Das Lob der Monarchie. Aspekte der Staats- und Herrschaftsauffassung Friedrichs des Großen

Thema dieser Studie ist die Frage nach einer Konstante in der Herrschaftsauffassung des Preußenkönigs. Dabei erweist es sich, dass Friedrich seit seiner Kronprinzenzeit und der Auseinandersetzung mit Machiavelli bis zu den späten Äußerungen zu Schriften des französischen Radikalaufklärers Baron d'Holbach die Monarchie als die beste aller denkbaren Staatsverfassungen hingestellt und verteidigt hat. Er sah zwar durchaus auch die Schwächen und Mängel dieses Regierungssystems. Aber er propagierte es trotz der Vorbehalte gegen seinen eigenen Thronfolger mit Beharrlichkeit und unermüdlicher Eloquenz

Theorizing the Westphalian system of states: international relations from absolutism to capitalism

This article provides a new approach, revolving around contested property relations, for theorizing the constitution, operation and transformation of geopolitical systems, exemplified with reference to early modern international relations. Against the cross-paradigmatic IR consensus that equates the Westphalian Settlement with the codification of modern international relations, the article shows to which degree 17th and 18th century European geopolitics remained tied to rather unique pre-modern practices. These cannot be understood on the basis of realist or constructivist premises. In contrast, the theoretical argument is that the proprietary and personalized character of dynastic sovereignty was predicated on pre-capitalist property relations. Dynasticism, in turn, translated into historically specific patterns of conflict and cooperation that were fundamentally governed by the competitive logic of geopolitical accumulation. The decisive break to international modernity comes with the rise of the first modern state — England. After the establishment of a capitalist agrarian property regime and the transformation of the English state in the 17th century, post-1688 Britain starts to restructure international relations in a long-term process of geopolitically combined and socially uneven development

Indications, management, and complications of temporary inferior vena cava filters

PURPOSE: We describe the results of a preliminary prospective study using different recently developed temporary and retrievable inferior vena cava (IVC) filters. METHODS: Fifty temporary IVC filters (Gunther, Gunther Tulip, Antheor) were inserted in 47 patients when the required period of protection against pulmonary embolism (PE) was estimated to be less than 2 weeks. The indications were documented deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and temporary contraindications for anticoagulation, a high risk for PE, and PE despite DVT prophylaxis. RESULTS: Filters were removed 1-12 days after placement and nine (18%) had captured thrombi. Complications were one PE during and after removal of a filter, two minor filter migrations, and one IVC thrombosis. CONCLUSION: Temporary filters are effective in trapping clots and protecting against PE, and the complication rate does not exceed that of permanent filters. They are an alternative when protection from PE is required temporarily, and should be considered in patients with a normal life expectancy

"Zähmung der Bellona" oder Ökonomie der Gewalt? Überlegungen zur Kultur des Krieges im Ancien régime

International audienc

Small wars in the age of Clausewitz: the watershed between partisan war and people's war

Around the time of Clausewitz’s writing, a new element was introduced into partisan warfare: ideology. Previously, under the ancien régime, partisans were what today we would call special forces, light infantry or cavalry, almost always mercenaries, carrying out special operations, while the main action in war took place between regular armies. Clausewitz lectured his students on such ‘small wars’. In the American War of Independence and the resistance against Napoleon and his allies, operations carried out by such partisans merged with counter-revolutionary, nationalist insurgencies, but these Clausewitz analysed in a distinct category, ‘people's war’. Small wars, people's war, etc. should thus not be thought of as monopoly of either the political Right or the Left