Context Of War Research Articles

Martial(ling) peace at the war museum: Emotion, desires and representations of the war-peace dichotomy

This article investigates the role of emotions and the conceptual use of peace to justify martial violence. Drawing upon empirical evidence collected at the Canadian War Museum, the article explores how representations of war history present militarized violence as both a threat to, and the solution for, global peace. Building on scholarship in IR and Peace Studies that theorizes the relationship between war and peace, this article puts forward a novel analytical concept – martial peace – to investigate this paradox. It theorizes that manoeuvring peace as a justification for military activities not only results in depoliticizing the contexts of conflicts and war, but also serves to euphemize the violence that occurs in the name of peace and within so-called peaceful societies. Using Canada as a case study, the article explores how martial peace obscures settler colonialism and generates affective militarism as key components of nationalist projects.

Intellectuals, expressions, and transnational networking: a case study on Feng Zikai’s overseas cultural practices and religious productions Protection of Life during the Cold War period (1950s–1970s)

ABSTRACT Feng Zikai and Master Kong Hiap in Singapore not only completed and published the masterpiece Protection of Life at the behest of their mentor, Master Hong Yi but also actively contributed to the growth of religions during the P.R.C.. The focus of this paper will be on the Protection of Life, which was completed secretly in socialist China between the 1950s and 1970s, as well as Feng Zikai's overseas cultural practices, to investigate how these helped Feng Zikai to broaden his cultural expressions and preserve his teacher Master Hong Yi's religious thoughts. Through revisiting Feng’s creations and other cultural practices, this paper reveals a competing and conflicting revolutionary structure of feeling, across the 1949 geographical fault line as well as in the global Cold War context. Besides, this paper intends to investigate intellectuals’ living status and social networking critically in socialist China during the mid-twentieth-century.

The role of Sino-Arab film collaboration on cultural diplomacy during the ‘Seventeen Years’

ABSTRACT Despite the prolific film production in the nascent People’s Republic of China (PRC) during the ‘Seventeen Years’ from 1949 to 1966, Maoist cinema received limited critical analysis. While recent scholarly attention has shifted towards examining Chinese film production and exchange within the socialist bloc, a notable gap remains in the literature concerning Sino-Arab film collaboration during this period. This paper seeks to address this gap by utilizing textual analysis and archival studies to explore the practice of Sino-Arab film weeks through the lens of cultural diplomacy. Building upon the framework of the three schools of thought on cultural diplomacy, this study posits that Sino-Arab film collaboration from the 1950s to 1960s operated within the realm of people’s diplomacy. This term denotes cultural diplomacy with distinctively Chinese attributes within the Cold War context. This paper also complements the third trend that focuses on the transcendental realm of the state by exploring the little-studied interactions between film screenings and reality in Sino-Arab film weeks. Under the common goal of anti-imperialism and nation-building, people’s diplomacy deviates from the conventional paradigm of bipolar rivalry and embodies the spirit of internationalist solidarity among Third World countries.

AI and the future of IR: Disentangling flesh-and-blood, institutional, and synthetic moral agency in world politics

AbstractIntelligent machines – from automated robots to algorithmic systems – can create images and poetry, steer our preferences, aid decision making, and kill. Our perception of their capacities, relative autonomy, and moral status will profoundly affect not only how we interpret and address practical problems in world politics over the next 50 years but also how we prescribe and evaluate individual and state responses. In this article, I argue that we must analyse this emerging synthetic agency in order to effectively navigate – and theorise – the future of world politics. I begin by outlining the ways that agency has been under-theorised within the discipline of International Relations (IR) and suggest that artificial intelligence (AI) disrupts prevailing conceptions. I then examine how individual human beings and formal organisations – purposive actors with which IR is already familiar – qualify as moral agents, or bearers of duties, and explore what criteria intelligent machines would need to meet to also qualify. After demonstrating that synthetic agents currently lack the ‘reflexive autonomy’ required for moral agency, I turn to the context of war to illustrate how insights drawn from this comparative analysis counter our tendency to elide different manifestations of moral agency in ways that erode crucial notions of responsibility in world politics.

The impact of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism on trade in the Russia‐Ukraine war context

AbstractThe Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is an impending mechanism that imposes a price on emissions embodied in products imported to the European Union (EU). It is expected to impact international trade substantially. Meanwhile, the Russia‐Ukraine war has been ongoing since March 2022, and resources are being redistributed accordingly. This study simulates the potential impact of CBAM on trade in the Russia‐Ukraine war context by employing the Computable General Equilibrium models. The simulation results show that the CBAM will significantly affect selected countries, and the impact will vary across countries and industries. In the context of the Russia‐Ukraine war, the influence on trade will be considerable.

Resilience as a ‘concept at work’ in the war in Ukraine: Exploring its international and domestic significance

AbstractIn the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, it is striking that there have been many references to resilience, including by Western and Ukrainian leaders. This article is precisely about their use of resilience discourse, and it makes two important contributions to existing scholarship on resilience in conflict settings. First, drawing on Ish-Shalom’s idea of ‘concepts at work’ and analysing a selection of speeches and policy statements (by Western leaders and President Volodymyr Zelensky) that specifically refer to resilience, it demonstrates that resilience is a significant ‘concept at work’ in the war, making certain forms of international and domestic politics possible. Second, while research on resilience frequently discusses different ways that the concept has been defined and approached in fields such as engineering, ecology, and psychology, this article highlights that diverse framings of resilience have become entangled as the concept is ‘at work’ in the war in Ukraine. More specifically, its analysis makes prominent the fusion of different resiliences at different levels – from the individual to the systemic – discursively working together for particular political ends. In this way, it offers a novel way of thinking multi-systemically about resilience and, by extension, about resilience and complexity.

Defining “Romans” in the Late Antique Near East: Some Preliminary Thoughts on the “Romans” in Sūrat al-Rūm

Abstract In the opening lines of the sūrah named after the “Romans,” Q Rūm 30, the qurʾānic preacher expresses his solidarity with the “Romans” who had then been defeated by the Persian army. In seeking to better understand these verses, one may start with the question: Who exactly are the “Romans” here? “Roman” was a broad, multifaceted term, as Yannis Stouraitis has lately pointed out, based mainly on sources written after the seventh century and stemming from the Greek-speaking “West” of the Byzantine Empire. In this study, using mainly Syriac sources but also some hitherto unnoticed Greek testimonies coming from the Near East, this semantic variability of the word “Roman” is shown to further expand when going East. Like in most Syriac sources, “Romans” in Q Rūm primarily means members of the Byzantine army (and state apparatus), be they ethnic Greeks, Syrians, or Arabs. At the same time, the “Romans” of this sūrah are all inhabitants, all “citizens” of the Byzantine Empire – not just its armies and magistrates. This latter sense corresponds to the broader sense in which “Romans” is used not only in Syriac, but also in Greek sources (and in other languages of the Late Antique Near East). That broader sense is one that we find in a definition by the Damascene Sophronios of Jerusalem, according to whom “Roman” is anyone “stemming from a city subject to the Romans.” Another qurʾānic passage that refers to the Byzantines (though without naming them), which has very much to do with the same geopolitical context of the Byzantine-Persian wars, Q Māʾidah 5:17, seems to criticize a “Byzantine” confidence in the invincibility of Christ and Mary. Why does the Qurʾān chose to name the Romans when expressing solidarity with them, yet leave them unnamed when criticizing them? Could it be the case that this difference between naming the “Romans” and leaving them unnamed is somehow meant to show that the solidarity with the “Romans,” as declared expressis verbis in the Sūrat al-Rūm, concerns the entire Byzantine world whereas the sharp criticism in al-Māʾidah is not general in the same sense?

Gender and Anticommunism in Children’s Social Protection in Postwar Greece

The article analyses the welfare activities provided by the Greek royal foundations in the period from their establishment in 1947 until 1968, focusing on their interventions concerning children and youth and their evolution over time. Placing the royal foundations’ activities in the Cold War and post-Civil War context, it argues that the intertwined state, parastatal and private initiatives, among which they had a hegemonic role, constituted the idiosyncratic Greek welfare state of the period, whose workings can be better grasped through the perspective of the mixed economy of welfare. Based on archival research, it highlights the gendered character of this specific version of welfare state-cum-mixed economy of welfare, and show that it was highly conservative, patriarchal and normative, based on ideological, political, class and gender exclusions. It depended on gendered massive voluntary action, especially women’s voluntary or low-paid work and elite women’s empowering activities.

Machine Learning for Predicting Intent of Radical Action in Text Data

Many cases of radicalism, especially violent radicalism, manifest within the context of inter-ethnic conflict and war. Research in this domain has significantly contributed to our overarching comprehension of the issue. This form of radicalism is inherently linked to the dynamics of group affiliation. However, our focus here is directed towards the individual motivation driving radical actions. While radical actions may encompass dynamics of group affiliation (e.g., the most radical pro-life activists being members of the Army of God), they also possess a substantial individual component. For instance, numerous attacks on abortion doctors or clinics are categorized as ’lone-wolf terrorism’. In this study, we sought to examine whether state-of-the-art Machine Learning tech- nology for text analysis could effectively discern the intent behind radical actions from user-generated content. We analyzed a diverse array of radical texts published online by various activists, including anarchists, Iranian guerrilla members, Indian revolution- aries, activists from the US civil rights movement, and The Army of God. Our analysis reveals that Machine Learning models can successfully identify potential signals indica- tive of the author’s intent behind radical actions.

Exposure and preparedness for wartime inflation in the EU: Retrospective cluster analysis

AbstractThe impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on energy prices contributed significantly to European price increases in 2022. The study aims to find a linkage between the performance of 24 EU countries during the energy inflation crisis and their preparedness, vulnerability or exposure. The verified hypotheses reflect on the role of initial conditions of countries and the one-year impact of energy inflation on their economic performance. The two-step analysis first creates six clusters of countries based on their energy, trade, financial and political vulnerability, and preparedness indicators. The second step is to explore the shifts of clusters in expectations on macroeconomic indicators. Specific patterns of country groups are explored in the value and evolution of wartime indicators of inflation, GDP growth, consumer and business confidence, as well as FX volatility. The exploration concludes that the entry variables of clustering are relevant, and the EU countries can be segmented by dependency, energy, financial, and political aspects. Thus, it is possible to verify the distance in risk and exposure among EU economies. The impact variables demonstrated that the extent of the inflationary effect depended on the initial conditions. In addition, the research identified protective short-term factors against energy inflation originating in a trade and war context.

Refugee Camps as Spaces of the Global Cold War: Cold War activism and humanitarian action within refugee camps in Honduras during the 1980s

ABSTRACT This article looks at refugee camps for Salvadoran and Nicaraguan refugees in Honduras, as a lens to examine the relationship between the Cold War and humanitarianism during the 1980s. While this period, particularly in Central America, saw an intensification of the Cold War, it also saw humanitarian actors assert themselves more forcefully and independently than previously. Even as signs of a more independent humanitarian system were beginning to emerge however, the actors within that system were unable to avoid the continuing influence of theCold War context. This article demonstrates how historical analysis of refugee camps has a relevance outside of refugee studies and the history of humanitarianism.

Diplomatic Relations and Globalization: A Historical Analysis of China and America during the Post-Cold War Era

This research delves into the intricate diplomatic ties between China and America, tracing their journey from Cold War adversaries to contemporary partners. The primary objective is to scrutinize the historical evolution of this alliance, emphasizing the blend of political, economic, and strategic factors shaping their complex relationship. The study aims to unravel critical questions surrounding the genesis and progression of the China-America alliance, dissecting diplomatic ties from the Cold War era to the present. Analyzing the influence of the Cold War context on the formation of the China-America alliance. Identifying pivotal milestones in their diplomatic relations during and after the Cold War. Assessing the contemporary nature of the China-America partnership and its implications for regional and global geopolitics. Using a comprehensive historical research design, the study reviews primary sources like diplomatic archives, treaties, and official statements. Secondary sources, including academic works and policy analyses, provide essential context and depth. The research reveals a nuanced interplay of geopolitical, economic, and strategic considerations sustaining the China-America alliance. Critical junctures in their diplomatic history shed light on factors contributing to the partnership's resilience. This research offers a holistic understanding of the historical roots of the China-America alliance, providing insights into contemporary implications. By seamlessly integrating historical analysis with present-day dynamics, the study contributes to broader scholarship on international relations and regional geopolitics.

Mourning mothers and wars that never end: reading Nasim Marashi’s Haras (Pruning) in the shadow of the Iran-Iraq war

ABSTRACT The Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988), which the Iranian government frames as a ‘Sacred Defense’, occupies a large space in contemporary Persian fiction, sometimes in surprising ways. This article focuses on the 2017 novel Haras (Pruning) by Nasim Marashi (Nasīm Marʿashī), which despite being shaped entirely by the context of the Iran-Iraq War rarely treats the experience of living through it. The article explores how Haras builds on previous works that use the war not as a focal point, like conventional war literature, but a point of departure to explore different stories about post-war Iran, intricately connected to, yet far beyond, the war with Iraq. The article postulates that by using the war with Iraq to call attention to the loss of people, homes, and the environment, Haras uses the war to innovatively challenge the messaging of the Islamic Republic.

Exploring traumatized soldiers: The intersection of War, theatre, and British Society in Mark Ravenhill’s Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat

This research paper titled "Exploring Traumatized Soldiers: The Intersection of War, Theater, and British Society in Mark Ravenhill’s Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat" examines the impact of the Iraq War on British soldiers, their families, and society as a whole. Utilizing theoretical frameworks from psychology, specifically the works of Sigmund Freud and Cathy Caruth, the study analyzes the concept of trauma within the context of war. By focusing on Mark Ravenhill's play Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat, the research investigates how the play portrays the experiences of British soldiers affected by the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent challenges faced by the British people. Through the analysis, the study aims to uncover the psychological and emotional consequences of war trauma on individuals and its broader societal implications. The utilization of psychological perspectives provides a deeper understanding of the complexities of war trauma. Drawing on Freud's and Caruth's theories, the research explores the lasting effects of trauma on soldiers and its intersection with theater and British society. By examining the portrayal of traumatized soldiers in Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat and analyzing the psychological dimensions of trauma, this study offers valuable insights into the interplay between war, theater, and British society. It contributes to a broader understanding of the long-term impact of war on individuals and communities, emphasizing the role of theater in addressing and representing collective trauma. In conclusion, this research paper provides a significant exploration of the experiences of traumatized soldiers, the effects of war on British society, and the capacity of theater to engage with and depict collective trauma.

El Hospital Militar de Cartagena durante la insurrección cantonal (1873-1874)

In the context of social instability during the First Republic, two civil conflicts developed simultaneously in Spain: the Third Carlist War and the cantonal rebellion. The cantonal rebellion had the epicentre inCartagena, which withstood several months of siege by the army loyal to the government of the First Republic. The city was able to treat the wounded from the conflict with the Hospital de Caridad, a civilian building that was rendered unusable by the bombardments, and mainly by the Military Hospital. In this article we describe how health care was provided in this hospital in a war context with intense artillery fire for several months. The work has been carried out through the analysis of primary sources consulted in the Naval Archive of the Arsenal of Cartagena and, after transcribing the primary source found “Statistical Memory”; a letter sent by Captain General of the Department in March 1874 to the Government of the Republic, reporting the events that took place in the Military Hospital during the conflict, where there was a shortage of medical personnel, medicines and food, among others.

The USSR State Leader in the U.S. Superhero Comic Strips in the 1980s: Constructing and Broadcasting Stereotypes About “Russians” in the Historical Context of the Cold War

Introduction. There has been a rich tradition of using stereotypes and cliches of Russians in U.S. comic strips since the 1940s. Russian characters represent statehood, cultural dominants, and ethnic stereotypes. They convey the political agenda and civic values and demonstrate reactions to historical cataclysms. The leaders of the USSR represent the state as a political system in comic strips. In the 1980s, the interpretation of the “Russian threat” changed significantly, as did the methods of representing the General Secretary of the Soviet Union. Methods and materials. The article is based on the principles of historicism. The analysis was carried out using a set of methods: descriptive, elements of discourse analysis, and semiotic tools. The work used a range of sources, among which the most important were the issues of graphic comic strips regulating censorship documents and visual representations of Russians. Analysis. The author analyzed the dramaturgy of the 1986–1989 comic strips about the “Russian threat,” in which Mikhail Gorbachev appears. The key motifs that made up the image were identified, an iconological analysis was performed, and the speech characteristics of the protagonists and antagonists of superheroics were analyzed. The dynamics of the image of the leader of the USSR in superhero comic strips were determined by the transition from a caricature image to a Machiavellian ruler of the “Evil Empire,” ready, among other things, to collaborate with the United States. Results. From the point of view of iconography, a number of techniques for depicting Mikhail Gorbachev in comic strips correlate with the techniques of representation of Ronald Reagan. In some comic strips, the strategic superiority of the leader of the USSR over American superheroes is indirectly emphasized. The appearance of realistic features in the image of Gorbachev makes it possible to talk about the expansion of cultural ties between the USSR and the United States, a well-known social demand of the target audience, completely dissatisfied with the stereotypical images of the leaders of the USSR and the country itself.

Medical Diplomacy: North-South Korea's Diplomatic Rivalry and Medical Cooperation with Third World in the 1960~70s

Korean medical personnel migrated across the globe since 1964, including Africa. However, analyses of the transnational nature of Korean medicine have largely focused on the influence of Korea as a recipient, particularly the United States. This study attempts to understand the formation of Korean medicine in a wider geographical space, beyond the entrenched dichotomy of donor and recipient countries, which has often been centered on the United States or Japan. This paper examines how the diplomatic competition between North and South Korea unfolded in the geopolitical context of the Cold War and how medicine was mobilized to achieve its goals. In the 1960s, medical diplomacy was effective in establishing diplomatic relations and gaining the cooperation of recipient ‘Third World’ countries. In the 1970s, however, South Korea's episodic medical aid was no longer well-received in the face of aggressive North Korean aid, and South Korean medical missions became more of an ‘export’ rather than ‘cooperation’.

Typology of reasons why a person kills in a war context: The case of rebel/nationalist army combatants in the Spanish Civil War.

European historiography on wars has embarked on a study of a matter of crucial significance: the involvement of ordinary individuals as perpetrators of mass casualties. This article aims to provide insights and hypotheses concerning the underlying motives behind such actions, focusing on the unique context of the Spanish Civil War. The data utilized for this study are drawn from a sample of 112 oral interviews conducted with former combatants of the Spanish Civil War, all born between 1905 and 1920. During these interviews, 112 men participated a semi structured discussion. Individual perceptions and variables of interest relevant to acts of violence were subjected to qualitative analysis. Our analysis suggests that instances of aggression often arise because of emotional triggers, alignment with fascist ideological convictions, societal pressures and a sense of duty-driven obedience. Our results refute the notion that ideological factors alone suffice as explanations.

Tracing the Bulgarian Connection: Revisiting Ideology-Inspired News Coverage of Pope Assassination Attempt

ABSTRACT The coverage of the trial in the assassination attempt against Pope John Paull II in the 1981 divided journalists in the United States. The dominant coverage relied on limited number of sources who speculated on circumstantial evidence to implicate Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. Through the prism of the agenda-setting and resource dependency theory, this paper revisits key moments of the coverage of the so-called Bulgarian Connection in American media and adds a fresh perspective to the existing analysis. To provide a deeper understanding of the processes that shaped the coverage, the paper also includes oral history interviews with journalists covering the trial against the shooter, and a former CIA analyst who participated in pertinent intelligence discussions about the possibility of Bulgarian involvement in the assassination attempt. This paper finds that limited journalistic resources on international affairs led to unbalanced reporting influenced by ideology with neo-conservative individuals controlling the agenda-setting function of newsrooms. This paper also finds that the polarized context of the Cold War created a thriving environment for the almost universal reinforcement of stereotypes and politically-sanctioned narratives and left little room for dissenting opinion. Finally, this author suggests recommendations to avoid ideologically-driven international reporting to dominate.

Another Author Driven By Desperation

A study of the black cookbook writer Malinda Russell and the Civil War context in which she published her Domestic Cook Book and the reception afforded the book since publication.