Into the Maze of Tribalism 2004–6

Author(s):  
Marieke Brandt
Keyword(s):  

Chapter 5 reconstructs the course and the dynamics of the first three rounds of the Houthi conflict, also called the ‘Ṣaʿdah War’, from its eruption in June 2004 until the February 2006 ceasefire, which successfully brought the third Ṣaʿdah War to a halt and ushered into several months of detente. It shows how, in the course of the war, the sectarian and social-revolutionary thrust of Houthism began to fuse with existing open and latent conflicts in Yemen’s North, a process that led to an enormous expansion of the war’s scope and magnitude. It analyses the course of the war’s first three rounds, the composition of the national military and Houthi armed forces, their respective supporters and opponents among the local tribes, and attempts at mediation between the two sides.

Author(s):  
Gaj Trifković ◽  
Klaus Schmider

The Second World War in Yugoslavia is notorious for the brutal struggle between the armed forces of the Third Reich and the communist-led Partisans. Less known is the fact that the two sides negotiated prisoner exchanges virtually since the beginning of the war. Under extraordinary circumstances, these early contacts evolved into a formal exchange agreement, centered on the creation of a neutral zone—quite possibly the only such area in occupied Europe—where prisoners were regularly exchanged until late April 1945, saving thousands of lives. The leadership of both sides used the contacts for secret political talks, for which they were nearly branded as traitors by their superiors in Berlin and Moscow. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of prisoner exchanges and the accompanying contacts between the German occupation authorities and the Yugoslav Partisans. Specifically, the book will argue that prisoner exchange had a decisive influence on the POW policies of both sides and helped reduce the levels of violence for which this theater of war became infamous. It will also show that the contacts, contrary to some claims, did not lead to collusion between these two parties against either other Yugoslav factions or the Western Allies.


Author(s):  
Sergey Aleksandrovich Kuzmin ◽  
Lyubov Kuzminichna Grigorieva ◽  
Kargla Amanzhulovna Izbagambetova

In the context of the reform of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the issues of recruiting troops with healthy, physically developed and mentally stable young conscripts are of paramount importance. Only citizens "A" - fit for military service and "B" fit for military service with minor restrictions are subject to conscription. When analyzing the results of medical examination of persons of military age, it was found that over the studied period of time, fitness for military service for health reasons decreased by 3.8% (from 78.3% in 2016 to 74.5% in 2020). However, despite the general decrease in fitness for military service, there is an increase in the fitness for military service "A" by 13.5% (from 23.4% in 2016 to 36.9% in 2020). Every year, during the period of work of the draft commissions, a significant number of citizens (more than 10%) were sent for additional examination to medical organizations. As a rule, the examination of conscripts was carried out on an outpatient basis (up to 85%) and much less often in an inpatient setting (up to 15%). The first place was occupied by diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue, which accounted for 24.9%. Mental and behavioral disorders ranked second with an indicator of 18.7%. The third place was taken by diseases of the circulatory system - 14.9%. Diseases of the eye and adnexa ranked fourth - 8.2%. Diseases of the digestive system were less common, accounting for only 4.5%. Thus, in total, the listed diseases accounted for 71.2% and were the main ones in determining the fitness of conscripts for military service for health reasons.


Author(s):  
Christy Pichichero

This increasing care for and recognition of the common soldier set the stage for the new patriotic and heroic ideologies explored in chapter four. In this, neither social status nor simply winning battles were sufficient and the heroism of the monarch and aristocratic warriors came under scrutiny. New faces came to populate a democratizing heroic imaginary – those ofcommon soldiers and non-commissioned officers – and their acts were increasingly told through various secular and popular artistic media. Novels, plays, and military writings championed the patriotic military fervor and potential for heroism of different social groups: common men of the Third Estate, French women, foreigners serving in the French armed forces, and religious and ethnic “Others” allied with the French. These new heroes and heroines were recognized in the cultural imaginary and, to some extent, in practice as members of the military moved to protect, acknowledge, and reward them for their service.


Author(s):  
Vivien A. Schmidt

Chapter 5 discusses the pathway to legitimacy of the European Council (and the Council), with a special focus on Germany’s predominance through “one size fits one” rules. The chapter begins with an analysis of the Council’s particular sources of power and grounds for throughput legitimacy in Eurozone governance. It questions member-state leaders’ assumptions about their representativeness (input legitimacy), then asks if they meet the requirements of deliberative mutual accountability (throughput legitimacy) or even whether Germany fits the criteria expected of a benevolent hegemon. Next the chapter discusses the Janus-faced public perceptions of Council crisis governance. These are divided between views of the Council as an unaccountable (German) dictatorship or as a mutually accountable deliberative body (in the shadow of Germany). This part first presents the Council as an unaccountable dictatorship by detailing the ways in which Germany was predominant on its own and/or in tandem with a weaker France. It then counters with a discussion of the Council as a mutually accountable deliberative body, by charting not only the many instances in which member states agreed with German preferences but also where Germany acquiesced to those of other member states. The chapter ends with an examination of the actions of the Council (in particular the Eurogroup of Finance Ministers) and the Troika (IMF, Commission, and ECB) with regard to the program countries. This can be seen as two sides of the same coin: harsh dictatorship (especially the third Greek bailout) or deliberative authoritarianism (eg, Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece in the second bailout).


1979 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-273
Author(s):  
G. D. Deshingkar

In Asia, the arms race began with the emergence of modern nation-states. Their new ruling elites adopted the concepts of ‘national security’ and ‘national interests’ and proceeded to build up their armed forces to meet mythical permanent threats, to the neglect of real threats to Asian societies such as hunger, natural calamities and cultural decay. With the great powers themselves engaged in a global arms race, taking advantage of the Asian elites' preoccupation with ‘national security’, the race in Asia has become a part of the global arms race with China as the latest - but somewhat restrained - entrant. The paper, however, notes a reverse historical trend under way: the European nation-state model being increasingly found unworkable in Asia (leading to a search for structures suitable to the complex Asian societies) and Asian states trying to opt out of global rivalries. This favourable trend, which promises to wind down the arms race in Asia, must, the paper concludes, be actively pushed forward by concerned citizens of Asian countries who form the Third System in Asia.


Author(s):  
Grigoriy Yu. Volkov

The victory over the Axis powers had virtually preserved Russia in world history. It was a great celebration not only of the armed forces, but also of ideas. The article widely uses Soviet and modern publications, by both Russian and foreign scientists, dedicated to the East Front of World War II. The criminal essence of Adolf Hitler’s personality, his personal traits, way of thinking is shown, the analysis of his statements, offi cial speeches, private conversations, «table speeches», «Mein Kampf» is carried out. It also reconstructs the thinking process of other Nazi civil and military leaders who acted together with their Führer in pursuit of the common goal. The article for the fi rst time, taking into account the logic of thinking of the leadership of the third Reich, traces literally by years that the war against the USSR was conceived as a total genocide and carefully worked out in all directions. The author concludes that the bloody and inhuman logic of the leadership of the German Reich, big entrepreneurs and bankers, members of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and the Schutzstaffel, generals and soldiers of the Wehrmacht, and a virtual legion of various offi cials clearly shows that they were all united in their desire to «stop Russian history».


2019 ◽  
pp. 169-198
Author(s):  
Anand Toprani

This chapter sketches out the progress of the Four-Year Plan of 1936 to achieve economic self-sufficiency. It stresses that Germany never sought self-sufficiency as an end in and of itself—the aim was always to provide the German armed forces and war economy with sufficient resources to wage a war of conquest. By 1939, progress toward even this narrower objective was faltering due to shortages of steel, coal, capital, and labor. The Third Reich’s bellicosity after 1937 also limited the amount of time Germany would have to remedy its economic vulnerabilities before war began. Following the Sudeten crisis of 1938, the regime moved to rebuild relations with Romania to guarantee at least one reliable source of imports in wartime. By the time war broke out the following year, German officials were cautiously optimistic that Romanian exports, along with synthetics and existing stockpiles, were sufficient to meet Germany’s immediate wartime requirements.


1963 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank N. Trager

Unu, in 1947, became the Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of Burma. He retained that post after independence in 1948 and, except for seven months in 1956–1957, he had been the duly elected Prime Minister until he gave up office in September, 1958, after the serious split in the ruling party, the Anti-Fascist Peoples' Freedom League (AFPFL). From then until the third national elections of February, 1960, General Ne Win, Chief of the Burma Defense Forces, held the reins of what was called a “caretaker government”, in which he proceeded strictly according to the constitution adopted in 1947. U Nu's Party won an overwhelming victory at the polls in 1960 and once again, with almost 80 per cent parliamentary backing in the 250-man Chamber of Deputies, the more powerful chamber in the bicameral parliament, he set about to govern Burma. On March 2, 1962, General Ne Win staged a coup. He took over the government in the name of a military Revolutionary Council, arrested the previous cabinet members, and set aside Burma's constitution.


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