Külpolitika - A Magyar Külügyi Intézet elméleti-politikai folyóirata - 1980 (7. évfolyam)
1980 / 4. szám - A tanulmányok orosz és angol nyelvű tartalmi kivonata
only think in terms of perfecting the present decision taking mechanism, with qualitative changes being ruled out. This recognition is expressed by the Tin- demans report which accepts so to speak nothing of the proposals submitted to it. It is not fortuitious that even the modest aims it includes have not been realized. June 1979 will in the last resort be remembered not as the date of the first direct elections to the European Parliament but as the time when no other changes were made in the organizational structure of the European Community. Jams I. Szirtes: The theoretical foundations of the Ostpolitik of the Federal Republic of Germany and the global strategy of imperialism The Ostpolitik of the Federal Republic of Germany and its implementation began to take shape in the early sixties. As the cold war policies of imperialism were being amended, it became clear to the Federal Republic of Germany that, in the period of détente, it would have to formulate a policy that took its cue from international conditions without leaving German interests out of consideration. What has become known as the Ostpolitik opened this option. The basic class interests continued unchanged, but the foreign policies of imperialism, in the conceptual expression, suffered tactical amendment. Ostpolitik as the response of the Federal Republic of Germany to the challenge of peaceful coexistence is not a closed system elaborated in all its details. Four major, relatively easily distinguished, areas can be identified: relations between the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany are the most basic and complex, involving as they do problems of the German question, including re-unification, representation &c.—and relations between the Soviet-Union, the socialist countries of Europe and China respectively, and the Federal Republic of Germany. The basic principle that underlies all four is identical: “it is impossible to change the status quo in a desirable way in Europe, nor can, in particular, the division of Germany be bridged, either using force, or through peaceful changes. Détente expresses a switch to aims and methods that have been carefully examined, giving up short-term efforts aimed at ‘liberating’ the nations of Eastern Europe from Communist domination. Instead they desire to produce long-term internal political and social changes within the Eastern Block.” The contractual phase closed the spectacular stage of the Ostpolitik. Treaties settled political relations between the socialist countries and the Federal Republic of Germany, and from that time on (1973) one can speak of a normal situation on the bilateral level. As a result of the consistent policies of the socialist system the Federal Republic of Germany recognised the realities of the European situation, thus creating objective conditions for the consolidation of progress towards peace and security. József Balázs: The role of scholarship in the preservation and development of international détente The article is based on a lecture given at a Conference held in Bucharest in September 1980. Summing up the social role of science and scholarship the author establishes that their objective is to reveal the inner and essential relations of the real world, in other words recognition. Another important aspect is transformation, facilitating and preparing decision-making in every social field. Furthermore it is up to scholarship to help produce a public opinion which shows a high degree of awareness and social consciousness, not to mention, in our own days, categorical action against thermonuclear war and for a lasting peace. Going on to political science the author emphasizes that it is not identical with politics, though one cannot draw a dividing line between them. Political science studies the inner and outer general laws of politics, endeavouring to reveal its universal, particular and international necessary causes, the context of relations, and the discernible trends, in the first place, as well as the interests at the back of them. Political science can do a great deal these days towards maintaining international détente, inasmuch as it reveals the objective and subjective causes and interest relations which justify the universally valid need to maintain and develop détente, as well as those causes which slow down détente in its tracks and create tension. It is of course necessary that such recognitions are then presented in a way which leads to their acceptance by the decision takers. VII
