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1. MENA Music and More!

Author:
Danny Hajjar and Fadi Nicholas Nassar
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Middle East Institute (MEI)
Abstract:
On today's episode, Middle East Focus kicks off the new year with Danny Hajjar, whose newsletter Sa'alouni El Nas brings diverse music and perspectives from the MENA region to inboxes worldwide. Interviewing Danny is Fadi Nicholas Nassar, U.S.-Lebanon Fellow at the Middle East Institute, Director of the Institute for Social Justice and Conflict Resolution, and Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Lebanese American University (LAU).
Topic:
Arts, Culture, and Music
Political Geography:
Middle East and North Africa

2. Government Courtesans in the Northern Military Areas -- A Lecture with Hyun Suk Park

Author:
Hyun Suk Park and Jungwon Kim
Publication Date:
04-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
A 45-50-minute talk followed by Q and A. Professor Hyun Suk Park will discuss the courtesan culture of Chosŏn Korea by reflecting upon the intersections between state power, gender politics, and literary culture through travel writings and literary works.
Topic:
Politics, History, Culture, State, Literature, Power, Gender, and Military
Political Geography:
Asia and Korea

3. Reading The Backstreets in Ürümchi: Translation as Ethnographic Method and Practice of Refusal

Author:
Darren Byler and Andrew J. Nathan
Publication Date:
02-2023
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
While conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Northwest China in 2014, anthropologist Darren Byler found that a Uyghur language novel, The Backstreets, helped Uyghurs to narrate their own stories. By shifting the frame of the narrative of colonial violence away from the authority of the state toward the work it takes for the colonized to live, this difficult, absurdist fable gave young Uyghurs a way to articulate experiences of dehumanization and rage. With its English-language translation and publication, it also gave the novelist, Perhat Tursun, a way of refusing his own silencing through censorship and, ultimately, imprisonment. The Backstreets in Ürümchi is a novel by Perhat Tursun, a leading Uyghur writer, poet, and social critic from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Perhat Tursun has published many short stories and poems as well as three novels, including the controversial The Art of Suicide (1999), decried as anti-Islamic. In 2018, he was detained by the Chinese authorities and was reportedly given a sixteen-year prison sentence. Byler was a cotranslator with ‘Anonymous,’ who disappeared in 2017, and is presumed to be in the reeducation camp system in northwest China. This event would be meaningful to students and faculty in many different areas of the university including the above proposed cosponsors, and students of China and Inner Asia.
Topic:
Culture, Minorities, Ethnography, Literature, Language, and Uyghurs
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and Xinjiang

4. "Rompamos El Silencio"

Author:
Julio Ramírez
Publication Date:
05-2023
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
Abstract:
The recent dismantling of the Cuna Nahuat Indigenous language program in El Salvador is the latest in a long history of erasure for Salvadoran Indigenous communities.
Topic:
Civil War, Culture, Minorities, Language, and Indigenous
Political Geography:
Latin America, Central America, and El Salvador

5. A Monumental Relationship: North Korea and Namibia

Author:
Tycho van der Hoog
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Visitors to Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, will quickly learn a remarkable fact that is well-known among the local population—much of the capital’s architectural landscape is designed and constructed by North Korea. In recent years, North Korean nationals have built the official residence of the president of Namibia, the State House; the national cemetery for the fallen heroes of the liberation struggle, the National Heroes’ Acre; the national history museum, the Independence Memorial Museum; the Ministry of Defense headquarters and other buildings. The Namibian government thus uses North Korean aesthetics for some of the most important aspects of its power: the president, the history, and the army. This analysis explores the relationship between Namibia and North Korea by providing historical and political context to the aforementioned buildings. Today, Namibia often has the reputation of a quaint and sometimes sleepy destination, tucked away in the southwestern corner of the African continent. Yet, Namibia was at the center of geopolitical tensions for most of the twentieth century. The complicated decolonization process of Namibia, or “the Namibian question,” as it became known in the corridors of the United Nations (UN), had its roots in the aftermath of three decades of German occupation between 1884 and 1915. German South West Africa, the area that became modern Namibia, was transferred to South Africa as a League of Nations mandate territory and renamed “South West Africa.” South Africa viewed the territory as an unofficial fifth province and introduced brutal apartheid legislation. Internal opposition against the South African regime resulted in the formation of nationalist organizations, of which the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) became the most prominent.
Topic:
International Relations, Economics, Politics, Arts, and Culture
Political Geography:
Africa, Asia, North Korea, and Namibia

6. How Poster Art of the “Long 1960s” Fueled International Solidarity

Author:
Lincoln Cushing
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
With internet and cell phone connectivity enabling instant worldwide dissemination of information, many individuals presume that communication between international social justice activists during the twentieth century was tedious, insular, and ineffective. Yet analysis of the vast output of published graphics from that period reveals a different story, one of dynamic interchange and cross-national support.
Topic:
Cold War, History, Arts, Culture, Solidarity, and Internationalism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

7. Policy Papers by Women of Color: Decolonizing International Development

Author:
Tamara White, Aisha White, Gabrielle B. Gueye, Daniet Moges, and Eliza Gueye
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS)
Abstract:
This series explores a handful of scenarios where colonial legacies surface in international development and humanitarian aid work, from staffing and institution building to food aid and global tourism. Exploring these topics and seeking to deconstruct the systems and structures that impede success in development and humanitarian efforts is critically important in ensuring that we ultimately meet global goals and restore integrity to our sector. Many believe international development and humanitarian aid are irreconcilable and that this work is an extension of colonialism, but our constituency believes that there is hope in transforming the sector and shifting power to those who should rightfully own this work and reap the benefits of development.
Topic:
Development, Humanitarian Aid, Tourism, Culture, Neoliberalism, Decolonization, Institutions, COVID-19, and Food Assistance
Political Geography:
Global Focus and United States of America

8. Photo Poetics: Chinese Lyricism and Modern Media Culture

Author:
Shengqing Wu, Ying Qian, and Alexander Alberro
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
Chinese poetry has a long history of interaction with the visual arts. Classical aesthetic thought held that painting, calligraphy, and poetry were cross-fertilizing and mutually enriching. What happened when the Chinese poetic tradition encountered photography, a transformative technology and presumably realistic medium that reshaped seeing and representing the world? This event is organized by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and cosponsored by the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and the Center for Comparative Media, all at Columbia University.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, Media, and Buddhism
Political Geography:
China and Asia

9. The Buddhist Dream Tale: Past and Present

Author:
Francisca Cho and Seong Uk Kim
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
Kim Manjung's Kuunmong, or Dream of the Nine Clouds, was written by a scholar-official and he turned to the Buddhist trope that "life is nothing but a dream" in order to express his doubts and disappointment about the Confucian social structure in which he lived. The speaker argues that the dream tale turns the act of fiction writing into a Buddhist philosophical exercise, and she will draw out this argument by considering how the medium of fiction functions in a ritual way. In this vein, she brings the dream tale into the present by considering the experience of cinema as an analogue. This event is cosponsored by the Center for Korean Research and the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.
Topic:
Religion, Arts, Culture, and Literature
Political Geography:
Asia

10. China's Colonial Boarding Schools in Tibet

Author:
Lhadon Tethong, Freya Putt, Jia Luo, Tenzin Dorjee, and Andy Nathan
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
Chinese government policies are forcing three out of every four Tibetan students into a vast network of colonial boarding schools, separating children as young as four from their parents. According to a recent report by Tibet Action Institute, the schools are a cornerstone of Xi Jinping’s campaign to supplant Tibetan identity with a homogenous Chinese identity in order to neutralize potential resistance to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule. The report, “Separated From Their Families, Hidden From the World: China’s Vast System of Colonial Boarding Schools Inside Tibet,” finds that an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 Tibetan students aged six to 18, as well as an unknown number of four and five-year olds, are in these state-run schools. This panel will discuss how the schools function as sites for remolding children into Chinese nationals loyal to the CCP.
Topic:
Education, Culture, Children, Colonialism, and Boarding Schools
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and Tibet

11. Making Art Amid Mayhem

Author:
Carlos Egaña
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
Abstract:
For a Venezuelan artist, photography offers a democratic means of expression and experimentation from differing viewpoints.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, and Photography
Political Geography:
South America and Venezuela

12. Promoting the Inclusion of Europe’s Migrants and Minorities in Arts and Culture

Author:
Lucía Salgado and Liam Patuzzi
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Decades of sustained immigration have transformed many European cities into mosaics of different cultures. Yet this diversity is not always mirrored in the art celebrated in museums, the plays produced in major theaters, and the music heard in concert halls. In addition, well-intended efforts to celebrate ethnic and cultural diversity through art and culture run the risk of overemphasizing differences, exoticizing minority groups rather than contributing to the normalization of diversity within society. But this status quo may be changing. Widespread anti-racism protests have prompted long-overdue conversations about mis- and under-representation of minorities as well as discrimination in the cultural scene. At the same time, pandemic-related restrictions have placed further financial strains on the already fragile cultural sector, challenging organizations to reach new audiences in new ways. This MPI Europe report, which draws on interviews with cultural professionals from 11 European countries, explores approaches to strengthening the participation of migrant and minority communities in arts and culture, with potential benefits for immigrant integration outcomes, social cohesion, and the vibrancy and sustainability of cultural institutions. It examines migrants’ and minorities’ inclusion on three levels: as visitors of cultural venues and consumers of art, as featured artists and performers, and as leaders and staff within cultural institutions. The research was conducted within the framework of the Urban Agenda Partnership on the Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees, co-led by the City of Amsterdam and the European Commission and funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, Employment, Citizenship, Economy, Integration, Identity, Inclusion, Civic Engagement, and Immigration Policy
Political Geography:
Europe

13. Finding a New Idiom: Language, Moral Decay, and the Ongoing Nakba

Author:
Elias Khoury
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
This essay is a translated and edited version of the Anis Makdisi Program in Literature lecture delivered by the author in May 2021. The talk, on the uprising sweeping every Palestinian geography from the river to the sea, was constructed as a series of illustrative stories. Their distillation, as Khoury points out, is that there will be no end to the Palestinian question so long as there exists a people continually prepared to resist the ongoing Nakba. “It is enough,” Khoury concludes, “that with this uprising Palestine has recovered the alphabet, leaving us to create a new idiom.”
Topic:
Culture, Language, Nakba, Resistance, and Storytelling
Political Geography:
Middle East and Palestine

14. Design to Live: Everyday Inventions from a Refugee Camp

Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
MIT Center for International Studies
Abstract:
Panel discussion with experts :: Part of the Myron Weiner Seminar Series on International Migration Panelists: Azra Akšamija, an artist and architectural historian, is Director and Founder of the MIT Future Heritage Lab (FHL) and Associate Professor in the MIT Department of Architecture and the Program in Art, Culture, and Technology. Raafat Majzoub, an architect, artist, and writer, is Director of The Khan: The Arab Association for Prototyping Cultural Practices and Editor-in-Chief of the Dongola Architecture Series. Melina Philippou, an architect and urbanist, is Program Director of the MIT Future Heritage Lab, founder of Trapezui: Marble Objecthoods and Associate at the Department of City Planning, Ministry of Interior in Cyprus. Moderator: John Tirman is the executive director and a principal research scientist at MIT's Center for International Studies. Tirman is author, or coauthor and editor, of fourteen books on international affairs, including, Dream Chasers: Immigration and the American Backlash (MIT Press, 2015) and The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars (Oxford University Press, 2011). About the book, Design to Live: Everyday Inventions from a Refugee Camp: The power of art and design to create a life worth living: designs, inventions, and artworks from the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan. This book shows how refugees use art and design to transform their living environments, restoring humanity within circumstances that seem aimed at depriving them of it. Featuring more than twenty projects created by Syrian refugees at the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan, Design to Live offers a new way of understanding design as a subversive worldmaking practice and as tool for reclaiming agency in conditions of forced displacement. The projects—including a vertical garden, an arrangement necessitated by regulations that forbid planting on the ground; a front hall, fashioned to protect privacy; a baby swing, made from recycled school desks; and a chess set, carved from broomsticks—showcase the discrepancy between standardized humanitarian design and the real sociocultural needs of refugees.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, Refugees, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Global Focus

15. Indigenous Foreign Policy: a new way forward?

Author:
James Blackwell
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Women's Development Agency (IWDA)
Abstract:
Current efforts of the Australian State engaging with First Nations communities, in Australia, in foreign policy practice and international relations as a discipline, are woefully inadequate. It does not meet standards desired by First Nations peoples, nor does it often meet international standards around First Nations policy development. What this results in is a cultural dynamic of exclusion for First Nations peoples, ontologies and approaches to policy. There is current work, including from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), to further include and value contributions of First Nations in foreign policy, and increase First Nations presence in policymaking. Many of these initiatives though still continue to fail First Nations by not giving us a fair seat at the table, or full and accurate representation.1 To fully realise the potential of a feminist foreign policy approach, First Nations peoples and approaches must be fully integrated The diversity and value First Nations can bring to Australian foreign policy is extremely large and represents an untapped area for Australian foreign policymakers.2 Australia does not yet fully realise the potential First Nations peoples and approaches can bring to our representation on the world stage, and our approaches to issues of foreign policy. Drawing the connections between First Nations and feminist approaches to foreign policy can only strengthen this agenda. This paper seeks to outline the introductory steps needed in order to achieve this.
Topic:
Governance, Culture, Discrimination, and Indigenous
Political Geography:
Australia

16. Korean Soft Power Goals and US-Korea Relations

Author:
Jenna Gibson
Publication Date:
07-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
Jenna Gibson, a PhD Candidate at the University of Chicago, explains why "listing off credibly popular cultural products coming out of South Korea and calling it soft power rings hollow" and how declarations of this type obscure the concept of soft power.
Topic:
Bilateral Relations, Culture, and Soft Power
Political Geography:
Asia, South Korea, North America, and United States of America

17. The Legal Role of Government in Protecting Cultural Heritage and Archaeological Sites in the War-Affected Countries: The Case of Iraq and Syria

Author:
Rukhsar Ahmad
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Liberty and International Affairs
Institution:
Institute for Research and European Studies (IRES)
Abstract:
Conserving cultural heritage and archaeological sites have become a serious national concern in the Middle East for the war-affected countries, including Iraq and Syria. Because looting and violence have caused massive destruction of cultural heritage and archaeological sites, this study aimed to analyze the legal background concerning the protection of cultural heritage and archaeological sites in the context of Iraq and Syria during 2014 with the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). This study used the content analysis method and cross-country analyses for Iraq and Syria. The study is guided by two main questions: What is the government's legal role in protecting cultural heritage and archaeological sites? Are there any legal authorities in Iraq and Syria to protect cultural heritage and archaeological sites during war and conflict? In the end, this paper suggests that protecting cultural heritage is the legal responsibility of government which is supposed to be enforced in the legal foundation of the state as a national sovereign power.
Topic:
War, Governance, Culture, Legal Theory, Heritage, and Archaeology
Political Geography:
Iraq, Middle East, and Syria

18. Book Talk. Contemporary Ukrainian and Baltic Art: Political and Social Perspectives

Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Please join the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute for a presentation of the book Contemporary Ukrainian Art and Baltic Art: Political and Social Perspectives (ibidem Press, 2021). The event will feature presentations by the volume’s editor Svitlana Biedarieva and contributors Ieva Astahovska, Olena Martynyuk, and Margaret Tali with moderator Mark Andryczyk (Harriman Institute). This volume focuses on political and social expressions in contemporary art of Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. It explores the transformations that art in Ukraine and the Baltic states has undergone since their independence in 1991, discussing how the conflicts and challenges of the last three decades have impacted the reconsideration of identity and fostered resistance of culture against economic and political crises. It analyzes connections between the past and the present as seen by the artists in these countries and looks at their visions of the future. Contemporary Ukrainian art portrays various perspectives, addressing issues from controversial historical topics to the present military conflict in the East of the country. Baltic art speaks out against the erasure of past historical traumas and analyzes the pertinence of its cultural scene to the European community. The contributions in this collection open a discussion of whether there is a single paradigm that describes the contemporary processes of art production in Ukraine and the Baltic countries. With contributions by Ieva Astahovska, Svitlana Biedarieva, Kateryna Botanova, Olena Martynyuk, Vytautas Michelkevičius, Lina Michelkevičė, Margaret Tali, and Jessica Zychowicz.
Topic:
Nationalism, Arts, Culture, and Identity
Political Geography:
Europe, Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia

19. Internationalist Aesthetics: China and Early Soviet Culture by Edward Tyerman

Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Following the failure of communist revolutions in Europe, in the 1920s the Soviet Union turned its attention to fostering anticolonial uprisings in Asia. China, divided politically between rival military factions and dominated economically by imperial powers, emerged as the Comintern’s prime target. At the same time, a host of prominent figures in Soviet literature, film, and theater traveled to China, met with Chinese students in Moscow, and placed contemporary China on the new Soviet stage. They sought to reimagine the relationship with China in the terms of socialist internationalism—and, in the process, determine how internationalism was supposed to look and feel in practice. Internationalist Aesthetics offers a groundbreaking account of the crucial role that China played in the early Soviet cultural imagination. Edward Tyerman tracks how China became the key site for Soviet debates over how the political project of socialist internationalism should be mediated, represented, and produced. The central figure in this story, the avant-garde writer Sergei Tret’iakov, journeyed to Beijing in the 1920s and experimented with innovative documentary forms in an attempt to foster a new sense of connection between Chinese and Soviet citizens. Reading across genres and media from reportage and biography to ballet and documentary film, Tyerman shows how Soviet culture sought an aesthetics that could foster a sense of internationalist community. He reveals both the aspirations and the limitations of this project, illuminating a crucial chapter in Sino-Russian relations. Grounded in extensive sources in Russian and Chinese, this cultural history bridges Slavic and East Asian studies and offers new insight into the transnational dynamics that shaped socialist aesthetics and politics in both countries.
Topic:
Nationalism, Arts, Culture, and Identity
Political Geography:
Europe and Soviet Union

20. Book Talk. La Nijinska by Lynn Garafola

Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Overshadowed in life and legend by her brother Vaslav Nijinsky, Bronislava Nijinska had a far longer and more productive career. An architect of twentieth-century neoclassicism, she experienced the transformative power of the Russian Revolution and created her greatest work - Les Noces - under the influence of its avant-garde. Many of her ballets rested on the probing of gender boundaries, a mistrust of conventional gender roles, and the heightening of the ballerina's technical and artistic prowess. A prominent member of Russia Abroad, she worked with leading figures of twentieth-century art, music, and ballet, including Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Poulenc, Alexandra Exter, Natalia Goncharova, Frederick Ashton, Alicia Markova, and Maria Tallchief. She was also a remarkable dancer in her own right with a bravura technique and powerful stage presence that enabled her to perform an unusually broad repertory. Finally, she was the author of an acclaimed volume of memoirs in addition to a major treatise on movement. Nijinska's career sheds new light on the modern history of ballet and of modernism more generally, recuperating the memory of lost works and forgotten artists, many of them women. But it also reveals the sexism pervasive in the upper echelons of the early and mid-twentieth-century ballet world, barriers that women choreographers still confront. Lynn Garafola is Professor Emerita of Dance at Barnard College, Columbia University. A dance historian and critic, she is the author of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and Legacies of Twentieth-Century Dance, and the editor of several books, including The Diaries of Marius Petipa, André Levinson on Dance (with Joan Acocella), José Limón: An Unfinished Memoir, and The Ballets Russes and Its World. She has curated several exhibitions, including Dance for a City: Fifty Years of the New York City Ballet, New York Story: Jerome Robbins and His World, Diaghilev's Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath, and, most recently, Arthur Mitchell: Harlem's Ballet Trailblazer.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, Feminism, Russian Revolution, and Gender
Political Geography:
Russia and Europe

21. Finding Common Ground: Intercultural Dialogue Among Youth in North Macedonia

Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Marija Krstevska will discuss her trajectory as a girl raised in a mono-ethnic environment to a young advocate for intercultural acceptance. She is the Secretary General of the Center for Intercultural Dialogue, a youth organization in Kumanovo, North Macedonia. Through that organization, she has created learning opportunities within non-formal education for diverse groups of learners, advocated for direct involvement in community decision-making, and supported youth participation through inclusive policies. She will discuss the importance of active citizenship, capacity building, and non-formal education in fostering intercultural dialogue among youth.
Topic:
Education, Culture, Youth, Activism, and Gender
Political Geography:
Europe and North Macedonia

22. Eyes that Lead: The History of Guide Dogs for the Blind in East Central Europe and Beyond

Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
The lecture explores a hitherto overlooked episode in the history of the human-animal relations: the establishment of professional guide dog training after the First World War, which had its origins in Central Europe. Under this scheme, dogs became helpers, and, furthermore, equal partners to disabled soldiers and soon thereafter also to blind civilians. The lecture shows how the resultant cooperation between guide dogs and their owners placed the human–animal bond on a new footing. It also reveals how an idea initiated by veterans of the German and Austro-Hungarian army spread across the world and what adjustments were necessary to make the scheme suitable for different economic, cultural and social settings. In a broader context the lecture seeks to call attention to the potentials of the burgeoning fields of animal studies and disability histories for the study of East Central Europe.
Topic:
Culture, Disability, and Animals
Political Geography:
Europe

23. Byzantium as Seen by the White Russians in Constantinople

Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
or the broad public in pre-revolutionary Russia, Byzantium belonged to religious discourse; it also became a battle cry for Russian imperialism. And, by an irony of history, it was that long-coveted Byzantium that greeted the White Russians as they, orphaned refugees, disembarked in Constantinople following their defeat in the Civil War. What sentiments did the Byzantine monuments inspire in them? It appears that their attitudes were more nuanced than pure nostalgia or dismissal. Sergey A. Ivanov is a member of the British Academy. He has published more than 200 scholarly works on Byzantine culture and the relations between Byzantium and the Slavs. Among his monographs are Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond (Oxford, 2006), “Pearls Before Swine:” Missionary Work in Byzantium (Paris, 2015) and "Византийская культура и агиография" (Moscow, 2020, Byzantine Culture and Hagiography). His guidebook "В поисках Константинополя" was first published in Russian in 2011, went through three editions and was translated into Bulgarian and Turkish. It was published in English as In Search of Constantinople. A Guidebook Through Byzantine Istanbul and Its Surroundings in March 2022.
Topic:
Culture, Urban, Cities, and Monuments
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, Turkey, and Istanbul

24. Alcohol consumption in modern Turkey: Kulturkampf and polarization

Author:
Evangelos Areteos and Christina Kapodistria
Publication Date:
11-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)
Abstract:
Α culture war (Kulturkampf) is raging in Turkey, and alcohol is one of the major fronts once again. Opposing cultural identities are emerging as a powerful instrument of polarization. The ongoing culture war is revealing the AKP’s potential, but also its limits.
Topic:
Religion, Culture, Alcohol, AKP, and Polarization
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

25. The Culture-Promotion Effect of Multinationals on Trade: the IKEA case

Author:
Dylan Bourny, Daniel Mirza, and Jamel Saadaoui
Publication Date:
07-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII)
Abstract:
In this paper, we investigate how some MNEs which spread their home culture over time and space to the rest of the world are affecting, in turn, trade flows from home. By selling products embodying cultural information related to their country of origin, those MNEs embrace the role of ambassadors of their home country. We argue that IKEA offers an ideal case to identify a multinational's culture-promotion effect on trade. We build a dataset on IKEA's presence in foreign markets between 1995 and 2015 and merge it with disaggregated product level trade between pairs of countries. We find solid evidence of an externality linked to IKEA: a setting of an IKEA new store in a destination increases trade flows by around 2% from Sweden for products that resemble to what the multinational offers (despite being completely unrelated to that multinational). This result is driven primarily by the products identified to encompass a high-cultural content. Other robustness checks and tests seem to be very much consistent with the hypothesis of IKEA promoting the Swedish culture to the world.
Topic:
Globalization, International Trade and Finance, Culture, and Multinational Corporations
Political Geography:
Global Focus

26. A Salute to Cultural Diplomacy and Those Who Make It Possible

Author:
Renee M. Earle
Publication Date:
08-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
What do James Brown, Joseph Heller, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and the U.S. Sixth Fleet Band have in common? They all supported U.S. cultural diplomacy abroad. Not all of our cultural ambassadors are as famous— most are not — but together a very wide variety of American artists, performers, and writers have had positive impact on the image of the United States throughout the world. U.S. cultural diplomacy also includes many examples of citizen diplomacy and philanthropy, whether in partnership with U.S. embassies or independently. Together, these programs positively project our values abroad.
Topic:
Culture, Soft Power, and Cultural Diplomacy
Political Geography:
Turkey, France, North America, Brussels, Czech Republic, and United States of America

27. Language and Cultural Immersion Build Effective Communication

Author:
Bruce K. Byers
Publication Date:
11-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
Foreign language competency and cultural understanding are acknowledged as important skills for diplomats. While many Foreign Service Officers receive such training in Washington before going to an overseas assignment, few have the opportunity for the deep cultural and language immersion that I enjoyed as part of my first assignment for the U.S. Information Agency (USIA). In early 1972, after completing seven months of Farsi language training at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), I was posted to USIS Tehran. My family and I arrived shortly before the Persian new year, Now Ruz, and took up residence in an embassy apartment. Dave Dubois, the Public Affairs Officer, with the concurrence of the embassy Deputy Chief of Mission and USIA’s Office of Near East and South Asian Affairs (NEA), had arranged for me to spend some time with a host family in Isfahan. It was a “deep immersion” experience in which I would continue learning Farsi and experience life with a local family for several weeks.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Culture, Language, and Memoir
Political Geography:
Iran, Middle East, and United States of America

28. Tabletop Debates: reflections on molokhia, identity, and forks vs spoons

Author:
Antonio Tahhan
Publication Date:
08-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
Molokhia—an iconic Middle Eastern and North African soup—can be notoriously slimy. But when I lived in Aleppo, my aunt taught me three tricks to keep the slime at bay: first, leave the molokhia leaves whole (as opposed to chopped); second, squeeze a lemon over the leaves as soon as you add them to the pot; and third, do not overcook them. “This is how we cook molokhia,” my aunt said. The “we” was vague. Did she mean Aleppans? Other Syrians? “Egyptians—they make it the slimy way,” she added, raising a skeptical eyebrow. This led me to wonder: is there such a thing as a “Syrian molokhia” distinct from an “Egyptian molokhia”? In what ways does this dish unite, but also cut through, imagined national categories, in the Arab world and beyond?
Topic:
Food, Culture, Diversity, Identity, Molokhia, and Cooking
Political Geography:
Middle East and North Africa

29. How MAAS alum and food historian Anny Gaul studies cookbooks

Author:
Vicki Valosik
Publication Date:
08-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
Cookbooks can teach us how to braise a lamb shank, thicken a sauce, or bake a perfect pie crust. But for MAAS alum Anny Gaul (’12), a cultural historian of food and gender, they can do so much more. “Cookbooks can tell us something significant about norms and ideals, what is good taste, what is good food, and how those questions are connected to who we are as a nation,” says Gaul. That is an argument Gaul explores in her recent Global Food History article “From Kitchen Arabic to Recipes for Good Taste: Nation, Empire, and Race in Egyptian Cookbooks.” In Gaul’s paper, which earned her the Global Food History Prize for an Emerging Food Historian, she takes a deep dive into a unique literary sub-genre: cookbooks written by Egyptian women between the 1880s and 1950s. This was a period in Egypt, says Gaul, when female literacy was on the rise, girls were going to school in greater numbers, and women were beginning to pursue degrees abroad. Domestic science was a popular choice, with programs in England and Europe training female students to run efficient and modern home kitchens. A cohort of these women returned to Egypt to author cookbooks that would become widely influential, finding receptive audiences among the country’s emerging middle-class housewives, as well as the public education system, which often adopted their books as home economics texts.
Topic:
History, Food, and Culture
Political Geography:
Middle East and North Africa

30. MENA Photography: More than your eyes can see

Author:
Lyne Sneige, Iman Ali, and Samar Hazboun
Publication Date:
08-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Middle East Institute (MEI)
Abstract:
MEI Arts and Culture Center Director Lyne Sneige speaks with photographers Iman Ali and Samar Hazboun, who are featured in MEI's latest gallery exhibition "More Than Your Eyes Can See: Contemporary Photography from the Arab World" - curated by Laila Abdul-Hadi Jadallah and in partnership with Tribe Magazine.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, and Photography
Political Geography:
Middle East and North Africa

31. Between the Sky and the Earth: Contemporary Art from the UAE

Author:
Afra Aldhaheri and Asma Belhamar
Publication Date:
02-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Middle East Institute (MEI)
Abstract:
Afra Aldhaheri and Asma Belhamar, two featured artists in the MEI Art Gallery’s latest exhibition, Between the Sky and the Earth: Contemporary Art from the UAE, join MEI’s Lyne Sneige to discuss the inspirations and artistic processes behind their pieces in the show.
Topic:
Development, Arts, and Culture
Political Geography:
Middle East, United Arab Emirates, and Gulf Nations

32. Promoting the Inclusion of Europe’s Migrants and Minorities in Arts and Culture

Author:
Lucía Salgado and Liam Patuzzi
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Abstract:
Decades of sustained immigration have transformed many European cities into mosaics of different cultures. Yet this diversity is not always mirrored in the art celebrated in museums, the plays produced in major theaters, and the music heard in concert halls. In addition, well-intended efforts to celebrate ethnic and cultural diversity through art and culture run the risk of overemphasizing differences, exoticizing minority groups rather than contributing to the normalization of diversity within society. But this status quo may be changing. Widespread anti-racism protests have prompted long-overdue conversations about mis- and under-representation of minorities as well as discrimination in the cultural scene. At the same time, pandemic-related restrictions have placed further financial strains on the already fragile cultural sector, challenging organizations to reach new audiences in new ways. This MPI Europe report, which draws on interviews with cultural professionals from 11 European countries, explores approaches to strengthening the participation of migrant and minority communities in arts and culture, with potential benefits for immigrant integration outcomes, social cohesion, and the vibrancy and sustainability of cultural institutions. It examines migrants’ and minorities’ inclusion on three levels: as visitors of cultural venues and consumers of art, as featured artists and performers, and as leaders and staff within cultural institutions. The research was conducted within the framework of the Urban Agenda Partnership on the Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees, co-led by the City of Amsterdam and the European Commission and funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs.
Topic:
Migration, Arts, Culture, Minorities, European Union, Integration, and Inclusion
Political Geography:
Europe

33. Public and cultural diplomacy in European cities and states’ branding

Author:
Szymon Ostrowski
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:
Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:
Article “Public and cultural diplomacy in cities’ branding” is a try to set ideas of city diplomacy and idea of branding into theory of international relations. Also, analysis of two West-European and two East-European cities is a chance to analyze chances and threats that both states and cities can encounter during a process of brand building. The main questions that article is answering are “Can cities use their resources and connections to make public and cultural diplomacy?” and “What influence on that process has factor of being a city in post-soviet country or former Soviet Satellite state?” It can be said that cities are able to brand and rebrand itself and they are more flexible than states that cannot run away from some aspects of its identity. In case of difference between western and post-soviet states, the difference is none. In research, numerous rankings, articles and analyses were used as a primary sources in order to characterize how different are images of Italy, Germany, Hungary and Ukraine. Also, paper tries to determine, what is relation between states brand and branding of its cities.
Topic:
International Relations, Diplomacy, Culture, Soft Power, State, Cities, and Branding
Political Geography:
Europe, Ukraine, Germany, Hungary, and Italy

34. Artists killed in Latin America for exercising their freedom of artistic expression

Author:
Cecilia Noce and Diana Arévalo
Publication Date:
12-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL)
Abstract:
This is an executive summary of the original report produced in Spanish that focuses only on violence against artists, like targeted killings related to the exercise of their right to freedom of expression and artistic creativity in Latin America. In 2021, CADAL recorded 378 attacks on freedom of artistic expression, of which 23 were murders. Artists and cultural workers who participated in protests in Colombia and Cuba were harassed, detained, and repressed. Musicians and cultural leaders were also involved in the violence between organized crime groups in countries such as Mexico and Brazil.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, Freedom of Expression, Protests, Targeted Killing, and Organized Crime
Political Geography:
Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Latin America, and Mexico

35. Democracy and Urban Political Culture in Spanish South America, 1810-1860

Author:
Paula Alonso and Marcela Ternavasio
Publication Date:
07-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
“Democracy,” a word seldom used in public debate at the start of the nineteenth century and negatively associated with tumult, disorder, and direct rule, in a few decades became linked to representative government and increasingly employed with positive connotations. This paper argues that these conceptual changes should be explored in their political and social contexts, since the term “democracy” was invoked to (de)legitimate certain political practices and social sectors. Therefore, in exploring this non-linear process in Spanish America, these pages focus on the interactions between the emerging language of democracy and its varied meanings and uses in urban politics. These interactions were part of the factional disputes on how to implement the principle of popular sovereignty. Starting with an overview of selected emerging political practices during the Independence period, the paper then focuses on Lima and Buenos Aires, two regions with contrasting colonial pasts, responses to Spanish crises, and post-independence paths, showing how the concept of democracy could be put to varied uses according to different contexts and political objectives.
Topic:
Civil Society, Governance, Culture, Democracy, Citizenship, and Institutions
Political Geography:
Argentina, South America, Latin America, and Peru

36. Gender Attitudes and Trends in MENA

Author:
Mary Clare Roche
Publication Date:
09-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Arab Barometer
Abstract:
Gender equality is far from achieved in MENA. Clear majorities in most countries surveyed hold that women should not play equal roles to men in both public and private spheres. Yet, there are also signs of change. In the past decade and a half of Arab Barometer surveys, public opinion across the Middle East and North Africa has trended towards gender equality. This is not only a result of younger generations with more liberal ideas of social norms becoming older, but an actual shift in perceptions across generations. In particular, agreement with the statements that “men are better at political leadership than women” and “university education is more important for men than women” has dropped sharply across many countries Arab Barometer has surveyed. The survey always examines perceptions of violence against women. There is a widespread perception that violence against women has been increasing in the region. This is in line with the World Bank’s assessment that gender-based violence has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic in MENA.1 However, the gap between men and women’s perceptions of violence is significant, with women being far more likely to say the level of violence has increased. In order to appropriately address the issue of gender-based violence, conversations need to be facilitated across genders. Another challenge for women in MENA relates to employment opportunities. Labor force participation rates for women are the lowest of any region in the world.2 However, results from Arab Barometer make it clear that most citizens perceive structural barriers to have a greater impact than cultural barriers, meaning governments could more readily develop policies to address these challenges.
Topic:
Civil Society, Culture, Public Opinion, Equality, and Gender
Political Geography:
Africa, Middle East, North Africa, and MENA

37. The Tower of David Museum: Venue for Co-Existence

Author:
Rony Ohad
Publication Date:
12-2022
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Mitvim: The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies
Abstract:
Jerusalem has been studied extensively by scholars across a range of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. However, the arts, specifically public performance arts, have rarely been leveraged as a primary source to inquire into the city’s social structures. This research project examines how cultural institutions within the Old City of Jerusalem (focusing on the Tower of David Museum site) reflect and shape the relationship between citizenship and cultural performances. The article inquires how a cultural institute in a contested city can become an allied sphere, a source for joint creation, and even a venue for peacebuilding. The events and performances addressed in this article provide examples of both straightforward and indirect peace process approaches, revealing culture’s potential use and limits in a contested environment. The author suggests that a multicultural approach, yet not a neutral one, leads the museum to reveal its agenda, becoming “The City’s Museum” for joint cultural creation and initiative. This is the fifth in a series of papers of a joint project by the Mitvim Institute for Regional Foreign Policies and the Davis Institute for International Relations at Hebrew University examining selected actors’ contribution to the advancement of Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Topic:
Culture, Peacebuilding, and Coexistence
Political Geography:
Israel, Palestine, and Jerusalem

38. Taiwan Matters for America/America Matters for Taiwan

Author:
East-West Center
Publication Date:
09-2022
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
The inaugural edition of Taiwan Matters for America/America Matters for Taiwan, part of the Asia Matters for America initiative, maps the trade, investment, employment, business, diplomacy, security, education, tourism, and people-to-people connections between the United States and the Taiwan at the national, state, and local levels. This publication and the AsiaMattersforAmerica.org website are resources for understanding the robust and dynamic US-Indo-Pacific relationship.
Topic:
International Relations, Climate Change, Economics, Education, Environment, Politics, Science and Technology, Governance, Culture, Population, and Travel
Political Geography:
Taiwan and Asia

39. Coronavirus in the Arab World

Author:
Haizam Amirah-Fernandez
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic is shaking Arab countries hard at a time when the region is already under great pressure. The responses of Arab states to the threat of the coronavirus, added to the uncertain international context generated by the pandemic, is aggravating existing problems in the Middle East and the Maghreb. This current global emergency and its ramifications has the potential to turn socioeconomic challenges into political crises and intensify demands for change that have spread through multiple countries in the region over the past decade. Until an effective vaccine against the pandemic is made available and widely accessible, the economic and social costs of the drastic restrictions being imposed by Arab governments during the successive waves of the pandemic may be overwhelming and, ultimately, unbearable.
Topic:
Politics, Arts, Culture, COVID-19, and Demonstrations
Political Geography:
Middle East, Arab Countries, and North Africa

40. Indigenous Peoples and Climate Justice in the Arctic

Author:
Shaugn Coggins and James D. Ford
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:
Arctic regions are experiencing transformative climate change impacts. This article examines the justice implications of these changes for Indigenous Peoples, arguing that it is the intersection of climate change with pronounced inequalities, land dispossession, and colonization that creates climate injustice in many instances.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Poverty, Culture, Income Inequality, Justice, Indigenous, and Sustainability
Political Geography:
Arctic

41. The Growing Complexity of Farmer-Herder Conflict in West and Central Africa

Author:
Leif Brottem
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Africa Center for Strategic Studies
Abstract:
The rise of farmer-herder violence in Africa is more pernicious than fatality figures alone since it is often amplified by the emotionally potent issues of ethnicity, religion, culture, and land.
Topic:
Agriculture, Religion, Culture, Ethnicity, Conflict, Land, and Farming
Political Geography:
Africa

42. Beiruti Artists Rebuild & Reimagine Their Communities

Author:
Laila Jadallah
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
For many of Beirut’s artists, curators, and gallery owners, the devastation of the August 4, 2020 port explosion—which took the lives of 208 people, injured thousands more, and left more than 300,000 families homeless—was both personal and professional. Located in a thriving cultural district, the port area is home to numerous arts venues. As a result, the homes and studios of many artists, as well as galleries and institutions like the Arab Image Foundation, Sursock Museum, Salah Barakat Gallery, and Galerie Tanit, were severely damaged or destroyed in the blast.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, Crisis Management, Community, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Middle East, Lebanon, and Beirut

43. From Beirut to Brazil

Author:
Diogo Bercito
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Abstract:
At Lebanon’s centennial, it’s time for scholars to take a closer look at the country’s historic ties to Brazil, argues MAAS alum Diogo Bercito.
Topic:
Economics, Migration, Politics, History, Diaspora, and Culture
Political Geography:
Middle East, Brazil, South America, and Lebanon

44. Intrastate cultural and socio-political influences and the realisation of national security: A two-level correlational analysis

Author:
Dimitrios G. Pantazis
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Security and Defence Quarterly
Institution:
War Studies University
Abstract:
This paper aims to examine how specific domestic social, political, and cultural motives affect the formation and implementation of national security agendas. The following assumptions drive the research rationale behind this essay: Security-making processes are considered non-similar among states due to different domestic political processes, cultural discourses, and socialisation patterns. Therefore, national security agents are constantly being guided by various intrastate settings, which construct attitudes that are ultimately reflected in policy formation and implementation through strategic behavioural manifestations. The realisation of national security is thus dependent on each state actor’s existent strategic culture, and given that, such choices cannot be contemplated in a strictly rational way. The methods of literature review and multi-layered analysis are applied throughout this study. In particular, this text’s reasoning is based on contextualisation, identification, categorisation of variables, and correlational implications. In relation to the findings, the theoretical examination of the objects assessed provides adequate clarification on the interaction between the domestic motives, decision-makers’ perspectives, and strategic cultural manifestations. Specifically, it was critically identified that the two last concepts can have a complementary function during security-making processes, hence producing unique outcomes for each state actor. Consequently, this paper wishes to contribute by giving direction for future research and broader methodological implications on the role of intrastate socio-political and cultural motives as sources of strategic culture and determinants of national security-making attitudes; without ignoring other factors that can respectively affect the aforementioned schemes.
Topic:
Security, National Security, Politics, Culture, and Decision-Making
Political Geography:
Global Focus

45. Dimensions of freedom and self-governance: Past, present, future

Author:
Richard Jurgens
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Africa Governance Papers (TAGP)
Institution:
Good Governance Africa (GGA)
Abstract:
In the editorial to this – the first issue of The Africa Governance Papers – the editor starts by providing a brief overview of the content of the issue, which has the theme: “Dimensions of freedom and self-governance: Past, present, future”. He then reflects on the meaning of the term “governance”, which is understood differently in the global south and north. The differences in understanding, he argues, indicate an historical clash of understanding between universalists and particularists. The former, (mostly northern institutions and researchers) assume that their criteria for the effective running of a country apply everywhere, while the latter (mostly institutions and researchers from the global south) argue that these criteria can impose some values, while also ignoring others that are important in other parts of the world. The Africa Governance Papers, the editor continues, aims to provide a platform for publishing and debate that is based in the global south. Ultimately, though, the journal is open to submissions from scholars of disciplines relating to African governance from every part of the world.
Topic:
History, Governance, Culture, Global South, Freedom, Universalism, Self-Rule, Global North, and Particularism
Political Geography:
Africa

46. Individual Accountability in International Economic Policymaking after the Global Financial Crisis

Author:
Stefano Pagliari and Iosif Kovras
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
City Political Economy Research Centre (CITYPERC), University of London
Abstract:
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the design of accountability mechanisms has taken on renewed importance in academic and policy debates. Calls for holding individuals whose actions and omissions contributed to the meltdown accountable have gained traction in a number of countries after the crisis. Yet, individual accountability norms are seemingly absent from the international economic agenda in response to crisis. In this paper we address this puzzle by exploring the evolution of two major international organisations, the IMF and the FSB, in bringing accountability following financial crises. Our analysis reveals how these institutions have increasingly incorporated in their toolkit policy recommendations related to the unethical or illegal conduct by government officials of individuals in the financial industry, but these tools were geared almost exclusively towards forward-looking policies designed to deter the reoccurrence of illegal or unethical behavior rather than punishing or scrutinizing past wrongdoing. We argue that the extent to which individual accountability norms permeate the international economic agenda is mediated by the institutional characteristics of the organizations that comprise the international financial regime.
Topic:
Financial Crisis, Governance, Culture, Accountability, and Bureaucracy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

47. Culture, Gender, and Women in the Military: Implications for International Humanitarian Law Compliance

Author:
Robert U. Nagel, Kinsey Spears, and Julia Maenza
Publication Date:
10-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS)
Abstract:
The increased number of women in the Armed Forces presents a timely opportunity to examine how the changing gender makeup of the US military affects operations and culture, what potential barriers exist, and what women’s participation means for compliance with international conventions such as the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda and International Humanitarian Law (IHL). We conducted semi-structured interviews with former enlisted personnel, active and retired commissioned officers. The interviews, along with a comprehensive review of government and military policies, independent review reports, and academic literature, allow us to illustrate how the combination of an entrenched masculinized military culture and overreliance on Special Operations Forces (SOF) present an obstacle to women’s full integration, impeding the implementation of the WPS agenda and IHL compliance. We recommend that the US Department of Defense address three central gender-related issues—the equal and meaningful inclusion of women, restrictive physical standards, and sexual assault—to achieve the goals of the 2020 Strategic Framework and Implementation Plan (SFIP).
Topic:
Security, Culture, Armed Forces, Women, Discrimination, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), and Gender
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

48. “Too Big to Care” or “Too Big to Share”: The Digital Services Act and the Consequences of Reforming Intermediary Liability Rules

Author:
Fredrik Erixon
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE)
Abstract:
This paper reviews the Digital Services Act (DSA), a package of new rules for platforms proposed by the European Commission late last year. The paper takes stock of current and future situations for rules on content moderation and takedowns, and discusses how the DSA addresses the balance between the desired culture of openness online, on the one hand, and more pressures to take down not just illegal but harmful and objectionable content, on the other hand. The DSA introduces a few new transparency rules that follow previous codes of conduct: they are straightforward and desirable. However, it also brings in new know-your-customer rules and exacerbate the ambiguity surrounding the definition of illegal content. These types of rules will most likely have the effect that platforms will minimize risk even more by taking down more content that is legal. Moreover, there is a risk that the DSA will create new access barriers to platforms – with the result of making it difficult for smaller sellers to engage in contracts on platforms. New regulatory demands to monitor and address “systemic risks” will likely have the same effect: platforms will reduce their exposure to penalty risks by taking down and denying access for content that is legal but associated with risks. The DSA’s differentiation between large platforms and very large platforms is disingenuous and contradicts the purpose of many DSA rules. Obviously, exposing some platforms to harder rules will lead to content offshoring – a trend that is already big. Objectionable content – not to mention illegal content – will move from some platforms to others and lead extremists and others to build online environments where there is much mess content moderation. Furthermore, the new regulatory risks that come with being a very large platform will likely become an incentive for some large platforms to stay large – and not become very large. While the DSA is often billed as a package of regulations that will reduce the power of big platforms, it is more likely to lead to the exact opposite. Very large platforms have all the resources needed to comply with the new regulation while many other platforms don’t. As a result, the incumbency advantages of very large platforms are likely to get stronger.
Topic:
Culture, Digital Economy, Internet, and Digital Policy
Political Geography:
Europe

49. Illegal Gold That Undermines Forests and Lives in the Amazon: An Overview of Irregular Mining and its Impacts on Indigenous Populations

Author:
Melina Risso, Julia Sekula, Lycia Brasil, Peter Schmidt, and Maria Eduarda Pessoa de Assis
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Igarapé Institute
Abstract:
The Brazilian Amazon is rife with illegal gold mining operations, with 321 identified points of illegal, active and inactive mines arranged in the 9 states that comprise the Brazilian Amazon Basin. This devastation has a price — according to Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecutors Office, 1kg of gold represents roughly R$1.7m in environmental damages, culminating in an environmental cost roughly 10 times greater than the current price of gold. The Amazon is nearing its critical ‘tipping point’, beyond which both the Amazon biome and our global climate will suffer irreversible damages. As such, discussions on illegal mining in the Brazilian Amazon present two interrelated challenges: combating deforestation and protecting the distinct cultures of indigenous populations, who constitute the forests’ principal environmental defenders. Considering the urgency of the discussion, the Igarapé Institute launches the publication Illegal Gold That Undermines Forests and Lives in the Amazon: An Overview of Irregular Mining and its Impacts on Indigenous Populations. The article presents urgent recommendations, in the short and long term, to avoid an irreversible climatic collapse, in which the preservation of the Amazon rainforest plays a fundamental role.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Natural Resources, Culture, Mining, Indigenous, and Ecology
Political Geography:
Brazil and Latin America

50. A Roundtable on Lauren Turek, To Bring the Good News to All Nations: Evangelical Influence on Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Relations

Author:
Andrew Preston, Darren Dochuk, Christopher Cannon Jones, Kelly J. Shannon, Vanessa Walker, and Lauren F. Turek
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR)
Abstract:
Historians of the United States and the world are getting religion, and our understanding of American foreign relations is becoming more rounded and more comprehensive as a result. Religion provides much of the ideological fuel that drives America forward in the world, which is the usual approach historians have taken in examining the religious influence on diplomacy; it has also sometimes provided the actual nuts-and-bolts of diplomacy, intelligence, and military strategy.1 But historians have not always been able to blend these two approaches. Lauren Turek’s To Bring the Good News to All Nations is thus a landmark because it is both a study of cultural ideology and foreign policy. In tying the two together in clear and compelling ways, based on extensive digging in various archives, Turek sheds a huge amount of new light on America’s mission in the last two decades of the Cold War and beyond. Turek uses the concept of “evangelical internationalism” to explore the worldview of American Protestants who were both theologically and politically conservative, and how they came to wield enough power that they were able to help shape U.S. foreign policy from the 1970s into the twenty-first century. As the formerly dominant liberal Protestants faded in numbers and authority, and as the nation was gripped by the cultural revolutions of the 1960s, evangelicals became the vanguard of a new era in American Christianity. Evangelicals replaced liberal Protestants abroad, too, as the mainline churches mostly abandoned the mission field. The effects on U.S. foreign relations were lasting and profound.
Topic:
International Relations, Religion, International Affairs, History, Culture, Book Review, Christianity, and Diplomatic History
Political Geography:
United States and Global Focus

51. Violence in Post-Revolutionary Mexico

Author:
Gema Kloppe-Santamaría
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Despite the formal end of civil war and armed conflict, Mexico continued to experience significant levels of violence during the 1930s and 1940s. This period has traditionally been associated with the process of pacification, institutionalization, and centralization of power that enabled the consolidation of rule in post-revolutionary Mexico; a process epitomized by the marked national decline in levels of homicide that began during the 1940s and continued throughout the second half of the twentieth-century. However, the dynamics of coercion and resistance that characterized state-society relations during this period, particularly at the regional and local levels, reveal that violence pervaded all aspects of society and that it was perpetrated by a multiplicity of actors, including vigilantes, pistoleros, private militias, lynch mobs, military, police, and others, including violent entrepreneurs. Violence was used both as a means to contest the legitimacy of the post-revolutionary state project and as an instrument of control and coercion on behalf of political elites and local power brokers. Conversely, violence superseded the realm of traditional politics and constituted a central force shaping Mexican society. Violence against women in both the public and private sphere, violence driven by economic interests, and violence incurred in citizens’ attempts to control crime and social transgressions, reveal that citizens—and not only state actors—contributed to the reproduction of violence. Although violence in post-revolutionary Mexico was neither centralized nor exercised in a top-down manner, impunity and collusion between criminal and political elements were central to the production and perpetuation of violence, both within the Mexican state and within civil society. When examined in light of these two decades of the post-revolutionary period, the character and levels of violence in contemporary Mexico appear less as an aberration and more as the latest expression of a longer historical trajectory, uneven and nonlinear, of decentralized, multifaceted, and multi-actor forms of violence.
Topic:
Security, Religion, Culture, Peacekeeping, Democracy, Conflict, and Violence
Political Geography:
Latin America, North America, and Mexico

52. Economic Well‐​Being under Plan versus Market: The Case of Estonia and Finland

Author:
Anna Bocharnikova
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
This article investigates the dynamics of individual economic well‐​being in Estonia and Finland over three periods: (1) 1923–1938, when both countries were similarly situated; (2) 1960–1988, during which Estonia was under Soviet control; and (3) 1992–2018, after Estonian independence. Economic well‐​being is calculated using the purchasing power of wages in terms of the affordability of a minimal food basket. The results show that, in 1938, the purchasing power of wages in Estonia was 4 percent lower than in Finland; in 1988, it was 42 percent lower; and, by 2018, the gap had fallen to 17 percent. Consequently, as measured by the purchasing power of wages, well‐​being in Estonia and Finland was similar before the Soviet occupation, widely diverged during Soviet rule, and converged after Estonian independence, with the transition from plan to market.
Topic:
Economics, Markets, Politics, History, and Culture
Political Geography:
Europe, Finland, and Estonia

53. The Concerts and Live Entertainment Industry: A Significant Economic Engine

Author:
Michael Mariano and Adam Sacks
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Oxford Economics
Abstract:
We all remember our first concert or seeing our favorite band live, but rarely do we think of the stagehands, lighting techs, and ushers who worked hard to deliver these memorable experiences or the impact they have on our local, state, and national economies. In order to better understand the economic impact this important industry has across the United States, Oxford Economics developed a customized framework to analyze the impact of the concerts and the live entertainment industry's nationwide economic contributions in 2019 and conducted an in-depth analysis of the economic impacts of live event venues, artists, and visitor spending in terms of economic output, labor income, taxes, and jobs. Due to the pandemic putting a pause on live events in 2020, this report examined 2019 data to ensure a complete analysis could be conducted that is in line with regular performance of the industry. The industry drives significant economic activity that supports businesses, households, and government finances across the United States. In the wake of COVID-19, live events were shut down for over a year. Beyond the cultural loss involved, the US economy has incurred massive losses in GDP, employment, household income, and tax revenue due to the absence of live events. After a year of isolation, many crave getting back to enjoying memorable live experiences safely in 2021 and into the 2022 and 2023 seasons, which position the industry for growth in the coming years. The Concerts and Live Entertainment Industry, as defined by this report, includes all live musical performances, such as festivals and concerts, and comedy shows held in amphitheaters, clubs, theaters, arenas, stadiums, and other venues. Not included in this analysis are theater, Broadway, sporting events, and family shows.
Topic:
Economics, Culture, Music, popular culture, and Entertainment
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

54. Intercultural Trends Report 2020

Author:
Carina Radler, Christina Riegler, Eithne Knappitsch, Johannes Maerk, Klara Koštal, and Veronika Bernard
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Austrian Institute for International Affairs (OIIP)
Abstract:
What do intercultural trends and social changes in the Euro-Med region mean for Austria? The Intercultural Trends Report is a scientific report by the Anna Lindh Foundation, which shows the common ideas, attitudes, fears and hopes of young people from the Euro-Med region. In the online event, the Intercultural Trends Report 2020 was presented, discussed with the members of the Austrian network and put into practice. The report specifically addresses the opportunities, challenges and future collaborations that arise from the dialogue between Europe and the Mediterranean region. The aim is to identify exemplary examples that youth and civil society in the Euro-Med region can continue to pursue in the future.
Topic:
Civil Society, Culture, Youth, and Intercultural Dialogue
Political Geography:
Europe and Mediterranean

55. Recognition, Non-recognition, and Misrecognition of Minority Communities. What Lessons Can Be Drawn from a Comparison between European and Central Asian Approaches?

Author:
Sergiusz Bober and Aziz Berdiqulov
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
European Centre for Minority Issues
Abstract:
This Research Paper focuses on practices concerning recognition and non-recognition of minority communities in six European and Central Asian countries (Denmark, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, and Tajikistan). Additionally, it also assesses the risk of misrecognition with regard to some of the minority communities resulting from these practices. The text is structured as a dual comparative analysis, first scrutinizing approaches to recognition within two macro-regions, and afterwards confronting them in order to identify similarities and discrepancies. This results in the identification of two “cultures” of recognition: a “strong” one in Europe and a “weak” one in Central Asia, with their characteristics originating mainly from differences concerning social, political, and legal contexts. At the same time, some features are shared by both macro-regions: hierarchization of minority communities, general limited access to minority rights, and sometimes a severe risk of misrecognition. Moreover, the paper argues in favour of formal mechanisms of recognition, a wider scope of application of minority rights (especially in Europe), as well as the strengthening of minority rights frameworks in Central Asia.
Topic:
Culture, Minorities, Ethnicity, and Community
Political Geography:
Europe, Central Asia, and Asia

56. Field-by-Field Changes in China since Covid-19 and Implications for Korea

Author:
Jai Chul Heo
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
Abstract:
China has been able to escape from the Covid-19 outbreak relatively quickly compared to other countries. Nevertheless, it still remains greatly influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic across its politics, economy, society, culture, and other areas, which has led to various changes throughout China. Therefore, this study comprehensively examined the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on various aspects of Chinese politics, economy, society, and culture. And in response to these changes in Chinese society, the study explores new strategies toward China in the post-Covid-19 era.
Topic:
Politics, Culture, Economy, COVID-19, and Society
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and Korea

57. Narrating Memories of the Homeland Paris Based Syrian Artists Reflect on the War

Author:
Vanessa Badre, Lyne Sneige, Kate Seelye, Denis Quenelle, Nagham Hodaifa, and Bady Dalloul
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Middle East Institute (MEI)
Abstract:
The Middle East Institute's Arts and Culture Center and The Cultural Services of the French Embassy are pleased to host a conversation with leading Syrian contemporary artists, Bady Dalloul and Nagham Hodaifa. The Paris-based artists will reflect on the past decade of conflict and trauma, its impact and influence on their work and their relationship to their homeland. They will be joined by Lyne Sneige, the Director of the Arts & Culture Center at the Middle East Institute. Dalloul grew up in France, the son of prominent Syrian artists. His work confronts the notion of what is real and imagined while challenging the process of writing history. Hodaifa, who left Syria in 2005 to pursue her studies, explores the human condition through the representation of the body. Both artists are in the current MEI Art Gallery exhibit In This Moonless Black Night: Syrian Art After the Uprising, featuring leading contemporary Syrian artists chronicling the hope, trauma, and pain of the past decade through their practice. The artists will be in conversation with Vanessa Badré, art historian, lawyer, and faculty fellow at American University.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, Conflict, Trauma, Syrian War, and Memory
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, France, and Syria

58. Ten Years After: Syrian Artists Reflect on the Anniversary of the Syrian Uprising

Author:
Lyne Sneige, Lara Haddad, Maymanah Farhat, and Kevork Mourad
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Middle East Institute (MEI)
Abstract:
Marking the launch of the MEI Art Gallery exhibit, In This Moonless Black Night: Syrian Art After the Uprising, MEI is pleased to host a conversation exploring how Syrian artists in exile have addressed the hope, trauma and displacement of the past decade through their art. Among the 14 participating artists, US-based artists Lara Haddad, Essma Imady and Kevork Mourad, as well as curator and writer Maymanah Farhat, will reflect on their artistic practice and the personal experiences that influenced their work over the past 10 years. They'll also examine how the exhibit's diverse imagery and media helps shape our understanding of the magnitude and complexity of the past decade with beauty, grace and humanity. Lyne Sneige, director of MEI's Arts and Culture Center, will moderate the discussion followed by Q&A .
Topic:
Arts, Culture, Media, Syrian War, and Memory
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

59. The Central Asian Perspective on Turkey: Does Family Come First?

Author:
Oğul Tuna
Publication Date:
10-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies
Abstract:
In our latest issue of Turkeyscope, Oğul Tuna discusses the changing role of Turkey in Central Asia in recent years. This essay argues that ethnolinguistic links have helped improve relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but each Central Asian state has its own calculations that factor into separate diplomatic, cultural, and defense deals with Turkey.
Topic:
International Relations, Defense Policy, Diplomacy, Culture, Ethnicity, and Language
Political Geography:
Central Asia and Turkey

60. Legitimacy and Significance of Art. 2A in the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973

Author:
Naveed Ahmed, Nawaz Khan, and Bakht Munir
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
South Asian Studies
Institution:
Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab
Abstract:
Religion is a nearly common institution in humanity. It is found in all societies past and present. All the prehistoric societies have the influence of religions in their societies. Religion goes back to commencement of the culture itself. There is no primeval society without religion. It is social treatise that deals with familiarity and restraint. Religion is concerned with the shared beliefs and practices of human being. Allah being creator of this universe delegates his authority to those who owes it as a sacred trust in order to maintain peace and justice on this earth as per his commandments. Islam is an ideology sanctioned by revealed law. It is a way of life universal, humanitarian, eternal and egalitarian based on equality, fraternity, justice and liberty. Now, it is the duty of the state as well as the people of Pakistan to resort to the golden rules of Islam as enunciated by the Holy Quran and Muhammad (PBUH), in all fields of life. The key concern of this research is to evaluate the legitimacy of Art. 2A in the constitution of Pakistan and how is it practiced in Pakistan?
Topic:
Religion, Arts, Culture, Constitution, and Legitimacy
Political Geography:
Pakistan and Middle East

61. The path to recognition: Kosovo’s and Serbia’s evolving dialogue

Author:
Engjellushe Morina
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
Abstract:
The EU-sponsored dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia is entering a critical phase: it is unclear whether the parties will agree on a new agenda or continue to discuss old issues. Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti aims to set a new agenda for the dialogue and to place Kosovo on an equal footing with Serbia. The solution to the dispute between Kosovo and Serbia should be to create a societal consensus on both sides of the border. Kurti prefers not to prioritise the dialogue, but it is not in his interest to delay it – as this would only benefit Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Kosovo’s leadership should take greater responsibility for the Kosovo Serb community and provide services in areas such as healthcare and education, which are currently in the hands of the so-called ‘parallel structures’. The leadership should avoid linking this provision of services to any future Serbian concessions on Kosovo’s status. An internal dialogue would be the best way to address contentious, politicised issues such as the status of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo.
Topic:
Religion, Culture, European Union, Ethnicity, and Dialogue
Political Geography:
Europe, Eastern Europe, Kosovo, and Serbia

62. ‘Greening’ the EU’s cultural diplomacy: Uncovering the potential of the culture-climate nexus

Author:
Vadim Kononenko
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
Abstract:
The EU made its first forays into the field of public and cultural diplomacy when the European External Action Service (EEAS) was created a decade ago. In 2016 the Joint Communication of the European Commission and the EEAS, titled ‘Towards an EU strategy for international cultural relations’,1 made further headway. The Communication and the accompanying preparatorystudies2 concludedthat enormouspotential existed for the EU’s cultural diplomacy, but that a strategy to realise that potential was lacking. This brief argues that the EU should use the momentum of post-COVID recovery for strategically aligning its cultural diplomacy with the climate and sustainability agenda.
Topic:
Diplomacy, International Cooperation, Culture, European Union, Pandemic, Cultural Diplomacy, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Europe

63. Our Epistemological Crisis: "Ilmu Budaya" and "Two Cultures" Revisited

Author:
Donald K. Emmerson
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
This talk on the subject of scientific research was delivered virtually on 1 November 2021 to mark the anniversary of the official opening on 1 November 1958 of what is now called the Faculty of Cultural Sciences at Padjadjaran University in suburban Bandung, Indonesia. In his remarks, Donald K. Emmerson recalls his experience as a student in Indonesia, discusses the rejection and subversion of the distinction between fact and opinion in what he calls “our epistemological crisis," and ends with comments on a different but related distinction: the institutional separation of the humanities from the sciences, as if they were two different spheres of thought and specialization.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Culture, Research, and Institutions
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Asia, and Indo-Pacific

64. Circles, networks, and relations of Jerzy Giedroyc and “Kultura”

Author:
Iwona Hofman
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Polish Political Science Yearbook
Institution:
Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:
The purpose of the article is to describe the model and method of management of the Literary Institute and “Kultura” by Jerzy Giedroyc using the categories of circles, networks, and relations, verifying in this way the editor’s legend. The analysis covered the entire period of the Institute’s operation (1946-2000), comparing the internal periodization of the activity with the changes of the authors in the “Kultura” circle, which made it possible to distinguish between the friendly and home circle and three authors’ circles. The diaries, biographies, and letters provided the grounds to emphasize the significance of the network for building the position of “Kultura” as an opinion-forming magazine and a place of help for emigrant writers. Managing “Kultura” is presented, which is focused on creating relations and being objective. Synthesis, content analysis, and comparative methods have been used. This problem has not been discussed so far in the extensive literature on the subject.
Topic:
Culture, Media, Literature, and Literacy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

65. Cultural Security in Shaping the Generation of Civilizational Advancement Within the Universalization of Cultural Transformations. Based on Research Conducted in Samoa

Author:
Mirosława Jaworowska
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Polish Political Science Yearbook
Institution:
Polish Political Science Association (PPSA)
Abstract:
The Author has demonstrated that Samoan youth is not indifferent to cultural universals, despite attempting to co-create them in the course of a multi-cultural dialogue and globalization processes. The study was founded on research results conducted through local observations and a questionnaire distributed among students of the Faculty of Education at the National University of Samoa in Apia. The research aimed to learn about the opinions, aspirations, attitudes, and value systems of Samoan students as they represent the educated elite of the 21st-century generation. The interviewed approve of contemporary civilizational novelties, as long as those do not harm the traditional culture. The socialization process in the Samoan youth has been occurring on a borderland between upbringing, traditional family-tribal, and the modern state-citizen education in schools and social life. Family and traditional customs are still vivid despite being more open to contemporary civilization and state developments. Although cautious towards novelties that might threaten the Samoan culture, these attitudes may be assessed as a reformatory. Based on the results obtained in Samoa, it is justifiable to state that the process of cultural transformation universalization has been occurring there in many areas of reality.
Topic:
Security, Development, Culture, and Civilization
Political Geography:
Asia-Pacific and Samoa

66. Beijing Brushstrokes

Author:
Beatrice Camp
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
While studying Chinese in Taiwan in preparation for assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, I gave birth to baby William, our first child. Along the way, I learned a fair amount about Chinese birthing beliefs; our teachers at the Foreign Service Language School were happy to talk about the importance of fetal education and how my studying Chinese while pregnant would benefit the baby. A few days before my due date, my husband David dreamed I gave birth to a koala. David’s shock over having a furry animal for a son was compensated by the thrill of hearing the newborn utter a Chinese phrase. We had, after all, spent the previous two years struggling to master tones and characters. Not to mention that the little koala’s question of “gànmá” (干吗) or “whatever for?” seemed right on the money.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Culture, Language, and Memoir
Political Geography:
China, Taiwan, and Asia

67. Collecting Tibet: A Roundtable Discussion with Four Curators

Author:
Karl Debreczeny, Elena Pakhoutova, Kurt Behrendt, and Jeff Durham
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
How do curators approach representing Tibetan collections in their respective museums? What are the ways in which they make their collections accessible to the public and their specific audience? What digital initiatives related to Tibetan art and culture these museums offer or plan to develop? The event included individual presentations from each of the curators followed by a discussion. This event was cosponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University and the Rubin Museum of Art.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, and Museums
Political Geography:
Asia and Tibet

68. Mediums and Magical Things: Statues, Paintings, and Masks in Asian Places

Author:
Laurel Kendall, Lesley Sharp, Max Moerman, and Myron L. Cohen
Publication Date:
10-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
Paintings, statues, and masks—like the bodies of shamans and spirit mediums—give material form and presence to otherwise invisible entities and sometimes they are understood to be enlivened, agentive on their own terms. This book explores how magical images are expected to work with the shamans and spirit mediums who tend and use them in contemporary South Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Bali, Indonesia. It considers how such things are fabricated, marketed, cared for, disposed of, and sometimes transformed into art market commodities and museum artifacts. The two discussants approach this discussion of animated images from two different but intersecting directions. Max Moerman is a scholar of Japanese religion whose work focuses on visual and material representation. Lesley Sharp is a medical anthropologist with an interest in material culture whose recent work has focused on organ transplants and related questions of “life” and “death.” As moderator, Myron Cohen brings a broad knowledge of East Asian popular religion. The event is organized by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and cosponsored by the New York Southeast Asia Network.
Topic:
Religion, Arts, Culture, Spirituality, Museums, Magic, and Mediums
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Asia, South Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Bali

69. The Ideal of a Tree: Ju Kelzang on his Life as a Poet

Author:
Ju Kelzang, Pema Bhum, Kristina Dy-Liacco, Palden Gyal, and Eveline Washul
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Abstract:
Tibetan poet Ju Kelzang (a.k.a. Ju Kelsang or 'Ju Skal-bzang or འཇུ་སྐལ་བཟང་། ) from Amdo or the Golok Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province, China, reads two of his poems and reflects on his writing practices and philosophy. He also discusses his views on the role of tradition in contemporary Tibetan literature. In Amdo Tibetan dialect, WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, Literature, and Poetry
Political Geography:
Asia and Tibet

70. National Identity in the Guest Room: The Palestinian “Duyuf”

Author:
Alessandra Gola
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Palestine Studies
Institution:
Institute for Palestine Studies
Abstract:
This article explores the manifold dimensions of Palestinian contemporary identity through the lens of the ghurfat al-duyuf (traditional guests’ room) and its design. It argues that against a backdrop of a decades-long military occupation, this domestic space devoted to social functions is the terrain where families spontaneously express the core features of their identity and their participation in Palestinian nationhood through the layout of meaningful objects. It further contends that the narratives that emerged from the ghurfat al-duyuf over a ten-year observation period necessitate the reframing of Palestinian identity as a nuanced complex of diversities. Using a combination of architectural and ethnographic methods, the article seeks to provide an alternative approach to the subject matter, based on empirical observation of small-scale, everyday realities and common practices in the guests’ room.
Topic:
Culture, Identity, Nationhood, and Duyuf
Political Geography:
Middle East and Palestine

71. The UAE Art Scene: Challenges and Opportunities

Author:
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:
School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:
Sustainability and longevity of a thriving cultural sector in the Gulf must be treated as a priority, which is why long-term planning is essential in order to ensure the ability of the art field to meet with both current and future challenges.
Topic:
Development, Arts, Culture, and Cultural Diplomacy
Political Geography:
United Arab Emirates and Gulf Nations

72. More than a Monolith

Author:
Ariana Bennett
Publication Date:
08-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cairo Review of Global Affairs
Institution:
School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, American University in Cairo
Abstract:
Home to 54 unique countries, ancient civilizations and cultures, Africa is much more than meets the world’s eye.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, Environment, Culture, Social Policy, and Regionalism
Political Geography:
Africa

73. Shared History, Divided Consciousness: The Origins of the Sino-ROK Cultural Clash amid the Pandemic

Author:
Dong Xiangrong
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies
Institution:
Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
Abstract:
Since 1992, bilateral relations between China and South Korea have sustained a state of positive development, although there have naturally been some moments of friction and contradictions. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, a number of disputes arose between netizens in China and South Korea over such things as the origin of pickled vegetables (paocai in Chinese, kimchi in Korean) and the Van Fleet award acceptance speech of South Korea’s BTS singing group. Different interpretations of a few thousand years of bilateral interactions—cultural, political, military, historical, and other topics mutually entangling the two—have led to some sharply vitriolic disputes between netizens in the two neighboring countries. Today’s tensions over national identity issues are rooted in how history is understood in the two countries and the enduring salience of cultural symbols of identity tied to history. Nobody could have anticipated that pickled vegetables would, ultimately, become a focus of the 2020 dispute between netizens of China and South Korea. Since over a decade ago when the Gangneung Danoje (端午祭) was granted UNESCO recognition and other developments occurred, all the way up to today’s pickles, it seems that almost all ongoing Sino-South Korean identity disputes are connected to the entangled histories of the two sides. Seen from the history of cultural exchanges from long ago, is traditional medicine, after all, your Chinese medicine or my Korean medicine? Is traditional dress our Han Chinese clothing or your Korean clothing? Is the May 5 festival our Duanwujie (端午節，Dragon Boat Festival) or your Danoje? Are vegetables marinated by pickling, our “paocai” or your “kimchi”? A thousand-year cultural legacy should be a factor to strengthen shared identity and tighten cultural connections in Sino-South Korea relations. However, against the current geopolitical and geo-economical background, shared cultural connections unexpectedly became the focus of contention between the two neighbors. Geopolitically, China and South Korea have been involved in different political camps since World War II. During the decades of Cold War, these two countries unfortunately fell into hot war although they were not each other’s main enemy. Each country describes the war and justifies its actions through its own lens. Was the war, after all, our “War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea” or your “Korean War”? Different memories of the war led to widespread, fervent protest from Chinese fans against South Korea’s popular singing group BTS’s acceptance speech in receiving the Van Fleet Award by the Korea Society. Sensitivity toward remarks about the war some 70 years ago has unexpectedly heightened recently. Geo-economically, China and South Korea have been interdependent over the past three decades. China has been the biggest trade partner of South Korea for many years. The Chinese market is bigger than the U.S. and Japanese ones combined for Korean products. The market matters. The Samsung Group and Hyundai Group have had to react to the voices of customers and stop showing an advertisement performed by BTS. Also, when Seoul and Washington decided to deploy THAAD in South Korea, Seoul had to face the negative economic consequences of its deteriorating bilateral relationship with China. Both geopolitical differences and historical memories are now capable of arousing economic retaliation. This chapter analyzes from the angle of how history and the present are linked the current identity conflicts between China and South Korea. It recognizes that using today’s concepts to evaluate history leads clearly to tearing asunder Sino-South Korean mutual historical recognition. At the same time, the influence of values, geopolitics, differences in level of development, and other factors, along with cultural clashes between China and South Korea intersecting with political and security topics mutually arouse and even worsen relations between the two peoples. Security confrontations and ideological divergence have severely worsened public relations between the Chinese and South Koreans. These disputes, such as the Korean War and THAAD, have become important backdrops for the emergence and exacerbation of cultural rifts.
Topic:
Politics, Culture, History, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
China, Asia, and South Korea

74. The Pandemic and its Impact on the South Korea-Japan Identity Clash

Author:
Scott Snyder
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies
Institution:
Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
Abstract:
The global pandemic caused by the onset of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 has tested governance at both the national and international levels by challenging the capacity of nations to provide effective public health solutions to protect their citizenry. The pandemic has deepened preexisting international rivalries while also creating diplomatic opportunities to promote international cooperation and public diplomacy. Rather than serving as a turning point for a new era in international relations, the pandemic and the global response appear primarily to have accelerated preexisting trends. In Northeast Asia, the pandemic has accelerated deepening rivalry between the United States and China, reinforced political paralysis between Japan and South Korea, primarily by providing a pretext for privileging domestic concerns and constituencies at the expense of international relations, and has generated heightened new foreign policy challenges resulting from deepening identity-based major power rivalries. This chapter reviews the deepening of identity-based challenges facing Japan-South Korea relations prior to 2020, examines the conditions generated by leadership responses in both countries to the pandemic, identifies missed opportunities for pandemic-related cooperation between the two countries, and addresses challenges and opportunities facing the Japan-South Korea relationship in the context of anticipated recovery from the pandemic as well as the shifting geopolitical environment as tensions mount between China and the United States.
Topic:
Culture, Domestic Politics, COVID-19, and Identity
Political Geography:
Japan, Asia, South Korea, North America, and United States of America

75. The Coronavirus: Fueling Concerns and Contrasts between India and China

Author:
Tanvi Madan
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies
Institution:
Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
Abstract:
On February 26, 2020, an Indian plane landed in Wuhan carrying medical supplies for China, which was then the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak. On its return, it evacuated a number of Indian and Bangladeshi nationals, as well as citizens of other countries. On the face of it, this is the kind of cooperative effort that is expected during a global public health crisis, with countries—even competitors—coming together at a time of need. However, the saga of that flight reflected another (prescient) dynamic—that COVID-19 would reinforce and increase rather than alleviate competition between China and India and complicate cooperation, with pandemic response and recovery efforts being seen through a competitive prism. That flight to Wuhan was not smooth; indeed, it was much delayed. Delhi had announced it a week earlier. It was a way to help China, demonstrate India’s capacity, and assist India’s neighbors by evacuating their citizens. But then Indian officials publicly, albeit anonymously, revealed that Beijing was not clearing the flight. The reason was unclear—China, after all, had been requesting international support. There also did not seem to be a bureaucratic snafu. So, was it the visual of Beijing accepting support from India, which Chinese officials and analysts sometimes dismiss as a less capable, even chaotic, neighbor? Was it the desire not to give India a soft power win, including with its neighbors? Was it because the flight involved a military transport aircraft procured from the U.S.? Was it retaliation for the temporary Indian detention of a Chinese ship bound for Pakistan due to a tip-off of dual-use items on board? Or was the reason Chinese unhappiness about Indian travel restrictions to and from China, or Indian export limits on certain medical products? Whatever the reason, China eventually gave the flight clearance, but only a week later and after much Indian negotiation. It was an early sign that the public health arena would not be immune from the competitive atmosphere prevailing between the two countries, and in the region as a whole. Subsequent events only bore that out. There has been considerable discussion about how countries’ perceptions of China would change due to the pandemic—at the beginning because of its mishandling, and then because of its recovery. This chapter argues that, rather than change perceptions, Beijing’s handling of COVID-19 increased the largely skeptical views of China that prevail in India, which had at least 29 million cases and over 385,000 deaths in India by mid-June 2021 (the 2nd and 3rd highest in the world respectively). This trend was further bolstered by the worst boundary crisis between the two countries since they fought a war in 1962. Together, the pandemic and the boundary crisis have ensured that the competitive and conflictual elements of the India-China relationship have been front and center over the last year. They have reinforced and accelerated concerns in India about China’s lack of transparency, its uncertain commitment to the rules-based order, as well as its growing influence in the Indo-Pacific and in international institutions. And they have demonstrated that despite Delhi and Beijing’s efforts to cooperate and to stabilize their relationship over the last two decades, it remains a fundamentally competitive one that can spill over into conflict. This chapter examines the impact of first the pandemic and then the boundary crisis on perceptions of China among the Indian government, establishment, and public. It proceeds to outline the consequences of these perceptions on Indian domestic policy, its partnerships with like-minded major and middle powers, and its counter-COVID activism. Finally, it considers China’s response, particularly to Indian policy changes.
Topic:
Bilateral Relations, Culture, Domestic Politics, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
China, South Asia, India, and Asia

76. The Russo-U.S. National Identity Gap and the Indo-Pacific in 2021

Author:
Gilbert Rozman
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies
Institution:
Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
Abstract:
The start of the Biden administration demonstrated how far Russo-U.S. relations had sunk. On the heels of the massive cyber-hacking of U.S. government files, attributed to Russia, hearings for Biden’s appointees showcased harsh accusations. These were compounded by the arrest of Aleksey Navalny on his return to Moscow from convalescence in Germany after a near fatal poisoning in Russia, arousing severe rebukes in the U.S. Meanwhile, Russian officials and news sources attacked Biden personally as senile or a figurehead, a flawed U.S. system of democracy as a farce and dysfunctional, and U.S. plotting through Navalny as aimed at taking down Putin. Mutual accusations intensified in mid-March 2021 when Biden responded to a query whether he considered Putin a killer by saying, “I do,” which reverberated in sharp retorts by Putin and from many in Russia. In late April, as Russia massed troops on Ukraine’s border, Biden placed new sanctions on Russia, and Russian language grew even more threatening, relations had sunk even further. If there was no direct focus on the Indo-Pacific in such vitriolic exchanges, that can be seen elsewhere, especially in a further tilt toward China in a reputed “strategic triangle.” The Indo-Pacific is where relations between Moscow and Washington have the most potential, spared of the quandaries of NATO expansion and Soviet nostalgia over a sphere of influence or Middle East intrigues leading to shifting alliances. Many in Washington thought that a win-win scenario could be achieved if Moscow accepted integration into a dynamic region, a balance of power welcoming Beijing’s rise but preventing it from domination, the denuclearization and stabilization of Pyongyang, and breakthroughs in bilateral relations with Tokyo and Seoul. All of these objectives appeared consistent with Russian aspirations in the early 1990s, but they were thwarted by the national identity that was being reconstructed in the following quarter century, especially under Vladimir Putin from the mid-2000s. Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific proved to be a casualty of Russian thinking toward the United States, most of all, but also toward China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, and India. The Russo-U.S. identity gap has widened further in 2021. As Dmitry Medvedev wrote on January 16, the relations of Moscow and Beijing with the new U.S. administration are likely to remain extremely cold after years in which the trajectory of relations between Washington and Moscow had already been heading steadfastly downhill. Russo-U.S. bilateral relations and conflicting agendas in Europe and the Middle East draw avid interest, but the Indo-Pacific appears to be an inconsequential factor in their sharp rivalry. Nor do their differences in this region appear to have much significance for the development of the area, where China casts a broad shadow and U.S. alliances and partnerships are being renewed. To argue to the contrary leads one down several possible pathways: 1) this is the one promising arena for rebuilding relations; 2) Russia has a special role to play, distinct from China’s, due to its ties to India, North Korea, or ASEAN; 3) continued strengthening of Sino-Russian ties adds an element of concern for U.S. policies in the Indo-Pacific; or 4) Russia’s animus toward the U.S. may find an unexpected outlet in this region. Whichever pathway is explored, it is important to grasp how Russians perceive this region and its various sub-regions, while keeping in mind the context of the broader clash of national identities severely affecting the Russo-U.S. relationship. In this chapter, I offer an overview of the Russo-U.S. identity gap, turn to Russian thinking about the Biden administration, review Russian national identity, focus on aspects of Sino-Russian ties and their identity gap, subsequently shift to how Russians have viewed other parts of Asia of late, and conclude with an assessment of the prospects for Russo-U.S. relations in the region.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Bilateral Relations, Culture, Domestic Politics, and Identity
Political Geography:
Russia, United States of America, and Indo-Pacific

77. The Sino–U.S. National Identity Gap and Bilateral Relations

Author:
Danielle Cohen
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies
Institution:
Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI)
Abstract:
The national identity gap between China and the United States has become increasingly apparent. Under Xi Jinping, China has sought to reclaim its historical greatness and proclaimed itself to be a responsible great power that offers a credible alternative to Western values, while also promoting increasingly authoritarian policies at home, complete with extensive repression in Xinjiang and renewed state control of the economy. Assertions of U.S. national identity were somewhat muted under Donald Trump, confused by the battle between those who supported the administration’s “America First” policy, its transactional approach to foreign affairs, and its deemphasis on human rights and democracy promotion in U.S. foreign policy, and those who worried about the global repercussions of an isolationist, nativist policy. For a time, the United States seemed more preoccupied with its trade war with China than with claims that the United States should act as the global protector of human rights and democracy. The COVID-19 pandemic further complicated already tense Sino–U.S. relations and called both countries’ national identities into question. While China had, as of spring 2021, succeeded in keeping its COVID-19 outbreak remarkably small, the damage caused by its initial suppression of medical reports, along with successful virus mitigation in a number of non-authoritarian states, called into question its claim to be a responsible world power on the basis of its pandemic performance. Meanwhile, the Trump administration failed to protect U.S. citizens from catastrophic death tolls and prevented the United States from taking a leading role in resolving this global crisis. In January 2021, the Biden administration took office with a focus on swiftly ending the pandemic, while also reasserting the traditional U.S. global leadership role. When combined with its assessment of U.S. power after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and of U.S. domestic social and political instability evident throughout 2020-2021, the pandemic has strengthened China’s perceptions of the United States as a country in decline, and of China as a “risen” great power that should now play a major role in shaping the global order. At the same time, although U.S. policy towards China remains firm despite the presidential transition, the underlying rationale has shifted from the “America First” approach of the Trump administration to the democratic values-infused approach of the Biden administration. As the world struggles to move beyond the pandemic, the national identities of China and the United States are increasingly defined in opposition to each other and seem likely to drive an ever more challenging bilateral relationship in the coming years.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Bilateral Relations, Culture, and Domestic Politics
Political Geography:
China, Asia, North America, and United States of America

78. Role of Social media in Amplifying Neo-Liberal Cancel Culture

Author:
Greg Simons
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Turkish Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Institution:
Turkish Policy Quarterly (TPQ)
Abstract:
Cancel culture and wokeism are dangerous trends that are increasing in their intensity and the self-destruction of Western civilization is a matter of time as the underlying historical myths and value/normative philosophies that led to its global hegemony is destroyed by a messianic ideology that is engineering an exclusive homogenous worldview in the name of pluralism and inclusivity. In this world of Orwellian doublespeak, the current struggle for ideological hegemony is taking place in the information space for hearts and minds in the cognitive realm. Social media is the very frontline in the future and even very existence of Western civilization, and it has chosen to support those waging the neo-liberal cancel culture in the name of justice, liberation and equality.
Topic:
Culture, Hegemony, Social Media, Neo-Liberalism, and Cancel Culture
Political Geography:
Global Focus

79. Exchange and Cooperation in Music and Art between the Soviet Union and North Korea (1948–1990)

Author:
Byong-Jo Lee
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
East Asia Institute (EAI)
Abstract:
Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, an extensive number of cultural exchange visits were made between the Soviet Union and North Korea in various fields including the arts. Mutual visits paid by delegates of the respective countries served as an opportunity to introduce cultural techniques and receive training by experts of the other country. In this Research Review, Lee Byong-Jo, Professor at Al-Farabi (Kazakh) National University, explains the exchange of arts between the two countries. While most of them have been made with the intentions of praising the North Korean regime, findings show that there have been exchanges in folk music as well. In addition, research shows that Koryoin artists in Central Asia led cultural exchange between two countries. According to articles on the Lenin Gichi, exchange visits started with the founding of North Korea and persisted until the 1960s. Art groups reflected the sorrow of the Koryoin community, encouraged them to preserve their national identity, and contributed to the development of the arts in both countries.
Topic:
History, Arts, Culture, and Music
Political Geography:
Asia, North Korea, and Soviet Union

80. Arising From “the People”: Bottom Up Change in North Korean Society

Author:
Seunghee Ha
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
East Asia Institute (EAI)
Abstract:
From the construction of open-air theaters to the use of new celebratory mediums in national events and the resumption of the 2020 Youth Day Celebration amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea has experienced a significant transformation in its social and cultural underpinnings over the past year. Seunghee Ha, a research fellow at the Dongguk University DMZ Peace Center, argues that these changes provide important insights into how the North Korean authorities are gradually accommodating new tastes and desires that have emerged among its citizenry. Where such behaviors were once deemed threatening “non-socialist” behaviors, Ha believes that the state’s reactive adaptation highlights the increasing agency of ordinary North Koreans upon the direction of the country’s social preferences. For Ha, this “bottom-up” approach ultimately has the potential to produce a North Korea more socially aligned with the rest of the international community.
Topic:
Culture, Youth, and Society
Political Geography:
Asia and North Korea

81. 'Humanising' Statelessness through an Artistic Approach

Author:
Md Mizanur Rahman
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
In this article I critically examine an art-based approach to statelessness in institutional settings, to show how art can produce alternative insights on statelessness. Drawing from ethnographic observation, I show how an art-based approach tries to go beyond the predominant legalistic and political frames and representations of statelessness, but stay married to the same legal and political discourses. I found the art-based approaches observed do not subscribe to the idea that statelessness is only a legal anomaly and instead emphasise the creation of empathy for stateless individuals or groups. This humanises statelessness by showing their human vulnerability and creatively recognising their hope and agency. Regardless, artistic approaches can struggle to challenge the legalistic and political nature of the problem. It remains a question whether such approaches are appropriately promoting the views, perceptions and feelings of stateless persons themselves, as their participation in creating such art projects are minimal. As such, I argue for an ‘ethnographic turn in art practices’, which can ensure the participation of stateless people in the process of creating and demonstrating art. I believe this ‘turn’ could play a crucial role in the development of statelessness studies.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, Law, and Stateless Population
Political Geography:
Global Focus

82. The Legacy of Lekra: Organising Revolutionary Culture in Indonesia

Author:
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Abstract:
In 1965, the Indonesian revolutionary cultural organisation, Lekra, had 200,000 members and one and half million supporters. This was followed by a coup and the killing of one million communists in the months that followed. On the seventieth anniversary since its founding, this dossier traces Lekra’s history and calls on the artists and militants of today to combine individual creativity with the wisdom of the masses, from whose struggles for emancipation we seek hope and direction.
Topic:
Culture, Revolution, and Mobilization
Political Geography:
Indonesia and Asia-Pacific

83. Back in Exile: Afghan Stories of a Near Distant Past

Author:
Giovanni Matteo Quer
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies
Abstract:
In October issue of BeeHive Giovanni Quer explores narratives of escape, identity, and homeland among Afghan exiles.
Topic:
Culture, Identity, Exile, and Narrative
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and South Asia

84. Digital Selves: Embodiment, Subjectivity in New Media Cultures in Eastern Europe, Eurasia

Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Join us to celebrate the launch of a special issue of the journal Digital Icons: Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media. The issue, “Digital Selves: Embodiment and Subjectivity in New Media Cultures in Eastern Europe and Eurasia,” is available in open access at digitalicons.org This issue considers the role of the physical and sensory body in relation to social identities and minority advocacy in regional digital culture. Engaging conversations in disability studies, queer studies, and feminist studies, the articles in the issue consider gender, disability, and LGBTQ identity as both embodied and online. The launch will feature brief presentations by participating authors on civilians at war in Ukraine, the assemblage of vibrant disability counterpublics on the Russophone internet, contestations around concepts of ethnicity and heritage in Russia’s border regions through digital music online, queer stories of coming out in Russia and anti-homophobia protest in Poland. With an overview of the project from co-editors of the special issue Cassandra Hartblay and Tatiana Klepikova and a response from Sasha Kurlenkova, PhD Candidate in Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU
Topic:
Culture, Media, Identity, and Digitalization
Political Geography:
Europe

85. Wellsprings of David Burliuk’s Art: Exploring Enduring Inspiration, Kakhovka to New York

Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Please join the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute for a talk by Myroslav Shkandrij exploring the artwork of David Burliuk. Mark Andryczyk (Harriman Institute) will moderate. The art of David Burliuk, the founder of futurism in the Russian empire, went through several phases. From the moment he founded the Hylaea group near Kherson in 1903, during his travels through Siberia and Japan, and after his arrival in New York in 1922 he explored various styles. Among them were impressionism, neo-primitivism, cubo-futurism, surrealism, and ‘radiostyle.’ There were, however, some constant sources of inspiration, to which her continually returned up to his death on Long Island in 1967. These included an enthusiasm for nature, vitality, the Steppe, and the Cossack past of his ancestors. The evidence of his writings, paintings and archives provide keys to understanding puzzling aspects of his development. Myroslav Shkandrij is Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba where he taught Slavic studies. He has published books on Ukraine in the 1920s, Ukrainian-Russian relations, nationalism, avant-garde art, and contested views of revolutionary events. He has also curated a number of exhibitions dealing with the early twentieth-century avant-garde, and has translated several Ukrainian authors into English. In the fall 2021 semester, he is Visiting Professor in History, Ukrainian Studies at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University.
Topic:
Arts, Culture, Revolution, and Identity
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Ukraine

86. Anatoly Zverev as a Cultural Phenomenon: Remembering the Artist

Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Please join the Harriman Institute and the Kolodzei Art Foundation for a presentation in conjunction with our exhibit Anatoly Zverev: Selections from the Kolodzei Art Foundation. Natalia Kolodzei of the Kolodzei Art Foundation will discuss the artist Anatoly Zverev and his legacy. Introduction by Mark Lipovetsky (Columbia Slavic Department/Harriman Institute), with recorded remarks by Tatiana Kolodzei, art historian/curator Maria Plavinsky and artist/art collector Natalia Kostaki.
Topic:
Arts and Culture
Political Geography:
Russia and Europe

87. Book Talk. "Air Raid" by Polina Barskova with Translator Valzhyna Mort

Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
The Harriman Institute
Abstract:
Please join the Harriman Institute for a discussion with poet and scholar Polina Barskova about her new volume, Air Raid (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2021). She will be joined by translator Valzhyna Mort and moderator Mark Lipovetsky. This event is part of our Contemporary Culture series. The Siege of Leningrad began in 1941 and lasted 872 days, resulting in the most destructive blockade in history. Already shaken by Stalin’s purges of the ’30s, Leningrad withstood the siege at a great human cost. Air Raid takes us through the archives of memory and literature in this city of death. Polina Barskova’s polyphonic poems stretch the boundaries of poetic form—this is what we’re left with after poetry’s failure to save nations and people: post-death, post-Holocaust, post-Siege, post-revolution; post-marriage and post-literature. How does language react to such a catastrophe? How does a poet find language for what cannot be told? This new translation of a leading contemporary Russian poet confronts English excavating its muteness, stutter, and curse.
Topic:
Arts, Military Strategy, Culture, Memory, World War II, and Poetry
Political Geography:
Russia, Europe, and Soviet Union

88. A More Expansive Atlantic History of the Americas: An Interview with Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra

Author:
Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra and Fernando Gómez Herrero
Publication Date:
08-2021
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The Toynbee Prize Foundation
Abstract:
Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra’s work intermingles the colonial histories of the Americas—the United States and Latin America. Cañizares-Esguerra’s expansive historical project is Americanist, yet not in the usual sense of the term. What “America” historically is must engage with a rich contradiction of meaning-making narratives generated by a plurality of social agents. Cañizares-Esguerra resists national containment of such historical narratives and provocatively engages with the early modern and early colonial period (1500s) and with the Enlightenment and nineteenth-century liberalism alike. Themes of belief and faith, of knowledge and science, among a variety of historical agents and subjectivities, feature prominently within his work. This interview explores Cañizares-Esguerra’s Atlanticism and his cautions regarding certain global history tendencies. Cañizares Esguerra details his current project, Radical Spanish Empire. His aim is to historicize, to radicalize, to Americanize (expansively understood), and to show that colonial Massachusetts is unintelligible without Puebla or Tlaxcala in colonial Mexico, that colonial Virginia makes no sense without its Andean and Peruvian counterparts, and that Calvinists should be understood alongside Franciscans. Cañizares-Esguerra wants to pluralize the historical narrative outside the conventional liberal moulds of modernity in the Americas. In this, he catches me by surprise when he negates that plural modernities constitute the telos of his enterprise and when he gives the cold shoulder to cultural studies and postcolonial/decolonial studies. The main intellectual thrust of our discussion regarded the intellectual inevitability of native and foreign entanglements, historical and contemporary, and the political desirability that cuts across the “Anglo” and “Latin” divide, at least initially. He offers an expansive Atlantic History, along provocative Iberianizing lines, mixing the “Anglo” and “Latin” categories. It serves as an invitation to go beyond American histories’ extant boundaries, of which there will be many more than two.
Topic:
Imperialism, History, Culture, Colonialism, and Spanish Empire
Political Geography:
South America, Central America, and North America

89. Church of Woke: Next American Religion?

Author:
Michael Vlahos
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
What does it mean to be woke? First and foremost, “woke” is a religious signal that you have heard the Good News and Seen the Light. Awakening means both witnessing revealed truth and experiencing spiritual transformation. Today this has taken the form of a collective enunciation: Of a new national church, reformed and transformed, to replace the original American sect, which is wicked and corrupted. In simple, practical terms, the Church of Woke is pledged to the destruction of Racism, Patriarchy, and Heteronormativity. The original national religion—often called American Exceptionalism—and the Church of Woke are locked in a victory-or-death struggle. To understand this, two points are essential. First: America is a religion. American life and politics function in a religious milieu.[1] That should not surprise. In 1967, American sociologist Robert Bellah declared a national “civil religion”[2]—yet “civil religion” is a pleonasm. Greek “politics” and Roman “civil” both refer to the city, the national community of Antiquity. Hence today, in our national city, all citizens are part of an American religious congregation. Second, the full faith conversion of an empire is a transformation. Our distant past records just such a shift. 1700 years ago an entire civilization—the sacred world of the Greco-Roman Mundus[3]—was overthrown and replaced by something new. This transformation was the work of three generations, from 313-380. The first generation converted a Roman emperor who declared tolerance toward Christians. The second marched steadily toward the persecution of “pagans.” In the third generation there was a counter-coup by the apostate emperor Julian. He failed. What followed was the total proscription of all pagans (or Hellénikos). Likewise, the Church of Woke has began its Long March to transform American life in the mid-1960s. Like Christianity, it has burrowed deeply into elite society and the institutions of state power. Now we are locked in a culminating phase. The third generation of Woke—true to Late Roman antecedents—must cast down the Pantheon of American Exceptionalism, of Founders and Heroes, establishing a new divine order that will wash away America’s sins[4] of Racism, Patriarchy, and Heteronormativity. What follows puts Late Antiquity and Today’s world side-by-side. The reason to do this is compelling. Simply, we are facing a potential civilizational discontinuity.
Topic:
Religion, Culture, Racism, Heteronormativity, and Patriarchy
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

90. Arabic Knowledge and Culture: A Conversation with the Hindawi Foundation

Author:
Hindawi Foundation
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Middle East Institute (MEI)
Abstract:
This event is a conversation with the founders of the Hindawi Foundation, the largest free online library for Arabic speakers. The founders will share with us their journey into buying the copy rights, translating and constructing a cultural edifice of books that includes literature, science, history, philosophy and much more. This digital space of knowledge is one of very few stories to come out of the region in the last decade. The Hindawi Foundation is a non-profit organization that aims to spread knowledge and culture, and instill a love of reading among Arabic speakers.
Topic:
Culture, Literature, Translation, Arabic, and Knowledge Production
Political Geography:
Arab Countries

91. The Role of Values for Social Cohesion: Theoretical Explication and Empirical Exploration

Author:
Daniel Nowack and Sophia Schoderer
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
Abstract:
Shared values are deemed necessary as a solid foundation for social cohesion by commentators and observers in many countries. However, when examining what kind of values this is based on, answers often come down to platitudes and national clichés. This discussion paper offers some clarification through both a theoretical explication and an empirical exploration concerning the general role of values for social cohesion. Values are notions about desirable, trans-situational end-states and behaviours. They fall into two categories, individual and societal values. We provide a critical discussion of the most prominent conceptualisations and their operationalisation in the social sciences. Values affect social cohesion in three possible pathways: First, when they are shared; second, when they promote behaviour per se conducive to social cohesion and third, through their effect on policy choice and institutional design. We review evidence provided by the research literature for each of these pathways. We further explore the third pathway by deriving from the research literature the conjecture that a cultural value emphasis on egalitarianism makes a universalistic scope of welfare institutions more likely, which in turn increases social and political trust. We first examine this conjecture with a series of regression models, and then run a mediation analysis. The results show that (1.) egalitarian values are moderately strongly and positively linked to universalistic welfare institutions, but that (2.) welfare institutions mediate the association of egalitarian values with social trust only to a small extent and that (3.) more universalistic welfare institutions counteract a negative association between egalitarian values and institutional trust.
Topic:
Culture, Institutions, Values, Welfare, and Social Cohesion
Political Geography:
Germany and Global Focus

92. Analysis of the Turkish Services Industry and Korea-Turkey Cooperation

Author:
Cheol-Won Lee, Hyun Jean Lee, Mahmut Tekçe, and Burcu Düzgün Öncel
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP)
Abstract:
The Agreement on Trade in Services and the Agreement on Investment between Korea and Turkey came into effect in August 2018. This article focuses on the construction sector and the cultural contents sector to seek possible cooperative measures between the two countries.
Topic:
International Cooperation, Treaties and Agreements, Culture, Economy, Investment, and Industry
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, Asia, and South Korea

93. The Cultural Reflections on the Middle Eastern Geopolitics: An Assessment on the Cultural Heritage | Ortadoğu Jeopolitiğinde Kültürel Yansımalar: Kültürel Miras Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme

Author:
Senem Atvur
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Novus Orbis: Journal of Politics & International Relations
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Karadeniz Technical University
Abstract:
The territory known as the Fertile Crescent is located at the eastern part of the Mediterranean Basin. This region, where the agriculture was developed, the first human settlements started, arts and culture were shaped, is now called the Middle East. The concept of the “Middle East” had started to be used at the beginning of the 20th century, when imperialist politics had spread worldwide. Due to the common use of the Middle East concept, the region was defined with a Western-centric perspective. This identification has played an essential role in the interpretation of Middle Eastern with Western concepts and on the construction of the cultural hegemony in the region. The stereotypes created by the West and adopted by the regional actors have caused homogenisation of the cultural diversity in the Middle East. Hence, the powerful actors of the international system could expand their zone of influence in the region. This study focuses on the importance of the area called the Middle East in the history of humanity and on the cultural heritage of this region. It is argued that to break the geopolitical interests of great actors in the region; the Middle East should reconcile with its cultural history and a new image of the Middle East based on common cultural heritage. | Tarımın geliştiği, yerleşik hayatın başladığı, yazının ve sanatın şekillendiği, Akdeniz Havzası’nın doğusunda kalan ve Bereketli Hilal olarak anılan topraklar bugün Ortadoğu olarak adlandırılmaktadır. “Ortadoğu” kavramı, 20. yüzyıl başlarında, emperyalist politikaların yaygınlaştığı dönemde kullanılmaya başlamıştır. Ortadoğu kavramının kullanımının yaygınlık kazanması, bölgenin Batı merkezli bakış açısıyla tanımlanması sonucunu da beraberinde getirmiştir. Bu durum Ortadoğu kültürlerinin Batılı tanımlar üzerinden yorumlanması ve bölgede kültürel hegemonyanın inşasında rol oynamıştır. Batı’nın yarattığı Ortadoğulu stereotipinin bölge içinde de kabulü, bölgenin kültürel çeşitliliğini tektipleştirici bir etki yaratmış; bu durum Ortadoğu coğrafyasında, uluslararası sistemin güçlü aktörlerinin etki alanlarını genişletmesini sağlamıştır. Bu çalışma Ortadoğu olarak adlandırılan coğrafyanın insanlık tarihinde üstlendiği rol ile sahip olduğu kültürel birikimin önemine odaklanmaktadır. Çalışmada uluslararası aktörlerin bölgeye ilişkin jeopolitik çıkarlarının kırılması yönünde Ortadoğu’nun kültürel geçmişi ile barışması ve ortak kültürel miras üzerine inşa edilen yeni bir Ortadoğu imgesinin gerekliliğine vurgu yapılmaktadır.
Topic:
Culture, Geopolitics, Heritage, and Identity
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

94. Same-Sex Marriage and the Liberal Transformation of Ireland

Author:
Theresa Reidy
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:
In 2015, Ireland became the first country in the world to introduce same-sex marriage through a national referendum vote. The decision to introduce equal marriage received a great deal of attention, and not just because it was the first positive referendum decision on this issue; the vote was also preceded by a citizens’ assembly which recommended the referendum and endorsed a “yes” vote. The resounding victory for the liberal position provided definitive evidence of Ireland’s shift from a conservative, inward-looking European periphery state to a modern, liberal, and inclusive republic.
Topic:
Religion, Culture, Domestic Politics, and LGBT+
Political Geography:
Europe, Ireland, and European Union

95. Pope Francis: Extending his “Culture of Encounter” into the Arab and Muslim Worlds

Author:
Scott M. Thomas and Anthony O'Mahony
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:
In February 2019, Pope Francis became the first pope to visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Like John-Paul II before him, he has also visited Egypt, and he went to Morocco in March 2019. The pope participated in a colloquium on “human fraternity” and interreligious dialogue sponsored by the UAE-based Muslim Council of Elders—the brain-child of Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the most important Sunni Muslim university in the world. The Council of Elders sponsors initiatives to engage young Muslims on Islamist ideology by promoting a more “authentic” interpretation of Islam. Islamist violence—with its beheadings and mass executions—has provoked disgust across the Muslim world and is causing young Muslims to become more distant from their imams and mosques. It is becoming clear to many Muslim intellectuals in Egypt, Iraq, and Lebanon that, in order to defeat Islamism, there needs to be greater dialogue and coexistence with Christians. Pope Francis is attempting to lead the way, extending his “culture of encounter.”
Topic:
Islam, Religion, Culture, Violence, and Catholic Church
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, United Arab Emirates, and Vatican city

96. Alcohol Policies in Australia: Indigenous Activism and International Blueprints

Author:
Maggie Brady
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Abstract:
Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity, a book sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and boasting fifteen international authors, describes alcohol policies as authoritative decisions made by government or non-government groups designed to minimize or prevent the adverse consequences of alcohol consumption. This compilation of high-quality research and advice, in addition to the WHO’s other channels of communication, provides a blueprint for action for WHO member states designed to help governments around the world make national policies. This is necessary because many countries have no clear alcohol policies at all. Uganda, for example, has not reviewed its liquor laws since the 1960s, and China has no systematic data collection, legally enforceable drinking age, nor regulation over sales, despite rising alcohol consumption.
Topic:
Health, World Health Organization, Governance, Culture, Public Policy, Indigenous, and Alcohol
Political Geography:
Australia and Australia/Pacific

97. Ensuring Respect for Indigenous Cultures: A Moral Rights Approach

Author:
Brigitte Vézina
Publication Date:
05-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
From commercials to movies to fashion, Indigenous artworks have been misused in ways that are offensive to the artists who created them and disrespectful of the cultures that inspired them. Using Indigenous traditional cultural expressions (TCEs) without acknowledging their sources or providing financial compensation to the artists undermines the TCEs' traditional value and amounts to cultural theft. This paper looks at protecting TCEs using copyright's moral rights approach, which provides intellectual property protection based on acknowledgement, respect and integrity.
Topic:
Arts, Intellectual Property/Copyright, Culture, and Indigenous
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

98. The Fauda Effect: Israeli Active Defense on the Screen

Author:
Asaf Romirowsky
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies (BESA)
Abstract:
Strategically, Israel’s fundamental military premise is defensive but its tactics are offensive—a result of its geography and absence of territorial depth. Israeli decision-making has always been driven by the active defense ethos, and this is reflected in Israeli filmmaking and TV-making.
Topic:
Military Strategy, Culture, Media, Film, and Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

99. Iranians Turn Away from the Islamic Republic

Author:
Ladan Boroumand
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Democracy
Institution:
National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:
The Islamic Republic of Iran is confronted with an unprecedented legitimacy crisis. This article, highlighting the heterodox character of Iran’s theocratic ideology, stresses the tectonic social and cultural changes that have resulted in society’s estrangement from the state over the past forty years in a reaction against this ideology. The nature and depth of these social and cultural changes point to a historic process that is taking Iran toward becoming the first Muslim-majority society to weave into its spiritual, social, and intellectual fabric the principled separation of religion and the state characteristic of the liberal-democratic worldview.
Topic:
Religion, Culture, Democracy, and Protests
Political Geography:
Iran and Middle East

100. Beer-Pong Diplomacy: A Diplomat’s Guide to Drinking in China

Author:
Derek Sandhaus
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
American Diplomacy
Institution:
American Diplomacy
Abstract:
It’s rare that I receive a summons to brief senior diplomats. You see I’m a writer and what is referred to as a “trailing spouse” in the U.S. Foreign Service. So when my diplomat wife informed me that the Consul General and his deputy would like to meet with me, no one was more surprised than I. When I learned what they had in mind it all made more sense: They wanted me to tell them how to drink, more specifically how to drink in the Chinese manner.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Culture, Memoir, and Alcohol
Political Geography:
China and United States of America