The political and cultural underpinnings of Atlanticism's crisis in the 1960s

Cataloged from PDF version of article.The term “Atlantic Community” was introduced in the early twentieth century by the American journalists Walter Lippmann and Clarence Streit.1 It referred to a union of people and cultures, not solely of states.2 The defi nition was an ecumenical one, combining a democratic concept of society with an alliance of the nations of Europe and North America. Atlanticists, as they came to be called, portrayed the Atlantic Community as the core area of “the West.” This was consistent with the world-historical — also called the civilizational — concept, which joined North America (usually without Mexico) and Europe into a single entity: no longer merely the Old and the New World, but instead a united Western civilization

Vangie bruce's diplomatic salon: A mid-twentieth-century portrait

[No abstract available

Afterword

In the time since our 2010 workshop, the European Union has generated a good deal of drama. A serious debt crisis in Greece was repeated in Ireland, Spain, Italy, and Portugal. It threatened to undermine the basic fabric of not only the Eurozone but also of the entire European project, according to some pessimists. Commitment to the implementation of drastic, but much-needed fiscal reforms stood against the idea of European solidarity and a radical, Europe-wide growth plan. The many reform steps that the member states agreed on brought partial remedy but most were concluded under considerable time pressure, in which global markets instead of parliamentary procedures dictated the speed and direction. What they did bring was greater power of oversight for Brussels, yet at the time of this writing, it is still unclear how and if the sovereign debt crisis will be resolved on a more permanent basis. Much of the commentary about the crisis, which in fact came to seem less like a crisis than a saga over the course of 2011 and 2012, placed the blame for it on two sources, primarily: the after effect of the 2008 global financial collapse and the structural flaws of the Maastricht Treaty. The latter case relates directly to the various themes and problems raised in the preceding chapters. To recapitulate the standard, although oversimplified and perhaps overdrawn calculus of German reunification: it was meant to take place within a stronger European institutional structure, which the Treaty of Maastricht and the various NATO-related promises – described in detail in Frédéric Bozo’s chapter – were supposed to bring about. Specifically, it also meant the adoption of a new currency – the Euro – that, largely on French insistence, Germany had to support and, largely on Jacques Delors’s insistence, Europe had to embrace as the means to counter Margaret Thatcher’s push for a liberalized internal market. Both went against the instincts of many people, particularly in West Germany where a strong Deutschmark and various forms of protection were sacrosanct, but Helmut Kohl agreed to the compromise. © Cambridge University Press 2013

Introduction: Old barriers, new openings

The inspiration for this collection is straightforward. “Study problems, not periods,” Lord Acton advised; yet the 1980s – whether or not these years mark a distinct period – pose a significant problem for contemporary historians because of the rapidity of so many momentous changes in the world. The history of these years has only just begun to be examined, and for many scholars, it centers on a return to the high politics of the Cold War: the years between 1979 and 1989 saw a heightening of military tension between the superpowers, with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the reinvigoration of conflicts across Latin America and Africa, reaching its worst point around 1983. This was followed by so dramatic a reduction in hostilities that contemporaries would declare the Cold War over by the end of the decade. The effects of this change were particularly dramatic in and for Europe. Indeed, 1989 has entered the canon of international history with dates such as 1648, 1815, and 1914 as one of Europe’s major turning points. Germany would soon be reunified, the Soviet Union dismantled, and Europe, in U.S. president George H. W. Bush’s popular phrase, could become “whole and free.” This narrative, tilted heavily toward the very end of the decade, has overlooked or underplayed nearly every other event from the onset of détente in the 1970s to the wars of Yugoslav succession. © Cambridge University Press 2013

Joint disorder; a contributory cause to reproductive failure in beef bulls?

The lame sire, unsound for breeding, can cause substantial economic loss due to reduced pregnancies in the beef-producing herd

Long term in-vivo studies of a photo-oxidized bovine osteochondral transplant in sheep

BACKGROUND: Articular cartilage has limited capacity to repair. Defects greater than 3 mm heal with formation of inferior fibrous cartilage. Therefore, many attempts have been made to find the ideal graft for larger cartilage lesions. Different grafts, such as untreated or cryopreserved osteochondral transplants, have been used with variable success. METHODS: Photo-oxidized osteochondral grafts were implanted in both femoral condyles of one ovine knee. Untreated xenogeneic and autogeneic grafts served as controls. Three groups of 8 sheep each were formed and they were sacrificed 6, 12 or 18 months after surgery. RESULTS: The macroscopic evaluation of the condyle and graft showed a well-maintained cartilage surface in most grafts at all time points. However, the host cartilage matrix deteriorated considerably in all xenogeneic, most autogeneic and fewer of the photo-oxidized grafts at 12 and 18 months, respectively. The blue colour of the photo-oxidized grafts resulting from the process of photo-oxidation was visible in all grafts at 6 months, had diminished at 12 months and had completely disappeared at 18 months after surgery. Histologically a loss of matrix staining was almost never noticed in untreated xenografts, transiently at 6 months in photo-oxidized grafts and increased at 12 and 18 months. Fusion between graft and host cartilage could be seen in photo-oxidized grafts at 12 and 18 months, but was never seen in autografts and xenografts. CONCLUSIONS: The photo-oxidation of osteochondral grafts and its use as transplant appears to have a beneficial effect on cartilage and bone remodelling. Osteochondral grafts pre-treated with photo-oxidation may be considered for articular cartilage replacement and therefore may delay artificial joint replacements in human patients

Central Eurasia: prize or quicksand? Contending views of instability in Karabakh, Ferghana and Afghanistan

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:0680.400(338) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo