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247 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. vi (1946)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0247 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD WE live in a world in which the po- litical and social conditions of one conti- nent perceptibly influence those of an- other. This is now so true no informed person is unconscious of it. However, this influence is all too often reflected in excited tremors of opinion set up by odd pieces of rumor and information. It remains difficult-and probably will always be difficult-for large numbers of people in one country really to un- derstand the conditions of another. The more enlightened peoples and governments are bending their efforts more and more intensely to understand- ing and assisting in a comprehension of the social conditions of other peoples and the complex social problems which confront their governments. This is in- deed an effort prerequisite to intelligent international co-operation and to peace itself, and perhaps never more so than at the present time in the case of coun- tries which were overrun by the Nazi hordes and are now struggling with their intricate problems of reconstruc- tion. Belgium has once more been through a European war which eventually in- volved the greater part of the world. It has once more been at the crossroads of Germanic invasion and subjected to a complex system of foreign governance. It was among the first of the countries of Europe to be liberated. It has worked hard at rebuilding its political, economic, and social life. Because of these facts, it has frequently been in the newspapers and sometimes conspicu- ously so. Its stresses and strains, as its achievements and successes, are by no means over, their causes being far from superficial and capable of solution by easy remedies. Hence, the usefulness of an analysis of Belgian problems and of an understanding of those problems by other people. Otherwise, it becomes impossible to understand the national and international policies which devel- oped from them. Belgium is not only of interest in itself but is an excellent country through which to view Europe. In many ways, it is a cross section of Europe. It is a significant country not only agricultur- ally but industrially. It is densely populated. It lies between the north and south of Europe, its people combin- ing the industriousness of a northern people with the gaiety of a southern. They are steady yet emotional, practi- cal yet artistic, frugal yet fond of good living, influenced both by traditions and by progressive, democratic ideas, clinging resolutely to much of their past but watching eagerly for new ideas. Over the centuries, Belgium has been a miniature melting pot of Euro- pean characteristics. Economically, and thus politically and intellectually, Bel- gium is tied closely to Europe by a lace- work of rivers, canals, railroads, high- ways, and airways. It is needless to say that the over- whelming defeat of the western de- mocracies in 1940 led to a re-evaluation of their position by the Belgians. This re-evaluation did not lead to the same conclusions by all individuals, and hence there developed in Belgium vari- ous degrees of resistance and, side by side with this, various degrees of col- laboration. As every other liberated country, Belgium has thus had its prob- lem of readjusting its more active re- sistance groups to normal political and social processes and of establishing and punishing the collaborators. An out- side observer may, perhaps, be per- mitted to confirm the impression which newspapers have conveyed to many Americans that in this process of re- vi

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