The dramatic success of Right parties, particularly Radical Right parties, in the recent European Parliament election indicates that voters are responding to insecurity related to the global economic crisis and immigration. European Parliament elections often act as a referendum on domestic politics, but they are also indicative of trends across Europe.
torture is slippery slope. One officer told me that troops have to be watched all the time. Unsupervised 10% will do something stupid. Abu Ghraib involved untrained (reserve) soldiers working at night without supervision. Guards have power which can easily be abused.
Cultural dynamics reside at the heart of global environmental governance. The politics of the environment is – alongside questions of distribution/justice and physical sustainability – always a matter of meaning and purpose. And this should not come as a surprise.
We know that torture is a constant presence in warfare, most especially in counter-insurgency operations. Terrible things happen in wars. But warfare is also a learning process where participants try to avoid repeating the mistakes of their own experience and that of others.
This essay examines the ways in which the post-9/11 discourse on terrorism has prioritised certain interpretations of terrorism, and argues that these carefully chosen frameworks serve to legitimate certain conceptions of conflict and insecurity, whilst marginalising others.
Transnational Oil Companies struggle to operate in the face of widespread anti-oil protests and civil conflict in the Niger Delta. Shell, in particular, has faced considerable security challenges since the emergence of an active civil society in the early 1990s – most notably manifested by MOSOP. The brutal repression of that group proved ultimately counterproductive and Shell now aims to build a security-development nexus in partnership with local people. However, the policy is based on a paradox.
The first part this essay introduces the concept of microfinance and the rationale behind targeting women, which is critically examined. The second part looks at the impact of microfinance initiatives on poverty alleviation. Drawing on examples from some African and Asian countries, the argument is built on the examination of two dimensions of poverty, namely income generation and empowerment.
Eyal Weizman’s comprehensive account of the techniques of expansion and oppression deployed by the Israeli forces in the Occupied Territories provides a thorough and graphic exposé of a whole range of colonizing methods. In this essay I attempt to highlight a selection of Weizman’s observations and relate them to the arguments of Yiftachel and an updated understanding of Foucauldian population geography by Legg.
The 2008 election was not a fluke. The days of Republican advantage on foreign and security affairs are over. The Democrats have learned to talk tougher on defense matters and to appoint Republicans and moderate Democrats to the senior posts. The Democrats now treat military preparedness, including Ronald Reagan’s missile defense, like the Republicans treat Social Security —with the self-preserving respect accorded electrified third rails.
A relationship between international actors based on sponsorship differs from classical notions of clientelism and soft power, and is critical of exclusively statist conceptions of international politics. Sponsorship, I argue, becomes a mutual determinant and accelerator of globalisation.
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