Consequences Of Defeat Research Articles

Monopolizing War: Codifying the Laws of War to Reassert Governmental Authority, 1856–1874

Abstract In this article, we challenge the canonical narrative about civil society’s efforts to discipline warfare during the mid-19th century – a narrative of progressive evolution of Enlightenment-inspired laws of war, later to be termed international humanitarian law. Conversely, our historical account shows how the debate over participation in international law-making and the content of the law reflected social and political tensions within and between European states. While the multifaceted influence of civil society was an important catalyst for the inter-governmental codification of the laws of war, the content of that codification did not simply reflect humanitarian sensibilities. Rather, as civil society posed a threat to the governmental monopoly over the regulation of war, the turn to inter-state codification of IHL also assisted governments in securing their authority as the sole regulators in the international terrain. We argue that, in codifying the laws of war, the main concern of key European governments was not to protect civilians from combatants’ fire, but rather to protect combatants from civilians eager to take up arms to defend their nation – even against their own governments’ wishes. We further argue that the concern with placing ‘a gun on the shoulder of every socialist’ extended far beyond the battlefield. Monarchs and emperors turned to international law to put the dreaded nationalist and revolutionary genies back in the bottle. These concerns were brought to the fore most forcefully in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 and the subsequent short-lived, but violent, rise of the Paris Commune. These events formed the backdrop to the Brussels Declaration of 1874, the first comprehensive text on the laws of war. This Declaration exposed civilians to war’s harms and supported the growing capitalist economy by ensuring that market interests would be protected from the scourge of war and the consequences of defeat.

The Consequences of Defeat: The Quest for Status and Morale in the Aftermath of War

Studies of the effect of past actions have focused on yielding without a fight. What happens, however, when states fight and lose? This article assesses the effect of defeat on a state’s behavior and finds that recently defeated states are more likely to initiate disputes than are undefeated or victorious states or states that fight to a draw. This aggression comes at the expense of states responsible for defeat and third-party states uninvolved in the original defeat. The analysis below examines the validity of five potential explanations for postdefeat aggression, including models rooted in failed political objectives, an emotional desire for revenge and reputation-building and finds evidence in support for the latter two. These existing mechanisms fail, however, to explain a key finding—the systematic targeting of weaker, third-party states—which, I argue, is best explained by a desire to bolster the state’s status and confidence in the aftermath of defeat.

Taming Democracy: Codifying the Laws of War to Restore the European Order, 1856-1874

In this article, we challenge the canonical narrative about civil society’s efforts to discipline warfare during the mid-nineteenth century—a narrative of progressive evolution of Enlightenment-inspired laws of war, later to be termed international humanitarian law (IHL). On the basis of archival work and close reading of protocols, we argue that, in codifying the laws of war, the main concern of powerful European governments was not to protect civilians from combatants’ fire, but rather to protect combatants from civilians eager to take up arms to defend their nation—even against their own governments’ wishes. We further argue that the concern with placing “a gun on the shoulder of every socialist” extended far beyond the battlefield. Monarchs and emperors turned to international law to put the dreaded nationalist and revolutionary genies back in the bottle. Specifically, we contend that it was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 and the subsequent short-lived, but violent, rise of the Paris Commune that prompted governments to adopt the Brussels Declaration of 1874, the first comprehensive text on the laws of war. The new law not only exposed civilians to war's harms, but also supported the growing capitalist economy by ensuring that market interests would be protected from the scourge of war and the consequences of defeat. The codification of the laws of war, in this formative stage, reflected an elite-driven project to restore the political and economic order of Europe.

Realism or Radicalism: Explaining Autocratic Rulers’ Strategic Choices Following Military Defeats in the Middle East

This article explains autocratic rulers’ behavior in the aftermath of costly military defeats in the Middle East. Essentially, military defeats cause political crises of legitimacy for all Middle East rulers, albeit to varying degrees of severity. In responding to these crises, rulers have two broad strategic options: addressing the crisis’ root cause by reversing the strategic consequences of defeat or merely mitigating the immediate political symptoms of the crisis. Crucially, it is the severity of the political crisis that is the primary factor determining the choice of strategy. However, when the crisis is less severe, additional factors—leaders’ own beliefs, perceptions about the viability of each option, and their regime’s particular vulnerabilities—also determine the choice between the two orientations.

The Mood of Defeat

Abstract Although the mood of defeat is usually seen as physically and emotionally debilitating, many historians and, philosophers have argued, that, the defeated, are in a better position, to understand, history. In, the words of the historian, Reinhart Koselleck, 'If history is made in. the short, run, by the victors, historical gains in knowledge stem in. the long run from the vanquished'. But, the requirement, for distance evades the interesting question, of how far analysis of defeat, represses, but, is still shaped, by, the original mood, of defeat: a vital question for those interested, in. the defeat, of the Left, as the experience of revolution, can easily be dismissed, as an emotional, infantile outburst. This is the case in what is perhaps the most, comprehensive historical study of defeat: Wolfgang Schivelbusch's The Culture of Defeat: On National Trauma, Mourning, and Recovery. Schivelbusch. defines the insurrections that, often follow national defeat, for example the Paris Commune in. 1871 or the Spartacist, uprising in. Berlin, in. 1919, as 'delusional' or 'dream' states, which stand in. the way of national 'recovery', which he defines as a return, to reason, through an acceptance. An alternative perspective on. political defeat, is offered by Jules Valles Vingtras trilogy, conceived, and, written, while in exile in. London, after the defeat, of the Paris Commune. Valles makes no attempt, to distance or contain the emotional consequences of defeat. On the contrary, the core structure of feeling that, informs and, shapes his narrative is the mood of personal unhappiness he experienced, first, in. his provincial childhood. This evocation, of misery and, misattunement, becomes the touchstone against, which all subsequent setbacks and, depressive states are measured. Instead of a narrative of recovery, Valles's trilogy offers a model of how it, might be possible to use misattunement, to think through the mood, of defeat. His use of as a resource for resistance has implications for how we think about, defeat, now, and, not, just, in terms of the relationship between, the past, and, the present, but, also for how view the futur e.Key Words mood, defeat, Jules Valles, LEnfant, Le Bachelier, Linsurge, Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Cultur e of Defeat, the Paris CommuneI'm in the mood for dancing, romancingOoh I'm giving it all tonightI'm in the mood for chancingI feel like dancingOoh so come on and hold me tight(The Nolan Sisters, T am in. the Mood, for Dancing', 1979)I'm in the mood for love simply because you're near meFunny but when you're near me, I'm in the mood for love.Heaven is in your eyes, bright as the stars we're under,Oh, is it any wonder, I'm in the mood for love.(Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Field, 'Fm in the Mood for Love', 1935)The Nolan sisters are in the mood for dancing. Ella Fitzgerald is in the mood for love. Glen Miller is just in the mood. But if sexual yearning is the most common theme in popular music, the mood of defeat is as significant a point of register in contemporary culture. The slumped bodies of the losing team, the forced dignity of the politician ejected from office, the grainy shots of prisoners of war behind barbed wire are all familiar images with which we can connect, investing our own feelings of pain, exhaustion, and humiliation or, alternatively, triumph, scorn, and aggression. If the mood of love is felt physically, transforming itself into rhythm and movement, so too is the mood of defeat; but whereas the sensations of desire are visual - 'Heaven is in your eyes/Bright as the stars we are under' - and tactile - 'so come on and hold me tight' - the sensations of defeat are olfactory and gustatory. We smell it. We taste its bitterness. Touring the burnt-out ruins left after the defeat of the Paris Commune, Henry James, found 'in all things a vague aftertaste of gunpowder'1 and wrote to his brother: 'Beneath all this neatness & coquetry, you seem to smell the Commune suppressed, but seething'. …

War and its Bestiality: Animals and their Fate during the Fighting in France, 1940

AbstractThe fighting in France and Belgium in May-June 1940 has generated a large literature. Mostly, however, this has concerned itself with military strategy, the triumph of the German operational methods popularly termed ‘Blitzkrieg’, the British evacuation at Dunkirk and the political consequences of defeat for the French. This article re-evaluates the mobilisation of 1939 and the conduct of combat operations in 1940 from a less conventional perspective: that of the animals in France. It explores what happened to the many domestic pets swept up, or left behind, in the flight of Belgian and French civilians southward to escape the invader; the livestock on the farmland of the Somme, Aisne, Oise and Meuse where the battles raged; and the horses which remained central to the transport of men, munitions and supplies on both the French and German sides. It argues that the recovery of the wartime experiences of the fauna of France should be part of a more holistic understanding of war's impact on the natural world and on all, non-humans as well as humans, who inhabit it.

Intergroup conflict: ecological predictors of winning and consequences of defeat in a wild primate population

In many social species, competition between groups is a major factor proximately affecting group-level movement patterns and space use and ultimately shaping the evolution of group living and complex sociality. Here we evaluated the factors influencing group-level dominance among 5 social groups of wild baboons (Papio cynocephalus), in particular focusing on the spatial determinants of dominance and the consequences of defeat. When direct conflict occurred between conspecific baboon groups, the winning group was predicted by differences in the number of adult males in each group and/or groups that had used the areas surrounding the encounter location more intensively than their opponent in the preceding 9 or 12 months. Relative intensity of space use over shorter timescales examined (3 and 6 months) was a poor predictor of the interaction's outcome. Losing groups but not winning groups experienced clear short-term costs. Losing groups used the area surrounding the interaction less following an agonistic encounter (relative to their intensity of use of the area prior to the interaction). These findings offer insight into the influences and consequences of intergroup competition on group-level patterns of space use.

Local Officials and the Meiji Conscription Campaign

The creation of an effective military system was an imperative for the new Meiji government. Fearing threats from both the Western powers and dis contented elements at home, the Meiji leaders set out to establish a strong military force under the direct control of the central government. As with other aspects of state-building, they took as a model the military systems of continental Europe, particularly France and Prussia, both of which depended on commoner soldiers for most of their armed force. On 1872.11.28, the government issued a proclamation in the name of the emperor declaring that military service was a national duty (Ch?hei no Mikotonori ?8ft gB). The proclamation was followed shortly thereafter, in January 1873, by promulgation of the Conscription Act (Ch?heirei ifcft 73 ), which designated all men between the ages of seventeen and forty as theoretically liable for military service and specified the grounds under which a certain number of them were to be called up for active duty. These mea sures evoked hostile responses throughout the country, including armed upris ings and widespread draft evasion.1 Yet, ultimately the conscription system survived these challenges and took firm root in Japanese society. Modified in various regards over the course of the following decades, it remained a central feature of the life of the nation until its abolition in 1945 as a consequence of defeat in World War II. How was the initial resistance to conscription overcome and the system institu tionalized? Most research up to now has emphasized the legal measures taken by the central government to tighten the loopholes in the system that in the early years facilitated evasion.2 Relatively little attention has been given to the potential

Ethanol prevents desensitization of 5-HT2 receptor-mediated responses consequent to defeat in territorial aggression.

The effect of intruder status in territorial aggression on behavior in the elevated plus-maze, the open field and on 5-HT2 receptor-mediated behaviors was evaluated in male Long-Evans hooded rats. Intruders (350 g) were placed in the home cages of aggressive resident rats (475-600 g) and removed after 20 roll-tumble fights. On the following day, the rats were tested on the elevated plus-maze, and behavior in the open field was evaluated after injection with the 5-HT2/1C receptor agonist, DOI (1.0 mg/kg). The number of headshakes following DOI injection are thought to be an indicator of 5-HT2 receptor function. Although several other stressors were evaluated, only defeat in territorial aggression caused a significant decrement in the number of headshakes following DOI injection. To determine if ethanol (ET) could decrease the behavioral consequences of defeat, the effect of ET (1.25 g/kg) given before and immediately after aggression on behavior 24 hours later was evaluated. Although ET treatment had no effect on the control group that did not experience aggression, the ET treatment attenuated the desensitization of 5-HT2 receptor-mediated responses induced by aggression and severely exacerbated the anxiety-like effects as measured in the elevated plus-maze. These data suggest that (1) 5-HT2 receptor sensitivity decreases as a consequence of defeat, but not after several other stressors; (2) defeat in territorial aggression results in significant anxiety-like effects in the elevated plus-maze 24 hours later; and (3) these anxiety-like effects are exacerbated when ET is given before, and immediately after, the aggression.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

5HT1A agonist, 8-hydroxy-2-(DI-n-propylamino)tetralin (8-OH-DPAT), inhibits non-opioid analgesia in defeated mice: influence of route of administration

Recent studies have suggested that anxiety may be an important factor in the non-opioid analgesic response to defeat in muroid rodents. In the present study, we have examined the influence of the 5-HT1A receptor agonist, 8-OH-DPAT, on basal nociception and defeat analgesia in male DBA/2 mice. Our results show that, while devoid of intrinsic activity on the mouse tail-flick assay, 8-OH-DPAT blocks the analgetic consequences of defeat. A ten-fold potency differential was observed as a function of route of injection, with minimum effective doses of 0.1 and 1.0 mg/kg for subcutaneous and intraperitoneal administration, respectively. Although further studies are required, these preliminary data support 5-HT1A receptor involvement in the mediation of this form of adaptive pain inhibition.

The Consequences of Defeat

The Consequences of Defeat