Managing Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka through Constitutional Arrangements

Author(s):  
Ilam Khan

Marginalization causes conflicts; they may be political, social, or economic. A careful contemplation over the history of Sri Lanka reveals that the sentiments of being marginalized have been present — in one (ethnic) group or the other — in the island right from its independence. When the majority ethnic group, i.e., the Sinhala, was in a position of power, it manipulated the constitution of the country to safeguard its own interests. This widened the rift among different ethnic and religious groups, especially between the Sinhala and the Tamil. This structural marginalization resulted in a civil war, starting in 1983, that lasted for 26 years. However, the ethnic conflict did not resolve even after the end of the civil war and continues to exist in the form of a political struggle between the Tamil and Sinhala. The Tamil demand for federation, autonomy, inclusion, and self-determination can only be achieved through constitutional means. Therefore, this research evaluates the post-Civil Warconstitutional development and amendment processes that were, at a point in time, more pluralistic and liberal, and contributing well to managing the ethnic conflict in the country. It was expected that the ethnic conflict would be permanently resolved through the constitutional arrangements, which Sri Lanka was already heading. However, the majority (Sinhala) reversed the progress through a new (20th) amendment to the constitution. Against this backdrop, this article argues that all segments of the society can be accommodated in the political sphere of the state through political liberalization which is possible only through constitutional arrangements.

Author(s):  
О.А. Дженчакова

В статье рассматриваются истоки возникновения вопроса Кабинды как затянувшегося территориального спора между официальными властями Республики Ангола и действующей на территории анклава Кабинда сепаратистски настроенной организацией — Фронта освобождения государства Кабинда, а также ее различными фракциями. Отмечается влияние геополитического фактора и нефтяных запасов на ситуацию в провинции, рассматриваются исторически обусловленные предпосылки и формально-правовые основания возникновения данного спора. Анализируются цели и методы борьбы, применяемые сепаратистами, отмечается их разобщенность, противоречивость действий в отношении правительства в Луанде. Отражены взгляды высшего руководства страны на данную проблему, приведены некоторые меры, принимаемые правительством для урегулирования вопроса. Прослеживается динамика развития ситуации в последние годы, а именно перегруппировка сил сепаратистов, создание ими новой организация — Движение за независимость Кабинды, активисты которой уже включились в политическую борьбу и призывают к самоопределению провинции. В статье делаются некоторые прогнозы относительно развития событий вокруг анклава. The article focuses on the sources of the Cabinda issue as a long-lasting territorial argument between the authorities of the Republic of Angola and the Front for the Liberation of the Cabinda Enclave, a pro-separatist organization functioning in the territory of the Cabinda enclave and its fractions. The article highlights the significance of the geopolitical factor and oil reserves and their influence on the situation in the province. It treats historical prerequisites and formal legal basis of the argument. The article analyzes the aim and methods of struggle used by separatists. It underlines the inconsistency of their actions aimed at challenging the government in Luanda. The article describes Angolan authorities’ views on the problem and dwells on some measures taken by the government to regulate the issue. The article assesses the development of the situation throughout recent years. It focuses on the regrouping of the separatist forces, on the creation of a new organization called Independence Movement of Cabinda, whose activists are involved in the political struggle and call for national self-determination. The article makes a few predictions associated with enclave-related developments.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tat'yana Alent'eva

The monograph examines the period in the history of the United States immediately preceding the Civil War of 1861-1865. The problem that is at the center of the author's attention is the public opinion of Americans on the most important domestic political issues. The paper analyzes the influence of the newspaper "New York Tribune" on the formation of views, opinions and preferences of Americans. For the first time in Russian American studies, a thorough analysis of the leading periodical of the pre-war period is given, the composition of the editorial staff and the views of journalists are described in detail. Special attention is paid to the founder and publisher of "Tribune" Horace Greeley. The monograph examines both socio-economic problems and the party-political struggle. The most important compromise measures, the Civil War in Kansas, the presidential elections of 1856 and 1860 are evaluated through the prism of the comments of the New York Tribune and at the same time through the perception of its readers. As a result, the monograph creates a multicolored palette of opinions of North Americans, their perception of the situation in the country on the eve of the Civil War. This allows us to expand and deepen our understanding of the causes of the second North American revolution. For professionals, students, and anyone interested in the problems of history.


Modern Italy ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-211
Author(s):  
Nicola D'Elia

The debate surrounding German Social Democracy during the era of the Second International represents an important chapter in the historiography of post-Second World War Italy. At the same time, it also marks some crucial moments in the political and intellectual life of Republican Italy. This article aims to show the close relationship between the investigation of the past and the ongoing political struggle that has characterised research on this issue. Study of the topic was practically monopolised by left-wing historians, who, in dealing with the history of German Social Democracy, aimed also to direct the political strategy of workers’ parties. Considering the studies appearing after the 1956 crisis and in the mid-1970s, such a goal seems evident. It was only during the 1980s that the research opened itself to different perspectives – no longer influenced by ideological controversies.


Author(s):  
Mark A. Lause

This history of the Civil War considers the impact of nineteenth-century American secret societies on the path to as well as the course of the war. Beginning with the European secret societies that laid the groundwork for Freemasonry in the United States, the book analyzes how the Old World's traditions influenced various underground groups and movements in America, particularly George Lippard's Brotherhood of the Union, an American attempt to replicate the political secret societies that influenced the European Revolutions of 1848. The book traces the Brotherhood's various manifestations, including the Knights of the Golden Circle (out of which developed the Ku Klux Klan), and the Confederate secret groups through which John Wilkes Booth and others attempted to undermine the Union. It shows how, in the years leading up to the Civil War, these clandestine organizations exacerbated existing sectional tensions and may have played a part in key events such as John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Lincoln's election, and the Southern secession process of 1860–1861.


Gesnerus ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-158
Author(s):  
Hines Mabika

It was not Dutch settlers nor British colonizers who introduced public and community health practice in north-eastern South Africa but medical doctors of the Swiss mission in southern Africa. While the history of medical knowledge transfer into 19th–20th century Africa emphasises colonial powers, this paper shows how countries without colonies contributed to expand western medical cultures, including public health. The Swiss took advantage of the local authorities’ negligence, and implemented their own model of medicalization of African societies, understood as the way of improving health standards. They moved from a tolerated hospital-centred medicine to the practice of community health, which was uncommon at the time. Elim hospital’s physicians moved back boundaries of segregationist policies, and sometime gave the impression of being involved in the political struggle against Apartheid. Thus, Swiss public health activities could later be seen as sorts of seeds that were planted and would partly reappear in 1994 with the ANC-projected national health policy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-38
Author(s):  
E. A. Papkova ◽  
I. E. Loshchilov

The article precedes the publication of 14 newly found correspondences of the classic of Russian literature of the 20 th century Vsevolod Ivanov (1895–1963). All of them were published in August – September 1919 in the mobile front-line newspaper “Vperyod” and are connected with the history of plots and stories of the writer about the Civil War in Siberia, first of all, with his famous story “Armored Train 14-69”. The publication fills in the gap associated with the incompleteness of the set of the newspaper “Vperyod” in the repositories of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The gap was filled thanks to the newspaper fund of the Scientific Library of Tomsk State University. The political and literary contexts of Ivanov’s work in the newspaper “Vperyod” are recreated, his relationship with the editor of the newspaper V. G. Yanchevetsky (1875–1954), known as the writer Vasily Yan, is described. An explanation of the changes in the views of the writer in 1919 is proposed. The poetics and genre of the published correspondence is preliminary characterized.


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