A Transnational Public Sphere for a Digital Generation?
The figure of the networked young citizen, politically engaged through a transnational public sphere, is compelling, but other models may come to be more significant.
Fuel to the Fire: Why a Nuclear Iran Will Further Destabilize the Middle East
Four grave risks for regional stability lurk in the wake of a nuclear Iran: regional proliferation, an ‘imbalance of terror’, an emboldened Iran, and Israel’s response.
Humanitarian Intervention and Ontological Security
A state engages in humanitarian actions not just to show the world that it is compassionate and civil, but rather that it accepts its moral obligation to do so. During times of crises, a state puts its ontological security aside and acts on the needs of the disaster area. This is prevalent in the state’s speech, where it decrees that all of its measures will be acted upon quickly and for the benefit of it citizens. The humanitarian act is not a result of a past shameful action, but rather a pure and compassionate act in which the state undertakes morally
Visions of a Techno-Leviathan: The Politics of the Bitcoin Blockchain
You do not escape the world of big government by wishing for a trustless set of technologies that collectively resemble a technocratic crypto-sovereign.
Protesting Youth in an Age of Neoliberal Savagery
It is time for authentic rage to transform itself into an international movement for the creation of an effective strategy for social, political, and economic change.
Explaining African State ‘failure’: Does the State Make the Nation or the Nation Make the State?
In seeking to explain ‘tribalism’ and ‘state failure’ in Africa, academics often point towards the misalignment of the nation and the state: either the post-colonial state has failed to make the nation, or nations have descended into ‘tribalism’ in the process of carving out a state. What is common in these two presumptions, is that all African nations or states have the power to make their counterpart; by extension, the ‘failure ‘of such processes is rarely problematised beyond domestic politics and historical references to the impact of colonialism.
Achievements and Limitations of Nation-building in Africa: The Case of Zimbabwe
Recent months have seen inter-ethnic conflict in Kenya, exclusivist attacks aimed at immigrant populations in South Africa and continuing controversy surrounding the future of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Cases such as these expose serious societal tensions within some contemporary African states, including those traditionally considered the continent’s ‘success stories’. In light of this, it’s pertinent to ask about the achievements and limitations of nation-building in Africa.
The Perils of Simultaneous COIN and Counternarcotics in Peru and Colombia
Simultaneously pursuing COIN and CN operations is an ineffective way of combating insurgent violence fueled by narco-funding in Peru and Colombia.
The ‘Developmental State’ and Economic Development
The term ‘developmental state’ has been incorrectly used to describe any state presiding over a period of economic development and improvement in living standards. This essay describes the attributes of the ‘developmental state’ and explains how they led to highly successful economic development in the Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs).
The Washington and Baghdad Relationship: Are the Allies in the Same Orbit?
Preserving a working relationship is a priority for both the US and Iraq despite both being on relatively different regional policy tracks.
