«Asian Backstage Diplomacy» in Building Bridges Between the USSR and Great Britain in 1924

В статье исследуется роль и место «азиатской периферии» в период установления британо-российских отношений в 1924 г. Британские архивные документы позволяют сделать вывод о сохранявшейся значимости для британской стороны действий СССР в сопредельных с британской Индией странах. Одновременно британские дипломатические службы и разведывательное сообщество обращало особое внимание на складывавшуюся в советской Центральной Азии обстановку с целью выяснения возможного её влияния на британские позиции в регионе, а также советское продвижение на Восток в приграничные государства. В статье делается вывод о стремлении лейбористского правительства Макдональда избежать обострения взаимоотношений с СССР во имя достижения главной цели – подписания и ратификации договоров с Москвой несмотря на очевидные активные действия последней в индийском прикордонье. Автор приводит документальные свидетельства и оценки британскими дипломатами, а также военными действий СССР как в самой Центральной Азии, где советское руководство начинало проводить новую национально-территориальную политику, так и в приграничных с ней странах. The study examines the role of the Asian periphery in the establishment of diplomatic relations between the USSR and Great Britain in 1924. British archival documents suggest that the United Kingdom regarded Soviet activities in countries bordering British India as extremely important. At the same time, the British foreign office and intelligence were paying close attention to the situation that was unfolding in Soviet Central Asia, trying to assess its impact on the British standing in the region, as well as the possible Soviet expansion eastwards into the neighboring countries. The article concludes that MacDonald's Labour government wanted to avoid confrontation with the USSR in order to attain its main goal — signing and ratifying agreements with the Soviet state, despite it being rather active near the borders of India. The author cites documents and assessments by British diplomats and military officers. These sources cover both Soviet actions in Central Asia itself, where the USSR leadership was beginning to pursue a new national and territorial policy, as well as in the countries bordering that region.

Dennis Showalter and the study of the First World War

Dennis Showalter’s influence on the scholarship of the First World War is unmatched among American historians. His work is especially important for two reasons. First, it studies the German Army using primary sources and original research, a particularly valuable contribution given the mythic and just plain false associations that many amateur scholars place on the German military. Second, Dennis’s career involved long stretches of teaching cadets and military officers. His work thus combined an appreciation of the problems of the past with the challenges of the present day. The second half of this essay renders homage to that tradition by examining patterns in Dennis’s writings of the First World War that remain relevant to an understanding of war in our own time.

A qualitative study of military officers’ perceptions of the adaptions couples make to meet the military organisation’s implicit expectations

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate military officers’ perception of the implicit expectations the organisation has for the officer’s private life and what implications it may have for gender norms at the organisation, family and individual levels. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach, using an inductive thematic analysis, was performed. The data was based on 20 interviews with military officers, including 18 men and 2 women. Findings Two main themes, with three subsequent subthemes, were identified. These themes were interpreted as being necessary for the military officer to be able to manage organisational demands. The first included the implicit expectations the organisation had for the family. The three subthemes included the officer’s acceptance of frequent travel demands, adapting private life in accordance to organisational demands and picking a partner that matches the goals of the organisation. The second identified main theme included the military officer’s descriptions of implicit expectations the organisation held for the officer’s partner. Three subthemes were identified, including the partner’s need to be independent and psychologically strong, to take the main responsibility for managing family life and to engage in emotion work with the extended family. Originality/value The findings identify important perceptions that military officers have regarding the military’s expectations for their private life and the adaptive behaviors regularly performed. These adaptive behaviors allow the military officer to be able to engage in work that sustains the organisation.

Influence of cooperative ideologies on the origin of credit societies in Russia

The aim of the research was to examine the influence of cooperative ideologies on the origin of credit societies in Russia. The emergence of a legal framework for consumer and, later, credit cooperation in Russia came in two ways. The first formal credit union was established in 1831 by Russian military officers banished to Siberia after the December 1825 revolt. Other cooperatives were organized in a Western model by enthusiasts from the wealthy strata. Later, the history of cooperation in consumer credit before the revolution in Russia can be divided into three stages: first, 1831-1860 (before the peasant reform); second, 1861-1904 (after the peasant reform); and third, 1905-1917 (adoption of government regulations on cooperation). To solve the objective set, the authors used the documentary method close to the historical method. It is concluded that analysis of the preconditions of the first cooperative organizations in Russia shows that there were some known forms of primitive cooperation or pre-cooperation over the centuries.

Morocco in Colonial Photography

This article represents an attempt to approach the notion of colonial discourse and photography more closely with the exigencies that put Morocco under the zoom of the colonial lens. This photographic documentation shows that nations, Morocco, in this case, were annexed to imperial powers through the utilization of various means of representation. This annexation was carried out not only by military officers, missionaries and spies but also by cartographers, travel writers and photographers who never ceased to polish the lens of their cameras so as to be able to represent indigenous identities, as well as their social lifestyles, and cultures. Therefore, the purpose of the present work is to sketch the colonial experience that links the imperializers with the imperialized through chronological documentation of colonial power and domination. Therefore, the main interest centres around the question of rereading this colonial history by analyzing and questioning colonial photography and its role in colonial expansion over Morocco. Besides, it is to unmask the alleged objective embedded in this country's 'civilizing mission'.

ESTABLISHMENT OF A SYSTEM OF ASSISTANCE TO WAR DISABLED IN THE ACTIVITIES OF A SPECIAL COMMISSION FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF MILITARY OFFICERS AND OTHER PERSONS AFFECTED IN THE PROCEEDING OF THE WAR, AS WELL AS THEIR FAMILIES

The article is devoted to the organizational base of assistance to WWI invalids, the central link of which was a Special Commission of the Supreme Council for the Care of families of persons called up for war. Initially, the implementation of measures to the war invalids was entrusted to the local branches of the Elizabethan Committee, but the scale of the problem required the involvement of local self-government in helping the military-disabled. Zemsky Union and Union of Cities included war invalids in the sphere of their interests and a Special Commission was forced to cooperate with them in developing an all-Russian plan for the care of the military-disabled.

The Company State at War

This chapter brings together the distinct constituents of the early colonial order that had been created over the preceding three decades to execute conquest. The final conflict with the Marathas (1803–5) required much more than troops and an unprecedented commitment of financial resources. Disputes between civilian administrators and military officers, between legally subordinate civilian administrations and a politically ambitious Bengal council, and, between military forces mobilized across the shifting boundaries of the Company’s territorial expanse and civil administrators in the locales of western India—all received a more unequivocal response in the Second Anglo-Maratha War. Experiments that had been haltingly devised in response to deep structural problems that routinely surfaced during preceding periods of intensified military conflict were radically addressed. Legal innovations like delegating sweeping unqualified powers to military commanders were combined with the deployment of a politically effective ideology of Francophobia to set the stage for what became the most ambitious political project of conquest crafted in the long eighteenth century—the war against the Marathas.

Surviving Troubled Times on the Borders of China: Sheng Shicai as a Successful Warlord in Xinjiang, 1931–34

Ethnicity, religion, and geopolitics affect historians’ interpretations of the history of Xinjiang, a very chaotic frontier region of China that did not come fully under the control of the People’s Republic of China until recent decades. The case of Sheng Shicai, an early Republican Era Chinese military officer, shows how professional training and, most importantly, the ability to capitalize on emerging opportunities contributed to his military success in Xinjiang from 1931 to 1934. This paper analyzes the Republic of China’s government documents, Sheng and his acquaintances’ memoirs, newspaper articles, and other sources to examine how Sheng applied his military training and employed regional and foreign military forces to win battles in northern Xinjiang. Professional military training helped officers to utilize their resources efficiently and take advantage of their geopolitical situations. Amid numerous talented Chinese military officers, Sheng rose in rank and successfully secured Xinjiang as a part of the Republic of China even when Xinjiang’s geopolitics seemed extremely challenging. This study highlights the value of Sheng’s military prowess, something that the literature has not previously appreciated.

Civilian Coup Advocacy

Available scholarship on civil–military relations, and coup politics in particular, tends to treat military coups d’état as originating purely within the minds of military officers; that is, the overwhelming bulk of scholarship assumes that the idea to seize power stems from officer cliques. To the extent that societal factors (e.g., polarization, economic decline, party factionalism) explain coups, they merely account for why officers decide to seize power. Most research that discusses civilian support for coups does so within single case studies—almost entirely drawn from the Middle East and North Africa. Building on a vibrant wave of studies that disaggregates civil–military institutions, a small body of recent research has begun to systematically and comprehensively consider the theoretical and empirical importance of civilian involvement in military coups. This perspective deemphasizes the military’s possession of weapons and instead focuses on ideational sources of power. Civilians have more power and resources to offer military plotters than existing scholarship has given them credit for. Civilian elites and publics can legitimate coups, organize them, manipulate information on behalf of the plotters, and finance coups for their own economic interests. In short, to fully understand coups, one must seek as much knowledge as possible about their formation, including where the idea for each plot originated. Such detailed analysis of coup plots will give researchers a clearer picture about the motivating factors behind coups.

Saudi foreign policy will prioritise US ties

Significance Saudi media has pushed back strongly, but the accusations threaten to reinforce US distrust of the crown prince, centred on the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Riyadh, for its part, fears an ongoing US Middle East drawdown. Impacts Washington will pressure Riyadh towards social and economic reforms and repeatedly raise human rights issues. The Saudi defence establishment will procure more drones and low-grade munitions from Moscow and Beijing. A growing number of Saudi military officers, professionals and students will train or work in China and Russia. Despite rumours, Riyadh would not jeopardise its relationship with Washington by taking delivery of Russian S-400 air defence missiles.