Handshakes or punches? What goes on behind closed diplomatic doors

First paragraph: It would have been fascinating to have been a fly on the wall when Boris Johnson called Donald Trump’s special adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushnerto express Theresa May’s concernabout the US policy which is being widely referred to as the “Muslim ban”. What sort of language did the foreign secretary adopt? How high were the stakes vis-a-vis the “special R relationship” which only 24 hours ago had been reaffirmed by the US president and the UK prime minister?  Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/handshakes-or-punches-what-goes-on-behind-closed-diplomatic-doors-7201

Germany faces one of its greatest political challenges since World War II

First paragraph: Within the space of a week a teenager seriously injured three people on a train in Würzburg before being shot dead by police and another shot and killed nine people in a Munich shopping centre. A Syrian man was also arrested in the city of Reutlingen after a woman died in a knife attack, and another Syrian man is dead and several injured after he set off a bomb in Ansbach.  Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/germany-faces-one-of-its-greatest-political-challenges-since-world-war-ii-6300

Cold War, apocalypse and peaceful atoms: interpretations of nuclear energy in the British and West German anti-nuclear weapons movements, 1955-1964

Die meisten Umwelthistoriker sind der Auffassung, dass die Gefahren der Kernenergie erst in den 1970er Jahren ins öffentliche Bewusstsein drangen. In den 1950er und 1960er Jahren habe demgegenüber eine 'Apokalypse-Blindheit' (Günter Anders) vorgeherrscht. Der Verfasser untersucht die Wahrnehmungen von Nutzen und Gefahren der Kernenergie im Rahmen der Proteste gegen Kernwaffen in Großbritannien und Deutschland in den späten 1950er und frühen 1960er Jahren mit dem Ziel, zu einer differenzierteren Einschätzung zu gelangen. Vor allem in Deutschland waren die Diskussionen über eine militärische Nutzung der Kernenergie ein Vorläufer der Umweltdebatte der 1970er und 1980er Jahre. Die zivile Nutzung der Kernenergie wurde demgegenüber zunehmend als Vorbote des Friedens gesehen. (ICEÜbers)'Most environmental historians argue that an awareness of the dangers of nuclear energy emerged only during the 1970s. Conversely, they have noted a 'blindness towards the apocalypse' (Günter Anders) during the 1950s and early 1960s. This article examines the perceptions of the dangers and possible benefits connected with nuclear energy within the protests against nuclear weapons in Britain and West Germany during the late 1950s and early 1960s in order to differentiate this assessment. Especially in the Federal Republic, discussions about the military use of nuclear energy prefigured the tropes which were to resurface in the environmental movements of the 1970s and 1980s. The civilian use of nuclear energy was, by contrast, increasingly seen as the harbinger of peace.' (author's abstract

Politics, Symbols and the Public Sphere: The Protests against Nuclear Weapons in Britain and West Germany, 1958-1963

This article discusses key aspects of the symbolic politics of the British and West German anti-nuclear-weapons movements in the late 1950s and early 1960s. More specifically, it examines the interaction between protest, politics, the media and the public sphere. It proposes two analyses of the protests: first, as the creation of a public sphere by means of "street politics" and, second, as a key to establishing an emotional community of protesters both in a national and transnational context. The media played a crucial role by enabling isolated protests to be perceived as parts of broader movements. The article argues that protests in both countries by and large adhered to, rather than transcended, the dominant national cultural codes. These movements thus exemplify the ways in which international relations, transnational links and national protest traditions interact

Fears of a new nuclear arms race are wildly overblown

First paragraph: Many in the West suddenly seem to think we’re on the road to a new Cold War. Talk of a return to the era of nuclear rivalry swirls around Russia’s muscular and belligerent grandstanding over Ukraine, and the conflict has certainly cut the chances for a new treaty to further reduce nuclear stockpiles. Access this article on The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/fears-of-a-new-nuclear-arms-race-are-wildly-overblown-3587

We war-gamed an escalation of the Ukraine-Russia crisis - here's what it taught us about the real world

First paragraph: It is 9am on a chilly March morning. Delegates from across the world have assembled for an emergency meeting of the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s main decision-making body. The main item on the agenda: an update from the Supreme Allied Commander Europe on Russian escalations in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe, to determine NATO’s response. No one doubts the gravity of the situation. Russian forces are moving west to occupy parts of Ukraine beyond the Donbas region and the Crimea. There have also been severe Russian cyber attacks on German infrastructure, while Vladimir Putin has threatened to invade Estonia. NATO’s secretary general has asked one of his predecessors, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, to join the meeting and share advice. Do not adjust your set: this meeting took place, but it was a simulation – set in a very near future in which the Ukraine has joined NATO and the UK has left the EU.https://theconversation.com/we-war-gamed-an-escalation-of-the-ukraine-russia-crisis-heres-what-it-taught-us-about-the-real-world-11380

A short history of Ukraine's relationship with the European Union

First paragraph: Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine on February 24 2022 and the war that has ensued are part of the history of what happened in eastern Europe in the years following the cold war. As the European Union is debating what to do about Russian aggression, it is important to remind ourselves of that complex history of relations between the bloc and the nations on its borders.https://theconversation.com/a-short-history-of-ukraines-relationship-with-the-european-union-17835