State terror in Argentina (1975-1983) as a part of a twentieth century’s history

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 280-308
Author(s):  
Marina Franco ◽  
◽  
Esteban Pontoriero ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
State Terror ◽  
State Terrorism ◽  
Temporal Variables ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military

This article explores the history of state terrorism in Argentina during the years 1975-1983, integrating it into a process that covers the entire 20th century. By way of an essay and based on our previous research, as well as on the specific bibliography, the proposal is to explain the conditions of possibility of a paradigmatic case of mass violence including three temporal variables. In the first place, long-term processes are exposed, studying the first decades of the 20th century; then those of the medium term, working on the decades of 1950, 1960 and 1970 and, finally, those of the short term address the conjuncture 1973-1976. Each section deals with a set of analytical elements that we consider essential to understand and explain the process of repressive accumulation that is connected with the massacre of political opponents in the 1970s. In general, we have targeted a series of key actors: the Armed Forces, the Security Forces, constitutional governments, de facto governments, and civil actors linked to the repression. At the same time, we include a set of elements, also decisive: the frameworks of exception, the military doctrine, the dehumanization of the enemy, the legal and illegal methods, and the repressive practices and experiences. We hope to insert state terrorism into a diverse and multi-determined history, in order to better understand and explain a phenomenon of extreme complexity.

Explaining Military Responses to Protests in Latin American Democracies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Pion-Berlin ◽  
Igor Acácio
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Selection Strategy ◽  
Full Compliance ◽  
Case Selection ◽  
Qualitative Evidence ◽  
Social Protests ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sources Of Variation ◽  
The Military

Social protests are a feature of democracy in Latin America. When the police cannot handle them, governments, facing threats to their tenure, are tempted to order the armed forces to step in. The military, when ordered to deploy in counter-protest operations, exhibits behaviors ranging from defiance to conditional and full compliance. The article investigates the sources of variation in military responses to mass protests, leveraging a small-n comparative analysis and a diverse case selection strategy. It draws on qualitative evidence from Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, democracies with a history of protests. It finds that a combination of the judicial risks soldiers assume if they repress, professional mission preferences, and social identity between the military and the protesters are the most compelling explanations for military responses.

Die Bundeswehr und die Belgischen Streitkräfte in Deutschland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Springer
Keyword(s):  
Local Level ◽  
Military Training ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
History Of ◽  
Military Training Areas ◽  
The Military ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Peak Phase ◽  
East West

This study is dedicated to the regional history of the East-West conflict on the basis of the relationship between the Germany military and the Belgian armed forces stationed in Germany. The central question it addresses is which factors were largely responsible for the interdependence between actors and institutions of both armies. In addition to analysing the limited time of the peak phase of Belgian military deployment in the Federal Republic 1946–1990, the book concentrates regionally on the military training areas of Vogelsang in the Eifel and the Wahner Heide near Cologne as military contact zones. For this purpose, the author evaluates unpublished archival sources at the local level for the first time.

Rwanda: Civil–Military Relations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Jowell
Keyword(s):  
Central Africa ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
National Defense ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Practical Experiences ◽  
The One ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military

The army has been a central part of Rwanda’s political system from the precolonial period until the early 21st century and is intrinsically part of the construction and politics of the state. Civil–military relations in Rwanda demonstrate not only the central features of transitioning a rebel group to a national defense sector but also how some states construct their armed forces after a period of mass violence. Since the civil war and genocide in the early 1990s, the Rwandan military has been the primary actor in politics, the economy, and state building as well as in regional wars in central Africa and the Great Lakes region. Practical experiences of guerrilla insurgency and conflict in Uganda and Rwanda, postconflict military integration, and the intertwining of political and economic agendas with the ruling party have shaped civil–military relations in Rwanda and have been central to how the Rwandan defense sector functions. Contemporary Rwandan civil–military relations center around the two elements of service delivery and control, which has resulted in the development of an effective and technocratic military in terms of remit and responsibilities on the one hand, and the creation of a politicized force of coercion on the other hand. The military in Rwanda therefore reflects the pressures and dynamics of the wider state and cannot be separated from it. The Rwandan army is thus a “political army” and is part and parcel of the political structures that oversee and govern the Rwandan state.

scholarly journals Privatizing war and security in Afghanistan: Future or dead end?

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Giustozzi
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Private Security ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Abusive Behavior ◽  
Private Security Companies ◽  
Dead End ◽  
Military Discipline ◽  
Security Companies

An assessment of the employment of mercenaries in Afghanistan gives mixed results. U.S. armed forces appear to have been happy with the Afghan Security Forces and ad hoc militias and only replaced them because of political reasons or because they felt that they were no longer needed. By contrast, the work of private security companies seems to have satisfied few. While in the short term no practical alternative to their use existed, it is not obvious that this option saves any money to the governments involved in the medium and long-term. Moreover, private security contractors are not subject to the control of military authorities, nor to military discipline. Their record of abusive behavior is indisputable and probably played a significant role in alienating the Afghan public. Unless much changes, the potential of private security companies in peacekeeping does not appear to be a bright one.

Performance of a mobile infrasound station in the framework of CEEIN 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Mitterbauer ◽  
Daniela Ghica
Keyword(s):  
Military Training ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
National Data ◽  
Private Company ◽  
Seismic Sensors ◽  
Global Events ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Military

<p>The project ABC-MAUS is undertaken by a collaboration of the Austrian Ministry of Defense, Joanneum Research, the Austrian national weather and geophysical service Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG), including the Austrian National Data Center (NDC), as well as the private company GIHMM. The aim is to develop a strategy of protection for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threads (CBRN) for the Austrian armed forces.</p><p>In the frame of the project, a mobile infrasound array was deployed together with seismic sensors to monitor the military training ground Allentsteig in Lower Austria. During one week a series of controlled explosions was recorded. Infrasound data was processed and analyzed by using a duo of infrasound detection-oriented software (DTK-GPMCC and DTK-DIVA, packaged into NDC-in-a-Box). The dataset contained not only local and regional data, but revealed as well long term sources and – after comparing the data with data from stations of the CEEIN (Central Eastern European Infrasound Network) – some global events. Those events were localized using data of the temporary deployed array and by observations collected by other stations of the CEEIN.</p>

Burundi: Assessing Military Institutional Reforms Post-Arusha

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Jamar ◽  
Gerard Birantamije
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Institutional Reforms ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Military Politics ◽  
The Military

Military politics have been entangled with the trajectory of Burundian public institutions, experiences of violence, and the army formation. From 1994 to 2009, the peace process brought together different political parties, security forces, and rebel groups to negotiate ceasefires and major institutional reforms. Adopted in 2000, the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement contained some of the most ambitious and sophisticated security reforms. While most literature emphasizes mostly on the Arusha Peace Agreement, 22 agreements were signed by different sets of parties, including political parties and rebel groups during these 15 years of peace meditation. The Arusha Peace Agreement provides for complex security arrangements: (a) a strictly defined role, structure, and mandate of the army and other security forces; (b) sophisticated power-sharing arrangements for both leadership and composition of the army and other security forces; (c) demobilization, disarmament, integration, and training of armed forces; (d) transformation of armed groups into political parties; and (e) ceasefires. The peace talks integrated various armed political groups into Burundian institutions. Responding to four decades of violence and military dictatorship, these reforms of the military and other security forces aimed to disentangle the military from politics. Initially contested, the agreements shaped the reading of the historical contexts that justified these institutional military reforms. Indeed, provisions of these agreements also framed a narrative about violence and imposed fixed interpretations of political mobilization of violence. These imposed interpretations neglected key elements that enabled and, continue to enable, the political use of violence as well as the emergence of new forms of military politics. The main institutional approaches adopted to tackle issue of inclusion and correct imbalances in armed forces was the introduction of power-sharing arrangements based on ethnic dimensions. The formulation and further implementation of ethnic quotas reinforced the binary elements of ethnic identities, rather than promote a more fluid understanding that would appreciate intersecting elements, such as gender, political affiliation, and class and regional dimensions in the undertaking of power, alliance, and relations between executive and military institutions. Security reforms continue to affect the functioning of public institutions, with limited effects for disentangling politics and military.

The Military’s Cinema Complex

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Grieveson ◽  
Haidee Wasson
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
American Military ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military

This chapter, by Lee Grieveson and Haidee Wasson, establishes a framework for studying the American military, a singularly powerful institution, and its relationship to cinema. It first lays out a brief history of the American military and its rise to prominence and power, and then situates the enduring use of cinema across the broad remit of the armed forces alongside previous work in this area. Special attention is paid to the economic and industrial developments that have been intertwined with the military historically. This chapter also summarizes the breadth of the military’s use of cinema, ranging from propaganda to training and from war funding to munitions testing. Knowledge about the military’s use of film helps us to understand more about the history of film and its technologies and also the various ways cinema has been implicated in the complex geopolitical dynamics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Facing Historical Challenges: the Work of Soviet Philosophers During the Great Patriotic War

2020 ◽  
pp. 175-181
Author(s):  
Anatoly V. Chernyaev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Work ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
State Identity ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
Science And Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Heritage ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
The Military

The Great Patriotic War was a decisive challenge not only for the military power and material and technical base of our country, but also for its spiritual, cultural and ideological foundations. Many Russian philosophers became participants in the hos­tilities, but the role of philosophers who continued scientific work was no less im­portant, the plans of which were adjusted and aimed at implementing projects re­lated to the strengthening of patriotism, the development of national identity, the revival of the classical forms of science and culture, consistent with historical heritage of Russia. This scientific work was in the context of the socio-cultural and spiritual processes that intensified in the USSR during the war and responded to the tasks of strengthening defense capability and the formation of a new socio-state identity. The main undertakings implemented in this connection by the Institute of Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences were the development of the history of Russian philosophical thought and the creation of a new textbook of formal logic. These areas of research activity have shown their relevance in the light of the chal­lenges of wartime and prospects in terms of the long-term development of science.

A Comparison of the History of the Entry of Women into Policing in France and England and Wales

1992 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 236-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Dene
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Dual Roles ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
History Of ◽  
Employment Of Women ◽  
Conflict Research ◽  
Status Of Women ◽  
Police Forces

France and England have, through the course of history, shared in many historical events, sometimes as the opposing countries on the battlefield and at other times united through conflict, research and discovery. The two countries have, since the late 19th and early 20th century, seen dramatic changes in the role and status of women within their societies, this being especially so with regard to the employment of women. No longer content with their dual roles as wife and mother, they have increasingly looked outside the home and family for a new challenge, and have increasingly turned to those areas of employment which have been seen as male preserves, including the armed forces, medicine and the police service. This paper seeks to trace the record of women's fight to enter the police forces of England and Wales and the non-military police forces of France.

Sealing and Unsealing Uruguay’s Transitional Politics of Oblivion

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 103-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Fried Amilivia
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Social Memory ◽  
Social Mobilization ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
State Terror ◽  
Social Trauma ◽  
State Terrorism ◽  
Violencia Politica

Three decades after state terror in Uruguay, counter memory making has endured in successive waves despite the official politics of oblivion, a transitional politics based on the denial of state abuses, absence of redress for victims, and impunity for perpetrators of the crimes of state terrorism. The Uruguayan case illustrates the impossibility of foreclosing memory through political engineering and the unsustainability of blanket impunity. It also highlights the long-term effects of ongoing social mobilization for memory and personal memorialization after social trauma and offers a sociocultural and intersubjective approach to the understanding of the generation of social memory after massive political violence.Tres décadas después del terrorismo de estado en el Uruguay, la construcción de la contramemoria ha resistido en oleadas sucesivas a pesar de una política oficial del olvido, una política de transición basada en la negación de los abusos del estado, la ausencia de reparaciones para las víctimas y la impunidad para los responsables de los crímenes del terrorismo de estado. El caso uruguayo ilustra la imposibilidad de impedir la construcción de la memoria por medio de la ingeniería política y la falta de viabilidad de una impunidad general. También pone de manifiesto los efectos a largo plazo de una continua movilización social por la memoria y la memorialización personal después del trauma social y ofrece un enfoque sociocultural e intersubjetivo para entender la generación de la memoria social después de periodos de enorme violencia política.

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