Abstract: Isaiah Berlin’s essays on the nineteenth-century Russian intelligentsia throw light not only on their subject – the role of that group in preparing the ideational ground for the coming revolutions – but more broadly on Berlin’s central philosophical preoccupations and historiographical and hermeneutical assumptions and method. I try to show this – the centrality to his overall project of Berlin’s work on the Russians – by contextualising that work within the broader framework of his philosophical and historical thought. PubDate: Tue, 26 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Drawing on works of literature, especially ones written by Dostoyevsky and Böll, this essay discusses Orwell’s decision, at the height of the Cold War, to inform against suspected Leftist sympathisers. PubDate: Sat, 23 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Since the end of the wars of Yugoslav secession, and since Kosovo’s declaration of independence, the Balkans—Serbia included—have taken a back seat in academic research. Even though media freedoms have been severely stifled following the coming to power of Aleksandar Vučić in 2012, today’s Serbian media are still failing to become a topic for scholarly research. In this article, we scrutinize the daily Informer, the unofficial daily of Serbia’s strongman, president Vučić, via a discourse analysis of its headlines. As shall be shown, the Informer supports the reign of Aleksandar Vučić by framing him as a hero and martyr, fighting for the ‘people’, in a highly populist fashion, discursively painting the opposition in a highly negative light, as well as promoting warmongering and the idea that Serbia is surrounded by enemies. This is achieved via discursive deception, bases on assertive rhetoric, filled with exaggerations. PubDate: Sat, 23 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This paper offers a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the current armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine as a way of understanding the dispute and the failure of the warring parties to broker a lasting peace. It examines the ideological background to the conflict by considering the most significant historical myths that inform both sides, especially the myths surrounding the medieval state of Kievan Rus’, and the religious, political and linguistic elements of those myths that contribute to mutual misunderstanding and heightened tensions. What is demonstrated is that the myths of each side are structurally very similar: one set is the mirror image of the other (with corresponding labels interchanged). This symmetry helps to intensify and maintain inflamed confrontation, so that there is a pressing need to move beyond these myths, if a lasting peace is to be achieved. PubDate: Sat, 23 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Taking recent events in Ukraine as central, the article examines Russian identity as a reaction against its own construction of Western identity. In the process the piece argues that Russia and the West have fundamentally different ideas of law. In the West, power is constrained by law, but in Russia power is superior to it. PubDate: Sat, 23 Feb 2019 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This article refers to debates explaining the end of the Cold War. It notes a variety of theoretical approaches but outlines two fundamental explanatory perspectives-the material and the ideational. The paper favours the ideational approach, and especially Gorbachev’s agency. Yet it underlines that the focus on agency does not automatically mean that an agent acted rationally and efficiently. The case of Gorbachev is a good illustration of partial reforms which were far from consistent. As a result, the article indicates a third, coincidental perspective which is necessary to an explanation of the end of the Cold War. It argues that elements of irrationality and coincidence cannot be ignored in the analysis of events accompanying the end of the bipolar rivalry. Finally, the paper formulates some conclusions about the rationality and predictability of contemporary international relations. PubDate: Tue, 23 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT
Open Access journal
[370 journals]
