Global Political Events Research Articles

The role of theory of international relations in explicating global political events

It is rather obvious that different developments in the international relations scene are so dynamic that a theory of international relations cannot elaborate alone the ways they begin, develop and eventually end. Therefore, one must underline that using a theoretical framework of wi-der extent becomes almost indispensable. In this sense, one must underli-ne that IR theories are paths or means used by scholars to provide expla-nation on these developments. Among numerous IR theories, those app-lied the most are the three key ones: liberalism, realism and rationalism.These three theories, depending on the manner and logic of approach and effort in trying to elaborate an IR event, they gain labels in a specific form, for instance – positivist theories. They are called positivist, because they aim to pursue the example of natural science to be more accurate in their work, at least in a metaphorical sense. Therefore, the contents of this paper provide an example of physics, to adapt to the nature of theory elaborated herein.The reason and objective of this paper is to argue our thesis that “li-beral theory alone cannot elaborate on all IR developments, and more theories are required”. The two other theories, realism and ratio-nalism help build a more wholesome understanding of IR developments. Also, the two other theories are used to support or counter the arguments of liberals and liberalism in relation to interpretation, explication and forecast of IR developments, which are tasks of an IR theory.This research is realized in a temporal context of post Cold War. This period is more suitable for study, and has attracted our interest. Otherwise, the three theoretical traditions had existed even before, and any effort to elaborate in details would be historical. Also, the focus in only three main IR theories, Liberalism, Realism and Rationalism, narrow down the field of study and make it more tangible. Nevertheless, to have an easier job in reaching a scientific and statistically measurable scientific conclusion, we have analysed only the views of authors consi-dered to be the key representatives of the three main theories. Hence, only in a narrow context of time, theory and author, can we reach more accurate con-clusions. For the purposes of this paper, Fukuyama is the “Liberalist”, Huntington is “Realist” and Brzezinski is a “Rationalist”.

Iraq versus lack of integration: understanding the motivations of contemporary Islamist terrorists in Western countries

Despite being nearly 10 years into the ‘Global War on Terror’ there is still confusion as to what motivates the perpetrators of terrorist attacks, particularly those in the West. This article gives an overview of ‘home-grown’ jihadi activities in the West and examines the range of driving forces cited by and attributed to them. It aims to clarify the relative contributions of local inequalities, global political events such as the occupation of Iraq, religious beliefs and social processes as motivating factors. Implications for theories of terrorism and for counter-terrorism strategies are discussed.

Engaging Islam: Working with Muslim Communities in a Multicultural Society

Abstract Recent global political events have pushed Islam to the center stage in European and American museums. Since 9/11 there has been a substantial increase in exhibitions featuring Islamic art, the Muslim world, and the Middle East (Flood 2007; Winegar 2008; Ryan 2009; Shatanawi 2012). For museums in Western Europe, the presentation of Islam‐related topics is closely related to the domestic issues of migration and multiculturalism. The new millennium has seen a vigorous debate about multiculturalism in Western Europe; several European leaders have declared multiculturalism a failed policy. This paper presents a case study, based in Amsterdam’s Tropenmuseum (one of Europe’s best‐known ethnographic museums), that investigates the complex relationships between audiences and communities in the context of the public debate on Islam. It critically discusses the relevance of a community‐based approach for museums that intend to reflect the cultural diversity of European societies.

Authenticity, Performative Action, and the White American Complaint

From Bill Clinton’s fateful finger-wagging gesture, defiantly stating “I did not...” to Rudy Guiliani’s infamous “noun, verb and 9/11,” performance has literally taken center stage in American politics. Indeed, it is arguable that performative action has taken on increasing relevance in 2008’s year-long season of political theater. Political candidates and their representatives in the media make ritualistic claims—promises—in the speech act sense, which will be shown to be felicitous, in John Austin’s terms, only if the candidate is elected, only if enough people accept the underlying premises of the promise, if they read it in the same context that the candidates spoke (Alexander, Geisen and Mast, p. 3; see also Austin 1975). Social Performance: Symbolic Action, Cultural Pragmatics, and Ritual issues a call for a sociological program of “cultural pragmatics” drawing on the performative turn. Several of the essays in the volume examine global political events through a cultural/performative lens. In line with other accounts of performativity, these essays explore the degrees to which symbolic action can create a world—or change the world. One of the most vivid examples is the essay by Valentin Rauer, on West German Chancellor Willy Brandt’s highly symbolic kneefall at the Ghetto Memorial in Warsaw in 1970, which helped generate a German national affect of guilt and an accounting with the Holocaust. Rauer maps out the context and effects of this act. In the context of the trials of Nazis in Frankfurt, Germany, and the Eichmann trial in Israel, he locates it first as a meaningful iteration of medieval King Heinrich II’s mythical kneefall at Canossa, then Qual Sociol (2009) 32:333–335 DOI 10.1007/s11133-009-9132-6

Writing/rights: creative practice and political action

Recently a number of conferences and exhibitions have focused on the relationship between creative practice and human rights, and writers, visual and performance artists and others have protested human rights abuses and/or made work that specifically responds to current problems. But what is art capable of doing in the face of global political events, economic problems and socio-cultural catastrophes - and what is its responsibility? This paper discusses some ideas that emerge from the literature, and also some trends in Australian publishing after September 11.

The Politics of Pain and the End of Empire

This article is a discussion of the role of feeling and emotion, and particularly the experience of pain, in contemporary global political events. In placing pain at the center of an analysis of a lived experience of global politics, the aim is to forge strategies to resist neoliberal imperialism and to create emotionally literate political communities. Drawing on the work of Elaine Scarry, Sara Ahmed and Frantz Fanon, the article situates the concept of emotions in a modern colonial landscape that is both racialized and gendered, complicated by neoliberalism as a subjectivity that contains the scope for emotions. As a case study, the article considers the emotions of viewing the deliberate infliction of pain through the circulation of the ‘Abu Ghraib photos’, particularly in the form of recent museum exhibitions in the USA.

Multiculturalism in New Italian Cinema

Many factors contributed in the last 30 years to bring to the fore the need for a new representation of the Italian nation in the media. They span from the local economic boom to the combination of global political events—the widespread process of de/counter-colonization, the demise of communist/socialist/dictatorial regimes in Eastern Europe, the poverty and the climate of terror in North Africa, the dissolution of the Yugoslavian federation, Italy joining the European Union and so forth—and they all contributed to the formation of a wave of mass immigration in the peninsula. On a daily basis, since the early nineties, mass immigration prompts the country to re-think its identity in terms of culture, religion, heritage, and to resituate itself in a European and global context, and while in literature the hyphenated identities of the contemporary diasporic writers begin to emerge, the televisual and cinematic representation of their correlatives is still missing or incomplete. As a rule, the patriarchal eye of the Italian director is still the privileged lens through which the Italian audiences see immigrants, refugees and ethnic minorities. However, some filmmakers, displaying a more perceptive sensibility than their peers on the changes that occur around them, manage to incorporate instances of multicultural openings within the ongoing narrative of a national cinema.