Pub Date : 2016-03-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-3488093
Ehsan M. Ahrari
One of the interminable debates about foreign policy is whether the United States is a declining power or a country that has already regressed into a hasbeen superpower. Some observers along this continuum appear open to the proposition that America’s waning can be reversed. However, pessimists regard America’s decline as virtually complete and maybe even irreversible. Needless to say, the jury is still out. The issue of America as a declining power is multidimensional, and it opens up spirited and engaging discussions among many learned scholars and policy practitioners. Joseph S. Nye Jr., one of the most original thinkers on this and a variety of other matters on US foreign policy, couches this debate in a wider context in his new book, Is the American Century Over? In it, he defines the “American century” in stark terms when he discusses the Cold War and post – Cold War periods — an era when the United States enjoyed “a preponderance of power resources,” when it was capable of “setting the rules” for other nations, and when it was capable of “getting the [foreign policy] outcomes one prefers.” Nye’s focus is on the period when the United States established the noncommunist economic order and successfully managed it from 1945 until the economic crisis of 2008. His description of the American century includes “the period since the beginning of World War II, when the United States, without full control, had primacy in economic power resources, and became a central actor in the global balance of power.” The American century’s date of birth, he says, is 1941, and its date of death “uncertain.” Nye handles the issue of American “decline” in his customary erudite style. He
关于外交政策的一个没完没了的辩论是，美国是一个衰落的大国，还是一个已经倒退为曾经的超级大国的国家。一些观察人士似乎对美国衰落可以逆转的观点持开放态度。然而，悲观主义者认为美国的衰落几乎是完全的，甚至可能是不可逆转的。不用说，目前尚无定论。美国作为一个衰落大国的问题是多方面的，它在许多博学的学者和政策实践者之间展开了热烈而有吸引力的讨论。小约瑟夫·s·奈(Joseph S. Nye Jr.)是研究这一问题和美国外交政策其他各种问题的最具独创性的思想家之一，他在他的新书《美国世纪结束了吗?》在书中，当他讨论冷战和后冷战时期时，他用鲜明的语言定义了“美国世纪”——一个美国享有“权力资源优势”的时代，一个美国有能力为其他国家“制定规则”的时代，一个美国有能力“得到自己喜欢的(外交政策)结果”的时代。奈的重点是美国在1945年至2008年经济危机期间建立并成功管理非共产主义经济秩序的时期。他对美国世纪的描述包括“自第二次世界大战开始以来的一段时间，在这段时间里，美国在没有完全控制的情况下，拥有经济实力资源的首要地位，并成为全球力量平衡的中心角色。”他说，美国世纪的诞生日期是1941年，而它的死亡日期“不确定”。奈以他惯常的博学风格处理美国“衰落”的问题。他
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Pub Date : 2016-03-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-3488060
T. Catsambas
This essay summarizes developments since the outbreak of the Greek economic crisis in 2010 from the perspective of various myths that dominated the public discourse from 2010 to 2016. In the author’s view, the perpetuation of these myths, which was partly the result of poor communication policies of the Greek governments, impeded a swifter resolution of the crisis. The analysis is based on the author’s personal experiences while he served as an alternate executive director of the International Monetary Fund representing Greece from January 2012 to July 2015.
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Pub Date : 2015-12-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-3425189
Patrick N. Theros
The Arab Awakening (also known as the Arab Spring) caught the Western world, and even most experts, by surprise. A fuller understanding of how the peoples of the Middle East perceive their history and their relationship with the Western world—from their own perspective and not a Western analysis of that perspective—is a sine qua non to understanding what happened and how to begin to formulate policies and actions to deal with the new reality. The Islamic State has become the champion of disaffected Sunni Muslim youth building on those perceptions, and the West underestimates it at its peril.
{"title":"Facing Reality in the Middle East: Understanding Why the Islamic State Is Winning and What to Do about It","authors":"Patrick N. Theros","doi":"10.1215/10474552-3425189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-3425189","url":null,"abstract":"The Arab Awakening (also known as the Arab Spring) caught the Western world, and even most experts, by surprise. A fuller understanding of how the peoples of the Middle East perceive their history and their relationship with the Western world—from their own perspective and not a Western analysis of that perspective—is a sine qua non to understanding what happened and how to begin to formulate policies and actions to deal with the new reality. The Islamic State has become the champion of disaffected Sunni Muslim youth building on those perceptions, and the West underestimates it at its peril.","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124468819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-12-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-3425200
Gregory Brew
From January 1957 to August 1958, US policy in the Middle East was guided by the Eisenhower Doctrine. A key facet of the doctrine was the creation of a coalition of conservative Arab states to oppose the influence of Egyptian president Gamel Abdul Nasser. The region’s major conservative states, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, played prominent roles in the implementation of the Eisenhower Doctrine, yet while US policymakers were eager to mold King Saud bin Abdulaziz al-Saud into a regional leader, they were decidedly ambivalent toward the ambitions of the Hashemite regime in Iraq and skeptical of its long-term viability.
从1957年1月到1958年8月，美国的中东政策以艾森豪威尔主义为指导。该学说的一个关键方面是建立一个由保守的阿拉伯国家组成的联盟，以反对埃及总统Gamel Abdul Nasser的影响。该地区的主要保守国家伊拉克和沙特阿拉伯在艾森豪威尔主义的实施中发挥了突出作用，然而，尽管美国决策者急于将沙特国王塑造成地区领导人，但他们对伊拉克哈希姆政权的野心显然持矛盾态度，并对其长期生存能力持怀疑态度。
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Pub Date : 2015-12-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-3425167
T. G. Carpenter
Western leaders portray the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a league of democratic nations as well as a security alliance. Although the organization tolerated illiberal members during the Cold War, it would be more than a little embarrassing to have an outright autocracy emerge in NATO’s ranks today. Yet worrisome manifestations of authoritarianism and intolerance have surfaced in several members. Two NATO countries, Hungary and Turkey, have engaged in repeated autocratic behavior reminiscent of Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia. Such developments provide yet another reason why US policymakers should reconsider America’s continuing role as NATO’s leader.
{"title":"NATO’s Worrisome Authoritarian Storm Clouds","authors":"T. G. Carpenter","doi":"10.1215/10474552-3425167","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-3425167","url":null,"abstract":"Western leaders portray the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a league of democratic nations as well as a security alliance. Although the organization tolerated illiberal members during the Cold War, it would be more than a little embarrassing to have an outright autocracy emerge in NATO’s ranks today. Yet worrisome manifestations of authoritarianism and intolerance have surfaced in several members. Two NATO countries, Hungary and Turkey, have engaged in repeated autocratic behavior reminiscent of Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia. Such developments provide yet another reason why US policymakers should reconsider America’s continuing role as NATO’s leader.","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132099109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-12-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-3425156
Luisa Gandolfo
Discourses on the Arab revolutions have, to date, focused on regime change and its implications for future democratization in the region. This essay explores the impetus behind the religiopolitical tensions in Tunisia and posits that to grasp the events unfolding since 2010 the unrest must be located within an understanding of the dynamic between the Islamists and the state under President Habib Bourguiba and, later, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The essay revisits the terms revolutionary and revolution within the Tunisian context and reflects on the application of the label revolutionary, contending that the act of selective labeling bears implications for an objective understanding of the revolution and its actors. Finally, the essay evaluates how far the political tensions of the past continue to mark the present through the subsequent generation of religious movements emerging from the revolution.
{"title":"From Authoritarian to Free State: Balancing Faith and Politics in Tunisia","authors":"Luisa Gandolfo","doi":"10.1215/10474552-3425156","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-3425156","url":null,"abstract":"Discourses on the Arab revolutions have, to date, focused on regime change and its implications for future democratization in the region. This essay explores the impetus behind the religiopolitical tensions in Tunisia and posits that to grasp the events unfolding since 2010 the unrest must be located within an understanding of the dynamic between the Islamists and the state under President Habib Bourguiba and, later, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The essay revisits the terms revolutionary and revolution within the Tunisian context and reflects on the application of the label revolutionary, contending that the act of selective labeling bears implications for an objective understanding of the revolution and its actors. Finally, the essay evaluates how far the political tensions of the past continue to mark the present through the subsequent generation of religious movements emerging from the revolution.","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114588359","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-12-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-3425178
A. Ağdemir
There have been important changes in the politics of the eastern Mediterranean since the discovery of energy resources and the disintegration of Turkish-Israeli relations. Israel upgraded its relationship with Greece and Cyprus after its ties with Turkey deteriorated. Since shortly after the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, the widening divergence in interests between Turkey and Israel have provided the geopolitical impetus for the development of a rapprochement between Greece and Israel. While political, military, and economic cooperation, in particular, between Israel and Greece have significantly developed, the relations have also blossomed over mutual concern about the energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean. This essay examines the burgeoning relationship between Israel and Greece since 2010 and considers whether this relationship constitutes an important strategic alliance in the eastern Mediterranean.
{"title":"A New Partnership in the Eastern Mediterranean: The Growing Relations between Israel and Greece","authors":"A. Ağdemir","doi":"10.1215/10474552-3425178","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1215/10474552-3425178","url":null,"abstract":"There have been important changes in the politics of the eastern Mediterranean since the discovery of energy resources and the disintegration of Turkish-Israeli relations. Israel upgraded its relationship with Greece and Cyprus after its ties with Turkey deteriorated. Since shortly after the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, the widening divergence in interests between Turkey and Israel have provided the geopolitical impetus for the development of a rapprochement between Greece and Israel. While political, military, and economic cooperation, in particular, between Israel and Greece have significantly developed, the relations have also blossomed over mutual concern about the energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean. This essay examines the burgeoning relationship between Israel and Greece since 2010 and considers whether this relationship constitutes an important strategic alliance in the eastern Mediterranean.","PeriodicalId":298924,"journal":{"name":"Mediterranean Quarterly","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126084290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2015-12-01DOI: 10.1215/10474552-3425222
R. Gramer
The thought of war in Europe in early 1914 was farfetched. The decades that preceded it were defined by vast growth in material and commercial wealth across the continent, unprecedented economic interconnectivity, and relative calm among the Great Powers that dictated the trajectory of Europe’s future. “Such moments of worry flew away like cobwebs in the wind,” the famous Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig reflected years later. “Although, every now and then, we thought of war, it was no different than contemplating death — as something that was possible but presumably far away.” In the past century, plenty of ink has been spilled over the causes of World War I, with a host of new literature written in the past year on the centenary of the Great War’s outbreak. To carve out new intellectual space in such overtrodden ground is immeasurably difficult. Yet T. G. Otte, in his new book July Crisis: The World’s Descent into War, Summer 1914, combines fastidious research and hundreds of primary sources to offer a fresh take on the beginning of the war, with the detail and meticulousness of a forensic scientist performing an autopsy. Otte unveils the inner workings of the byzantine bureaucracies that dominated European foreign policy in the early twentieth century. Rather than focusing on one or two countries, Otte maps out the interplay of all major powers with one another — a Herculean task that few scholars have yet achieved with such clarity and insight. He delves into the minds of not only the leaders of Europe but also the diplomats in the trenches of European diplomacy on the eve of the war that broke the European continent. In this way, it makes a perfect companion to Barbara Tuchman’s 1962 masterpiece, The Guns
1914年初欧洲发生战争的想法是牵强的。在此之前的几十年里，整个欧洲大陆物质和商业财富的巨大增长，前所未有的经济互联互通，以及列强之间的相对平静，决定了欧洲未来的发展轨迹。多年后，奥地利著名小说家斯蒂芬·茨威格(Stefan Zweig)回忆道:“这种焦虑的时刻就像风中的蜘蛛网一样飞走了。”“尽管我们时不时地会想到战争，但这和考虑死亡并没有什么不同——作为一种可能发生的事情，但可能很遥远。”在过去的一个世纪里，人们对第一次世界大战的起因进行了大量的研究，在过去的一年里，在第一次世界大战爆发一百周年之际，有大量的新文学作品问世。在这样一片被践踏的土地上开拓新的知识空间是无比困难的。然而，t·g·奥特(T. G. Otte)在他的新书《七月危机:1914年夏天，世界陷入战争》(July Crisis: The World’s Descent into War)中，结合了严谨的研究和数百个主要资料，以法医科学家进行尸检的细节和一丝不苟的方式，为战争的开始提供了一个全新的视角。奥特揭示了在20世纪初主导欧洲外交政策的拜占庭式官僚机构的内部运作。奥特没有把重点放在一两个国家，而是描绘出所有大国之间的相互作用——这是一项艰巨的任务，很少有学者能以如此清晰和深刻的见解完成这项任务。他不仅深入研究了欧洲领导人的思想，还深入研究了二战前夕在欧洲外交战壕中工作的外交官的思想，这场战争打破了欧洲大陆。这样一来，它就成了芭芭拉·塔奇曼1962年的杰作《枪炮》的完美伴侣
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