Non-violent Means Research Articles

A Dynamic Citizenship Education for the New Public School

Currently in the United Kingdom, citizenship provision is meagre and, where it appears in schools, it is heavily biased towards the theoretical. This article acknowledges that citizenship education needs a theoretical aspect but argues that the new public school should complement this with more dynamic, experiential learning. The proposal focuses on a democratic way of managing political conflict, the complex practice of compromise. It considers three essential features of a good compromise: mutual respect; coping with seemingly second-best choices; and recognising sacrifice. Drawing on these elements, it argues, the new public school can offer a dynamic citizenship education through its organisation, structure and ethos. In a supportive learning environment, school students can learn attitudes of respect, empathy towards others and ways of dealing with conflict by non-violent means, develop social imagination in exploring creative and ingenious solutions to conflict and learn to cope, collegially, with disappointed hopes.

From Civil Resistance to Civil War: Nonstrategic Mechanisms of Militarization in the Syrian Uprising

A recurrent logic in most research on nonviolent relative to violent resistance is that groups choose violent or nonviolent means depending on the likelihood of success of each approach. On the contrary, this article analyzes the militarization of the Syrian revolution and argues that it was not a strategic decision by the Syrian opposition, but rather emotional, material, and practice mechanisms that initially paved the way for counter‐violence. Revolutionaries were motivated to take up arms by emotional mechanisms of revenge and fear. Moreover, material mechanisms, in particular the relatively high availability of weapons in Syria, can explain the more militant counter‐response to the ongoing repression. Finally, violent or nonviolent actions were shaped by practice mechanisms, where revolutionaries already experienced in violence (from the beginning of the uprising) argued in favor of and sometimes conducted violent resistance, whereas other groups engaged in nonviolent resistance.

Penyelesaian Sengketa di Segmen Noel Besi – Citrana antara Indoneia dan Timor Leste

In Kupang District there is an unresolved segment, namely Noel Besi- Citrana, which is a disputed land along a river or delta starting from Co. 1745-6475 to Co. 1870-6770. The dispute area is located in Kupang Regency, with an area of ± 1,069 Ha, originating from the land dispute. When East Timor was still joining NKRI, the Noel Besi-Citrana area was the border area of Kupang Regency (NTT) and Ambeno Regency (Timor Leste region). The area of dispute is Naktuka which is located between the Noel Besi River and the Nono Noemna River. Based on the Provisional Agreement in 2005 Article 6 point (b) which implies that local communities in this case the customary community / customary leaders are given space to be involved in the process of resolving disputes that occur at the borders of the two countries by promoting peaceful and nonviolent means in accordance with Article 8 Provisional Agreement in 2005. Whereas the people who inhabit West Timor (Indonesia) and the people who inhabit East Timor (Timor Leste) have the same socio-cultural background, it can be ensured that the customary law arrangements in force in these two community groups also the same. However, this actually becomes an obstacle when the state takes the primary role, regardless of the Customary Figures who have the potential to determine the peaceful settlement of national borders in a family atmosphere..

Going Postal: State Capacity and Violent Dispute Resolution

Scholars have long tried to understand the conditions under which actors choose to use violent versus non-violent means to settle disputes, and many argue that violence is more likely in weakly-institutionalized settings. Yet, there is little evidence showing that increases in state capacity lowers the use of violent informal institutions to resolve disputes. Utilizing a novel dataset of violence --- specifically, duels --- across American states in the 19th Century, we use the spread of federal post offices as an identification strategy to investigate the importance of state capacity for the incidence of violent dispute resolution. We find that post office density is a strong, consistent, and negative predictor of dueling behavior. Our evidence contributes to a burgeoning literature on the importance of state capacity for development outcomes.

The Evolution of Post-War International Financial Sanctions and Its Enlightenment on China

International financial sanctions have been increasingly used since the World War II. But what about the rationality? For the developing countries, especially China, the second largest economy in the world, how can it maintain its financial security in the context of China’s major country diplomacy in the new era and in the transition from a trade power to a financial power? This paper begins with the definition of international financial sanctions by analyzing the characteristics of international financial sanctions. Next, it sorts out its historical evolution process and then discusses the rationality of its existence. It is concluded that the implementation of relevant sanctions should be decided by the U.N. Security Council in the way of resolution. The secondary sanctions are in essence a tool for the U.S. with unique financial advantages to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs and lack international legitimacy. Finally, it’s suggested that on one hand, China needs to take precautions in financial sanctions imposed by other countries; on the other hand, China should have a correct understanding of financial sanctions and give full play to non-violent means such as financial sanctions so as to maintain its core national interests. Therefore, China should promote the reform of the UN sanctions system and improve its domestic system.

The Rebalance, Entrapment Fear, and Collapsism: The Origins of Obama's North Korea Policy

Following the collapse of diplomatic negotiations with North Korea in 2012, the Obama administration settled on a policy approach dubbed "strategic patience." That policy involved the gradually escalating application of nonviolent means of coercion as the North Korean nuclear problem that it purported to arrest grew more acute over time. But what led the Obama administration to adopt this confrontational yet timid approach to North Korea? Using a configurational analysis, this article proposes that the Obama-era policy of "strategic patience" had little to do with North Korea per se, and instead derived primarily from the intersection of three different factors: the prioritizations necessary as part of the US "rebalance to Asia" strategy; fear that South Korean aggression would pull the United States into an unwanted war in Korea; and a prevailing belief among many policymakers that the North Korean regime would eventually collapse under the pressures of its own contradictions. This combination of priorities and beliefs led the Obama administration to treat the North Korean nuclear issue seriously but not urgently, resorting to actions incommensurate with the nature of the problem.

The dark underbelly of land struggles: the instrumentalization of female activism and emotional resistance in Cambodia

ABSTRACTFacing land grabs and eviction in the name of development, women worldwide increasingly join land rights struggles despite often deeply engrained images of female domesticity and conventional gender norms. Yet, the literature on female agency in the context of land struggles has remained largely underexplored. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, my findings suggest that land rights activism in Cambodia has undergone a gendered re-framing process. Reasoning that women use non-violent means of contestation and are less prone to violence from security personnel, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) push women affected by land grabs and eviction to the frontline of protests. Moreover, female activists are encouraged to publicly display emotions, such as the experienced pain behavior that sharply contrasts with Cambodian norms of feminine modesty. I critically question this women-to-the-front strategy and, drawing on Sara Ahmed’s politics of emotions approach, show the adverse risks for female activists. Furthermore, I demonstrate that the instrumentalization of female bodies and emotions in land rights protests perpetuate gender disparities instead of strengthening female agency in the Cambodian society and opening up political space for women.

Association of a Noncoding RNA Postmortem With Suicide by Violent Means and In Vivo With Aggressive Phenotypes

BackgroundPrevious findings suggest that differences in brain expression of a human-specific long intergenic noncoding RNA (LINC01268; GRCh37/hg19: LOC285758) may be linked to suicide by violent methods. We sought to replicate and extend these findings in a new sample and translate the results to the behavioral level in living healthy subjects. MethodsWe examined RNA sequencing data in human brains to confirm the prior postmortem association of the long intergenic noncoding RNA specifically with suicide by violent means. In addition, we used a genetic variant associated with LINC01268 expression to detect association in healthy subjects with trait aggression and with in vivo prefrontal physiology related to behavioral control. Finally, we performed weighted gene coexpression network analysis and gene ontology analysis to identify biological processes associated with a LINC01268 coexpression network. ResultsIn the replication sample, prefrontal expression of LINC01268 was again higher in suicides by violent means (n = 65) than in both nonsuicides (n = 78; p = 1.29 × 10−6) and suicides by nonviolent means (n = 46; p = 1.4 × 10−6). In the living cohort, carriers of the minor allele of a single nucleotide polymorphism associated with increased LINC01268 expression in brain scored higher on a lifetime aggression questionnaire and show diminished engagement of prefrontal cortex (Brodmann area 10) when viewing angry faces during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis highlighted the immune response. ConclusionsThese results suggest that LINC01268 influences emotional regulation, aggressive behavior, and suicide by violent means; the underlying biological dynamics may include modulation of genes potentially engaged in the immune response.

Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors and the risk of violent suicide: a nationwide postmortem study

PurposeWe endeavored to investigate whether previous findings of an association between antemortem exposure to selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI) and method of suicide could be replicated.MethodsUsing the Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine’s toxicology database and the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare’s national registries of causes of death and prescriptions, 10,002 incidents of suicide were retrieved. Risks of violent suicide conferred by SSRIs, expressed as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), were estimated using logistic regression. In accordance with previous work, suicide by violent means—cases—were defined as death attributable to causes designated by ICD-10 codes X70-X83 and Y20-Y33; and suicide by non-violent means—controls—by codes X60-X69 and Y10-Y19.ResultsOur results imply that SSRI exposure confers a risk of violent suicide for shorter treatment durations; and that antemortem exposure to other substances (including illegal drugs) confounds estimates of risk. After adjustment for age, sex, and other substances, SSRIs treatment not exceeding 28 days conferred an almost fourfold risk of violent suicide (OR 3.6 [95% CI 1.9–6.8]), a finding partly in line with a recent Swedish study that employed a case-crossover design.ConclusionsAlthough risks associated with shorter treatment duration may reflect latencies to onset of therapeutic effect, it is unclear how latencies would influence the choice of suicide method, unless conditions for which SSRIs are prescribed are themselves associated with violent suicide. Finally, in the total dataset, SSRIs were not associated with an increased risk of violent suicide; however, by adjusting for other substances, we avoided the spurious conclusion that the effect of medications in this regard is protective.

Conceptualising Mass Atrocity Prevention, Nonviolent Resistance, and Politically Feasible Alternatives

I present an account of mass atrocity prevention based on just war theory precepts. This account entails comparisons among policy options and requires selecting the politically feasible option that has the greatest chance of avoiding atrocities. Adopting such an account of atrocity prevention highlights problems in influential mass atrocity prevention policy reports in that they fail to seriously consider nonviolent civil resistance as a mass atrocity prevention tool. Given that sometimes actors may be unwilling to live under the status quo, and agitate for reform by violent or nonviolent means, nonviolence is generally the preferable policy option. This is because under realistic scenarios, the empirical evidence generally indicates that nonviolent means are more likely to achieve positive outcomes across a range of indicators than violent ones. I illustrate my argument by applying it to strategies for democratisation, and rebut objections. Yet, nonviolent civil resistance is risky, and so revolutionary leaders and their supporters should weigh carefully the chances of success and the trade-offs of nonviolent resistance.

Community interventions in construction health and safety and the implications

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the involvement of communities – geographical or geopolitical units, which identifies culture, interest and ethnicity – in construction health and safety (H&S) and the implications. This stems from the unexamined hence poorly understood roles of many stakeholders in the construction H&S management and regulatory regime in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach Interviews with contractors and key informants and a survey of contractors were conducted. Descriptive and inferential statistics and thematic analysis were used. Findings There is evidences of community interventions: negotiating with contractors on H&S issues; strongly stipulating that H&S measures are adopted and implemented; and enforcing H&S through both violent and non-violent means. These have no legal backing. There is a relationship between the locations of the projects, urban area and rural area, and six community intervention variables. The study also reveals that among the implications of community interventions in H&S are contractors contextualising H&S in these communities and the tension between parties in construction projects. Again, there is a relationship between the location of the projects and six of the implications including the tension between communities and contractors and between contractors and clients. Practical implications In adequately addressing construction safety, health and environment issues in Nigeria, geographic location and socio-cultural consideration are pertinent, a point for policymakers, communities and contractors. Originality/value The study draws attention to the geographic location and socio-cultural explanations for the differences in the H&S management, performance and attitudes of contractors in Nigeria. This is the first study that examines the involvement of communities in H&S and the implications.

Ostracism promotes a terroristic mindset

ABSTRACTBiographical data of terrorists and overlapping theories indicate that ostracism has the power to promote a terroristic mindset. This effect, however, has not been investigated empirically so far. The current studies aimed to fill this research gap and test this relationship experimentally. Inclusionary status was manipulated in an online and a lab study. To assess how far participants would go on behalf of a terrorist group, participants were introduced to a pro-democracy and animal protection terrorist organization, and asked for their degree of agreement to their actions. Study 1 showed that ostracized participants always favored more extreme options to support a terrorist group compared to participants in an inclusion or a neutral control condition, which grew from non-violent means to property damage. In Study 2, ostracism increased the willingness to destroy property on behalf of a terrorist group. Indicating an underlying mechanism, this effect was mediated by a low sense of control. The findings are consistent with theoretical and empirical work of both ostracism and terrorism research, and provide one of few pieces of experimental work to illustrate a root of radicalization.

Soviet legacies, organized crime, and economic gangsterism: Russia, 1995–2010

In countries like Russia, where legal institutions providing political accountability and protection of property rights are weak, some elite actors accept the use of violence as a tool in political and economic competition. The intensity of this violent exposure may vary depending on the position the province had had in the Soviet administrative hierarchy. The higher the province's position before 1991, the greater the intensity of business violence one is likely to observe there in post-communist times, because the Soviet collapse left a more gaping power vacuum and lack of working informal rules in regions with limited presence of traditional criminal organizations. Post-Soviet entrepreneurs also often find it worthwhile to run for office or financially back certain candidates in order to secure a privileged status and the ability to interpret the law in their favor. Businessmen-candidates themselves and their financial backers behind the scenes may become exposed to competitive pressures resulting in violence during election years, because their competitors may find it hard to secure their position in power through the existing legal or informal non-violent means. To test whether Soviet legacies and Provincial elections indeed cause spikes in commerce-motivated violence, this project relies on an original dataset of more than 6000 attacks involving business interests in 74 regions of Russia, in 1991–2010. The results show that only legislative elections cause increases in violence while there is no firm evidence that executive polls have a similar effect.

Nineteenth-century letters on Malayan piracy

Uncovering sources on topics of criminality such as piracy without the filters of colonial governments written in Bahasa Melayu from before the twentieth century remains particularly difficult. These are English language translations of letters originally in Malay mentioning piracy. The first letter discusses difficulties in trading between Singapore and Terengganu, including the problem of Chinese piracy. Our second letter is from the Sultan of Riau-Lingga to his father concerning trading recommendations and an incident where the King of Terengganu executed convicted Chinese pirates. The third letter concerns an act of piracy targeting collected taxes, which appears to be an act of resistance against new colonial taxation policies. These letters provide a rare window into issues of trade and governance during the nineteenth century when piracy remained rampant and centralized authority was contested through violent and non-violent means.

Соціальні засади корпоративної культури

The article is devoted to the analysis of the development of corporate culture as a new form of culture. The dynamic processes of the evolution of corporate culture from the time of the appearance of its individual elements at the beginning of the 20th century to the corporatization of many spheres of social life, the practice of implementing mechanisms of corporate social responsibility in the late XX сеntury remain topical for research. Dynamism of the corporate culture formation in the sphere of economic activity in the twentieth century influenced the rapid spread of its values and standards to other public spheres. Corporate culture as a sociocultural regulator gradually comes to the forefront of scientific, practical and cultural discussions. Recognition of culture as the defining basis of corporate culture allows us to consider neocorporativism as interconnected with it. Mutualities of neocorporativism and culture have become the basis for the emergence of the innovative nature of corporate culture with its focus on partnership and the consolidation of the multidirectional interests of key actors in the interaction. An innovative feature of neocorporativism as the main element of corporate culture is the orientation toward voluntary, legitimate alignment of interest groups and the achievement of cooperation, social partnership of participants in equidistant social interaction on mutually beneficial conditions. It is a non-violent means of forming corporate productive orders that fit into a broader democratic spectrum of interests at different levels of society's life. And in this you can see the social potential of neocorporativism and corporate culture. Like any new phenomenon, corporate culture revealed the ambivalent essence of the initial stages of the emergence of this innovation, showing the emergence of a list of complex moral-psychological and existential problems of human and societies during the period of grandiose changes. The corporatization of social spheres served as the basis for qualitative transformations of organizational, managerial, social and labol relations, opening additional prospects for the realization of social responsibility and integration.

Gandhi's Concept of Satyagraha

It is possible to create extensive social reforms and action by adopting non-violent means. This article discusses about Gandhi's Satyagraha and its importance. It directs the satyagrahi who has adopted non-violence. it means satyagraha has many characteristics, conditions. This article traces Satyagraha as weapon, of not only passive resistance and non cooperation, but a more inclusive civil disobedience.

Desecuritisation through Hermeneutic Dialogue: the Gülen Movement in Turkey

This paper examines the dialogue activities of the Hizmet or Gülen Movement (GM)1 through the lenses of securitisation theory and Gadamer’s ‘hermeneutic dialogue’. As the theoretical framework of the study, we have adopted the concepts of ‘hermeneutic dialogue’ and ‘desecuritisation’ in tandem with one another as non-violent means of conflict resolution.

FROM RIAU TO SINGAPORE: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE RUSHDIAH CLUB’S MAJOR PUBLISHED WRITINGS (CA. 1890-1950)

This study examines the prominent Malay literary organization in the Sultanate of Riau-Lingga: Rushdiah Club’s writing and printing activities. It provides a descriptive content analysis of books on various subjects that were published by the printing presses under the auspices of the members of the Rushdiah Club in Riau, Singapore and Penang from 1893 to 1950. Specifically, these presses were Matba‘at al-Ahmadiyyah and Matba‘ah al-Riyawiyyah in Riau-Lingga; Matba‘at al-Ahmadiyyah (better known as the Ahmadiah Press) and al-Imam Printing Company Ltd. in Singapore; and Jelutong Press in Penang. The objective of this paper is to discuss the roles of the Rushdiah Club, particularly its contribution to the Malay societies by flourishing the writing and printing culture. Furthermore, this paper investigates how their publications had constructed a specific pattern of Islamic thought and culture as the members joined intellectual debates over the issue of Islamic reformism. The analysis of the catalogues involves two phases: firstly, examining the writers; secondly, itemizing them according to categories, content, and characteristics of the books. The finding of the study indicated that the most common theme is Islam and religion, which is about 73 books (36.86%). This study also contends that the Rushdiah Club which was strongly anchored by the Islamic ethos, responded to colonialism through non-violent means.

Modern Sikh Warriors: Militants, Soldiers, Citizens

ABSTRACTCentral to the mainstream Sikh identity is the concept of ethically-justified force, used as a last resort. There is no place for absolute pacifism in this conception of ethical living. Fighters and martyrs occupy an important place in the Khalsa narrative, and Sikhs are constantly reminded of the sacrifices and heroism of their co-religionists of the past. This article explores how the Sikh warrior identity is manifested in the contemporary world. It examines the Sikhs who, in the 1980s and 1990s, were involved on both sides of the Punjab crisis: those militants who fought for a Sikh homeland (“Khalistan”) and those Sikhs in the Indian army who suppressed the insurgency. The article also looks beyond the militants and soldiers to Sikhs employed in modern security-related professions, the broader issue of Sikh symbols relating to the use of force, and violence within the Sikh diaspora. An examination of the Sikhs in various parts of the world reveals additional uses and consequences of ideology, whether in enlistment in the armed forces of the states in which they live, or in the support of the militancy in India, particularly in the 1980s. The conclusion is that the modern Sikh warrior is a nuanced actor behaving in various ways, some overt and some subtle: the warrior is willing to physically fight those perceived to be tyrannous, but most initiatives have shifted to pursuing justice through non-violent means, such as legal struggles for civil rights. Although armed Sikh militancy against the Indian government is in the past, there are strong residual resentments still requiring redress. All of this is of great relevance to understanding the ethics of armed force within modern Sikhism.

Pacifism is dirty: towards an ethico-political defence

ABSTRACTThis article argues that pacifism is best understood and defended not as a noble but untenable ideal, nor as a watered down version of just war theory, nor even as a strategic commitment to the use of non-violent means, but rather as an ethico-political practice committed to a world without war and militarism.