Search results
Introduction 1 On 15 December 2013, only two and a half years after the Republic of South Sudan had become an independent state, the long-simmering tensions between President Salva Kiir and his former vice-president, Riek Machar, erupted into armed clashes in the capital, Juba. War soon broke out. This article seeks to document and analyse violence affecting the provision of healthcare by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and its intended
T HE Cold War ended dramatically on 26 December 1991 when the collapsed Soviet Union dissolved itself. Ironically, in late 1991 British forces were just returning from the war to help liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation, where they had fought with their airpower and heavy metal very much in Cold War style. It was as if anti-Soviet battle routines had been transposed out of NATO and tested by the allies in the open territory around Basra. Britain created a full division for the operation and
Introduction The idea of the just war is in danger of becoming one of the political clichés of the new century. From an object of neglect and indifference it has been transformed into the dominant image of war in the post-cold war age. Moral distaste for war and things military, widely felt during an era of superpower rivalry and nuclear confrontation, has given way (in some circles at least) to
Introduction What is the logic governing journalistic practices in armed conflict contexts? 1 There are obvious physical constraints that make it difficult for sociologists and anthropologists to directly observe reporters working in war zones or areas of armed conflict. And while it is no substitute for direct observation, I would like to share my own experience of the multiple constraints that journalists face in crisis zones and of the
’re Here, before dispersing amongst the commuting crowds. Commemorative activities are designed to collapse time and permit the participant to empathise with the situation of their forebears. The Somme had been chosen as one of three focal points for the UK Government’s commemorative activities as the most iconic of the battles in Britain’s First World War: the moment when the volunteer army of the ‘Pals Battalions’ died in great numbers as the ‘Big Push’ faltered in the face of German resistance. But as the ad-vention played out on 1 July 2016, the British
4062 building a peace economy_2652Prelims 25/11/2013 15:06 Page 69 4 Transforming a war economy: learning from the case of Kosovo AVING BUILT up a preliminary framework in the previous chapter through which war economies and transformation policies can be assessed, the case of Kosovo and transformation policies implemented by the DSI following the conflict there will be analysed, not simply to test the framework but to build and improve upon it. As a starting point, it is important to note that the conflict in Kosovo has primarily been analysed in relation to
4062 building a peace economy_2652Prelims 25/11/2013 15:06 Page 14 2 War economy transformation: current policy options and issues as a primary cause of a war, as one of several competing motivations to engage in violence, or simply an outcome of the supposed lawlessness that is characteristic of conflict, it is increasingly recognised that economic motivations create serious barriers to the resolution of war and the consolidation of peace. Not only a problem in terms of the causation, prolongation or intensity of conflict (Ballentine, 2003), these war
When Penguin published the first Special, in November 1937, Britain was in the grip of two inter-related crises. The first was economic. Although some efforts had been made to resolve the economic downturn that had followed from the global financial crisis of 1929, over 10 per cent of the adult population remained unemployed, and primary poverty continued to blight large sections of the population. 1 The second crisis was political. The Spanish Civil War had aroused considerable anxiety, and as they observed Hitler’s advance, many commentators and
This book examines the impact that nostalgia has had on the Labour Party’s political development since 1951. In contrast to existing studies that have emphasised the role played by modernity, it argues that nostalgia has defined Labour’s identity and determined the party’s trajectory over time. It outlines how Labour, at both an elite and a grassroots level, has been and remains heavily influenced by a nostalgic commitment to an era of heroic male industrial working-class struggle. This commitment has hindered policy discussion, determined the form that the modernisation process has taken and shaped internal conflict and cohesion. More broadly, Labour’s emotional attachment to the past has made it difficult for the party to adjust to the socioeconomic changes that have taken place in Britain. In short, nostalgia has frequently left the party out of touch with the modern world. In this way, this book offers an assessment of Labour’s failures to adapt to the changing nature and demands of post-war Britain.
This book is about understanding how former combatants come home after war, and how their political lives are refracted by the war and the experience of coming home itself. In particular, it captures the political mobilization among former combatants as they come home from three very different types of war: civil war (Colombia), war of independence (Namibia), and interstate war (United States involvement in the Vietnam War). The book provides a much-needed long-term perspective on peace. It also demonstrates the artificial division between literatures across the Global North and Global South, and demonstrates how these literatures speak to each other just as the three cases speak to each other. The novel use of interviews to document life histories and the inside perspective they provide also give a unique insight into the former combatants’ own perspectives on the process of coming home and their sense of political voice. This book is not about peacebuilding in the sense of interventions. Rather, it examines peace as a process through studying the lived experiences of individuals, displaying the dynamics of political mobilization after disarmament across time in the lives of fifty former combatants. The book demonstrates how the process of coming home shapes their political commitment and identity, and how the legacy of war is a powerful reminder in the lives of these former combatants long after the end of the war.