Subsequent War Research Articles

Wake-up call for recovery: a paradigm shift to address the deep crisis in Israel’s public mental health services in the shadow of October 7, 2023

BackgroundThe events of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war have starkly exposed the shortcoming of Israel’s public mental health system. This system, already strained by years of underfunding and the COVID-19 pandemic, was unprepared for the surge in mental health needs resulting from these traumatic events. This paper outlines the systemic failures and proposes a comprehensive overhaul reform towards an integrative community-based, recovery-oriented mental health service.Main bodyIsrael’s mental health crisis is exacerbated by four converging vectors: a global diagnostic crisis in psychiatry, insufficient biological treatments, chronic underfunding, and a fragmented service model. Diagnostic practices, centered on outdated classifications, fail to address the complexity of severe mental illnesses, resulting in imprecise diagnoses and insufficient treatments. Despite the advent of psychopharmacology, significant advancements in drug efficacy are lacking, with recovery rates stagnating or declining. Financially, mental health in Israel receives only 5.2% of the health budget, far below the 10–16% seen in high-GDP Western countries. The community mental health services reform in 2015 lack effective oversight and incentives, leading to long wait times and inadequate care. Additionally, the fragmentation among funding entities—HMOs, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Welfare—hampers coordinated care and comprehensive service delivery.ConclusionThe proposed solution involves shifting from a hospital-biomedical -based to an integrated community-based model, emphasizing recovery over symptom management, based on regional mental health centres as hubs of services. This requires significant investment in community mental health teams, crisis intervention, home treatment, and integrated services. Early intervention, technology utilization, economic incentives for community-based care, and patient and family involvement are crucial components. This transformation aims to create a holistic, efficient, and patient-centered mental health system, better equipped to handle future challenges and reduce the societal and economic burdens of mental illness in Israel.

The effects of war-related experiences on mental health symptoms of individuals living in conflict zones: a longitudinal study

On October 7, 2023, a large-scale attack in southern Israel and the subsequent war resulted in extensive loss of life and injuries, with many individuals experiencing traumatic losses, such as family members or close friends being killed or kidnapped. This study aims to longitudinally examine its effects on mental health, specifically, clinical symptoms of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We anticipated greater symptom severity among individuals who experienced traumatic loss, were forcibly displaced, or suffered income loss, as well as among women and members of ethnic minorities. This three-wave online survey study assessed mental health symptoms in a sample of 1052 individuals, aged 18–40, residing in conflict zones in Israel from February 2024 (day 1), through March 2024 (day 30), to May 2024 (day 90). Symptoms of anxiety, depression, and PTSD were measured using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and Primary Care PTSD Screen (PC-PTSD). Individuals experiencing traumatic losses, forced displacement, or economic hardships, as well as females, consistently demonstrated higher rates of anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms compared to those without such experiences or to males, across all time points (F values ranged from 17.7 to 215.3, p < .001). For ethnic minorities (Arab and other), as compared to Jewish, anxiety and depression symptoms were higher at every time point (F = 8.3–97.1, p = .004 to < .001). This study highlights the urgent need for targeted mental health interventions in conflict zones, particularly for affected individuals. Further research should expand these findings to broader populations.

Revealing the zone of possible agreement between parties in conflict: An application to Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements.

After Hamas' attack on 2023 October 7 and Israel's subsequent war, a pressing question is the nature of a postwar peace agreement. Peace negotiations often become deadlocked due to difficulties in identifying mutually advantageous agreements. A large-scale survey task and method is developed to identify the strength of preference for components of potential peace deals and changes to the status quo. Analyzing pre-October 7 representative samples of Israelis and Palestinians reveals a Zone of Possible Agreement, demonstrating shared preferences for deals that improve daily life. Violence exposure hampers compromise among Israelis, emphasizing the importance of abstaining from violence for conflict resolution.

Post-traumatic stress symptoms and war-related concerns among pregnant women: The contribution of self-mastery and intolerance of uncertainty.

Exposure to traumatic events can significantly impact individuals' mental health, particularly of more vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women. This study focuses on Israeli pregnant women following the terror attack on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war. It aims to examine the contribution of background and pregnancy-related characteristics, exposure to the traumatic events and personal resources (self-mastery, intolerance of uncertainty) to post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and war-related concerns about oneself, close others, the fetus and raising the baby who is about to be born. Pregnant women (n = 175) aged 20-45 (M = 31.14, SD = 5.26) were recruited through social media and completed online self-report questionnaires. Direct traumatic exposure, lower self-mastery and higher intolerance of uncertainty contributed to women's PTSS; lower self-mastery and higher intolerance of uncertainty contributed to most concerns; direct exposure to the traumatic events contributed to concerns about the fetus and raising the baby. The findings expand existing knowledge concerning resources related to PTSS and various war-related concerns. Mental health professionals should be informed of these variables when planning interventions with this population.

The First Years of the Kaunas Dominicans (1641–1655)

The aim of this article is to analyse the process of the establishment of the Kaunas Dominicans between 1631 and 1641, and to discuss the first years of the Kaunas friary’s existence up to the occupation of Kaunas in 1655, and the subsequent wars and cataclysms. It was in this period that the foundations of the Kaunas friary’s existence were laid and the main devotional practices were formed. Even though the historian Sławomir Brzozecki has revealed the main moments in the existence of the Lithuanian province of the Dominicans, and Jurgis Oksas has conducted research into the development of the plot of land administered by the Kaunas Dominicans and the construction of the church and friary, the structure, activities and importance of the Kaunas Dominican community have yet to be discussed. In this article, the establishment of the Dominicans in Kaunas is shown in the context of the formation of the Lithuanian Dominican Province, the role of the provincial Petroniusz Kamieński in creating the Kaunas friary is shown, the dating of the founding of the Kaunas friary is corrected, the sponsor-patrons and other people of goodwill, and the institution’s material situation, are discussed, the first known Dominican friars and features of their daily life are determined, and their devotional practices, which reflect general trends in the Dominican Order, are described, pointing out local features. This research is important as a case study for revealing the activities of the Dominicans in the Early Modern Period.

Berlin and Brandenburg as “laboratories” of Jewish-Muslim encounter

Currently, Jewish and Muslim communities can be found as ethno-cultural minorities both in Berlin, the capital of Germany, and in the surrounding state of Brandenburg. While they sometimes differ greatly in religious and cultural life, both communities also share similar experiences - such as the (former) existence as immigrants, the image of the “cultural other” and the confrontation with group-related misanthropy (anti-Semitism and Islamophobia). Moreover, there are Jewish-Muslim encounters, there are forms of encounter between Muslims and Jews in the region, in different milieus and intercultural and interreligious projects that appear as a kind of “experimental laboratory”. Though, what are the differences, what are the similarities between the two groups? Finally, this article also relates to how October 7th 2023, Hamas’ brutal massacres of Israeli civilians and the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip influence relationships between Muslims and Jews in Berlin and Brandenburg today.

Daniel Bar‐Tal, on the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict, before and after October 7, 2023: In conversation with James Liu and Veronica Hopner

AbstractThe Israel‐Palestinian conflict is one of the most well‐known and polarizing issues that has impacts on societies, and institutions beyond Israel, and Palestine. This interview with prominent social scientist Daniel Bar‐Tal, Professor Emeritus, School of Education, Tel Aviv University, focused on the situation in Israel and Palestine following the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza. Interviews such as this are an academic inquiry drawing on the expert analysis of a scholar‐activist, grounded in research and theory. As such an analysis, Bar‐Tal explains the causes of this war, its context, its process, the contribution of each side to its escalation, and its effects on the possibilities of peaceful conflict resolution between Israeli Jews and Palestinians. He describes the current situation as governed by considerations of realpolitik, contestations over what defines antisemitism, and whether Israeli conduct in Gaza constitutes genocide or ethnic cleansing. This interview enables the application of Bar‐Tal's systematic and holistic Theory of Intractable Conflict to the current crisis to interrogate how ethos of conflict, collective memory, and collective emotional orientation dynamically interconnect to form a culture of conflict. But also, how these elements can also be addressed for solutions to enable peaceful resolutions.

Central Bank Digital Currencies and International Crises: Toward an Authoritarian International Monetary Order?

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) may be viewed as an adaptive response to a perceived threat from stablecoins, but international crises matter. Covid-19 induced a top-down digital transformation of the economy, a more state-led economy with contact-free payments, while Russia’s subsequent war in Ukraine and the Western sanctions against Russia have further increased the incentive to use blockchain technology and CBDCs as political enterprises to neutralize the effects of sanctions, and thereby as weapons in economic warfare. This article considers Covid-19 as a turning point, amplified by Russia’s war in Ukraine, and applies fiscal sociology to analyze the use of blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and CBDCs as policy tools to establish economic and political hegemony, where CBDCs may contribute to the emergence of an authoritarian international monetary order. A fragmented order, involving conflict between an autocratic society bloc and an open society bloc, would be feasible, but such a conflict may make open societies more authoritarian. In open societies, cryptocurrencies and stablecoins belong to the market square, while CBDCs belong to the public square, but CBDCs may blur the boundaries of those squares, submitting the market square to the public square. Payment systems may become public–private partnerships controlled by central banks, turning the squares into fortresses and transforming them from open access orders to limited access orders.

Israel's civil society 2023 from protest to aid provision - a serving elite perspective.

The year 2023 in Israel started with illiberal constitutional change efforts by the new right-wing government and concluded with a brutal attack by Hamas terrorists and the subsequent war. Both occurrences galvanized two massive surges of civil society activism. The first was a mass protest that impeded the government's undemocratic legislation. The second was a large-scale mobilization to support a variety of populations affected by the war, providing services and goods that supplanted the failed governmental crisis response. Using a Serving Elite perspective and elaborating on this concept in the Israeli context, the paper analyzes the organizations that transitioned overnight from protest to service delivery. While these are two known roles played by civil society in general, such a transition from protest to support within the same organization is unusual, if at all existent. The paper analyses nineteen (19) in-depth interviews with leaders of 10 prominent organizations active in the protest and the aid phases. It explores their participants, forms of organizing, activities, ideologies, and interconnections, particularly emphasizing the transition. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed the emergence of a new Serving Elite in the making, liberal in orientation, and developed during the crises. This perspective provides an opportunity to highlight processes deeply embedded in Israel's social, political, and cultural landscapes, changing elites and power relations, and Israel's culture of entrepreneurship. It also provides a framework for analyses of serving elites in other countries.

“Be Brave Like Ukraine”

This article synthesizes the authors’ earlier research on strategic communication in Ukraine during its first year of enduring Russia’s full-scale invasion and the subsequent war of aggression in 2022. The analysis is framed within the academic fields of strategic communication, military innovation theory, and theories on the mediatization of war. It aims to provide a nuanced understanding of Ukrainian strategic communication by focusing on how it is shaped and functions within specific historical, cultural, political, and social milieus, thus offering a holistic view of its evolution and impact during wartime. The article highlights the importance of approaching strategic communications as an all-encompassing task, engaging government bodies and the wider academic society for an evidence-based policy-based lessons-learned approach. It is argued that the Ukrainian case illustrates that effective strategic communication is deeply intertwined with consistent action, societal unity, political strategy, and national identity.

From Orientalism to neo-Orientalism: medial representations of Islam and the Muslim world

ABSTRACT The debate on Orientalist representations of Islam and/or Muslims has been rampant in academic literature since Edward Said’s publication of his seminal work Orientalism (1978). The articulation of this discourse however has transformed in due course. It has manifested into its new variant ‘neo-Orientalism’, which has gained prominence in the post-9/11 era. In this paper, I discuss the transition from Orientalism to neo-Orientalism, and argue that this new mode of representation does not exclusively result from the 9/11 events and the subsequent War on Terror, but also from the portrayals of Muslims in the last quarter of the twentieth century. These portrayals, disseminated with great intensity by people in the media, journalists, politicians, and Orientalist academics, as well as in literary and cultural productions, continue to reify narratives about Islam and Muslim societies. This paper concludes with the dynamics Orientalism holds and reveals the role authors of the Middle East and South Asia play in disseminating neo-Orientalist discourses with the often-detrimental effect of catering to and promoting modern-day Islamophobia in contemporary Western societies. This is briefly illustrated on the examples of Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers (2004), Qaisra Shahraz’s The Holy Woman (2001), and Uzma Aslam Khan’s Trespassing (2003).

„Atrastos“ senos istorijos: sovietmečio mitai apie 1918–1919 m. Vakarų sąjungininkų intervenciją į Rusijos šiaurę karo Ukrainoje kontekste. Mudjugo koncentracijos stovyklos muziejaus atvejis

The mythology of the foreign interference into the Russian civil war goes to the heart of the memory politics in Putin’s Russia today, most recently in connection with the invasion in Ukraine. In a bid to unite the country against perceived threats from the NATO alliance, the Russian leadership engages Soviet narratives going back to the Allied intervention into North Russia in 1918–1920, as a deterrent against association with the West. During Soviet times multiple memorials were created in the North to the victims of intervention in support of this narrative. Central to it was the Mudyug ‘concentration camp’ museum, established to demonstrate the atrocities of the intervention forces. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union this museum was branded as propaganda and eventually got decommissioned. Yet after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and subsequent war with Ukraine, the old intervention narratives saw a comeback. Backed by the state, the local memory activists in Arkhangelsk in North Russia took to restoring the Mudyug camp museum as a forepost of patriotic tourism in the region.

The Iranian Involvement in the War in Ukraine and its Implication on Broader Arenas as the Middle-East - The Test Case of Unmanned Drones

The war in Ukraine introduced new methods of combat. Washington Policy institute notes that 2,000-2,400 drones were ordered from Iran, while being launched towards Ukrainian infrastructures as electricity, according to Kiev. Iran had also used unmanned drones targeting civilian population centers. Through feedback and military buildup, Iran implements the noted strategy in parallel arenas via proxies as Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah had already threatened the Israeli gas rig Karish in July 2022. The noted combat drone tactics were implemented towards Israel in the Middle-Eastern arena, following the October 7th 2023 massacre and its subsequent war.

The Gaza War and the Region

Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack and the subsequent war in Gaza has forced the Palestinian question back to the top of the Middle Eastern agenda after years of neglect. The crisis has also confirmed Hamas’s identity as an agent of resistance rather than governance and shattered Israel’s perceptions of its own power, the competence of its security services and political leadership, and the manageability of its immediate neighbourhood. Israeli forces may well destroy Hamas’s advanced military capabilities and decapitate its Gaza-based command, but they are unlikely to obliterate Hamas as a social, political and ideological actor, and a determined insurgency. In Arab forums, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict will probably inhibit normalisation with Israel and overshadow other conflicts. Iran does not have an immediate interest in expanding the war and has other options through partners for signalling support for Hamas. The war broadly benefits Tehran by affirming its forward-defence strategy, re-energising its axis of resistance and shaking its regional rivals.

Toward an Account of the Nineteenth-Century Emergence of the Comparative Accusatorial/Inquisitorial Divide

Abstract Although the terms “inquisitorial” and “accusatorial” (or as those in the common law world prefer, “adversarial”) are fixtures of the comparative literature on procedure, there remains considerable disagreement regarding their definitions and indeed whether to continue using them at all. Yet, despite these debates, we know remarkably little about how the terms first emerged as central to comparative analysis. This Article begins the work of recovering this neglected history. It argues that the immediate spark—especially in Germany, Italy, and France—was the ongoing debate over the French Code of Criminal Procedure, introduced through Napoleonic conquest into large portions of Europe. After the 1815 Congress of Vienna and its pact of restoration, extensive discussion arose regarding whether, and to what extent, to preserve French law—including criminal procedure. So too, in the ensuing nationalist awakening, debates raged over the constitutional foundations of government, pitting defenders of the old order against proponents of more liberal regimes. As these debates regarding criminal procedure and constitutional politics unfurled, they came to intertwine, and were framed in the 1830s in terms of the accusatorial/inquisitorial divide. Since no comprehensive account of these distinct, but intersecting, debates is possible within these brief pages, the Article focuses primarily on France—the country whose revolution and subsequent wars of conquest played such a decisive role in launching these pan-European arguments in the first place. Profoundly influenced by their liberal nationalist (and imperialist) commitments, as well as by their embrace of an historicist approach to law that was widespread among contemporary scholars, French jurists developed the accusatorial/inquisitorial distinction in ways that continue to reflect these core aspects of their mindset. This forgotten history highlights several deep-rooted continuities in how the accusatorial/inquisitorial terminology has long been deployed, affording valuable cautionary notes, while also pointing toward more fruitful lines of procedural inquiry.

Years of life lost to revolution and war in Iran

AbstractHow was life expectancy in Iran affected by the Islamic Revolution and subsequent war with Iraq? This study examines the joint effect of regime change and the war against Iraq on life expectancy in Iran between 1978 and 1988. If there had been no revolution and war in Iran, how would the life expectancy of Iranians have developed? To answer this question, we use a synthetic control model to construct a counterfactual Iran based on a weighted average of other comparable countries, which reproduces the situation of pre‐revolution Iran but does not experience the revolution and war. We then compare the life expectancies of the counterfactual and actual Iran that underwent a regime change and war with Iraq. Our results indicate that an average Iranian's total life expectancy would have been approximately five years longer without the revolution and war. The revolution had a moderate long‐term impact on total life expectancy at birth, with the most significant influence being attributed to the war itself, particularly on male life expectancy. Our main findings are robust to a series of tests, including placebo tests. We investigate possible reasons that may explain the impact on longevity.

Partition, identity and belonging among Sikhs in the borderland district of Kargil, Ladakh

ABSTRACT Sikhs in Ladakh arrived as traders in Jammu and Kashmir, and settled around the major trading centres along the silk-route such as Skardu, Kargil, Leh in the then undivided erstwhile princely state as it existed before 1947-partition. Tracing their journey across tribulations of time, this paper studies identity and belonging among the Sikh-community living in the borderland town of Kargil through life-histories and oral-narratives collected on the ground. Despite having always existed as a small minority amidst an overwhelming Muslim majority, the work while recording the lived-experiences of the Sikhs during partition and, in times of subsequent wars in a post-partition era in this borderland, foregrounds the binding role that linguistic and territorial ethnic identity plays in a multi-religious community. In doing so, the work studies the parallel construction and evolution of a religious identity with that of an ethno-religious one, where shared ethnic-affiliations bind a multi-religious community together when religious differences tend to divide them.

The Presidency of George W. Bush by John Robert Greene

Reviewed by: The Presidency of George W. Bush by John Robert Greene Joel Webster The Presidency of George W. Bush. By John Robert Greene. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2021. Pp. 421. Notes, bibliographical essay, index.) While not the first attempt to make sense of the presidency of George W. Bush, John Robert Greene's book takes advantage of both a suitable distance from his subject—over a decade since "the most tumultuous presidency of the modern period" (xi)—and the availability of the archival records of the George W. Bush Presidential Library that opened to research in 2013. As the latest installment of the American Presidency Series from the University Press of Kansas, this work clearly sets the bar for future attempts to understand Bush's two terms. This is not, nor does it attempt to be, a traditional biography. It is instead a political analysis that utilizes fresh evidence and time to ponder its conclusions. Despite being academic in nature, it is highly readable and strikes a strong balance between narrative and analysis. Greene's criticisms of the existing literature, academic or otherwise, about President Bush is its almost single-minded focus on the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent War on Terror. While this is a significant piece of the story that must be told, Greene seeks to show that there was more than that to the man and to his administration's plans and accomplishments. Greene starts at the beginning of Bush's life and assesses how his West Texas roots and patrician ties, through both family and formal education, defined and challenged his early life. Greene emphasizes Bush's effort to learn from his father's political career, to distance himself from it, and to prove that he was his own successful man. Part of this process is shown through two life-altering events: quitting heavy drinking and adopting born-again Christianity. Another key to revealing that Bush's story is bigger than the War on Terror is Greene's illustrating that much of Bush's domestic policy was built on his experience as governor of Texas. This pre-presidential material takes up almost one-third of the content. As for Bush's time in the White House, Greene discusses the dark days after September 11, Hurricane Katrina, and the opening of two Middle Eastern wars to understand how and why the Bush Administration handled and mishandled them. Bush's use of bipartisan solutions and support, another strategy from his days as governor, and his self-identification as a "compassionate conservative" (32), provided Bush and the Republican Party with opportunities to reform education, the welfare system, and Medicare. In the realm of foreign policy, Greene suggests that Bush's version of conservatism pushed him to provide massive funding to curtail AIDS in Africa. Given Greene's criticism of the focus in Bush literature on September 11 and the War on Terror, one can see his efforts here as [End Page 606] an attempt to shift that focus and in the process unveil other aspects of President Bush and his presidency. Future authors will undoubtedly find some fault with Greene's work either as new evidence comes to light or other lines of argument are employed, but as a single-volume history of President George W. Bush that is told in just over three hundred pages of text, this book will stand as the one with which all forthcoming works must contend. Joel Webster Texas Tech University Copyright © 2022 The Texas State Historical Association

Accurate Identification of Leishmania Parasites in Sand Flies by Polymorphism Analysis of Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit 2 Gene Using Polymerase Chain Reaction and Quantitative PCR-High Resolution Melting Techniques in Iranian Border with Iraq.

Firmly identification of Leishmania in Phlebotomus papatasi and understanding of natural transmission cycles of parasites in sand flies are important for treatment and local control. Modified and developed method of High Resolution Melting (HRM) as a preferable technique was employed to accurate identification of Leishmania in sand flies from Iranian border with Iraq, by targeting cytochrome oxidase II (COII) gene and designing suitable primers. PCR products cloned into pTG19-T vector, then purified plasmid concentration was measured at 260 and 280nm wavelength. The melting curve plots were generated and DNA sequences were analyzed using Sequencher 3.1.1, CLC Main Workbench 5.5, MEGA 6, DnaSP5.10.01 and MedCalc® version 13.3.3 soft wares. Among about 3000 collected sand flies, 89 female Ph. papatasi were identified and two with L. major. In amplified fragment of COII gene among 611bp, 452bp had no genetic variations with low polymorphic sites (P= 0.001) and high synonymous (79.8%) as compare to non-synonymous sites (20.2%). Leishmania major was discriminated in Ph. papatasi with 0.84 °C melting temperature (Tm) and unique curve based on thermodynamic differences was an important criterion using HRM technique. Subsequent war in Iraq made a high risk habitat for parasites transmission. It is important to discover accurate diagnostic procedures for leishmaniasis control.

Russia’s and America’s 21st-century wars: Mirror images?

In this article, we look at 21st-century warfare in the context of two great powers: Russia and America. Russian and American invasions and subsequent wars are evaluated in terms of why and how they are fought, legal and moral considerations, impact, outcomes, and consequences. The article examines similarities and differences in strategy and methods, expanding on the increasingly popular remote warfare. Finally, we assess the decisive role of science and technology in war, raising questions about the future of AI warfare.