Memories of State Terrorism in Chile: Dark Ruins at Villa Grimaldi

In this short essay, I explore the recent reassessment of ruined sites haunted by the echoes of State terrorism across the Southern Cone of Latin America, asking what is at stake in the conservation of former detention centers and focusing on Villa Grimaldi in Chile. The site was initially transformed into a green park but has subsequently become a museum in which remains of the original buildings and artifacts from the repressive past are publicly accessible. I draw on perspectives that claim that even ruins that portray past acts of inhumanity do not necessarily need to evoke melancholic or traumatic retrospection; rather, they are sites of alternative pasts and futures. The transition from the original green park design to a more prominent use of the ruins speaks of an invitation to reassess the past, addressing marginal aspects of emblematic memories, including the political conflict that underpinned the repression.

On the Issue of Social Movement Definition

The paper is a theoretical review of “social movement” term definitions. Aiming to show differences among definitions within different paradigms and scientific evolution of the term the main approaches of defining social movements are discussed. Initially, social movements were studied by psychologists, who were examining different forms of collective behavior, such as mobs, crowds, protests and etc. Most of them considered social movements as an irrational and destructive form of collective action driven by the instincts of people. During the next decades, the theory of social movements was developed mostly by sociologists who, on the contrary, started to seek social reasons inducing this type of collective action. Different theoretical schools proposed various concepts of explaining the origin of social movements, but all of them agreed on the main characteristics: rational and organized collective action driven by unfulfilled social needs. Different authors linked social movement definitions with other important social phenomena such as norms and values, social conflict, social identity, and social network. Political scientists have also contributed to the study of social movements but in terms of power and state, terrorism and violence. Discussing psychological, sociological, and political science approaches to term definition we came to the conclusion that the most inclusive sociological definition is viewing social movement as a social network through which collective action is performed to achieve total or partial social change. Such kind of definition makes it possible to reveal the main criteria necessary to distinguish social movement as a separate social phenomenon from other types of collective action.

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

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.

Family as a national archetype of forming aristocratic personality: relationship between Lesia Ukrainka and Mykhailo Drahomanov.

The phenomenon of the Kosach-Dragomanov family is considered in this article as a national archetype of the Ukrainian mentality, the influence of this family on the formation of such an aristocratic personality as Lesіa Ukrainka during difficult times of socio-political life. Special attention has been paid to the creative and human relationships between Lesia and her uncle Mykhailo Drahomanov whose influence on her was undeniable and extremely beneficial. Her pedigree in particular has been traced. Heredity of generations, the appearance of ingenious personalities is always the subject of special attention. The decisive moment in defining these processes is the appearance of new people, more precisely people of new formation, people of progressive thinking, who are the driving force and foundation of historical change. New generations should not be indifferent to their great predecessors. Lesіa Ukrainka as a creative nature could not be indifferent to the talents and skills of talented people, the circle of her friends, acquaintances and supporters was extremely wide as well as the measurement of her interests. The subject of this article is to highlight the important role of the family and the environment in general in forming a young person as a personality. The challenges of the modern times, in particular, in the field of humanistic educational tendencies, require an appeal to moral authorities in the history of the development of the Ukrainian nation. Keywords: apriori fantasies; bourgeois liberal; positivist scientist; state terrorism; amateurism; ethnography; “Europeanism”; national consciousness; political leader; socio-political thought.

Predicting non-state terrorism worldwide

Several thousand people die every year worldwide because of terrorist attacks perpetrated by non-state actors. In this context, reliable and accurate short-term predictions of non-state terrorism at the local level are key for policy makers to target preventative measures. Using only publicly available data, we show that predictive models that include structural and procedural predictors can accurately predict the occurrence of non-state terrorism locally and a week ahead in regions affected by a relatively high prevalence of terrorism. In these regions, theoretically informed models systematically outperform models using predictors built on past terrorist events only. We further identify and interpret the local effects of major global and regional terrorism drivers. Our study demonstrates the potential of theoretically informed models to predict and explain complex forms of political violence at policy-relevant scales.

Terrorism-Related Chemical, Biological, Radiation, and Nuclear Attacks: A Historical Global Comparison Influencing the Emergence of Counter-Terrorism Medicine

Background: Terrorist attacks are growing in complexity, increasing concerns around the use of chemical, biological, radiation, and nuclear (CBRN) agents. This has led to increasing interest in Counter-Terrorism Medicine (CTM) as a Disaster Medicine (DM) sub-specialty. This study aims to provide the epidemiology of CBRN use in terrorism, to detail specific agents used, and to develop training programs for responders. Methods: The open-source Global Terrorism Database (GTD) was searched for all CBRN attacks from January 1, 1970 through December 31, 2018. Attacks were included if they fulfilled the terrorism-related criteria as set by the GTD’s Codebook. Ambiguous events or those meeting only partial criteria were excluded. The database does not include acts of state terrorism. Results: There were 390 total CBRN incidents, causing 930 total fatal injuries (FI) and 14,167 total non-fatal injuries (NFI). A total of 347 chemical attacks (88.9% of total) caused 921 FI (99.0%) and 13,361 NFI (94.3%). Thirty-one biological attacks (8.0%) caused nine FI (1.0%) and 806 NFI (5.7%). Twelve radiation attacks (3.1%) caused zero FI and zero NFI. There were no nuclear attacks. The use of CBRN accounted for less than 0.3% of all terrorist attacks and is a high-risk, low-frequency attack methodology. The Taliban was implicated in 40 of the 347 chemical events, utilizing a mixture of agents including unconfirmed chemical gases (grey literature suggests white phosphorous and chlorine), contaminating water sources with pesticides, and the use of corrosive acid. The Sarin gas attack in Tokyo contributed to 5,500 NFI. Biological attacks accounted for 8.0% of CBRN attacks. Anthrax was used or suspected in 20 of the 31 events, followed by salmonella (5), ricin (3), fecal matter (1), botulinum toxin (1), and HIV (1). Radiation attacks accounted for 3.1% of CBRN attacks. Monazite was used in 10 of the 12 events, followed by iodine 131 (1) and undetermined irradiated plates (1). Conclusion: Currently, CBRN are low-frequency, high-impact attack modalities and remain a concern given the rising rate of terrorist events. Counter-Terrorism Medicine is a developing DM sub-specialty focusing on the mitigation of health care risks from such events. First responders and health care workers should be aware of historic use of CBRN weapons regionally and globally, and should train and prepare to respond appropriately.