Ethnic Conflicts and Peacebuilding in Georgia

The chapter deals with the problem of territorial integrity of Georgia, particularly two adjusted regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Today, 20% of Georgian territory is occupied. After the Russian-Georgian War in 2008, things changed radically to the detriment of Georgia's national interests, in particular, the occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Russia, their recognition as independent states, and ethnic cleansing of Georgians by disregarding the fundamental principles of international law. All these are known to the international community, and it became visible to the whole world. The issues are in the field of permanent national interests of Georgia. Under such situation, it became necessary to search for new ways of conflict resolution based only upon real politics.

America's Wars

The collapse of the Soviet Union ushered in American global hegemony in world affairs. In the post-Cold War period, both Democrat and Republican governments intervened, fought insurgencies, and changed regimes. In America's Wars, Thomas Henriksen explores how America tried to remake the world by militarily invading a host of nations beset with civil wars, ethnic cleansing, brutal dictators, and devastating humanitarian conditions. The immediate post-Cold War years saw the United States carrying out interventions in the name of Western-style democracy, humanitarianism, and liberal internationalism in Panama, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo. Later, the 9/11 terrorist attacks led America into larger-scale military incursions to defend itself from further assaults by al Qaeda in Afghanistan and from perceived nuclear arms in Iraq, while fighting small-footprint conflicts in Africa, Asia, and Arabia. This era is coming to an end with the resurgence of great power rivalry and rising threats from China and Russia.

“Sovereignty, territory, and the legitimacy of the international order”

In The Shifting Border, Ayelet Shachar (2020) argues that the exercise of sovereign power through border regimes no longer tracks territorial boundaries. In my commentary, I first argue that Shachar’s analysis implicitly calls into question the legitimacy of the international order. I then raise the worry that the logic which severs the link between the exercise of sovereignty and territory is the same logic that can be used to justify injustice and atrocity such as ethnic cleansing. Shachar’s normative proposals do not sufficiently recognize or guard against this risk.

Entangled Bystanders: Multidimensional Trauma of Ethnic Cleansing and Mass Violence in Eastern Galicia

This chapter focuses on the multidimensional trauma of witnesses to mass ethnic violence. The author analyzes the personal experiences of civilians during World War II in Eastern Galicia (once a multi-ethnic borderland region: before 1939 in Poland, now in Ukraine). What makes Galicia an exceptional case study is the continuity of mass violence of different kinds and against different groups of the population: Soviet repression and mass killings, the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing of Poles committed by Ukrainian nationalists, and conflict between Soviet authorities and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Drawing on existing concepts from the field of bystanders’ studies, for example, Michael Rothberg’s implicated subject and Omer Bartov’s communal genocide, the author proposes to understand the trauma of Galician bystanders as a complex and multidimensional experience, psychological as well as collective and communal.

A Critical Perspective on Syndemic Theory and Social Justice

Syndemic theory proposes that social phenomena play critical roles in the production and spreading of epidemics and that a syndemic is the result of multiple, adversely interacting epidemics. As currently framed, only the co-occurrence of multiple biological epidemics constitutes a syndemic – social phenomena are treated as risk factors but not epidemics in their own right. I argue that social phenomena such as direct violence (e.g. interpersonal violence, genocide, ethnic cleansing, colonialism, and imperialism) and structural violence (e.g. poverty, racism, historical trauma, and political disenfranchisement) are widespread and adversely affect health in many Indigenous communities, thus meeting the definition of an epidemic. As such, I propose that syndemic theory must be reconceptualized to consider biological and social epidemics, with both types framed as treatable and preventable. Wider acceptance of this frame across disciplines facilitates creation of a collective action frame, which in turn allows us to demand accountability from policymakers – and to demand justice.

Une si tendre critique: L’Afrique des écrivains migrants d’origine congolaise en Belgique francophone

The article is dedicated to the portrayal of Africa in the writings of the French-speaking Belgian writers of Congolese origins. We analyse subjective representations of Africa, both critical and idealized ones, from which emerges a vision of the continent brimming with contradictions. On the one hand, it is an alluring, vast and fertile land with abundant flora and fauna, as well as clime and landscape dearly missed by migrant writers – the land embodying the concept of “paradise lost” or the notion of a nursing mother identified in the migrant writers’ texts with the idea of homeland. On the other hand, although abundant in natural resources, Africa appears to be the continent of extreme poverty, hunger, violence, racism, persecution and ethnic cleansing – the territory still exploited by global powers on which colonialism unveiled its new face defined by a seemingly neutral term – globalization. This dichotomous representation – a far cry from the simplified, impoverished visions of Africa offered by the European media – is conditioned by the specific existential situation of the migrant writers: remaining physically away from Africa, but still having a deep emotional, mental and cultural connection with their land, they are capable of perceiving it in a different light – thus, from a perspective which sharpens critical thinking and with tenderness resulting from the longing for their homeland. Hence, the circumstances of the migrant writers allow them to take an idiosyncratic, ambivalent and intellectually-affective stance – a specific critical tenderness, or: tender critique – through the prism of which the writers depict African realities and change the perception of these realities in the consciousness of the European readers.