Verge Of War Research Articles

Prostitution as non-labour leading to forced labour. Vagrancy and Gender in Sweden and Stockholm, 1919–1939

ABSTRACT As in many countries, the inter-war years in Sweden were a turbulent period involving economic crisis, ensuing depression, unemployment and political instability, but also cultural change, emancipation, the granting of the right to vote for women, increased social rights and social welfare. During this period of change, legal remnants from the Middle Ages, such as vagrancy legislation, were in place to control specific parts of society. The legislation stated that people without means of sustenance who lived in a ‘manner … that is hazardous to public security, order and decency’ could be arrested and sentenced to forced labour. Although they generally decreased in number, sentences of forced labour continued to be enforced, and women were almost exclusively sentenced on suspicion of prostitution. When women’s labour was discussed during the inter-war period prostitution was discussed as moral contagion, rather than as a way to support oneself. In practice, in the Stockholm area, vagrancy legislation was used as an arbitrary method to partly uphold the regulation of prostitution, which was abolished in 1919. Sentences to forced labour decreased over time, partly through legislative changes. Still, when Europe was on the verge of war, there were still a handful of women and men who were sentenced to forced labour specifically because of their way of life.

On the Verge of War: Black Insurgency, the ‘Christie Affair’, and British Antislavery in Brazil

ABSTRACT This article examines Black subversive renderings of British antislavery during the Anglo-Brazilian crisis of the 1860s. It focuses on insurgent perspectives of the so-called ‘Christie Affair’, a diplomatic and military imbroglio that pushed Britain and Brazil to the brink of a war over the future of slavery in 1862–63. Although usually seen as a benchmark in the consolidation of the Brazilian national state, the incident brings into view an insurgent form of abolitionism that developed alongside the cessation of the transatlantic slave trade. Borrowing from a belief in international alliances that had long rallied self-liberating communities all over the Americas, afro-descendants read British gunboat diplomacy as a sign of solidarity with Black liberation in Brazil. In 1863, enslaved, freedpeoples, and quilombolas rose up in the provinces of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Pará, among others. In so doing, they redirected the theme of ‘foreign influence’ into a tradition of diasporic warfare against enslavement, radicalizing British antislavery to mean a decisive alliance for the end of bondage in Brazil.

Transience and Waiting in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West

ABSTRACT This article explores the central themes in Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West (2017) by focusing on the complexities of finding oneself placeless and seeking refuge in an unwelcoming global world with porous borders. It examines different aspects of the experience of time, such as transience and waiting, by drawing on postcolonial and refugee studies and theoretical approaches to vulnerability, time, and being. Set in an unnamed city in an unnamed country on the verge of war, Hamid portrays the shattering of everyday life in the city by following the lives of Saeed and Nadia, their growing love relationship, and the impact of their subsequent escape through “magic doors” to several places of refuge on their relationship and understanding of the world. Their story is interspersed with vignettes on several secondary characters who also become refugees by being transposed through magic doors to new locations. By using magic doors and by accelerating, compressing and conflating events and times—the effect of which universalizes the theme of transience and proximity of death—Exit West exposes us to the global history of suffering and invites us to bear witness to the suffering of others and to become aware of our own finitude and the obligations our common vulnerability places on us.

“Bodies and Things, Both Putrid and Corrupt”: Miasma and Racial Anxiety in Hawthorne's The Marble Faun

Abstract As the forces of racial anxiety and pandemic combined in America in 2020 in the BLM protests and COVID-19 outbreak, so too they combine in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Marble Faun (1860) in the form of antebellum racism and malaria. Written shortly after his European tour, Hawthorne's final novel, which is packed with comments about the poisonous Roman air, features New England artists Hilda and Kenyon who must navigate Italy without becoming degraded, while Italians Miriam and Donatello belong to the corruption that Italy breeds. The pestilence oozing between the lines of this novel is born out of racial transgressions; though different in scope from America's enslavement of Africans, the tension between white, Protestant American culture and Catholic Italy speaks to the same neuroses haunting the American psyche of not only the 1850s but also the twenty-first century. The American characters' separation from the Roman atmosphere mirrors the growing separation between North and South during the runup to the Civil War. Like America, Italy was on the verge of war, although as a force of unification instead of dissolution; yet for both, Hawthorne subverts the open discussion of any political tension to the level of a diseased atmosphere.

DEFICIENCIES AND OMISSIONS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA'S FOREIGN POLICY AND THE 44-DAY ARTSAKH WAR

After the revolution in 2018, the new Armenian authorities began to implement a foreign policy, which raised many questions, both inside and outside the scientific community. Surprisingly, there seemed to be an invisible hand cause to worsen especially the relationships with the allied and friendly states of the Republic of Armenia, which were actively represented in the region and actually had a rather pro-Armenian position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Especially the change in policy towards the Russian Federation, China and Iran led to the fact that these countries were mainly a neutral position during the 44-day war. The Armenian expert field also regularly expressed opinions on the handling the implementation of the RA foreign policy, making it clear, carrying out proper works with strategic allies and partners, but unfortunately, it was all for nothing. No work was taken to accept the Armenian Foreign Policy Concept. It is obvious that Armenia lost on the foreign policy front not after September 27, but since 2018 as in some cases, due to short-sighted foreign policy, the country has stood on the verge of war.

Минские соглашения: на грани срыва

The rather one-sided interpretation by the US and EU countries of the essence of the Minsk Agreements as the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, which was particularly evident in 2021, and the growing military assistance to Kiev from the US and a number of Western countries led to a tightening of the position of the Zelensky administration regarding prospects of the implementation of the Minsk Agreements and demands of their open revision. And the example of Azerbaijan's successful military campaign in Nagorno-Karabakh in the context of the modernization of the Ukrainian military forces has put on the agenda the question of a possibility and success of the use of force scenarios in the process of restoring territorial integrity of the country. The situation around Donbass is gradually turning into a large scale international crisis with potentially extremely destabilizing consequences for the entire international security system. As a result, Ukraine, under the leadership of a populist president, appeared on the verge of war, also capable of acting as a detonator of a serious aggravation in the total system of international relations.

The 1967 war as point of departure for the 1982 war in Lebanon: an uncommon interpretation

Israel’s 1982 war in Lebanon is one of the most controversial events in its history. It is considered the war of Prime Minister Menachem Begin and his defense minister, Ariel Sharon, and hence a war of choice. One of the historical questions concerning that war revolves around its origins. The widespread assumption is that the roots can be found in 1981, the year in which Israel was on the verge of war with both Syria and the PLO. However, this article claims that the 1967 Six-Day War was the point of departure to the 1982 Lebanon War when the PLO settled in Lebanon. The issue of the origins of the 1982 war is not an exclusively historiographic matter. It has broader implications concerning the nature of the war. If the roots of the conflict can be found in 1967, then the war was a result of a prolonged process. Indeed, Israel started the war, but it was only after other options that it exercised had failed. Hence, it was not at all a war of choice.

China and India in the Beginning of the 21st Century: Between Rivalry and Cooperation

The relationship between such Asia-Pacific powers, as India and China, has recently become a significant factor of how regional security is being maintained and how efficient the regional multilateral cooperation can be. The two states are close neighbours, possessing a long border, and both are presented in high-profile international institutions, e. g. the BRICS. At the same time, they are involved in a long-term border controversy, which sometimes pushes the relations to the verge of war. In addition, India and China are diverged by contradictions in other areas, primarily in economic aspects, and their competition for influence at the international level and in various regions of the Global South.
 The aim of this paper is to trace, how the Sino-Indian conflict, on the one hand, and their cooperation, on the other hand, developed throughout the recent 20 years, and try to answer the question, how it all shaped their status for each other, namely, the one of a partner, a rival or an enemy. The author consequently studies the landmark events in border conflict since the beginning of the 21st century, the political exchanges between China and India meanwhile, and the basic trends of economic and military cooperation and competition between the two countries. In conclusion, the results of the research are presented, and the possible impact of Sino-Indian ambivalent relationship on Russian policy towards them and on the work of international institutions involving both countries, is discussed.

Rumours, fears and solidarity in fieldwork in times of political turmoil on the verge of war in Southern Yemen

ABSTRACTMy fieldwork took place in Southern Yemen at a time when this region was marked by insecurity, prosecutions and detentions. As a fieldworker, I was challenged by a context best described as political turmoil on the verge of war. The fact that my paternal family lives in Southern Yemen facilitated access to the field, but also complicated the fieldwork experience, as I found myself closely bound to the society I was trying to understand and to the politics at play. My position as an involved outsider and a temporal insider [cf. Hermann, T. (2001). The impermeable identity wall: The study of violent conflicts by ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’. In M. Smyth & G. Robinson (Eds.), Researching violently divided societies: Ethical and methodological issues (pp. 77–91). London: Pluto Press., p. 79] defined the scope of my research on Southern Yemen and the Southern Movement. Using an autoethnographic approach, and based on three personal experiences from my visits and fieldwork in Southern Yemen in recent years, this article describes, reflects and analyses how rumours, fear and solidarity in a dangerous fieldwork setting affected my position as researcher, the choice of my research topic, access to the field and acquisition of data.

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE: NEGOTIATION PROCESS TESTING ("OSLO-1" AND "OSLO-2" CASES)

The article focuses on the review of the practical experience of foreign policy negotiations, Israel and Palestine, which deserves special attention, as this analogue in the history of international relations, in particular the Arab-Israel conflict, no. Examine the current state of the Arab-Israel conflict is unthinkable without the experience of I. Rabin, who most vividly demonstrates the evolution of Israel foreign policy, his openness and readiness for dialogue, first of all, to a real compromise. This does not imply that all can be repeated. Experience frequent repetition of a repetition error usually. At the same time it said that the search for common programs relative parties were extremely complex Arab- Israel conflict task, because between them there was a deep split that has paralyzed the foreign policy dialogue and led to a sharp demarcation of positions both within the country and abroad. We would like to emphasize the fact that the further advancing the foreign policy talks, the more he helped outbreaks of violence, intensified them, caused his return character, rather than weakened. As a result, the Israel-Palestinian conflict as an integral part of the Arab-Israel conflict increases the number of Arabs who are ready to die in a protracted historical conflict with Israel. The paper focuses on the relation of social forces to the idea of the world, desperately sought for him, and the results of the agreements reached in the course of which the hopes and disappointments of successive. It is said that the parties have not been able to overcome the aggressive perceptions of each other, while in captivity their traditional ideas and prejudices that inevitably dooms the conflict on false interpretation. It is obvious that the lack of consensus, balancing on the verge of war and peace, creates confusion and confusion in the minds of people who make their own history and the circumstances that they themselves have chosen. We tend to assume that in the history of international relations of the Arab-Israel conflict, which today are concentrated and integrated into the key challenges, needs, and the Middle East risks – the most protracted, complicated and provocative international conflict, more unsolvable, which for a long period of time is among his participants absolute opposition to all the contradictory and competing with each other issues ‒ territory, religion, settlements, etc. So expect a quick fix to resolve it is not worth it, especially at the cost of unacceptable unilateral concessions. The more that an effective method or ready universal solutions to resolve it while nobody came up with.

Soldier of Christ: The Life of Pope Pius XII

Pope Pius XII sits at the center of one of the great history battles of our time. On one side a faction will never forgive him for his actions, or lack thereof, regarding Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime and the Holocaust. The other side reveres Pius quite simply as a saint. In the meantime, serious and evenhanded scholarship produces works that will hopefully add historical perspective and clarify the issue. Such a work is Robert Ventresca's excellent biography, Soldier of Christ: The Life of Pope Pius XII. Drawn from an enormous body of evidence and with meticulous endnotes, the author also received remarkable access to the Position, or Positio, the church's collected evidence toward the cause of Pius's canonization. Ventresca devotes a historiographic prologue to the “Pius Wars” before he divides the pontiff's life into seven largely chronological chapters. Eugenio Pacelli became Pius XII in March 1939. With the world on the verge of war, he immediately faced the crisis over Fascist Italy's Good Friday invasion of Albania. The new pontiff responded with some vagaries about conflict but issued no clear condemnation of the aggression. It was a bad omen. Soon, Germany's barbarous attack on Poland presented Pius with a far greater crucible. To deal with Nazi outrages, starting with those against the Jews, he relied on his brother bishops and the faithful throughout Europe who often took indomitable stands, actions far more determined than his, from the heroic confrontation of the Dutch bishops to the clear and forceful diplomatic approach of Angelo Rotta, the nuncio to Hungary. Neither the Dutch nor Rotta, however, achieved their goal of saving lives. Did their noble failures, then, justify the “silence” of Pius who still did quietly save lives? Moreover Soldier of Christ illustrates that Pius remained mute on other slaughters, even those against Catholics despite growing frustration and even anger, starting with many Poles who felt betrayed by their spiritual leader. No clear picture emerges regarding the pope's motivation, but it may have been some mixture of trepidation over a Red Army victory and a personal, instinctual reticence. Complicating matters, Ventresca points to rare occasions where the pontiff denounced certain actions, particularly the Allied bombing of Rome, while failing to decry Rotterdam, Coventry, or Dresden. At times throughout the text one receives hints from the author, or perhaps doubts, that in contrast to the feisty Pius XI, Pacelli may have been the wrong man for the job.

The Nordic Embrace: Why the Nordic Countries Welcome Asia to the Arctic Table

A range of Asian countries-China, India, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea-were welcomed by the Arctic countries as observers to the Arctic Council in May 2013. This was a controversial decision long resisted by Arctic powers Russia and Canada, with the United States undecided until right before the final decision. The Nordic countries, on the other hand, led by Norway, emphasized the positive aspects of Asia's interest and saw the region's greater participation in Arctic affairs as strengthening governance and making the Arctic Council a more relevant and future-oriented forum.This essay examines the Nordic countries-Denmark (including Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden-as Arctic nations and describes their Arctic geography, identity, and economic, political, and security interests. It then seeks to explain the Nordic countries' basically positive attitude toward Asian involvement in the Arctic, while also identifying the limits and elements of skepticism that still exist. In concluding, the essay looks into the future and discusses challenges and opportunities for the Nordic countries arising from increased Asian ventures into Arctic lands and waters.Nordic Arctic InterestsThere are commonalities as well as differences in the Nordic countries' Arctic interests. The commonalities among the Nordic states are most striking: history, geography, culture, trade, and politics today knit them closely together such that they cooperate intimately in Nordic as well as international institutions. Sweden and Norway fought a brief war in 1814 and were on the verge of war as recently as 1905. Yet despite this history, as well as their different experiences during World War II and varying security alliances to date, the Nordic countries enjoy strong and peaceful cooperation along virtually every thinkable dimension.Yet one of the surprises meeting the Asian countries in their quest for Nordic support for their participation in the Arctic Council was the relative lack of a formal Arctic identity in the Nordic region. Arctic politics is decided in the capitals located far south of the Arctic, and there are no Arctic budgets or regional planning units in national ministries. Even the small minority of indigenous peoples in the high north (mainly the Saami people) pay their taxes to the national governments, and the majority of the Arctic Nordic populations view themselves primarily as national citizens rather than Arctic citizens in any significant sense.Nevertheless, the Arctic matters a lot to the Nordic countries, and increasingly so in the wake of growing global attention to the region's affairs. A potentially important difference between these states stems from Norway and Iceland not being members of the European Union (EU). Back in May 2013, for example, the admittance of the five Asian countries to the Arctic Council hung in the balance partly due to a spat between the EU (also an applicant for a formal observer role) and Canada over seal hunting. Canada is furious at the EU for boycotting Canadian sealskin production, which is seen as a traditional custom and important business opportunity in Canada's Arctic region. Although the Nordic EU members found this spat frustratingly difficult and were skeptical of some of the EU's reasoning, they had to align with Brussels. For this and other reasons, Norway became a major broker in Kiruna, ensuring that a decision was made. The Asian countries, along with Italy, were accepted as formal observers, while the EU still must wait in the wings for some hard-won concessions from intransigent Canada-the current Arctic Council president.The differences among the Nordic countries-which again are moderate and should be seen in a holistic context-are mainly due to three factors:* Geography. Some Nordic countries are Arctic coastal states, while others are not.* Economy. The level of economic activity and interest in the Arctic differs significantly among the Nordic countries. …

Politico-Economic Results in April 2014

The situation in Ukraine ratcheted up sharply in April 2014 in the Dontesk and Lugansk Regions, where armed insurgents seized the regional administration buildings. Negotiations in Geneva between officials from Russia, Ukraine, the United States, and the European Union came to an agreement on April 17 on disarmament of the insurgents subject to their amnesty. However, not only did the insurgents defy the agreement, they also began to take hostages, OSCE diplomats. Russia keeps demanding to desist from the use of force against the insurgents, however it remains unclear what should be done under the circumstances. Again, Russia and Ukraine have found themselves on the verge of war, with Russia facing the threat of tougher individual and economic sanctions by OECD member states. In Russia, a law regarding the collection of signatures for elections at all levels (save for parties that have passed the 3% threshold at the federal election) was adopted on the second, most important, reading, as well as a law on the abolishment of direct voting for mayors and city council members passed the first reading – the law, however, is going to be amended so that it retains the possibility of direct voting for mayors with the consent of a regional legislative body. Substantial adjustments were made to the adopted in the first reading federal law On the Russian Citizenship whereby the eligibility for the Russian citizenship was toughened for dozens of millions of Central Asian nationals.

Displacements in the Context of Social Crises in the Oil-Rich Niger-Delta of Nigeria and Oil-Rich Bakassi Peninsula in Cameroon

The Niger -Delta constitutes Niger's ―oil belt' that lies along the Guinea coast of the country. The region sits on top of about 176 trillion cubic feet of gas and about 35.2 billion barrels of oil reserves. It also accommodates 20 million people which belong to more than 40 ethnic groups. Similarly, the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula in the Western Cameroon juts into the Gulf of Guinea. Adjacent to the border between Cameroon and Nigeria, the Bakassi Peninsula was the subject of a long distance diplomatic dispute between the two countries until 2002. The swampy Peninsula, cut by series of channels, covers an area of 50 sq km and has large untapped reserves of petroleum. Nigeria and Cameroon have disputed over the possession of Bakassi for some years, leading to considerable tension between the two countries. In 1981, the two countries were on the verge of war over the oil rich peninsula. This paper discusses both theoretical and empirical perspectives of patterns of displacement of people as a forced/involuntary migration in Nigeria and Cameroon. This perspective is based on a force- subject-migration reasoning.

Italian Liberal Imperialism in China: A Review of the State of the Field

AbstractThe story of Italian imperialism in China is an almost forgotten one. Few know that the Kingdom of Italy was on the verge of war with the Qing Empire in 1899 and that, following its participation in the Boxer War a year later, it acquired a concession in Tianjin, which it kept until 1947. This nearly forgotten episode is important, however, for understanding Italian imperialism as a whole. For a number of years, research of Italian imperialist past has tended to pay more attention to fascist imperialism at the expense of liberal imperialism, at times making Italian imperialism in general appear as an outgrowth of fascism. This is dangerously misleading, as it was imperialism of the liberal era that first revealed expansionistic tendencies that would characterise Italian fascism half a century later. The historical importance of Italian liberal imperialism as a precursor of fascist imperialism and an important early signal of totalitarian proclivities of Italian political elites needs, therefore, to be critically reappraised.

This is who we were: a companion to the 1940 Census

A companion resource to the 1940 Census just released by the US National Archives, This is Who We Were, provides the reader with a deeper understanding of what life was like in America in 1940 and how it compares statistically to life today. Using both original material from the 1940 CEnsus (reprinted here in a different color), readers will find richly-illustrated Personal Profiles, Economic Data, and Current Events to give meaning and depth to what life was like in 1940 America as the country was emerging from depression, but on the verge of war. Next, a wide range of data from the 1940 and 2010 Census are put side-by-side so users can quickly and easily see differences and similarities over these past 70 years.

Patrick Loudon Mollison

Patrick Loudon Mollison

‘This Continent must belong to the White Races’: William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian Diplomacy and Immigration Law, 1908

‘“I think, Sir Wilfrid, that my trip to Washington was something more than a personal visit; I believe I may almost say that the United States is on the verge of war with Japan.” At this the Premie...

When We Were (almost) Chinese: Identity and the Internment of Missionary Nurses in China, 1941-1945

De 1923 à 1939, six enfants nés en Chine de missionnaires que l'é glise Unie du Canada avait envoyées en Chine du Nord sont retournées en Chine en tant qu'infirmiè res missionnaires durant l'une des périodes les plus inhospitalières pour des missions en Chine. Non seulement scrutait-on l'action missionnaire à la loupe, mais la guerre était sur le point d'éclater en Chine. Trois des infirmières ont été internées par les Japonais en 1941. Cette étude met l'accent sur la décision déterminante que ces infirmières ont prise de retourner en Chine puis d'y rester après l'éclatement de la guerre sino-japonaise en 1937, retraçant les motifs de cette décision jusqu'à leur enfance missionnaire à Henan.

A Rogue is a Rogue is a Rogue: US Foreign Policy and the Korean Nuclear Crisis

Two nuclear crises recently haunted the Korean peninsula, one in 1993/4, the other in 2002/3. In each case the events-were strikingly similar: North Korea made public its ambition to acquire nuclear weapons and withdrew from the Nonproliferation Treaty. Then the situation rapidly deteriorated until the peninsular was literally on the verge of war. The dangers of North Korea's actions, often interpreted as nuclear brinkmanship, are evident. and much discussed, but not so the underlying patterns that have shaped the conflict in the first place. This article sheds light on some of them. It examines the role of the United States in the crisis, arguing that Washington's inability to see North Korea as anything but a threatening 'rogue state' seriously hinders both an adequate understanding and possible resolution of the conflict. Particularly significant is the current policy of pre-emptive strikes against rogue states, for it reinforces half a century of American nuclear threats towards North Korea. The problematic role of these threats has been largely obscured, not least because the highly technical discourse of security analysis has managed to present the strategic situation on the peninsula in a manner that attributes responsibility for the crisis solely to North Korea's actions, even if the situation is in reality far more complex and interactive.