The origins of the Cold War in Southeast Asia: Pre-Second World War Siamese cooperation with foreign powers against communism

The origins of the Cold War in Southeast Asia are most often located in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, in the late 1940s. Historians sometimes trace its origins to Japan's expansionist phase in the 1930s, which accelerated the decline of the European and American colonial order in this part of Asia. However, the necessity of the fight against communism appeared very clearly in the minds of the leaders of the major colonial powers well before the 1930s. Focused on the case of Siam, this article aims to show that the origins of the Cold War in Southeast Asia dated back to as early as the 1920s with the emergence of international cooperation in the fight against communism and the Thai elite's manipulation of imperialist powers to further their own political agenda and support their dominance in the domestic political arena. The Cold War in Southeast Asia was not only about the postwar fight against the spread of communism, but also closely intertwined with the decolonisation and nation-building efforts of every country in the region — including of the so-called un-colonised Thailand.

Europäische rechtsgeschichte, immer noch ein projekt

The article describes the state of European Legal History as a discipline such as it has developed since the end of the Second World War. Major determinants were the Europe – euphoria of the Fiftieth, subsequently the gradual coalescence of the European Union, and eventually the return of the East – and South-East-European Nations to the free world. Yet”European Legal History“ as a well-defined discipline still is but a project. Perspectives of the future could be the following : To overcome nationalistic views when investigating pre-nationalistic periods of time, furthermore to join together sub-disciplines that define themselves by their respective sources (Roman Law, Canon Law, ius patrium), finally to extend the traditional legal history beyond civil law to the entire territory of law including non-state systems of norms. The aim should be twofold : To work out the particularities as well as the divergences of individual legal cultures in Europe, and to attempt at relating European and non-European legal cultures by means of historical comparison.

Critical theory and the future of humanity: A reply to Asger Sørensen

The article entails a critical discussion of the book Capitalism, Alienation and Critique by Asger Sørensen. Like Sørensen’s book, it stresses the importance of the first generation of critical theory – especially Horkheimer and Adorno – although Sørensen is at the same time critized for neglecting the insights of Horkheimer and Adornos work from the mid-1940s and onwards. In arguing for the actuality of especially the late Horkheimer, the article emphasizes the following topics: (1) The problems of education and ‘Bildung’, (2) The historical transformation of the critique of Capitalism after the Second World War and (3) The drawbacks of classical humanism when it comes to grasping the current political and ecological crisis.

CULTURAL DISTORTION AND HARMONISATION ON INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS: THE PANACEA FOR SUCCESS

The purpose of this paper was to study and unravel the implications of cultural distortion on businesses, gains and gradual harmonization of culture across national boundaries globally. Despite the national and political boundaries around the world, the activities involving cross-border operations have always persisted, but have had a dramatic growth since the Second World War. Successful business operations globally depend largely on the understanding of the cultural differences of countries which enormously have the tendencies of affecting the degree of business relationship. It is very obvious that every institution across nations of the world is deeply attached to societies with diverse cultures such as language difference, different tradition of trust, individualists and collectivists tendencies which globalization concept intends to harmonise and be accepted by the local market around the world. As a consequence, it is very imperative to strive for gradual harmonization of culture. This however implies making suitable changes on the differences among national norms, traditions, values, beliefs and rituals of different nations in order to achieve uniformity. KEY WORDS: Culture, Cultural Distortion, Cultural Harmonization, Globalization