Academic literature on the topic 'Actors – Great Britain – Diaries'

AbstractThe frequent references to the actors and events of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars in the titles of the dance tunes of the period raise the question of how we should understand their significance. This article argues that the practice is one of a number of examples of music and song shaping people's lived experience and behavior in ways that were rarely fully conscious. Drawing on a range of music collections, diaries, and journals, the article argues that we need to recognize how significant aural dimensions were in shaping people's predisposition to favor the status quo in this period of heightened political controversy.

AbstractThis article investigates the role of status considerations in the response of dominant powers to the rise of emergent states. Accordingly, the hypothesis explored is that dominant actors are prone to fear that they will lose their upper rank, and, due to this status anxiety, resist the efforts of emergent powers to match or surpass them. The article begins by explaining why political actors deem status important and puts forward a theory of status anxiety in world politics. The more pronounced is this anxiety across status dimensions (economic and military capabilities as well as prestige), the higher the likelihood of conflict. This argument is then tested against competing theories of dominant power behaviour in two cases: the relations between France and Britain from the 1740s to Napoleon and those between Britain and Germany from the 1880s to World War One.

The object of this research is the policy of Great Britain in Egypt from August 1936 to April 1938. The subject of this research is the trends in Foreign Office policy and local British authorities concerning Egypt in the context of external and internal challenges. Major attention is given to the situation that formed after signing the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936. The author explores Britain’s responses to the aggressive policy of Italy in the region, as well as during the “palace crisis” in Egypt, which followed the death of King Fuad and transition of the throne to his son Farouk. These events threatened Britain’s presence in the region, which the Empire has been fighting for since the middle of 1930s. The scientific novelty consists in introduction of new sources, namely the diaries of the British High Commissioner Miles Lampson. The author notes that Great Britain continues to soften the style of governance and avoid hash and radical decisions. For example, the antagonism with Italy was settled by diplomatic negotiation and led to signing the Anglo-Italian Agreement in April of 1938. In terms of the domestic political situation, the “palace crisis had been overcome using soft means by creating a positive balance of power for Britain’s presence in the Egyptian political system, as well as through negotiations with anti-British forces.

Abstract The objective of this special issue on inclusive peace negotiations is to advance the debate on negotiations. It sheds light on included and excluded actors, in particular political parties, civil society, business, youth and religious actors, and those armed actors that are either excluded or included. This special issue is particularly interesting as all articles combine a conceptual introduction of the role of the discussed actor in question in peace negotiations with a case study approach. This method enriches conceptual discussion and debates on the role of the various actors through analyses of several peace negotiations, including among others, DRC, Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Myanmar.

The Western Balkans has been and remains a particularly dense zone in terms of the number of actors present, where the interests of all the leading actors in world politics are bizarrely intertwined. The Ukrainian crisis has added spice to the Balkan agenda, reviving “frozen conflicts” not only within the borders of the region but also beyond its perimeter. Directly dependent on the outcome of the armed confrontation in Ukraine and separately from it, a clash or, at least, an intensification of external actors in the Balkan direction seems inevitable. The historical-systemic approach used in the study and the paradigm of multipolarity made it possible to trace the probable directions of activity of both regional and external actors. Based on a wide range of sources, the work provides a panorama of the foreign policy positioning of regional capitals; identifies major and minor external actors; shows the transformation of approaches and practical steps of key actors through the prism of the ongoing crisis. External actors - the European Union (EU), China, Great Britain, Russia and the United States - are divided into groups in accordance with their positions regarding the pre-crisis Balkans and the Balkans in the face of the fierce confrontation between Russia and the West. Among Western interests, special attention is paid to Great Britain, whose activity in the Western Balkans after Brexit is affiliated with the West in general, but not with the United States (despite all the history of strategic partnership in the region) and, moreover, with the EU separately. Against the background of the dominance of Western institutions in the region, the paper traces, however, the growing role of China, as well as external actors of the “second plan” with an oriental flavor: Türkiye, Iran, and the states of the Persian Gulf. An analysis of Russia’s prospects in the region has shown that the crisis in the system of international relations has largely nullified the results achieved earlier. The degree of Russia’s involvement in the crisis raises the question of its resource capacity, the ability to further maintain its own positions. Additional difficulties will be associated with the consolidated efforts of the Western allies and other external actors, including China, to balance Russian influence and presence in the Western Balkans.

«Constitutional Fever»? Constitutional Integration in Post-Revolutionary France, Great Britain and Germany, 1814–c.1835 This article proposes a comparative perspective on the role of constitutions in European political cultures from 1814 to c.1835. Through its analysis of constitutions first as a means to legitimising post-revolutionary monarchies, and secondly as a means to integrating the divided societies in France, Great Britain as well as the German states, this article suggests two major results: 1) Constitutions were a central instrument that was imagined by post-revolutionary European societies in order to open up an «evolutionary» path to political progress and thereby finally «end» or «prevent» further revolutionary changes. 2) The major challenges to constitutional integration were posed by the emergence of competing political groups that often demanded a strengthening of certain parts of the constitutions or their further reform. The problems, which were faced by almost all political actors regarding the acceptance of these new imperatives of party politics and the different constitutional «solutions» that they had developed to meet these challenges, provide explanations for the different constitutional paths that were taken by Great Britain, the German states and France during the early 1830s. In Great Britain, a common constitutionalist language enabled a precarious understanding amongst the competing groups, whereas anti-pluralist constitutional conceptions led to constitutional instability in France and even damaged the very idea of constitutional integration in Germany thus benefitting a «unification first»-approach in the German states.

The article deals with the attitude of the Ukrainian nobility (the landowners of Poltava and Chernihiv governorates) to the British culture of the Victorian era on the example of the Galagan family. Based on the study of diaries, correspondence, and memoirs, it was found that the perception of British culture by the Ukrainian nobility took place thanks to learning English and getting to know English literature and art. In particular, the aesthetics of English romanticism was attractive, which was perceived in a wide range, from admiration for J. G. Byron's poetry to affection for "English parks", according to the model of which the park in Sokyryntsy, the ancestral seat of the Galagans, was laid out. The British were invited to Ukrainian noble families as mentors of children. Communication between tourists from Ukraine and Britain was of great importance while travelling in continental Europe. After all, Ukrainian travellers visited Great Britain, where they could directly get acquainted with its economic achievements and sociocultural structures. Based on these communications Anglomania spread among the highest layers of the Ukrainian nobility, to which the Galagans belonged. It was an idealization of the socio-political system of Victorian Britain, which seemed attractive as an alternative to the bureaucratic absolute monarchy that existed in the Russian Empire. Thus, the Anglomania of the nobility was one of the forms of opposition to absolutism. At the same time, Anglomania could combine with other oppositional ideologies platforms, in particular with Slavophilism, as shown by the example of Hryhorii Galagan.

The fading away of the Cold War has allegedly shifted the attention of the Western members of the United Nations, as demonstrated by General Assembly speeches, towards issues like the environment, drugs and terrorism. The new issues moving towards the top of the international security agenda are more elusive than the traditional Peace- and War-related ones; nobody has control of a ‘button’ regarding these issues. An overall assessment of the situation shows that there is a great variety of actors involved, both governmental and non-governmental. It is also increasingly recognized that the East has similar interests to the West. As a result, the East–West divide is being bridged to a significant extent, while the North–South divide is being defined in new ways.

The article is devoted to the study of James Harris’s diplomatic mission to Russia (1778–1783). During almost the entirety of his diplomatic mission, Harris was accompanied by his sister Katherine Gertrude and his wife Harriet. Katherine Gertrude Harris depicted the events during her stay in Russia in a series of diaries, which is the main source of research. Although Katherine’s papers remain unpublished and are almost neglected in historiography, it seems that the diaries can shed light on many aspects of the diplomatic mission since she and her brother the ambassador, took part in both the ceremonies and behind-the-scenes life of the imperial court. Previously this diplomatic mission was mainly studied from the point of diplomatic negotiations that took place between ambassadors and official representatives. Thus, the diplomatic results of the mission were investigated more than the diplomatic process. The article aims to fill this gap and study the informal part of the embassy based on the use of social capital. James Harris as an experienced diplomat had complicated negotiation strategies, one of which was to form bonds with influential politicians to impact Russian decision-making mechanisms. The study presented in the article shows that interactions between the envoy and other private and quasi-private individuals, whose decisions could affect the course of diplomatic negotiations, played an important role in J. Harris’s mission. What is more, James Harris’s wife and sister, participating in court ceremonies and banquets, became the mission’s “shadow” actors. Katherine Gertrude noted facts and gossips about the Russian high society and developed friendships with those who were assumed to be capable of influencing the political sentiments of the court.

The history of reading can link intellectual and cultural developments with social or political change in the eighteenth century. Historians of the book increasingly argue that an understanding of historical reading practices is essential if we are to understand the impact of texts on individuals and on society as a whole: textual evidence alone is inadequate. Recent work on eighteenth-century readers has used sources including book trade records, correspondence, and diaries to reconstruct the reading lives of individuals and of groups of readers. Such sources reveal the great variety of reading material many eighteenth-century readers could access, and the diversity and sophistication of reading practices they often employed, in selecting between a range of available reading strategies. Thus, any one theoretical paradigm is unlikely to capture the full range of eighteenth-century reading experience. Instead, we can trace the evolution of particular reading cultures, including popular and literary reading cultures, the existence of cultures based around particular genres of print, such as newspapers, and reading as a part of social and conversational life. There is now a need for a new synthesis that combines the new evidence of reading practice with textual analysis to explain continuity and change across the century.

This thesis explores the dynamics involved in shaping the Anglo-Syrian relationship. It argues that to understand UK relations towards Syria over the past century, they have to be viewed in the broader context of British policy on Middle East regional issues, and wider foreign policy priorities. With no direct interests invested in Syria, it is both Britain's continued involvement in Middle East affairs and Syria's standing as a key regional power that assures a continuing relationship. Consequently, the stance of leading UK politicians on the issues of post-World War regional order, international terrorism, military interventionism, arms sales, dictatorship and democratisation have circumscribed UK policy options in relation to Syria. Using the tools of Neoclassical realism this study considers British foreign policy behaviour, in terms of Britain's attempt to mobilize the power to protect its interests. It reviews Britain's international behaviour in part by how it is affected by changes in the international system, as Britain has declined from being a great imperial power, to a European power. Alliances are a key tool Britain has used to manage its decline, and this study identifies the impact that this has had on Anglo-Syrian relations with particular reference to the US and EU. Finally, it demonstrates that understanding how the foreign policy process works in Britain is key to understanding its international behaviour. In this it takes into account elite perceptions both of what these interests are and how best Britain can achieve them. This adds a layer of understanding as to why foreign policy outcomes do not always conform with what would be predicted purely in terms of the pursuit of the national interest.

The thesis continues the work undertaken in recent years by (in alphabetical order) James J. Marino, Scott McMillin, Paul Menzer, Simon Palfrey, Tiffany Stern, Evelyn Tribble, and others to put to use what is now known about the purpose, distribution, and usage of early modern actors' parts. The thesis applies the new methodology of reading 'in parts', or reconstituting early modern plays 'in parts', to the body of plays written by Ben Jonson. The aim of the project is to offer a reconsideration of Jonson as a man of theatre, interested not only in the presentation of his works in print, but also in their production at the Globe and at Blackfriars. By reconstructing and examining the parts through which the actors performing in Jonson's plays accessed their characters, the thesis proposes answers to the questions: how can we read and analyse Jonson's plays differently when looking at them in terms of actors' parts; did Jonson write with parts in mind; what did Jonsonian parts have to offer actors by way of challenge and guidance; what can we learn from parts about Jonson's assumptions and demands with regard to the actors; and how did actors themselves respond to those demands. These questions are significant because they engage critically with the tradition of seeing Jonson as a playwright dismissive of actors and distrustful of the theatre; they seek to establish a perspective that allows us to assess Jonson's abilities to instruct and challenge his actors through staging documents. More generally, the research contributes to the studies of the early modern rehearsal and staging practices and invites consideration of Shakespeare's part-writing techniques in contrast with those of his major rival. With no surviving early modern parts from Jonson's plays (indeed with only a handful of surviving parts from the period), the first task is to determine the level of accuracy with which the parts can be reconstructed from Jonson's printed plays. Stephen Orgel was by no means the first critic who used the example of Sejanus to assert that Jonson habitually doctored his plays before they were published, but his view has become a critical commonplace. This thesis re-examines the case of Jonson's revisions and concludes that, far from being representative, the 1605 Sejanus quarto is an anomaly which Jonson himself needed to account for in his address to the reader. It is true that Jonson cultivated a distinct style of presentation of printed material, but the evidence that he extensively tampered with the texts themselves after they were performed is scarce (again, the revisions found in the Folio versions of Every Man in His Humour and Cynthia's Revels are addressed and found to be exceptional, rather than typical), while the evidence of his pride in the original compositions and performances is much stronger. Since such enhancements as dedicatory poems, arguments (i.e. plot summaries), character sketches, or marginalia have no bearing on the shapes of actor's parts, they do not in any way compromise the reliability of the printed texts as sources from which Jonson's parts can, argues the thesis, be reconstructed with reasonable accuracy. Jonson, himself an actor and apparently a friend and admirer of a number of great actors of his age (Edward Alleyn, Nathan Field, Richard Robinson, Salomon Pavy, Richard Burbage), knew from personal experience how much depended on actors mastering, or, in their terminology, being 'perfect' in, their parts. By granting the actor access only to select portions of the complete play-text (i.e. his own lines and cues), the part effectively regulated the performance in cases when the actor had only limited knowledge of the rest of the play. Such cases seem to have been very common: documentary evidence suggests that actors had to learn their parts on their own over the course of a few weeks, and only then attended group rehearsals, most of which were concerned with 'business', not text which had already been learned. While some might have attended a reading of the play (if one was arranged for the benefit of the sharers, for instance), or gained more information about the play from their fellow actors, the parts remained their chief means of internalising their text and acquiring a sense of the play they were in. Jonson, who was not a resident playwright with any company performing in London and thus probably did not always have easy and regular access to the actors, could sometimes have taken advantage of the actors' dependence on their parts and crafted the parts as a means of exercising control over the performances of his plays. Building on this premise, the thesis examines various features of actors' parts that would have made a difference to an actor's performance. It draws on recent advancements in the studies of textual cohesion (linguistic features such as reference, substitution, ellipsis, etc.) to point out how the high and low frequency of cohesive ties (pairs of cohesively related words or phrases) in various sections of the part would have given an actor a good idea of how prominent his part was at any given moment. It examines Jonson's use of cues and patterns of cueing: like Shakespeare, Jonson was fond of using repeated cues to open up a space for improvisation, and he seems to have been aware of the need to provide the apprentices in the company with parts cued by a limited number of actors so as to allow for easier private rehearsals with their masters. The thesis also examines the common feature of Jonson's 'split jokes' - jokes that are divided across multiple parts - and asks whether any kind of comic effect can be achieved by excluding the punch line of a joke from the part that contains its setup, and the setup from the part that delivers the punch line, offering a fresh look at the nature of early modern comedy. In structural terms, the thesis considers how a narrative constituted solely by the lines present on an actor's part can diverge from the narrative of the play as a whole and how an understanding of a play as a text composed of actors' parts, as well as of acts and scenes, can help to refine arguments about Jonson's assumptions about the strengths of the companies for which he wrote. What emerges is an image of Jonson who, far from concerned only with readership, consciously developed a brand of comedy that was uniquely suited to, perhaps even relying on, the solipsistic manner in which the actors received and learned their parts.

The creation of the National Assembly for Wales and the Scottish Parliament in 1999 was accompanied with an aspiration that these new institutions would allow Scotland and Wales to develop their own policies, better suited to local needs than those designed in Westminster or Whitehall. This thesis explores policy-making in the first terms of the devolved institutions in Scotland and Wales, focusing on where the policies developed by these institutions diverged from those pursued at Westminster. Policy divergence is examined by studying the development of the financing long-term care for the elderly policies. The aim of this thesis is to identify why policy divergence occurred in the long-term care case, considering the impact of actors (or agents) and the institutional setting in which they operate, as suggested by Scharpf's model of actor-centred institutionalism. As actor-centred institutionalism suggested, both actors and institutions played a major role in shaping policy responses. In the Scottish case a range of actors cooperated and lobbied together for the introduction of free personal care, spurred on by the First Minister, who created an opportunity for those in favour of free personal care to pressurise his government to introduce the policy. In contrast, in Wales, actors were divided and never built up the same momentum to ensure the introduction of a more generous long-term care package. The institutional setting in which these actors operated was a major factor in shaping their policy preferences and the strategies they adopted to achieve them. This thesis considers the impact on policy-making of the devolved institution's electoral system, financial and legislative powers, design of the institutions, and the place of these institutions in a UK setting. The different institutional structures in Scotland and Wales provided different incentives and resources for actors, encouraged different styles of policy-making from Westminster and affected the way in which issues were framed. Examining the roles of actors and institutions in the formation of distinctive policies highlighted that in the real world these two elements are mutually dependent and cannot be separated. As a result it is impossible, and pointless, to determine whether actors or institutions were most influential on the development of distinctive policies. Instead this thesis explores how the difference between the configurations of actors and institutions in Scotland and Wales contributed to the creation of policies which were distinctive both from each other and the UK Government.

Lone-parent families were in the news in 1993 as never before. The Child Support Agency, and the question of lone-parent families' entitlement to state support were the feature of many news reports. This study examines this media coverage and, using concepts from agenda-setting and issue definition literature, examines the roles that political actors have played in the construction of these media reports. A content analysis of a complete sample of 77ie Times and 7he Sunday Times comprises the primary analytical method, with a policy process framework organising the analysis. It has been found that government ministers played the greatest part in setting the media agendas for these and other issues. It seems that other actors can be successful in shaping coverage, however, if they make use of certain tactics, particularly if they provide 'ready-packaged' stories to journalists that combine a human interest element (involving 'real' people) with a political slant. By mobilising on a mass level absent fathers were able to provide such stories and were thus able to take control of press coverage of the Child Support Agency. The lone parents' groups Gingerbread and the National Council for One Parent Families, on the other hand, found mobilisation and particularisation more difficult due to the social and economic situation of their client group - nine out of ten lone parents are women, and around eight out of ten claim income support benefits - and for this reason were less successful in shaping either coverage of the Child Support Agency, or of lone-parent families and their right to state support.

(in English): This diploma thesis introduces Prince Vincenz Karl Auersperg's travel diary from his journey to Great Britain undertaken in summer 1837 (title on title page: "Vincenz Carl Fürsten v. Auersperg's Reise nach England"). Diploma thesis has theoretical and practical part (in which there is Auersperg's diary edited). Vincenz Karl (1812-1867) was member of wealthy landed nobility. Thesis tries to describe his education, as well as important educator Alexis Du Rieux. Mature work (after 1837) is addressed as well: He is known as owner of Žleby Castle during castle's romantic renovation. He published two political (anonymous) brochures. Importance of the British journey (or traveling in general) in Auersperg's biography has been recognised for a long time, but was not known in detail. Most of the information about his particular British travel we have in diary (it has form of transcripts of letters addressed to his mother): Prince began his journey at the beginning of May in Vienna; stayed in Bruxelles for a week; he stayed in London between May 25th - June 28th ; after that he visited Scotland and Wales; he left Great Britain August 3rd ; he stayed in Paris from August 7th for a few weeks. This thesis also tries to put journey into a broader context. Firstly, it tries to describe it as a grand...

Defence date: 26 September 2014
Examining Board: Professor Dr. Heinz-Gerhard Haupt (European University Institute); Professor Dr. Pavel Kolar (European University Institute); Professor Dr. Jens Ivo Engels (Technische Universität Darmstadt); Dr. Dick van Lente (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam).
This thesis compares the French and British Chernobyl debates in the period between 1986 and 2006 and investigates the transnational debate on the health effects of this accident. While the exchange of actors and arguments has resulted in a rather congruent debate at the transnational level, the internal country debates on Chernobyl have remained very much bound by the national framework. This becomes particularly obvious in the comparison of the French and British Chernobyl debates, where multiple factors, specific to the national context, have shaped the different trajectories of the debates. In France, from the outset, Chernobyl was framed as a French debate, and placed into the context of the nucleócratie. In Britain, such an interpretative framework did not exist for the civil nuclear programme, since the predominant criticism against the nuclear enterprise had always been directed against the military complex and more focused on aspects of international relations than on the national nuclear energy complex. In Britain, therefore, Chernobyl was considered from a global perspective, whereas in France the focus was placed on the accident's impact at home. However, with the end of the Cold War and the British government's decision in the mid-1990s to no longer finance new nuclear power plants, anti-nuclear positions as such lost their impetus. Thus, few people in Britain were interested transforming the debate on the health impact of Chernobyl into a proxy war in the fight over the legitimacy of the civil nuclear enterprise, as was happening in France. Leaving this discursive and commemorative gap to the solidarity movement, in Britain, Chernobyl did not become an anti-nuclear lieu de mémoire as it did in France, but instead became associated primarily with charity activities for disabled or unprivileged children from Eastern Europe which effectively 'depoliticized' Chernobyl and separated it from the nuclear debate.

This study aimed to identify factors associated with taste acuity in healthy older European adults aged 55-87 years, employing a factorial independent design to recruit older adults from centres in France, Italy and United Kingdom. Adults aged 70-87 years (N=387) were recruited in Rome (Italy) (n=108) and Grenoble (France) (n=91) and aged 55-70 years in Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) (n=93) and Clermont-Ferrand (C-F) (France) (n=95). A signal detection theory (SDT) approach was used for detection threshold assessment of the four basic tastes (salt; sweet; bitter; and, sour). Trial data were converted to R-indices. Diet was assessed by means of four day food diaries. Dietary data were converted using WISP and then reduced, using a principal components analysis, to four components: Component 1 'high fat and salt'; Component 2 'high vitamins and fibre'; Component 3 'high fat and carbohydrate'; and, Component 4 'high trace elements'. Socio-demographic information was collected by self report survey. Four separate regression analyses were carried out, one for each of the four basic taste qualities (sweet; sour; bitter; salt). Mean ROC scores for each taste quality were the response variables and age, sex, country, social class and dietary components were predictor variables. The main predictors of taste acuity were age, sex, social class and country, which had differential effects for each taste quality. These data suggest that socio-demographic and cultural factors should be taken into account when considering taste acuity in older people.

In the nineteenth century, theatre and newspapers were the dominant expressions of popular culture in the northeastern United States, and together formed a crucial discursive node in the ongoing negotiation of American national identity. Focusing on the five decades between 1820 and 1870, during which touring stars from Great Britain enjoyed their most lucrative years of popularity on United States stages, this dissertation examines three instances in which English performers entered into this nationalizing forum and became flashpoints for journalists seeking to define the nature and bounds of American citizenship and culture. In 1821, Edmund Kean’s refusal to perform in Boston caused a scandal that revealed a widespread fixation among social elites with delineating the ethnic and economic limits of citizenship in a republican nation. In 1849, an ongoing rivalry between the English tragedian William Charles Macready and his American competitor Edwin Forrest culminated in the deadly Astor Place riot. By configuring the actors as champions in a struggle between bourgeois authority and working-class populism, the New York press inserted these local events into international patterns of economic conflict and revolutionary violence. Nearly twenty years later, the arrival of the Lydia Thompson Burlesque Troupe in 1868 drew rhetoric that reflected the popular press’ growing preoccupation with gender, particularly the question of woman suffrage and the preservation of the United States’ international reputation as a powerfully masculine nation in the wake of the Civil War. Three distinct cultural currents pervade each of these case studies: the new nation’s anxieties about its former colonizer’s cultural influence, competing political and cultural ideologies within the United States, and the changing perspectives and agendas of the ascendant popular press. Exploring the points where these forces intersect, this dissertation aims to contribute to an understanding of how popular culture helped shape an emerging sense of American national identity. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that in the mid-nineteenth century northeastern United States, popular theatre, newspapers, and audiences all contributed to a single media formation in which controversial English performers became a rhetorical antipode against which “American” identity could be defined.
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AbstractGender equality is an increasingly topical issue, but it has deep historical roots. The principle of gender equality found its legitimacy, even if limited to salary, in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, establishing the European Economic Community (EEC). This treaty, in Article 119, sanctioned the principle of equal pay between male and female workers. The EEC continued to protect women’s rights in the 1970s through equal opportunity policies. These policies referred, first, to the principle of equal treatment between men and women regarding education, access to work, professional promotion, and working conditions (Directive 75/117/EEC); second, to the principle of equal pay for male and female workers (Directive 76/207/EEC); and finally, enshrined the principle of equal treatment between men and women in matters of social security (Directive 79/7/EEC). Since the 1980s, several positive action programmes have been developed to support the role of women in European society. Between 1982 and 2000, four multiyear action programmes were implemented for equal opportunities. The first action programme (1982–1985) called on the Member States, through recommendations and resolutions by the Commission, to disseminate greater knowledge of the types of careers available to women, encourage the presence of women in decision-making areas, and take measures to reconcile family and working life. The second action programme (1986–1990) proposed interventions related to the employment of women in activities related to new technologies and interventions in favour of the equal distribution of professional, family, and social responsibilities (Sarcina, 2010). The third action programme (1991–1995) provided an improvement in the condition of women in society by raising public awareness of gender equality, the image of women in mass media, and the participation of women in the decision-making process at all levels in all areas of society. The fourth action programme (1996–2000) strengthened the existing regulatory framework and focused on the principle of gender mainstreaming, a strategy that involves bringing the gender dimension into all community policies, which requires all actors in the political process to adopt a gender perspective. The strategy of gender mainstreaming has several benefits: it places women and men at the heart of policies, involves both sexes in the policymaking process, leads to better governance, makes gender equality issues visible in mainstream society, and, finally, considers the diversity among women and men. Among the relevant interventions of the 1990s, it is necessary to recall the Treaty of Maastricht (1992) which guaranteed the protection of women in the Agreement on Social Policy signed by all Member States (except for Great Britain), and the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997), which formally recognised gender mainstreaming. The Treaty of Amsterdam includes gender equality among the objectives of the European Union (Article 2) and equal opportunity policies among the activities of the European Commission (Article 3). Article 13 introduces the principle of non-discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or handicaps. Finally, Article 141 amends Article 119 of the EEC on equal treatment between men and women in the workplace. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Nice Union of 2000 reaffirms the prohibition of ‘any discrimination based on any ground such as sex’ (Art. 21.1). The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union also recognises, in Article 23, the principle of equality between women and men in all areas, including employment, work, and pay. Another important intervention of the 2000s is the Lisbon strategy, also known as the Lisbon Agenda or Lisbon Process. It is a reform programme approved in Lisbon by the heads of state and governments of the member countries of the EU. The goal of the Lisbon strategy was to make the EU the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy by 2010. To achieve this goal, the strategy defines fields in which action is needed, including equal opportunities for female work. Another treaty that must be mentioned is that of Lisbon in 2009, thanks to which previous treaties, specifically the Treaty of Maastricht and the Treaty of Rome, were amended and brought together in a single document: the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Thanks to the Lisbon Treaty, the Charter of Fundamental Rights has assumed a legally binding character (Article 6, paragraph 1 of the TEU) both for European institutions and for Member States when implementing EU law. The Treaty of Lisbon affirms the principle of equality between men and women several times in the text and places it among the values and objectives of the union (Articles 2 and 3 of the TEU). Furthermore, the Treaty, in Art. 8 of the TFEU, states that the Union’s actions are aimed at eliminating inequalities, as well as promoting equality between men and women, while Article 10 of the TFEU provides that the Union aims to ‘combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, or sexual orientation’. Concerning the principle of gender equality in the workplace, the Treaty, in Article 153 of the TFEU, asserts that the Union pursues the objective of equality between men and women regarding labour market opportunities and treatment at work. On the other hand, Article 157 of the TFEU confirms the principle of equal pay for male and female workers ‘for equal work or work of equal value’. On these issues, through ordinary procedures, the European Parliament and the Council may adopt appropriate measures aimed at defending the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment for men and women. The Lisbon Treaty also includes provisions relating to the fight against trafficking in human beings, particularly women and children (Article 79 of the TFEU), the problem of domestic violence against women (Article 8 of the TFEU), and the right to paid maternity leave (Article 33). Among the important documents concerning gender equality is the Roadmap (2006–2010). In 2006, the European Commission proposed the Roadmap for equality between women and men, in addition to the priorities on the agenda, the objectives, and tools necessary to achieve full gender equality. The Roadmap defines six priority areas, each of which is associated with a set of objectives and actions that makes it easier to achieve them. The priorities include equal economic independence for women and men, reconciliation of private and professional life, equal representation in the decision-making process, eradication of all forms of gender-based violence, elimination of stereotypes related to gender, and promotion of gender equality in external and development policies. The Commission took charge of the commitments included in the Roadmap, which were indirectly implemented by the Member States through the principle of subsidiarity and the competencies provided for in the Treaties (Gottardi, 2013). The 2006–2010 strategy of the European Commission is based on a dual approach: on the one hand, the integration of the gender dimension in all community policies and actions (gender mainstreaming), and on the other, the implementation of specific measures in favour of women aimed at eliminating inequalities. In 2006, the European Council approved the European Pact for Gender Equality which originated from the Roadmap. The European Pact for Gender Equality identified three macro areas of intervention: measures to close gender gaps and combat gender stereotypes in the labour market, measures to promote a better work–life balance for both women and men, and measures to strengthen governance through the integration of the gender perspective into all policies. In 2006, Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and Council regulated equal opportunities and equal treatment between male and female workers. Specifically, the Directive aims to implement the principle of equal treatment related to access to employment, professional training, and promotion; working conditions, including pay; and occupational social security approaches. On 21 September 2010, the European Commission adopted a new strategy to ensure equality between women and men (2010–2015). This new strategy is based on the experience of Roadmap (2006–2010) and resumes the priority areas identified by the Women’s Charter: equal economic independence, equal pay, equality in decision-making, the eradication of all forms of violence against women, and the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment beyond the union. The 2010–2015 Strategic Plan aims to improve the position of women in the labour market, but also in society, both within the EU and beyond its borders. The new strategy affirms the principle that gender equality is essential to supporting the economic growth and sustainable development of each country. In 2010, the validity of the Lisbon Strategy ended, the objectives of which were only partially achieved due to the economic crisis. To overcome this crisis, the Commission proposed a new strategy called Europe 2020, in March 2010. The main aim of this strategy is to ensure that the EU’s economic recovery is accompanied by a series of reforms that will increase growth and job creation by 2020. Specifically, Europe’s 2020 strategy must support smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. To this end, the EU has established five goals to be achieved by 2020 and has articulated the different types of growth (smart, sustainable, and inclusive) in seven flagship initiatives. Among the latter, the initiative ‘an agenda for new skills and jobs’, in the context of inclusive growth, is the one most closely linked to gender policies and equal opportunities; in fact, it substantially aims to increase employment rates for women, young, and elderly people. The strategic plan for 2010–2015 was followed by a strategic commitment in favour of gender equality 2016–2019, which again emphasises the five priority areas defined by the previous plan. Strategic commitment, which contributes to the European Pact for Gender Equality (2011–2020), identifies the key actions necessary to achieve objectives for each priority area. In March 2020, the Commission presented a new strategic plan for equality between women and men for 2020–2025. This strategy defines a series of political objectives and key actions aimed at achieving a ‘union of equality’ by 2025. The main objectives are to put an end to gender-based violence and combat sexist stereotypes, ensure equal opportunities in the labour market and equal participation in all sectors of the economy and political life, solve the problem of the pay and pension gap, and achieve gender equality in decision-making and politics. From the summary of the regulatory framework presented, for the European Economic Community first, then for the European Community, and finally for the European Union, gender equality has always been a fundamental value. Interest in the issues of the condition of women and equal opportunities has grown over time and during the process of European integration, moving from a perspective aimed at improving the working conditions of women to a new dimension to improve the life of the woman as a person, trying to protect her not only professionally but also socially, and in general in all those areas in which gender inequality may occur. The approach is extensive and based on legislation, the integration of the gender dimension into all policies, and specific measures in favour of women. From the non-exhaustive list of the various legislative interventions, it is possible to note a continuous repetition of the same thematic priorities which highlights, on the one hand, the poor results achieved by the implementation of the policies, but, on the other hand, the Commission’s willingness to pursue the path initially taken. Among the achievements in the field of gender equality obtained by the EU, there is certainly an increase in the number of women in the labour market and the acquisition of better education and training. Despite progress, gender inequalities have persisted. Even though women surpass men in terms of educational attainment, gender gaps still exist in employment, entrepreneurship, and public life (OECD, 2017). For example, in the labour market, women continue to be overrepresented in the lowest-paid sectors and underrepresented in top positions (according to the data released in the main companies of the European Union, women represent only 8% of CEOs).

This chapter looks more specifically at how British unions have represented women's interests, based on a study of the struggle for equal pay since the 1970s. This history provides a complex, evolving, and in-depth reading of the presumed links between descriptive and substantive representation of women. It reveals the involvement of critical actors; men and women inside institutions, including unions, some of whom were very hostile to the defence of equal pay. Whether internally in their unions, or externally through bodies like the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC), women have mobilized to obtain their rights and ensure those rights were implemented. Less well known is the fact that local union men, mostly low paid and from male-dominated unions, seized on the existing legislation to obtain equal pay for their female colleagues. At the periphery of institutions, these actors were able to mobilize allies in the legal and political spheres both at the national and European level, to build networks and work towards the interpretation, implementation, and spread of legal norms within organizational practices.

This chapter investigates whether the structures put in place by Great Britain for the acquisition of Palestinian citizenship favoured Jewish immigrants in any way, and demonstrates how and why Great Britain felt the dual administration structure necessary to preserve its own sovereignty from 1918 through 1925. It focuses on the history of British legislation in Palestine and the main actors — and tensions between these actors and their departments — involved in making that legislation, including the mandate's first attorney-general, Norman Bentwich. The aim of British legislation, however, was to simply create a legal citizenship for the mandate's inhabitants, and to provide the means by which this citizenship could be acquired.

Great Britain formally recognised the Independence of Chile in 1831. This was the outcome of a long process of formal negotiations that began as early as 1813, when the first Chilean diplomatic envoys were sent to London to get support from Britain and to open up commercial relations. Such negotiations took place in a context of warfare both in Europe and Spanish America. Chileans did not initially succeed in the negotiations because Britain declared its neutrality in the conflict between Spain and its colonies and did not accept to negotiate with Chilean envoys as representatives of a state that did not exist. This chapter analyses the diplomatic negotiations between British and Chilean state actors about the recognition of Chile’s independence, focusing in the contested images and representations about Chile that circulated in the period and the role played by the United States.

Abstract The final verdict on Britain’s stance towards German unification will have to wait at least another twenty years until the release of HM official documents. However, this does not mean that until then we are reduced to making more or less intelligent guesses. For once the diplomatic process and the decisive position taken by the American Bush administration have been studied in detail by two aides of the president’s national security advisers.’ Their study will be unsurpassed for some time to come, not least because they draw on a vast array and variety of official documents, including Russian records. It is most telling that the only superpower left should also have been the first to direct our understanding of the momentous historical events of 1989/90. In addition, a great number of the German Chancellery’s documents pertaining to unification have already been published in one massive volume which constitutes an important source. It was, after all, the Chancellery, not the German Foreign Office, that was in charge of German-German affairs. One name which crops up again and again as the author of important minutes and memoranda is Horst Teltschik, Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s trusted civil servant and witness to most of his confidential talks. There is general agreement amongst historians that his diaries are the most candid and reliable source of information about the day-to-day business. He was behind all moves to accelerate the process of unification which so worried the British and German Foreign Ministries.

The Introductory chapter discusses the overarching question of the book: how did it all begin? Since when did the self-defined Great Powers of the nineteenth century––Austria, Britain, France, Prussia, and Russia––come to assume responsibility for providing security in the Levant. Why? The Introduction traces the answer of these questions to the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and maintains that Great Power interventions in the nineteenth-century Levant need to be considered not only in reference to their immediate causes, theatres, and implications. It is essential to take into account the continuity that European and Levantine actors saw in regional affairs from the late eighteenth century through until at least the mid-nineteenth. There is a need to foreground the persistent patterns or cultures of security within which violence was generated and sustained, and how the quest for security acted as an organizing principle of international relations. It also discusses the importance of considering these interventions in the fabric of the Eastern Question. It invites the readers to view the latter not only as a European question, as the existing literature has us believe, but also as an Ottoman question, whereby the agency of the Ottoman ministers and other local actors was more central than has been documented.

Financed, guided, and supported by US and British agents, the anti-Mosaddeq opposition successfully overthrew the National Front government on 19 August 1953 (28 Mordad, according to the Iranian calendar) in a violent coup d’état combining indigenous forces with foreign actors. US policymakers had long believed that without the substantial oil revenues that the international oil companies could provide, Iran would descend into economic and political chaos, leading eventually to communist control. In March 1953, US policymakers became convinced that Mosaddeq would never accept a “reasonable” oil settlement with the British and that allowing him to remain in office would lead to disaster. From April to August 1953, the United States, Great Britain, and their Iranian allies worked to weaken Mosaddeq in preparation for a coup d’état. Great Britain had been attempting to organize Mosaddeq’s ouster since he first came to power and eagerly supported the American effort. Internal opposition to Mosaddeq, particularly military officers led by General Fazlollah Zahedi, sought out and accepted foreign assistance. The final and key element was the shah, who reluctantly agreed to participate once he received assurances of US and British backing.

This chapter concerns the campaigning of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and its attempt to recruit British workers in solidarity with the Indian anti-imperialist struggle in the 1920s and 1930s. It begins by distinguishing three possible obstacles to a mass anti-imperialism in Britain: compromising interests, low salience, and poor political articulation. It argues that the first two were largely indeterminate – they had no single, directional implication for anti-imperialism – and that the weight of explanation must fall on the third, which was more determinate. It then examines the inter-relationships between four groups of political actors: the Communist International, the Indian émigré revolutionary groups directed – or in rivalry with – the Bengali revolutionary M.N. Roy to whom Comintern initially assigned its Indian work; the Communist Party of India (CPI) founded by Roy in October 1920, and the CPGB itself which was given first informal and from 1925 to 1934 formal responsibility for communist work in India. In each case it explores the strengths and weaknesses of their political work. It identifies the relationships between Indian and non-Indian actors as the key explanation, and the main difficulty in these relationships as the tension between communist internationalism and Indian nationalism’s commitment to self-directed and self-reliant national struggle. Terms such as sympathy, help and solidarity, the chapter argues, are not neutral: they define distinct, uneven relationships between those who act and those who benefit which are sometimes (not always) problematic.

The introductory chapter gives insight into the major topics of the book. It stresses the fact that the major actors of jihadism were of Muslim immigration origin but also include a minority of middle-class converts from secular Europe. The notion of “total social fact,” coined by Marcel Mauss, a major French anthropologist, is used to give a comprehensive picture of jihadism as a social phenomenon involving urban sociology (many came from the so-called poor districts, but also some came from some middle-class districts), ethnic relations (Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Moroccan, Algerian), national political culture (in France Laïcité, in Great Britain multiculturalism), family (the crisis in family among many jihadis), gender (a significant minority), and generation. From my viewpoint, all these aspects are to be taken into account in order to make sense of jihadism in Europe.

The article studies the most crucial period in the history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) – the emergence of the third Saudi state. This event was one of the immediate results of World War I since the winners – Great Britain and France – redrawn the Middle East map after the Ottoman Empire's dissolution. Its founder, Abdel-Aziz ibn Saud, played a vital role in creating the Saudi state. His personal leadership and diplomatic qualities influenced the success of restoring the Saudi state in the Arabian Peninsula. Nevertheless, the great powers were the main actors in this event and used it to create a political balance in the Middle East and gain their goals and interests in the region. Despite their prominent role in this process, they failed to obtain any significant benefits since the emergence of the Saudi state, and the policy of King Abdel-Aziz opened the door for the infiltration of American oil companies into the Middle East. Competing with British companies, they succeeded and eventually strengthened the political and economic influence of the USA in the Arab world.