In the centenary year of the Republic of Turkey, there is a need for a new approach to history writing. The crisis that the AKP regime has dragged Turkey into has demonstrated the necessity of... Show moreIn the centenary year of the Republic of Turkey, there is a need for a new approach to history writing. The crisis that the AKP regime has dragged Turkey into has demonstrated the necessity of reevaluating post-Kemalist revisionism in Turkish Studies. The transitional period from the Empire to the Republic is a field dominated by post-Kemalist literature. This article aims to reevaluate the impact of post-Kemalist literature on historiography, particularly by revisiting commonly accepted assumptions and interpretations regarding the “Young Turk” Committee of Union and Progress. While post-Kemalist approaches, which have made significant contributions to the studies of identity and minority issues, have confronted the dark legacy left by the Young Turks on the Republic, attributing all the dark events in the history of the Republic solely to a Unionist curse can lead to flawed historical interpretations. First, in post-Kemalist literature, it is problematic to distort the continuity thesis from Unionism to Kemalism into a thesis of singularity and immutability. In fact, there lies a transformative process shaped by competition and conflicts beneath continuity. Second, although many post-Kemalist approaches exhibit a critical stance towards Turkish nationalism, they inadvertently strengthen a narrative of Turkism by falling into the trap of methodological nationalism. Instead of solely viewing the empire as a precursor to a future nation-state, it is necessary to examine it within its own context and timeframe. Understanding the diversity, variability, and relationality of nationalism, without neglecting the complexity of historical processes, requires analyzing it not as the cause or result, but as an influential factor. The issue of Young Turks will remain a subject of controversy in the second century of the Republic’s history because the Young Turks assumed simultaneously the dual roles of destroyers/perpetrators and founders/protectors during the transition from the Empire to the Republic. These two analytical dimensions should neither be considered separately nor contradictory. Show less
This dissertation will demonstrate that there is a significant degree of continuity in Russian military thought over the 20th century due to the resilience of fundamental military concepts. To be... Show moreThis dissertation will demonstrate that there is a significant degree of continuity in Russian military thought over the 20th century due to the resilience of fundamental military concepts. To be conceptually fundamental is inextricably linked to historical continuity. The primary objective of this study, then, is to investigate the historical continuity of fundamental military concepts in Russian military thought between 1856 and 2010. In this regard, this dissertation attempts to show that fundamental military concepts ensured continuity rather than change, despite the changing strategic, political, and historical contexts. Ultimately, this research argues that socio-political and strategic ruptures have had a marginal impact on Russian fundamental military concepts. Thus, the present study seeks to provide new insights into 'conceptual continuity' in Russian military thought by using the military history of ideas between the late 19th and early 21st centuries. The study has concluded that fundamental military concepts that arose during the late 19th and early 20th centuries remained unaltered in Russia’s conceptualisation of modern warfare. Show less
This PhD thesis has studied the meeting practice of the Dutch States General to address the role of tradition and culture in times of political and institutional transition in the first half of the... Show moreThis PhD thesis has studied the meeting practice of the Dutch States General to address the role of tradition and culture in times of political and institutional transition in the first half of the 19th century. Dutch revisionist historians of the Revolutionary Era have emphasized the sense of rupture surrounding the year 1800. The Batavian revolutionaries, together with French Revolutionary and Napoleonic armies, caused a clear break between the ancien régime of the Dutch Republic and the 19th-century Kingdom of the Netherlands. Modern constitutions replaced the de- centralized government system of the Dutch Republic with a unitary state from 1798 onwards. When the Dutch regained their independence after the fall of Napoleon in 1813, the new state did not turn the clock back to 1795. In that respect, the Netherlands has been studied as a fine example of Reinhard Koselleck’s concept of Sattelzeit. Continuities, such as the name States General for the bicameral parliament, were merely invented traditions to hide the new institutions of the Restoration state. Notwithstanding obvious evidence of discontinuity, in political practice there was more continuity in the Netherlands during the transitional period from the 18th to the 19th century than historians have assumed. Show less
This chapter briefly presents the biography of Londósa, a ritual leader or 'komoru' of the Chari Suri people in southwestern Ethiopia and shows how a personal case study can highlight the social... Show moreThis chapter briefly presents the biography of Londósa, a ritual leader or 'komoru' of the Chari Suri people in southwestern Ethiopia and shows how a personal case study can highlight the social problems of an ethnic group. Suri face a crisis of security and of social continuity. Both their physical security and their food security are at risk, and they have enduring tense relations with neighbouring peoples and with the Ethiopian State. Like other ethnic groups (e.g. Nyangatom, Toposa, Anywaa, Meen) they use armed force to defend themselves or contest resources. The relatively quick "militarization" of societies like the Suri in the last 15 years has brought new problems and challenges. Londósa, as the Suri ritual mediator and leader, recognized the problems emerging and called for restraint to Suri exercise of violence but with little effect. He was powerless to prevent the gradual deterioration of internal social relations in Suri society resulting from this militarization. Feelings of powerlessness and deception with the way Suri society was developing undoubtedly contributed to his early death in June 2000. Includes bibliographical references, notes, and summary [Book abstract] Show less
In deze inaugurele rede besteedt de auteur aandacht aan drie thema's: strijd, identiteit et continuïteit in Afrika. Hij richt zich met name op het verschijnsel van de opkomst van neo-etnische... Show moreIn deze inaugurele rede besteedt de auteur aandacht aan drie thema's: strijd, identiteit et continuïteit in Afrika. Hij richt zich met name op het verschijnsel van de opkomst van neo-etnische bewegingen in Afrika die een nieuwe combinatie van elementen vertegenwoordigen: een lidmaatschap van voornamelijk jongeren, een etnische basis, een roep om terugkeer naar de eigen cultuur, en actief verzet tegen de gevestigde, corrupte machten in de staat en tegen de mondialisering die Afrika in een gemarginaliseerde positie brengt. Na een discussie van de begrippen strijd, identiteit en continuïteit gaat de auteur in op de kritisch-realistische benadering die hij voorstaat. Hedendaagse sociaal-wetenschappelijke studies over Afrika kenmerken zich ofwel door een excessieve nadruk op de materiële, ecologische en politieke aspecten van conflict en crisis, samengevat onder de noemer 'resource competition', ofwel door een sterk interpretatieve, culturalistische analyse van de 'bovenbouw': religieuze ideeën en ideologiën, culturele symboliek, identiteitsdenken, en van nieuwe 'subjectiviteiten'. Een kritisch-realistisch perspectief ziet bovengenoemde benaderingen als problematisch. Dit perspectief stelt dat de relatie tussen materiële ontwikkelingen en cultuur-symbolische 'systemen' analytisch gezien onverbrekelijk is. De auteur beschrijft vervolgens twee recente voorbeelden van etniseringstrajecten in Afrika, namelijk de Mungiki-beweging in Kenia en de Gurage in Ethiopië. Show less
