War and violence

As the majority perpetrators of sexual violence, it is plausible to see men as responsible for war rape not only as individuals, but also as collective bystanders, facilitators and beneficiaries. Following recent criticisms of individual legal and moral responsibility for rape as a war crime in international law, this article examines how we might think of war rape as a collective action in moral and sociological terms. First, it assesses existing moral arguments for the responsibility of men in groups for rape, primarily with reference to the work of Claudia Card, Larry May and Robert Strikwerda. Critiquing elements of these arguments, it explores the difficulties in talking about ‘men’ as a coherent group and in discussing ‘collectives’ themselves. Second, the article draws out the connection between accounts of moral responsibility and accounts of causal responsibility. Drawing on critiques of collective responsibility and the long-standing agency/structure problem, it argues that causal accounts focusing on structure pose a serious challenge to ideas of both individual and collective moral responsibility. The complexities of the relationship between moral and causal claims are illustrated through a discussion of Susan Brownmiller and Catharine MacKinnon’s influential perspectives on rape. The seeming paradox of responsibility is emphasised as a problem to be addressed by gender and feminist perspectives that seek to pursue both ethical and sociological inquiry into the workings of masculinity and the political means for undoing gendered wrongs.

The massacre of almost 50 Maidan protesters on February 20, 2014 was a turning point in Ukrainian politics and a tipping point in the conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. This mass killing of the protesters and the mass shooting of the police that preceded it led to the overthrow of the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych and gave a start to a civil war in Donbas in Eastern Ukraine, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. A conclusion promoted by the post-Yanukovych governments and the media in Ukraine that the massacre was perpetrated by government snipers and special police units on a Yanukovych order has been nearly universally accepted by the Western governments, the media, and many scholars. The Ukrainian government investigation identified members of the special company of Berkut as responsible for killings of the absolute majority of the protesters, but did not release any evidence in support, with the exception of videos of the massacre.
              The question is which side organized the “snipers’ massacre.” This paper is the first academic study of this crucial case of the mass killing. It uses a theory of rational choice and a Weberian theory of instrumental rationality to examine actions of major actors both from the Yanukovych government, specifically various police and security forces, and the Maidan opposition, specifically its far right and oligarchic elements, during the massacre.
          The paper analyzes a large amount of evidence from different publicly available sources concerning this massacre and killings of specifics protesters. Qualitative content analysis includes the following data: about 1,500 videos and recordings of live internet and TV broadcasts from mass media and social media in different countries(some 150 gigabytes), news reports and social media posts by more than 100 journalists covering the massacre from Kyiv, some 5,000 photos, and nearly 30 gigabytes of publicly available radio intercepts of snipers and commanders from the special Alfa unit of the Security Service of Ukraine and Internal Troops, and Maidan massacre trial recordings. This study also employs field research on site of the massacre, eyewitness reports by both Maidan protesters and government special units commanders, statements by both former and current government officials, estimates of approximate ballistic trajectories, bullets and weapons used, and types of wounds among both protesters and the police. This study establishes a precise timeline for various events of the massacre, the locations of both the shooters and the government snipers, and the specific timeline and locations of nearly 50 protesters’ deaths. It also briefly analyzes other major cases of violence during and after the “Euromaidan.” This study includes two video appendixes.
            This academic investigation concludes that the massacre was a false flag operation, which was rationally planned and carried out with a goal of the overthrow of the government and seizure of power. It found various evidence of the involvement of an alliance of the far right organizations, specifically the Right Sector and Svoboda, and oligarchic parties, such as Fatherland. Concealed shooters and spotters were located in at least 20 Maidan-controlled buildings or areas. The various evidence that the protesters were killed from these locations include some 70 testimonies, primarily by Maidan protesters, several videos of “snipers” targeting protesters from these buildings, comparisons of positions of the specific protesters at the time of their killing and their entry wounds, and bullet impact signs. The study uncovered various videos and photos of armed Maidan “snipers” and spotters in many of these buildings. The paper presents implications of these findings for understanding the nature of the change of the government in Ukraine, the civil war in Donbas, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

The message of peace and nonviolence was believed in the early church until the claim of Constantine's vision was endorsed by Eusebius and Lactantius. Scriptures and quotes from early church writers are reviewed, and thought questions challenge the reader.

This article is the Arabic translation (with minor modifications approved by the author) of an English original ("The KRG's Relationship with the Yazidi Minority and the Future of the Yazidis in Shingal") that was published by NRT, a Kurdish media outlet in Iraqi Kurdistan, on January 31, 2017. This Arabic translation was published by NRT on March 19, 2017. Both versions are available on Academia.edu and also appear on the NRT website.

La Cuarta Revolución Industrial promete grandes cambios sociales. Tal cual indica Klaus Schwab, esta revolución tecnológica alterará por completo los productos que elaboramos, cómo los elaboramos, cómo interactuamos y, sobre todo, quiénes somos. Como era de esperarse, aquel potencial caracterizado por la promesa de la automatización y la interconexión de los ecosistemas físicos con los digitales (Internet de las cosas, implantes neurales, prótesis inteligentes, etc.) no solo ofrecerían beneficios, sino que, consecuentemente, también supondrían peligros. La guerra también experimentará cambios. En este escenario el biohacking, las Smart Cities, los Deep Fakes y las nanotecnologías, podrían alterar por completo lo que entendemos por conflicto bélico.

Points out how religion is power; power will be used by others--even the non-religious; when things go awry, then, religion is then blamed, often by the same ones who have exploited its power. This calls for critical and wary analysis of the rhetorical use of religion as a pawn, followed by its being blamed as a scapegoat.  Published in The Destructive Power of Religion; Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, edited by J. Harold Ellens (4 volumes, Westport/London: Praeger Publishers, 2004), Vol. 2, 265-83.

En las últimas tres décadas un fenómeno ha sido presa en la sociedad
mexicana: la desaparición forzada en sus diversas manifestaciones. En
un marco general de violencia extrema, hemos sido testigos del proceso
de revictimización de luchadores sociales, estudiantes, defensores de derechos humanos y activistas transnacionales mediante la pedagogía de terror que implica la desaparición forzada. La desaparición de 43 estudiantes de la Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos ubicada en el municipio de Ayotzinapa (Guerrero, México), fue el evento histórico que visibilizó la máxima expresión de la crisis social e institucional durante el régimen de la Presidencia de Enrique Peña Nieto.
Un evento histórico que puso en debate el sujeto de la desaparición forzada, las fosas clandestinas, la crisis de los dispositivos de justicia jurídica, las políticas de seguridad nacional, el aumento de actores militares en los espacios públicos, y la emergencia de una sociedad civil que exige la aparición con vida de sus familiares.
Al respecto, hemos conversado con la antropóloga feminista Descolonial Rosalva Aída Hernández Castillo para abordar la situación actual de las víctimas de desaparición forzada, y la organización de la sociedad civil como respuesta a la impunidad y el vacío institucional con relación a esta nueva economía de terror y de miedo que produce el secuestro como característica del narco estado mexicano.

This report was issued Jan. 28, 2016 and contains the first published mapping of mass graves of Yazidis killed in Sinjar, Iraq during the Yazidi Genocide of 2014. The report was written by Matthew Barber (then Executive Director of Yazda Iraq) with research data procured by Yazda's genocide documentation team (led by Andrew Slater and Ali Khalaf). The report was released in conjunction with a statement from Human Rights Watch:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/01/30/iraq-protect-mass-graves

The narrative of the Irish revolution as a chronology of great men and male militarism, with women presumed to have either played a subsidiary role or no role at all, requires reconsideration. Women and feminists were extremely active in Irish revolutionary causes from 1912 onwards, but ultimately it was the men as revolutionary 'leaders' who took all the power, and indeed all the credit, after independence. Women from different backgrounds were activists in significant numbers and women across Ireland were profoundly impacted by the overall violence and tumult of the era, but they were subsequently relegated to the private sphere, with the memory of their vital political and military role in the revolution forgotten and erased. Women and the Irish Revolution examines diverse aspects of women's experiences in the revolution after the Easter Rising. The complex role of women as activists, the detrimental impact of violence and social and political divisions on women, the role of women in the foundation of the new State, and dynamics of remembrance and forgetting are explored in detail by leading scholars in sociology, history, politics, and literary studies. Important and timely, and featuring previously unpublished material, this book will prompt essential new public conversations on the experiences of women in the Irish revolution. women and the irish revolution

The book can be ordered directly at: www.iap.ie
ISBN 978-1-78855-153-3

The Ifugaos seem to be the only people in the world who have developed peacemaking ideology in a typically aggressive genre of oral literature. The rich literature on epic traditions worldwide portrays a highly male-centered genre of song glorifying heroic values and warlike acts. Ifugao male epics represents aggressive ideology, which it shares with all the corresponding genres from India to Iceland. But what is specific of the Ifugao epic lore is that it contains two trends. The /hudhud/, female epic tradition of the Ifugaos, is a unique specimen of peacemaking, even pacifist ideology in epic form. This ideology has developed in the peak of headhunting period, i.e. it is genuine, not imposed by the influence of other cultures as, for instance, the motives of regret that appeared in Kalinga Ullalim under the influence of Christianization and American "order".

In this latest addition to the acclaimed War & Conflict Through the Ages series, Brian Sandberg offers a truly global examination of the intersections between war, culture, and society in the early modern period. Sandberg traces the innovative military technologies and practices that emerged around 1500, then explores the different forms of warfare—including dynastic war, religious warfare, raiding warfare, and peasant revolt— that shaped conflicts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He explains how significant social, economic, and political developments transformed warfare on land and at sea at a time of global imperialism and growing mercantilism, forcing states and military systems to respond to rapidly changing situations.

Engaging and insightful, War and Conflict in the Early Modern World will interest scholars and students of world history, the early modern period, and the broader relationship between war and society.

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF
-- TOC and book summary in downloadable .pdf] 
According to the poet Elias Canetti, "All the things one has forgotten / scream for help in dreams." To the ancient Egyptians they were prophecies, and in world folklore they have often marked visitations from the dead. For Freud they were expressions of "wish fulfillment," and for Jung, symbolic representations of mythical archetypes. Although there is still much disagreement about the significance and function of dreams, they seem to serve as a barometer of current mind and body states.

In this volume, Deirdre Barrett brings together the study of dreams and the psychology of trauma. She has called on a distinguished group of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers--among them Rosalind Cartwright, Robert J. Lifton, and Oliver Sacks--to consider how trauma shapes dreaming and what the dreaming mind might reveal about trauma. The book focuses on catastrophic events, such as combat, political torture, natural disasters, and rape. The lasting effects of childhood trauma, such as sexual abuse or severe burns, on personality formation, the nature of memories of early trauma, and the development of defenses related to amnesia and dissociation are all considered. The book also takes up trauma and adult dreams, including Vietnam veterans and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Holocaust survivors and perpetrators, rape victims, and firestorm survivors. Finally, this volume concludes with a look at the potential "traumas of normal life," such as divorce, bereavement, and life-threatening illness, and the role of dreams in working through normal grief and loss.

Taken together, these diverse perspectives illuminate the universal and the particular effects of traumatic experience. For physicians and clinicians, determining the etiology of nightmares offers valuable diagnostic and therapeutic insights for individual treatment. This book provides a way of juxtaposing the research in the separate fields of trauma and dreams, and learning from their discoveries.

""En Filipo II y el Arte de la Guerra tendremos la oportunidad de conocer en profundidad a uno de los más grandes reyes de la antigua Macedonia. Gracias a su habilidad como estratega, diplomático, político y soldado, heredó un reino pobre, débil y acosado por innumerables enemigos y lo transformó en el más poderoso de toda Grecia.

A lo largo de sus páginas podremos conocer la historia del reino Macedonio, desde sus orígenes míticos hasta la formación de un imperio, de la mano del que, a la postre, se convertiría en el padre del mítico Alejandro Magno y en el forjador de un nuevo ejército que cambiaria el devenir de la guerra en la Antigüedad. Filipo II fue el creador de la falange macedonia, formación que se demostraría como inigualable en el campo de batalla y que reportaría incontables victorias sobre poderosos enemigos, como los ilirios, los tesalios, los tracios, los beocios o los atenienses. Pero no sólo eso, logró integrar en el campo de batalla a la infantería y a la caballería para emplearlos en nuevas formaciones tácticas: armó a sus soldados con las míticas sarissas y apreció como pocos las posibilidades militares que la maquinaria de guerra podía proporcionarle, siendo el mecenas de numerosos avances en este campo. Soñó con conquistar el Imperio persa, cuando ya había logrado lo que nadie antes fue capaz: el control de Grecia.

Sólo la muerte le arrebató esa hazaña, pero sentó las bases de lo que más tarde conseguiría su propio hijo. Su figura levantó tanto odios como pasiones; se le conocía como mujeriego y bebedor, pero también por su habilidad para la oratoria, por sus astucia, determinación y valor. Siempre luchó en primera línea junto a sus soldados y nunca permitió que éstos le llamaran rey, sino solo "General".

A deeply touching and painfully thoughtful expose on the plight of women in Afghanistan, analyzed through the creative lens of Maryam Mahboob's writing. While any political analysis that utilizes literature as its chief source has to be by default analysis through microcosm-anecdotal and intensively minute in everyday life detail-this book is also organized across very important macro-themes, like politics, women's issues, war, radicalization, exile, and identity. Utilizing this structure allows the words at the micro-level to easily connect to the macro-level of international affairs, conflict, and peacebuilding. There is no doubt the true purpose of the work is to bring the reader deep into the psychological conflict and personal turmoil suffered by women throughout the horrific tumult that describes Afghani life and politics for nearly four decades that is seen in Mahboob's works. But it also serves as a powerful launching point for readers who want to pursue the bigger issues that the work takes on, including diaspora dilemmas, gender studies, and religious radicalization's impact on civil society. The chapters could be better organized to maximize that impact but this is a minor quibble. Since its founding as a monthly collection of recommended titles more than 50 years ago, Choice has become the go-to source for librarians seeking worthwhile new titles for their collection. Our publication offers approximately 600 reviews every month, identifying the best new books and digital content in academia. With more than 2,400 institutions served worldwide, Choice is the premier review journal of new academic titles. Choice is the publishing branch of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. Together, Choice and the ACRL provide professional development tools for librarianship. Our webinars, bibliographic essays, and digital publications help librarians strengthen their skills, and further their careers.

A closely-researched and detailed study of the operations and tactics of early modern armies, it uses the French and Savoyard invasion of Spanish Lombardy in 1636 to explore warfare through a neo-Darwinian lens. This emphasizes the universal features of human behavior and psychology as they relate to violence and war. Oxford University Press, January 2016, Paperback version 2018; Italian translation LEG 2018.

Gender research, although becoming increasingly present in Egyptology, is only rarely found in studies of war and violence in ancient Egypt. Adopting gender theory in researching military violence in New Kingdom Egypt can provide us with additional insight in understanding the possible meanings behind the practice of genital mutilation in war. The practice of removal of the phalli of the enemies in war is attested in ancient Egypt for the first time in Early Dynastic Period (Narmer palette). However, larger number of attestations, with more details and information on this war practice, are of Ramesside date (Medinet Habu temple and Athribis stela). The principal problem is that doubts have been raised on the identification of the cut off body parts as some authors argue that it were not phalli, but phalli-cases which were cut off. This paper will offer both philological and, so far not provided iconographic evidence that indeed phalli were cut off during the New Kingdom and only from the “Libyan” enemies. This is followed by discussion on the phalli cutting custom in relation to military violence and gender. Assuming the theory of gender performativity (sensu Judith Butler) the paper will explore how sexes/genders are materialized through military violence using phalli cutting as a case study. It will be argued that both gender as a performative practice and sexes/genders as body parts (cut off members) can be materialized through violence and representation.

As a social phenomenon, is war subordinate to politics, as Carl von Clausewitz argued in the early nineteenth century, or, instead, is it the product of an instinctive ‘warrior culture’, common to all peoples and times and beyond politics, as John Keegan suggested in the late twentieth? Should we emphasize ‘essential historical elements in the search for a tem-poral continuum in warfare? In this article, we stress the relevance of the ‘perennity of war’ thesis, and the impropriety of a dichotomy between political rationality vs. instinct. The results of the clash between these two strands of thought about the origins of warfare face limitations due to the absence of a temporal ‘play of scales’, so that short-term approaches emerge as incompatible with macro-historical views. We suggest that a deep understanding of the phenomenon of warfare must consider the interaction and the feedback between processes at different time scales.

Introducción La llamada Guerra del Pacífico comenzó en 1879 y terminó en octubre de 1883 con la firma del Tratado de Ancón. Desde el punto de vista del reconocimiento definitivo de este instrumento por todos los actores peruanos y de la permanencia de fuerzas chilenas en el Perú, se prolongó hasta 1884, que fue también el año del pacto de tregua entre Chile y Bolivia. El conflicto se originó en la aspiración de los tres países a beneficiarse de las riquezas del desierto de Atacama, en particular del salitre, producto de gran demanda en el mercado del mundo industrializado, tanto como fertilizante como en calidad de materia prima de la pólvora. En la década de 1870, esta situación se convirtió en una crisis internacional. Ante las tendencias expansionistas de Chile, que buscaba apoderarse del litoral boliviano, y frente a la certeza de que el país del sur estaba a punto de convertirse en una potencia naval sin rival en esta parte del mundo, el Perú aceptó vincularse a Bolivia por un tratado defensivo secreto que se suscribió en febrero de 1 Publicado con algunas diferencias en el libro Tiempo de Guerra. Estado, nación y conflicto armado en el Perú, siglos XVII-XIX. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2018.

A true life story of facing war time conflict internally and externally to overcome extreme trauma, focusing on post lobotomy coping mechanisms and empowerment through reframing dynamics situations and sculpting the situation into your favor.

Understanding the rationality of violence is a critical component in the development of modern political theory, international relations and peace keeping. Recognised as a leading early thinker of political philosophy, Kant contributed fundamentally to its development; exploring war, peace and reason through such texts as Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (1795; in Gallie on Kant, 1978: p.28), observing differences in abstract morality and war injustices in contrast with realities of war in practice. Kant encouraged questioning of the relationships of rationality and costly and calamitous wars. More recent neoclassical schools of thought place importance on the correlation of income inequality in developing countries and the likelihood of violent outcomes in attempts to rationalise violence. Yet many argue these are simplistic in how data is understood, collected and analysed. This essay will explore such viewpoints; discussing ways in which economic rationality has been used to understand violence across developing countries. Particular focus shall emphasise the transition away from neoclassical theory toward more complex, delinear analyses, expanding beyond the concentration of economic inequality as a rationale. This essay shall argue that while economic inequality is still important, the correlation between economic disparity and tendency for violent outbreaks are not as clear as often assumed, and that a pattern of correlation does not necessarily equal a causal relationship. As Cramer argues (2003: p.397) we need to be “more cautious about the conclusions reached by cross-country empirical studies”.
Although something may seem inherently wrong and disruptive with choosing violence, the question arises as to why it keeps recurring despite costly affects and outcomes. Thus what is it about violence that appeals to a rational actor that presents as an overriding alternative to a more peaceful solution? This non-violent, or violence-minimising preference is shown as present and productive throughout evolutionary history, societal developments and in present day international relations. Yet so too are uncountable instances where violence unfolds and the threat of violence is used, chosen by seemingly rational beings, both collective and individual. Indeed the act of querying peace and war since Kant has changed little, though the conclusions may have.

The war in Syria initially was an intrastate conflict between the Syrian government and internal armed rebel groups. However, the conflict escalated into an internationalized intrastate conflict when regional and global powers split into pro- and anti-Assad blocs and inserted themselves into the conflict.

In:  Fuer unser Glueck und das Glueck anderer, Hildesheim, Olms, 2017 pp. 53-68.
The possibility of giving a rich descriptive account of morality from this perspective and the absence of any agreed upon method of verification for the assessment of disputed moral claims suggests that the notion of moral truth is at best a useful social fiction. To escape this conclusion, I argue that we must begin at the other end, deriving moral epistemology from moral historiography, much as we derive scientific epistemology from consideration of the history of science, regardless of the absence of a consensus omnium.

[Ce texte est la version écrite d'une communication faite le 10 mai 2017 dans le cadre du colloque « The Algerian War of Independance : Global and Local Histories, 1954-1962, and Beyond », Middle East Centre, St Antony's College & Trinity College, University of Oxford, 10 mai 2017]

In an analysis of 47 U.S. journalism ethics codes, we found that although most consider images, only 9 address a gripping issue: how to treat images of tragedy and violence, such as those produced on the battlefields of Iraq, during the 2005 London bombings, and after Hurricane Katrina. Among codes that consider violent and
tragic images, there is agreement on what images are problematic and a move toward
green-light considerations of ethical responsibilities. However, the special problems of
violence and truth telling in wartime and issues of how to handle graphic images
across media platforms receive virtually no attention."""

Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programmes form part of standard post-conflict peacebuilding tools regularly applied in the context of UN peacekeeping operations. Yet, the limitations of such templates become evident when peacebuilders are confronted with unconventional settings, such as the urban environment. So far, there is a scarcity of research on UN-led DDR efforts in cities, even though the proliferation of urban armed groups is projected to pose an intractable challenge for decades to come. Based on six months of fieldwork in Port-au-Prince, this article presents new empirical evidence on innovative DDR programming in Haiti, the only country where a United Nations Stabilization Mission (MINUSTAH) tried to implement a traditional DDR programme for gang members. As this attempt proved to be a failure, the mission subsequently changed its approach to a more community-focused armed violence reduction and prevention programme which aims to disincentivize at-risk sections of the population from joining gangs. Even though the current community violence reduction approach is better adapted to the unconventional conflict environment in Haiti and is seen by many practitioners today as a role model, it shares a number of limitations with traditional DDR programmes and is not a panacea for urban peacebuilding.

This paper sets out to develop two related ideas. First, it seeks to identify how both violence and neoliberalism can be considered as moments. From this shared conceptualisation of process and fluidity, I argue that it becomes easier to recognise how these two phenomena actually converge. Building upon this conceived coalescence of neoliberalism and violence, the second aim is to recognise how the hegemony of neoliberalism positions it as an abuser, which facilitates the abandonment of those ‘Others’ who fall outside of neoliberal normativity. I argue that the widespread banishment of ‘Others’ under neoliberalism produces a ‘state of exception’, wherein because of its inherently dialectic nature, exceptional violence is transformed into exemplary violence. This metamorphosis occurs as aversion for alterity intensifies under neoliberalism and its associated violence against ‘Others’ comes to form the rule.

Resumen
En los últimos años el éxito de las novelas adulto-juveniles ha traspasado las cubiertas de los libros cobrando vida en la gran pantalla y convirtiéndose estas adaptaciones en éxitos de taquilla y fenómenos socioculturales. Ejemplo de ello son sagas como Harry Potter (2001), Las Crónicas de Narnia (2005), Crepúsculo (2008) o, más recientemente, Los Juegos del Hambre (2012). La siguiente investigación tiene como objeto de estudio la trilogía Los Juegos del Hambre, escrita por Suzanne
Collins y compuesta por Los Juegos del Hambre, En Llamas y Sinsajo. En ella se presenta una visión del mundo en un futuro en la que tras una guerra civil los habitantes del fiticio Panem viven bajo la opresión de una dictadura. El análisis incluye un estudio de la intertextualidad presente en la obra y, en especial, en la versión audiovisual, así como un análisis de las alusiones a los clásicos, la guerra y la telerrealidad a través de sus personajes, sus nombres y la distopía.

In recent years the success of children’s and youth literature has passed from book covers to the big screen. These adaptations have become box-office hits and socio-cultural phenomena. Some examples are Harry Potter (2001), The Chronicles of Narnia (2005), Twilight (2008) or, more recently, The Hunger Games (2012). This analysis focuses on the trilogy The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins and comprised of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. The trilogy presents a view of the world in a future time in which, after a civil war, the inhabitants of the fictitious Panem live under the oppression of a dictatorship. This study includes an analysis of intertextuality in The Hunger Games, particularly in its audiovisual adaptation, as well as an analysis of the allusions to the classics, war and ‘reality TV’ by means of the characters, their names and dystopia.