This article aimes to shed light on the rich, but rather enigmatic relationship between Finland and the Mediterranean world. These interactions have been approached since Antiquity, but this paper's focus has been on 19th and 20th centuries and especially on the last three decades. About thirty years ago, when Finland was preparing itself to join the European Union, it also had to build up a real Mediterranean policy of its own. It was in the Corfu European Council in June 1994 when the then-president realised that the country needed such a policy. Thus, in 1995, when Finland joined the EU, it also participated in the Barcelona Euro-Mediterranean Conference and signed the Barcelona Declaration that established the Barcelona Process forming the structures for European Union cooperation with the southern and eastern Mediterranean countries. The participation into this structural process was felt important for Finland mainly for two reasons. Firstly, the country wanted to be a full and active member of the EU and thus contribute to every field of activity that are important for the union. Secondly, we Finns realised that if we wanted the southern European countries to understand and to cooperate with our own ambitions in the northern part of Europe, we needed to show solidarity towards the aims and needs of our southern partners in the Mediterranean. All this resulted in Finland being surprisingly active in all Euro-Mediterranean cooperation environments. This concerned not only official state activities, but also other public sectors as well as civil society actors and NGOs. These EuroMediterranean activities became so many and so multiform that we can deal only with a few of them here as examples.
The article aims to analyse the Mediterranean city as a labyrinthine space based on the trilogy Drifting Cities (1961– 1965) and on the novel Lost Spring (1976) by Stratis Tsirkas (1911–1980). In order to represent space-time in a state of instability and crisis, with that space-time being Jerusalem, Cairo and Alexandria during the Second World War, and Athens during the socio-political disturbances of July 1965, the author resorts to the myth of the labyrinth. This myth evokes, on the one hand, the maze-like structure of an unknown urban landscape, and, on the other hand, socio-political disorder. As Mediterranean cities, Romanesque cities are hybrid and complex. For this reason, they appear as an “in-between” of the real and the imaginary, of the past and the present. It is by relying on the concept of thirdspace (Edward Soja), that the complex character of the Mediterranean city will be highlighted. However, each of these cities has its own specific features: Jerusalem appears as a chessboard where secret agents and obscure organisations engage in innumerable parties to satisfy their interests, Cairo presents itself as a political and social labyrinth, Alexandria refers to a labyrinth of intrigue and machinations and Athens is the home of the monsters of power.
Since the start of this decade external borders of the European Union have increasingly become sites of hardship, uncertainty, danger and death as hundreds of thousands of people every year attempt to enter Europe to escape war and poverty in North and Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. The year 2015 saw the arrival of over one million people via maritime routes, an unprecedented number that caused panic among politicians on the continent and unsettled societies of the “old” and the “new” European Union. Neo-nationalist and neo-fascist parties and movements gained significant ground. In June of 2016 voters in the United Kingdom chose to leave the European Union in the Brexit referendum whose erratic consequences will continue to play out for some time to come. The migratory crisis of the previous year fuelled the “Leave” vote by creating the perception that immigration to the EU is unchecked, and that the UK must “take control of its borders.” While it is not yet known what exactly is meant by “taking control,” we can observe that as a result of these events the terms and conditions of migration, mobility and citizenship in Europe are shifting. In this talk I will argue that this is a shift away from what I call the neoliberal-humanitarian consensus towards a new model whose exact shape is as yet undetermined, but whose emergent features are illuminated by recent anthropological scholarship. Drawing on the UK case study I will show that the control of borders and regulation of mobility is undergoing a distinct anti-humanitarian turn. I will explore the significance and prospects of this new anti-humanitarianism and the possibilities of anthropological insight.
The aim of the article is to analyze NATO’s activities in ensuring security in the Mediterranean and the importance of this basin for security in the region and outside. Therefore, the main research problem in this article boils down to the question: how is the activity of the North Atlantic Alliance in the Mediterranean, and what role does this basin play in the regional and global security systems? The article indicates the multifaceted importance of the Mediterranean Sea for NATO, key challenges and threats generated in this region, as well as actions taken by the Alliance to build safety in this area. During the conducted research, theoretical methods were used primarily, i.e., source analysis, synthesis, abstraction or generalization. Research was carried out based on scientific articles, monographs and websites, in particular the official website of the North Atlantic Alliance. In the course of research, an institutional and legal analysis method was also used, involving the analysis of normative documents issued by NATO.
The papers collected in the present volume of the ‘Światowit’ journal examine developments in textile production in Bronze and Iron Age Europe and the Mediterranean by tracing both traditional and innovative elements in textile technology. The issue comprises 11 original contributions that resulted from the session ‘Tradition and Innovation in Textile Technology in Bronze Age Europe and the Mediterranean’ organised in 2016 by Agata Ulanowska and Małgorzata Siennicka during the 22nd Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists in Vilnius. The papers discuss available archaeological evidence of textiles, textile imprints, textile tools and textile iconography, as well as botanical and faunal remains related to textile manufacture and dyeing. The papers examine the types of social relations and cultural and economic processes which may have enhanced developments in textile technology and impacted on cross-cultural transmission of textile knowledge and skills in the Bronze and Iron Ages.
From immemorial time, many Tyrrhenian places of ancient Sicily and Italy were identified (also by the local people) with the main stages of the return of Ulysses (Cyclopes, Aeolus, Circe, etc.). Some Hellenistic critics (for example Aristarchus and Polybius) assumed that it was from the various ancient and pre-Homeric myths that Homer drew inspiration, in the same way that he did with the myth of the Trojan War, which certainly occurred before him. Thus, the voyage of Ulysses, after his losing the course because of the storm at Cape Malea, had to be located in those sites. But how can one explain the fact that Homer places the voyage from Circe to the Hades over the Ocean? Is it only a pseudogeographic poetic touch, aimed to magnify the exploit? Crates of Mallus did not think so: in his opinion, only some of the numerous adventures had taken place in the Tyrrhenian Sea, whereas Homer had purposefully placed some other exactly on the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the ancient name given to the Straits of Gibraltar). Whichever of the two models one chooses, the route of Ulysses seems to be completely unlikely, both from the point of view of objective reality and from the point of view of poetic imagination (if one desires to retain at least some plausibility). It appears to be a senseless coming and going that takes the shape of some sort of a labyrinth. Furthermore, the navigation times suggested by the text do not accord at all (even approximately) with the distances among the real sites. For this reason, Eratosthenes held that, from Cape Malea onwards, Ulysses switched from the real world to that of fantasy, or better still to the world of some narrative fable that does not heed geography at all. The modern critics are inclined to agree with him and this thesis is nowadays the most popular one. Yet, a very serious objection can be raised here: the myth and the epos (since the most archaic era), are strictly linked to the geography and the topography as well – they are radically refractory to a narrative fable that totally contradicts the then realities of time and space. Why should Ulysses plunge from Cape Malea onwards straight into the Neverland kingdom? If we combine Odyssey’s data with those we can reconstruct for the earliest form of the Argonautic saga (taking also into account the chronology of the Greek western colonization), then we get the solution that neither the ancient nor the modern critics have guessed correctly: up to around the middle of the 8th century B.C., the Greeks thought the Ocean to flow just after the Sicily Channel, essentially coinciding with the so-called Tyrrhenian Sea, still completely unknown at that time. This new perspective can well justify the objective disorder of Ulysses’ route. Above all, it also bears a deeper poetic sense: the Hero had the chance to know and to experience not only some far and exotic countries in general terms (as it can happen to any off-course sailor), but he also met the very boundaries of the surfacing lands and the rushing waters which encircle the terrestrial disc, bordering the external cosmic abyss. Ulysses came back home alive. He was able to tell the stories about the lands where no human being could ever sail. This borderline that geographically is clearly located marks at the same time the insurmountable chasm between the physical and the meta-physical world.
IT
From immemorial time, many Tyrrhenian places of ancient Sicily and Italy were identified (also by the local people) with the main stages of the return of Ulysses (Cyclopes, Aeolus, Circe, etc.). Some Hellenistic critics (for example Aristarchus and Polybius) assumed that it was from the various ancient and pre-Homeric myths that Homer drew inspiration, in the same way that he did with the myth of the Trojan War, which certainly occurred before him. Thus, the voyage of Ulysses, after his losing the course because of the storm at Cape Malea, had to be located in those sites. But how can one explain the fact that Homer places the voyage from Circe to the Hades over the Ocean? Is it only a pseudogeographic poetic touch, aimed to magnify the exploit? Crates of Mallus did not think so: in his opinion, only some of the numerous adventures had taken place in the Tyrrhenian Sea, whereas Homer had purposefully placed some other exactly on the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the ancient name given to the Straits of Gibraltar). Whichever of the two models one chooses, the route of Ulysses seems to be completely unlikely, both from the point of view of objective reality and from the point of view of poetic imagination (if one desires to retain at least some plausibility). It appears to be a senseless coming and going that takes the shape of some sort of a labyrinth. Furthermore, the navigation times suggested by the text do not accord at all (even approximately) with the distances among the real sites. For this reason, Eratosthenes held that, from Cape Malea onwards, Ulysses switched from the real world to that of fantasy, or better still to the world of some narrative fable that does not heed geography at all. The modern critics are inclined to agree with him and this thesis is nowadays the most popular one. Yet, a very serious objection can be raised here: the myth and the epos (since the most archaic era), are strictly linked to the geography and the topography as well – they are radically refractory to a narrative fable that totally contradicts the then realities of time and space. Why should Ulysses plunge from Cape Malea onwards straight into the Neverland kingdom? If we combine Odyssey’s data with those we can reconstruct for the earliest form of the Argonautic saga (taking also into account the chronology of the Greek western colonization), then we get the solution that neither the ancient nor the modern critics have guessed correctly: up to around the middle of the 8th century B.C., the Greeks thought the Ocean to flow just after the Sicily Channel, essentially coinciding with the so-called Tyrrhenian Sea, still completely unknown at that time. This new perspective can well justify the objective disorder of Ulysses’ route. Above all, it also bears a deeper poetic sense: the Hero had the chance to know and to experience not only some far and exotic countries in general terms (as it can happen to any off-course sailor), but he also met the very boundaries of the surfacing lands and the rushing waters which encircle the terrestrial disc, bordering the external cosmic abyss. Ulysses came back home alive. He was able to tell the stories about the lands where no human being could ever sail. This borderline that geographically is clearly located marks at the same time the insurmountable chasm between the physical and the meta-physical world.
This paper analyzes Israel's changing understanding of its geostrategic posture from its establishment in 1948 to the current era. It starts by reviewing traditional Israeli geostrategic ideas and their implementation, mostly, as reflected in the nation's national security doctrine. The paper then investigates the efect of Israel's territorial expansion after 1967 on Israeli ideas about geostrategy. Finally, the paper shows how changing global, regional, and technological variables in the last two decades have transformed how Israeli elites understand their geostrategic realities and how they allocate resources in response to these changing conditions.
The largest known collection of La Tène glass from Němčice in Moravia dating to the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC also includes glass beads originating in southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean. As in Pistiros, the beads could have been related to the same events of a military, trade or other nature. The relative scarcity of imported beads in Němčice is explained by the glass‑working activities at this site, which covered the needs of the local population.
In this article, I would like to propose an alternative and long view of “1968” which is grounded in black liberation movements, Afrodiasporic cultures, neighborhood-based organizations and sustained and propagated by music and sound. Venturing into this alternative history, I consider the Bronx, Harlem, and Naples, Italy as networks of resistance and nodal junctures for the transmission of Afrodiasporic cultures of opposition. Connecting the mutual influence of global social movements, music and neighborhood-based organizations, my article is also an invitation to start thinking about history through acoustic/musical resonances.
Preface to a special collection volume on lamp studies gathering together material from new and old finds from Spain in the west to the Eastern Mediterranean and even India, mainly from the Hellenistic through Byzantine times.
Niniejszy artykuł ma na celu analizę wizerunku ludności Dalmacji pod panowaniem francuskim w epoce napoleońskiej. Analiza ta opiera się głównie na dokumentach wytworzonych przez francuską administrację Dalmacji w latach 1806–1813, kiedy to prowincja była najpierw częścią napoleońskiego Królestwa Włoch, a od 1809 r. częścią odrębnego podmiotu Cesarstwa Francuskiego, Prowincji Iliryjskich. Niniejsze studium analizuje obraz społeczeństwa dalmatyńskiego stworzony przez Francuzów dla praktycznych celów zarządzania i zestawia go z szerszym kontekstem idei Bałkanów, Europy Wschodniej i przede wszystkim środowiskowych i historycznych uwarunkowań Śródziemnomorza. Artykuł wykazuje, że zjawiska napięć, które występowały między osiadłą ludnością wybrzeża a pół-koczowniczymi społecznościami pasterskimi wnętrza Dalmacji, co było charakterystycznym zjawiskiem świata śródziemnomorskiego, miały – przynajmniej w kontekście dalmatyńskim – ogromny wpływ na pojawienie się idei, które później stały się częścią obrazu bałkańskiego zacofania i innych koncepcji dotyczących regionu Bałkanów, które miały kształtować się głównie w epoce Oświecenia.
EN
The article analyzes the image of the population of Dalmatia in the Napoleonic era. The analysis is mainly based on documents produced by the French administration of Dalmatia between 1806 and 1813, when the province was first part of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy and from 1809 belonged to a separate entity of the French Empire, the Illyrian Provinces. The study analyzes the picture of Dalmatian society that the French drew for practical administrative purposes and places it in the broader context of the concepts of the Balkans and Eastern Europe and, in particular, the environmental and historical peculiarities of the Mediterranean region. The article shows that the tensions between the settled population on the coast and the semi-nomadic pastoral communities in the Dalmatian hinterland, which was a characteristic phenomenon of the Mediterranean world, had a great influence, at least in the Dalmatian context, on the formation of ideas that later became part of the image of Balkan backwardness and other ideas about the Balkan region that took shape in the Age of Enlightenment.
This study deals with the circumstances that led to the accession of Greece and Turkey to NATO in 1952. One of the main aims of this study is to analyze which role the United States played in this process. The first part briefly analyzes the reasons for the U.S. involvement in the Eastern Mediterranean after World War II. The author also deals with the reasons why Greece and Turkey did not join NATO already in 1949. The last part analyzes the reasons why the United States and other founding members of NATO changed during the years 1950–1951 their opinions and Greece and Turkey invited to NATO in 1952. Although, the emphasis is placed on changes in U.S. foreign and security policy after the outbreak of the Korean War as well as other international problems.
CS
Tato studie se zabývá okolnostmi, které vedly k přijetí Řecka a Turecka do Severoatlantické aliance v roce 1952. Zvláštní důraz je kladen na to, jakou roli v celém procesu rozšíření NATO o tyto dva státy východního Středomoří sehrály Spojené státy americké. První část v krátkosti analyzuje, z jakých důvodů se USA začaly o východní Středomoří po druhé světové válce zajímat a proč převzaly po roce 1947 v této oblasti velmocenskou roli po Velké Británie. Dále se autor zabývá příčinami, které vedly k nepřijetí Řecka a Turecka do NATO již v roce 1949, kdy byla Severoatlantická aliance založena. Poslední část analyzuje důvody, jež přiměly Spojené státy i ostatní zakládající členy NATO změnit během let 1950–1951 na celou problematiku názor a Řecko a Turecko do Severoatlantické aliance přizvat. Důraz je přitom kladen na změny v americké zahraniční a bezpečnostní politice, k nimž došlo v souvislosti s vypuknutí Korejské války i dalším mezinárodně‑politickým okolnostem.
The problem of irregular migration to the European Union (EU) via the Mediterranean Sea is a phenomenon that has been with the European Community (EC) for many years. The migration crisis that began in 2014 has shown the entire international community that the challenge for the EU is not only uncontrolled migration but also what causes it. In the context of the EU’s close neighborhood with the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), the priority of EC members should be both to provide assistance to those in need and to effectively support the countries of the region facing internal problems, which in the near future can only increase this migration. The MENA region, home to more than 40 million migrants and 14 million internally displaced persons, has experienced numerous natural disasters, crises (man-made or currently caused by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic) and conflicts (some of the longest-running in the world). The aim of the article is to determine the causes of the migration crisis of 2014–2017 and to show the scale of irregular migration along with the results of scientific research. Particularly noteworthy in this respect is the identification of the importance of the Mediterranean Sea for migration and the determination of the EU’s response to the problem of uncontrolled migration by sea.
PL
Problem nieregularnej migracji do Unii Europejskiej (UE) przez Morze Śródziemne to zjawisko, które towarzyszy Wspólnocie Europejskiej (WE) od wielu lat. Kryzys migracyjny, który rozpoczął się w 2014 r., ukazał całej społeczności międzynarodowej, iż wyzwaniem dla UE jest nie tylko niekontrolowana migracja, ale również to, co stanowi jej przyczynę. W związku z bliskim sąsiedztwem UE z regionem Bliskiego Wschodu i Afryki Północnej (ang. Middle East and North Africa – MENA) priorytetem członków WE powinno być zarówno udzielanie pomocy osobom potrzebującym, jak i skuteczne wspieranie państw regionu, borykających się z problemami wewnętrznymi, które w niedalekiej przyszłości mogą tylko tę migrację nasilić. W regionie MENA, zamieszkałym przez ponad 40 mln migrantów i 14 mln wewnętrznych przesiedleńców, mają miejsce liczne klęski żywiołowe, kryzysy (spowodowane przez człowieka czy aktualnie wywołane skutkami pandemii COVID-19) oraz konflikty (są to jedne z najdłużej trwających na świecie). Celem artykułu jest określenie przyczyn kryzysu migracyjnego z lat 2014–2017 oraz ukazanie skali nieregularnej migracji wraz z wynikami prowadzonych badań naukowych. Na szczególną uwagę w tym zakresie zasługuje określenie znaczenia Morza Śródziemnego dla migracji oraz wskazanie odpowiedzi UE na problem niekontrolowanej migracji drogą morską.
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