Colonial War Research Articles

Molecular and clinical epidemiology of carbapenem resistant Acinetobacter baumannii ST2 in Oceania: a multicountry cohort study

Carbapenem resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAb) is categorised by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a pathogen of critical concern. However, little is known about CRAb transmission within the Oceania region. This study addresses this knowledge gap by using molecular epidemiology to characterise the phylogenetic relationships of CRAb isolated in hospitals in Fiji, Samoa, and other countries within the Oceania region including Australia and New Zealand, and India from South Asia. In this multicountry cohort study, we analysed clinical isolates of CRAb collected from the Colonial War Memorial Hospital (CWMH) in Fiji from January through December 2019 (n=64) and Tupua Tamasese Mea'ole Hospital (TTMH) in Samoa from November 2017 through June 2021 (n=32). All isolates were characterised using mass spectrometry, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, and whole-genome sequencing. For CWMH, data were collected on clinical and demographic characteristics of patients with CRAb, duration of hospital stay, mortality and assessing the appropriateness of meropenem use from the treated patients who had CRAb infections. To provide a broader geographical context, CRAb strains from Fiji and Samoa were compared with CRAb sequences from Australia collected in 2016-2018 (n=22), New Zealand in 2018-2021 (n=13), and India in 2019 (n=58), a country which has close medical links with Fiji. Phylogenetic relationships of all these CRAb isolates were determined using differences in core genome SNPs. Of CRAb isolates, 49 (77%) of 64 from Fiji and all 32 (100%) from Samoa belonged to CRAb sequence type 2 (ST2). All ST2 isolates from both countries harboured blaOXA-23, blaOXA-66 and ampC-2 genes, mediating resistance to β-lactam antimicrobials, including cephalosporins and carbapenems. The blaOXA-23 gene was associated with two copies of ISAba1 insertion element, forming the composite transposon Tn2006, on the chromosome. Two distinct clusters (group 1 and group 2) of CRAb ST2 were detected in Fiji. The first group shared common ancestral linkage to all CRAb ST2 collected from Fiji's historic outbreak in 2016/2017, Samoa, Australia and 54% of total New Zealand isolates; they formed a single cluster with a median (range) SNP difference of 13 (0-102). The second group shared common ancestral linkage to 3% of the total CRAb ST2 isolated from India. Fifty eight of the 64 patients with CRAb infections at the CWMH had their first positive CRAb sample collected 72h or more following admission. Meropenem use was deemed inappropriate in 15 (48%) of the 31 patients that received treatment with meropenem in Fiji. Other strains of CRAb ST1, ST25, ST107, and ST1112 were also detected in Fiji. We identified unrecognised outbreaks of CRAb ST2 in Fiji and Samoa that linked to strains in other parts of Oceania and South Asia. The existence of Tn2006, containing the blaOXA-23 and ISAba1 insertion element, within CRAb ST2 from Fiji and Samoa indicates the potential for high mobility and dissemination. This raises concerns about unmitigated prolonged outbreaks of CRAb ST2 in the two major hospitals in Fiji and Samoa. Given the magnitude of this problem, there is a need to re-evaluate the current strategies used for infection prevention and control, antimicrobial stewardship, and public health measures locally and internationally. Moreover, a collaborative approach to AMR surveillance within the Oceania region with technical, management and budgetary support systems is required to prevent introduction and control transmission of these highly problematic strains within the island nation health systems. This project was funded by an Otago Global Health Institute seed grant and Maurice Wilkins Centre of Research Excellence (CoREs) grant (SC0000169653, RO0000002300).

The nature of Lao security challenges

East Asia (including the sub regions of Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia) has been viewed as ranking among the most dangerous or conflictual regions on the planet, enduring colonial and Cold War legacies and several potential flashpoints. Regional international security governance has focused on nonintervention and conflict management, whereas domestic governance has focused on national security, development, and unity under tight central government control. Laos is a paradigmatic case of East Asian security policy prioritization. Its authoritarian government focuses, primarily, on traditional state-centric conceptualizations of security, and top-down, macroeconomic models and mega-projects to develop the country out of insecurity. This research project uses a qualitative approach consisting of literature review, document analysis, and limited interviews in the field. The conclusions are that, while by some measurements Lao governmental policymaking has been successful in achieving stated security objectives, in terms of nontraditional security (NTS) and human security considerations, these policies may not only be considered insufficient, but could also be counter-productive, storing up challenges for the future. Hence, the final section contains policy prescription for a more sustainable security situation in the Lao PDR.

Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice for oxygen therapy among medical staff at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Fiji.

Oxygen therapy (OT) is a commonly prescribed essential medicine for people of all ages in the management of hypoxia. The adverse effects of inappropriate OT supplementation may be underestimated by health professionals and lead to poor health outcomes among hospitalised patients. Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) assessments of medical staff members to OT guidelines are essential to ensure optimal patient care. To perform a KAP assessment of OT administration among doctors and nurses employed at the national hospital of Fiji in 2021. Prospective cross-sectional study design. KAP assessment was performed with an online questionnaire and clinical observation. The study population (N = 116) consisted of doctors (20.7%) and nurses (79.3%) representing the acute medical, burns, cardiac care, intensive care, surgical and postanaesthetic recovery units. Overall, the proportion of participants who obtained a good score (>70%) was 87% for knowledge, 87.93% for attitudes and 84% for practice. Best knowledge scores were obtained for general OT indications (71%) and scenarios where immediate oxygen application is required (70%). Lowest knowledge scores were for OT contraindications (14%) and oxygen saturation for acute myocardial infarction (32%), asthma (36%) and healthy newborns (43%). The most positive attitudes were in response to the statement that OT guidelines are essential (96%). A total of 78 (80.4%) patients were being cared for with good OT practice. Good KAP scores were obtained for medical staff in Fiji regarding OT administration. Ongoing professional education activities should include updated training of OT contraindications and optimal oxygen saturation levels for special patient groups.

Contested Memories of the Past: The Politics of History Textbooks in Taiwan

A Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945, and then a retreat for the defeated Nationalist government beginning in 1949, Taiwan has been struggling to find its identity. Remnants of this identity crisis can be seen in political realm, with its extreme polarization on various social, political, and historical issues. This article explores the ongoing textbook controversy in Taiwan, situating it in evolving domestic and international contexts. It suggests that Taiwan society’s representation of its colonial and Cold War past is highly contested, which was influenced by democratization. It attempts to provide an overview of the course of the textbook controversy in Taiwan from a historical perspective, and to show the reactions from educators, students, and the general public. Through an analysis of the different ways that Taiwan’s history was interpreted and represented in its history textbooks, this article shows how these factors help construct Taiwan’s contested identity.

An Icon’s Journey From Kyiv to the Pacific: Russian Colonial Wars and Orthodox Piety in the Early 20th Century

The article highlights the importance of material objects and practices of mobility for understanding the complex relationships between Christianity and war. It thus explores the potential of material-oriented research for studying the sacralization of mi

Commemorating the Fascist Empire: The Public Memory of Rodolfo Graziani in Modern Italy

This essay will analyze the public memory of Italy’s most prominent colonial general, Rodolfo Graziani, in light of his recent commemoration in his hometown near Rome. During Graziani’s lifetime, fascist propaganda and censorship praised him as a colonial war “hero” and omitted the countless atrocities he committed during Italy’s colonial wars in Libya and Ethiopia in the 1920s and 1930s. As the colonial campaigns proved unanimously popular in fascist Italy, Graziani’s positive reputation was only jeopardised due to his polarising role as Chief of Staff in the Republic of Salò during Italy’s Civil War between 1943 and 1945. After the war, he was tried and acquitted for Nazi collaborationism whilst his colonial crimes went completely unquestioned, sparking grave consequences for the public memory of Italian fascism and colonialism. Since his death, neofascist parties and communities have persistently rehabilitated their “heroic” remembrance of Graziani through sites of memory which resulted in a publicly funded monument in 2012. The Italian government’s continued denial of Graziani’s colonial atrocities and censorship of foreign films in recent decades demonstrate the suppression of his colonial crimes and are reflective of the lack of public awareness and mass protest to Graziani’s recent monument. Whilst Ethiopian, British and American journalists met the news with public condemnation, the Italian press barely mentioned it and the only domestic protests to the commemoration came from directly affected communities and organisations. The essay will therefore contrast Graziani’s commemoration in Italy to counter memories of Graziani in Italy and abroad in order to analye that which has been publicly commemorated, contested, ignored and suppressed in postfascist and postcolonial Italy.

Classic Socialist Zionism and the Emergence of Radical Socialist Zionism in France in the 1960s

The awakening of Jewish identity that followed the 1967 war and the student rebellion of May 1968 brought on a major metamorphosis in the socialist Zionist Left in France. Left-wing Zionist groups at this time found themselves facing off not only against the traditional Marxist Left, with its at best ambiguous and at worst hostile attitude to Jewish nationalism, but also against a stridently anti-Zionist New Left. The result was the emergence of a new revolutionary Zionist Left that grew out of the politicization and radicalization of the younger generation during the struggle against the colonial wars in Algeria and Vietnam. Its principal agents were two members of Israel’s Marxist-Zionist Mapam party, Simha Flapan and Ely Ben-Gal, who were dispatched to Paris. Their and the party’s impact on Zionism in France at this critical juncture in the history of the New Left has long been underestimated.

Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire by Caroline Elkins

This weighty and important book charts the bespattered history of British imperial violence, from the colonial small wars of the Victorian era to the brutal counterinsurgencies in the age of decolonization. Elkins focuses on moments of dramatic bloodletting rather than on more quotidian forms of political and economic exploitation or the discursive “violence” of words. Her extensive secondary source reading and archival research—including consultation of 10,300 files of recently discovered documents at London’s secretive Hanslope facility—highlights flashpoints of brutality like the Amritsar Massacre and the “Black and Tan” terror in Ireland. She also treats other, lesser-known episodes, like the repression of the Zaghloul protests in Egypt (1919).According to Elkins, violence in the British Empire became worse over time; her narrative is replete with disturbing descriptions of detention, torture, and rape, as perpetrated with broken bottles, guns, sticks, and knives. It reached its crescendo with the British campaigns in postwar Malaya, and, above all, in Kenya, where Britain tortured Mau Mau suspects in one of world history’s “largest archipelagos of detention” (557). Along the way, Elkins deftly navigates a global web of inter-imperial connections, as colonial agents like Orde Wingate and Gerald Templar moved from one theater of violence to the next, honing and transmitting the lessons and tactics of repression. Rogue “men on the spot” often committed atrocities, but imperial violence resulted from more than a few “bad apples” (however much spokesmen like Winston Churchill and Enoch Powell tried, strategically, to scapegoat certain figures and thus prolong imperial rule).Central to Elkins’ argument is that colonial crimes resulted from larger cultural, political, and legal structures institutionalized by Whitehall, Downing Street, and colonial administrations that claimed despotic powers unthinkable at home. Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the British Empire embodied the tensions of liberal imperialism, which rested on what Elkins terms a “legalized lawlessness.” Even as Britons celebrated the rule of law, democratic reform, and an apparently benign, though racially infused civilizing mission, the “moral effect” of bombs and barbed wire, and of castrations and chemical weapons, sustained British power. In the process, the colonial state provided systematic cover to its agents on the ground through martial law and emergency declarations, along with censorship and spineless commissions of inquiry aimed at deflection rather than uncovering gruesome realities. Elkins’ command of this legal history is impressive.Elkins suggests that Britons’ remarkable ignorance of such imperial atrocities has abetted their post-Brexit fantasies of a reborn “global Britain.” The violence, however, was self-defeating; atrocities only fortified anti-colonial resistance. Those who “experienced the empire as brown and black subjects”—George Padmore, C. L. R. James, and Mohandas K. Gandhi, to whom Elkins gives voice—“saw but shades of difference between fascism and imperialism” (297). For them, as for Elkins, the liberal dressing of “partnerships,” “progress,” and “development” failed to conceal an “all-too-familiar iron fist” behind a “velvet glove” (28).Elkins is right to differentiate imperial Britain from Nazi Germany, where aggression was naked and race was immutable. But Legacy of Violence offers a powerful corrective to apologetic versions of the past (which Elkins charts in a historiographical analysis of imperial history), while filling in gaps left by “Operation Legacy,” a state-sponsored program to destroy compromising official documents. Elkins’ 875 pages of meticulous research is a monumental indictment of empire. In its light, her recent expert testimony to the British High Court supporting reparations for Kenyan victims of torture is by no means surprising.The British Empire is no more; Britain lost superpower status following World War II and Bretton Woods. A sustained economic analysis of the declining pound sterling provides context for Britain’s shifting place in the world. Furthermore, intelligence failures and military blunders permitted colonial subjects to seize the rights and freedoms promised but never granted. Yet the age of empire remains: In Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States (to whom Kipling addressed his “White Man’s Burden”) practiced a familiar repertoire of torture, secrecy, and “hearts and minds” rhetoric—a genealogy Elkins might have done more to explore.1 Meanwhile, Russia, with its terror bombing, imperial hubris, and sham referenda in Ukraine, pursues its own far cruder version of “legalized lawlessness.” A broader embrace of comparative and transnational history would thus offer more global insight into the legacies of imperial violence that shape the world today.

The Impact of the Ethiopian War on Italian Immigrants in Scotland

While Fascist Italy was fighting its colonial war in Ethiopia in 1935–6, a ‘parallel war’ was fought by Italian fascist branches abroad to retain the allegiance of the Italian immigrant communities and win their support. Drawing extensively on original Italian archival documents and the contemporary press, this article analyses how the invasion of Ethiopia affected the small Italian diaspora in Scotland. The propaganda used by Fascist Italy to justify the war and counteract British diplomatic hostility, as well as the central role of Italian fascists in Scotland, contributed to consolidating the national identity of a large number of Italian immigrants and links with their country of origin. This article will also explore how the Abyssinian war paved the way for the portrayal of the members of local fascist branches (and those who were not) as ‘enemies within’ by the British government and many sectors of the host society.

At the Crossroads: Introducing New Work in Early America and Colonial Latin America

At the Crossroads: Introducing New Work in Early America and Colonial Latin America

Incidence, treatment patterns and clinical outcomes associated with acute kidney injury in Fiji: a retrospective cohort study.

This study aims to describe the incidence and outcomes of acute kidney injury at Fiji's tertiary referral hospital. A retrospective study of adults aged ≥ 18years hospitalised at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital between 1 January and 30 June, 2015 was conducted. Acute kidney injury was defined using the 2012 Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) guidelines by medical record review. One hundred ten (2.1%) of 5140 hospitalised patients met the diagnostic criteria for acute kidney injury. Fifty-two cases (47%) of acute kidney injury were stage 1, 11 (10%) cases were stage 2, and 47 (43%) cases were stage 3. Acute sepsis (n = 68) and dehydrating illness (n = 52) were the most common causes. Thirty-nine patients had urinalysis and 36 received imaging; none underwent kidney biopsy. Treatment included antibiotics (n = 91), intravenous fluids (n = 84) and vasopressors (n = 25). Twenty-one (19%) patients were treated with intermittent haemodialysis. Forty-seven patients (43%) with acute kidney injury died including 16 (76%) dialysed patients. Crude mortality at 7days was 19 (40%). Of the 63 patients who survived their primary illness, 29 (46%) had a follow-up assessment at 3months. In patients needing hospitalisation for acute kidney injury in Fiji, the most common causes were sepsis and dehydration. Mortality was high, in particular in those who received dialysis. Follow-up after acute kidney injury is incomplete.

구술로 본 38선 이북 마을의 식민지와 해방·전쟁의 경험 : 강원도 양양군 강현면 A마을 여성의 가족이야기

이 논문은 강원도 양양지역의 토박이인 구술자 이효춘의 가족이야기를 통해서 양 양지역의 근현대사를 다룬 것이다. 양양지역은 해방직후 북한지역에 속했다가 한국전 쟁으로 ‘수복’된 곳이다. 극단적인 이념대립의 시대에 이 지역 주민들은 두 차례에 걸 쳐서 서로 다른 체제를 강요받게 된다. 또한 일제가 수탈을 위해 이 지역에 건설한 도로·철도·항만시설은 한국전쟁기 남북 모두의 전투로와 군용시설로 이용됨으로써 이 지역의 전쟁 피해를 가중시켰다. 이효춘의 가족사는 조부모와 부모, 그리고 이효춘 자매의 3대 생애이야기로 이루 어져있다. 대대로 양양지역에서 살아온 이들 토박이 가족 3대의 삶은 식민지·해방·전 쟁·분단이 양양이라는 지역사회를 어떻게 바꾸어놓았는지 그 비극적인 과정을 잘 보 여준다. 이와 더불어 그 비극적인 생의 시험대 위에서 이들 가족들은 저마다 어떻게 생존전략을 구사하면서 삶을 살아왔는지, 그 역동성도 잘 보여준다. 이 논문은 크게 세 시기로 구성되어 있다. 먼저, 식민지시기 양양지역의 변화와 가 족사이다. 이 시기 양양지역은 3.1운동과 농민조합운동이라는 저항운동이 격렬하게 전개되었다. 그리고 또 한편으로 일본인들에 의해 지역사회가 주도되면서 수탈과 개 발이 동전의 양면으로 전개되었다. 양양지역의 유지가였던 이효춘의 가족은 저항운동 에 적극적으로 참여하였으며 또 한편으로 식민지 근대화 과정에서 부를 축적하였다. 둘째, 해방과 북한체제 하에서의 가족의 삶이다. 부친은 직접적으로 농사를 짓지 않았기 때문에 이효춘의 가족은 대부분의 토지를 몰수당했다. 부친은 북한체제에 비판 적인 ‘흰패’가 되었고 월남을 꿈꾸었다. 그리고 일제시기 유통업에 종사한 경험을 바탕 으로 남북 밀무역에 종사하였다. 그러나 이효춘의 자매는 북한사회에서 고등교육을 받 았다. 일제시기 이 지역민들의 교육에 대한 열망은 대단하였다. ‘흰패’의 자녀들에게도 제공된 교육의 기회는 이효춘의 가족이 쉽게 월남을 단행하지 못한 배경이 되었다. 셋째. 전쟁과 수복의 경험이다. 6.25전쟁은 양양의 원주민 사회를 붕괴시키고 몰락 시켰다. 밀고 당기는 ‘톱질전쟁’에서 막대한 인명과 재산 피해가 발생했고, 국군의 소개 작전으로 모든 마을이 전소(全燒)되었다. 청장년층 대부분은 인민군에 입대하였거나 피난을 떠난 상황에서 이 지역은 ‘수복’되었다. 살아남은 원주민들은 ‘북한 사람’도 ‘남 한사람’도 아닌 경계인으로 오랫동안 피해의식 속에서 살아왔다. 원주민들 대신해서 지역사회의 주도자로 등장한 것은 함경도와 평안도의 피난민들이었다. 이들은 속초 발 전의 주역이었으며 1963년 속초면을 양양에서 분리시켜 속초시로 승격시켰다. 이주민 에 의해 원주민 사회가 잠식되는 지역사의 격변이 전후 10년 사이에 일어났다.

Racial Difference and the Colonial Wars of 19th Century Southeast Asia , by Farish A. Noor and Peter Carey (eds)

Racial Difference and the Colonial Wars of 19th Century Southeast Asia , by Farish A. Noor and Peter Carey (eds)

CRIMES OF THE ARMENIAN FORMATIONS AGAINST THE AZERBAIJANI PEOPLE: IN THE STATEMENT OF HISTORICAL FACTS

      The history of the crimes committed by the Armenian formations and their patrons against the Azerbaijani people has more than 200 years. From the 16th century, new centralized states that arose in Europe and in its east began to wage colonial wars for the acquisition of new lands. In the military-occupation and colonial policy of the Russian Empire, formed in the first half of the 18th century, the South Caucasus, in particular Azerbaijan, occupied a special place. The military-political circles of the Russian Empire preferred to use the Armenians as an instrument of death to implement the occupation plan. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, tsarist Russia resettled more than 1.3 million Armenians from the territory of Iran (during the reign of the Qajar dynasty) and the Ottoman Empire to the South Caucasus. Hostile military-political circles in 1905-1906. royal, in 1918-1920. Soviet Russia, also France, USA and Great Britain; in 1920-1991 THE USSR; and in 1992-2020, along with the Western powers, the Russian Federation continued to use the Armenians as a tool of death to carry out their dirty plans. The Patriotic War, launched by the people of Azerbaijan on September 27, 2020 for the liberation of Karabakh, not only destroyed Armenian fascism, but also frustrated the hostile plans of its patrons. This purposeful policy of the tsarist government continued throughout the 19th century, and as a result, many Armenians resettled in the territory of Northern Azerbaijan. As the tsarist official and publicist N. Shavrov wrote in 1911: “1 million Armenians out of 1 million 300,000 were not local. They were resettled by us." At the beginning of the 20th century, their main patron in the South Caucasus was the Caucasian governor I.I. Vorontsov-Dashkov. In his letter to Nicholas II dated October 12, 1912, he wrote: “By patronizing the Armenians, who always provide us with great services, we have received faithful allies.” The essence of the destructive colonial policy of the Russian Empire in the South Caucasus, accompanied by national conflicts in this region, was perfectly described by Ismail Khan Ziyadkhanov, deputy of the First State Duma from the Elizavetpol province (Ganja - J.B.). During the discussions on the clashes between the Tatars (Azerbaijanis - J.B.) and Armenians in Irevan and on measures to ensure the safety of the population at the 25th meeting of the 1st session of the 1st convocation, held on June 12, 1906, he said: “They told us Muslims: you have been economically enslaved by the Armenians, they are well armed, intending to create their own kingdom, and one day you will see that you are no more. Armenians were told that the idea of pan-Islamism was deeply rooted in all sections of Muslim society and that one day the Muslims would cut you to pieces. The provocation was carried out in this way.  In February 1917, after the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Provisional Government was formed. By the decision of the Provisional Government, adopted on March 3 of the same year, a special committee for the management of the South Caucasus, OZAKOM, was established. On October 26, 1917, after a military coup in Russia, the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd. The state independence of Poland, Finland and the Baltic countries was recognized in accordance with the documents signed by the chairman of the NCC, V.I. Lenin. However, among the countries of the South Caucasus, the state independence of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was not recognized. The main reason for this was not to lose Baku oil. For this reason, the Bolsheviks, who seized power by force, toughened the character of the tsarist colonial policy towards Northern Azerbaijan. The history of the crimes committed by the Armenian fascism against the Azerbaijani people as a tool in the hands of the imperialist states in the 18th-20th centuries is confirmed on the basis of the facts reflected in archival documents and published scientific works. The cited archival documents and scientific sources unambiguously state that as a result of the use of Armenians by the imperialist powers as a tool for the implementation of their aggressive plans, the territories of the Azerbaijani people were occupied and divided, a policy of ethnic cleansing and deportation was carried out. Acts of genocide were committed. As a result, the people of Azerbaijan suffered heavy human and land losses. The Patriotic War, which began on September 27, 2020 and ended with the victory of the Azerbaijani people on November 8, 2020, within 44 days, along with the destruction of Armenian fascism, laid the foundation for the return of what was lost over all periods of history.

Remembering the Herero-Nama Genocide in Namibia

Remembering the Herero-Nama Genocide in Namibia

Civilising Violence: International Law and Colonial War in the British Empire, 1850–1900

Abstract What was the relationship between international law and colonial warfare in the period of both increasingly formal imperialism and international law’s professionalisation and codification in the nineteenth-century’s second half? Existing work may lead to assumptions that international law would not be seen to apply to colonial wars, or served to justify them alone. This article turns away from previous focuses on the intellectual history of international law, prescriptive sources such as military manuals, and approaches extending from criminal law and colonial policing to demonstrate how and why imperial officials, politicians, and activists believed international law applied to colonial wars. Examining the British Empire, it shows how arguments about the use of international law in this period initially varied in the service of imperial interests, how and why public activism increasingly encouraged a more consistent approach – and discusses implications for the history and present of the law of armed conflict.

SG-APSIC1157: The attributable mortality and excess length of stay associated with third-generation cephalosporin-resistant Enterobacterales bloodstream infections—A prospective cohort study in Suva, Fiji

Objectives: Although antimicrobial resistance (AMR) disproportionately affects low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), primary clinical data on AMR burden from LMICs are lacking, particularly from the Pacific Islands. We adapted recent World Health Organization methodology to measure the impact of third-generation cephalosporin (3GC) resistance on mortality and excess length of hospital stay among inpatients with Enterobacterales bloodstream infection (BSI) in Fiji. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study of inpatients with Enterobacterales BSIs at Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva. We collected demographic, clinical, and microbiological data, and we stored bacterial isolates for confirmatory testing and molecular genomics in Melbourne, Australia. We employed cause-specific Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the effect of 3GC-resistance on hazard of in-hospital mortality and discharge alive (competing outcomes), and we used multistate modelling to estimate the excess length of hospital stay associated with 3GCR. Results: From July 2020 to February 2021, we identified 162 consecutive Enterobacterales BSIs, and 66 (40.7%) were 3GC resistant. The crude mortality rates for patients with 3GC-susecptible and 3GC-resistant BSIs were 16.7% (16 of 96) and 30.3% (20 of 66), respectively. Also, 3GC resistance was not associated with either in-hospital mortality (aHR, 1.67; 95% CI, 0.80–3.49) or discharge alive (aHR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.50–1.12). However, patient comorbidities and acuity of illness were associated with in-hospital mortality. Furthermore, 3GC-resistance was associated with an increased length of stay of 2.6 days (95% CI, 2.5–2.8). Overall, 3GC-resistance was more common among patients with hospital-associated than community-acquired infection, but genomics did not identify clonal transmission. Conclusions: Among patients with Enterobacterales BSIs, mortality was relatively high, and 3GC resistance was common. Also, 3GC resistance was associated with increased hospital length of stay but not with in-hospital mortality after adjusting for potential confounders. Accurate estimates of the burden of AMR are important, especially from LMICs. Such knowledge can inform policy decisions, guide allocation of limited resources, and assist the evaluation of future interventions to address AMR.

Russian policy towards the economy of occupied Ukrainian territories: crawling de-modernization

ABSTRACT The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a return to the “old” (imperial, colonial) wars aimed at seizing the neighboring state’s territories and resources, and the violent assimilation of its population. Russia has changed its objective from gaining political leverage over Ukraine to enlarging its territorial control, based on the geostrategic and geo-economic value of the land. This is because Russia was no longer able to employ its soft power, with a gray-zone conflict effectively keeping Ukraine in its geopolitical orbit. Drawing on fieldwork, process tracing, and document analysis, we explain the de-modernization of the political regime and the economies of previously and newly occupied territories of Ukraine, by the export of Russian institutions and the employment of tactics of societal destabilization.

The Howard League and liberal colonial penality in mid‐20th‐century Britain: The death penalty in Palestine and the Kenya Emergency

AbstractThis article analyses the Howard League's campaigning against the death penalty in mid‐20th‐century British colonies. It examines two case studies: the Howard League's campaign to limit the death penalty in the Palestine Mandate in the 1930s and their silence on mass executions during the Kenya Emergency in the 1950s. Drawing on Ben‐Natan's (2021) concept of the dual penal regime, we argue the Howard League concentrated its intervention in ordinary penal regimes and demarcated emergency penal regimes as outside its sphere of interest and influence. Consequently, it was silent on the penal excess of colonial authorities during periods of counter‐insurgency. Criminology as a discipline largely shares this demarcation of the penal measures associated with colonial wars, militarism and states of emergency as beyond its purview. Inclusion of these aspects of colonial penality into the criminological narrative highlights the significance of colonialism and colonial ways of thinking to penal liberalism.

Civilized Barbarism: What We Miss When We Ignore Colonial Violence

AbstractColonial warfare has been a frequent and bloody feature of international relations, yet most studies of wartime civilian victimization focus on either interstate or civil wars. In this article I argue that ignoring colonial violence has distorted our understanding of state-directed violence against civilians in wartime. I introduce a new theory of colonial violence, which focuses on the distinctive strategic, normative, and institutional incentives that colonial powers have to harm civilians. To assess this theory, I introduce and analyze a new data set of 193 cases of colonial war from 1816 to 2003. Using a variety of measures of civilian harm, I find that colonial wars are especially brutal. Three-quarters of states in colonial wars targeted civilians, for example, compared to less than a third of states in interstate wars. But some colonial wars are harder on civilians than others. Colonial powers are more likely to harm civilians when their indigenous adversaries employ guerrilla tactics, when their indigenous adversaries come from a different perceived racial background, and when the colonial state relies on settlers or indigenous intermediaries to help compensate for its relative weakness. By ignoring colonial violence in world politics, we misunderstand the scale and scope of state-directed violence against civilians and miss an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the causes of this brutality.