Documents found
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311.More information
The incursions of the Ottomans into Europe starting in the fourteenth century gave rise to a particular genre of literature known as “antiturcic” (antiturcica), by turns warlike, prophetic, and historical. In this vein, the Dalmatian Marko Marulić of Split (1450–1524) composed a Prayer against the Turks (of uncertain date), the Lament of Jerusalem (ca. 1517), and a letter requesting the help of Pope Adrian VI (1522). Marulić was closely familiar with the Ottoman threat: during his life the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, Jerusalem, Syria, Egypt, Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and finally Belgrade (in 1521)—a victory which cleared their way into Hungary and Croatia. Out of the passionate study comprising these three Marulian antiturcica emerges a rhetoric demonizing the Ottomans, which not only attests to the violent emotions experienced by their author, but also justifies a merciless war against an enemy portrayed as cruel, insatiable, and invincible.
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316.More information
This paper argues that NATO'S Partnership for Peace initiative, launched in 1994, has helped transfer democratic norms of civil-military relations, as practised in liberal regimes, to the countries of the Visegrad Group. In fact, this « return to Europe » has led to three of these countries gaining membership in a fifth expansion of the Atlantic Alliance. In the absence of a comprehensive theory of civil-military relations, we can say that the a priori and a posteriori control mechanisms of Partnership for Peace have been an ideal means for NATO to enlarge Us sphere of influence beyond its current boundaries. By combining these mechanisms with the different factors that emerge from various theories on diffusion of norms and on cooperation, analysis of the transformations observed in the Visegrad countries reveals the multidimensionality of the concept of security in the post-Cold War era. The multidimensionality of the security concept is therefore a key element to be considered when we analyze the motives that brought about the transfer of democratic norms to the Visegrad countries.
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318.More information
AbstractThis essay analyzes the period that preceded the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and offers several complementary explanations of the velvet divorce between the Czech and Slovak republics. Challenges facing an independent Slovakia are analyzed, and a discussion of its economic development, its positions within the realm of foreign affairs, and the crystallisation of the political landscape is also included. Finally, an examination of the 1994 parliamentary elections, with particular attention to their impact on the state of democracy and the state under the rule of law within this country, concludes the paper.