Whose Revolution Was It? Stalinism and the Stasi in the Former GDR

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Geschichte der deutschen Literatur. 1789 bis 1830

Hans-Dietrich Dahnke, Thomas Höhle, and Hans-Georg Werner, eds. Berlin: Volk und Wissen, 1978. (Geschichte der deutschen Literatur von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, 7), 967 p. 35,- M

Ingrid Pepperle: Junghegelianische Geschichtsphilosophie und Kunsttheorie

Berlin: Akademieverlag, 1978. (Literatur und Gesellschaft), 287 S. M 9,-

Walls, Borders, Boundaries

Walls are built and then fall, borders are fortified and then shift, boundaries are demarcated and then transgressed. And then they are constructed all over again. As (post)moderns living in an age of globalization, we weary of our seemingly old-fashioned political and market-oriented boundaries: walls and fences are a nuisance to build and maintain, they invite vandalism and intrusion (rather than guarantee privacy or protection), and public surveys often reveal disapproval of national boundaries for moral, aesthetic, and economic reasons. Indeed, recently erected walls and borders intended to sever communities or fortify political and economic boundaries between neighboring countries rarely solve the underlying political problems; more often they result in increased criminal activity, violence, and alienation

NATO’S POST-COLD WAR EFFECTIVENESS: HOW NATO PRESERVED STABILITY AND SECURITY IN THE POST-COLD WAR WORLD THROUGH ITS CONDUCT OF MILITARY OPERATIONS

The main argument of this thesis is that NATO can be an effective post-Cold War alliance in preserving 21st century security and stability through the conduct of its military operations. In order to show NATO’s effectiveness in successfully preserving post-Cold War security and stability, this thesis looks at three interrelated aspects of NATO following the fall of communism and how these aspects may have affected NATO’s ability to conduct military operations during its involvement in various conflicts. Rather than look at the wider concepts of NATO’s security role, I was interested in examining whether the alliance has been effective since the disappearance of the communist threat. The first chapter looks at the influence of U.S. strategic interests on NATO’s decision-making process. However, I argue that the interests of other states and the organization itself within the realm of U.S. strategic interests can motivate NATO decision-making to conduct military operations. The second chapter discusses a tiered system of NATO members—based on their political and military contributions—and whether those tiers impact the conduct of the alliance during specific military operations. I argue that certain tiers contribute more political and military assets to particular military operations than other tiers. Therefore, these contributions can have a decisive impact on the outcome of two conflicts featuring NATO actions. The third chapter investigates whether NATO’s adaptation to non-state threats in out-of-area conflicts was successful. I argue that NATO’s ability to adapt to changing security challenges outside of its regional borders allowed the alliance to conduct military operations against non-state threats, which resulted in stable and secure environments on the ground. The various case studies confirm the paper’s argument that NATO is effective as a post-Cold War alliance to preserve stability and security through its conduct of military operations. The results of the thesis can serve as a guide for policymakers in favor of NATO’s continued role in 21st century security going forward. Lessons learned from this thesis about how NATO has functioned since the end of the Cold War to deal with various security challenges can help guide policymakers as they deal with ongoing global security threats from Islamic terrorism, as well as traditional state aggressors

Spectral cinema from a phantom state: film aesthetics and the politics of identity in Divided Heaven and Solo Sunny

In this essay I draw on close textual analysis to consider the interface between film aesthetics and the politics of identity in Konrad Wolf’s Der geteilte Himmel / Divided Heaven (1964) and Solo Sunny (1979). Both films focus on women who have to confront painful processes of self realisa-tion in specifically East German contexts. They also show Wolf and his collaborators working in two very different modes, from a nouvelle vague-inspired mix of location shooting and self-conscious formal artifice to a more laconic style and mobile camera that borrow from documentary aesthetics. Viewed from the perspective of today, the films resist the reductive stereotyping of what Christa Wolf in 1991 called the 'phantom' East Germany, and offer a more productive haunting. As living ghosts in the post-reunification era, they are a reminder of the necessity of remembering, and so confound both a negative 'master narrative' of the GDR and a collective amnesia with no interest in this history

ICT4S 2029: What Will Be The Systems Supporting Sustainability in 15 Years

Research is often inspired by visions of the future. These visions can take on various narrative forms, and can fall anywhere along the spectrum from utopian to dystopian. Even though we recognize the importance of such visions to help us shape research questions and inspire rich design spaces to be explored, the opportunity to discuss them is rarely given in a research context. Imagine how civilization will have changed in 15 years. What is your vision for systems that will be supporting sustainability in that time Which transformational changes will have occurred in the mean time that allow for these systems Is ICT even the right tool or does it contradict sustainability by making our world ever more complex How can we make systems and our societies more sustainable and resilient by ICT4S This paper presents a compilation of fictional abstracts for inspiration and discussion, and provides means to stimulate discussion on future research and contributes to ICT4S community building