Florian Heyden – författare

Master''s Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - Region: Near East, Near Orient, grade: Distinction (Very good), King`s College London (King''s College London), course: The Occupied Territories Since 1967, language: English, abstract: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a complicated and multi-dimensional conflict. In many contexts, it is very hard, if not impossible, to assess the violence between Palestinian and Israeli society today without resorting to a developed theory rather than emotion. However, many scholars and politicians hold the assumption that Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be properly understood with the frameworks, categories and concepts employed to understand other countries and conflicts . We shall endeavour to counter such beliefs and develop exactly that, a framework for analysing Israeli-Palestinian relations and conflict, allowing us to put the conflict into perspective and further develop a structural investigation into the root causes of conflict. We will do this at the example of the Algerian uprising against French colonialism. To develop such a framework, we will draw on classic texts such as the writings of Fanon and Memmi, as well as works by writers such as Bregmann, Barnett and Khader, but also on others, cross-referencing continuously between texts on colonialism, Israel-Palestine, and Algeria.As the title of this text indicates, the author holds the view that the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories is essentially a colonial one. This is not to say that we should consider the Territories a colony. Algeria was not a colony. What we want to say is that we believe in the existence of a colonial relationship between the two populations, based on the principles of colonialism.Why Algeria? We have chosen French colonialism in Algeria for the structural basis of our framework for a number of reasons. First, because France, like Israel, denied the colonial character of Algeria’s situation; second, because analysts appear to have regularly felt the urge to draw attention to the parallels between the Battle of Algiers and Israel’s reaction to the Palestinian’s uprising, while the evacuation of French settlers from Algeria is being cited in Israel as a precedent for the Israeli disengagement from the Occupied Territories; and third, because of the immense impact the Algerian War had on the conceptual world of resistance movements around the world – including the then-young PLO hoping to repeat the FLN’s tactics of national liberation in Palestine.

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - Region: Near East, Near Orient, grade: Distinction (Very good), King`s College London (War College), course: The Occupied Territories since 1967, language: English, abstract: This paper looks at the potential of breaking the deadlock of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict through a unilateral "e;gazaesque"e; withdrawal of Israel from the remaining Occupied Territories. Since the Oslo agreement, Palestinian leaders have found that a state cannot be created by a simple declaration - peace and statehood have so far stumbled over a number of issues and it is questionable if a unilateral disengagement will change these: we will underline the reasons why this is so and why it will not be able to bring peace and coexistence. While events so far have not changed the fact that a Palestinian State remains a non-entity, they have equally shown all but the most hawkish actors that, despite the determined pursuit of policies designed to make Israeli dominance permanent, it will not be able to maintain the occupation indefinitely against local resistance and a growing refusal and dissent of Israelis against occupation1. But what if Israel would opt for an all-out unilateral withdrawal behind its separation barrier ? Could such a move bring about an independent Palestinian State - instant-peace in the Middle East - or could it inversely cause an explosive knock-off reaction on the region? Could it lead to the perpetration of past cycles of violence?

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2005 in the subject Politics - Political Theory and the History of Ideas Journal, grade: First (80% - very good), Aston University, language: English, abstract: The idea of a Green political ideology is a relative newcomer to political theory. Even though Green writings have developed rapidly since the early 1970s, the issue of Green ideology has remained on the whole much neglected. It was not until the mid-1990s that the question of Green ideology emerged fully into theoretical discourse, some scholars still contest the existence of a separate and independent Green political ideology. But is Green thought really an ideology? Is it not rather an accumulation of various different, often contradictory elements of thought gathered from a range of other ideologies?The question which will be considered in this essay is in how far the claim of a separate Green ideology is actually justified and what the term Green stands for, if it concerns merely questions of ecology or goes beyond this narrow definition. In order to do this, this study will begin by providing the reader with a number of fundamental considerations concerning ideology, including structural and practical formations. This part will most fundamentally try to answer the question what is ideology . These reflections will be followed in part two by a broad outline of Green thought in which a number of fundamental assumptions will be discussed, which will be expanded on in part three. A conclusion will be drawn on a number of contextual and normative considerations, resulting from these assumptions and more detailed aspects will be discussed to clarify that in fact Green political thought should be seen as a distinct ideology in its own right, addressing a wide range of social concerns having permeated into larger political discourse.

Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - History of Political Systems, grade: Merit (Gut), King`s College London (Department of War Studies), language: English, abstract: Until not long before the events of 1989, political union between the two German states appeared far off. In fact, in early 1989, articles appeared in the International Herald Tribune proposing the German politicians give up the idea of German reunification1. Yet within little more than a year, Germany had acceded to full political union and sovereignty, without allies or neighbours objecting. We will ask ourselves how this seeming contradiction came to happen and what role diplomacy played in making it possible. To do this, we will separate the course of events in two sections, the first one -less formalised- focusing more on the question if reunification would happen, followed by the second -more formalised- focusing on the terms of reunification. In the third part we will face the question what role the shape of consultations, notably the 2+4 (two German states plus four allied powers), played in the successful outcome of German moves towards reunification.

Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - Region: Far East, grade: Distinction - very good, King`s College London (Department of War Studies), course: Conflict, Security and Development, language: English, abstract: With the adoption of a new constitution in 2004, Afghanistan emerged anew as a member of the international community after decades of anti-Soviet jihad, interfactional and interethnic civil war, and wars of conquest and resistance by and against the radical-Islamic Taliban movement. While clearly every society emerging from armed conflict requires some degree of reconstruction, the needs of Afghanistan following allied intervention in 2001 have been by far beyond the ordinary - after a quarter-century of armed conflict the country's entire social, political and economic infrastructure had been destroyed, while war left Afghanistan facing the worlds largest refugee population. It has now been almost half a decade since the fall of the Taliban and billions of dollars have been pledged for reconstruction by the international community. Judging from numerous indicators, it appears that Afghanistan is on its way to be once again a "e;functioning state"e; - we will critically assess if this is really the case by considering socio-historical factors of Afghanistan's current situation such as historical segmentation of elites and the legacy of the USSR's invasion, followed by a critical discussion of post-conflict reconstruction efforts as well as underlying structural problems undermining these efforts.

Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - Region: Near East, Near Orient, grade: Distinction (Very good), King`s College London (University of London), language: English, abstract: This paper looks at the role played by water in the context of the Palestinian Territories. In the course of the ongoing dispute between Palestinians and Israelis, negotiations over a political settlement focus at large on five main issues: refugees, Israeli settlers, defining the borders, the final status of Jerusalem, and water. While the first four issues have taken a relatively prominent role in the public debate, the fifth one has often been sidelined in favour of more emotional and 'obvious' topics. This is however not to say that water would not play a crucial role in finding a peaceful political solution to the ongoing dispute. In fact, as we will show, the regional water scarcity and related problems pose outwardly intractable problems going hand in hand with ideological and geographical disputes in a wider matrix of conflicting riparians of the Jordan River basin. We will further show that water has the ability to act both as an aggravator to conflict and as a solution to hostility and mistrust and can in fact be part for a first step towards a solution to the entire regional conflict. However, while water clearly is a regional issue, we will, in order to keep this work concise, concentrate on the geographical region of Palestine, illustrating the interrelationship between ecology and security in the context of the ongoing conflict.

Ein faszinierender Einblick in das Leben einer der umstrittensten Männer deutscher Geschichte. Walter Ulbrichts Urenkel stößt mit diesem Buch die Türen seiner Familiengeschichte auf, um lang verborgene Geheimnisse zu lüften. Walter Ulbricht gilt als einer der bedeutendsten Politiker des geteilten Deutschland. Als hochrangiger Funktionär und Vorsitzender des Staatsrats der DDR verehrten, belächelten oder hassten ihn die Menschen. Wer war der Mensch hinter dem Politiker? Über Jahrzehnte schwieg die Familie, nichts drang nach außen, was nicht nach außen sollte. Über den Privatmann Walter, Ehemann, Vater und Freund schwieg die Familie Jahrzehnte eisern. Neugierig, wer sein Urgroßvater wirklich war, begibt sich Florian Heyden auf Spurensuche quer durch Europa. Er taucht tief ein in Walters Jugend, seinen Aufstieg in der KPD und sein Exil in Moskau. Er erfährt von Geliebten und Adoptivkindern, von intensiven Beziehungen und schmerzlichen Trennungen. Bildhaft und spannend erzählt er, was Walter Ulbricht sein Leben lang umtrieb: Der ewige Wettkampf zwischen Familie und Partei. Ein nie da gewesener Blick auf die bis heute geheim gehaltene Geschichte des mächtigsten Mannes der DDR.