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donate Abstracts for Mittelweg 36 1/2008
Dirk Tänzler
Korruption als Metapher. Tatsachen, Wahrnehmungen, Deutungsmuster
Corruption as metaphor: facts, perceptions, interpretive patterns
Since the early 1990s and the founding of Transparency International, corruption has increasingly become an issue for political agendas and public debates. Based on the assumption that corruption involves value judgments with respect to specific social phenomena, this essay discusses empirical evidence from an ongoing comparative study of European perceptions of corruption. In Romania, public discourse on corruption functions as a metaphor for interpreting post-socialist transformation and the widening gap between winners and losers that has accompanied the transformation crisis. Applying this "Romanian model" to Germany calls into question prevalent economic or theoretical explanations, which frame corruption as a deviation or breach of modernization's purported "best practices". The author argues that corruption in a modern, Western society such as Germany must instead be grasped as an unintended effect of recent neoliberal reforms.
Dierk Walter
Asymmetrien in Imperialkriegen. Ein Beitrag zum Verständnis der Herkunft des Krieges
Asymmetries in wars of empire: a contribution to understanding the future of war
How the concept of asymmetric war might further research on wars of empire and how the study of wars of empire might help refine the concept of asymmetric war, yielding new insights into some current developments in the history of warfare, are key questions addressed in this paper. Most notable among the characteristics shared by wars of empire – as empirical phenomena – and asymmetric war – as a theoretical conception – are specific modes of warfare; conflicts with these traits are commonly referred to as "small wars". The relationships between the concepts of small war, asymmetric war, and war of empire (a term favoured here, since it is seen as better describing the conflicts in question than colonial war) are examined, and definitions for each suggested. Especially in analyzing wars of empire, identifying specific asymmetries and symmetries would seem more productive than labelling entire wars as either asymmetric or symmetric. After exploring historical examples of asymmetries commonly encountered in colonial warfare, a paradoxical phenomenon is addressed, i.e., the fact that symmetric modes of waging war frequently emerge when asymmetric means are employed. The final section considers how such approaches to studying wars of empire might contribute to our understanding of the future of war.
Published 2008-02-26
Original in German
Contributed by Mittelweg 36
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