Robert Niebuhr | Arizona State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Robert Niebuhr

Journal of World History, 2019

Abstract:This article surveys the Tacna-Arica plebiscite period (1925–1926) by taking into consid... more Abstract:This article surveys the Tacna-Arica plebiscite period (1925–1926) by taking into consideration the regional history alongside increasingly important global trends. While the contest between Peru and Chile highlights the battle between primordial versus constructed nationalism, it also places contested notions of nationalism alongside a growing spirit of internationalism. Woodrow Wilson's proclamations at the end of World War I, especially his focus on self-determination and justice, directly inspired leaders in Bolivia, Chile, and Peru to seek a finalization of the Tacna-Arica dispute. Despite the hope that Wilsonian principals would win the day, traditional concepts such as economics and power proved victorious, which underscored the fragility of humanitarian rights and justice between the world wars. This investigation into how global trends influenced Tacna-Arica are placed alongside contemporary comparisons of plebiscites held in Europe between the world wars.

Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Sep 1, 2006

Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Jan 2, 2016

ABSTRACT When Yugoslav strongman Josip Broz Tito secured power at the end of World War II, he use... more ABSTRACT When Yugoslav strongman Josip Broz Tito secured power at the end of World War II, he used violence as a key mechanism in that quest. Owing to the contested nature of politics in Yugoslav territories, these acts of violence were diverse and focused on a number of different peoples, including prisoners of war. While scholarship has covered Tito’s use of viciousness at places such as Bleiburg, this article would like to suggest that violence was not ubiquitous. Documents at the Archive of Yugoslavia tell a story of how a small group of German prisoners of war fared under Tito’s regime, which I argue show that ideology trumped other aspects of early postwar politics. Various documents focus on Wehrmacht Battalion 999 and how this episode should inform our broader understanding of violence, ideology, and political control in the aftermath of World War II.

De Gruyter eBooks, Sep 20, 2021

Brill | Schöningh eBooks, Jul 27, 2020

Austrian History Yearbook, Apr 1, 2018

War and society, Feb 5, 2018

European History Quarterly, Apr 1, 2017

¡Vamos a avanzar! The Chaco War and Bolivia's Political Transformation, 1899–1952, Aug 1, 2021

Cold War History, Feb 18, 2021

Historiography on Titoist Yugoslavia has been growing in recent years to include important aspect... more Historiography on Titoist Yugoslavia has been growing in recent years to include important aspects of international relations, such as how that country influenced the Non-Aligned Movement. Yet, examinations of the domestic issues that were at the heart of why Josip Broz Tito’s state took such an unexpected turn towards global diplomacy remain closely tied to the storied break with Stalin in 1948, the subsequent reliance on the United States, and finally the delicate balance between both East and West. There is a missing facet of these two strands of research, which speaks to the broader history of Yugoslavia, especially the intersection of domestic and foreign affairs. One place where the domestic and foreign policies coexisted was with respect to the secret state police agencies. It is here that Christian Axboe Nielsen provides a much-needed analysis about how the regime dealt with enemies, with a particular emphasis on the émigré population. First, I want to highlight why this topic is so important and then explain some aspects of this book that make it worthy of consultation. Tito and his closest associates wasted little time in securing power as the Second World War came to a close, yet the Partisans struggled to secure a mandate to govern. In short, because political enemies remained in Yugoslavia, Tito’s state relied on propaganda and police power. The deployment of one or the other shifted over the years, which partly represented the comfort that the regime’s leaders felt with their legitimacy. While this influenced the domestic situation, it also had an important foreign policy component. For example, some opponents of the Titoist regime escaped the country during the final days of war in 1945 and resettled in Australia, Canada, the United States, Chile, Argentina, and elsewhere. Meanwhile others emigrated following the Tito-Stalin split in 1948. The latter émigré population could be generalised as economic migrants, who sought work in places such as West Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, especially in the 1960s. Therefore, solidifying the regime against political opposition meant that the security forces needed to consider activity at home and outside of Yugoslavia, and had to cope with different generations and political orientations within the émigré community. That combined with the vacillating policy of centralising and decentralising state institutions, which encouraged an activist émigré community that remained motivated against single-party rule in Yugoslavia. Hence, as Ivo Banac has shown, the regime was committed to guarding against any outside actors who either committed high-profile attacks abroad against leaders such as Yugoslav Prime Minister Džemal Bijedić or sought to enter Yugoslavia and stir up a revolt. Nielsen’s book does a nice job of navigating the detailed nuance of the Yugoslav security service during this tumultuous history. Chapters move more or less in chronological order, under the broader themes of defining the enemy, monitoring the enemy, and an activist position against opponents. While not quite a periodisation, this structure does grant the reader an opportunity to see how the security forces as an institution evolved over time. Perhaps the heart of the work lies in the fourth chapter, which examines the 1972 Bugojno Uprising, a failed attempt by a second-generation émigré community to stir up rebellion inside Yugoslavia. Nielsen remains close to the details of the case and how it affected the security service, including highlighting how a decentralised security apparatus hurt its effectiveness in combating threats. This was in part because the émigré actors focused on Croatia and Croats in Bosnia, and, as a result, the Croatian and Bosnian offices of state security were tasked with the main responsibility of neutralising the threat. The final manhunt, though, for


Polemos : časopis za interdisciplinarna istraživanja rata i mira, Dec 31, 2004

The death of Yugoslavia took place in tandem with the death of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). ... more The death of Yugoslavia took place in tandem with the death of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). Initially, the JNA sought to maintain the integrity of the federation but soon unraveled along ethnic lines. The JNA's internal transition thus serves as a microcosm of the process of Yugoslav dismemberment. On a personal level, soldiers with mixed ethnicities had to choose allegiances. That struggle mirrored certain choices by civilians, but on a much more troubling level-namely, who to shoot at and why? Finally, no discussion of the breakup of Yugoslavia can go without mentioning the role of the League of Communists. The relationship between the army, party, and state helped create fissures and further confusion, especially with the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. How could a party-run army and state peacefully transition to some form of a multi-party state and mixed economy? The troubles that plagued former Yugoslavia and the JNA, especially during the 1980s, created a mixture that helped foster disaster and death at all levels.

U ovom se zborniku objavljuju tekstovi koje su prijatelji, suradnici i nekadašnji studenti profes... more U ovom se zborniku objavljuju tekstovi koje su prijatelji, suradnici i nekadašnji studenti profesora Drage Roksandića iz cijeloga svijeta napisali kako bi obilježili njegov sedamdeseti rođendan i odlazak u mirovinu s Odsjeka za povijest Filozofskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu. Tkogod da je susreo profesora Dragu Roksandića između 1990., kada je na Odsjeku za povijest izabran za docenta, i 2018. godine, kada je otišao u mirovinu, vjerojatno je primijetio njegov značajan utjecaj na studente svih razina, od preddiplomskih do doktorskih. Profesor je snažno inspirirao i utjecao na bliske suradnike svih generacija. Ovdje je riječ o pravom Festschriftu, „pisanoj proslavi“, koja prema dobrim običajima akademske zajednice izlazi u čast jednog njezina uvaženog člana. Prilozi u zborniku obuhvaćaju različite epohalne horizonte – neki detaljno istražuju pojedine segmente određenog perioda, neki se usmjeravaju na lokalne fenomene ili pristupaju istraživačkim problemima mikrohistorijski. Neki ...

Journal of World History, Nov 30, 2023

The Search for a Cold War Legitimacy: Foreign Policy and Tito's Yugoslavia

Zbornik Drage Roksandića, 2019

Drawing inspiration from Drago Roksandić's ideas on the Triplex Con nium, this paper seeks to con... more Drawing inspiration from Drago Roksandić's ideas on the Triplex Con nium, this paper seeks to conceptualize the idea of a borderland in the early years of Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslavia. ere were two borderlands; rst, the ideological frontier between Soviet Communism and the emerging Yugoslav variant following the Tito-Stalin split. Second, the decolonizing space in Asia and the search there for a governing system made it a place of intersections. With archival data of Vladimir Dedijer's 1948 trip to India this article suggests that the early Cold War gave Yugoslavia a unique opportunity to expand a proactive foreign policy.

Journal of World History, 2019

Abstract:This article surveys the Tacna-Arica plebiscite period (1925–1926) by taking into consid... more Abstract:This article surveys the Tacna-Arica plebiscite period (1925–1926) by taking into consideration the regional history alongside increasingly important global trends. While the contest between Peru and Chile highlights the battle between primordial versus constructed nationalism, it also places contested notions of nationalism alongside a growing spirit of internationalism. Woodrow Wilson's proclamations at the end of World War I, especially his focus on self-determination and justice, directly inspired leaders in Bolivia, Chile, and Peru to seek a finalization of the Tacna-Arica dispute. Despite the hope that Wilsonian principals would win the day, traditional concepts such as economics and power proved victorious, which underscored the fragility of humanitarian rights and justice between the world wars. This investigation into how global trends influenced Tacna-Arica are placed alongside contemporary comparisons of plebiscites held in Europe between the world wars.

Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Sep 1, 2006

Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Jan 2, 2016

ABSTRACT When Yugoslav strongman Josip Broz Tito secured power at the end of World War II, he use... more ABSTRACT When Yugoslav strongman Josip Broz Tito secured power at the end of World War II, he used violence as a key mechanism in that quest. Owing to the contested nature of politics in Yugoslav territories, these acts of violence were diverse and focused on a number of different peoples, including prisoners of war. While scholarship has covered Tito’s use of viciousness at places such as Bleiburg, this article would like to suggest that violence was not ubiquitous. Documents at the Archive of Yugoslavia tell a story of how a small group of German prisoners of war fared under Tito’s regime, which I argue show that ideology trumped other aspects of early postwar politics. Various documents focus on Wehrmacht Battalion 999 and how this episode should inform our broader understanding of violence, ideology, and political control in the aftermath of World War II.

De Gruyter eBooks, Sep 20, 2021

Brill | Schöningh eBooks, Jul 27, 2020

Austrian History Yearbook, Apr 1, 2018

War and society, Feb 5, 2018

European History Quarterly, Apr 1, 2017

¡Vamos a avanzar! The Chaco War and Bolivia's Political Transformation, 1899–1952, Aug 1, 2021

Cold War History, Feb 18, 2021

Historiography on Titoist Yugoslavia has been growing in recent years to include important aspect... more Historiography on Titoist Yugoslavia has been growing in recent years to include important aspects of international relations, such as how that country influenced the Non-Aligned Movement. Yet, examinations of the domestic issues that were at the heart of why Josip Broz Tito’s state took such an unexpected turn towards global diplomacy remain closely tied to the storied break with Stalin in 1948, the subsequent reliance on the United States, and finally the delicate balance between both East and West. There is a missing facet of these two strands of research, which speaks to the broader history of Yugoslavia, especially the intersection of domestic and foreign affairs. One place where the domestic and foreign policies coexisted was with respect to the secret state police agencies. It is here that Christian Axboe Nielsen provides a much-needed analysis about how the regime dealt with enemies, with a particular emphasis on the émigré population. First, I want to highlight why this topic is so important and then explain some aspects of this book that make it worthy of consultation. Tito and his closest associates wasted little time in securing power as the Second World War came to a close, yet the Partisans struggled to secure a mandate to govern. In short, because political enemies remained in Yugoslavia, Tito’s state relied on propaganda and police power. The deployment of one or the other shifted over the years, which partly represented the comfort that the regime’s leaders felt with their legitimacy. While this influenced the domestic situation, it also had an important foreign policy component. For example, some opponents of the Titoist regime escaped the country during the final days of war in 1945 and resettled in Australia, Canada, the United States, Chile, Argentina, and elsewhere. Meanwhile others emigrated following the Tito-Stalin split in 1948. The latter émigré population could be generalised as economic migrants, who sought work in places such as West Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, especially in the 1960s. Therefore, solidifying the regime against political opposition meant that the security forces needed to consider activity at home and outside of Yugoslavia, and had to cope with different generations and political orientations within the émigré community. That combined with the vacillating policy of centralising and decentralising state institutions, which encouraged an activist émigré community that remained motivated against single-party rule in Yugoslavia. Hence, as Ivo Banac has shown, the regime was committed to guarding against any outside actors who either committed high-profile attacks abroad against leaders such as Yugoslav Prime Minister Džemal Bijedić or sought to enter Yugoslavia and stir up a revolt. Nielsen’s book does a nice job of navigating the detailed nuance of the Yugoslav security service during this tumultuous history. Chapters move more or less in chronological order, under the broader themes of defining the enemy, monitoring the enemy, and an activist position against opponents. While not quite a periodisation, this structure does grant the reader an opportunity to see how the security forces as an institution evolved over time. Perhaps the heart of the work lies in the fourth chapter, which examines the 1972 Bugojno Uprising, a failed attempt by a second-generation émigré community to stir up rebellion inside Yugoslavia. Nielsen remains close to the details of the case and how it affected the security service, including highlighting how a decentralised security apparatus hurt its effectiveness in combating threats. This was in part because the émigré actors focused on Croatia and Croats in Bosnia, and, as a result, the Croatian and Bosnian offices of state security were tasked with the main responsibility of neutralising the threat. The final manhunt, though, for


Polemos : časopis za interdisciplinarna istraživanja rata i mira, Dec 31, 2004

The death of Yugoslavia took place in tandem with the death of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). ... more The death of Yugoslavia took place in tandem with the death of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). Initially, the JNA sought to maintain the integrity of the federation but soon unraveled along ethnic lines. The JNA's internal transition thus serves as a microcosm of the process of Yugoslav dismemberment. On a personal level, soldiers with mixed ethnicities had to choose allegiances. That struggle mirrored certain choices by civilians, but on a much more troubling level-namely, who to shoot at and why? Finally, no discussion of the breakup of Yugoslavia can go without mentioning the role of the League of Communists. The relationship between the army, party, and state helped create fissures and further confusion, especially with the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. How could a party-run army and state peacefully transition to some form of a multi-party state and mixed economy? The troubles that plagued former Yugoslavia and the JNA, especially during the 1980s, created a mixture that helped foster disaster and death at all levels.

U ovom se zborniku objavljuju tekstovi koje su prijatelji, suradnici i nekadašnji studenti profes... more U ovom se zborniku objavljuju tekstovi koje su prijatelji, suradnici i nekadašnji studenti profesora Drage Roksandića iz cijeloga svijeta napisali kako bi obilježili njegov sedamdeseti rođendan i odlazak u mirovinu s Odsjeka za povijest Filozofskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu. Tkogod da je susreo profesora Dragu Roksandića između 1990., kada je na Odsjeku za povijest izabran za docenta, i 2018. godine, kada je otišao u mirovinu, vjerojatno je primijetio njegov značajan utjecaj na studente svih razina, od preddiplomskih do doktorskih. Profesor je snažno inspirirao i utjecao na bliske suradnike svih generacija. Ovdje je riječ o pravom Festschriftu, „pisanoj proslavi“, koja prema dobrim običajima akademske zajednice izlazi u čast jednog njezina uvaženog člana. Prilozi u zborniku obuhvaćaju različite epohalne horizonte – neki detaljno istražuju pojedine segmente određenog perioda, neki se usmjeravaju na lokalne fenomene ili pristupaju istraživačkim problemima mikrohistorijski. Neki ...

Journal of World History, Nov 30, 2023

The Search for a Cold War Legitimacy: Foreign Policy and Tito's Yugoslavia

Zbornik Drage Roksandića, 2019

Drawing inspiration from Drago Roksandić's ideas on the Triplex Con nium, this paper seeks to con... more Drawing inspiration from Drago Roksandić's ideas on the Triplex Con nium, this paper seeks to conceptualize the idea of a borderland in the early years of Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslavia. ere were two borderlands; rst, the ideological frontier between Soviet Communism and the emerging Yugoslav variant following the Tito-Stalin split. Second, the decolonizing space in Asia and the search there for a governing system made it a place of intersections. With archival data of Vladimir Dedijer's 1948 trip to India this article suggests that the early Cold War gave Yugoslavia a unique opportunity to expand a proactive foreign policy.

Yugoslavia, Nonalignment and Cold War Globalism Tito's International Rise, Celebrity and Fall, 2024

In ¡Vamos a avanzar! Robert Niebuhr argues that despite widespread corruption, a lack of skills, ... more In ¡Vamos a avanzar! Robert Niebuhr argues that despite widespread corruption, a lack of skills, and failed policies, Bolivian leaders in the first half of the twentieth century created a modern state because of the profound role of warfare over the Chaco. When President Daniel Salamanca hastily thrust his isolated and poverty stricken country into the devastation of the Chaco War against Paraguay in 1932, he unleashed a number of forces that had been brewing inside and outside of Bolivia, all of which combined to bring Bolivia a truly modern national identity and state-building program. This conflict was the defining moment whereby rhetoric and populism took on a broader meaning among the newly mobile populace, especially the Indigenous war veterans, as the Bolivians proclaimed, ¡Vamos a avanzar! (Let’s
move forward!).

With the final revolution of 1952, politics in Bolivia became more modern than they had been in the period of the Chaco War or during the populist leanings of all post-1899 governments. Niebuhr offers a fresh contribution, showing the importance of the turbulent populist politics of the period after 1899 and the significance of the Chaco War as the most influential revolutionary event in modern Bolivian history.