Introduction

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Leiter
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Good Chance ◽  
Western Democracy ◽  
Religious Devotion

This introductory chapter sets out the book's focus, namely the question of why the state should have to tolerate exemptions from generally applicable laws when they conflict with religious obligations but not with any other equally serious obligations of conscience. It illustrates this issue by describing two cases. The first involves a Sikh boy who is allowed to wear a kirpan, a dagger or sword (a symbol of their religious devotion) to school. The second involves a rural boy, who is not a Sikh and is not allowed to bring a knife to school despite the fact that doing so is a long-standing tradition in his community. There is no Western democracy, at present, in which the boy in our second scenario has prevailed or would prevail in a challenge to a general prohibition on the carrying of weapons in the school. Were he a Sikh he would stand a good chance of winning.

Introduction: Exploring Russian nationalisms

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pål Kolstø ◽  
Helge Blakkisrud
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Part Structure

Russian societal nationalism comes in various guises, both ethnic and imperialist. Also Putin’s rhetoric is marked by the tensions between ethnic and state-focused, imperialist thinking. Noting the complex interplay of state nationalism and societal nationalism, this introductory chapter examines the mental framework within which Russian politicians were acting prior to the decision to annex Crimea. The chapter develops a typology of Russian nationalisms, surveys recent developments, and presents the three-part structure of this book: official nationalism, radical and other societal nationalisms, and identities/otherings. It concludes that after the annexation of Crimea, when the state took over the agenda of both ethnic and imperialist nationalists in Russia, societal nationalism finds itself at low ebb.

The No-Man’s-Land of Language

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lital Levy
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
The State ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
No Man's Land ◽  
Literature Culture ◽  
Language And Ideology ◽  
State Of Israel

This introductory chapter sets out the book's purpose, which is to examine the lives and afterlives of Arabic and Hebrew in Israeli literature, culture, and society. Hebrew is the spiritual, historical, and ideological cornerstone of the State of Israel, and Hebrew literature, having accompanied the national project from its inception, is an integral part of Israeli society. Yet in its broader geopolitical context, Hebrew is the language of a small state that views itself as an embattled island in a hostile Arabic-language sea. The book presents an alternative story of the evolution of language and ideology in the Jewish state. It takes a long historical perspective, beginning not in 1948 with the foundation of the state but rather at the turn of the century, with the early days of Zionist settlement in Palestine. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Jason Lyall
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Research Design ◽  
The State ◽  
Military Effectiveness ◽  
Military Performance

This introductory chapter links inequality with battlefield performance. It argues that divided armies are flawed by design—that the greater the level of military inequality—that is, the more these ethnic groups were subjected to prewar discrimination or repression by the state—the worse a belligerent's expected wartime performance. To flesh out this argument, the chapter first defines inequality and introduces a military inequality coefficient, before turning to the specifics of battlefield performance. Though no consensus exists as to measuring military effectiveness, the chapter offers some ways to measure military performance. Next, the chapter turns to the dangers of military inequality and makes a more protracted argument about why inequality matters. Finally, it provides some background into Project Mars and discusses the research design for this study.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-28
Author(s):  
Victoria Donovan
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Cultural Activity ◽  
National Memory ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
A Site

This introductory chapter discusses the Russian Northwest and its role in imagining Soviet-Russian nationhood. Novgorod, Pskov, and Vologda here served as symbolic homelands for the Soviet and post-Soviet Russian nations, mediating between the local, national, and transnational. Following the war, the state marketed the region's cultural heritage to the nation as the symbols of Russified Soviet identity linked to myths of sacredness, sacrifice, and patriotism. The idea of the Northwest was placed at the center of everyday life, emerging as a center of tourism and cultural activity in the 1960s to 1980s. The region thus formed a vehicle for internalizing the impersonal nation by placing it within the familiar local world, or a site where local and national memory could be fused.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Teo Ballvé
Keyword(s):  
Political Influence ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
Relations Of Power ◽  
Violent Conflicts ◽  
Do So

This introductory chapter briefly explores the ways in which imaginaries of statelessness have structured the political life of Urabá, Colombia. It argues that Colombia's violent conflicts have produced surprisingly coherent and resilient regimes of accumulation and rule—yet this is not to say they are benevolent. In order to do so, this chapter approaches the state as a dynamic ensemble of relations that is both an effect and an instrument of competing political strategies and relations of power. In Urabá, groups from across the political spectrum, armed and otherwise, all end up trying to give concrete coherence to the inherently unwieldy abstraction of the state in a space where it supposedly does not exist. The way this absence exerts a generative political influence is what this chapter establishes as the “frontier effect.” The frontier effect describes how the imaginary of statelessness in these spaces compels all kinds of actors to get into the business of state formation; it thrusts groups into the role of would-be state builders.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin R. Hochman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
Nazi Ideology ◽  
Historical Relationship ◽  
Book Studies ◽  
Shifting Boundaries

This introductory chapter illustrates that there were multiple understandings of Germanness during the Weimar era, hence emphasizing how the triumph of Nazi ideology after 1918 was far from certain and pointing out how historical understandings of Nazism has overlooked the vital historical relationship between Germany and Austria. It examines the state of Germany in both the nineteenth century and the immediate postwar situation, from which the more contemporary contests that emerged between republicans and their opponents over the nature of German nationalism and politics that this book studies had emerged. The chapter contextualizes the shifting boundaries of Germanness against this backdrop, at the same time highlighting the long-neglected connections between Germany and Austria and the importance of exploring the exchange of people and ideas across the Austro-German boundary.

Intermediary and Intermediation

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Saglietto
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Evolution ◽  
Comprehensive View ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Similarities And Differences

The concept of intermediation has existed for a long time and taken numerous different forms. In this introductory chapter, we will therefore start by examining the state of the art of intermediaries through a range of different disciplines (history, management, economics, health, sociology), highlighting their historical evolution and current forms. We will then present the different models and theories of intermediation and their development, to produce an appreciation of their similarities and differences and a comprehensive view of the subject. This will allow us, in the last section, to propose the framework for a general theory of intermediation, in terms of organisational architecture and the services provided.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
James Pickett
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Social Group ◽  
The State ◽  
High Culture ◽  
Independent Source ◽  
Military Elite ◽  
Influential Individuals ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the Islamic scholars of Bukhara during the long nineteenth century. Islamic scholars were among the most influential individuals in their society, and that power rested on their mastery of diverse forms of knowledge rather than birthright. Instead of imagining those varied competencies and practices as embodied by separate professions, this book conceptualizes them as distinct practices and disciplines mastered by a single milieu. Instead of imagining stratified castes of “ulama” as against “sufis” as against “poets,” there is a unified social group of multitalented polymaths selectively performing sharia, asceticism, and poetry as circumstances dictated. These polymaths of Islam were the custodians of the only form of institutionalized high culture on offer in Central Asia. Their authoritative command over many different forms of knowledge — from medicine to law to epistolography and beyond — allowed them to accumulate substantial power and to establish enduring family dynasties. The Turkic military elite relied on these scholars to administer the state, but the ulama possessed an independent source of authority rooted in learning, which created tension between these two elite groups with profound ramifications for the region's history.

Introduction and Synopsis

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Federico De Romanis
Keyword(s):  
Bay Of Bengal ◽  
Arabian Sea ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
The State ◽  
Roman Economy ◽  
Commercial Importance ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Tedious Process

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the two texts of the Muziris papyrus. The publication of the Muziris papyrus texts—and the slow, tedious process of their interpretation and explanation—marks a turning point for studies on Indo-Roman trade specifically, and on the Roman economy more broadly. On the Roman side, apart from showing the impressive organizational and financial potential of ancient mercantile communities, the Muziris papyrus clarifies some of the routine practices associated with Greco-Roman maritime loan agreements, and demonstrates how such practices were adapted to the peculiarities of the South Indian trade. It also details how customs duties on imported Indian items were assessed and collected, and hints at the intriguing interplay among the state, the financial elites, and the merchants. On the Indian side, the cargo of the Hermapollon—the Roman Indiaman whose imports are itemized and evaluated on the verso of the Muziris papyrus—highlights the commercial importance of a region and of an emporion strategically poised between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Mark Thatcher ◽  
Tim Vlandas
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
The State ◽  
Private Capital ◽  
Economic Openness ◽  
Sovereign Wealth Funds ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Economic Actor ◽  
Domestic Economies

This introductory chapter offers an overview of the book. It identifies the growing size and importance of overseas state investors and how they challenge current political economy analyses of the state. The phenomenon is well illustrated by Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs): state-owned investment bodies, often from Asia and the Middle East, that have bought shares in major firms in strategic sectors ranging from finance to communications and transport, as well as landmark buildings. The chapter presents the puzzle of the widespread acceptance of SWF investments: national responses to SWF purchases might have been expected to be hostile, especially as they represent entry into Western stock markets by non-Western overseas states. Yet many Western governments have accepted and often actively encouraged SWF investments, seeing them as an additional means to govern their domestic economies and pursue their political strategies. The chapter then situates this puzzle in the wider political economy literature on the role and power of the state in an increasingly internationalized economy. It argues that recent political economy works focus on the internationalization of private capital, ignoring the capacity of the state itself to become a cross-border economic actor. It summarizes the book’s findings that several Western governments have engaged in internationalized statism, underlining that the patterns of policy differ sharply from those that might be expected given popular and academic views of economic openness.

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