Crises of witnessing: Edith Thomas and the war years

Thomas, E., Le Témoin compromis (Paris: Editions Viviane Hamy, 1995), 235pp., 129F..ISBN2 87858 062 1

Thomas, E., Pages de Journal 1939–1944 suivies de Journal intime de Monsieur Célestin Costedet (Paris: Viviane Hamy, 1995), 333pp., 159F., ISBN 2 87858 063 X     

Ten years of peace,bravery and resilience in Aceh

The date 15 August 2015 marks the 10th anniversary of the Helsinki Peace Agreement, which ended a major thirty‐year conflict between the Free Aceh Movement and the Government of Indonesia. In this article I argue that much greater acknowledgement should be given to the creative responses that ordinary conflict survivors have brought to the process of post‐conflict social recovery. The article briefly discusses some observations on resilience made through 17 months of ethnographic fieldwork with Acehnese conflict survivors. I conclude that while Acehnese resilience is impressive, there remains a need for greater recognition of the experiences of conflict survivors, both to support justice for survivors and to enable a deeper understanding of ongoing political complexities in Aceh.     

Italians at war: war and experience in Fascist Italy

This article examines Fascist violence in war from the perspective of the strategies employed by the Italian army. Focusing on the military’s use of violence from the re-conquest of Libya to the civil war in Italy, the article argues that Fascism systematically employed forms of violence that were both typical and original.     

The German politics of war: Kunduz and the war in Afghanistan

This article analyses the way in which Germany's participation in the international intervention in Afghanistan has shaped and transformed the country's politics of defence and deriving policies. It argues that in the wake of operational challenges posed by the insurgency in northern Afghanistan since 2007, and in particular the increasing rate of German combat fatalities, established post‐Cold War dogmas of German politics are becoming subject to erosion. Developments in the Kunduz region of northern Afghanistan, with the tanker bombing of 4 September 2009 as its apex, have had a catalyst function in this process. In particular, strategic, operational and tactical requirements for counterinsurgency operations have had significant politico‐strategic repercussions for the country's defence and security policy more generally. As a result, in recent years the Bundeswehr has begun to undergo a far‐reaching structural process of military adaptation and innovation. The article explains and analyses this phenomenon of political change and military learning in the context of political paralysis.     

Debating the transatlantic relationship: rhetoric and reality

The rhetoric surrounding the crisis in transatlantic relations is overcharged. Although the United States and Europe have reached a turning point, the changes that they need to make are neither fundamental nor controversial. No matter how you polarize the debate, the solution combines more flexibility and more cooperation. Moreover, this solution has been known for some time. Hence the real questions to consider are not about how this crisis came about, but why it persists. At least part of the answer lies in the structure of interdependence. Although both sides in the Atlantic alliance have an interest in flexible cooperation, the United States is much more central to the countries of Europe than 'Europe' is to the United States. Because of this asymmetry, a crisis that started from real misunderstanding has been extended as Americans appear neglectful and Europeans oversensitive. Part of the answer also lies in our expectations of the relationship. Some observers suggest that the crisis will only end when both sides realize that it is time to grow up. Perhaps they already have.     

Obama's Executive Branch Czars: The Constitutional Controversy and a Legislative Solution

The increasingly common practice of presidential appointment of so-called executive branch czars has become especially contentious in the Obama era. Much of that controversy unfortunately is highly partisan-oriented and misses the core constitutional issues at stake. In this article, we describe and analyze the Obama-era executive branch czars controversy from a constitutional analysis framework. In so doing, we offer a working definition of executive branch czars—a much-needed corrective to the current debates in which the term has been used very loosely. We examine and analyze the scope of authority exercised by the high-level executive branch officials during the Obama administration that we consider to be constitutionally troublesome. Although our focus is on the Obama czars that have vast and largely unchecked powers, we also acknowledge that some media-labeled czar positions are statutorily created and accountable and thus should not be in the same category. After addressing the Obama-era czars, we offer a set of reform proposals that provide a much-needed corrective.     

Infidels and miscreants: love and war in Afghanistan

This article reviews the fruits of a sustained collaboration between the writer and reporter Sebastian Junger and the photographer and filmmaker Tim Hetherington, embedded with the US Army in Afghanistan: Junger's meditation, War; Hetherington's photographs, Infidel; and the documentary film they co‐directed, Restrepo. Taken together, these works offer perhaps the most significant insight into the nature of combat, and combat effectiveness, yet to emerge in the era of the ‘war on terror’. Remarkably enough, their fundamental theme is love.     

Myth and mobilisation: the triadic structure of nationalist rhetoric

Drawing on the theory of collective action frames, this essay analyses the use of images of a primordial ‘golden age’ in the rhetoric of national mobilisation. Such idealised images of the past, juxtaposed with exaggerated depictions of a degraded present and a utopian future condition, constitute a rhetorical triad that is an effective instrument for motivating mass political movements. The model developed here emphasises the links between identity formation and political mobilisation, analysing how narratives of communal decline and redemption play a central role in defining the agendas of nationalist movements.     

The trauma of war rape: A comparative view on the Bosnian conflict and the Greek civil war

This paper explores the practice and the political context of war rapes in the former Yugoslavia (1992-1995) and in the Greek Civil War (1946-1949). It argues that conceptions about accountability and expected gender roles may lead social actors to commit atrocities that transgress the moral codes of their own society, while condemning their victims to silence. On the other hand, a change in the political context may undermine the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators and ultimately lead war rape victims to break their silence and bear witness. This argument is illustrated by a detailed analysis of one particular interview, in which a woman raped during the Greek Civil War decided to break her silence fifty years after the event. The interview material offers the opportunity to explore the effects of trauma and the multiple ways in which war rape victims may try to cope with past trauma and give meaning to a shattered life.     

Barack Obama's Political Theology: Pluralism,Deliberative Democracy,and the Christian Faith

Abstract

Obama won the 2008 election precisely because he crafted a political theology that enabled him to create a truly progressive Democratic Party religious and racial-ethnic minority platform that welcomed pro-choice and pro-life social-justice leaning Catholics and Evangelicals into a new coalition. His political theology was directly influenced by Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright and the black church civil rights tradition, white liberal Protestantism, his mother Ann Dunham's skepticism and free spirit, and Evangelical and Catholic leaders, advisors and opponents. Obama's best and most comprehensive statement on his political theology is his chapter on "Faith" in his New York Times No.1 best-selling autobiography The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (2006). Obama contends that religiously motivated people must learn the art of compromise, proportion, and how to find shared values. They must translate their religious concerns and vision for America into universal rather than religion-specific values, which must be subject to debate, amenable to reason, and applicable to people of all lifestyles and faiths or no faith at all. They should also be willing to sublimate their ultimate theological and religious convictions for the common collective good. Secular people likewise must adopt a similar approach towards religious people and activists.