The Long Journey to the War on Terror

2020 ◽  
pp. 17-48
Author(s):  
Lily Hamourtziadou
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Gulf War ◽  
Initial Assessment ◽  
Loss Of Life ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Good And Evil ◽  
Body Count

The devastating loss of life in a war still fought and grown in size requires an answer to the question: what is this War on Terror? Other than to find, stop and defeat terrorist groups, why are men, women and children killed daily, or live in poverty and fear, without home or country? How can we come to understand this human insecurity, its context and its consequences? The chapter explores the journey to the War on Terror and four narratives around it: clashing civilisations, the battle between good and evil, the politics of a hegemon and a hegemonic shift. The securitisation of Iraq is traced back to the Gulf War and links are made between the two wars, in terms of how issues around Iraq became part of the West’s security agenda and in terms of how ‘speaking security’ resulted in the deaths of thousands. The chapter concludes by introducing the first publication of Iraq Body Count, the Dossier on Civilian Casualties, compiled by IBC in the 2003-2005 period. The Dossier provided an initial assessment of the War on Terror, by revealing the recorded impact of the invasion and of the violence it triggered on civilians.

Technology of Control and Control of Technology in Brian K. Vaughan’s Ex Machina

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (58) ◽  
pp. 70-79
Author(s):  
Anna Oleszczuk
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Overwhelming Majority ◽  
Domestic Security ◽  
Drone Warfare ◽  
And Control ◽  
Political Governance ◽  
Good And Evil

In the classic era of American comics, the overwhelming majority of superhero stories focused on the straightforward struggle between good and evil, with superheroes embodying the positive values such as justice, order, or patriotism. However, with time both the stories and the characters started to transform. By the end of the 1980s, new, darker series expressing distrust of political governance and all forms of authority started to emerge. In the aftermath of 9/11, this skepticism has found new fuel in a range of policies and actions collectively known as the War on Terror. The paper analyzes Brian K. Vaughan’s Ex Machina (2004-2010) focusing especially on the series’ exploration of domestic security in the post-9/11 United States. The author links the protagonist’s superpower, the ability to communicate with the machines, to the developments in surveillance and drone warfare and investigates the comic’s reflections of such major concerns related to America’s surveillance and security as the constraints on civil liberties

scholarly journals "Currency is a Most Poisonous Tool": State Capitalism, Nonmarket Socialism, and the Elimination of Money during the Cambodian Genocide

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-158
Author(s):  
James A Tyner
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
State Capitalism ◽  
Monetary Policies ◽  
Loss Of Life ◽  
Structural Context ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Mode Of Production

Between 1975 and 1979, the Communist Party of Kampuchea sought to establish a non-monetary and non-market economy. In the process, however, upwards of 1.7 million men, women, and children perished. This paper provides a critical evaluation of the CPK’s decision to eliminate money in its attempt to transform Cambodia’s pre-revolutionary economy into a communist mode of production. First, I provide some general remarks on Marx, money, and markets; the purpose here is to establish a common foundation for readers, in order to properly assess Khmer Rouge monetary policies with those of orthodox reading of Marxism. Second, I position CPK macro-economic policies within the context of the Non-Aligned Movement and revolutionary socialism, as these movements greatly informed economic policies in Democratic Kampuchea. Third, I comment upon the decision of senior CPK personnel on the elimination of money. Lastly, I evaluate the contradictions of CPK macro-economic policies, specifically, the suspension of money and markets domestically but the need to participate in the global economy in order to accumulate rapidly much needed capital for investment purposes. These contradictions, I conclude, established the structural context of the subsequent Cambodian genocide and the resulting famine that resulted in a massive loss of life.

scholarly journals The Discourse of Propaganda: Case Studies from the Persian Gulf War and the War on Terror by John Oddo (A Book Review)

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 251-256
Author(s):  
Piotr Gumuła
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Persian Gulf ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Gulf War ◽  
Persian Gulf War ◽  
The Persian Gulf

Piotr Gumuła's review of John Oddo's The Discourse of Propaganda: Case Studies from the Persian Gulf War and the War on Terror. Pennsylvania State UP, 2018.

China's Dubious Role in the War on Terror

2003 ◽  
Vol 102 (668) ◽  
pp. 432-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Kurlantzick
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
The United States ◽  
Terrorist Groups

Although China has made some attempts to help the United States combat terrorist groups, its contributions have been limited and overpraised, and it has manipulated the war on terror for its own means.

Epilogue: Iraq and Its Casualties Today

2020 ◽  
pp. 181-192
Author(s):  
Lily Hamourtziadou
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Passive Surveillance ◽  
The World ◽  
Daily Task ◽  
Book Covers ◽  
Catastrophic Impact ◽  
Basic Standard ◽  
Body Count

The book covers the 2003-2017 period, but what has happened in Iraq since 2017? After nearly two decades of war, Iraq has experienced its least violent year; seventeen years after the invasion, during 2019 2,392 civilian deaths were recorded by Iraq Body Count. In its worst year, 2006, Iraq had witnessed the violent deaths of more than 29,500 civilians. The monthly and yearly totals, assembled after the painstaking daily task of extracting the data from hundreds of reports, betray the true magnitude and impact of the war on Iraqi civilians. The controversy surrounding the precise figures, the counts, or the estimates ultimately leads to the realisation that we do not need for millions to have been killed for the world to be outraged by the catastrophic impact of the War on Terror on the Iraqis. The number of certain civilian deaths that has been documented to a basic standard of corroboration by passive surveillance methods, in an ongoing war and through ongoing casualty recording, provides enough evidence to deem this invasion and occupation a security failure.

12. War and law in the twenty-first century

2021 ◽  
pp. 267-286
Author(s):  
Nicole Scicluna
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
First Century ◽  
Cyber Warfare ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
The Us ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
New Type ◽  
The Right

This chapter explicates the various ways in which contemporary warfare challenges post-1945 international law on the use of force and the conduct of war. It begins by exploring the rules governing the use of force against non-state actors. This is one of the most pressing issues of the war on terror, much of which has involved military operations against terrorist groups operating from the territory of states that cannot or will not suppress their activities. In particular, campaigns by the US and several other states against ISIS in Syria have seriously undermined the international law framework governing self-defence and the right of states to have their sovereignty and territorial integrity respected. The chapter then looks at another trademark policy of the war on terror: the use of targeted killings, often carried out by unmanned drones, to eliminate suspected terrorists. It also considers a new type of warfare altogether: the emerging phenomenon of cyber warfare, which, too, has implications for both jus ad bellum and jus in bello.

scholarly journals UNDERSTANDING VIOLENCE: THE THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Sanmartino
Keyword(s):  
Therapeutic Relationship ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Empathic Understanding ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Treatment Models ◽  
The Social ◽  
Recent Treatment ◽  
Psychoanalytic Perspective ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Good And Evil

Acts of violence by individuals and terrorist groups have increased and continue to shock us. A better understanding is required to break the cycle of crime and punishment. A psychoanalytic perspective offers a window into the human psyche behind these atrocious acts. More recent treatment models reflect a more empathic understanding beyond the more aloof traditional Freudian perspective. An International Conference in Belfast, Ireland met to discuss the origins and treatment of aggression and violence from a psychoanalytic perspective. The challenge was to overcome simplistic notions of good and evil with a better understanding. An important emphasis was to encourage the ability to think, to develop thought in place of action. Treatment of violent individuals is difficult and lengthy. The social and political aspects of terrorism were discussed in the context of group psychology in which a regression to an earlier stage of development occurs. The individuals identify with the leader with dehumanization of the other. The group demands justice and retaliation to deal with feelings of shame and humiliation.

scholarly journals Dancing around the Cauldron with Rangda, the Balinese widow-witch: Exploring gender relations and attitudes toward women and children in Southeast Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 364
Author(s):  
Kathleen Nadeau
Keyword(s):  
Gender Relations ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Attitudes Toward Women ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Witch Hunts ◽  
Good And Evil

By taking a cross-cultural approach based on library research, content analysis, and fieldwork in the Philippines, this paper compares Southeast Asian and European tales. The Southeast Asian tales are rooted in local philosophical and cultural traditions. Balinese literature is replete with descriptions of rituals to ward off vampires. The flying half-bodied Aswangs in the Philippines, like their Malaysian sisterlings, can be shown to bear some resemblance to Balinese witches who culminate in the Rangda, the queen of witches. The Balinese ritual battle between the troubled widow witch Rangda and the gentle Barong offers a circular view of history that arguably holds to a universal notion of good and evil. In contrast, European witch tales can be traced back to the hysterical witch hunts and persecution of female midwives and healers in Medieval times that were perceived as threatening the power and authority of male doctors, priests, and landed government officials. The conclusion is that Southeast Asian lore connotes a different set of gender relations and attitudes toward women and children than European origin.

Body Count

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lily Hamourtziadou
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Human Security ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Body Count

Lily Hamourtziadou's important analysis of the scale and causes of civilian deaths in Iraq since the US-led coalition's 2003 invasion sheds new light on the War on Terror. From early fighting to the departure and return of troops and the rise of ISIS, she tracks the cost of conflict and constructs an insightful human security approach to war.

Iraq 2014–2017: Obama and the Banality of Killing

2020 ◽  
pp. 145-180
Author(s):  
Lily Hamourtziadou
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Human Security ◽  
The State ◽  
The Body ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Body Count

The 2014-2017 period is explored through discussions on the nature and role of the Islamic State, notions of war and peace, tyranny and democracy, captivity and liberation, in the context of political and security developments. The chapter raises questions regarding the impact of the Islamic State, as well as the impact of the way the coalition has countered the terror. Precision bombing, the Arab Spring, the Islamic State and the rise in civilian deaths are presented as factors contributing to the state of human security in Iraq. As a generation of Iraqis had, by 2017, grown up in occupation, terrorism, insurgency and western support, as the body count rose and national, regional and global security in this War on Terror once again took top position on our security agenda, how was the human security of Iraqis assured by this support?

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