Au lendemain de la seconde guerre mondiale, avec le retour à la souveraineté, le Japon commença aussitôt à planifier la reconstruction de son économie et la création de nouveaux liens en Asie. C'est ainsi qu'il déclencha son « avancée vers le sud », à la recherche de matières premières et de marchés pour ses produits. Cependant le processus de pénétration de l'Asie du Sud-est ne fut pas seulement de nature économique mais aussi politique, et la valeur de la région dans la recherche d'une nouvelle position stratégique fut claire dans l'approche au problème indochinois, surtout après l'intensification de la guerre du Vietnam. Le Japon, désireux de contribuer de manière significative à une reconstruction régionale « après-­Vietnam », à la fin des années soixante lança une première série d'initiatives diplomatiques et de coopération dans la région entière. Ensuite les « tournants » de l'ordre bipolaire des années soixante-dix, surtout le « Nixon choc » et la chute de Saigon, ainsi qu'une majeure sensibilité vers le pays de la région, amenèrent de Tokyo à la systématisation de son approche et donc à la planification de la doctrine Fukuda. Cette première codification de la politique japonaise vers l'Asie du Sud-est est basée sur la fonction intra-régionale du Japon visant à lutter contre les tentatives hégémoniques de Pékin et Moscou et à profiter du désengagement militaire occidentale, afin de remodeler les relations avec les grandes puissances et assumer un rôle international de premier plan. / In the aftermath of World War II, after Japan had regained its sovereignty, the government started immediately planning the economic recovery and the creation of new ties in Asia. Thus it launched its "southern expansion", focused on the search of raw materials and markets for Japanese products. However, the penetration in Southeast Asia was not only an economic process, but also a political one. In the search of a new strategic role, the importance of the region became evident for Tokyo when facing the Indochinese problem, especially after the intensification of the Vietnam War. With the aim to provide a significant contribution to the regional reconstruction, even more important in the perspective of a "post-Vietnam", in the late l960s Japan launched a first set of diplomatic and economic initiatives in the whole region. The "turning points" of the Cold War in the 1970s, i.e. the "Nixon shock" and the fall of Saigon, combined to a closer attention to the expectations of Southeast Asian countries, eventually led Tokyo to the systematization of its regional approach and to the definition of the Fukuda Doctrine. In this first attempt to codify its policy towards Southeast Asia, Japan conceived its intra-regional role in opposition to the hegemonic moves of Beijing and Moscow and in connection to the Western military withdraw from the region, with the ambition to reshape its relations with the Great Powers and enhance its political standing in world affairs.

Amidst the confrontation between the East and the West Bloc during the Cold War, the decolonization of Africa created an entirely new ideological battlefield for these two sides to compete with one another for power and influence. The Federal Republic of Germany, having been allowed to rearm its military less than a decade prior, sought to gain influence in Nigeria and Tanzania by providing them with military aid. However, in both cases it failed to fulfill its promises of aid. Through the examination of these case studies, this study argues that the Federal Republic’s ability to provide effective military aid to non-NATO countries was limited due to the combination of its cautious foreign policy and the dynamic political landscape of the countries to which it offered aid. Formerly classified government documents and newspaper articles constitute the majority of this study’s source material. While current historiography focuses on the impact of the Cold War superpowers in regions outside of Europe, less attention has been given to the important roles that smaller powers such as the Federal Republic have played. By analyzing a smaller global player, the goal of this study is to complicate the notion of the Cold War being binary in nature. Furthermore, it aims to illustrate the political tightrope that the Federal Republic walked when conducting military aid which stemmed from the legacy of its violent past and its status as a divided nation.

I denna studie undersöks hur tre rikstäckande svenska dagstidningar med varierande ideologisk grund gestaltat ett urval av politiska händelser på Kuba under Fidel Castros kommunistiska styre 1962–1994. De politiska händelserna på Kuba som granskats är Kubakrisen 1962, Olof Palmes Statsbesök 1975 samt Specialperioden 1990–1994. Frågeställningarnas fokus har dels legat på hur gestaltningarna av Kubas politik bibehållits eller förändrats under den undersökta perioden, och dels hur tidningarna förhållit sig till sin politiska grundideologi över tid. Avslut- ningsvis har detta resultat ställts mot Francis Fukuyamas tes om ”Historiens slut”. Gransk- ningen av materialet har skett med ett gestaltningsteoretiskt ramverk där en kvalitativ aspekt granskat gestaltningens perspektiv och urval, samt en kvantitativ aspekt som fokuserat på jour- nalistikens värdeomdömen mot Kubas politik. Resultat visar att det fanns betydande skillnader mellan tidningarnas gestaltningar och värdeomdömen under 1960- och 1970-talet. Under Spe- cialperioden på 1990-talet förenades dock samtliga tidningar i en samstämmig kritik mot Fidel Castros kommunistiska styre på Kuba. Detta tycks dels vara ett resultat av tidningarna i allt högre grad blivit nyhetsstyrda snarare än idéstyrda. Ideologiska nyanser skiljer tidningarnas gestaltningar åt, dessa perspektiv överskuggas dock på 1990-talet av att tidningarna samlas i en typ av liberaldemokratisk mittfåra som enhälligt fördömer kommunismen på Kuba. / This study examines how three nationwide newspapers in Sweden framed a sample of political events on Cuba during Fidel Castro's communist rule during the period 1962–1994. The news- papers are all linked to different political ideologies. The political events examined were the Cuban missile crisis 1962, Olof Palme's state visit 1975 and the Special Period 1990–1994. The purpose of the study was on one hand to examine if the framing of Cuba’s politics was main- tained or changed during this period, and on the other hand how the newspapers adhered to their political ideology over time. In conclusion these results are discussed in relation to Francis Fukuyamas thesis “The End of History?”. The study uses a frame analysis as a theoretical framework which has a qualitative aspect that examines the salient perspectives and selections, and a quantitative aspect which focus on value judgments towards Cuba's political leadership. The study shows that there were significant differences between the newspaper framing and value judgements during the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1990s there were a substantial shift, as the newspapers now united in a unanimous condemnation of the communist rule on Cuba. This seems to be a result of the newspapers becoming more news-driven rather than idea-driven. Although some ideological nuances persisted during the 1990s, overall the ideologies expressed by the newspapers seem to converge in the support of political and economic liberalism. Based on the results of this study, the major ideological battle of the 20th century was replaced by minor ideological disputes in the 1990s.

Lo studio ricostruisce i sette anni di presidenza di Carlo Maria Martini al Consiglio delle Conferenze episcopali d’Europa (CCEE) dal 1986 al 1993, attraverso la documentazione conservata presso l’archivio Martini, depositato all’Archivio diocesano di Milano, e l’Archivio del CCEE, conservato a San Gallo. La ricerca mette in luce alcuni argomenti: la consistenza del dialogo ecumenico in Europa; il tema della collegialità all’interno della Chiesa cattolica; la discussione sul significato di “nuova evangelizzazione” europea; l’unificazione dell’Europa e la ripresa dei rapporti tra vescovi cattolici occidentali e orientali. La ricerca dunque si focalizza su questi quattro temi nel tentativo di inserirli nell’ampia cornice del dibattito cattolico tra anni Ottanta e Novanta. / The research focuses on the presidency of Carlo Maria Martini of the Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) from 1986 to 1993. The documents are stored in the diocesan archive of Milan, and in the CCEE’s archive in St. Gallen. The research highlights four topics. The first one is the ecumenical dialogue in Europe in the 80s. The second one is the collegiality in the catholic church during the John Paul II’s pontificate. The Third one is the debate on the significance of “new evangelization” for the Catholic Church. The fourth one is the role of the Catholic Church in the unification process of Europe after the collapse of the soviet system after 1989.

An Abstract The text focuses on the aim of the state politics to gain the position of the first global hegemony after the end of the Cold War. It observes, with the regard to the wide-ranging influence of the USA at that time, and to the important American visions about its character, especially their particular decisions. It tries to describe the way, which the other influential participants of the global politics, the states as well as those of other kind, used to express their reactions to this activity, and their relation to the USA, the strongest contender in the effort to acquire the first global hegemony. The power contest is here mainly introduced by the insight into the course of the conflicts, which they, after the end of the Cold War, faced and influenced. The text concentrates on those political and security challenges with, apart from the policies of the USA, the strong presence of the intervention of the international organizations, above all the UN, the NATO and the EU, or of the occassionally created alliances. The prospects of hegemonial possibilities is presented in the conclusion.

This thesis on the Swedish voluntary women’s defence organisation Riksförbundet Sveriges lottakårer (SLK), studies how the board and the members of SLK discussed the problems and the meaning of voluntary defence work during the 1960s and 1970s. Furthermore the thesis aims to engage with previous research and give an explanation to why people may be interested in voluntary defence. Views varied greatly within SLK: some meant that the voluntary grounds of participation gave a sense of elite status to the organisation; however others saw voluntary work as untenable, since more women at the time had both work and family obligations. Another issue was professionalisation versus socialisation. While some members wanted to see a centralisation and professionalisation of the organisation, others found it more important to safeguard the social functions and independence of the local corps unit. The results suggest that gender structures as well as individual agency create multiple reasons and meanings behind voluntary defence work.

The main goal of this disertation is to map American pespectives on the position of Central Europe in American foreign policy after the Cold War. Its ambition is to systematize the particular area of American foreign policy thought that deals with Central Europe and, more precisely, with U.S. relations with the region. The goal is to contribute to a better understanding of how have the individual camps and traditions represented in the American foreign policy debate approached this particular issue. To achieve these goals, this disertation employs two existing typologies of American foreign policy thought and, subsequently, attempts to create a new, original typology that would better suit the aim of mapping the whole spectrum of relevant American perspectives on Central Europe. This disertation does not describe what has really happened in Central European-American relations, but rather aims at understanding better the U.S. foreign policy thought or, better said, one specific part of it: Opinions on U.S.-Central European relations and the position of Central Erope in international politics. Analysing the American post-Cold War discourse on Central Europe is the instrument to achieve this goal. This disertation, however, does not pressupose a direct causal link between the discourse and the...

Among the states, the history of which was affected by the Cold War can undoubtedly be ranked both Greece and Turkey. Their geostrategic singularity, accentuated by the outcomes of the World War II, caused that the "struggle" between the United States and the Soviet Union for influence in those countries had considerably contributed to a shift in the course of U.S. foreign policy towards the Soviet Union and to adopting an entirely new strategic concept which was to be called as the "strategy of containment". A number of quality books have already been dealing with the general characteristics of this strategy; however, historians have not turned enough attention - which is rather surprising - to its implementation in particular countries and territories. Therefore, an analysis of particular impacts of the strategy of containment on Greece and Turkey, as well as an evaluation of how successfully this approach of the United States towards both the countries worked, have become primary aims of my dissertation. The U.S. strategy of containment, which can be regarded as an example of the so called "grand strategy", had become a key factor of the U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. The process of its coming into existence was complicated and cannot be marked off by one document or an event; its...

The diploma thesis "Strategic Defense Initiative" deals with the issue of the Strategic initiative on the basis of historical-political analysis. The SDI was a crucial topic during the 80s, which had political impacts on the development of the international events and the Cold war in general. This work presents brief history of the United States ABM systems and introduced historical context. Furthermore, the author analyzes possible reasons for the SDI announcement and reexamines Reagan's speech from March 1983. Persons and interest groups who were promoting strategic defense are also included in this analysis. Problems connected to the SDI and its brief description are also mentioned. The following chapter deals with Soviet reaction to the SDI. The seventh chapter dicusses the European reaction to the SDI. The topic is analyzed on the example of United Kingdom. Next chapter deals with the Anti Ballistic Missile treaty and its interpretations from the SDI prespective. Last chapter discusses US - Soviet summits which took place in the 80s with emphasis on the SDI.

1 ABSTRACT The main aim of my diploma work is to show the representation of the class fighting and the class enemy presented to inhabitants of the Czech Repub- lic in the first half of 1950's, particularly during the period of Stalinism. This reflection of the class fighting and the class enemy is a consequence of reading newspaper and poetry published in the defined period. This period is characterized by bipolar dividing of the world in two blocs: socialist and capitalist that declared different contradictory ideologies. This di- viding resulted from the Cold War and both blocs were mutually competing for the final victory of one regime. Socialist bloc described rivalrous capitalist bloc in an unsightly manner and it was knowingly spreading fear of its enemies either coming from the capitalist bloc or at least co-operating with it. So my work demonstrates describing the enemies of socialism and work- ing class and also features that were attributed and ascribed to them. The con- trast between these two blocs were often used for this description. The socialist bloc was the sphere of welfare and progress while the capitalist bloc was the sphere of evil and decay. There are also narrator's memories of the 1950's to sketch in the atmos- phere of the defined period. Selected narrators recall their lives in...