Defining Success: Canada in Afghanistan 2006–2011

Modern war is not just about the application of violence, but also about the interpretation of that violence by all sides party to the conflict. With this in mind, any measure of success in war must account for not only what was done, but how those actions were perceived. From this theoretical background, this article proposes that success needs to be defined as both coherence and decisiveness. Where coherence is a measure of policy coordination and consistency, decisiveness is a measure of perceptions of those policies by the domestic audience of the country undertaking the war. This article hypothesizes that based on this comprehensive understanding of success in war, Canada’s mission to Afghanistan was a failure. Although at times coherent, Canada’s stated policies in Afghanistan were ultimately unsuccessful, lending weight to recent analysis arguing that Canada’s war in Afghanistan was about issue other than securing a better life for Afghans.     

Performing Inequality in Mediterranean Diplomacy

Abstract

Early modern Mediterranean diplomacy was marked by multiple and contrasting claims to superiority which derived from competing normative orders. These practices are the focus of the first part of this paper, which shows how claims to superiority were performed in the practice of diplomacy and how stable and pacific relations could be maintained within a context of competing normative orders. Instead of privileging the religious divide between Islam and Christianity, the paper suggests that a better understanding of how multiple universalisms interacted with each other in practice may better explain the apparently paradoxical durability of pacific relations between Muslim and Christian rulers in the wider Mediterranean area of the early modern period. The second part reframes the transformations in Franco-Tunisian diplomatic practice from the late eighteenth century onward within the context of a global history of growing imbalances. The espousal of definitions of sovereignty derived from the European ius gentium to the exclusion of all others led to a redefinition of who had the rights and honors to engage in foreign relations. The early modern pluralism evolved into an increasingly unequal bipolarity, finally resulting in the economic, military and symbolic predominance of allegedly ‘civilized’ European powers over the ‘uncivilized’ rest.     

Elk Heads at Sea: Maritime Hunters and Long‐Distance Boat Journeys in Late Stone Age Fennoscandia

Tumlehed is the most well‐preserved and complex prehistoric rock painting in the coastal region of south‐west Sweden. Originally reported and described in 1974, we re‐documented the panel using digital and IR photography, DStretch image enhancement software, and non‐destructive PXRF spectroscopy. This re‐documentation revealed a more complex image inventory with several previously unknown motifs and image details. The new data provide a better basis for identifying motif categories, the organization of the panel, the chronological sequence, and different frequentation periods. We report on the only known boats with an elk‐head stem in southern and western Scandinavian rock art, the emergence of rock art boat depictions in the region, and evidence for long‐distance maritime journeys and sea‐mammal hunting in the later Stone Age. Comparisons to similar images with shoreline data in Fennoscandia narrow the time range for the date of the painting to 4200–2500 BC.     

BLUEBEARD'S FORBIDDEN ROOM: GENDER IMAGES IN MARGARET ATWOOD'S VISUAL AND LITERARY ART

Regionalization tendencies have often been regarded, in academic and political debates, as a serious challenge for Canadian federalism and the national unity of Canada. This article argues that regionalism—and increased regionalization processes in the context of neoliberal globalization tendencies—is not a contradictory force that threatens federalism and national unity, but that it is and has historically been a decisive feature of Canadian civic nationalism from the beginning of the nation-building project. As a consequence, and for better or worse, processes of devolution under the current politico-economic regime will stabilize Canadian national unity rather than undermine it: regionalization can strengthen civic nationalism in Canada by adding a cultural dimension as a vehicle that negotiates between individual citizens, identity groups, and state institutions. Regionalisms—such as Québécois nationalism—are malleable structures of belonging and provide institutional frameworks (e.g., informal constitutions) and forums of dialogue that enrich the political culture of federalism. We conclude that increased regionalization can help to strengthen Canadian (and other forms of) civic nationalism by preventing them from slipping into monistic unitarism.