scholarly journals Cartography of Mangled Minds: Mazen Maarouf’s Jokes for the Gunmen

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 141-153
Author(s):  
Judith Sebastian Kurishumoottil Manalil
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Domestic Spaces ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Special Operations ◽  
Conflict Zone ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Private Domain ◽  
The Impact

“Power was the most important subject, as far as we were concerned, during the war” (6). The 20th century was dominated by the two World Wars, the Cold War and the post-Cold War conflicts. The 21st century appears to be no better. Just two decades into the new millennium and we are already experiencing the tremors of outbreaks across the globe, notably referred to as terrorism, ethnic conflict, civil wars and hybrid and special operations warfare. These nonstate, intrastate, and interstate violence have had an impact on the lives of millions of people. It is in this context that Booker longlisted work Jokes for the Gunmen (2019) by the Palestinian-Icelandic author Mazen Maarouf may be read.   Maarouf weaves together twelve stories that offer a kaleidoscope of insights on the impact of war on the civilian population.  Jokes for the Gunmen is grounded in a conflict zone that is for the most part unspecified, except in the “Gramophone” where it is Lebanon (55) while in “Juan and Ausa” it is Spain. Thus the narratives are universalized to reinforce the idea that war is an act of violence against the global citizen and everybody and everywhere is its target. The characters are never given names except for Hossam in “Other –People’s –Dreams - Syndrome” and Juan and Ausa in the eponymous story. This buttresses the design of the universality of the narratives. The author seems to drive home the fact that no one can claim immunity from war and this becomes only too obvious with the narrative space being inundated with fatalities. Again, as we march along the narratives, we find that the boundaries between combatants and civilians, battlefronts and domestic spaces have almost blurred. Everyone is now at the combat zone and the combat zone is everywhere. The private domain of the hearth and the home that once signified security and well-being has also been transformed into dangerous territory.    

A test of the democratic peacekeeping hypothesis: Coups, democracy, and foreign military deployments

2020 ◽  
pp. 002234332090562
Author(s):  
Jamie Levin ◽  
Joseph MacKay ◽  
Anne Spencer Jamison ◽  
Abouzar Nasirzadeh ◽  
Anthony Sealey
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Private Goods ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Incumbent Regime ◽  
Coup Risk ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

While peacekeeping’s effects on receiving states have been studied at length, its effects on sending states have only begun to be explored. This article examines the effects of contributing peacekeepers abroad on democracy at home. Recent qualitative research has divergent findings: some find peacekeeping contributes to democratization among sending states, while others find peacekeeping entrenches illiberal or autocratic rule. To adjudicate, we build on recent quantitative work focused specifically on the incidence of coups. We ask whether sending peacekeepers abroad increases the risk of military intervention in politics at home. Drawing on selectorate theory, we expect the effect of peacekeeping on coup risk to vary by regime type. Peacekeeping brings with it new resources which can be distributed as private goods. In autocracies, often developing states where UN peacekeeping remuneration exceeds per-soldier costs, deployment produces a windfall for militaries. Emboldened by new resources, which can be distributed as private goods among the selectorate, and fearing the loss of them in the future, they may act to depose the incumbent regime. In contrast, peacekeeping will have little effect in developed democracies, which have high per-troop costs, comparatively large selectorates, and low ex-ante coup risk. Anocracies, which typically have growing selectorates, and may face distinctive international pressures to democratize, will likely experience reduced coup risk. We test these claims with data covering peacekeeping deployments, regime type, and coup risk since the end of the Cold War. Our findings confirm our theoretical expectations. These findings have implications both for how we understand the impact of participation in peacekeeping – particularly among those countries that contribute troops disproportionately in the post-Cold War era – and for the potential international determinants of domestic autocracy.

Religion and the Cold War in Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 211-232
Author(s):  
Dianne Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Power Struggle ◽  
Global Order ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Multidimensional Complex ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
East West

This chapter examines the religious Cold War, spawned by the West, and its impact throughout Europe. The religious Cold War was a diverse, multidimensional, complex global phenomenon whose salience varied according to the stage of the conflict, geographical location, cultural underpinnings, as well as national and local dynamics. Europe, where the Cold War began and ended, was a multiconfessional continent wherein Christianity, with its intimate historical, cultural, and indeed national links, was the dominant religion. The chapter focuses on the impact of the East–West power struggle on the churches and how they met its various challenges, especially fear of nuclear obliteration. During the Cold War religious organizations negotiated the arms race, détente, decolonization, globalization, secularization, and the growing importance of the developing world. The chapter examines their religio-political evolution as they encountered the Cold War, their contribution to ending it, and their position in the post-Cold War global order.

“New” and “Old” Civil Wars: A Valid Distinction?

2001 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stathis N. Kalyvas
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Cold War

This article questions the prevalent argument that civil wars have fundamentally changed since the end of the cold war. According to this argument, “new” civil wars are different from “old” civil wars along at least three related dimensions—they are caused and motivated by private predation rather than collective grievances and ideological concerns; the parties to these conflicts lack popular support and must rely on coercion; and gratuitous, barbaric violence is dispensed against civilian populations. Recent civil wars, therefore, are distinguished as criminal rather than political phenomena. This article traces the origins of this distinction and argues that it is based on an uncritical adoption of categories and labels, combined with deficient information on “new” civil wars and neglect of recent historical research on “old” civil wars. Perceived differences between post—cold war conflicts and previous civil wars may be attributable more to the demise of readily available conceptual categories caused by the end of the cold war than to the end of the cold war per se.

scholarly journals The Impact of Globalization on African Cultureand Politics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Kawuley Mikail ◽  
Ainuddin Iskandar Lee Abdullah
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Terminal Point ◽  
African Culture ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Global Agenda ◽  
The Impact

The world is undergoing the process of transition ranging from orthodox traditionalist to the modern colonial system of multipolar divergent domination of colonial agenda and later transcending to bipolar twin ideological dominance of western capitalist and easterncentral planned economy with modern technological development. This trend has really transformed the global scenario to enter into modern clutches since Second World War upto the terminal point of the cold war in early 90’s. Meanwhile, the new post-cold war global agenda came up with new changes such as “modern advancement, revolution in information, communication and technology, globalization, liberalization of economy, democracy and democratization process among others. Content analysis was the methodology that the researchers adopted in this paper. The study reveals that globalization and modernity have detrimental impacts on African culture and politics in areas of its political system, economy, education, religion and socio-psychological systems. The paper recommends that Africansshould maintain their culture, norms and values as well as enhance the national boundary and sovereignty so as meet the challenges of globalization.  

Jacques Delors, the End of the Cold War and the EU Democratic Deficit

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-304
Author(s):  
Benedetto ZACCARIA
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Democratic Deficit ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

The present work focuses on the role played by Jacques Delors, who held the presidency of the European Commission between 1985 and 1995, in fostering public attention to the question of the so-called democratic deficit of the European Union (EU). It argues that Delors’s involvement in this question was a direct consequence of his post-1989 view of European integration as a “collective” project, that is, a political enterprise based on the direct consensus and involvement of its citizens. This perspective was shaped by the reconfiguration of the role of the European Community in the post-Cold War European scenario and by the impact that “democratic” transitions in Central and Eastern Europe had on the Community itself. As an advocate of a “collective” Europe, Delors criticised the Maastricht Treaty for its failure to push towards political integration, publicly disputing the democratic character of the EU since its very inception.

Chasing the Rising Red Crescent: Sino-Shi’i Relations in Post-Cold War Era China

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 313-347
Author(s):  
Itamar Y. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Rise Of China ◽  
Middle East Policy ◽  
The Impact

This article adopts a unique angle to analyze China’s Middle East policy in “Chasing the Rising Red Crescent: Sino-Shi’i Relations in the Post-Cold War Era.” With the end of the Cold War and the political renaissance of Islam, the author argues that China’s strategic approaches towards the Middle East have changed fundamentally. The rise of China on the Middle East coupled with the strategic ascendancy of Shi’i Islam in the Middle East invites a strategic window for the emerging architecture of global geopolitics and world economy. The aim of Lee’s study is to make clear the historical trajectories and evolving strategic calculations in China’s Middle East policy and its global implications by reviewing Sino-Shi’i relations in general and introducing Chinese strategic interactions with Iran, Iraq, Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas in particular. Since the establishment of zhongguo zhongdong wenti teshi [Chinese Special Envoy for Middle Eastern Affairs] in 2002, China’s economic presence and political clout in the Middle East including the Shi’i region have been advanced obviously. Sino-Shi’i relations in the post-Cold War era, thus, should be seriously examined not only for understanding China’s strategic perceptions of the Middle East but also for explaining the pattern of Chinese foreign behaviours, as well as for expecting the impact of China’s rising in the region and its geopolitical implications for the future of China-U.S. relations

Security Studies and the end of the Cold War

1995 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
National Security ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Military Threat ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War

The end of the cold war has generated numerous reflections on the nature of the world in its aftermath. The reduced military threat to American security has triggered proposals for expanding the concept of national security to include nonmilitary threats to national well-being. Some go further and call for a fundamental reexamination of the concepts, theories, and assumptions used to analyze security problems. In order to lay the groundwork for such a reexamination, the emergence and evolution of security studies as a subfield of international relations is surveyed, the adequacy of the field for coping with the post—cold war world is assessed, and proposals for the future of security studies are discussed. It is argued that a strong case can be made for reintegration of security studies with the study of international politics and foreign policy.

A Test of Huntington’s Thesis

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunes Gokmen
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Clash Of Civilizations ◽  
Temporal Dependence ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Interstate Disputes ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Militarized Interstate Disputes

AbstractThis paper tests Huntington’s the Clash of Civilizations hypothesis evaluating the impact of civilizations on militarized interstate disputes. In particular, we investigate whether countries that belong to different civilizations tend to be more involved in conflict than countries that belong to the same civilization. We show that over the period of 1816-2001, dissimilarity in civilization in a dyad has no effect on conflict involvement. However, even after controlling for temporal dependence, and for geographic, political, military and economic factors, being part of different civilizations in the post-Cold War period brings about 63.6% higher probability of conflict than belonging to the same civilization, whereas this effect is insignificant during the Cold War.

The differences between American and European approaches to security policy after the Cold War

2014 ◽  
pp. 70-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Garlicki
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Transatlantic Relationship ◽  
Security Relations ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact

The objective of this paper is to examine whether in the post-Cold War period the European approach to security policy is in fact different than the one of the United States of America, and why it is so. The author tries also to analyse what might be the impact of these differences on the transatlantic relationship and what consequences it might bring in the nearest future. After the description and definition of the term “security”, the author analyses the differences between the two approaches and refers to the arguments and viewpoints of different scholars. In conclusion an attempt to foresee the future of the EU – US security relations is undertaken.

The Challenge of Forging Consent to UN Mediation in Internationalized Civil Wars: The Case of Syria

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Sara Hellmüller
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Mediation Processes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Term Analysis

Abstract This article analyzes how the internationalization of civil wars influences conflict parties’ consent to UN mediation processes. Illustrated by the UN mediation in Syria, I argue that internationalization influences consent directly by obstructing the advent of a costly stalemate and the parties’ perception of mediation as a ‘way out,’ and indirectly by reducing mediators’ leverage and perceived impartiality thereby limiting their tools to foster consent. The article makes three contributions. First, it presents a novel conceptual framework to understand the impact of internationalization on conflict parties’ consent. Second, it provides a long-term analysis of UN mediation in Syria from 2012–2020. Third, it contributes to a broader discussion about how civil wars end. This is of particular relevance as the prioritization of a political over a military end to civil wars, which was dominant in the early post-Cold War period, is no longer unquestioned.

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