Egyptian Fortresses and the Colonization of Lower Nubia in the Middle Kingdom

2021 ◽  
pp. 269-288
Author(s):  
Laurel Bestock
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Models ◽  
State Control ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Border Zones ◽  
Permanent Settlement ◽  
The Military ◽  
Original Construction

In the early part of the 2nd millennium bce, the Egyptian state took control of Lower Nubia, building a series of monumental fortresses along the Nile that are remarkable for their sophisticated military architecture. This was Egypt’s first major expansion beyond its traditional borders. Various theoretical models of imperialism and core-periphery interactions have been brought to bear on studies of the forts and their populations, seeking to explain the military, economic, and ideological purposes behind the original construction of the monuments as well as the apparently shifting nature of their occupation, from probable rotating garrisons to more permanent settlement, and their interactions with local populations (cf. Trigger 1976:64–81; Adams 1977:183–88; Zibelius-Chen 1988:69–135; S.T. Smith 1995, 2003; Williams 1999; Flammini 2008; Török 2009:79–101; Vogel 2004; Knoblauch 2008). The resulting picture of Egyptian occupation of Nubia is a nuanced if not entirely agreed upon one. The fortresses are important to archaeology more broadly because they offer a richly documented case study for consideration of state control of foreign territory; they belong in the broader discourse about imperialism, colonization, and colonialism, how different state strategies of control can be understood in the material record, and how people live and interact in border zones. That the methods of Middle Kingdom control can be contrasted to both earlier and later Egyptian strategies of interaction with Nubia, and that the region is one of modern colonial entanglements, makes a critical approach to its occupation in the Middle Kingdom all the more vital.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David K. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
State Control ◽  
Reform Legislation ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Insurance Exchanges ◽  
Significant Health

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the most significant health reform legislation enacted in generations. However, politics does not end after a bill is signed into law. This chapter outlines why states were given such a prominent role in the implementation of core elements of the ACA, including the health insurance exchanges. This sets the stage for the question of this book: given that state leaders say they want flexibility and that Republicans say they prefer market-oriented reforms, why did so many states reject state control over exchanges? I outline the four main insights from the case study chapters: (1) the importance of governors, (2) the power of the Tea Party, (3) the ways in which differences in institutional design and procedures shaped policy outcomes, and (4) the importance of leadership. I ask whether this episode supports or undermines the federalism notion of states as laboratories of learning.

The State versus the People

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Rendle
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
State Control ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
The People ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
The Military

This book provides the first detailed account of the role of revolutionary justice in the early Soviet state. Law has often been dismissed by historians as either unimportant after the October Revolution amid the violence and chaos of civil war or even, in the absence of written codes and independent judges, little more than another means of violence. This is particularly true of the most revolutionary aspect of the new justice system, revolutionary tribunals—courts inspired by the French Revolution and established to target counter-revolutionary enemies. This book paints a more complex picture. The Bolsheviks invested a great deal of effort and scarce resources into building an extensive system of tribunals that spread across the country, including into the military and the transport network. At their peak, hundreds of tribunals heard hundreds of thousands of cases every year. Not all ended in harsh sentences: some were dismissed through lack of evidence; others given a wide range of sentences; others still suspended sentences; and instances of early release and amnesty were common. This book, therefore, argues that law played a distinct and multifaceted role for the Bolsheviks. Tribunals stood at the intersection between law and violence, offering various advantages to the Bolsheviks, not least strengthening state control, providing a more effective means of educating the population on counter-revolution, and enabling a more flexible approach to the state’s enemies. All of this adds to our understanding of the early Soviet state and, ultimately, of how the Bolsheviks held on to power.

Researching American Muslims: A Case Study of Surveillance and Racialized State Control

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Hajer Al-Faham
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Control ◽  
Limited Data ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Selection Of

How does surveillance shape political science research in the United States? In comparative and international politics, there is a rich literature concerning the conduct of research amid conditions of conflict and state repression. As this literature locates “the field” in distant contexts “over there,” the United States continues to be saturated with various forms of state control. What this portends for American politics research has thus far been examined by a limited selection of scholars. Expanding on their insights, I situate “the field” in the United States and examine surveillance of American Muslims, an understudied case of racialized state control. Drawing on qualitative data from a case study of sixty-nine interviews with Arab and Black American Muslims, I argue that surveillance operated as a two-stage political mechanism that mapped onto research methodologically and substantively. In the first stage, surveillance reconfigured the researcher-researchee dynamic, hindered recruitment and access, and limited data-collection. In the second stage, surveillance colored the self-perceptions, political attitudes, and civic engagement of respondents, thereby indicating a political socialization unfolding among Muslims. The implications of this study suggest that researchers can mitigate against some, but not all, of the challenges presented by surveillance and concomitant forms of state control.

scholarly journals Investigation of Nanogrids for Improved Navy Installation Energy Resilience

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 4298
Author(s):  
Alissa Kain ◽  
Douglas L. Van Bossuyt ◽  
Anthony Pollman
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Systems Engineering ◽  
Critical Loads ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Military Bases ◽  
Specific Interest ◽  
The Military

Military bases perform important national security missions. In order to perform these missions, specific electrical energy loads must have continuous, uninterrupted power even during terrorist attacks, adversary action, natural disasters, and other threats of specific interest to the military. While many global military bases have established microgrids that can maintain base operations and power critical loads during grid disconnect events where outside power is unavailable, many potential threats can cause microgrids to fail and shed critical loads. Nanogrids are of specific interest because they have the potential to protect individual critical loads in the event of microgrid failure. We present a systems engineering methodology that analyzes potential nanogrid configurations to understand which configurations may improve energy resilience and by how much for critical loads from a national security perspective. This then allows targeted deployment of nanogrids within existing microgrid infrastructures. A case study of a small military base with an existing microgrid is presented to demonstrate the potential of the methodology to help base energy managers understand which options are preferable and justify implementing nanogrids to improve energy resilience.

Erosion of Civilian Control in Democracies: A Comprehensive Framework for Comparative Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 001041402198975
Author(s):  
Polina Beliakova
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Civilian Control ◽  
Intrastate Conflict ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Large N ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
Comprehensive Framework ◽  
The Military ◽  
New Framework

Civilian control of the military is a fundamental attribute of democracy. While democracies are less coup-prone, studies treating civilian control as a dependent variable mostly focus on coups. In this paper, I argue that the factors predicting coups in autocracies, weaken civilian control of the military in democracies in different ways. To capture this difference, I advance a new comprehensive framework that includes the erosion of civilian control by competition, insubordination, and deference. I test the argument under conditions of an intrastate conflict—a conducive environment for the erosion of civilian control. A large-N analysis confirms that while intrastate conflict does not lead to coups in democracies, it increases the military’s involvement in government, pointing to alternative forms of erosion taking place. Further case study—Russia’s First Chechen War—demonstrates the causal logic behind the new framework, contributing to the nuanced comparative analysis of civil-military relations across regimes.

Undoing the Legal Capacities of a Military Object: A Case Study on the (In)Visibility of Civilians

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (02) ◽  
pp. 377-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Kolanoski
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Membership Categorization Analysis ◽  
Sequential Approach ◽  
Object A ◽  
Legal Documents ◽  
Membership Categorization ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Civil Proceeding ◽  
The Military

International law dictates that actors in armed conflicts must distinguish between combatants and civilians. But how do legal actors assess the legality of a military operation after the fact? I analyze a civil proceeding for compensation by victims of a German-led airstrike in Afghanistan. The court treated military video as key evidence. I show how lawyers, judges, and expert witnesses categorized those involved by asking what a “military viewer” would make of the pictures. During the hearing, they avoided the categories of combatants/civilians; the military object resisted legal coding. I examine the decision in its procedural context, using ethnographic field notes and legal documents. I combine two ethnomethodological analytics: a trans-sequential approach and membership categorization analysis. I show the value of this combination for the sociological analysis of legal practice. I also propose that legal practitioners should use this approach to assess military viewing as a concerted, situated activity.

The role of the military in politics: a case study of Iraq to 1941

1983 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 767-768 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Sluglett
Keyword(s):  
The Military

A critical approach to trade-based money laundering

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melvin R.J. Soudijn
Keyword(s):  
Money Laundering ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Critical Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Traded Goods ◽  
True Value ◽  
Police Investigations ◽  
Financial Action Task

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to broaden the discussion on trade-based money laundering (TBML). The literature is too narrowly focused on the misrepresentation of the value, quantity or quality of the traded goods. This focus leads to the analysis of price anomalies as a signal of over- or under-invoicing. However, TBML can also occur without manipulation of these factors. Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature and case study of police investigations. Findings – Financial action task force (FATF) definitions are seriously flawed. The question of whether detecting TBML on the basis of statistical trade data is effective should be much more open to debate. Police investigations show that goods are shipped at their true value within the context of TBML. Research limitations/implications – Using outliers to identify and act on cases of TBML has often been propagated, but scarcely been used to actually show TBML. Real findings are needed. Practical implications – Goods intended for TBML can also be paid for in cash. These cash payments are often out of character with the normal clientele. This should alert companies and compliance sections of banks alike. Originality/value – The critique on the FATF definition opens the field for a more fitting definition. The description of actual TBML cases makes it possible to better understand this method of money laundering.

Guerra, élites locali e monarchia nella Lombardia del seicento. Per un'interpretazione in chiave di compromesso d'interessi

2009 ◽  
pp. 3-30
Author(s):  
Alessandro Buono
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Military History ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Power Elite ◽  
Institutional History ◽  
The Military ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
Xviith Century

- Through the case study of Spanish Lombardy during the Thirty years' war, the Author tries to link the latest results of military history with the politico-institutional framework, with a view to overcome the narrowness of an exclusive military approach. By focussing on the agenda of a commission for the control of the army composed of civil and military authorities from 1638 to 1679 and on the careers of some financiers and military entrepreneurs, the Author suggests the need to abandon the pattern of the militarization of society in order to describe the processes affecting the Milanesado. The military tool appears to be purposefully used to strengthen political and social ties between centre and periphery and also to integrate emerging social, economic and political groups into the Lombard power elite. The interpretation underlying the essay is therefore based on the idea of a «compromise of interests» between centre and periphery of the Spanish imperial system as a way to stabilize the situation of Lombardy.Keywords: Milan, Spanish Monarchy, XVIIth century, power élites, military history, institutional history, Thirty Years' WarParole chiave: Lombardia, Monarchia spagnola, secolo XVII, elites dominanti, storia militare, storia delle istituzioni, Guerra dei Trent'anni

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