Geography and War, Geographers and Peace

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Mamadouh
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Peace Studies ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Geographical Knowledge ◽  
Natural Event ◽  
Urban Riots ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
Academic Geography ◽  
The Way

La géographie, ça sert d’abord à faire la guerre—geography serves, first and foremost, to wage war. Yves Lacoste made this bold statement the title of a pamphlet against French academic geography in the mid-1970s. He not only exposed the historical importance of geographical knowledge in the waging of war and, more generally speaking, the controlling of people and territories, he also attacked academic and school geography for concealing its political and strategic importance. Geography (i.e., the mapping of the world out there) indeed has strong connections to rulers and their attempt to control territories and peoples. On the other hand, geographers have in the past two decades been keen to promote geography as peace studies. This chapter examines the ways in which geographers have dealt with war and peace since the establishment of modern Western academic geography. It addresses both the way in which geographers have conceptualized and studied war and peace processes and the way in which geography has been applied and geographers have been implicated in these very processes. The result is an evaluation of whether geography has been converted from a discipline for war into a discipline for peace, to paraphrase O’Loughlin and Heske. This is done by considering three dimensions for which antagonist positions (war minded versus peace minded) are anticipated: the perception of war (a natural event versus an undesirable collective behavior), the focus of geographical studies that deal with war and peace (functions of war versus causes and consequences of war), and the advocated application of geographical knowledge (to win a war versus to prevent a war and to foster peace). War and peace do not seem to belong to the vocabulary of geography. The terms have no entries in the Dictionary of Human Geography or in the Dictionary of Geopolitics. This is mainly because war and peace are rather vague concepts. In this chapter, a limited conception of war has been chosen: political violence between states, that is, armed conflict. Therefore, the review neglects urban riots, social struggles, and related conflicts.

Counting the Seven Weeks War: Dyads, Disputes and Balances of Power

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Moul
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Study ◽  
The State ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
State Relations ◽  
Inter State ◽  
The Way

Abstract. The usual quantitative study of inter-state war and peace tallies observations on hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dyads or pairs of states. These observations miss elementary features of inter-state relations that should be examined when testing Realist explanations of war and peace. The way in which three prominent studies (Bremer, 1992; Bueno de Mesquita, 1981; 1985) chose to count the Seven Weeks War dramatically reveals the theoretical difficulties when tallying dyads. Re-analyses of these studies demonstrate the sensitivity of the results to particulars of 1866 Germany and, more importantly, illustrate the merits of analyzing the dispute rather than the state dyad or the state-dyad year.Résumé. L'étude quantitative des périodes de guerre et de paix entre États comptabilise des observations relatives à des centaines, parfois des milliers de dyades ou paires d'États. Ces observations ne prennent pas en compte certaines caractéristiques élémentaires des relations entre États qui devraient pourtant être examinées lorsque l'on teste les théories réalistes expliquant guerre et paix. La manière dont trois études reconnues (Bremer, 1992; Bueno de Mesquita, 1981; 1985) ont choisi de comptabiliser la guerre des Sept Semaines révèle de manière éclatante les difficultés théoriques dans la comptabilisation des dyades d'états. De nouvelles analyses de ces études ont démontré la sensibilité des résultats aux caractéristiques de l'Allemagne de 1866, mais soulignent surtout les mérites de l'analyse des disputes par rapport à l'analyse des dyades d'États ou des dyades d'États annuelles.

From Unity to Divergence and Back Again: Security and Economy in Feminist International Relations

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (02) ◽  
pp. 408-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Sjoberg
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
International Security ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Peace Studies ◽  
Ecological Security ◽  
Global Security ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Feminist Perspectives

InGender and International Security: Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global Security, J. Ann Tickner (1992) identified three main dimensions to “achieving global security”—national security, economic security, and ecological security: conflict, economics, and the environment. Much of the work in feminist peace studies that inspired early feminist International Relations (IR) work (e.g., Brock-Utne 1989; Reardon 1985) and many of Tickner's contemporaries (e.g., Enloe 1989; Peterson and Runyan 1991; Pettman 1996) also saw political economy and a feminist conception of security as intrinsically interlinked. Yet, as feminist IR research evolved in the early 21st century, more scholars were thinking either about political economy or about war and political violence, but not both.

RECURSOS QUE SURGEN EN LAS PAREJAS EN TIEMPOS DE PANDEMIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (49) ◽  
pp. 37-52
Author(s):  
Gabriela Valls barrera ◽  
Daniela Vío GiaCaman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Support ◽  
Support Networks ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Positive Assessment ◽  
Positive Experiences ◽  
The Way

The COVID-19 pandemic and confinement, as a measure to stop the contagion, have had a strong impact on the mental health of the population. Emotions such as uncertainty, fear of contracting illness and anguish have increased. But, also, positive experiences have emerged that reinforce interdependence and social support, the appreciation of affections and a greater connection and reflection on the way of life. The objective of this article is to delve into the experience of some couples who have been able to constructively face quarantine and who express a positive assessment of what this time of confinement has contributed to their relationship. Three dimensions are identified in which resources have emerged during this crisis: family reorganization and multiplicity of roles, the appreciation of support networks and the strengthening of intimacy in the couple.

scholarly journals Screens we see, societies we unknow

Comunicar ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (30) ◽  
pp. 43-48
Author(s):  
Jorge A. González-Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Technical Artifacts ◽  
The Way

How does technology interact with the way in which we relate with information, communication and knowledge? The integration of these three dimensions conforms the nucleus of the symbolic ecologies. Throughout history, these symbolic ecologies have been constructed and transformed by its relation with technical artifacts and knowhow, understood as a technological vector. The problem should not be posed over screens as interfaces of more complex devices, but upon the specific relationships of information, communication and knowledge framed by those actually devoted to generate it for the use of those who are not able to do it.¿Cómo interactúa la tecnología en la forma en que nos relacionamos con la información, la comunicación y, el conocimiento? La integración de estas tres dimensiones constituye el núcleo de las «ecologías simbólicas». En toda la historia, éstas se han construido y transformado por efecto de su relación con dispositivos técnicos y saberes, que podemos considerar como un vector tecnológico. El problema no debe plantearse en las pantallas como interfaces de dispositivos más complejos, sino en las relaciones específicas de información, de comunicación y de conocimiento que aquéllos que sí generan conocimiento desarrollan para quienes no lo hacen.

scholarly journals The Special Apparatus (al-Niẓām al-Khāṣṣ): The Rise of Nationalist Militancy in the Ranks of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood

Religions ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abou El Zalaf
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Systematic Study ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
British Colonization ◽  
Special Apparatus ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The Way

Existing scholarship has largely focused on the role of Sayyid Qutb’s ideas when analyzing the Muslim Brotherhood’s violent history. Perceiving Qutb’s ideas as paving the way for radical interpretations of jihad, many studies linked the Brotherhood’s violent history with this key ideologue. Yet, in so doing, many studies overlooked the importance of the Special Apparatus in shaping this violent history of the Brotherhood, long before Qutb joined the organization. Through an in-depth study of memoires and accounts penned by Brotherhood members and leaders, and a systematic study of British and American intelligence sources, I attempt to shed light on this understudied formation of the Brotherhood, the Special Apparatus. This paper looks at the development of anti-colonial militancy in Egypt, particularly the part played by the Brotherhood until 1954. It contends that political violence, in the context of British colonization, antedated the Brotherhood’s foundation, and was in some instances considered as a legitimate and even distinguished duty among anti-colonial factions. The application of violence was on no account a part of the Brotherhood’s core strategy, but the organization, nevertheless, established an armed and secret wing tasked with the fulfillment of what a segment of its members perceived as the duty of anti-colonial jihad.

Are Some Things Unrepresentable?

2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 85-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Galloway
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Data Visualization ◽  
Information Society ◽  
Information Network ◽  
Visual Form ◽  
Jacques Ranciere ◽  
First Time ◽  
Information Aesthetics ◽  
The Way

Jacques Rancière, in his essay ‘Are Some Things Unrepresentable?’, puts forth a challenge that is ever more pertinent to our times. What constitutes the unrepresentable today? Rancière frames his answer in a very specific way: the question of unrepresentability leads directly to the way in which political violence may or may not be put into an image. Offering an alternative to Rancière’s approach, the present article turns instead to the information society, asking if and how something might be unrepresentable in a world saturated by data and information. Thus one approaches the issue of transparency and secrecy here from the perspective of the relative perspicuity (or opacity) of data visualization. Two theses structure the argument, first that ‘data have no necessary visual form’ and, second, that ‘only one visualization has ever been made of an information network’. The tension between these two theses leads to a disconcerting conclusion, that the triumph of information aesthetics precipitates a decline in informatic perspicuity. One is obligated therefore to call for a strong reinvigoration of poetics and hermeneutics within the digital universe, so that representation as such can take place, perhaps for the first time.

War and Peace in International Rivalry. By Paul F. Diehl and Gary Goertz. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000. 319p. $49.50.

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 515-516
Author(s):  
John Vasquez
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
International Rivalry ◽  
Ann Arbor ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Peace And War ◽  
The Way

When the intellectual history of international relations in- quiry is written for our time, War and Peace in International Rivalry may very well be seen as a seminal book. Along with Frank Wayman, Diehl and Goertz have been at the forefront of a major conceptual breakthrough in the way peace and war are studied. This book is their major statement of the subject and presents their most important findings.

7. St Augustine

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Bethke Elshtain
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Just War ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Just War Theory ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
The World ◽  
Moral Orientations ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines Augustine of Hippo's political thought. After providing a brief biography of St Augustine, it considers the fate of his texts within the world of academic political theory and the general suspicion of ‘religious’ thinkers within that world. It then analyses Augustine's understanding of the human person as a bundle of complex desires and emotions as well as the implications of his claim that human sociality is a given and goes all the way down. It also explores Augustine's arguments regarding the interplay of caritas and cupiditas in the moral orientations of persons and of cultures. Finally, it describes Augustine's reflections on the themes of war and peace, locating him as the father of the tradition of ‘just war’ theory.

Narratives of Donor Accountability in Support to Peace Processes: The Case of the Joint Peace Fund in Myanmar

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-30
Author(s):  
Tamas Wells
Keyword(s):  
Limited Attention ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Local Networks ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
Peace Activists ◽  
Donor Support ◽  
Policy Negotiation ◽  
Donor Agency ◽  
Donor Agencies ◽  
The Way

There is a growing scholarly focus on the accountability of Northern donors in their work in recipient countries. Yet scholarly work on donor accountability has given limited attention to the complex challenges of accountability when donors are engaged in supporting peace processes. Further, literature on donor accountability often focuses on examination of accountability mechanisms and relationships, whilst the way accountability is understood amongst practitioners has received less attention. Using the example of donor support to peace processes in Myanmar, this article examines the way that accountability is narrated within donor agencies and amongst international and local networks of peace activists and analysts. When attached to simplified stories, accountability takes a variety of meanings and serves to position donors in different ways. Examination of these narratives, and their divergence, reveals that policy negotiation about accountability mechanisms is influenced by political assumptions about the legitimacy of donor agency engagement in peace processes.

Wreck/Conciliation? The Politics of Truth Commissions in Thailand

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan McCargo ◽  
Naruemon Thabchumpon
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Way

More than ninety people died in political violence linked to the March–May 2010 “redshirt” protests in Bangkok. The work of the government-appointed Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand (TRCT) illustrates the potential shortcomings of seeing quasi-judicial commissions as a catch-all solution for societies struggling to deal with the truth about their recent pasts. The 2012 TRCT report was widely criticized for blaming too much of the violence on the actions of rogue elements of the demonstrators and failing to focus tightly on the obvious legal transgressions of the security forces. By failing strongly to criticize the role of the military in most of the fatal shootings, the TRCT arguably helped pave the way for the 2014 coup. Truth commissions that are unable to produce convincing explanations of the facts they examine may actually prove counterproductive. Following Quinn and Wilson, we argue in this article that weak truth commissions are prone to politicization and are likely to produce disappointing outcomes, which may even be counterproductive.

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