The Gray Zone of State-Insurgency Interface

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-99
Author(s):  
Rumela Sen
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
Local Population ◽  
The State ◽  
Gray Zone ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Civic Associations ◽  
The North ◽  
Police Action

This chapter emphasizes how the various steps in the process of disengagement from extremism are linked fundamentally to the nature of linkages between insurgency and society, thereby bringing civil society into the study of insurgency in a theoretically coherent way. In places where structural violence is pervasive and spectacular episodes of violence are also recurrent, this chapter shows how, from the perspective of local population, the conceptual lines between war and peace, legit and illicit, state and insurgency, lawful and lawless, crimes and political acts, police action and rebel resistance become blurred. Surrounded by violent specialists belonging to two warring sides, civilians in conflict zones learn to inhabit one foot in insurgency and one foot in the state, creating a sprawling gray zone of state-insurgency overlap. It is in these gray zones where grassroots civic associations nurture the first traces of informal exit networks, more successfully in the South than in the North.

scholarly journals Communal Responses to Structural Violence and Dispossession in Cherán, Mexico

2020 ◽  
pp. 0094582X2097500
Author(s):  
Giovanna Gasparello
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Formation Process ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Criminal Organization ◽  
The State ◽  
Resource Extraction ◽  
Illegal Logging ◽  
Economic Control ◽  
Drug Cartels

Mexico is currently subject to generalized violence due to conflicts between drug cartels, the state, and resource-extraction companies jostling for territorial and economic control. In 2011 and in this context, the inhabitants of the indigenous municipality of Cherán confronted the criminal organization responsible for kidnappings, extortion, and illegal logging in their communal territory. Study of this conflict and the communal responses generated in the peace process reveals that the violence was founded on social inequality and was both cause and effect of the indigenous population’s material and cultural dispossession. The peace formation process involved the valorization of a collective and territorially rooted identity, the strengthening of security and justice practices based on the authority of assemblies, and an incipient interest in the construction of economic alternatives for the local population. Actualmente, México vive una situación de violencia generalizada debido a los conflictos entre los cárteles de droga, el Estado y las empresas de extracción de recursos que luchan por el control territorial y económico. En 2011 y en este contexto, los habitantes del municipio indígena de Cherán se enfrentaron a una organización criminal responsable de secuestros, extorsiones y tala ilegal en su territorio comunal. El estudio de este conflicto y las respuestas comunitarias generadas en el proceso de paz revela que la violencia se fundó sobre la desigualdad social y fue tanto causa como efecto del despojo material y cultural de la población indígena. El proceso de paz implicó la valorización de una identidad colectiva y territorialmente arraigada, el fortalecimiento de las prácticas de seguridad y justicia basadas en la autoridad de las asambleas, y un interés incipiente en la construcción de alternativas económicas para la población local.

scholarly journals WHO IS THE PEOPLE? NOTES ON SUBJECTIVITY AND THE ADIVASI RESISTANCE IN LALGARH, WEST BENGAL, INDIA

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Anubhav Sengupta
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Local Population ◽  
The State ◽  
The People ◽  
State Police

In the last decade, India has witnessed a resurgence of Maoist movements. At the same time, the country’s polity has been rocked by various protests against displacement by local population. These protests have commonly been referred to as people’s movement. In some cases, both, Maoists and people’s movements have overlapped and thus raising the question about people’s agency and Maoists’ role in it. This essay posits the question: who is this people? The assumption is only by exploring the answer, questions pertaining to autonomy or agency can be answered. The essay takes the case of Lalgarh movement, West Bengal, where adivasis rose up against the state, police atrocities. Subsequently Maoists came into the picture. In exploring the debate, mentioned above in the context of Lalgarh, the essay studies a set of letters written to civil society, issued by an organization on behalf of adivasis. The essay finds that the issues of agency must be reconceptualised as subjectivity. Instead of finding a pure voice of adivasis, it is subjectivity as process that helps us to grasp politics of the people. The paper finally argues that the process of becoming people is congealing of adivasis as a political collective.

scholarly journals The minimal state in Ukraine as a progressive ideal of the historical criterion of the legal approach to the typology of the state: functional aspect

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-23
Author(s):  
V.V. Sukhonos
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Minimal State ◽  
External Threats ◽  
Progressive Ideal ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Important Player ◽  
State Projects

The article is devoted to the minimal state in Ukraine as a progressive ideal of the historical criterion of the legal approach to the typology of the state. The main attention, at the same time, is paid to features of its functioning. It is this type of state that must overcome the shortcomings of the state of the modern bureaucratic type. It seems that the need for its introduction in Ukraine is influenced by two factors: globalization and a significant increase in the role of civil society. At the same time, despite COVID-19, the processes of globalization have not decreased and the significant narrowing of state influence on economic processes, which is characteristic of globalization, is still continuing. As for civil society, in Ukraine it has gradually begun to realize itself as an important "player" within the country, which not only becomes more independent of the state, but also, to some extent, begins to influence it. Thus, the combination of globalization processes in the world and a powerful "burst" of selfconsciousness of domestic civil society necessitates the introduction in Ukraine of the concept of "minimal state", that is a state whose activities are aimed at implementing as few functions as possible. However, this type of state does not imply an anarchic ideal with its abolition at all. It seems that within the framework of a minimal state, the latter should be deprived of the functions it has assumed for a long historical period, leaving only the fiscal, the function of ensuring the safety of citizens from internal and external threats and the function of organizing work. At the same time, in the conditions of the minimal state the organization of works is transformed into the organization of realization of national and state projects when the state acts only as the coordinator and the financier of work which is carried out by numerous enterprises and corporations. As for the fiscal function, in our opinion, it should be somewhat transformed: the tax system should be enshrined in the principle of one tax, and the budget system should consist of three parts: "expenditure budget", "development budget" and "reserve budget". Regarding the security of citizens, society and the state from external and internal threats and dangers, such activities should take two forms: justice and law enforcement (security within the country) and war and peace (security outside the country). Thus, in the conditions of a minimal state, only the organization of national and state projects, budgetary and financial function, as well as ensuring the security of citizens, society and the state from external and internal threats and dangers should remain behind the latter.

“Our Cause” in the North-West Region: J.I. Fudel’s Views (1889–1892)

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 147-157
Author(s):  
Nadezhda V. Vinyukova
Keyword(s):  
Local Population ◽  
The State ◽  
North West ◽  
The Public ◽  
The North ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The Church ◽  
North Western

The article examines the views of the Orthodox priest I.I. Fudel on the position and goals of the Orthodox Church in the North-Western region and on the confessional policy of the Russian Empire in that region. The position of father Joseph, who served in Bialystok for several years, correlates with the opinion of major figures in the public debate on that issue – A.A. Vladimirov, I.P. Kornilov, M.N. Katkov, K.N. Leontiev, – and Slavophil idea. Special attention is paid to the polemics of Fudel and Vladimirov in the «Russian review» journal. The author shows that the idea of «our cause» for father Joseph was precisely the Orthodox mission, which, in turn, would have led to natural, voluntary assimilation of local population. Putting the «religious» above the «national» and «governmental», distinguishing the interests, goals and means of the state and the Church, Fudel did not deny the role of the state principles in the establishment of Orthodoxy in the region, which he saw primarily as imperative of government funding of various Church institutions.

Lebanon protests risk destabilising fragile status quo

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The North ◽  
War Effort ◽  
The Face

Significance Uncollected waste has been piling up in the capital since the country's largest landfill closed on July 17. Prime Minister Tammam Salam has threatened to resign over the crisis, which has also seen mass protests organised by civil society groups. The protests raise questions over Lebanon's resilience in the face of domestic political paralysis and regional turmoil. Impacts Protest escalation could force resignation of prime minister or individual ministers, and throw Lebanon into a constitutional crisis. Destabilisation of the state could encourage Sunni militants to seek to control areas in Tripoli, the north and the Beka'a Valley. Turmoil in Lebanon could distract Hezbollah from its war effort in Syria, thereby weakening Syrian regime's territorial control. A political crisis in Lebanon would heighten regional tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

scholarly journals Transformation of Nature Protection Institutions in the North Caucasus: From a State Monopoly of Governance to Multi-Actor Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 12145
Author(s):  
Alexey Gunya ◽  
Alexey Lysenko ◽  
Izolda Lysenko ◽  
Ludmila Mitrofanenko
Keyword(s):  
Nature Conservation ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Nature Management ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
The North ◽  
Use Of Resources

The paper analyzes the state and dynamics of key actors and institutions that regulate the use of resources within the protected areas of the North Caucasus, using the examples of the Teberda Biosphere Reserve and the Elbrus National Park. The network of protected areas created in the North Caucasus during the Soviet period relied on government support, and the participation of the local population in nature conservation was very limited. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the demonopolization of state land laws, new actors emerged, such as the local population and business. This has led to an exacerbation of the conflict between the tasks of nature conservation and the interests of business and local communities. The introduction of market mechanisms and the commercialization of the tourism sector threaten the state of protected natural areas (PAs) and require effective ways of land matters regulation. The paper analyzes the question of whether the PA system created in the Soviet era should continue to be exclusively the privilege of the state using a centralized approach to management? The contradictions in legislation and conflicts of nature management have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the system of environmental institutions inherited from the Soviet period. One of the solutions could be the actualization of environmental legislation, bringing it in line with civil and land regulations, as well as the wide involvement of the local communities and the public in the evaluation of economic and legal projects.

Ras al Khaimah: further archaeological discoveries

Antiquity ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 50 (200) ◽  
pp. 216-222
Author(s):  
Beatrice De Cardi
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
The State ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

Ras a1 Khaimah is the most northerly of the seven states comprising the United Arab Emirates and its Ruler, H. H. Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammad al-Qasimi, is keenly interested in the history of the state and its people. Survey carried out there jointly with Dr D. B. Doe in 1968 had focused attention on the site of JuIfar which lies just north of the present town of Ras a1 Khaimah (de Cardi, 1971, 230-2). Julfar was in existence in Abbasid times and its importance as an entrep6t during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries-the Portuguese Period-is reflected by the quantity and variety of imported wares to be found among the ruins of the city. Most of the sites discovered during the survey dated from that period but a group of cairns near Ghalilah and some long gabled graves in the Shimal area to the north-east of the date-groves behind Ras a1 Khaimah (map, FIG. I) clearly represented a more distant past.

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