The article mobilises the concept of strategic culture in order to identify the impact of history upon contemporary security policy. The article will first look at the "wholesale construction" of a strategic culture after the Second World War in West Germany before exploring its impact upon security policy since the end of the Cold War in two areas: the Bundeswehr's out-of-area role and conscription. The central argument presented here is that the strategic culture of the former Federal Republic now writ large on to the new united Germany sets the context within which security policies are designed. This strategic culture, as will be argued, acts as both a facilitating and a restraining variable on behaviour, making certain policy options possible and others impossible.

The end of the cold war division of the Baltic Sea in 1989, and the three Baltic states’ return to independence in 1991 created new opportunities for the decision-makers of the area, as well as new possibilities for fashioning security in the region. This article will examine the security debate affecting the Baltic Sea region in the post-cold war period, and in particular, the relevance of the European Union to that debate. The following section will examine various concepts of security relevant to the Baltic region; the third section looks at the EU and the Baltic area; and the last part deals with the implications that EU membership by the Baltic Sea states may have for the security of the Baltic Sea zone.

The border between Germany and Poland today is undisputed and definite, and thought to promote great co-operation and a culture of good-neighbourliness. Relations between the two governments are progressing nicely. But public opinion and behaviour are still lagging behind. The author describes how thought and emotions on the Polish side are still influenced by memories of the past, especially of the German occupation during the Second World War, and the slow pace of progress in overcoming that memory. He shows that the "shadows of history" have strongly influenced Polish politics in the context of German reunification. Special emphasis is given to the role of the Catholic Church in the controversial debate on the relations towards Germany in the 1950s and 1960s.

Considering the problems of retirement security systems leads one to look beyond the border in order to get a glimpse of the way things work in other societies. Contrary to formal public pension schemes in South American and East European industrial countries, the predominant pension system in Asia is of an informal nature, based upon the extended family structure. The rise of the city-state of Singapore has been accompanied by the development of a comprehensive social security system within the framework of the Central Provident Fund (CPF). The CPF is based on a symbiosis of Western social concepts and Eastern pragmatism. The article gives an insight into the development of this system, and the way it works underpresent political and economic conditions.

During the 1990s the relations between Russia and China developed intensivly. At the highest level, between 1992 and 1998, six summits took place. Both countries declared a "strategic cooperative partnership", designed to contribute to a "multipolar world" and a "well-balanced international political order". Both Russia and China endaveour to use their alliance to raise the importance of their respective places compared against the USA, EU and Japan. Policy changes in Russia have been especially instrumental in solving former conflicts between the two countries, and in developing a new quality to the bilateral relationship. Both countries have shown a strong interest in political and territorial integrity, both expect much from the markets, they need each other as partners in developing new weapon systems and both expect many advantages by normalising the situation along their joint borderline. Though future prospects of a Russian-Chinese partnership are reasonably foreseeable, it is clear that differences will remain. A complete balance of interests may not be seen.

This paper focuses on some of the factors explaining recent trends in decentralisation, and some areas where decentralisation has had a positive impact, including bringing citizens into public affairs, improving sub-national public administration, and stimulating local economic development. It concludes by exploring the dangers and the implications for governments of differing capabilities starting out on the decentralisation path. More specifically, the paper stresses the underlying incentive structures within states in reform. It suggests a country-specific discussion of both vertical and horizontal incentive structures in decentralisation, as well as clear-cut accountability within a public sector in change. While vertical incentive structures mean defined rules for intergovernmental relationships, horizontal incentive structures mean defined rules between local governments, their citizens and the local private sector. Both sets of incentives need to be reformed jointly to stimulate better results from decentralisation and for better performance of local government. Neglecting one of them, could harm development. Above all, politics and processes are key to understanding, and eventually, managing decentralisation effectively.

Ghana’s local government system has been subject to various reform attempts which all involved some sort of decentralisation. This article tries to link decentralisation to changing national policy frames and the various governments’ need to maintain political control. Consequently, decentralisation becomes a dependent variable of the so called bureaucratic development state. After a brief discussion of the colonial and post-colonial local government system in Ghana, emphasis is placed on the crisis of the post colonial state and the emergence of a new local government system in 1988 - which was successfully transformed into the administrative system of Ghana’s 4th republic after 1992. Local participation has been substantially improved an sustained by the introduction of the District Assemblies Common Fund in 1993 which transfers 5% of the national tax income to the districts.

The end of the Cold War opened a window for a new era in world security. Instead of rising to this extraordinary occasion, the United States has adopted a regressive Great Power approach to military security. Rather than promote 'win-win' solutions for peace, security, disarmament, and democracy, it treats international security as a 'zero-sum' game. This article discusses examples in the areas of military spending, military research and development, and arms production and export. It also looks at US policy regarding the use of force, including the role of the United Nations, military intervention in other nations, military alliances, and multilateral military action. In conclusion, the article comments on whether we can expect more constructive action under a new administration and congress.

The Bush Administration supported, earlier than some West European NATO partners, the reunification of the two German states. When the crisis of the political system in East Germany escalated in 1989, the US-government tried to link the support for far-reaching democratic reforms with a rapid involvement of all NATO members in the unification strategy of the Bonn government. For the Bush administration, the most complicated task was to convince the Moscow leadership that a loss of the GDR as a strategic domain in the Central Europe, and NATO membership of a united Germany, would not undermine security interests of the Soviet Union. At the End of the East-West-Conflict, German unification was in full accordance with the global strategic interests of the United States.

The comprehensive transformation after the breakdown of communist rule was also reflected in a profound change in national policies. The dominating approach in the days of the old regime were grounded in the concept of a single nation state. The years since 1989 witnessed a rise of new democratic attitudes towards national and ethnic minorities. National minorities make up 3 to 4% of the population. Their total number is estimated to be approximately 1.0 to 1.3 Million people. Contemporary national policy rejects the principle of assimilation (polonization) of national and ethnic minorities while supporting their integration.