Disintegration Of State Research Articles

Nobody is leaving! Ottoman officials, their families and the struggle over Ottoman imperial sovereignty in Yemen after the Mudros Armistice, 1918–1924

ABSTRACT This article explores the struggles over Ottoman sovereignty in Yemen from the October 1918 armistice to the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey in October 1923. The governor-general (vali), Mahmud Nedim, and Imam Yahya, the principal local ally of the Ottomans, succeeded in upholding Ottoman sovereignty over most of highland Yemen against the Armistice terms, the Treaty of Sèvres, and their local and British rivals, while receiving the political backing of the Ottoman resistance movement in Anatolia under Mustafa Kemal. Efforts of the vali, the imam, and the British to prevent ordinary Ottomans from leaving and entering Yemen were at the centre of these struggles. This changed in 1923 when Mustafa Kemal and Yahya turned to state-building projects emphasising post-Ottoman forms of sovereignty. I thus highlight several aspects of ordinariness. First, the continuation of daily governmental routines in Yemen was a key element of Ottoman efforts to resist British attempts to impose a post-Ottoman political order. Further, Yemeni Ottomans and Ottoman officials were reduced to different degrees of ordinariness because the disintegration of the Ottoman state after the war often eliminated their sources of income. Finally, struggles against the consequences of the Armistice are often reduced to a ‘Turkish War of Independence’ and the actions of policy makers in administrative centres, like Istanbul and Ankara. Studying the end of the Ottoman Empire from the vantage points of Yemen’s ‘spatial ordinariness’ as an imperial borderland and of ordinary Ottomans disrupts this ‘methodological nationalism’ and allows for a more nuanced understanding of the post-Armistice years.

Study on the excitation effect and mechanism of coal gasification slag based on solid waste

Coal gasification slag (CGS) has pozzolanic activity, and it could be used as a supplementary cementitious material after be activated by some solid waste, which will promote resource utilization of solid waste. In this paper, coal calcium carbide slag and desulfurization gypsum were chosen to activate CGS, the excitation effects were evaluated in different ways and compared with those of salt activators. The microscopic were measured by thermal gravimetry (TG), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffractometer (XRD) to analyze the excitation mechanism of CGS. The results show that the excitation effects of calcium carbide slag and desulfurization gypsum on CGS are superior to those of salt activators; Through microscopic analysis, the activator promotes the dissolution of glassy state in CGS, accelerates the disaggregation of network structures such as silicon and oxygen, enhancing the activity of CGS. The results of this study can provide references for the excitation of CGS.

Soviet-Afghan War Veterans as Violent Specialists amidst State Disintegration and Civil War in Tajikistan, 1990–1992

ABSTRACT The Soviet collapse in the early 1990s left a security vacuum in Tajikistan, where the regime retained few instruments of coercion after Moscow’s rule melted away. One potential source of informal coercive power was Soviet-Afghan War veterans, or afgantsy, who were militarily trained and in many cases combat-experienced and represented what Charles Tilly has termed ‘violent specialists’. This article argues that organized afgantsy initially offered security functions to the Tajik regime but that, as state authority crumbled, their relationship to state bodies became increasingly tenuous. Eventually, many veterans aligned with non-state violent actors during the civil war, performing several coercive functions on their behalf, including establishing, training, and commanding armed formations. The trajectory of the veterans, hence, paralleled that of the state collapse and the informalization of coercive power in Tajikistan. The changing relationship between veterans and political authority offers a point on which to explore wider shifts in the control and deployment of coercive power in the context of the Soviet collapse in Tajikistan.

LEGITIMNOST MEĐUREPUBLIČKOG RAZGRANIČENjA U KOMUNISTIČKOJ JUGOSLAVIJI I MOGUĆE GEOPOLITIČKE POSLEDICE TOG PROCESA U NOVIM OKOLNOSTIMA

The internal, republican borders between the federal units were declared internationally recognized after the dissolution of the former common state. As such, they were accepted by the most important international actors, and the membership of the former Yugoslav republics in the OUN took place according to the limits determined by the principles of the Second Session of the AVNOY in Jajce in 1943. Despite the fact that in this way and with the assistance of the international community, the demarcation process was finally legalized, the question of its legitimacy remained open. Especially if one takes into account the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis from February 2022 and the accompanying re-actualization of the issue of borders in the former communist federations. The paper consists of four parts. The first part presents the way of making the decision on the federalization of Yugoslavia and demarcation within the country. The second part is dedicated to the events during the breakup of the SFR Yugoslavia, with reference to the work of the so-called Badinter Commission and the “internationalization” of internal borders. The third part analyzes the impact of the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis on the re-actualization of the issue of legitimacy of demarcation, while the fourth is reserved for concluding considerations.

Creating a Place: Identities Shaped by the Material Traces of the Past. Case-study of the Old Town of Užice


 The paper rests on the idea that the meanings and values of a place are flexible and changing, depending on the cultural and social values. The inhabitants of a certain place share the associations concerning it and its built elements. These shared associations or experiences create the perception of unity and shape a community. Various meanings were ascribed to the Old Town of Užice from the second half of the 14th century until 1863, when it was devastated. During the last four centuries of its existence, it presented a threat for the Christian inhabitants, so after its Turkish crew left, “the Serbs hastily destroyed the fort”. The survey conducted in 2013 showed that neither its position at the outskirts of the modern city, nor its special status gained by the administrative protection (granted in 1949) were sufficient to generate the positive attitude by the local population. By the beginning of the 21st century the Old Town was neglected and did not take part in the life of the modern settlement. With the dissolution of the former state and the abandonment of the traditions associated to the anti-Fascist struggle, Užice lost its esteem. The local authorities, dissatisfied by their position in the changed economic and political circumstances, decided to prioritize the rehabilitation of the Old Town in their strategy of the city regeneration. This meant the reconstruction of the Medieval fortress of Nikola Altomanović (14th cent.), and the Turkish period in the development of the Old Town was totally silenced. The official portals emphasize the Medieval past of the Old Town, in accordance with the modern Serbian identity, that was built and is still confirmed by the research and promotion of the Medieval history and its material traces. The narrative of the organic links between the modern nation and the Medieval heritage is fundamentally naturalized, indicating the Authorized Heritage Discourse in action, and the influence of the state and the experts on the relations a community creates towards the past. The processes that led to the reconstruction of the Old Town confirm that the relationship to spaces is not pre-defined by their physical characteristics, nor stable. The example of Užice vividly illustrates that a society always chooses which values should be emphasized, and which are the ones to be silenced or forgotten.

From waste to a resource? Hemicelluloses enhance the dissolution and stability of the amorphous state of carbamazepine

Both synthetic and natural polymers are used as excipients in various pharmaceutical preparations. Natural polymers offer advantages, such as abundant availability, cost-effectiveness, non-toxicity, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Hemicelluloses are highly promising natural polymers for pharmaceutical applications due to their advantageous colloidal properties, but their ability to solubilize poorly water-soluble drugs and stabilize their amorphous form is currently virtually unexplored. In this study, we showed the applicability of birch, spruce and wheat straw hemicelluloses as tablet excipients and their ability to enhance dissolution and stability of a model drug, carbamazepine (CBZ), in amorphous solid dispersions. The hemicelluloses formed sufficiently strong tablets by direct-compression, although addition of CBZ weakened the tablets. The hemicelluloses did not modify drug release from the tablets when compared to plain CBZ powder. Solid dispersions with CBZ were identified as amorphous one-phase mixtures, with hydrogen bonding between the hemicelluloses and CBZ. The mixtures remained stable for at least nine months under 40 °C/23 % RH. Dissolution of the amorphous solid dispersions decreased with increasing hemicellulose molar mass. Up to 7.6-fold CBZ supersaturation was achieved, although it did not improve CBZ permeation through a PAMPA (parallel artificial membrane permeability assay) barrier when compared to the corresponding physical mixtures. In summary, birch, spruce, and wheat straw hemicelluloses formed direct-compressed tablets and stable amorphous solid dispersions that may improve dissolution properties of drugs. Differences exist between hemicelluloses from different plant sources and thus more research with structurally different drug substances is needed in the future.

‚Habsburgische Spuren‘ im Leben und Werk Paul Celans

"As was to be expected, the question of the meaning of ‘Habsburg’ for Paul Celan is complex. The place of its origin – Chernivtsi – belonged to Austro-Hungary until 1918, with the end of the First World War the city became Romanian, so Celan was – formally – born in Romania; later he experienced the temporary (1940/41) and long-term (from 1944) Sovietization of Bu-kovina. A (not only) biographical self-localization can be found in the so-called Bremer Rede (1958), in which the poet introduces himself as someone coming from an unknown landscape, a “province of the Habsburg monarchy that has now fallen victim to history.” Subsequently, the cultural structure of the Habsburg world retains for Celan – although born after the disintegra-tion of the multi-ethnic state – a sense of belonging. He understood “Kakanien” (Musil) as an integrative structure and thus as a counter-image to nationalistic and fascist tendencies, whose multilingual, transcultural and interdenominational elements influenced Celan’s works. In this context, ‘Habsburg’ can be read as a synonym for a cultural-literary affiliation that un-dermines (political) boundaries and dividing lines and thus forms a counter-image to the reality of the Cold War."

Demographic processes and brief overview of population research in Czechia and Slovakia after dissolution of the common state

Demographic processes and brief overview of population research in Czechia and Slovakia after dissolution of the common state

Gestalt theory in 20th-century history.

During the century from the 1890 publication of Ehrenfels's proposition on Gestaltqualitäten to the 1989 dissolution of the European states governed by Marxist orthodoxy, Gestalt theory was drawn into the political fray in several ways. It was grotesquely misappropriated during the Nazi regime in support of race, territorial expansion, and war aims. On the other side, because it was seen as having a subjectivist taint, the Gestalt approach was anathema where dialectical materialist dogma reigned. In contrast, close reading of the seminal 1912 Wertheimer paper and the 1920 Köhler book reveals that the Gestalt founders' views accord well with current Gestalt research.

Ukraine’s Position as for the Disintegration of Russian Federation: Political and Legal Aspect

Introduction.The full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war became a consequence of the policy of disintegration of Ukraine, which was consistently implemented by the Russian Federation from the very beginning of Ukraine’s independence. After the full-scale military invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, which was accompanied by the occupation of the territory, the genocide of the Ukrainian population, the destruction of civilian and critical life support infrastructure, the violation of international humanitarian law, the disintegration of the Russian Federation became a key political topic, one of the discussed ways to end the conventional Russian-Ukrainian war. Before the full-scale invasion in 2022, at the official level Ukraine, as a democratic, European state, did not carry out disintegration activity towards the Russian Federation. The settlement of the armed ethnopolitical conflict with Russia as for the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine was carried out exclusively peacefully. The aim of the study is to study the political and legal dimension of Ukraine’s participation in the disintegration of the Russian Federation. The methodology is based on systeman alysis, content analysis and political analysis. Conclusions. The policy of disintegration became an asymmetric response toRussia’s armed disintegration of Ukraine, precisely the holding of fake referendums on joining the Russian Federation of the occupied regions of Ukraine. Ukraine’s responsecontains fundamentally different tools, including non-standard solutions taking into a ccount Russia’s internal destructive processes and the ethno territorial claims of neighboring states to the RF. Despite the lack of a clear strategy for the disintegration of Russia, the formation of a consolidated disintegration position of Ukraine is being observed with the involvement of the international community in strengthening the processes of disintegration of the aggressor state by supporting democratic freedoms, including the right of nations to self-determination, which the authoritarian regimekeeps within the federation with force. Key words: disintegration, Russian-Ukrainian war, nations, right of self determination.

Racism and State Formation in the Age of Absolutism

Abstract This essay explores four questions through a critical dialogue with Black Marxist, Decolonial, and Political Marxist accounts of racism. First, is it possible to speak of racism before the advent of colonisation in the Americas? Second, what were the determinants for the production of these earlier modalities of racism? Third, who were the key actors responsible for the production of such racism? And fourth, what were the linkages between these developments and racisms that would unfold with the capitalist colonisation of the Americas? I contend that the historical formation of racism as a material force lies in the formation and dissolution of absolutist states in Western Europe between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. By demonstrating how elite political cultures of Western European societies were suffused with the logic of racialisation prior to the colonisation of the Americas, the essay helps render transparent hitherto occluded connections between histories focusing on the internal racialisation of Europe and the racialisation of the European exterior. And in doing so, it establishes the constitutive part racism played in the emergence of capitalist modernity.

Explaining diverging views on social structure in ex-Czechoslovakia: Does unemployment experience make subjective perceptions more pessimistic?

Perceptions of social structure typically only change gradually and their connection to economic development seems to be indirect at best. Times of rapid socioeconomic transformations such as the transition of state-socialist economies to market economy or the disintegration of a common state might witness more notable changes. Using data from four rounds of the ISSP Social Inequality module, we model how people see their position and the structure of their society on the example of the two ex-Czechoslovak countries. Both post-communist societies share the beginning of the transition to a free market economy in 1989 but are divided by starkly contrasting impacts of the transition on their labor market. We show that views on social structure in the ex-Czechoslovak countries diverge over time with Slovaks more frequently describing their society as highly unequal and seeing their position as lower in the social structure. We find support for the assumption that experiences with unemployment lower subjective social position and can be used to explain lower positioning of respondents in the Slovak sample. With regard to views on social structure, we find no clear connection to unemployment experiences. The chronically high unemployment levels in Slovakia therefore do not explain the higher tendency of Slovaks to see their society as highly polarized. Contrary to subjective social position, views on the overall social structure are most likely shaped by factors beyond immediate personal experience with economic insecurity.

СЛИКА ЛЕКТОРАТА ЗА СРПСКИ ЈЕЗИК У ОНЛАЈН-МЕДИЈИМА

Conventional Serbian language lectorates, based on contracts between competent state institutions, represent a type of legitimization of our language and culture in the world. The situation of lectorate in Slavic centres after the collapse of the former Yugoslavian country is very unfavourable, and no state institution has complete data on them. This paper deals with the analysis of media articles to create a clearer image of their status on the European continent. We used a descriptive method and a method of theoretical analysis with the technique of content analysis. The research of media texts provided a clear picture of the status and way of functioning of lectorate for the Serbian language on the European continent. Texts in media contain exact information about the opening, functioning and closing down of lectorates. Although the teaching of Serbian as a foreign language abroad is an activity of exceptional social, educational, political and economic importance for our country, the recorded data tell us about the changing interest of the state authorities in teaching the Serbian language. Namely, the content of newspaper texts indicates the existence of three stages in the development of lectorates: the first stage refers to the period of the seventies and eighties, when The Institute for International Cultural, Educational and Technical Cooperation opened a lot of lectorates all over the world; the second stage, which begins with the disintegration of the former state, points to numerous unresolved issues and problems that lead to the loss of interest in lectorates, which is why a large number of them were closed down or renamed, while the third stage is associated with the period after 2017 when, after pressure from experts public, undertake several activities to improve their status.

Selective binding of retrotransposons by ZFP352 facilitates the timely dissolution of totipotency network

Acquisition of new stem cell fates relies on the dissolution of the prior regulatory network sustaining the existing cell fates. Currently, extensive insights have been revealed for the totipotency regulatory network around the zygotic genome activation (ZGA) period. However, how the dissolution of the totipotency network is triggered to ensure the timely embryonic development following ZGA is largely unknown. In this study, we identify the unexpected role of a highly expressed 2-cell (2C) embryo specific transcription factor, ZFP352, in facilitating the dissolution of the totipotency network. We find that ZFP352 has selective binding towards two different retrotransposon sub-families. ZFP352 coordinates with DUX to bind the 2C specific MT2_Mm sub-family. On the other hand, without DUX, ZFP352 switches affinity to bind extensively onto SINE_B1/Alu sub-family. This leads to the activation of later developmental programs like ubiquitination pathways, to facilitate the dissolution of the 2C state. Correspondingly, depleting ZFP352 in mouse embryos delays the 2C to morula transition process. Thus, through a shift of binding from MT2_Mm to SINE_B1/Alu, ZFP352 can trigger spontaneous dissolution of the totipotency network. Our study highlights the importance of different retrotransposons sub-families in facilitating the timely and programmed cell fates transition during early embryogenesis.

Personification of Religious Elite, Political Behavior and Identity Politics: A Profile of Regional Elections in Indonesia

The religious elite's role is significant in Indonesia's regional head elections. The political behavior of the religious elite; The role of the religious elite has legitimacy as a symbolic representation of the highest religious authority in society. The politicization of Identity at the local level has strengthened along with the presence of elite groups that participate in proclaiming the superiority of Identity, the spirit of communalism, feudalism, and regional issues in political events. This paper aims to analyze the relationship between the role and behavior of religious elites and identity politics in regional elections in the realm of politics at the local level. Based on the results of interviews, observations, and analysis of qualitative research data revealed: First, the dynamics of direct regional elections in Situbondo, Banyuwangi, Bondowoso, and Jember; second, the legitimacy of power and the political behavior of religious elites in regional elections; third, the current role of the elite mobilizes the masses and political campaigns and forth, the use of Identity Politics in regional elections. This paper suggests that the government and election organizers increase consistency in keeping the public sphere from being dominated by specific identity political forces by commodifying the politicization of religion; whatever form of identity politics in the name of religion does not cause a commotion that has the potential to undermine the disintegration of nation and state.

UNLEASHING MAYA WARFARE: INQUIRY INTO THE PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF WAR-MAKING

AbstractAcross many decades of Maya archaeology, the study of war has typically been focused on its geopolitical, systemic, evolutionary, and structural implications. We argue these approaches stand to benefit from deeper interrogations of practice. Such a perspective shifts scholarly attention toward the ways in which Maya peoples prepared for and engaged in combat, and how they administered the outcomes of war. Deploying this approach requires the study of tactics, strategy, fortifications, materiel, landscape, embodiment, and a host of other related factors. With the issue of practice at the forefront of our analysis, we demonstrate how the study of war has been “blackboxed” in Maya archaeology, then undertake a comparative analysis to highlight how digging into the details of past martial practice enriches debates in Mesoamerican studies regarding the role of war in the rise and disintegration of states.

Preispitivanje identiteta - Vojvodina devete decenije prošlog veka

The paper represents a consideration of attitudes related to the national-political status of Vojvodina after the death of Josip Broz, during the (re)affirmation of the constitutional and national identity of the socialist Yugoslav federation and its constituent elements. Relying on the existing continuity of discussions about the position of Vojvodina in the Republic of Serbia and the Yugoslav Federation, temporarily interrupted due to the honoring of the personality and work of Comrade Tito, the transition process, which increasingly turned into a process of disintegration of the joint state, testifies to the increasing number of contradictions regarding the future of the status of AP Vojvodina. Arising from ambivalent motives, they soon transformed into uncompromising antagonisms that persistently insisted on their own orthodoxy at the cost of a decisive conflict. In such circumstances, all interested parties ignored the fact of an overly cumbersome and bureaucratized party apparatus, and thus the state apparatus, which had long since lost any foothold in the political will of the population. For this reason, the massing of support, in one moment, became a decisive moment of prestige that led to the final political triumph. The accompanying populist manifestations decisively influenced the specific development of democratic pluralism, which intended to make a departure from the compromised ideology of the Yugoslav federation.

The spectres of the Yugoslav wars: Minorities’ response to state disintegration

This article discusses minorities? responses to conflicts in post-1989 Eastern Europe that focuses on them embracing violence to cede from their original state and join their motherland or gain independence. The discussion focuses on the actions of minorities in the contested areas in the former Yugoslavia at the peak of the country?s 1990s crisis, described as a drive towards ethnic self-determination. Faced with political crisis, disintegration and/or oppression, most ethnic groups opted for confrontation, secession and armed revolt/resistance with maximalist independence claims instead of cooperation, integration or compromise. Furthermore, I discuss some possible implications of the grim Yugoslav experience. As I argue, to understand why minorities reverted to war in the former Yugoslavia and beyond, we perhaps need to recognize that post-1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe were predominantly the expressions of nationalist revolt and not democratic revolutions. In conclusion, I discuss some general conditions required for a minority to rise to arms, following Jenne?s theory that stresses the role of external patrons in spurring internal conflicts. I emphasize this synergy of ethnic nationalism, external support by the kin state and/or international actors and minority?s oppression as decisive for the eruption of ever-present antagonisms into a larger conflict and war.

The Soviet Union as a composite state structure: education, development trends and causes of disintegration

This article is devoted to a critical comparative-legal analysis of the process of formation, development, transformation and disintegration of the first multinational political-territorial entity with a republican form of government of the “Soviet” type, which over time has become a clear example for such complex European states as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. This theme is unique not only in terms of solving the ethnic issue, but also as the “model” of territorial structure since the basis of one federation, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, formed another federation, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, which integrated, along with traditional administrative units, national political-territorial entities in the form of autonomous republics, regions, and districts. The article emphasizes the fact that one of the consequences of the appearance on the political map of the Soviet Union, which defeated Nazi Germany and its numerous satellites in World War II, was not only the formation of “popular democracy” countries and the so-called “socialist camp” that existed for over forty years and represented a civilizational alternative to the capitalist path of social development, but also the collapse of the colonial system and acquisition of independence and sovereignty by the peoples inhabiting the regions of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The Soviet model of the state structure and democracy institutions as antipodes to bourgeois populism and liberal demagogy facilitated an accelerated transition from declarations of constituent and constitutional documents proclaiming human and civil rights and freedoms to their practical implementation in the economic and political sphere in countries that had associated themselves with Western-style democracy; it resulted in a more socially oriented role of state and its structures. The Soviet experience clearly demonstrates what real results the state and society can achieve in solving the women's issue, elimination of total illiteracy, and growth of the well-being of citizens. At the same time, manifestations of authoritarianism and totalitarianism that took place at certain stages reveal that the power mechanism was subject not only to voluntaristic tendencies or official personification, but also to relapses into a personality cult, one of the most negative consequences of state disintegration and local civil wars within its former territory.

Collapse, complexity, and caprines: Zooarchaeological investigations of the Hittite state and its afters

• Zooarchaeological evidence from the collapse of the Hittite empire and its aftermath does not align well with conventional understandings of the reorganization that accompanies societal collapse. • Results from the Hittite capital demonstrate a surprising degree of continuity in the organization of the animal economy post-collapse. • Results from a rural center show that daily life outside the administrative heart of the empire was heavily affected by the political dissolution of the Hittite state. This paper analyzes zooarchaeological evidence from the Late Bronze Age collapse of the Hittite empire in central Turkey (ca. 1200 BCE), placing it in dialogue with broader discussions of societal collapse and its aftermath. Zooarchaeological data from the Hittite capital, Hattuşa, and from a nearby rural center, Çadır Höyük, are used to reconstruct day-to-day economic life in the Hittite heartland and to analyze local responses to the disintegration of the Hittite political superstructure. This work allows for the assessment of two common collapse narratives. The first assumes that the state is an integrated whole, characterized by massive scale systemic inter-dependence, so that when one aspect of the state’s organizational structure (e.g., its political system) fails, its other organizational structures (e.g., its economic systems) must follow. The second assumes that rural settlements tend to be considerably less affected by societal collapse than major centers. Drawing on several lines of zooarchaeological evidence, the results of this analysis show that, while changes in central Anatolian lifeways did occur following the collapse of the Hittite empire, the nature of these changes does not always follow the trajectories assumed in conventional narratives of societal collapse.