Dislodged from History, Confronted by Walls : Picturing Migration as a Global Emergency

This essay examines select visual representations of refugees and migrants as embodied subjects in photography, art, and video. It focuses on American asylum politics and explores the questions of free movement, the right to have rights, and the ethics and efficacy of border walls. It argues that the catastrophe of global forced displacement makes the elimination of national borders and the nation state itself a revolutionary necessity.

Criticism of “Colonial Modernity” through Kurdish Decolonial Approaches

Western modernity with its colonial application has created an identity trauma and patriarchal domination of the memory of colonized and oppressed peoples. Critiques from colonized territories encourage us to reread the colonial epistemes of modernity, whether or not centered on the West. The Kurdish political movement thus defines a new interpretation of modernity based on the critique of colonialism and global capitalism: “democratic modernity.” This chapter problematizes the relations between modernity, the nation state, the destruction of ecology, social confinement, the relationship of the forces of these relations, but above all the modalities by which it becomes possible to act on them to break the “stalemate” of the modernity of thought in the twenty-first century.

Civilizational mnemonics and the longue durée: The Bulgarian case

Constructivist assumptions have dominated the field of memory studies, producing an avalanche of case studies focusing on the instrumental and expedient factors shaping memory politics. However, this constructivist bias has also yielded new blind spots. For one, it tends to privilege “events” and “contingencies” over the longue durée of a particular memory configuration. Two, it remains caught in a binary juxtaposition with some states adopting globally circulating mnemonic scripts, signaling universal aspirations, while other states pursue nation-centric approaches. To overcome these blind spots (and binaries), we propose two interrelated conceptual moves: first, we are taking the importance of enduring memory figurations into consideration. Second, we expand the nation-state focus by introducing the notion of “civilizational mnemonics,” which does not replace national memories, but frequently underwrites them. Bulgarian memory politics, our test case, is part of a complex nexus of imperial legacies and post-colonial discourses. Bulgaria has been a middle ground, accommodating competing imperial projects—Ottoman, Russian, and Western. These intersections allow us to draw general inferences about mnemonic tropes and their enduring salience.

The Challenges of Political Corruption in Australia, the Proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission Bill (2020) and the Application of the APUNCAC

Political corruption affects each nation-state differently, but the outcomes are nominally the same: a deficit of public trust, weakened government institutions and undermined political systems. This article analyzes issues of political corruption in Australia by framing them within a national integrity ecosystem (NIE) and addressing them against the proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission (CIC) 2020 bill. It also discusses prevalent ‘grey’ areas of Australian politically-corrupt behavior where they interact with the private sector: the revolving door, political donations, and lobbying; and the state of Australia’s implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. This article argues for their inclusion within the mandated scope of the proposed CIC. There is a need for strong legislation, both domestic and international, to fight corruption. This article then discusses the application of the provisions of the draft Anticorruption Protocol to the UN Convention Against Corruption (APUNCAC) that may apply with respect to these ‘grey’ issues, and how an International Anti-Corruption Court may provide another institutional model for Australia to follow. Finally, this article links these proposals to the 2021 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Corruption and the 9th Conference of States Parties on the UNCAC (COSP9). These events illustrate multilateral momentum and progress on anti-corruption. As a country that has historically supported the UN multilateral framework and its institutions, this article recommends a proactive approach for Australia so that the passing of a strong domestic anticorruption initiative will contribute to the adoption, and eventual ratification, of the APUNCAC.

The Roots and Evolution of Nationalism in Indonesia

ABSTRACT The emergence of nationalism in Indonesia began at the dawn of the twentieth century, which ultimately led to the birth a new nation-state in 1949. The seeds of national consciousness were sown, and roots of Indonesian nationalism reached its apex during the Revolution (1945-49), manifesting most profoundly in the fight against the oppression of Dutch colonialism. The Revolution was central to the Indonesian republic’s perception of itself and has been influential in fostering nationalism during the post-independence period. This article examines the roots and evolution as well as dynamics and manifestations of Indonesian nationalism, throughout the different phases of Indonesia’s modern history. In doing so, it addresses three salient questions, namely i) how the seeds of national consciousness were sown; ii) what were the underlying factors/dynamics shaping the nature and development of nationalism; and iii) how nationalism and nationhood manifested in a geographically divided, ethno-culturally diverse state like Indonesia, whose citizenry has remained strongly attached to their traditional ethnological and adat communities. Emphasis is given to both stateoriented and popular manifestations of Indonesian nationalism, to highlight the state/elite-centric nature, and populist drive behind its discourses, agenda, and manifestations. Keywords: Indonesia; nationalism; national identity; state nationalism; popular nationalism

Lessons From Rojava for the Paradigm of Social Ecology

This essay addresses two related questions raised by the editors of the research topic for “Beyond the Frontiers of Political Science: Is Good Governance Possible in Cataclysmic Times?” In particular, it explores: 1) how we can identify new tools and perspectives from which to address the multiple and mutually reinforcing problems accumulating around climate change; and 2) what institutional alternatives to the nation-state need to be created and empowered to tackle such complex problems. It does so through an in-depth treatment of the paradigm of “social ecology” and the associated political project of “democratic confederalism.” It begins with an overview of the argument, first advanced by Murray Bookchin and subsequently adopted and adapted by the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, that building an ecological society requires an assault on hierarchy in all its forms, and the construction of alternative, direct-democratic institutions capable of transcending the system of the capitalist nation-state. It sketches the institutional architecture of popular assemblies central to this project, both emphasizing their potential to contest capitalist social-property relations and hierarchies intrinsic to the nation-state and pointing out some sources of resilience of the existing system. It hones in on the experience of the revolutionary forces in control of the Autonomous Administration of North East Syria (AANES), who have been directly inspired by Öcalan’s ideas. It highlights both the AANES’s achievements as well as the significant obstacles it has encountered in the attempt to bring into being a radically-egalitarian, ecological society. It concludes by drawing lessons from these difficulties.

Resilience Decoded: The Role of Firms, Global Value Chains, and the State in COVID-19 Medical Supplies

This article examines the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on resilience. Resilience is not a one-dimensional concept but has different meanings at the levels of the firm (operational efficiency), the global value chain (appropriate governance), and the nation-state (national security). It illustrates resilience dynamics through lessons from case studies of four medical supply products—rubber gloves, face masks, ventilators, and vaccines. It explores how each adjusted to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and presents key strategies that can guide managers and policymakers in building resilience for future supply chain disruptions.

The role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict

The article analyses the influence of the religious factor on the internal processes of nation-state consolidation in Ukraine and on the causes and consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The division of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy into three branches (UAOC, UOC-KP and UOC-MP) did not allow the Church to become a consolidating factor in the formation of a nation-state in independent Ukraine and a generator of social transformation. The situation may change for the better after the creation of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine in 2018.