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Begin New Search Topic War Content Type Journal Article Publication Year within 25 Years

61. Positionality in Embodied War Imaginaries: American Snipers

Author:
Benjamin Schrader
Publication Date:
12-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Review of Human Rights
Institution:
Society of Social Science Academics (SSSA)
Abstract:
This paper maps the positionality of two soldiers embodied experiences as snipers for the US military. One, Chris Kyle who is labeled as “the most lethal sniper in US military history,” wrote a book uncritically glorifying his experiences, which was later turned into the Oscar nominated film American Sniper. His attempt to help veterans heal from PTSD by taking them shooting was a possible trigger that reignited the traumas of war, which can be traced to his eventual death. The other, Garett Reppenhagen, who was the first active duty member of the antiwar group Iraq Veterans Against the War, and currently works to help others heal from the traumas of war by getting them engaged in wilderness programs and environmental activism. Both stories expose a range of traumas of war, both within wartime and in peacetime, and we see the ways in which their narratives of war have different reflections of what it means to heal during times of peace. This paper juxtaposes these two stories, their war imaginaries, and how one works to reinforce the military dispositif, while the other works to impede it in favor of human rights.
Topic:
War, Armed Forces, Military Affairs, War on Terror, and Veterans
Political Geography:
United States of America

62. Lack of Dissuasive Policy: the Case of Ifni-Sahara War / La ausencia de política disuasoria: el caso de la guerra de Ifni-Sáhara

Author:
Juan Pastrana Piñero
Publication Date:
12-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal on International Security Studies (RESI)
Institution:
International Security Studies Group (GESI) at the University of Granada
Abstract:
The lack of a dissuasive policy was one of the key factors that explains the outbreak of the last Spanish colonial war. This article analyses the contradictory policy of general Franco’s regime about its territories of the Africa Occidental Española. Especially, it deals with the absence of a credible dissuasive policy in contrast to the increasing menacing presence of the so-called Army of Liberation of the Sahara.
Topic:
War, History, Colonialism, and Deterrence
Political Geography:
France, North Africa, Morocco, and Sahara

63. The ad bellum Challenge of Drones: Recalibrating Permissible Use of Force

Author:
Alejandro Chehtman
Publication Date:
01-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Drones constitute an incremental advance in weapons systems. They are able to significantly reduce overall, as well as collateral, damage. These features seem to have important implications for the permissibility of resorting to military force. In short, drones would seem to expand the right to resort to military force compared to alternative weapons systems by making resorting to force proportionate in a wider set of circumstances. This line of reasoning has significant relevance in many contemporary conflicts. This article challenges this conclusion. It argues that resorting to military force through drones in contemporary asymmetrical conflicts would usually be disproportionate. The reason for this is twofold. First, under conditions of radical asymmetry, drones may not be discriminatory enough, and, thereby, collateral damage would still be disproportionate. Second, their perceived advantages in terms of greater discrimination are counteracted by the lesser chance of success in achieving the just cause for war. As a result, resorting to military force through drones in contemporary asymmetrical conflicts would generally be disproportionate not because of the harm they would expectedly cause but, rather, because of the limited harm they are ultimately able to prevent. On the basis of normative argument and empirical data, this article ultimately shows that we need to revise our understanding of proportionality not only at the level of moral argument but also in international law.
Topic:
International Law, War, Military Affairs, Weapons, and Drones
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, and Europe

64. An Appraisal of Pakistan’s Nuclear Policy during War on Terror

Author:
Muhammad Ilyas Ansari and Iram Khalid
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
This paper seeks to analyze that why some nations to nuclear in the international structure for the sake of national security when nuclear is an expensive and hard option? Due to fragile geopolitical position of Pakistan,security concerns have always forced her to find balance of power in the south Asian region through different ways. Having fought three major wars with India in 1948, 1965 and 1971 in an asymmetric military environment, Pakistan had been in disadvantageous position. War of 1971 in which Pakistan lost its Eastern wing (now Bangladesh, as an independent state) and nuclear explosion by India in 1974 forced Pakistan to follow the nuclear path. This paper analyzes the results of nuclear policy in the form of economic sanctions imposed by US and its allies, and reversal of US policy after 9/11 regarding sanctions against Pakistan. In the wake of 9/11 incident for joining the US led Global War on Terror, General Musharraf had announced that his objective was to save the nuclear and missile assets of Pakistan. This paper analyses that how Pakistani governments of General Musharraf, and Zardari from 2001 to 2013, had been under immense pressure through different coercive tactics ( from Dr. A. Q khan’s network to safety of nuclear program) to ruin the Pakistani nuclear program which had proved to prevent wars between India and Pakistan since 1999 to 2013. What costs Pakistan had to pay and what benefits Pakistan gained due to nuclear program.
Topic:
Cold War, Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism, War, History, Nuclear Power, and War on Terror
Political Geography:
Pakistan, South Asia, India, Punjab, and United States of America

65. Extremism in Contemporary Pakistan: Threats, Causes and Future Policy

Author:
Saqib Khan and Umbreen Javaid
Publication Date:
07-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
The origin and foundations of religious extremism in Pakistan are a byzantine mix of national, regional and international influences resulting in a complex scenario. The extremists have been multiplied as a result of improved organization, and comparative inaction of government to counter them. Muslim extremism at the global level has a variety of root causes. The Afghan war of the 1980s supported and assisted by the West as a proxy war against the Soviet Union, saw the appearance and promotion of pan-Islamic militancy. Islam as a religion was used to tie together masses, worldwide Muslim support. Since Pakistan‟s establishment as a distinct state in 1947, Pakistan has struggled with the connotation of its identity. General Zia, who tumbled the government of Z. A. Bhutto in 1977, used Islam to validate his rule. Extended military interferences in politics led to an insecure political system. Ethnic differences and nationalist movements further deteriorated it. In such surroundings, parties were estimated as the shields of national identity based on Islamic standards and temperate political forces were considered as an intimidation to Islamic identity of Pakistan.
Topic:
War, History, Violent Extremism, Political structure, and Political stability
Political Geography:
Pakistan, South Asia, and Punjab

66. Too Quick on the Draw: Militarism and the Malpractice of Diplomacy in America

Author:
Chas W. Freeman Jr.
Publication Date:
05-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
The late Arthur Goldberg, who served on our Supreme Court and as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, once said that “diplomats approach every question with an open… mouth.” No doubt that’s often true at the U.N., where parliamentary posturing and its evil twin, declaratory diplomacy, rule. But the essence of diplomacy is not talking but seeking common ground by listening carefully and with an open mind to what others don’t say as well as what they do, and then acting accordingly. Diplomacy is how a nation advances its interests and resolves problems with foreigners with minimal violence. It is the nonbelligerent champion of domestic tranquility and prosperity. It promotes mutually acceptable varieties of modus vivendi between differing perspectives and cultures.
Topic:
Cold War, Diplomacy, War, and Military Affairs
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

67. The Relevance of Clausewitz’s Theory of War to Contemporary Conflict Resolution

Author:
Jasmin Cajic
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Connections
Institution:
Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes
Abstract:
This article argues that Clausewitz’s writing on war nearly 200 years ago is still relevant for contemporary conflict resolution from at least three aspects: his idea that war is “the continuation of policy by other means”; secondly his analysis of the nature of war and the trinity theory; and finally his understanding of the nature of the strategy. The analysis in this article found that, if there is good policy from which to derive a strategy, and if we are able to apply it efficiently, with support of the people and international community, we have created solid preconditions to win the war. In addition, Clausewitz’s view of the issues associated with war, strategy and conflict resolution is important for understanding the major issues and decision making even while history and reality constrain his abstractions with today’s experience. His theories and concepts are as relevant today as they were two hundred years ago. Therefore, the twenty-first century strategists and leaders are recommended to take into consideration Clausewitz’s theories on war and strategy because they are still applicable today. In short, Clausewitz is a theorist for the twenty-first century.
Topic:
War, Political Theory, Military Strategy, and Conflict
Political Geography:
Global Focus

68. Debating State Capacity and Intrastate Wars in South Asia

Author:
Azhar Ali
Publication Date:
07-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:
Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:
In South Asia the notion of intrastate wars are prevalent and prolonged. Most of the countries in the region have faced or are still struggling with such wars. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebellion movement in Sri Lanka, till very recently, violent Nexal movement and Maoist insurgency in India and sectarian violence in Pakistan, Taliban and Al-Qaida in Afghanistan have all been the part of intra-state wars. These wars challenge the authority and the integrity of the state. The state’s monopoly over the means of violence seems eroded in South Asia due to certain developments in the international system. The issue of intra-state war has become major problem for the states in South Asia to deal with. This paper argues that these intra-state wars challenge and influence the power of the state particularly in South Asia. It further analyses the state capacity and tries to look that how state finds itself constrained to in dealing with such intrastate wars. In a precise manner this paper also attempts to understand the changing conceptions of security due to the changed nature of modern warfare.
Topic:
Globalization, War, State Formation, Information Technology, and Intrastate Wars
Political Geography:
Pakistan, South Asia, India, and Asia

69. Disarming the Subject: Remembering War and Imagining Citizenship in Peru | Désarmer le sujet : souvenirs de la guerre et citoyenneté imaginée au Pérou

Author:
Kimberly Theidon
Publication Date:
09-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
War and its aftermath serve as powerful motivators for the elaboration and transmission of individual, communal, and national histories. These histories both reflect and constitute human experience by contouring social memory and producing truth effects. These histories use the past in a creative manner, combining and recombining elements of that past that serve to interests in the present. In this sense, the conscious appropriation of history involves both remembering and forgetting—both being dynamic processes permeated with intentionality. This essay explores the political use of the narratives being elaborated in rural villages in the department of Ayacucho regarding the internal war that convulsed Peru for some fifteen years. Each narrative has a political intent and assumes both an internal and external audience. Indeed, the deployment of war narratives has much to do with forging new relations of power, ethnicity, and gender that are integral to the contemporary politics of the region. These new relations impact the construction of democratic practices and the model of citizenship being elaborated in the current context.
Topic:
Gender Issues, War, Citizenship, and Memory
Political Geography:
South America and Peru

70. Baku Dialogues

Author:
Zaur Shiriyev
Publication Date:
12-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Baku Dialogues
Institution:
ADA University
Abstract:
“Baku Dialogues” is a series of events featuring leading world personalities who will address subjects of current international interest by presenting their views and participating in discussion of these subjects with interested Azerbaijani and international figures. These presentations and discussions, along with other submissions, will be recorded in the “Baku Dialogues”, ADA University’s new journal of record for academic and policy research.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, International Political Economy, Oil, War, Sanctions, Sustainable Development Goals, Multilateralism, Political Science, Population Growth, and Land
Political Geography:
Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Costa Rica

71. Hostis ante portas: el poder, la guerra y la figura del enemigo en las relaciones internacionales

Author:
Valerio d'Angelo
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Revista UNISCI/UNISCI Journal
Institution:
Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
Abstract:
En este artículo me propongo enmarcar la evolución de la figura del enemigo político al interior de la más general evolución del ordenamiento del sistema internacional. La tesis que se afirma es que la detección del enemigo es siempre una construcción discursiva consecuente a las trasformaciones del poder hegemónico y de su manera de conducir una guerra. Ilustraré por lo tanto los cambios históricos que la noción de enemigo ha sufrido, desde Westfalia hasta los modernos programas de contrainsurgencia. Detectaré tres grandes macromarcos (el mundo Westfaliano, la Guerra Fría, el post-11/S) donde un cambio significativo del equilibrio del poder conlleva un cambio en su capacidad de librar una guerra y, de ahí, una distinta identificación de la figura del enemigo.
Topic:
Sovereignty, War, and Counterinsurgency
Political Geography:
Global Focus

72. Las «nuevas guerras»: una propuesta metodológica para su análisis

Author:
Victor-Mario Bados Nieto and Marién Duran Cenit
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Revista UNISCI/UNISCI Journal
Institution:
Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
Abstract:
Hoy día existen numerosos conflictos con características diferentes y singulares difícilmente encuadrables en los arquetipos de los conflictos armados tradicionales o guerras convencionales. De los muchos y variados apelativos surgidos principalmente desde el Fin de las Guerra Fría y como contraposición a las guerras clásicas, fue el concepto de "nuevas guerras" el que tuvo una mayor acogida. Sin embargo, como muchas otras denominaciones, consideramos que no podemos apreciarlo como una herramienta enteramente práctica para el estudio de toda la tipología de conflictos que existen. Por ello, el presente trabajo, mediante la revisión de la literatura más importante sobre estos temas, tiene como objeto proporcionar una herramienta teórico-metodológica, para que mediante la operacionalización de las variables identificativas de las "nuevas guerras", se puedan estudiar de forma más pormenorizada los conflictos contemporáneos para poder establecer comparaciones que arrojen luz sobre las similitudes y las diferencias.
Topic:
Ethnic Conflict, War, Fragile/Failed State, and Violence
Political Geography:
Global Focus

73. The Education of an Anti-Imperialist: Robert La Follette and U.S. Expansion, Richard Drake

Author:
Edward Rhodes
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
“History,” Winston Churchill is reported to have observed, “is written by the vic¬tors.” The losers, if they are lucky enough to avoid vilification, are airbrushed out. When it comes to our understanding of American foreign policies of the first four decades of the twentieth century, the history-writing victors have, for the most part, been liberal internationalists. Democrats and Republicans alike, in the wake of the Second World War, concluded that the task of making the world safe for America demanded active, global U.S. politico-military engagement. In the name of liberal international institutions, Washington's “Farewell” injunctions against entangling alliances would be consigned to the waste bin of quaint anachronisms.- See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19341#sthash.wG3JMQox.dpuf
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Education, and War
Political Geography:
United States and Washington

74. The Myth of the Democratic Peacekeeper: Civil–Military Relations and the United Nations, Arturo C. Sotomayor

Author:
Craig Arceneaux
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Peacekeeping appears to offer a golden ticket to civilian supremacy in democ­ratizing states. These missions allow the armed forces in cash-strapped coun­tries to participate in military operations, and they send soldiers overseas, far away from the politics of their home countries. Arturo Sotomayor offers a careful, systematic, and ultimately persuasive critique of this conventional wisdom, with case studies of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. He clearly addresses three questions: Does peacekeeping help civilians reform the mili­tary? Does peacekeeping instill attitudes and beliefs in soldiers that comple­ment democracy and civilian control? Does peacekeeping craft bridges across defense and foreign policy establishments? While the conventional wisdom offers a cursory “yes” to these questions, Sotomayor responds with an astute “it depends.” And it is here that the value of his study shines. Peacekeeping can appear in a variety of forms, from observation, to enforcement, to peacebuild­ing. Peacebuilding really is more like an internal mission, and thus can actually reinforce adverse patterns of civil–military relations. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19343#sthash.9DMzoId6.dpuf
Topic:
United Nations, War, and Peacekeeping
Political Geography:
Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay

75. A Scrap of Paper: Breaking and Making International Law during the Great War, Isabel V. Hull

Author:
Tanisha M. Fazal
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Isabel Hull's analysis of international law during World War I is a welcome and valuable contribution to an emerging body of scholarship on the laws of war. This is not to undercut its place in the historiography of World War I. Hull rightly points out that most histories of the war have tended to gloss over or even dismiss the role of international law in the war. Hull corrects this bias by delving into British, French, and particularly German archives to show that international law was very much on the minds of all parties to the conflict. Indeed, she argues that preserving the existing structure of international law was a major reason for the outbreak of war. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19345#sthash.HizIRkHF.dpuf
Topic:
International Law and War
Political Geography:
France and Germany

76. Why Factions Switch Sides in Civil Wars: Rivalry, Patronage, and Realignment in Sudan

Author:
Lee J. M. Seymour
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Security
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
Side switching by armed groups is a prominent feature of many civil wars. Shifts in alignment have far-reaching consequences, influencing key outcomes such as civil war duration and termination, military effectiveness, levels of civilian victimization, and state-building prospects. In Sudan's wars, ideological and ethnic cleavages have not influenced factional alignments nearly as much as one might expect given the prominence of clashing political projects and ethnically organized violence in southern Sudan and Darfur. Recent explanations highlighting the role of territorial control, factional infighting, or relative power considerations also have limited value. In many wars fought in weak states characterized by low barriers to side switching, two mechanisms explain patterns of collaboration and defection: first, political rivalries that lead actors to collaborate in exchange for military support in localized struggles; and second, patronage-based incentives that induce collaboration for material gain. A nested analysis drawing on original data from wars in southern Sudan and Darfur supports this argument. The findings have implications for understanding alignments in civil wars, the role of weak states in counterinsurgency, and ethnic politics more generally, as well as policy relevance for factionalized civil wars.
Topic:
Politics and War
Political Geography:
Sudan and Darfur

77. Sleepwalking Again: The End of the Pax Americana 1914–2014; After Gaza 2014: Schabas; Peer Review Redux; In this Issue

Publication Date:
02-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
I think it is difficult to contest that the most important state player in world affairs over the last one hundred years – and consistently so over this period – has been the United States of America. World War I – into which, to borrow from Christopher Clark's justly celebrated book, we 'sleepwalked' – marks a useful starting point. It is not only the fairly important role America played in bringing WWI to an end that signals the beginning of this era, but also the no less important role it played in shaping the aftermath. Wilson's 14 points were considered at the time 'idealistic' by some of the yet-to-be 'Old Powers'. But by dismantling the Ottoman Empire through the principle of self-determination (not at that time a universal legally binding norm) it was an early swallow to the demise, a mere generation later, of all other colonial empires and the truly decisive reshaping of the balance of power in the post-WWII world. The US played an equally cardinal role in ideating and realizing the United Nations Organization and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – two lynchpins of our current world order.
Topic:
Human Rights and War
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Gaza

78. The Enactment of Irony: Reflections on the Origins of the Martens Clause

Author:
Rotem Giladi
Publication Date:
02-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The Martens clause has made F. F. Martens one of the 'household names of our profession'. Since its first appearance in the preamble to the 1899 Hague Convention (II) on the Laws and Customs of War on Land, the clause has incessantly been puzzled over, historicized, celebrated, and re-enacted. Much of the extant discourse, however, is geared towards normative construction of the clause. This article, by contrast, seeks to depart from normative construction of the clause and draw attention, instead, to the discourse it has generated. To facilitate discursive exploration and demonstrate its pertinence, I offer a critical reading of the clause's origins as the enactment of an irony. Thus, the making of the clause saw words used to express something in the opposite of their literal meaning. In time, the clause itself came to represent that which is entirely the opposite of what it was first used for. These and other ironies underpin how the clause itself, its making, and Martens' role therein are interpreted, historicized, and celebrated today. They also pave the way for critical explorations of the clause's epistemic significance.
Topic:
War

79. Political Capitalism

Author:
Randall G. Holcombe
Publication Date:
02-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Political capitalism is an economic and political system in which the economic and political elite cooperate for their mutual benefit. The economic elite influence the government's economic policies to use regulation, government spending, and the design of the tax system to maintain their elite status in the economy. The political elite are then supported by the economic elite which helps the political elite maintain their status; an exchange relationship that benefits both the political and economic elite.
Topic:
Economics and War
Political Geography:
America

80. Mike Martin. An Intimate War: An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict. London, UK: C. Hurst Co., 2014.

Author:
Rebecca Jensen
Publication Date:
03-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
Institution:
Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
Abstract:
The historians of the Annales School developed an approach that emphasized long-term regional histories based upon social structures and worldviews, in part because they believed the narrowness of political and diplomatic history to be reductive. The first half of Mike Martin's An Intimate War: An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict, adapted from his doctoral research at King's College and drawing on his experience as an army officer in Afghanistan, evokes this approach, while the second half explores how the absence of such a grounding in the local dynamics of Helmand province resulted in a profound misunderstanding of parties to the conflict and their goals, and thus a flawed and sometimes counterproductive approach to military and political efforts there. An Intimate War makes a solid argument that the narratives driving the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) were largely mistaken, and that misperception accounted for poor policy and misguided operations; it also raises questions for future research, including why organizations and individuals adopted and hewed to inadequate models, and implicitly how this might be avoided in future military engagements.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution and War
Political Geography:
London