Political Tool Research Articles

Faith, politics, and power: The evolution of secularism and authoritarianism in Bangladesh

AbstractThis third article in the 2024 World Affairs special issue examines the intricate interplay between secularism, religious sentiment, and authoritarian politics in postindependence Bangladesh. Despite being founded on secular principles in 1971, the notion of Bangladesh as a strictly secular state is challenged. This article contends that while secularism was enshrined as a foundational state principle, its imposition occurred top‐down, diverging from prevailing societal ethos. The immediacy of the public backlash following its inclusion compelled ruling elites to adopt religion‐sensitive policies. I assert that the widespread religiosity among the populace steered subsequent political decisions. Notably, the shift from secularism to state‐sponsored Islam, the elevation of Islamic figures to cabinet roles, the recognition of Qawmi madrassa credentials, and the proliferation of Islamic rhetoric ensued. Analyzing a blend of archival data and field interviews, the article argues that the current authoritarian regime, emerging from an unconsolidated democratic framework, strategically exploits Islam as a political tool for legitimacy. By tapping into the prevailing Islamic sentiment, the regime aims to solidify its hold on power and navigate the complex political landscape of contemporary Bangladesh.

Modernity and Politics: A Study of Cultural Identity in Manipur

Cultural identity resonates with the categories of 'personal' and 'social' identity vis-à-vis the ideas of politics and culture. The emergence and evolution of the idea of social identity in any society's political, social, and cultural context are determined by imperialism. This imperialism may come in various forms in the vicinity, even overthrowing one language and culture over dominance. It is evident in the context of Indian history, partly and evidently. However, beyond the proximity of nationhood, few important insights, eras and events that took place in North-East India are so far neglected, especially in Manipur. Concerning this, we explored the role of imperialism in resolving a parcel of conflict on the cultural identity, language as one of the tools, and religion as the basis for cultural divides. In this review, we observed that language had shaped the foundation of historic and cultural identity in Manipur. Secondly, the tussle in religious practices, which, in turn, becomes a political tool for cultural identity and divides. Thirdly, the rise in the ethnic discontentment of various ethnicities and minorities settling in the State is due to the above two reasons.  

The outlook of global power from an energy policy perspective

AbstractPower is one of the key concepts for understanding world politics and great power's competition in international relations. In this regard, the main question of this paper is what will be the outlook of global power from an energy perspective in the 21st century? Based on the qualitative method and the comparative approach, the hypothesis of the paper is that the hegemonic power's ability to control and secure energy as a strategic commodity will be one of the main components of global power in the future. Considering the changes that have taken place in the 21st century, especially their impact on energy policy, the aim of the article is to examine the perspective of global power. Research findings show that in competition for achieving superiority in world politics, the European Union's dependence on energy constantly makes its position in the global arena more vulnerable. Russia, following the war in Ukraine and the use of energy as a political tool, faces a structural limitation of power in the short term. Moreover, China's position as the largest energy consumer in the hegemonic competition is affected by its energy security concerns. Also, the United States, as a producer and exporter of energy, will try to stabilise its hegemonic position in the competition with competing players, including China and Russia, by shaping new energy geopolitics and controlling the global energy markets.

The Populist Name Game: About Populism and Naming

For populist leaders, naming is an important political tool, helping them to consolidate their leadership while harming the legitimacy of their opponents. The article offers a theoretical framework explaining populist tactical uses of naming; how they name and misname their opponents. The explanation locates the naming tactics within the overall populist framework as a thin-centered ideology. The following three naming tactics are described and analyzed: (1) coining ridiculing nicknames, (2) appropriating existing nicknames, and (3) avoiding the opponent’s name. To substantiate the theoretical arguments, we discursively analyze these three tactics, as were employed by the former US president, Donald Trump, the prime minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.

Derecognition Diplomacy: a Study of Morocco’s Foreign Policy on the Western Sahara

Summary International recognition, and its revocation, derecognition, have important legal and practical implications. This article addresses the issue of derecognition as a foreign policy strategy answering the question: what are the strategies that origin states pursue to achieve the derecognition of contested states? Analysis of the foreign policy of Morocco towards the Western Sahara shows that origin states do indeed seek derecognition as a policy goal, primarily using economic and domestic political tools. International law and identity linkages appear to play a more rhetorical than influential role. Power politics is notably absent from recogniser state decision-making, but lack of great power interest may foster the sense of ambiguity under which derecognition thrives. This article provides a theory of derecognition foreign policy; a taxonomy of recogniser states into holdouts, reversers and cyclers; and a plausibility probe of the relationship between recogniser states and their associated foreign policy tools.

Kontekst małżeństwa Bony Sforzy z Zygmuntem I Starym: dyplomacja Maksymiliana I we Włoszech i Środkowej Europie

This article will focus on the circumstances which contributed to the 1517 dynastic marriage of Bona Sforza of Milan to Sigismund I the Elder of Poland. It will examine the decline of Sforza and Neapolitan Aragon influence on the Apennine Peninsula in the face of Valois and Habsburg claims to supremacy. This article aims to place Habsburg diplomatic manoeuvring to secure the installation of Maximillian I’s niece as Queen of Poland in the context of Habsburg-Valois rivalry in Italy and Habsburg ambitions for dominance in Central Europe where they challenged the Jagiellon dynasts of Bohemia and Hungary, and of Poland and Lithuania. This article will demonstrate that the contracting of the Sforza-Jagiellon marriage was initiated by Maximillian I as an extension of a deliberate and assertive Habsburg policy. Habsburg policy objectives included removal of the prime claimant to the throne of Milan and the placing of a queen acquiescent to Habsburg strategy at the Jagiellon court in Poland. This article will conclude that the marriage was used by the Habsburgs as a dynastic and political tool to limit the Jagiellon dynasty’s power and authority in Central Europe.

Reverberating Silence: The Termination of Bells and Bell Ringing as an Exercise of Political Power

ABSTRACT The personal and community identity of many areas of greater Europe has been interwoven with religious practice, with the ringing of church bells often dictating the quotidian rhythms of life. The symbolism of churches and church bells can be likened to that of monuments, with the erection of bell towers and the installation of bells engendering certain political powers, both in the secular and sacred realm. Just as the creation of an auditory marker can be deemed a political tool, the cessation or absence of this marker can be similarly considered political in nature. This document will examine the termination of bells and bell ringing as an exercise of political power either as symbolic acts of conquest or through purely utilitarian reasons, and consider the restitution of bells as a further symbolic exercise of political power by the victors and an act of contrition by the vanquished. Finally, it will discuss how the historical imposition of the silencing of meaningful sounds may have heritage implications in the modern world.

Between Separatism and Pragmatism: Judaism as National Identity in the Haredi Political Discourse

The Zionist perception of the Jewish people as a nation caused the Ultra-orthodox discourse split in the 1930s into two main positions. One taking a passive but reluctant stance, which held an indifferent non-Zionist position. And the second, a strong anti-Zionism perspective that established an uncompromising theological conception that saw Zionism no less as an act of Satan. With the establishment of the State of Israel, the ultra-Orthodox leadership was forced to decide how to conduct politicly in the “Jewish state”. two main positions shaped the discourse. one by Rabbi Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz, (Chazon Ish), that proposed a pragmatic approach holding utilitarian nature. And the other that demanded severe separatism and presented an alienating and hostile attitude to the very idea that the ultra-Orthodox leadership would take part in the Israeli political game, by led Rabbi Yoel Moshe Teitelbaum of Satmar. By examining the ideological, theological and halakhic origins of each of the approaches, this article seeks to show that the position held by the Satmar Rebbe in the context of the question of the character of the Jewish people, has a common and surprising ideological basis between Zionism and the serve ultra-Orthodox position, who sees the Jewish people as a nation. While the pragmatic view considered the Jewish people as a religious community, therefore treats the Jewish state only as a hollow political tool, what enabled political flexibility, which largely reminded the political conduct of the Agudat Israel in Eastern Europe between two world wars.

Price of Mobility

This research paper explores the origins of the border industrial complex, current American policies supported by private corporations regarding border infrastructure, and the impact of these policies on Central American asylum seekers. My investigation draws from critical border studies literature on the existence of borders as political tools as opposed to ‘neutral lines’ demarcating sovereignty, interrogating how border policies fuel the neoliberal economy. Given this background, I examine the commercialization of human mobility using border policies at the U.S.-Mexico border as a case study. The question at the core of my investigation is: to what extent does corporate investment in U.S-Mexico border militarization obstruct protection for Central American migrants seeking asylum in the United States? In response, I argue that the issue of corporate involvement in U.S. border policy is important to examine because of how it impedes the implementation of progressive immigration policy by centering the border security market, and decentering human rights. More specifically, I contend that border violence as funded by corporate investment in state bordering becomes a way of maintaining racial hierarchy through movement and citizenship restrictions against racialized migrants from the Global South.

The politics of electricity use and non-use in late Ottoman Istanbul.

This article focuses on the earlier encounters and uses of electricity, its technology, and its infrastructure to understand how electricity formed a contested terrain of politics among the city's varying actors, such as state officials, financial investors, and consumers, in late Ottoman Istanbul, roughly between the 1870s and early 1920s. I contend that people used electricity as a political tool in their everyday lives even before they could access it physically. Electricity skepticism during the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (1876-1909) increased Istanbul residents' inclination for an electrified future; the longer the sultan's prohibitions lasted, the more they fueled this inclination, causing problems about the use of electricity. In contrast to the previous regime's skepticism about electricity use, the Committee of Union and Progress (1909-18) administrators considered electricity a public service that a larger population could use rather than a source of energy for a small, privileged elite. The first urban-scale power plant was completed in 1914. However, the inability to import technical equipment and raw materials due to political and financial troubles caused by World War I (1914-18) and the Occupation Period (1918-23) hampered electricity production and consumption, causing serious problems in electricity use on public and private scales. Amid the wave of challenges, the city inhabitants witnessed numerous unpleasant encounters with electricity use; some perished in tram accidents, while others became criminals. At a time when much of society viewed electricity as a vital element for progress and economic growth, the prevalence of crowded trams, tram accidents, blackouts, and instances of electricity theft within the Ottoman capital called into question the notion of electricity as a technological promise and public good. Consequently, the initial enthusiasm for electricity's transformative potential waned due to tensions between expectations and daily realities, resulting in a cautious approach toward technological modernity.

How teacher wellbeing can be cruel: refusing discourses of wellbeing in an online Reddit forum

Teacher wellbeing is a growing international concern. Despite teachers’ experiences being deleteriously impacted by education policies and organisational conditions, dominant discourses of wellbeing focus on strategies that enhance individual self-management of wellbeing. This paper critically examines teacher wellbeing and the counter-discourses of wellbeing mobilised by teachers on an online platform, Reddit. Contributors criticise the wellbeing approaches taken in their schools and education systems. They react to the erasure of how work conditions impact their wellbeing. These forums speak back to the assumption that teachers are deficient and that teachers must be positive in self-managing their wellbeing. We coin the term ‘cruel wellbeing’ to critique wellbeing programs that neglect teachers’ challenging work conditions. We question the practices of training teachers to assume responsibility for their wellbeing using strategies of positivity. We suggest that social media is an important political tool for creating and circulating counter-discourses of teachers’ work.

Decolonising diversity

The numerical ordering of a population according to racial and ethnic characteristics has its roots in the population census. As a political instrument developed for colonial rule it has lasting legacies in post-colonial governments and, despite well-intentioned efforts, it continues to define racial politics to this day. This case study traces the history of the modern census used in the territory currently known as South Africa since 1865 to the present day, exemplifying it as a political tool for the development of ‘race’ as a political concept in the region. Such census-like technologies are employed in racial diversity schemes throughout the world, often linked to monitoring employment opportunities; the historical development of ‘race’ as a concept within such instruments however is often left unexplored. In this paper I contend legacies of empire are reproduced through the schemes justified as offering compensation and restitution for racialised colonial oppression. Restitution schemes often place emphasis on either race or economic background, however this study demonstrates ethnicity has a larger role to play than others have considered in the past.

The "excessive secularization" of contemporary college students in the new era: returning to the unity of rationality and value rationality in ideological and political education tools.

This article is based on the progress and development of the new era and the spread of instrumental rationality in the context of moral agnosticism, resulting in an excessive secularization tendency among college students in the new era. It proposes to analyze and explain the inherent logical principles through theoretical reasoning, and guide college students to establish harmonious, correct, and healthy values through the application of Marxist ideological and political education with epistemological and methodological perspectives.

Political Imagination and Utopian Pedagogy

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the theorisation of utopian pedagogy by exploring how arts-based exercises can be used in engaged pedagogy to facilitate the cultivation of political imagination. Engaging with theoretical discussions of utopian thought and political imagination, we draw on pedagogical experiments from our sociology course “Exercises in Political Imagination” to pose the following questions: How can arts-based exercises be used in engaged pedagogy to foster political imagination? What kinds of tensions or difficulties does this process involve? What kinds of conceptions of politics and social change do these exercises produce? On the basis of our pedagogical experiments, we suggest that the notion and practice of utopian pedagogy is characterised by the following features: disengagement from—and disinvestment in—the status quo as a means by which to open up imaginative capacities; an approach to politics as something that emerges from the process of exercising imagination and that emphasises complex interconnections between the personal and political; an understanding of imagination as a collective process rather than an individual disposition; and encouragement to embrace a variety of scales for social change, observing both their entanglement and emancipatory potential in everyday life. The article concludes that utopian pedagogy can serve as an important tool of transformative politics by facilitating political imagination and widening the horizon of the possible in the context of the neoliberalisation of higher education.

Culinary heritage in Asia: National and regional identities – Reflections from the field

This review provides an overview of research trends on culinary heritage in Asia. The first objective is to trace a shift from the appreciation of a Western tangible cultural heritage to the recognition of non-Western intangible cultural heritage, which has underlined the prominence of food as a marker for culinary nationalism or gastronationalism (DeSoucey, 2010). Asian nations promote their culinary heritage in competitive ways. The second objective is to examine the construction of a culinary heritage on regional levels through four different case studies on China and Japan. The third objective is to showcase a rich body of research in English that has emerged in response to new forms of culinary nationalism and has emphasized the analysis of food as a powerful tool for understanding politics and international relations. This review finds that the objective of heritagization on the global level often constitutes nation branding. In contrast, culinary heritage construction on regional levels may occur for various reasons, such as branding a regional specialty, providing economic opportunities for small-scale entrepreneurs, or maintaining historical bonds between a diasporic community and their town of origin.

Indonesian Political Populism in the Agrarian Sector

This article seeks to understand the role of populist ideology in marginalizing the agrarian sector and the agrarian populism movement in Indonesia in the Reformation Era. Indonesia is an agricultural country, so such marginalization and the limited involvement of the agrarian movement is ironic. Development studies see the marginalization of the agrarian sector as a consequence of the reorientation of economic development towards the industrial and service sectors, mostly in urban areas. Studies like this often do not look at the political side of the marginalization. This study aims to fill this gap by analyzing the phenomenon in Indonesia utilizing Margaret Canovan’s populist approach. The findings show the influence of political populism on the marginalization of the agrarian sector in the reformation era in Indonesia. Pragmatic, populist leaders exploited ‘the people’ as a political rhetorical tool to gain power without touching the agricultural sector where ‘the people’ reside.

The Air Iron Curtain of the 21st Century: the Ukraine of the Air | A Cortina de Ferro Aérea do Século XXI: as Ucrânias do Ar

“Ukraine” means borderland and the concept of border encompasses the notion of lines that determine the land, sea and air spaces of sovereignty and responsibility of all Nation-States. As so, we can argue that aerial ukraines are defined by the so-called Flight Information Regions (FIR). The Nation-States or the groups of Nation-States should guarantee the safety and assistance ofaircraft operating in their respective FIR. However, they can also close them for national security reasons, especially in cases of war, or use them as political and geopolitical tools, to obtain advantages over other Nation-Sates, namely their opponents. By studying the main events regarding aviation’s history like the first international flight and the events occurred since the 2004 presidential elections in Ukraine and the political decisions regarding sanctions, this article addresses the effects of the Ukrainian war on the Eurasian aviation, discussing, among other themes, the geographical, geopolitical, social, and economic implications. After three decades of globalization, it was perhaps inconceivable to return to a world of closed skies. However, that reality is back and even if it isn’t transversal to the entire world, the political weight of the rise of an aerial iron curtain of the 21st century is undeniable.

Marxism and/as Black Theology: From Cone to West and Back Again

ABSTRACT This paper argues three primary points. First, that James Cone analytically relied on and supported Marxist political economy, especially as concerns its use as an explanation of anti-Black racism. Second, that this Marxist dimension of Cone’s work should be supported, because Marxism remains the most effective political and analytical tool for improving the material conditions of the exploited. Third, that despite his analytical adherence to Marxism as an explanatory theory for understanding and overcoming racism, Cone did not analytically clarify the structural relationship between race and class. This conflation becomes problematic for Cone’s project when class differences and wealth inequality within the Black community – and every “community” – are exacerbated. This shortcoming can be redressed by Cone’s interlocutor Cornel West, who offers a Marxist understanding of the relationship between race and class that allows him to pursue an emancipatory politics that is committed to both anti-racism and anti-capitalism.

Dealing with the past and the path to transitional justice: A comparative analysis of South Korea and Albania

AbstractThis article compares the authoritarian regimes of early South Korea and Albania, identifying historical anecdotes of state authoritarianism that resulted in state‐led crimes and human rights violations. It identifies the historical connections between the establishment and maintenance of authoritarian regimes, as well as the consequences of such meticulous upkeep, by comparing and contrasting the efforts made in dealing with the past and lustration, as well as their significance for peace and stability. We compare the South Korean and Albanian cases from these perspectives to find similarities and differences. By comparing two different countries with similar authoritarian pasts, this article analyzes the efforts of both countries towards transitional justice, and unified rhetoric across the political spectrum for lustration and punishment of past crimes, and discovered that when it comes to practice, these laws tend to be unilateral and were strongly challenged in courts and used as political tools against ideological opponents.

Сучасні тенденції розвитку комунікаційної діяльності як інструменту публічного адміністрування

The article analyzes the communication paradigm of relations between government and society. The main functions of state communication are analyzed. Different stages of the communicative process are considered. Modern approaches in the field of management of political and communicative processes in government bodies are highlighted. Attention is drawn to the complication of the social structure and connections, the increase of non-state participants in the political process, the formation of the infrastructure of the information society, and the growing role of horizontal connections, which require new approaches in managing political processes. The focus of the scientific article is on new communication practices and the possibilities of their use in political activity, among which strategic management technologies and PR activities, crowdsourcing technology, Internet technologies, and network communities stand out. On the one hand, new information technologies can significantly transform the modern communication practices of authorities, contributing to the establishment of rigid forms of power based on subordination and subject-object relations. On the other hand, information can be used to form a new image of power, which received the concept of “soft power” in the literature, using “soft technologies”. In modern democratic states, for the most part, the interaction of authorities with the objects of the socio-political process is ensured by using political communication tools and developing feedback mechanisms. The role of communication relations in the public administration system is growing, and the communication component of political reality is changing and becoming increasingly complicated. Legitimate interaction mechanisms between authorities and society are now formally established in Ukraine. However, their effectiveness is constantly questioned by both political scientists and the very objects of the socio-political process. The strategic transformations currently taking place in the country’s political life, following a change during political and socio-economic development, also suggest a change in the political and communication component of the political process. At the same time, the government itself at the highest level puts forward new requirements for political communication of the authorities, which consist of a reorientation to an open discussion of the strategies and directions of the country’s development, as well as a transition to an open and interactive format of interaction. Keywords: public administration, communication, public relations, public communication, stages of communication.