphasized the need to offer voluntary repatriation to those facing inevitable deportation. To avoid any association with Nazi deportations, both liberals and ‘former’ Nazis involved in Germany’s migration policy underscored the notion of voluntariness in what were essentially forced deportations. The paradigm of voluntariness in repatriation management was influenced by a specific German need to denazify deportations and migration practices, as well as by a global shift towards voluntariness associated with liberalization, decolonization, development, Cold War rivalries and the rise of liberal internationalism. Global practices and discourses of return migration both emerged from and helped shape this paradigm of voluntariness, as the liberalizing world sought to distance itself from its fascist legacy and align with emancipatory and progressive ideals, despite the ongoing deportation of migrants from the Global South. I argue that West Germany played a significant role in shaping and globalizing the concept of voluntary repatriation within this historical context, transforming it from a paradigm into a dispositive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews three recent books covering a broad spectrum of deterrence research and uses them to argue for a properly constituted field of Deterrence Studies. Having declined after the Cold War, research slowly revived after 9/11, and then picked up rapidly in the last decade with the rise of great power competition. Having been consigned to the academic margins for decades, such is the centrality of deterrence in international affairs, and the continued growth of multi- and interdisciplinary research on the topic, that it deserves its own field, rather than indefinitely remaining as a subset of other fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the bordering and debordering deployment of water infrastructures on the Islands of Kinmen. Located less than 5 km off the coast of China, yet 200 km from their governing authority, Taiwan, Kinmen holds a critical position in cross-strait relations, and its water infrastructures have carried opposite political intentions. The 2018 Fujian-Kinmen water transfer pipeline serves as a debordering tool as it showcases that the People’s Republic of China could offer benefits to the people on the islands. In contrast, Kinmen’s existing water infrastructure, established during the Cold War, served as part of the bordering campaign to counter Communist China, as it represented progress and modern living under the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). However, rather than assuming the successful deployment of infrastructure or a passive role of the islands, this paper highlights that the planning and construction of Kinmen’s water infrastructures were influenced by conditions of militarisation, shifting cross-strait relations, the islands’ socio-material constraints and their relationships with Taiwan and China. The case of Kinmen illustrates the capacity of water infrastructure to serve bordering and debordering purposes, as well as how other factors disrupt or facilitate these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using recently released documents, this paper considers the viewpoints of Britain, the US and the USSR vis-à-vis Cyprus in the crucial years between 1955 and 1959. Having explained the author’s historical and mental underpinning, the paper shows how crude Cold War geopolitical considerations dictated the approach of all three countries, whatever the moral arguments. The documents revealed in the article show that the British colluded secretly with Turkey, and were fully aware that the Turkish Cypriot leadership had planted a bomb at the Turkish consulate, in order to instigate anti-Greek rioting—a fact covered up at the time, and only recently proven by the eventual release of British documents. The paper demonstrates unequivocally how the whole 1959 arrangement was predicated on the Anglo-Saxons’ insistence on a NATO solution, and how critical the USSR was about an arrangement that was clearly dysfunctional. The paper concludes that external tensions, fear of Russia, and a continuing attempt to solve a problem by repeating the same errors still hold true today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although classical physics states that the void lacks matter or energy, the misunderstanding of emptiness as a spatial concept extends far beyond the sciences. The essay explores the concept of empty space, debunking classical physics’ notion of voidness by delving into quantum mechanics, where energy and particles continually manifest through a site investigation of the Salmon & Sterling Nuclear Test Site (located in Lumberton, MS, USA). This revelation challenges colonial ideologies, exemplified by terra nullius, which justified empire-building by claiming certain lands devoid of inhabitants. Operating through a political-geological exploration of repetitive cycles of extraction, speculation, and vacancy at the Salmon & Sterling Site spanning from the Mesozoic Era to the present day, I scrutinize spatial constructions and their reinforcement of prevailing socio-political systems. Juxtaposed against Faulkner’s Southern Gothic literature and Sartre’s existentialism, this essay underscores a modern dialectic between spatial arrangements and anticipations of cataclysmic endings. Through a passenger-traveler account of void-encounter, I propose a reconsideration of “emptiness” through examining its broader spatio-temporal origins and implications in relation to the nuclear detonations. This perspective allows for the synthesis of the inherent paradox of this site: initially conceived from Cold War anxieties to solidify social structures, yet also harboring unpredictable and potentially mutant futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how and why the northwest borderland region of Pakistan has become one of the world’s most heavily militarised regions. Before 9/11, the area was a historical colonial frontier, experiencing significant militarism and violence during the Cold War. After the 9/11 attacks and the American and allied forces’ invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, however, the Pakistani military undertook a massive intervention and deployment in the region and established a chain of checkpoints aimed at filtering and disciplining the local population. Consequently, local inhabitants have endured severe treatment from the military and other coercive apparatuses. Using an ethnographic method, this article documents the daily experiences of the local people amidst pervasive militarisation. It contends that recent instances of state violence and militarisation cannot solely be attributed to 9/11 but are deeply rooted in the region’s historical treatment as a buffer zone during colonial times. In this context, Pakistan’s postcolonial state has heavily relied on its violent methods and securitised infrastructure to regulate both the region and its people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable academic research has focused on the Peli Movement of the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea, one of the largest and most prominent of so-called millenarian movements in New Guinea’s history. In 1971, Peli attracted thousands of people to witness the removal of cement markers that an American geodetic team, as part of a Cold War project to improve nuclear missile targeting, had sunk into the summit of Mt Hurun (Turu), the highest peak in the coastal Prince Alexander Range. Removing the markers, people believed, would trigger political equality with, and access to, the European estate. It has yet to be explained, however, why Peli’s followers felt this particular action would produce such a dramatic result. Drawing on just over 24 months’ field research in 1979–81, 1987, 1991, and 1997 in Sima village in Mt Hurun’s high foothills, close to the Peli Movement’s centre, this paper contends that local views of what the mountain incarnates and the implications of burying stones in hilltops or ridge crests all but dictated the form of people’s actions and the millennial-like results they expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From disinformation to cyberattacks, Chinese and Russian military units’ digital operations have gained increasing international attention over roughly the past decade. Less studied are some of these units’ historical antecedents, the military-political directorates of the Soviet military and Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of the 20th century. The political officers, or commissars, who staffed these directorates played a large role in shaping the development of psychological warfare beyond the Cold War and into the information age. This article summarizes this history and demonstrates its relevance to modern PLA and Russian military psychological warfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses geographies of internationalism, feminism, pacifism, and anticolonialism, by investigating the case of pacifist and feminist activist Clementina Batalla Torres de Bassols (1894–1987) and her son, geographer Ángel Bassols Batalla (1925–2012). Based in Mexico and involved in global conferencing on pacifism, women’s rights, and geography, this activist and scholarly family provided examples of voluntary commitment to internationalism as both an ethical stance and a political option. Although not extraneous to Cold War logics, as they explicitly sympathized with the Eastern Bloc between the 1950s and the 1980s, the Bassols Batallas acted independently from party logics, following their family history rooted in the independent socialist traditions of Cardenismo and of the Mexican Revolution. They voluntarily contributed to international circulation of ideas without seeking any leading role in the international associations with which they worked. This case allows for constructing ideas of voluntarism and individual agency as drivers for internationalism and informal diplomacy. Furthermore, although some aspects of their pacifism and feminism might seem outmoded, these scholars and activists fostered ideas of social and cultural struggles across plural axes through transnational, anticolonial, and multilingual engagement that can still inspire critical and decolonial geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do we explain the United States’ interventionist mindset in the international system since 1991? Since the end of the Cold War and the subsequent unipolar moment, America has actively promoted democracy and human rights globally. However, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban’s subsequent takeover prompts us to re-think the ideological roots of interventionism between 1991 and 2021. Scholars have taken two broad positions on how they view America: an empire or a hegemon. In this article, I suggest that two conceptions help explain the US actions and behaviour in the international system but do not explicitly outline the rhetorical roots of the US intentions. Drawing on historical instances of messianic tendencies in the global political structure, this paper argues that a messianic state is a nation-state that assumes the global responsibility of saving societies from an impending threat. As a messianic state, the US has used the discursive logic of saving others by drawing on American exceptionalism and the global vision of democratic peace. The messianic content in American foreign policy matured between 1991 and 2010, but it has been in steep decline since 2015 with the rise of China and American inwardness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1940, Jean Field’s husband Vernon left her with two children, three-cents, and no groceries. Jean raised her children with progressive values and taught them to reject racism. After a ten-year absence, Vernon contested Jean’s parental fitness based on her opposition to the Korean War and antiracism. Jean defied the highly valued gender proscriptions that positioned the nuclear family as a bulwark against communist invasion and a father’s authority as paramount. The Jean Field case demonstrates that family law was used to suppress radical organizing, punish radicals, and remake families for the best interest of the anticommunist state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of the periodical press allows historians to further their understanding of the turn against the Soviet Union in the West after the Second World War, and delineate how anti-Bolshevism was constructed to repudiate wartime partnership between 1941 and 1945. Right-wing periodicals such as Truth were active proponents of opposition towards Communism in early Cold War Britain, articulating concerns about the perversion of democratic values and the threat to liberal societies. The nature of Truth 's anti-Bolshevism was reactionary but also reflective, highlighting unease on the Right around the postwar consensus, Labour's domestic programme of state intervention in the planning and management of economic activity, and the general eclipse in Britain's international standing. Truth 's attempts to conflate the Communist threat with Labour's democratic socialism also frame the paper as an embryonic staging point in a wider chronology of neo-liberal challenges to the postwar political order. Anti-Bolshevism was therefore multifaceted and could speak to many different constituencies and agendas beyond a commentary on the actual basis of Soviet rule, Communist subversion, and the polarization of postwar Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Direct Action Committee (DAC, 1958–62) and its parent, the Non-Violent Research Group (NVRG 1949–62) occupy a minor position in British postwar peace historiography where they are generally depicted as a well-meaning fringe group whose political naivety limited their impact. This perspective assumes that success means inaugurating a mass movement or forcing a policy change. It overlooks the group's objections to these strategies and underplays the research dimension of their activities. This article argues that while unilateral disarmament was the DAC's short-term priority, it was always connected to a larger goal of cultivating non-violence as a practical political philosophy and theory of social change. During the 1950s, the group developed an 'artful science' of activism which included a poetics of protest inspired by the Gandhian concept of satyagraha. Later, their fieldwork experiences further informed a prosaic theory of activism attentive to the everyday business of organizing as a vital space for building democratic capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]