Civilian Missions Research Articles

Passive Citizenship: A Criteria for Denial of the Social Inclusion of Indigenous People in Angola in the Context of the Portuguese Estado Novo (1933-1974)

This article aims to understand the citizenship of the indigenous peoples of Angola in the Portuguese Estado Novo between 1933 and 1974. The main objective of this research, carried out in a philosophical approach of interdisciplinary relationships and analysis of contradictions, is to show how passive citizenship developed in Angola in the colonial context of the Portuguese Estado Novo, analyzing the reasons that contributed to certain political, legal and ideological discourses being a criterion for denying the social inclusion of indigenous Angolans. The methods used were genetic analysis, and the familiar analogy with hermeneutic and phenomenological methods, associated with qualitative theoretical research of a bibliographic nature that reveals the structured representation of the issue of citizenship in the context in question. The results obtained, through the analysis of theories, models and other sources of information, determine the validity of these instruments by indicating critical points coinciding with the confirmation that refers to the validity, in the Estado Novo, of social and political categories embodied in “ citizenship passive”, whose content is based on the civilizational mission as a criterion for the social inclusion of indigenous Angolans.

THE EUROPEAN UNION’S RESPONSE TO MALI’S FRAGILITY PROBLEMS AND THE OPERATION EUCAP SAHEL MALI

In light of recent events that have brought Mali back to the focus of the international community, this article aims to analyse on the basis of the various strategies adopted by the European Union to address the complex problems affecting the Sahel region, the basic pillars of the action of the International Organization for European Integration in this area of the African continent, and in particular in Mali, following a diagnosis of the situation on the ground, focusing the analysis on the civilian mission of the EU Common Security and Defence Policy, EUCAP Sahel Mali.

ARE WE STILL AN OVERSEAS PROVINCE OF PORTUGAL? COMMEMORATIVE TOPONYMS AND THE COLONIAL PRESENCE IN THE CITY CENTRE OF KUITO, ANGOLA

In the recent past, the world, with particular mention of the African continent, has witnessed a mass of protests, mostly by student movements. Among other things, they demanded the removal of colonial heritage from the spatial landscape as well as the decolonization of education. Nearly half a century after independence from the Portuguese colonial regime, the Angolan spatial landscape still celebrates the greatness of the so called heroes of the Portuguese civilization mission, whereas for many, the recognition of national historical figures remains an illusion. This article attempts to stir a debate, stemming from the sentiment that names of streets that constitute colonial cultural heritage and identity should be de-commemorated in the Kuito city centre and elsewhere in Angola. This is because they offer direct exposure to unbearable psychological memories of the ruthless regime that tortured natives for centuries. We argue, that by preserving these names, we are directly or otherwise abettors of the colonial´s tale that they were the ´heroes´ of the African people who needed to be saved from their uncivilized modis vivendi. The paper examines all the names surrounding the urban area of the city centre of the Kuito municipality and exposes the contributing role, if so, of each, in order to examine the impetus behind their preservation. Keywords: colonial. commemorative toponyms. City of Kuito. Angola

Contending American Visions of North Korea: The Mission Civilisatrice versus Realpolitik

This article aims to situate US–DPRK relations in a broader historical and theoretical context, that is, part of the violent encounters between the West and the ‘Rest’ in modern times, to examine discursive causes of their animosity and devise preliminary solutions to usher in peace and reconciliation in the Korean Peninsula. Drawing on a postcolonial reading of the liberal internationalist project and the global nuclear order, as well as a reflexive realist critique of US foreign policy toward the rogue states, this research explores how two competing geopolitical discourses, the mission civilisatrice and realpolitik, have constructed the epistemological problématique of Washington’s approach to Pyongyang and contributed to internal tensions in it over time. After analyzing the historical trajectory of America’s contrasting understandings of the Korean question, I seek to offer their implications on the dramatic change in the bilateral relations in the Trump era. By interrogating Trump’s realist turn in grand strategy and its unexpected influence on the two Cold War enemies’ mini-détente in 2018–2020, this article asks how a genuine dialogue between the liberal, ‘civilized’ center and the illiberal, ‘barbarian’ periphery can be materialized in an alternative normative setting. In particular, I argue that Trump’s new realist trial posed a critical question on how to depart from old ontological assumptions that frame the dominant liberal internationalist/neoconservative approaches toward a more dialogical and equal negotiation and compromise. A peaceful resolution of the North Korean dilemma is inherently related to a larger reflexivist project that promotes a thorough interrogation of the self-righteous US identity and a great transformation of America’s imperialist monologue toward the Third World in general. Des visions américaines concurrentes de la Corée du Nord : Mission civilisatrice vs Realpolitik

Civilization mission of digital transformations

The nature of the emergence of the need to introduce computers, introduce digital technologies and conduct digital transformations is analyzed. It is proposed to consider digital transformation as a response to civilizational challenges, the essence of which is reduced to the existence of civilizational cognitive contradictions of mankind. It is the presence of civilizational cognitive contradictions that is a prerequisite for the systemic adoption of wrong decisions, the unrestrained accumulation of which is the source of degradation of civilization. An understanding of the civilizational mission of digital transformation has been formed.

Engraved Stories of Empire: An Examination of Selected Images from the Missionary Register, 1813–1855

ABSTRACT Images are created not in a vacuum but in hidden yet potent, contending political forces. The missionary endeavour of the nineteenth century was not exempt from this reality. Images became integral to missionary publications and shaped the metropolitan imagination regarding the colonised people, their religion, gods, and rituals. Displaying the colonies and their people was of utmost importance as it aided in garnering support and funding for missionary societies’ motto of civilising, colonising, and Christianising the indigenous populations. This paper highlights how the missionary portrayals of the indigenous community and its individuals played an essential role in imprinting in the minds of the nineteenth-century British public the need for the mission civilisatrice. This analysis is attempted through a careful examination of selected engravings and their descriptions printed in the Missionary Register for the period comprising 1813–1855.

A Mythic France for Export: Auguste Genin, Cultural Brokers, and the Third Republic's Mission Civilisatrice in Porfirian Mexico

Abstract: Historians of Mexico after its independence from Spain in 1821, especially during the era of rapid modernization under President Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911), speak generally of the strong French cultural influence on the middling and privileged classes in the Republic who viewed France as a model of emulation for national development. This afrancesamiento (Francophilia) is often taken for granted and few have questioned what "Frenchness" meant at a time when France itself was constructing a national identity, who were its greatest promoters in Mexico, and how did the Mexican experience compare with the Third Republic's (1870–1940) civilizing mission ( mission civilizatrice ) in France's formal colonies in Southeast Asia and Africa. The goal of this article is two-fold. The first is to advance the notion of certain members of the French immigrant community in Porfirian Mexico as cultural brokers, and the second is to place the French model of modernity to which these foreign residents and Mexican elites referred to in its domestic and larger imperial context. The influential Franco-Mexican Auguste Genin and his writings offer an illustrative case study through which to introduce and assess this. Particularly revealing is how Genin imagines the process by which the indigenous population of Mexico would be transformed into modern citizens and how this project—this imaginary construct—found a source of inspiration in the simultaneous French project to construct a French identity and a model ideology for overseas empire during the Third Republic.

EU-NATO Cooperation in the Area of Crisis Management: Case of Kosovo

Abstract EU-NATO relations have come to the spotlight particularly due to the increasing focus of the EU on strengthening its military dimension as part of its evolving Common Security and Defense Policy. In this context, Kosovo provides a very interesting case concerning the level of cooperation between the EU and NATO in the area of crisis management given that the EU maintains in Kosovo the largest civilian mission launched to date (i.e. EULEX) which can also make use of a limited number of executive powers whereas NATO has deployed KFOR as a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo since 1999. This article aims at elucidating the relations between EULEX and KFOR on the ground amidst the lack of a formal agreement on the coordination of strategic efforts between NATO and the EU at the military strategic level.

The Blood of the Colony: Wine and the Rise and Fall of French Algeria by Owen White (review)

Reviewed by: The Blood of the Colony: Wine and the Rise and Fall of French Algeria by Owen White Kolleen M. Guy White, Owen–The Blood of the Colony: Wine and the Rise and Fall of French Algeria. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2021. 319 p. French Algeria was the fourth-largest wine producer in the world for much of the twentieth century. And, yet, there has been no comprehensive study of wine and the vine in Algeria since the publication of Hildebert Isnard’s La vigne en Algérie: étude géographique in the 1950s (volume 1 in 1951, and volume 2 in 1954). Writing at a moment when Algerian vineyards were on the frontline of a nationalist insurrection, Isnard’s two-volume work was based on an impressive albeit limited range of archival sources. It has remained the starting point for scholars interested in colonial agriculture and the culture of the vine in North Africa—until now. With the publication of Owen White’s magisterial study, we have a comprehensive overview of the vine and wine in Algeria that makes use of new archival collections and new methodological approaches. The result is an essential read for anyone interested in French wine, environment, race, and the aggressive capitalism of imperialism. [End Page 236] It was the aggressive capitalist pursuit of commodities that shaped the early French colonizer’s vision of the landscape of Algeria. Agricultural production in North Africa, including the cultivation of vines for wine, was diverse and thriving at the time of conquest. What the early colonists saw, however, was not success but “potential.” French inspection after 1830 projected the ecology of southern France on North Africa with rows of grain, olive trees, and grape vines enhanced under an agricultural mission civilisatrice. Much like in other colonial ventures, the European-born settlers and planners experimented with the best path to extract wealth. Land appropriation and diminished property rights for Indigenous Algerians led to widespread destruction of local forms of cultivation. Great hopes were placed by colonial advocates in crops like tobacco and cotton that would complement the metropolitan economy. By the late 1860s, with the colony running a commercial deficit and famine and other hardships facing those on the land, settlers turned away from these experiments and returned to crops that had long been cultivated by Indigenous Algerians, including the vine. It would be a mistake, however, to see the spectacular rise in vine cultivation after 1870 as inevitable. White makes a case that the expansion of the Algerian vineyard had a gold-rush quality where gamblers who were willing to place bold bets might reap big payoffs. Some of the high stakes gamblers built fortunes by betting on vineyard expansion just as the metropolitan wine production was crippled by a still unnamed vine blight. Smaller players with ties to Europe were also able to improve their fortunes through some well-timed gambles on land, vines, or allied services, such as barrel making or wine transport. Phylloxera was a wild card, however, creating opportunities and ruining fortunes when it eventually was discovered on Algerian vines. White argues that the combination of phylloxera and market fluctuations made for the consolidation of land in the hands of banks and wealthy investors. This reality did not deter the creation of the myth of the French “colonizing genius.” By 1892, Jules Ferry toured the Algerian vineyards highlighting what he saw as the heroic achievement of colonization and the role of vines in “consecrating” the land to assure it was “fully and authentically French” (p. 64). Vines became a symbol of the “spirit of enterprise” in the French colonial project. While South Africa had its “Randlords” with portfolios based on a similar rush for gold and diamond extraction, Algeria now had what White calls “vinelords” with fortunes and political power based on vast tracts of vine monoculture and vertical investments (p. 79). On the eve of the Great War, Algeria exported more wine than any other region of the world. With this new global position came a “refashioning of the land and the shaping of local identities” (p. 79). These local identities, in the first half of the twentieth century, were shaped...

Explaining third-country participation in CSDP missions: the case of the association trio – Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova

ABSTRACT This article explores the factors underpinning third-country participation in EU military and civilian missions, by focusing on one particular category of CSDP participating non-EU states, namely the Association Trio - Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. While these three states share several characteristics, including their form of association with the EU, their engagement in the Eastern Partnership, a similar geostrategic environment and common security threats, the extent of their CSDP involvement varies widely. The article explains this variation through a combination of third country-specific and EU-level variables, against the background of the broader post-Cold War security environment and the three countries' deepening integration with the EU. The role conceptions of the three countries stand out as a variable providing an accurate expectation of their foreign policy behaviour, anticipating Ukraine's prominent role in peacekeeping, Moldova's low-key involvement as a neutral state and Georgia's prioritisation of NATO. At a more practical level, the variation among the three countries' contributions to CSDP missions is to be understood in light of their human and financial resources, institutional capacities and adequacy of legal frameworks, as well as the EU's selective opening up of missions to third countries and the highly competitive selection process for civilian personnel.

Cultural Capital: Reflections from a Latin Americanist

<i>Cultural Capital</i>: Reflections from a Latin Americanist

Features of Albanian separatism in Kosovo and Metohija

Authors examine the formation and development of Albanian separatism in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija. The article deals with the main aspects of the history of creation and functioning of the first armed extremist groups of Kosovo Albanians, in particular the activities of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the hottest phases of the Kosovo crisis in the 1990s, including the role of international actors in the development of Albanian terrorism in the Serbian province. In the article, the authors conclude that Albanian separatism is not a spontaneously organized ethnic group with the aim of fighting against "terror" perpetrated by state power, but is instead the embodiment of the idea of a "Greater Albania", projected in the First and Second Prizer Leagues. Western countries also actively supported the formation, training, logistical support and funding of the KLA. The leader among Western states supporting Albanian separatism in Serbia was the United States, which provided Kosovo separatists with comprehensive support. With the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the arrival of the UN Military and Civil Mission in Kosovo and Metohija (KFOR and UMNIK), Albanian extremists and terrorists used all-out violence to expel the non-Albanian population from Kosovo and Metohija. The separation of Kosovo from Serbia, which took place under the careful guidance of the international community represented by the USA and the EU, as well as the recognition of the so-called Kosovo's "independence" by, above all, Western countries, grossly violated not only UNSC Resolution 1244 and international law in general, but also created an international legal precedent which gave other proponents of territorial secession an excuse and right to seek the same as that of the so-called Kosovo.

Fuzzy Gain-Scheduling Based Fault Tolerant Visual Servo Control of Quadrotors

When military and civil missions such as transportation increase, fault tolerant control of unmanned aerial vehicles will be an obligation. Although onboard sensors provide information about the status of a quadrotor, the camera is not included in the list. In this study, visual servo control of quadrotors as a popular method for motion control is addressed. we address a visual servo control system for quadrotors as a popular method for motion control. The feature motions in the image plane are analyzed to reveal the relation between the actuator faults and these motions. Four AI fault approximators, a neural network, an extreme learning machine, a linear support vector machine, and a long short-term memory are used to approximate actuator faults of a quadrotor while using feature inputs. The results are convincing and the approximation results are used by a fuzzy logic unit to provide gain-scheduling based fault tolerant control. The proposed system shows sufficient results as a visual servo system for fixed and moving feature targets while providing fault tolerance.

Gross National Happiness in Bhutan: Is Buddhist Constitutionalism Legitimate in the Age of Secularism? A Post-Colonial View

Bhutan’s current constitution draws upon the historical dual system of religious-civil governance under the monarchy (previously Abbot-king) embodying the Mahayana Buddhist concept of Boddhisatva-leadership. Bhutan’s democracy includes an executive-military and pluralist religious custodian role for the King who can be abdicated by parliament. It includes Gross National Happiness as spiritual core, which is non-binding law, incorporating many human rights and human values like compassion. The ban on proselytization in the secular constitution should be viewed from a geopolitical post-colonial perspective of the Christian civilization mission and India/China annexation-politics, and Asian definitions of secularism (Royal patronage of religious pluralism). Christians do experience restrictions on congregation. Hindu Nepalese-origin migrants experience(d) citizenship issues due to geopolitical context but can express religion fully. GNH-policy also has certain implementation difficulties and the GNH index indicates declining community values and spirituality in the face of modernist development. Bhutan’s constitution does not fall within the definition of theocracy. The clergy is excluded from the electoral process. The King’s authority is mainly based on moral leadership, popular uncertainty about imported democracy, and is non-absolute but larger than conventional constitutional monarchies. The constitution is more secular than Buddhist in its binding provisions and offers space for non-GNH oriented governments, also in recent practice. Preserving identity and stability is Bhutan’s aim and secularism needs to look at a group approach, apart from individualist approaches. Human rights traditions could acknowledge the cultural-religious roots that inspired them and keep human dignity alive, instead of wanting to remove it from the state altogether and making human rights the new religion.

Рецензия на книгу «Цивилизационная миссия Сибири: от техногенно-потребительской к духовно-экологической стратегии глобального и регионального развития: монография» (коллектив авторов; под ред. А.В. Иванова). Барнаул: Новый формат, 2022. 368 с.

In the review of the collective monograph “The Civilizational Mission of Siberia: from a Technogenic-Consumerist to a Spiritual-Ecological Strategy for Global and Regional De­velopment” (edited by A.A. Ivanov), the main idea of the book was analyzed for its ratio­nal justification, the content of the main sections of the book was revealed, and the strengths and weaknesses of the used methodology were considered. This mono­graph represents a comprehensive scientific study devoted to issues of strategic develop­ment of Siberia in the context of the more general problem of global development. The au­thors proceed from the position of the necessity to replace the globalist model of a techno­genic-consumerist civilization with a model of a spiritual-ecological (noospheric) civiliza­tion. Such a view is very interesting and allows for unexpected conclusions.

УЧАСТЬ ЄС У ВРЕГУЛЮВАННІ ВІРМЕНО-АЗЕРБАЙДЖАНСЬКОГО КОНФЛІКТУ ЗА НАГІРНО-КАРАБАСЬКИЙ РЕГІОН

The article highlights the reasons for the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The position of the European Union regarding this conflict is analyzed. It has been found that since the beginning of the conflict, the European Union has not actively participated in its settlement and its policy has been weak. The EU has often expressed its support for the negotiation process under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group. The change in the attitude of the EU to this conflict after the introduction of the Eastern Partnership program, which included both Armenia and Azerbaijan, is characterized. An assessment of the consideration of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict at the Eastern Partnership summits is given, namely, at the Eastern Partnership Summit in 2021, the EU’s attitude to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict is changing, the EU’s participation in the peaceful settlement of the conflict is increasing. The importance of the created initiative «European Political Community» in the negotiation process regarding the settlement of this conflict was considered. In the course of the study, it was concluded that from 2021, the European Union will become an active participant in the negotiation process regarding the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU is further strengthening its mediation in the negotiation process. At the current stage, three rounds of negotiations between the parties to the conflict took place with the mediation of the EU, thus, the European Union is trying to reduce the influence of Russia in the (not) settlement of the conflict. In turn, from 2022, Armenia is also interested in greater influence of the EU in the negotiation process and at her request; the civilian mission of the European Union in Armenia – EUMA Armenia – was created. Through its presence, EUMA Armenia contributes to the security of people in conflict-affected areas of Armenia and makes an impact on the strengthening of trust on the ground. The country also contributes to the creation of an environment favorable to the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan with EU support.

The Kazakh Khan Zhangir and His Project of a Russian Civilising Mission

The Kazakh Khan Zhangir and His Project of a Russian Civilising Mission

Cossacks, Empire, and the Enlightenment: From Orientalization to Republican Reappropriation

This article seeks to explore how Enlightenment narratives and categories framed the perception and image of the Zaporozhian Cossacks both in the imperial center and in the south-western periphery of the Russian Empire in the late eighteenth century. It demonstrates that Catherine II deployed the discourse of civilizational mission to justify the disbandment of the Zaporozhian Cossack Host and the liquidation of the Zaporozhian Sich. The historical works of Voltaire became an important source of inspiration for Catherine's orientalist image of the Ukrainian Cossacks, which gained wide currency in the Russian Empire and was accepted by some representatives of the Ukrainian Cossack elite. On the other hand, the Enlightenment allowed some Ukrainians to challenge imperial hegemony by going beyond traditional estate and regional particularism and by rethinking the Cossack tradition as a democratic republican one and setting it against the supposed despotism of Imperial Russia.

Сочинения А. Н. Радищева: этюд экономико-антропологической интерпретации

Introduction. A. N. Radishchev in his writings lays the foundations of a humanistic study of Russian society and an anthropological understanding of economic orders. Most of the works were not published during his lifetime; the scientific publication of works and the study of views, mainly of a social nature, was undertaken in the 1940s–1950s. The comments emphasized the radical worldview of the thinker, manifested in the literary field. In reality, the enlightener’s work is more multifaceted and covers philosophy, law, history, and economics. Three life periods are distinguished, different in subject matter, but consonant with moral ideas. Theoretical analysis. The first period of writing is characterized by works of social philosophy, fiction and official notes of a legal and economic nature, in which Radishchev’s ambivalent attitude to power, lawmaking and moral values is revealed. The probable coincidence of the enlightener’s views with his European contemporaries (Locke, Diderot, A. Smith, Blackstone) and Russian philosophers (Tatishchev, Storkh) is revealed. Parallels with the works of I. Kant and the categorical apparatus of modern economic anthropology are determined. Empirical analysis. The views of Radishchev and Catherine II are interpreted in a comparative way. It is shown that there are no direct invectives in the “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” against the Empress. The works on legislation in the third period of creativity are an adjusted continuation of the works of the first period. The most complete economic and anthropological theme is presented in the essay “On Chinese Bargaining”, which implicitly rejects the principles of the government’s economic policy, which does not take into account the spatial identity of Russia, its civilizational mission and the potential of free enterprise. Results. The writings of A. N. Radishchev anticipate the field of research of modern economic anthropology: the importance of reflection in human behavior, its noumenal and phenomenal representation, historical construction of ways of action and thought, performative thinking, hierarchy and fragmentation of power, structuration of economic (market) relations are taken into consideration. The key concepts are collective faith, feelings and habits, inclinations and individual differences, good-action, objective and subjective interests, reasonableness and rationality in historical refraction. The problems of conciliarity, will, moral imperatives, acquisition of systematic knowledge, necessity of laws, human rights are highlighted as the most important from the position of the enlightener.

At the Fork in the Path of Conceptual Understanding of the Role of Siberia in the Formation of a New World Order. Book review: Civilization mission of Siberia: from technogenic-consumer to spiritual-ecological strategy of global and regional development: monograph (group of authors; edited by A.V. Ivanov) – Barnaul: New format, 2022

In a review of the collective monograph «Civilization mission of Siberia: from technogenic-consumer to spiritual-ecological strategy of global and regional development», edited by Professor A. V. Ivanov, the author argues with the researchers on a number of key issues, including the system-forming role of the Russian state in the development of Eurasian civilization, nationalitis policy of the former Soviet republics, national and cultural identity. The authors of the monograph focus on the problems of defining the concept of «Greater Eurasia», the civilizational tasks of Russia in the integration of Greater Eurasia. The methodological basis of the fundamental and applied research of the mission of Siberia is the synthesis of the diachronic and synchronic aspects of the civilizational approach.