The Contemporary History

Mikhail Gorbachev

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:26:00 +0000

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev was general secretary of the Communist Party, then president of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. He was a reformer who attempted to fix the economic problems of the system and wanted democracy to grow within the country. He presided over the dismemberment and collapse of his nation.

Gorbachev was born on March 2, 1931, in a small village in the Stavropol region in south Russia. Both his grandfathers were arrested as kulaks during a collectivization drive of 1928–33. His father joined the Communist Party and was a veteran of the Great Patriotic War (1941–45).

Gorbachev himself was an eager student, joined the Communist Youth League, and gained acceptance to the law faculty at Moscow State University in 1950. He completed his studies in 1955. During his time in Moscow he met his future wife, Raisa Maksimovna Titorenko, who would play a crucial supporting role in his reforms throughout their lives.

While in Moscow, Gorbachev gained a reputation as something of a liberal, publicly approving of the reformist efforts of the current leader, Nikita Khrushchev. He also became close friends with a Czech student, Zdenek Mlynar, who would be active in Czechoslovak politics during the reformist Prague Spring of 1968.

After graduation, Gorbachev returned to Stavropol, where he practiced law for a few years. He was elected first secretary of the Stavropol city Komsomol committee in 1956. From there he began a quick ascent. In 1962 he moved to the Communist Party administration. He became first secretary of the Stavropol city party organization in 1966.

In 1970 he rose to first secretary of the Stavropol region. After eight years he moved to Moscow, where he became the Central Committee secretary for agriculture. Within two years he was a full member of the Politburo, the ruling council of the Soviet state. Finally, in March 1985, he was chosen as general secretary of the Communist Party.

Even before Gorbachev became general secretary, he was thinking about ways to reform the system. His initiatives followed a path laid out by the previous general secretary, Yuri Andropov. These were fairly conservative, calling for higher levels of productivity of labor. In 1986 Gorbachev announced a set of more radical proposals that he called perestroika, or restructuring.

Perestroika called for decentralization and self-accounting for industries. He continued to innovate, even allowing cooperatives in order to gain control of illegal economic activities. None of his reforms challenged the basic nature of the Soviet Union’s planned economic system.

Democratization

Political reforms became an integral part of perestroika. Because Gorbachev’s economic reforms were criticized and often ignored by entrenched party officials, he sought to remove them and bring new initiative through democratization.

Multicandidate elections within the Communist Party were announced in 1987. Those elections were held in 1988, with thousands of contests throughout the country. When the Congress of People’s Deputies met afterward, it represented a newly reformed Communist Party that pushed Gorbachev to implement additional changes.

Perhaps the most traumatic moment of Gorbachev’s reign occurred when the Chernobyl nuclear station exploded in April 1986. A mix of unsafe construction, insufficient maintenance, and human error led to the worst radiation leak in history.

In its wake, Gorbachev launched the policy of glasnost, or openness, in earnest. At first it involved a few magazines and journals, such as Ogonek and Moscow News, but it quickly spread to almost all other media. These outlets began to publish stories that openly revealed the problems that faced the Soviet Union—including poverty, corruption, and divorce.

In addition, there was a broad reexamination of Soviet history, leading to harsh criticism of Joseph Stalin and even Vladimir Lenin. Literary works and authors that had been banned reappeared, such as Mikhail Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita and Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago.

Glasnost brought an ambivalent response from the Soviet public. Many were happy to see the truth of the past revealed but many, perhaps a majority, felt that these revelations unnecessarily blackened the reputation of the Soviet Union.

The pent-up hostility of the nations inside the Soviet Union was also released by Gorbachev’s economic, political, and cultural reforms. Beginning in Uzbekistan in 1986 national groups began to resist decisions made in Moscow. Arguments between Armenians and Azerbaijanis over a small piece of territory led to violent clashes in 1988 and demonstrated the increasing weakness of central authority.

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania announced their sovereignty starting in 1988. A movement even began among the Russians, led by Boris Yeltsin, to limit the power of the Soviet government over their territory. The increasing pressure from these national groups weakened Gorbachev’s ability to hold the Soviet Union together.

Meeting with Reagan

Mikhail Gorbachev meeting with Ronald Reagan

Foreign affairs were the area where Gorbachev had the most success. Gorbachev pursued a policy of reducing international tension from the beginning of his rule. After 1985 Gorbachev quickly moved toward negotiations that would eventually lead to the end of the cold war. He met with U.S. president Ronald Reagan repeatedly throughout the 1980s.

These meetings culminated in the first arms control treaty in a decade, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which removed both U.S. and Soviet nuclear-tipped missiles from Europe. The good relations continued with President George H. W. Bush, although Gorbachev was never able to gain the large restructuring loans that he had hoped for from the Western powers.

The Soviet allies in eastern Europe benefited from Gorbachev’s approach to foreign policy. The centripetal forces unleashed by perestroika did not stop at the Soviet border. Gorbachev, however, felt that it was unwise to attempt to keep eastern Europe forcibly under Soviet control. Conservative regimes in the Soviet bloc were unable to respond to perestroika and glasnost.

When they appealed to Gorbachev for military help, he refused. Once his policy of nonintervention became clear, these regimes unraveled very quickly. All of the communist states collapsed in 1989. Gorbachev received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his leading role in the reduction of international tensions and the generally peaceful transition to democracy.

With the end of Soviet dominance over eastern Europe, Gorbachev faced increasing internal resistance to his reforms. He tried to strengthen his political position by convincing the Congress of People’s Deputies to create a new position—president of the Soviet Union— and elect him to it in March 1990.

He also proposed the most radical transformation of the Soviet economy so far. Called “the 500 Days,” it was supposed to move the planned economy quickly to a market-based one. He abandoned it before it truly started. Within a few months Gorbachev moved in the opposite direction.

He brought in new advisers who held a conservative vision for the future of the Soviet Union. This conservative swing reached its peak in January 1991, when Soviet troops moved into Lithuania in an attempt to prevent its declaration of independence.

In spring 1991 Gorbachev proposed a new arrangement that would greatly decentralize power but keep the Soviet Union together. He called a nationwide referendum to vote on this new structure. It was approved by almost 75 percent of those who voted in March.

However, Gorbachev’s archrival Boris Yeltsin used the referendum to create a position of president of the Russian Federation, from which he was able to undermine Gorbachev and his plans to hold the Soviet Union together. The new, weaker union was scheduled to go into effect on August 20, 1991.

The weakness in this agreement led a group of conservatives to attempt to restore the centralized power of the Soviet state. A coup attempt was launched on August 19 by men that Gorbachev had appointed earlier. Gorbachev was placed under house arrest and the plotters declared martial law. The coup attempt was quickly defeated.

Resistance from Boris Yeltsin, now president of the Russian Federation, and thousands of Muscovites who gathered outside the Russian parliament convinced the army to remain uninvolved in the political struggle. The coup plotters gave in a few days later. When Gorbachev returned from house arrest, his power was fatally weakened.

Yeltsin took the initiative after the failed coup. Yeltsin banned the Communist Party in Russia and undermined Gorbachev’s last attempts to hold the state together. After months of futile negotiation, Gorbachev resigned as president on December 25, and the Soviet Union was officially disbanded on December 31, 1991.

Gorbachev remains active in Russian political life, though he is intensely disliked by most Russians. He ran for president of Russia in 1996 but received less than 1 percent of the vote. In 2006 he was the head of the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow and traveled the world giving speeches. He is also the author of numerous books and a commentator on Russian and world politics.

John F. Kennedy

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:24:00 +0000

John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. Prior to that he had a prominent military career, served in the House of Representatives and then in the Senate from 1947 to 1960, and was the youngest person to be elected president. He is also the only Roman Catholic to be elected president.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, the second son of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose (née Fitzgerald). He attended Dexter School, Riverdale Country School, Canterbury School, and later Choate School.

Graduating in 1935, he went to London to study at the London School of Economics but fell ill and returned to the United States where he attended Princeton University briefly. He then went to Harvard College, spending the summer holidays in 1937, 1938, and 1939 in Europe. John F. Kennedy was in Germany in August 1939, returning to London by September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.

In 1940 Kennedy completed his honors thesis, “Appeasement in Munich,” which was subsequently published as Why England Slept. In May and June 1941 Kennedy went to South America. He volunteered for the U.S. Army but was rejected because of his bad back.

However, using contacts in the Office of Naval Intelligence, he was accepted for the navy in September, and when war broke out with Japan in December 1941, he served in the Pacific.

On August 2, 1943, the boat which Kennedy was in, the PT-109, was rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri while on a night-time patrol near New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. He towed a wounded man to safety and was personally involved in rescuing two others.

Initially, John F. Kennedy had some thoughts about becoming a journalist. The death of his older brother, Joe, in 1944, however, propelled him into politics and in 1946 he ran for a seat in the House of Representatives as a Democrat for Massachusetts, winning with a large majority.

In 1952 he defeated the incumbent Republican Henry Cabot Lodge for the U.S. Senate, and served in the Senate from 1953 to 1960. His book, Profiles in to Courage, was published in 1956, winning the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1957. Kennedy’s connections with Senator Joe McCarthy were to damage his standing in the liberal establishment, but he did support the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

On September 12, 1953, John Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. They had four children: a daughter, stillborn in 1956; Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, born in 1957; John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., born in 1960; and Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, born in 1963.

In 1960 Kennedy ran for president. What was particularly noteworthy was the first television debate that Kennedy had with his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon. Kennedy defeated Nixon in a tightly fought race, with the Democrats gaining 303 electoral college seats against 219 for the Republicans. An independent, Harry Byrd, picked up the remaining 15 electoral college seats.

On January 20, 1961, Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president. The first controversy of his presidency concerned the government of Fidel Castro, which had come to power two years earlier. The Eisenhower administration had allowed anti-Castro Cubans to be secretly trained in the southern United States, mainly in Louisiana and Florida, and they had planned to invade Cuba.

The plan had been drawn up before John F. Kennedy came to power, and on April 17, 1961, Kennedy approved it. However, he cancelled the air support that was to have been provided by the U.S. Air Force. When the Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, they were quickly overwhelmed by the Communists.

The next major crisis, the Cuban missile crisis, took place from October 14, 1962, when American U-2 spy planes photographed a Soviet Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile site under construction in Cuba. He decided that an attack on the site might result in nuclear war, but that inaction would be seen as a sign of weakness.

In the end, he resolved to order a military blockade of the island and eventually came to an agreement with the Soviet Union’s premier, Nikita Khrushchev, that the Soviet Union would remove the missiles, and the United States would promise never to invade Cuba, and withdraw some missiles from bases in Turkey.

Kennedy was interested in rapprochement with the Soviet Union, but he had to be perceived as “tough,” especially in Europe. On June 26, 1963, he visited West Berlin and addressed a large public crowd with the famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech.

In August 1963 Kennedy was able to sign into law the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited atomic testing on the ground, in the atmosphere, and underwater, but did not prohibit testing underground.

Another foreign policy problem that Kennedy faced was the increased fighting in Laos and Vietnam. In the former, the Kennedy administration backed a neutral government, and in the latter, the United States was heavily involved in supporting the anticommunist South Vietnamese government led by President Ngo Dinh Diem.

By 1963 there were 15,000 U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam. Diem had ruled South Vietnam since late 1954 and was becoming increasingly authoritarian. Kennedy felt that it was Diem’s brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, who was a major problem and wanted Diem to get rid of Nhu. Ngo Dinh Diem realized that Ngo Dinh Nhu was his most powerful supporter and refused.

This led the Kennedy administration to give the go-ahead for Buddhist South Vietnamese generals to overthrow Ngo Dinh Diem, who, along with Ngo Dinh Nhu, was murdered. The new regime was inherently unstable, causing the United States to commit more combat soldiers, escalating the war.

The domestic program introduced by Kennedy was known as the New Frontier. He tried to legislate to prevent the continuance of racial discrimination. He also proposed tax reforms and promised federal funding for education, more medical care for the elderly, and government intervention to boost the economy of the nation.

Most of these measures were to be introduced by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. It was Johnson who, in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, introduced the measures that Kennedy had supported.

John F. Kennedy is also well known for his commitment to the space program. With the Soviet Union managing to win all the first stages of the space race, John F. Kennedy pushed for greater effort from the American people. The moon landing took place on July 20, 1969, during Nixon’s presidency.

As John Kennedy had only narrowly won the 1960 presidential election, he began his campaign for reelection early. This involved trying to win support from the southern states. He went to Texas in November 1963, where, on November 22, in Dallas, at 12:30 p.m., he was assassinated.

A loner, Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested about 80 minutes later and charged with murdering a Texas policeman. He was then also charged with murdering John F. Kennedy. Before Oswald could be brought to trial, two days later, on November 24, he was shot dead by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.

There has been much written about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. On November 29, five days after the shooting of Oswald, Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, created the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known as the Warren Commission because it was chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren.

It concluded that John F. Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone, a view later endorsed by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations reporting in 1979. Most people now view the Warren Commission report with disdain for the evidence that it missed.

John F. Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. The bodies of two of his children, his first daughter, and Patrick, his youngest son who died on August 9, 1963, were brought to Arlington and buried with him.

Great Leap Forward in China (1958 – 1961)

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:24:00 +0000

Great leap forward poster

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) followed the Soviet Union’s model of planned economy on the socialist model. The success of the First Five-Year Plan (1953–57), undertaken with Soviet financial and technical aid, prompted the government to announce a more ambitious Second Five-Year Plan for 1958–62 that called for a 75 percent increase in industrial and agricultural production.

This was not enough for party leader Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung), who proclaimed a “Great Leap Forward” in February 1958 with the goal of passing Great Britain in industrial production by 1972. It mandated an average 18 percent increase in steel, electricity, and coal production for that year. This was only the beginning of a series of escalating and totally unattainable goals for production.

Mao called on the Chinese people to “walk on two legs,” that is, to use modern and sophisticated plants built with Soviet aid to make steel, along with primitive “backyard” furnaces manned by millions of untrained workers.

By late 1958, 600,000 backyard furnaces had been built throughout China that smelted pots, pans, and farm implements, with wood from forests as fuel, and that produced millions of tons of unusable metal in order to fulfill their quotas and avoid punishment.

To mobilize all the available labor force and to complete the socialist transformation of the people, more than 500 million peasants, or more than 98 percent of the rural population, were organized into 26,000 People’s Communes that controlled all aspects of their lives.

In addition, some city people were organized military fashion into urban communes. Afraid of failure to realize Mao’s fantastic expectations, local Communist bosses competed with one another to announce overachievement of quotas and goals, which allowed the government to announce at the end of 1958 that industrial production for that year had exceeded that of 1957 by 65 percent.

backyard furnaces

In launching the Great Leap Forward Mao was also motivated by his disapproval of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, whom Mao castigated as “revisionist” for giving incentives to improve productivity in Soviet agriculture. He boasted that he had found a shortcut, through the People’s Communes, to reach the ultimate Marxist utopia ahead of the Soviet Union and thus the right to lead the world communist movement.

The Soviet Union, however, firmly rejected Mao’s claims when Khrushchev declared that “society cannot leap from capitalism to communism.” The debate over the validity of the Great Leap Forward widened the split in the international communist movement and contributed to worsening relations between China and the Soviet Union.

In reality the Great Leap Forward brought unprecedented disaster to the Chinese people. By 1959 it was no longer possible for the government to deny that the economy had been crippled. The people were exhausted and demoralized, and famine stalked the land.

Economists estimated that the economy had declined by $66 billion, and demographers concluded that more than 30 million people had died of starvation in the Mao-made famine, the worst in world history.

At the Lushan Conference of communist leaders Mao had to admit his folly, stepped down from chairmanship of the PRC, and let others who had not lost touch with reality—called pragmatists—run the country to bring it back from ruin.

Green Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:23:00 +0000

Green Revolution

The term Green Revolution refers to the incredible transformation of agriculture in developing nations between the 1940s and 1960s. Programs of agricultural research and the development of infrastructure led to significant increases in agricultural production. The Green Revolution has had significant social and ecological impact on the world, and because of this has been equally praised and criticized.

For English wheat yield to increase from one-half metric ton per hectare to two metric tons took 1,000 years; the increase from two to six metric tons took only 40 years. The change took place due to improvements in breeding, agronomy, and the use of pesticides and fertilizers. The result was that by the second half of the 20th century most industrial countries were agriculturally self-sufficient.

Developing countries were less fortunate. Colonial powers invested little in the food production systems of their colonies and did nothing to slow population growth, so by independence in the 1950s–1960s, the new nations were approaching a crisis.

By the mid-1960s hunger and malnutrition were widespread. Asia was particularly dependent on food aid from developed countries. India suffered back-to-back droughts in the mid-1960s, exacerbating the problem.

The Rockefeller and Ford foundations led in the establishment of the international agricultural research system to adapt the latest science and technology to the Third World. Efforts focused on rice and wheat, two of the principal sources of food in the developing world. U.S. Agency for International Development administrator William S. Gaud coined the term “Green Revolution” in 1968.

The Green Revolution spread rapidly. By 1970 approximately 20 percent of the Third World’s wheat area and 30 percent of the rice land in developing countries were planted in high-yield varieties. By 1990 the share was 70 percent for both.

The Green Revolution led to markedly improved yields of cereal grains during the 1960s–1970s due to the development of new seeds through genetics. The beginnings came in Mexico during the 1940s when Dr. Norman E. Borlaug led a team that developed a strain of wheat that was resistant to disease and efficient in converting fertilizer and water into grain.

Shorter and sturdier stalks were necessary to allow the plant to hold the larger grain yield. Borlaug developed dwarf varieties with the requisite characteristics. Initially, Mexico was importing half the wheat it needed. By 1956 it was self-sufficient, and by 1964 it was exporting half a million tons annually.

Rice field

Equal success in India and Pakistan kept millions of people from starving. As the technologies spread through the world, crop yields increased each year. But as production of rice and wheat and other genetically altered crops grew, output of other indigenous crops, including pulses, declined.

After wheat came corn, although with less success. Building on the efforts of China, Japan, and Taiwan, the International Rice Research Institute developed semidwarf rice plants. By 1992 a network of 18 research centers, primarily in developing countries, continued the effort to improve yields.

Funding came from the Rockefeller Foundation and other private foundations, national governments, and international agencies including the World Bank. At the same time the Green Revolution came under criticism because it requires fertilizer, irrigation, and other tools unavailable to impoverished farmers. Further, it may be ecologically harmful.

Most important, its emphasis on monoculture leads to a loss of genetic diversity. Academic critics, such as the economist Arartya Sen, note that increasing food production does not necessarily lead to improved food security.

Most industrialized nations consume Green Revolution hybrids. The crops are created through crossbreeding or random mutagenesis to improve crop yield and increase durability to allow for longer shipment and storage times.

Other alterations allow plumper tomatoes or straighter rows of corn. Uniformity eases mechanical harvest. Modified strains still depended heavily on the high use of fertilizers, which consume fossil fuels, instead of the traditional crop rotation, mixing of crops, and use of animal manure.

And large-scale irrigation entailed the use of large volumes of natural monsoon and other water sources. It also required poor farmers to use simple irrigation techniques. Control of pests and weeds by pesticides and herbicides also improved the crops.

The Green Revolution allowed a record grain output of 131 million tons in 1978–79. India became one of the world’s largest producers, and an exporter of food grain. No other nation matched India’s success. The Green Revolution also allowed food production to match population growth.

Mechanization has reduced the need for low-skilled human labor. Farmers and agricultural workers have seen increases in income as production costs have dropped markedly. Mechanization encouraged collectivization— or corporatism—because the machines are too expensive for small landowners. After the initial exploitation, real improvement occurred for many poor farmers.

Between 1970 and 1995, real per capita incomes in Asia almost doubled, with a decline in poverty from nearly 60 percent to less than 33 percent. As population increased 60 percent between 1975 and 1995, poverty decreased from 1.15 billion to 825 million people. India’s rural poor before the mid-1960s ranged from 50 to 65 percent; by 1993 the number was about 33 percent.

Vandana Shiva and other critics of the Green Revolution object to the emphasis on genetically modified, high-yield crops at the expense of quality ones. The dependence on a few strains increases the risk of disaster should a new crop pest arise. The revolution also makes populations dependent on external sources of food. And the potential for future improvement through breeding of different strains is weakened.

Critics also note that the reduction in crop types leads to a less varied, less healthy diet, because the crops are produced for volume, not nutritional quality. Herbicides kill wild plants that are traditionally eaten as vegetables, further restricting the variety in many diets. Pesticides also kill the fish in rice paddies. Water buffalo exposed to the pesticide-rich land develop hoof-and-mouth disease.

Some villages that were previously self-sufficient are suddenly enduring famine that seems irreversible. Supporters note that the Green Revolution has created higher gross nutrition levels and increased the intake of calories.

To promote variety, advocates encourage the planting of vegetable gardens. The newer varieties have improved nutrient content, for example, the “golden rice” with increased carotene, and there is more attention to developing altered versions of less common crops. High-yield sorghum, millet, maize, cassava, and beans are now available.

The Green Revolution changes social arrangements. Many hybrids are sterile. Others are sold with the restriction that farmers cannot save seed. Farmers have to buy seed each year, and the seed they buy is usually hybrid because traditional seeds produce much less.

The Green Revolution also brought traditional subsistence farmers into the world of large-scale industrial agriculture. Many are forced off their farms and into urban poverty because their small holdings are not competitive with the large agribusinesses.

Dependence on chemical fertilizers also leads to ecological damage such as on the Pacific island of Nauru, which was mined extensively for its phosphates. Chemical runoff from fields pollutes streams and other water supplies. DDT and other chemicals used in the early Green Revolution have given way to safer varieties, but the impact remains.

Critics claim that the Green Revolution’s methods destroy land quality because irrigation increases salinity, soil erosion increases, and the soil loses organic material and trace elements due to reliance on artificial means of stimulating growth. The soil weakens, and chemical dependency grows until the soil finally fails.

Supporters counter that new techniques will develop as resources become scarce or environmental damage becomes likely. They note that no-till farming has decreased erosion. And work continues on the development of alternative energy sources, disease- and pestresistant crops, and closed nutrient cycles.

Hamas

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:22:00 +0000

Hamas logo

Hamas—an acronym of Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyaa in Arabic, literally “Islamic Resistance Movement”—was both a part of a regionwide radical Islamic movement that developed in 1980s and an expression of the Palestinian struggle against Israeli domination and occupation. Hamas was established shortly after the outbreak of the first Intifada in the Gaza Strip in 1987.

Its political program and ideology were drafted in lofty Arabic rhetoric and religious symbolism. Hamas believed that “the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day.”

Hamas regarded nationalism (wataniya) as an implication of religious faith and struggle against the enemy as a religious duty. Hamas declared itself to be a “humanistic movement, which cares for human rights and is guided by Islamic tolerance when dealing with the followers of other religions.”

According to its charter, “Under the wing of Islam it is possible for the followers of the three religions—Islam, Christianity and Judaism—to co-exist in peace and quiet.” Both its charter and many of its official statements are harsh and uncompromising.

Hamas is divided into two main spheres of operation: social programs such as building schools, hospitals, clinics, and religious institutions; and militant operations. The Hamas underground militant operations included a number of suicide bombings that killed a few hundred Israeli soldiers and civilians, especially in February and March 1996, and after the outbreak of the al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000.

During this second intifada, when Palestinian towns and refugee camps were besieged by the Israeli army, Hamas organized clinics and schools that served Palestinians; it also summarily executed Palestinian collaborators with Israel.

hamas soldier

Many Hamas leaders and activists, including its founder, Sheikh Yassin, and his successor, Dr. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, were assassinated by Israel during the so-called targeted killing operations. Its leader, Khaled Meshaal, lives in exile in Syria.

The social programs and political and religious stance of Hamas contributed to its considerable popularity among the Palestinians. Hamas participated in the January/May 2005 Palestinian municipal elections and achieved control of some places such as Beit Lahya in northern Gaza, Qalqiliya in the West Bank, and Rafah. On January 25, 2006, Hamas won the parliamentary elections, taking 74 of 132 seats in the Palestinian parliament.

After the elections Hamas faced considerable diplomatic and financial pressure to adjust its ideology to Western and Israeli demands. In June 2007 Hamas attacked their Fatah rivals, resulting in Hamas taking control of the Gaza Strip, while the West Bank remained under control of the Palestinanian National Authority.

Václav Havel - Czech Writer and President

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:05:00 +0000

Václav Havel - Czech Writer and President

Václav Havel is a Czech dramatist, journalist, essayist, and former president of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). Havel was born in Prague in 1936 to a prosperous family.

As a member of a former bourgeois family in a communist regime, Havel was denied privileges, including education. In order to finish high school he had to enroll in night school while supporting himself as a lab assistant. Afterward he was not permitted to enroll in a university.

He trained for a short time at a technical institution and later completed his theater degree as a part-time student at the Academy of Arts. After his mandatory military service Havel worked first at the ABC Theater and then at the Theater on the Ballustrade, well known for experimental theater.

Here, in the 1960s, Havel gained acclaim as a leader in the theater of the absurd in Czechoslovakia. Many of Havel’s plays were highly critical of the totalitarian state’s oppression of individual liberties.

During the Prague Spring, a 1968 reform movement led by Alexander Dubˇcek, Havel played an important role. His outspoken support for human rights during the period earned him the antagonism of the communist government.

When Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968, Havel was prohibited from involvement in public affairs, and his plays were banned from performance or publication. In spite of this Havel continued to write, and his plays and books were published to acclaim in other countries.

Continuing his work for human rights, Havel was arrested and imprisoned a number of times. He was placed under house arrest from 1977 to 1979. Havel tirelessly took up his protest work again. In 1989 he participated in a commemoration of the 1969 death of Czech student Jan Palach and was again imprisoned for several months.

In the same year the Civic Forum, which Havel had helped establish, began a series of protests that overthrew the communist government in what has become known as the Velvet Revolution. In December a heavily Communist parliament chose Havel as the new interim president of Czechoslovakia.

After national elections the new Federal Assembly reelected him in June 1990. In 1993–98 Havel was elected president of the Czech Republic. During his 13 years as leader of postcommunist Czechoslovakia, Havel brought his country back into the mainstream of European politics.

Havel negotiated the withdrawal of Soviet troops and forged friendships with the United States and European nations. The Czech Republic became a member of the Council of Europe, NATO, and the European Union.

Hong Kong

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:05:00 +0000

Hong Kong map

The First Anglo-Chinese, or Opium, War ended in 1842 in total British victory and the cession by China of Hong Kong (several islands totaling 32 square miles on the tip of the Pearl River estuary) to Great Britain in the Treaty of Nanjing (Nanking). Hong Kong prospered and soon needed more room.

Britain acquired the adjoining Kowloon Peninsula (opposite Victoria, the principal island of the colony) from China under the Treaty of Beijing (Peking) in 1860, and in 1898 it leased for 99 years additional land beyond Kowloon, called the New Territory. Britain would rule these 442 square miles of land (except for four years when it was under Japanese occupation between 1941and 1945) until 1997.

Hong Kong was a free port and a hub of international trade in eastern Asia, and it provided refuge for Chinese revolutionaries led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, father of the Chinese Republic, and those fleeing the civil wars of the early republic.

After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 and during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), millions of refugees found opportunities there and a haven from Communist-ruled China.

Because the continuation of a British colony on the China coast offended Chinese nationalism, China demanded Hong Kong’s return. Negotiations between British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping (Teng Hsiaop’ing) culminated in an agreement in 1984 that would restore all the ceded and leased territories to China on June 30, 1997.

The agreement stipulated that Hong Kong would be ruled for 50 years as a Special Administrative Region (SAR) under a Basic Law that allowed it to maintain its own legislature, executive, and judiciary, currency, customs and police forces, flag, and passport. China would be responsible for its defense and foreign policy. Two other significant features of this agreement were:

Hong Kong would retain its capitalist and free-enterprise system and economic and financial structures;
The “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement would calm Hong Kong citizens’ fears of communism and perhaps lure the Republic of China on Taiwan to become part of the PRC.

Britain made many reforms before 1997 that furthered the legal protection and self-governing rights of Hong Kong’s citizens. Nevertheless, several hundreds of thousands of them emigrated to Western countries before 1997.

China appointed a prominent local businessman, Tung Chee-hwa, first chief executive of Hong Kong. Tung navigated a difficult path between the aspirations of Hong Kong’s residents for self-government and China’s demand for a final say in all major decisions affecting the SAR.

China always prevailed. For example, in 1999 the Chinese National People’s Congress overruled the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeals on the right of abode for children with one Hong Kong parent.

Tung resigned in 2005, two years before his second term ended, and was replaced by Donald Tsang, a respected high-ranking civil servant who had risen to prominence under British rule. The PRC remained leery of demands for human rights and democracy by Hong Kong’s citizens.

After the opening of China in 1979, a strong economic bond developed between Hong Kong and China. They became each other’s foremost partners in investment and trade, initially limited to adjoining Guangdong (Kwangtung) province, and after 1992 spreading to other centers in China. While China needed Hong Kong’s managerial skills and capital, Hong Kong benefited from China’s deep, cheap labor pool.

The SAR arrangement also applied to the former small Portuguese colony of Macao, but found no acceptance from the people or government of Taiwan. In 2005 Hong Kong had an estimated population of 6.8 million people who enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in Asia.

Hu Jintao (Hu Chin-t’ao) - Chinese Politician

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:04:00 +0000

Hu Jintao (Hu Chin-t’ao) - Chinese Politician

Elected president of the People’s Republic of China on March 15, 2003, Hu Jintao was born in December 1942 in Shanghai. He is the first Chinese leader whose career began after the communist victory of 1949.

Hu became active in the Communist Youth League while in high school and graduated with a degree in hydraulic engineering. He worked for a hydropower station in Gansu and then, from 1969 to 1974, worked as an engineer for Sinohydro Engineering Bureau.

In 1974 Hu transferred to the construction department at Gansu. Within a year he earned a promotion to vice senior chief and met up with Song Ping, who would become his mentor. With Song’s help he took over as deputy director of Gansu’s Ministry of Construction in 1980.

In 1981 Hu embarked on training at the Central Party School in Beijing. His political career advanced rapidly when Deng Xiaoping named him to the Politburo Standing Committee in 1992.

Hu’s meteoric career rise continued with his appointment as governor of Guizhou (Kweichow) province in 1985. In 1988 he took over as party chief of the Tibet Autonomous Region at a time of great political turmoil. Hu ordered and led a political crackdown in Tibet in early 1989.

During the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), his name emerged as a potential future leader. In his 50s, he became the youngest member of the seven-person Politburo Standing Committee. In 1993 he became secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and vice president of China in 1998.

Hu ascended to the office of party general secretary at the 16th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 2002, at a time of immense change for China. Economically, politically, and socially, China faced difficult issues, including the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the uncertainty of a rapidly globalizing economy.

Huk Rebellion

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:04:00 +0000

Huk Rebellion

The Huk Rebellion was a leftist, rurally based armed rebellion in the Philippines, first against Japan and later against the newly independent, U.S.-supported Filipino government. Its main objective was independence and a more equitable society. The movement blossomed during World War II, dissipated in the mid-1950s, then returned during the late 1960s.

The Hukbalahap, or Huks, originated during World War II to liberate the Philippines from Japanese control. Hukbalahap is a contraction of the Tagalog phrase “Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon,” which means “People’s Anti-Japanese Army.” (Japan had taken control of the archipelago nation by defeating U.S.-Filipino forces in 1941.)

The Huks found a base of support among the peasants of central Luzon, where approximately 80 percent of local farmers lived under oppressive debt. Led by the socialist Luis Taruc, they advanced an agenda of nationalism and agrarian reform. Taruc had worked as a peasant organizer in the Pampanga region during the 1930s. Throughout the war the Huks trained local farmers in political theory and fighting strategy.

By the end of the conflict the Huks could claim roughly 15,000 armed soldiers and many supporters. Obtaining their weapons mostly from retreating Filipino soldiers, old battlefields, and downed planes, they used their power to block Japanese food and military supplies and to interrupt the collection of taxes. Besides earning widespread popular support, the Huks developed communication networks and fighting tools that would serve them well in later years.

After U.S.-led forces recaptured Luzon from the Japanese in February 1945, the Huks looked forward to independence as promised by the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934. They formed a political party and won a number of elections in 1947, but were denied their rightful seats in parliament.

In response they once again returned to the mountains and took up arms. In November 1948 the Huks renamed themselves “Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan,” or People’s Liberation Army.

The Huks came close to toppling the government in 1950. However, under the leadership of Ramon Magsaysay, the Filipino government was able to turn the tide on the Huks. Magsaysay pursued a two-pronged approach, combining vigorous military action with successful efforts to reform the army. When Taruc surrendered in 1954, the movement ended. Magsaysay’s campaign became the model for U.S. efforts in Vietnam.

Rural discontent once again pushed the Huks to take up arms against the government in the late 1960s. In August 1969 however, President Ferdinand Marcos, with the aid of the U.S. government, launched a military campaign that crushed them.

Iraq Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:03:00 +0000

Iraq Revolution

The Hashemite dynasty in Iraq was overthrown in a bloody revolution in 1958. A group of disgruntled nationalistic army officers headed by General Abdul Karim Qassem and Colonel Abd al-Salam Arif copied the takeover of the Egyptian government by the Free Officers, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, in 1952. On July 14, 1958, the Iraqi forces took over the radio station, post office, royal palace, and government centers in Baghdad.

The royal family was killed. Nuri al-Said, the grand old man of Iraqi politics who had served as prime minister on numerous occasions, was captured trying to escape disguised as a woman and was torn apart by an angry mob.

As violence mounted in the capital, the officers declared martial law and established a three-person sovereignty council of one Kurd, one Sunni, and one Shi’i, in an attempt to include the main sectarian groups in Iraq.

Qassem became prime minister and minister of defense. Show trials were held of members of the ancien régime, and the new government announced its intention to purge the system of corruption and imperial control.

Qassem was a notable champion for the poor and strongly supported eradicating the slum areas around Baghdad and providing low-cost housing. Under a new land reform program, property confiscated from the old ruling class was distributed to the peasants but without the formation of cooperatives or government planning as in Egypt. As a result, there was a decline in agricultural productivity.

The new regime also focused on improving and widening access to education. In a highly popular move most of the oil industry, Iraq’s major source of income, was taken over. Politically Qassem played the Iraqi communists against the Arab nationalist forces, especially the Ba’ath Party.

The new Iraqi regime supported both the Palestinian and Algerian nationalist movements and withdrew from the hated Western-dominated CENTO, or Baghdad Pact. Internationally it drew closer to the Soviet Union. In the era of cold war politics the West, especially the United States, viewed the Iraqi revolution as a victory for the Soviets and blamed Nasser for the overthrow of the old monarchy.

Although Nasser initially supported the new regime and was pleased at the collapse of the Hashemite monarchy, he had not actually been behind the takeover. Hoping to enlarge the pan-Arab movement and convince Iraq to join the United Arab Republic, Nasser invited Qassem to Egypt on several occasions, but Qassem found excuses to refuse, and the relationship between the two nations grew increasingly hostile.

Suspected of plotting a coup, Arif was arrested in late 1958, but Qassem pardoned his old ally and permitted him to leave for Europe. Several attempted coups and an attempted assassination of Qassem by Ba’athists failed in 1959.

Saddam Hussein was one of the plotters behind the failed assassination, and he subsequently fled to Egypt. Relationships between the government and the Kurds, led by Mustafa Barzani, also soured, and by 1961 a full-scale war was being waged between the Iraqi army and Kurdish nationalist forces.

In the face of mounting political instability, Qassem’s personal behavior became more erratic. After Britain declared Kuwait an independent country, Qassem claimed it as an integral part of Iraq in 1961. British and Saudi troops moved into Kuwait to protect it, and Iraq was forced to withdraw its claim and recognize Kuwait as an independent nation.

In 1963 a coup by army officers, including Arif, overthrew Qassem, who was taken prisoner. Although he pleaded for his life, Qassem was executed on orders given by Arif. Abd al-Salam Arif died in 1966, and his brother Abd al-Rahman Arif succeeded him, but the regime was plagued by political instability and the ongoing conflict with the Kurds.

In the summer of 1968 Ba’athists led by Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr took over. To protect the new Ba’ath regime from domestic opposition, Bakr had his protégé Hussein control the internal security forces. Hussein gradually consolidated his power within the party and ruthlessly eliminated potential enemies.

The new regime instituted a more far-reaching land reform program and nationalized the oil industry in 1972. Escalating oil revenues in the 1970s were used to build infrastructure, including road and communication lines, and to modernize the education and health care systems.

The regime also negotiated a settlement with the Kurds, who obtained an autonomous region in the north. Relations with the Soviet Union were also strengthened. In 1979 Bakr, who had been in poor health for some time, stepped down in favor of Hussein, who ruled Iraq until his regime was overthrown in a U.S.-led military invasion in 2003.

Hundred Flowers Campaign in China (1956 –1957)

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:39:00 +0000

Hundred Flowers Campaign in China (1956 –1957)

Between 1949, when it came to power, and 1957, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) completed land reform and eliminated domestic opposition. As a result of the First Five-Year Plan, it had collectivized agriculture and advanced industries.

Chairman Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) believed that most intellectuals supported his goals, but feared that there was resistance among the 100,000 or so “higher intellectuals” who had been Western trained.

To arouse their enthusiasm Mao and Premier Zhou Enlai (Chou En-lai) decided in 1956 to embark on a campaign to “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools contend.” This term was borrowed from the Hundred Schools of Thought era of the late Zhou (Chou) dynasty, circa 500 b.c.e., when many philosophies developed.

Its goal was to gain the intellectuals’ cooperation by permitting some debate and to allow them to question the competence of party cadres to direct science and technology. Cadres, too, were encouraged to criticize the system under which they worked.

The critics were encouraged by some liberalization in the Soviet Union after Nikita Khrushchev began de-Stalinization in 1956. Some were inspired by the May Fourth Movement and Intellectual Revolution in China in 1919. Many, however, were inspired by Marxist-Leninist ideals and thought it their duty to point out where the party had deviated.

Most sought to express their criticism within the limits of the system, such as the writer-journalist and CCP member Liu Binyan (Liu Pinyen), whose newspaper articles described the divergence between bureaucratic mismanagement and communist ideals.

By 1957 university students, too, had become involved, led by those in National Beijing (Peking) University, whose predecessors had led the May Fourth Movement. They put up posters protesting the politicization of academic life on a Democracy Wall.

The leaders of the CCP were, however, unprepared for the extent and bitterness of the criticism by writers, scientists, and social scientists. In July 1957 Mao reversed himself, stating that intellectual freedom was only permissible if it strengthened socialism.

He denounced those who had spoken out in the Hundred Flowers campaign as “rightists,” “counter-revolutionaries,” and “poisonous weeds.” Many senior CCP leaders had never endorsed the campaign and supported the crackdown.

By the end of the year the anti-rightist campaign was in full swing, and more than 300,000 intellectuals had been condemned and sent to jail or labor camps, humiliated by public denunciations, and forced to make confessions. Their careers were ended.

Countless bright students and young cadres never got a chance for a career as a result of their participation. Some were executed. The swing of the pendulum to severe repression was sharp and unrelenting. It reflected the insecurity of the CCP leaders and their fear of freedom.

Irish Republican Army (IRA)

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:38:00 +0000

Irish Republican Army (IRA)

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a clandestine para-military organization that devoted itself to the removal of the British presence from Northern Ireland and the ending of the partition of the island.

Though it was active since the Anglo-Irish War (1920–21), it gained international notoriety only in the last four decades of the 20th century. This campaign was waged against a number of (Protestant) loyalist militias, as well as the British army itself.

The group’s aims were shared by the Sinn Féin political party, which was labeled the IRA’s “political wing” but that always officially disavowed any such connection. Although both groups claimed to speak for all of Ireland, neither enjoyed the support of more than a minority of Northern Ireland’s Catholic population.

The roots of the IRA can be traced back to 1919. In that year, nationalist leader Michael Collins melded the various nationalist militias who had participated in the 1916 Easter Rising into a guerrilla army that would supplement the parliamentary maneuverings of the Sinn Féin–dominated Irish Daíl (parliament).

Collins ordered the IRA against, first, the British intelligence and police forces in Ireland, and then the “Black and Tan” auxiliary forces that were deployed against them by the British government. Ultimately the IRA succeeded in forcing a truce with the British, the result of which was the negotiation of an Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921.

Unhappy with the terms of this treaty, a minority of deputies, led by President Éamon de Valera, walked out of the Daíl and vowed to continue fighting for a republic. The IRA split as well. This led to the Irish Civil War (1922–23), in which the pro-treaty Free State forces defeated the anti-treaty Republicans.

After the civil war the Free State forces became the regular Irish army; the IRA was driven underground. This situation did not improve when de Valera and his new political party, Fianna Faíl, entered the Daíl in 1927 and were elected to power in 1932.

Relations between de Valera, now a constitutional Republican, and the IRA worsened until finally, in 1935, the de Valera government declared the IRA an illegal organization. The 1938 Irish constitution achieved many of de Valera’s (and the IRA’s) stated objectives. However, it did not end partition, and thereafter the IRA’s sole raison d’être would be directed toward that end.

The organization engaged in a bombing campaign on the British mainland during the late 1930s and gave some material support to German agents operating both in Britain and in the republic during World War II. Neither of these actions proved successful, and by the 1950s it was hard to view the IRA as anything but a spent force.

The IRA was reborn out of the crisis that beset Northern Ireland in the late 1960s. Inspired by the U.S. Civil Rights movement, Catholics in Ulster began to demonstrate for better access to housing and fairer wages.

In August 1969 the demonstrations deteriorated into rioting, police repression, and the eventual deployment of the British army. Initially the IRA was caught unawares, as the Belfast graffiti “IRA = I Ran Away” testifies. Largely as a result of this embarrassment, the IRA split in 1970.

A group calling itself the “Provisional IRA” (or “Provos”) broke off and rededicated itself to a united Ireland through terrorist activity. Within two years the Provos had far surpassed the Officials in popular support, and the three-decades-long war that came to be known euphemistically as “the Troubles” had begun.

In August 1971 the British government introduced a policy of internment of IRA suspects without charge for up to seven days. When by 1972 these methods had not deterred the IRA or contained the crisis, the Loyalist parliament at Stormont fell; Britain introduced direct rule of Northern Ireland from London, and internment was phased out.

Beginning with the Troubles, IRA prisoners had enjoyed the status of political prisoners. In 1976 this status was abolished. The IRA turned to hunger strikes. Bobby Sands’s 66-day-long hunger strike, which lasted until his death on May 5, 1981, attracted international publicity.

Any lasting benefit that might have resulted for the IRA was canceled out by the negative reaction to the IRA’s assassination of Lord Mountbatten of Burma in August 1979, and its near miss of Margaret Thatcher in October 1984.

Away from the world stage the cycle of attacks by, and reprisals against, the IRA continued apace. Hope for an end to the struggle surfaced in 1994, with a cease-fire brokered by Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, British prime minister John Major, Irish taoiseach Albert Reynolds, and U.S. president Bill Clinton.

After the ratification of the Good Friday accords in 1999 and the progress of the Northern Irish peace process, the relevance of the IRA was called into question. In 2005 the provisional IRA announced the end of its armed campaign. The organization surrendered its weapons under the supervision of United Nations inspectors.

Islamist Movements

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:38:00 +0000

Islamist Movements

Islamist movements flourished in many parts of the Muslim world in the late 20th century. These movements sought to revitalize Islam as a political force and to create Islamic governments that would rule under sharia (Islamic law). Islam is the world’s second-largest religion, with 1.3 billion adherents, compared to Christianity, with 2.2 billion.

It is the fastest-growing religion in Africa. The most predominantly Muslim states are in Africa and Asia, but substantial numbers of Muslims also live in the Western Hemisphere and Europe. With 57 member states, the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) was established in 1969 to represent Muslim interests.

Islamist movements were particularly attractive to the large population of young people in Muslim states who were disillusioned by the failures of their governments to provide jobs or to open up authoritarian regimes to meaningful political participation.

During the cold war authoritarian regimes in predominantly Muslim countries systematically crushed—often with tacit support of Western nations, especially the United States—all political opposition from the left.

They refused to open up their systems to legitimate change. For many young Muslims, both Western capitalism and the Soviet model of state capitalism seemed to have failed to reform and revitalize their countries.

Many also faced an identity crisis brought on by sweeping cultural changes and globalization that threatened old traditions and made the youth feel alienated from their own societies. Dynamic and forceful Islamic leaders stepped in to fill the void.

Most contemporary Islamist movements have been influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood, established in the 1920s in Egypt. The writings of the Egyptian Muslim activist Sayyid Qutb provided the philosophic underpinnings for many Islamist organizations.

Qutb was executed by the Egyptian government in the 1960s and became a martyr in the eyes of many Muslims. By the latter part of the century, many young people considered the brotherhood too moderate and looked to a new generation of more radical activists.

The 1979 Iranian revolution and the writings of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini also served as a model for future Islamic revolutions. The Iranian revolution also sparked a revival of Shi’i political and religious activism in nations with large Shi’i populations such as Lebanon and Iraq.

Radical Organizations

With its vast revenues from petroleum, Saudi Arabia financed madrasas (schools) teaching Wahhabism, their particular militant and puritanical brand of Islam, in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other nations.

For many poor families these schools were the only way to provide any education for their children, who were then socialized in this narrow and inflexible interpretation of Islam. Many of the most radical Islamists were products of these schools. These schools also provided recruits for radical Islamist organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Much like Christian televangelists in the West, fiery activist imams also used the modern media of television, radio, and cassette tapes to proselytize converts to the Islamist programs. Disaffected youth in Europe, especially France and Great Britain, were heavily influenced by these leaders.

Many Muslims were also angered by the failure to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict and the perceived support of the United States and other Western nations for Israel over the rights of the Palestinians to self-determination.

Much opposition to the United States was based not so much on its values as on what it did in the Middle East. Following the killing of Muslims in Somalia, Bosnia, and Chechnya, many Muslims, whether correctly or not, concluded that the West valued its own victims more than it valued Muslim victims. Negative stereotyping of Muslims in much of the Western media also contributed to mounting hostility.

The war against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s was another factor in the rise of Islamist movements. Many Muslim nations, especially Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, provided volunteers and financial support for the mujahideen (Muslim fighters), who fought a jihad (holy war) against the Soviet occupation.

In the midst of the cold war many mujahideen were supported, trained, and armed by the United States. After the defeat and withdrawal of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan in 1989, many of these volunteers returned to their own countries, such as Algeria, where they sought to establish Islamic regimes by force if necessary. In Islam jihad is a defensive struggle to protect the community of believers from outside attack, as well as an internal struggle for spiritual enlightenment.

The concept of jihad was sometimes used, or misused, by Islamists to justify violence and terrorism. These approaches were discredited and disavowed by some leading Muslim experts, who argued that the Qu’ran specifically forbids terrorism and suicide.

Egypt

In Egypt following the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970, his successor Anwar al-Sadat attempted to undercut the power of liberal leftists in his government by releasing members of the Muslim Brotherhood from prison and allowing them access to the print and electronic media.

The brotherhood and more radical Islamists organizations such as the Islamic Liberation Organization and Holy Flight or Islamic Group soon turned against Sadat. They opposed the increasingly repressive regime as well as Sadat’s negotiations with Israel that resulted in the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

They gained members from among disaffected youth throughout the countryside, especially in upper Egypt. In 1981 Khaled al-Islambuli and other Islamists, who had infiltrated the military, assassinated Sadat.

They anticipated that Sadat’s death would lead to a massive popular uprising to overthrow the regime. Although some riots broke out in upper Egypt, especially in the town of Asyut, a center of opposition, the regime under Hosni Mubarak maintained control, and the Islamist organizations were brutally repressed.

A long period of low-level warfare between government forces and Islamist rebels ensued. After Islamist rebels killed a number of tourists at Deir el-Bahari in upper Egypt in 1997, many Egyptians who were heavily dependent on tourist revenues spoke out against the radicals.

However, because the government failed to provide much-needed housing and economic reforms and refused to open up the system to meaningful democratic participation, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist movements remained major political forces.

In Egypt the so-called new Islamists eschewed violence and argued that to combat extremism, social justice and educational reform were vital for the regeneration of Egyptian society. The new Islamists demonstrated remarkable political and social flexibility and supported reforms in education, gradualism, and peaceful dialogue.

They included Yusuf al-Qaradawy; Kamal Abul Magd, a lawyer and former government official; and others. New Islamists wanted Islamic states based on wassatteyya, or moderate Islamic tradition, without violence or terrorism.

Sudan

In the Sudan Hasan al-Turabi led the Islamist movement and was a major political force until he was removed from office by the military in the 1990s. In Tunisia the Islamic Tendency Movement (ITM), led by Rashid al-Ghannouchi, who had been educated at the Sorbonne, actively opposed the well-entrenched regime of Habib Bourguiba in the 1980s.

In 1987 a number of ITM members were arrested and tried, but after Bourguiba was removed from office in a bloodless military coup led by General Zine al Abidine ben Ali, many of them were released or allowed to go into exile.

Although ben Ali’s regime was able to provide some economic stability, it too became increasingly authoritarian, and ben Ali tightened control over the Islamist parties in the 1990s. Ghannouchi went into exile to Europe and renounced violence.

Algeria and Lebanon

In Algeria the major Islamist party, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), was led by Abbas Madani, a professor of psychology; Sheikh Ben Azzouz; and Ali Belhadj, a charismatic and popular preacher. When the FIS won the first round of free and democratic elections in 1991, the military regime of the National Liberation Front (FLN) cancelled the elections, precipitating a civil war that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.

Many FIS leaders were jailed until 2003. Madani then seemed to drop out of politics, but Belhadj remained unrepentant. As long as the Algerian government failed to solve the basic problems of jobs, housing, and education, Algerian youth—who made up a large percentage of the population—continued to be attracted to Islamist parties.

During the 1980s Hizbollah (Party of God), led by Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, a leading Shi’i cleric, emerged as a major force among Shi’i Lebanese, the largest but most disaffected Lebanese sect. Hizbollah actively fought against the continued Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, and when Israel finally withdrew from most of southern Lebanon in 2000, Hizbollah gained most of the credit.

Hizbollah then transformed itself into a major political force, and its members were elected to a number of seats in Parliament. It also continued to attack Israeli forces in the disputed Lebanese territory of Shaaba Farms, which Israel argued was Syrian territory. Hizbollah sometimes attacked within Israeli borders as well and was viewed by Israel and the United States as a terrorist organization.

In retaliation Israeli launched a major air, sea, and ground offensive into Lebanon in 2006. As in the 1982 Israeli war against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon, the 2006 attack not only inflicted heavy losses on Hizbollah but it also devastated the Lebanese infrastructure and caused many civilian deaths.

Many Lebanese and even secular Arabs were impressed by Hizbollah’s determined military defense against the Israeli attack, and the war actually led to an increase of support and recruits among many Lebanese and Muslims.

Palestine

Similarly Hamas, the major Palestinian Islamist organization, began in the late 1980s in the Gaza Strip as a reaction to the long Israeli occupation. Hamas was led by Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, who was blind and confined to a wheelchair, and Dr. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, both of whom were killed by Israel. Many Palestinians, who were overwhelmingly supportive of the secular PLO, hoped that the 1993 Oslo Accords would lead to a truly independent Palestinian state.

However, when the PLO-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) came to be perceived as increasingly ineffective and corrupt and when the Israeli military occupation and continued takeover of Palestinian land for Jewish settlements continued, many young Palestinians turned to Hamas and other more radical Islamist organizations.

Some adopted the tactic of suicide missions directed not only against the Israeli military but against Israeli civilians inside Israel’s 1967 borders, or the so-called green line. Hamas won the fair and open elections in 2006, and Ismail Haniya, a popular Hamas leader from Gaza, became the prime minister over the PA. Increased Israeli repression and refusal to deal with Hamas contributed to further disillusionment and anger.

During the 1980s–1990s even secular Turkey saw an Islamic revival; Islamic parties became increasingly influential and won democratic elections in the 1990s. However, the Islamic movement in Turkey and in other Muslim states is not a coordinated monolith.

Islamist parties vary greatly both in their outlook regarding what sort of Islamic states they would like to see and their social and political programs. For example, in some, like the Taliban and al-Qaeda, women play no political role whatsoever.

The Taliban was opposed to education for women and banned music and the depiction of the human form in books, even medical textbooks. In contrast, women play an active role in both Hizbollah and Hamas.

As authoritarian regimes in Muslim nations as diverse as Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia refused to liberalize the political system and failed to provide much-needed economic improvements, especially in housing and education, Islamic movements and parties remained popular and continued to attract large numbers of disaffected youth.

Janata Party

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:37:00 +0000

Janata Party

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), or Indian People’s Party, is a pro-Hindu Indian political party that formed the main opposition to the Congress Party in postindependence India. It defeated the Congress Party in the 1977 general election. The BJP asserts that the Indian government should follow Hindu principles and values and has been highly critical of the secular policies espoused by the Congress Party.

It has attracted the sympathies of high-caste Hindus and has an electoral stronghold in the northern part of the country. Its success in securing a larger following among the lower castes has not been complete. The fortunes of the party have been linked to the intensity of anti-Muslim feeling in the country, and it has been repeatedly accused of political and religious extremism.

The forerunner of the BJP was the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), or Indian People’s Association, established in 1951 as the political faction of the Hindu paramilitary group Rashtriya Swayamesevak Sangh (RSS, National Volunteers Corps) by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. The BJS started to gain support in the northern regions of India in the late 1960s, defeating the Congress Party in the state election in 1967.

Ten years later the leader of the BJS, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, formed, together with other minor political parties, the Janata Party and successfully challenged the premiership of Indira Gandhi. In the general election of 1976, the Janata Party was able to capitalize on the discontent caused by the authoritarian methods of Gandhi and on the corruption charges leveled against her, her family, and government.

The Janata Party won the majority of seats in Parliament and obtained the external support of the communists. Morarji Desai, a veteran fighter for the country’s independence, became prime minister, but the Janata government collapsed in 1979, after only two years, because of factionalism.

After the Desai government collapsed the Janata Party was dissolved, and the BJP was formed under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It started to appeal to the Indian masses in the late 1980s, when it campaigned to build a Hindu temple in an area of Uttar Pradesh considered sacred but already occupied by the Muslim Babri Mosjid mosque.

Bharatiya Janata Party Campaign

The mosque was eventually destroyed in 1992 by organizations that many considered allies of the BJP. The demolition of the mosque caused widespread rioting throughout the nation. Yet the party obtained a surprising electoral victory in 1996, becoming the largest political party in the lower house of Parliament.

In 1998 Vajpayee formed a coalition government, in power for only 13 months. Vajpayee contested the 1999 election, leading the BJP to become the first party of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a coalition of parties against the Congress.

Because of this electoral success he was once again appointed prime minister, governing for a full term until 2004, when he unexpectedly lost the general election to the Congress, led by Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, the widow of Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv.

Al Jazeera

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:37:00 +0000

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera (meaning “Island” or “Peninsula”), the Arab satellite TV news station, was established in Qatar in 1996. Start-up investment was provided by the Qatari emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. In stark contrast to the government-controlled media throughout the Arab world, Al Jazeera quickly earned a reputation and a widespread global audience for its independent programming and content.

With a motto of “the opinion and the other opinion,” Al Jazeera covered the activities and political philosophy of Osama bin Laden as early as 1999. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, bin Laden sent the station cassettes with his political messages.

Journalists and talk show hosts at Al Jazeera covered hitherto forbidden topics such as the human rights and political failures of Arab regimes. They also interviewed Israelis on a wide variety of issues. Al Jazeera earned the enmity of Arab governments, many of which made no secret of their desire to preempt or stop its programs. Al Jazeera’s talk shows focused on sensitive subjects.

Al Jazeera’s independent coverage was initially praised in the West, but after the station carried negative stories about the U.S. war and subsequent occupation in Iraq from 2003 onward, the United States, under the George W. Bush administration, publicly criticized Al Jazeera’s coverage as biased. At the same time, the United States was accused of planting or paying for positive stories to be carried in the Iraqi media.

The success of Al Jazeera in attracting a huge audience demonstrated the impact of technology and highlighted the importance of information sources to audiences around the world in the 21st century.

Jesus Movement

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:18:00 +0000

Jesus Movement

The Jesus movement flourished in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States and Europe. Young people involved in the hippie, or counterculture, movement were targeted by unorthodox evangelists or found their own way to Christianity.

Previous experimentation with drugs, Eastern religion, the occult, and communal lifestyles affected the way these young Christians approached their faith. Just as important was the deep alienation many young people felt toward “anyone over thirty” and the traditional or conventional institutions, including the churches, they controlled.

Culturally quite conservative, older church people were often offended by the clothes and hair-styles favored by the young and adamantly resisted making any concessions to their sensibilities or desires regarding worship.

Originally based in innovative churches, Jesus movement churches served as bases for vigorous evangelism on university campuses, beaches, and the streets. Many Jesus people joined more traditional churches, usually evangelical Protestant but also Catholic, Orthodox, or Episcopal. By the 1980s–1990s most evangelical churches had accommodated the worship styles and sensibilities pioneered by the Jesus movement.

For many the belief in an imminent apocalypse led to an interest in “prophecy,” which often became a conduit for conservative politics during the cold war. Perhaps ironically, the Jesus movement helped lay the foundation for the New Christian Right.

Contemporary evangelical Protestantism was deeply affected by the Jesus movement, absorbing its moral intensity. The latter can be seen most vividly in the revolution that has occurred in worship and popular Christian music.

Jiang Zemin (Chiang Tse-min) - Chinese Leader

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:17:00 +0000

Jiang Zemin (Chiang Tse-min) - Chinese Leader

Jiang Zemin was the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 until 2002, and the president of the People’s Republic of China from 1993 until 2003. Jiang was born in 1926, at Yangzhou, Jiangsu (Kiangsu) Province. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1946. In the same year he studied at Jiaotong (Chaio-t’ung) University in Shanghai, graduating with a degree in electrical engineering.

At the end of the Chinese civil war Jiang was appointed commercial counselor at the Chinese embassy in Moscow, a post he held until 1956. He was appointed assistant to the minister, First Ministry of Machine Building, running the Changchun First Automobile Plant. In September 1978, he became vice chairman of the Society of Mechanical Engineering, the position he held before the Cultural Revolution.

He then became vice minister on the State Commission on Imports and Exports in 1980, and vice minister of the electronics industries two years later. In 1983 he became minister of electronics industries, a post he held until 1985, when he became mayor of Shanghai.

In 1982 Jiang became a member of the Central Committee of the CCP, and in 1987 he joined the Politburo. A supporter of China’s then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping (Teng Hsaio-p’ing), Jiang was also a political ally of the premier Li Peng during the suppression of the pro-democracy student demonstrations in 1989.

Subsequently Jiang succeeded Zhao Ziyang (Chao Tzu-jang) as general secretary of the CCP on June 24, and was also elevated to the Politburo Standing Committee. Later that year he succeeded Deng as chairman of the CCP’s central military commission. Four years later, on March 27, 1993, Jiang became president of the National People’s Congress, and hence the head of state of China.

When Deng Xiaoping died in 1997, Jiang rose to become paramount leader. He was economically more conservative than Deng, who had been critical of the slow pace of some reforms. However, he started a program of privatization, which loosened state control over 300,000 industrial concerns.

The massive economic growth that resulted saw the Chinese economy boom and the emerging business class flourigh, many of whom were encouraged to join the CCP. In December 2001 China gained membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO), a move that would have been unimaginable only 10 years earlier. The Chinese economy then started growing at an even faster pace.

In foreign affairs, Jiang improved Chinese relations with the United States and many other countries in the West. In 1997 he took part in the first U.S.-China summit conference, and at a follow-up meeting in the next year he openly defended China’s human-rights record. In 2001 Beijing won the contest to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, a move that marked China’s emergence from the self-imposed policy of isolation of previous decades.

On November 15, 2002, Jiang resigned as general secretary of the CCP and, on March 15, 2003, from the presidency of the National People’s Congress. He was succeeded by Hu Jintao in a remarkably smooth transition, but remained the chair of the central military commission until September 2004. He remained an influential figure in Chinese politics.

Lyndon B. Johnson - U.S. President

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:17:00 +0000

Lyndon B. Johnson - U.S. President

Lyndon Baines Johnson, nicknamed LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States. Prior to that, he had been vice president during the presidency of John F. Kennedy. He is best remembered for presiding over the United States during the Vietnam War, and also for his efforts in promoting Civil Rights in the southern parts of the United States.

Lyndon Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, at Gillespie County, Texas, the eldest of five children. His father was Sam Ealy Johnson Jr., a businessman who was also a member of the Texas House of Representatives, and his mother was Rebekah (née Baines), who was the daughter of Joseph Baines, another state legislator.

Johnson left high school in 1924, and, after three years working in odd jobs, he studied at the Southwest Texas State Teachers College at San Marcos, Texas, and then taught at Cotulla, Texas.

In 1930 Johnson worked for Democrat Richard Kleberg, who was standing for Congress, accompanying him to Washington, D.C., when he was elected. Four years later he married Claudia Alta Taylor, who became known as “Lady Bird.”

It was in Washington that Johnson came to meet Sam Rayburn, the Texan chairman of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Johnson became director of the National Youth Administration for two years and then stood as a Democratic Party candidate for the 10th congressional district, winning his seat.

Johnson won a seat in the Senate in 1948 and spent 12 years there, becoming Democratic whip in 1951, minority leader in 1953, and majority leader in 1955. Johnson survived a serious heart attack in 1955, and became well known for his negotiating talent, using bluster, discipline, persuasiveness, and ruthlessness. In 1960 Johnson lost the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination to Kennedy by 809 to 409 on the first ballot. He then accepted the vice-presidential slot.

As vice president, Johnson found himself unable to do much of the negotiating that he had enjoyed. On November 22, 1963, when Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson took the oath of office as president on Air Force One, the presidential plane, just before it took off from Love Field, Dallas, to take Kennedy’s body back to Washington. Johnson immediately set up a commission to investigate the assassination, appointing Earl Warren, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, to chair it.

Johnson had a hard task maintaining the dignity and authority of the office of the president and ensuring some form of continuity. He had long been a supporter of civil rights, and in February 1964 managed to get the Civil Rights Act introduced in Congress. It was passed by the Senate in June 1964.

After it was signed into law on July 2, 1964, ending segregation and any discrimination on grounds of race or sex, the law was challenged in the Supreme Court, which found it was valid. Hoping for the success of this legislation, Johnson made his famous speech on May 22, 1964, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in which he announced his plans for the “Great Society.”

In 1964 the Republican Party chose Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater to run against Johnson, giving the incumbent an easier election campaign than he had expected. Johnson won 486 of the electoral college seats to 52 for Goldwater, with Johnson taking 61 percent of the vote, the largest percentage ever taken in a presidential election.

The emerging problem for Johnson was, however, the growing war in Vietnam. In August 1964 news stories revealed that North Vietnamese gunboats had attacked a U.S. destroyer and then launched another attack several days later.

It subsequently emerged that the second attack had not taken place, and there are many doubts over the nature of the first attack. Nevertheless Johnson did believe that the U.S. destroyers had been attacked and launched a retaliatory air strike against North Vietnam.

He also managed to get Congress to approve the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving him the authority to do whatever was needed to deal with the communists in Vietnam. Public support for the war effort fell as the United States suffered huge casualties. By 1967 there were large demonstrations, and by 1968 Johnson had become increasingly unpopular.

On January 23, 1968, the USS Pueblo, an American intelligence-gathering ship, was seized by North Korea after ending up in their waters. The crew of 80 were all captured and held for 11 months until the U.S. government apologized and obtained their release, later retracting their apology. Johnson had ordered the USS Enterprise into the region, but acted with caution.

In the week after the seizing of the Pueblo, the Vietcong launched the Tet Offensive, with television coverage of Vietcong capturing the U.S. embassy. General William Westmoreland had promised that the war was nearly over three months earlier.

The United States and South Vietnam quickly managed to defeat the Vietcong attacks, but most people refused to believe the administration’s protestations that victory was close. Johnson decided not to contest the election and on March 31, 1968, in a national address on television, stated that he would neither seek nor accept the Democrat Party’s renomination.

The 1968 election campaign saw the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the African-American civil rights leader, on April 4, leading to rioting in Washington, D.C., and many other cities. The assassination of presidential candidate and former attorney general Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles on June 6 resulted in widespread political unease.

Vice President Hubert Humphrey was guaranteed the Democrat Party nomination when the party convention was held in Chicago, but antiwar protestors converged on the city intent on making their opposition to the war heard.

Johnson tried to help Humphrey, who called for an unconditional U.S. halt to the bombing of North Vietnam, and in October, a week before the election, Johnson announced the end of all U.S. bombing to open the way for peace talks. It was too late for many people, and they voted for Richard Nixon.

In January 1969 Johnson retired to his L.B.J. Ranch near Johnson City, Texas. Johnson suffered a heart attack, and died on January 22, 1973, in San Antonio, Texas, only five days before the Paris Peace Accords stopped the fighting in Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson was buried at his ranch.

Hashemite Monarchy in Jordan

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:16:00 +0000

Hashemite Monarchy in Jordan

For most of Jordan’s modern history, Jordanians knew only one king as architect of the kingdom’s domestic development and of its foreign policy. King Hussein consolidated the Hashemite regime in Jordan and defended it against internal and external challenges, neither of which were in short supply.

From the foundation of the Hashemite state onward, Jordan maintained close strategic ties to Britain and later the United States. After World War II, and with the onset of the cold war, Jordan also established stronger links with the United States.

Western powers came to view Jordan as a conservative bulwark against communism and radical forms of Pan-Arabism, and as a moderating element in the Arab-Israeli conflict. From the beginning, then, Jordan had close ties to powerful Western states and depended heavily on foreign aid from these countries to keep the kingdom afloat.

Jordan’s centrality in Middle East politics and geography also carried with it a strategic vulnerability. In the 1950s, when the kingdom was still young and viewed by many Pan-Arab nationalists as an artificial “paper tiger,” some Jordanian officials feared that another regional conflict might eliminate the Hashemite state entirely. In 1957 Hussein headed off an attempted coup d’état by pro-Nasserist military officers and used the opportunity to solidify Hashemite royal control.

By the late 1960s the regime was forced to focus outward once again as regional tensions escalated especially between Israel and Gamal Abdel Nasser’s regime in Egypt. In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israeli forces launched what they viewed as a preemptive strike on Arab forces in Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, inflicting a devastating defeat on all three countries.

The complete failure of the Arab war effort led to Israeli occupation of the Sinai from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan.

In less than six days, Jordan lost some of its most prized territory, including the agriculturally rich West Bank and the more religiously significant East Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees poured across the border into Jordan in June 1967, changing the demographics and ultimately the domestic stability of the kingdom.

That uneasy situation collapsed in September 1970, when guerrilla forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization fought the royalist forces of the Hashemite government. This Jordanian civil war resulted in a bloody Hashemite victory and the expulsion of PLO guerrilla forces from Jordan.

More than half the population of Jordan today is of Palestinian origin. Although this West Bank/East Bank ethnic divide is sometimes overstated, it remains a significant feature of Jordan’s society, its political economy, and of the Jordanian state itself. Much of the Jordanian government, public sector, and military is dominated by East Bank Jordanians, while much of the private sector is dominated by Palestinians.

Following the disastrous 1967 war, the Hashemite regime maintained its claim to the West Bank and East Jerusalem for two decades. But in 1988 in the midst of the first Intifada, it renounced these claims and turned instead toward consolidating its rule east of the Jordan River. Indeed, Jordan remained under martial law from the 1967 war until it was lifted in 1992 as part of the overall political liberalization process.

Jordan Map

The regime’s concerns for stability were underscored dramatically in 1989 by domestic unrest triggered by an economic austerity program initiated under the aegis of the International Monetary Fund. With the intifada raging west of the Jordan River, and domestic unrest erupting in Jordan itself, King Hussein initiated measures to address public demands and to reestablish the stability of the regime.

That opening helped reestablish the regime’s base of domestic support, thereby shoring up its stability and allowing it to sign a controversial peace treaty with the State of Israel in 1994.

In 1999 King Hussein died after a long battle with cancer. In a surprise move, the king had abruptly changed the line of succession merely weeks before his death, dismissing his brother Hasan as crown prince and appointing instead his eldest son, Abdullah. With Hussein’s death, King Abdullah II ascended the Hashemite throne.

His reign was marked by strong efforts to continue the economic liberalization process, emphasizing a neoliberal model of development and shoring up Jordan’s relations with key Western powers and international economic institutions.

But this emphasis on economic development and stable foreign relations also forced political liberalization to a lower priority level. Under Abdullah, the kingdom survived still more regional unrest and even began battling terrorism within Jordan itself.

These internal and external security concerns did not dissuade the monarchy from its emphasis on economic development, but they often provided the pretext for lack of progress in reviving Jordan’s seemingly stalled program of political liberalization.

Kenneth Kaunda - First Zambian President

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:16:00 +0000

Kenneth Kaunda - First Zambian President

Kenneth Kaunda, a Zambian nationalist, led the struggle for independence against the British and became the first president of independent Zambia in 1964.

Kaunda was born in what was then Northern Rhodesia and, like many first-generation African nationalists, he was educated at Christian mission schools. He worked as a miner, as a teacher, and, for a short period of time, as an instructor in the army.

Kaunda joined several African nationalist movements and in Lusaka became secretary-general of the African National Congress (ANC). He quit the ANC to form the Zambia African National Congress (ZANC); when the British banned ZANC in 1959, Kaunda was imprisoned.

Upon his release Kaunda became president of the new United National Independence Party (UNIP) that replaced the banned ZANC; he supported demonstrations and civil disobedience against British control. Kaunda became president of newly independent Zambia in 1964 and held the presidency until 1991.

During his tenure in power, Kaunda became increasingly authoritarian and, in a trajectory similar to other African rulers in the 1970s–1980s, declared Zambia a one-party state in 1972. As agricultural productivity faltered, Zambia’s economy became dependent on copper exports, and Kaunda was accused of corruption and responsibility for the economic problems.

In face of mounting political opposition, Kaunda stepped down from power, and Frederick Chiluba replaced him as president in 1991. Chiluba maneuvered to prevent Kaunda from contesting further elections and, after being accused of involvement in an attempted coup d’état, Kaunda retired from politics in 1997.

Hamid Karzai - Afghan President

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:53:00 +0000

Hamid Karzai - Afghan President

Hamid Karzai was the first elected president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. At the conclusion of the presidential election on October 9, 2004, Karzai was declared its winner, with 55.4 percent of the vote. On December 7, 2004, Karzai took the oath of office as the first democratically elected leader of Afghanistan.

Hamid Karzai was born on December 24, 1957, in the village of Karz, near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. His grandfather, Khair Mohammed Khan, was a key figure in Afghanistan’s war of independence. Karzai’s father, Abdul Ahad Karzai, was a popular national figure who was also an influential member of the parliament during the 1960s.

The early education of Hamid Karzai took place in various Afghan schools, including Mahmood Hotaki Elementary School, Sayeed Jamaluddin Afghani School, and Habibia High School. Later, Karzai went to India, where he received graduate education in international relations and political science from the Himachal Pradesh University in Simla.

After the formation of the mujahideen government in 1989, Karzai was made the director of the Foreign Relations Section in the Office of the President, Burhauddin Rabbani. He became a deputy foreign minister in 1992.

When the civil war between the contending mujahideen groups engulfed Afghanistan in 1994, Karzai resigned from his official position. He strove for a free and open national assembly (loya jirga).

In August 2000, when the fundamentalist Taliban regime was ruling Afghanistan, Karzai formed resistance groups and vowed to oust them from power. There was an element of personal revenge to his actions, as his father had been assassinated by the Taliban. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Karzai, in coordination with U.S. forces, worked to overthrow the Taliban regime of Mullah Omar.

On December 5, 2001, exiled Afghanistan political leaders representing various ethnic tribes gathered in Bonn, Germany, and named Karzai the chair of a 29-member governing committee and the leader of Afghanistan’s interim government.

Karzai has traveled extensively around the world and has pleaded for donations in order to rebuild infrastructure and other facilities in his country. Karzai married Dr. Zeenat Quraishi in 1999. He has one sister and six brothers, including Ahmed Wali Karzai, who helps coordinate humanitarian relief operations in the province of Kandahar.

Contemporary Iran

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:49:00 +0000

Iran Map

The Islamic Republic of Iran was established in April 1979 after the revolution overthrew the monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Years of turbulence preceded the revolution, led by exiled Shi’i cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Khomeini was an Islamic scholar from the conservative city of Qom; under the shah’s regime he had been exiled to Iraq. After being expelled from Iraq, at the shah’s prodding, Khomeini moved to France, where he coordinated a revolution using the press, radio, and audio cassettes to incite Iranians to rise up against the shah. After the shah fled the country, Khomeini returned to Iran in 1979.

The Ayatollah exhorted Iranian citizens (male and female) over 16 years of age to vote for the creation of an Islamic Republic. In free and open elections 98 percent voted in favor of the republic.

The overthrow of the monarchy—although celebrated by most Iranians tired of rampant corruption, overspending, and the police state created by the shah—nevertheless worried many secularists who were alarmed by the new government, which was controlled by the mullahs, or Shi’i clergy.

Under the new 1979 constitution a supreme leader ruled over a theocracy; beneath the supreme leader a 12-member cabinet, or Council of Guardians, oversaw the constitution and had veto power over legislation passed by the Majlis, or parliament. Khomeini served as the first supreme leader until his death in 1989. Khomeini sought to establish a government that adhered to a strict Shi’i code of law and conduct.

Iranian women, who had the right to vote and to work outside the home, nevertheless were restricted regarding dress and modes of behavior. The secularists within the government who had struggled against the shah were marginalized by the new Islamist forces, and many fled the country for Europe and the United States.

Following the shah’s overthrow, Iranian relations with the United States, a strong ally of the Pahlavi dynasty, deteriorated. When the shah entered the United States for cancer treatment in 1979, riots broke out in Tehran and angry students stormed the U.S. embassy and took many hostages.

Khomeini encouraged the students and labeled the United States the “Great Satan.” Many Iranians blamed the United States for its support of the shah and his repressive regime. The students demanded that the shah be handed over to the new Islamic regime for trial in exchange for the release of the embassy hostages.

Contemporary Iran

The United States refused to return the shah and severed diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic. The resulting crisis dragged on for more than a year before the hostages were released, and diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran had yet to be resumed.

Neighboring Arab governments were also alarmed at Khomeini’s attempts to export Islamic revolution to other Muslim nations. Neighboring Iraq, with its large Shi’i population, was particularly concerned. The Iraqi government led by Saddam Hussein, with at least the tacit support of other Arab states and the United States, decided to preempt the Islamic revolution by attacking Iran in 1980.

Although the Iranians were taken by surprise, Hussein severely underestimated the national determination of Iran, and a long, eight-year war of attrition began. The Iran-Iraq War lasted from 1980 to 1988 and caused massive casualties and destruction on both sides.

Western and Arab governments provided arms and assistance to Iraq, while several communist-bloc countries, Libya, and Syria provided support to Iran. By 1988 both nations were exhausted and agreed to a United Nations–brokered truce.

Khomeini died the next year, and Ali al-Khameini became the new supreme leader. Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, a mullah who advocated resumption of relations with the West, was elected president and purged many hardline members from his cabinet.

However, reformist governments elected by wide margins in the 1990s were thwarted in implementing reforms and liberalization by the hard-line Council of Guardians, who retained final say on legislation. Although the youthful Iranian population, many born after the revolution, wanted liberalization of the media, social life, and dress, the conservative mullahs clung to power.

In the 1990s Iran also started to build up its nuclear capabilities. Prior to the 1979 revolution Iran had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which gave Iran the right to use and research nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. However, after the 2005 election of Mahmud Ahmadinejad, a conservative and controversial populist, as president, Iran’s nuclear research appeared to escalate.

The United States threatened sanctions and military action were Iran to continue its nuclear ambitions, but Ahmadinejad appealed to Iranian nationalism and argued that Iran had the right to develop nuclear weapons as other nations such as Israel, Pakistan, and India had done.

After the occupation of Iraq in the Second Gulf War, Iran emerged as a major regional power. It continued to lend financial and military support to Shi’i communities in Iraq and to Hizbollah in Lebanon.

Its oil reserves also gave Iran considerable leverage economically, as it threatened to switch from selling oil in dollar prices and move to gold or the euro; this could devastate the dollar and weaken the U.S. economy.

Mired in protracted conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States protested Iranian policies but had few options to force it to drop its support for Islamist movements or its nuclear program.

Iran-contra Affair

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:49:00 +0000

Iran-contra Affair

The Iran-contra affair involved an attempt by the National Security Council (NSC) of the Ronald Reagan administration to circumvent congressional limitations on aid to the contras (Nicaraguan guerrillas) and to secure the release of U.S. hostages held in the Middle East through the sale of arms to Iran.

The revelation of this attempt undercut the popularity of the president and led to the indictment of several aides. The affair arose from parallel events in Central America and the Middle East.

In Central America, the Reagan administration was supporting the contras, an amalgam of individuals and groups who opposed the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. Despite a reputation for ineffectiveness and drug dealing, the contras were considered by the Reagan administration to be the best alternative to the Marxist Sandinistas.

Congress passed the Boland Amendment in 1982, which prohibited funding for the “overthrow of the government of Nicaragua.” The amendment allowed humanitarian aid but specifically prohibited covert aid by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

At the same time in the Middle East, terrorist organizations such as Islamic Jihad were increasing their harassment of U.S. citizens in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the U.S. organization of a United Nations peacekeeping force in Beirut.

Over a dozen U.S. citizens were kidnapped and taken hostage between 1982 and 1984. The Reagan administration responded to this provocation by vowing never to negotiate with terrorists, while blaming the Iranians for supporting these organizations.

Additionally the Iranians were locked in a war with the Saddam Hussein–led country of Iraq. Running from 1980 to 88, the Iran-Iraq War would be bloody but ultimately inconclusive. In the course of the fighting the Iranians began to run into a significant problem.

Most of their military hardware had been purchased from the United States before the 1979 overthrow of the shah. As the war dragged on, Iran began to run short of ammunition and spare parts, which they could not acquire from the United States because of a congressional ban on arms sales to the Iranians stemming from the hostage crisis of 1979–81.

The NSC, led by National Security Advisor John Poindexter and CIA director William Casey, proposed the following arrangement to the president and his advisers. Through private arms dealers and Israel, the United States would sell arms to the Iranians above cost. In return, the United States expected Iran to pressure the terrorists to free the U.S. hostages.

The profits from the arms sales would be secretly diverted to the contras to keep their activities afloat. Reagan approved the idea despite opposition from Secretary of State George Shultz and some dissent from Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.

Colonel Oliver North

The first arms shipments took place in 1985, and more were sent in 1986. Despite pressure and apparent promises, only one hostage and the body of a second were released. The money and additional supplies were funneled to the contras until October 1986, when a CIA-chartered plane crashed in Nicaragua.

Its pilot confessed to running supplies to the contras. On November 3 a Lebanese journal, Al-Shira, revealed the existence of the arms sales to Iran. The Reagan administration acknowledged the existence of the arms sales and contra supplies in a speech by the president on November 13.

Witnesses such as NSC staff member Colonel Oliver North testified before both Congress and the Tower Commission, admitting to the arms sales and funding while portraying the president as a “hands-off” administrator. Reagan’s own appearance before the commission revealed the president’s shaky grasp of details and apparently poor memory of events.

In the Tower Commission’s final report, the president’s lack of control over his staff was strongly criticized, but most of the blame for the scandal was placed on the National Security Council and its staff.

Iran Hostage Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:48:00 +0000

Iran Hostage Crisis

The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic conflict between the United States and Iran that formally began on November 4, 1979, when Islamic militants overran the U.S. embassy in Tehran and seized its staff as hostages. This situation lasted through the end of President Jimmy Carter’s term and hurt him politically in the presidential election against Ronald Reagan.

Relations between the United States and Iran began to break down during the Iranian revolution in early 1979. Prior to this Iran’s ruler, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had been an ally of the United States.

The shah had purchased billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. arms and had committed Iran to a program of Western-style modernization—a program that by the 1970s had created a political and cultural backlash by Islamic fundamentalists (chief among them the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini).

In an attempt to blunt this backlash, the shah resorted to increasingly heavy-handed internal measures, but only succeeded in alienating the Iranian populace. In January 1979 the shah was overthrown and forced into exile, and an Islamic-style theocracy, led by the Ayatollah Khomeini, assumed power.

The U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran’s capital, warned President Carter soon afterward that allowing the shah into the United States would precipitate a crisis with the new Iranian government, but the shah, ill with cancer, was admitted to a New York hospital on October 23. By this time the exiled shah had been legally deposed and formally sentenced to death in Iran.

Less than two weeks later the long-brewing crisis of anti-U.S. feelings broke out when a mob of Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy, detained 66 members of the staff as hostages, and demanded the extradition of the shah to Iran in return for the release of the hostages. President Carter rejected this, but in December 1979 the shah left the United States, first for Panama and then to Egypt, where he died on July 27, 1980.

Since the hostage taking violated diplomatic convention and international law, Carter was able to rally world opinion against Iran and impose an economic embargo. The White House attempted several failed diplomatic initiatives. The Ayatollah Khomeini, who had privately sanctioned the actions of the hostage takers, refused to see U.S emissaries and rebuffed U.S. diplomatic efforts.

In the only successful diplomatic measure, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representatives gained the release of 13 female and African-American hostages. On April 7, 1980, the United States officially broke diplomatic ties with Iran.

Despite continued pressure on Iran, the hostages remained in captivity five months after the crisis began, and domestic pressure mounted on the Carter administration to find a solution. After much deliberation, President Carter decided that direct intervention was needed. Carter then authorized Operation Desert Claw, an ill-fated military rescue plan.

The April 24, 1980, rescue mission suffered from having to traverse great distances by air, unexpected sandstorms, and untimely mechanical failures. The final mishap came during a desert refueling stop, when a helicopter collided with a tanker plane loaded with high-octane aviation fuel, killing eight U.S. servicemen.

The failure of the rescue mission did not end negotiations, but the Carter administration appeared to be paralyzed by the crisis. Finally, on January 19, 1981, U.S. secretary of state Cyrus Vance quietly signed the Algiers Accord, which established the pre–November 4, 1979, situation.

Its main clause was the restitution of frozen Iranian financial assets in the United States. In return, on January 20 Iran released the U.S. hostages after 444 days of captivity, just minutes after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.

Ernesto “Che” Guevara

noreply@blogger.com (Ninak Ninuk) — Mon, 06 May 2013 02:56:00 +0000

Ernesto Che Guevara Poster

An iconic Latin American revolutionary whose visage remains emblematic of leftist and Marxist struggles throughout the continent and world, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna joined Fidel Castro’s 26 July Movement in late 1955.

An exceptionally effective guerrilla leader, his charisma, intelligence, and revolutionary idealism soon made him one of the leading figures of the early years of the Cuban revolution.

He was the primary impetus behind the notion of the socialist “New Man,” at the core of many Cuban government policies in the early 1960s, in which revolutionary fervor was seen as more fundamental than material incentives (such as wages and benefits) in propelling workers to produce.

Convinced that Cuba’s successes could be duplicated in other countries through what he called the “foco” theory of revolution, in which a small band of revolutionaries could spark a mass insurrection and topple dictatorships, he journeyed to Bolivia in 1967 to test his theory.

The anticipated popular uprising failed to materialize, and after a few months he was captured and executed by the Bolivian military. His writings on revolution and guerrilla warfare remain classics of the era.

Born on June 14, 1927, to a wealthy landowning family in Rosario, Argentina, Guevara was a frail and sickly boy, suffering asthma that plagued him throughout his life. Raised Roman Catholic, because of his asthma he was educated mainly at home by his mother, Celia de la Serna y Llosa, and his four siblings.

His father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, was a businessman and for a time ran a mate (tea) farm owned by his wife. Both were committed leftists.

From his mother, to whom he remained emotionally close throughout his life, he acquired his lifelong passion for books, learning, and politics. In 1943 when Guevara was 16, his family moved to Córdoba.

Ernesto Guevara with Fidel Castro

After completing his high school studies he began studying engineering. In 1947 he and his family moved to Buenos Aires, where he entered the university to study engineering before switching to medicine.

In 1951 he and a friend embarked on a yearlong motorcycle journey through South America, where he saw firsthand the continent’s poverty and social injustices (as portrayed in his journals and dramatized in the 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries).

Graduating from medical school in 1953, he journeyed through Bolivia and Peru to Guatemala, where he witnessed the social revolution under President Jacobo Arbenz.

After Arbenz’s overthrow in a U.S.-orchestrated coup in 1954, which steeled Guevara’s anti-imperialism, Guevara journeyed to Mexico and established contact with Cuban exile Fidel Castro. Convinced that Castro was the visionary revolutionary he had long sought, he joined Castro’s 26 July Movement and soon became one of its leaders.

The group embarked for Cuba in November 1956, and for the next two years Guevara played a central role in the guerrilla war against Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, earning a reputation as a skilled and sometimes ruthless commander.

After Batista’s ouster in January 1959, Guevara was appointed to the National Institute of Agrarian Reform, and later became president of the National Bank, minister of industries, and ambassador to the United Nations. During this period he developed his ideas regarding the socialist New Man and his foco theory of revolution.

After failing in several attempts to launch socialist revolutions in other countries (including Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Congo), in late 1966 he traveled to Bolivia in the hope of sparking a mass insurrection.

On October 8, 1967, he and his bedraggled forces were captured by the Bolivian military, and the next day he was executed. He is widely considered one of the most important revolutionary figures of the 20th century.