War Ideology Research Articles

Faith-based education in Polish public schools – From battleground to common ground

In Poland, which is a predominantly Catholic Christian country and still perceived as one of the most religious countries in Europe, not only is religious education reserved for private denominational institutions, but it can be also organized in public schools at all levels of compulsory education. However, in a changing cultural and educational climate the relevance of faith-based education in public schools is more often undermined in the name of neutrality and inclusivity. The main goal of the paper is to present current challenges for religious education for children offered in Polish public schools, and try to find answers to the fundamental question of how the right to religious education can be protected and promoted in the public education system. Thus, in the first part of the paper the authors present a brief legal framework of a confessional model of religious education adopted in Polish public schools, understood as the expression of religious freedom which plays an important role in managing the religious needs of students. The authors analyze the legal provisions that regulate faith-based education seen from three different perspectives — the child’s, parental and teachers’ rights. This legal background serves to delineate, in the second part, current conflicts over the presence of religious practices, symbols and references in public schools that are now perceived as a common battleground of ideological wars. With religion being increasingly privatized and public spaces largely emptied of religious references in many Western European countries, the authors emphasize a unique and enriching role of faith-based education present in Polish public schools that should not be considered a threat, but an opportunity to maintain religious and cultural diversity in modern societies. At the same time they discern an urgent need to find a reliable compass to direct both state and church actors along the way of peaceful cooperation and integrity in the public education system that cannot be stripped of religion.

The red death: American exceptionalism and U.S.S.R. representations in Marvel’s Black Widow

The purpose of this study is to analyse U.S.S.R. representations in Marvel’s film Black Widow (Feige & Shortland, 2021). This object has been chosen because it provides us with a U.S.A. perspective upon a Soviet protagonist – who is here given a chance of telling ‘her’ story. More specifically, even though Natasha Romanoff’s (the Black Widow) narrative is the centre of the story, the analytical focus is on another character: Alexi Alanovich Shostakov, the Red Guardian (the Soviet Union’s version of Captain America). That is, although the protagonist as long as other issues related to her story are addressed by the study here and then, Alexi’s story is put in the spotlight for he emerges as a vintage token of the ideological war between U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. The enemy of the world, for a long time now, is, for some reason, still the red threat. Maybe more than never, everything that goes against the status quo is taken as a communist idea. Therefore, more broadly, this study investigates if and how such anti-communism, deriving from the Cold War, has also been spread through the construction of Marvel superheroes and their adversaries.

Japanese Parliamentary Diplomacy on the Eve of the Cold War: Focusing on the Taiwan Channel

This study explores the diplomacy of the conservative ruling party lawmakers in Japan toward Asia on the eve of the Cold War. It shows— based on interviews and latest archival material released in Japan and Taiwan—that a structure for ending the Cold War existed in East Asia on the eve of the Cold War, which is different from the Second Cold War framework centered on the West. This research may also play a significant role in the study of the long-term governments of conservative parties and their foreign policies during the Cold War. Before the Cold War was over, the governments of Nakasone Yasuhiro and Takeshita Noboru in Japan had access to both China and Taiwan, and there were already movements within the conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its factions toward a de-Cold War structure and ideology. Pro-Taiwan and pro-Korea factions in the party, which had overlapped since the formulation of the Cold War ideology, diverged. In this context, despite the timely utilization of personal relations between Taiwan and Japan since the prewar Japanese colonial period, an effective systematization of channels between the two governments that could be sustained over the long-term was not achieved.

The Form of Ideology and the Ideology of Form: Cold War, Decolonization and Third World Print Cultures by Francesca Orsini, Neelam Srivastava, and Laetitia Zecchini, eds.

<i>The Form of Ideology and the Ideology of Form: Cold War, Decolonization and Third World Print Cultures</i> by Francesca Orsini, Neelam Srivastava, and Laetitia Zecchini, eds.

Margaret Postgate Cole’s Poetry of the First World War

The First World War marks an inevitable transformation in the traditional gender roles of women from being passive domestic sustainers of family into active contributors in the social life as voluntary nurses, ambulance drivers, and factory workers. Nevertheless, women’s poetic contribution to literary representations of war continue to be precariously neglected till the publication of Catherine Reilly’s Scars Upon my Heart in 1981, a war anthology of seventy-nine women poets. Margaret Postgate Cole (1893-1980) is among these women war poets who provide a distinguished feminine insight into the experience of war, different from male perspective. Far from displaying an amateurishly sentimental and romanticized engagement with war, Margaret Postgate Cole shows a great artistic aptitude in unmasking the conniving ideological roots of war that is reinforced by the patriarchal authorities. Cole, in her poetry, concentrates on the unjustifiable ideology of war, preying on the innocent young soldiers. The aim of this article, therefore, is to analyze Cole’s poetry of the First World War to demonstrate her profound awareness of the meaninglessness of the war that is promulgated by the rulers and decision makers.

A city in a bunker in a city: Demilitarizing art in South Korea

AbstractLocated mere feet from the busy Yeouido Bus Transfer Center, the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) Bunker is a former military bunker from 1970s authoritarian South Korea that now showcases changing art exhibits. Debuting in November 2019, Paju (by artist Kim Seung Rea) features a series of paintings and statues capturing life in the town of Paju in the Geyeonggi Province near the border of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates North and South Korea. As a critique of militarization, Paju not only offers a glimpse into the life that blossoms amidst the guard towers, bulwarks, and barbed wire, it challenges the power dynamic implicit in the space of the bunker. Cold War ideologies overlap in SeMA Bunker, for while the bunker was purportedly designed to keep the former president, Park Chung‐hee, safe during potential North Korean attack, the town of Paju was to act as human and infrastructural sacrifice to keep the rest of the country secure. Therefore, to bring Paju into the bunker via the exhibit is to inverse that power relationship and thus work to demilitarize the space, the town, and ultimately the patrons.

The birth of Boererate: women and healing during the South African war

This article reinterprets historical works on the history of medicine in South Africa and how present-day Afrikaner home-based healing therapies known as Boererate engage with this history. By reinterpreting historical sources, we illustrate how Boer women in concentration camps during the South African War were waging an ideological war. We argue that there is a distinction between the creolised medicines that Boer women took into the concentration camps and the body of knowledge — Boererate — that emerged from the camps after the women were released. The article brings archival research and interviews with interlocutors into conversation to show how a knowledge system like Boererate has persisted through time and become very popular in online forums and Facebook groups during the Covid-19 pandemic. The article is part of a wider project investigating Boererate in historical and diverse contemporary contexts.

From an ideological war to an ideology of war: Aleksandr Dugin’s assumptions of neo-Eurasianism and their application to Russian preparations for the war against Ukraine

This article compares the main aspects of Dugin’s neo-Eurasianism with the content of two important texts published in 2021: Putin’s article ‘On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians’ and the new National Security Strategy. These texts can be understood as part of ideological preparations for the war against Ukraine in 2022. The presence of elements of Russian nationalist ideology in these texts will make it possible to answer the question of whether the neo-Eurasian ideology is the authentic basis of Russian neo-imperialist policy or whether it is merely a useful propaganda façade.

Between Adoration and Criticism Towards Japanese Colonialism：Reception Toward &lt;i&gt;Murudeka 17805&lt;/i&gt; Movie in Indonesia

This research study on how a collaborative war movie between Indonesia and Japan entitled &lt;i&gt;Murudeka 17805&lt;/i&gt; (2001) is received in Indonesia. Through content analysis of the movie, it is found that this movie depicts the intimate yet hierarchical relation between Indonesia and Japan, whereas Japan acts as the elder sibling who guides and will transfer their knowledge and skills to Indonesia, so that Indonesia may be able to fight against the colonizers. This is in line with the ideology of Greater East Asian War, termed “Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.” Through the comments analysis of YouTube viewers, the result shows that there are comments expressing gratitude and adoration toward Indonesian and Japanese soldiers who had fought in the battlefield, and on the other hand there are also comments criticizing Japanese colonialization and arguing that the movie itself is a propaganda movie. The number of comments expressing gratitude and adoration and expressing neutrality by inviting the readers to forget about the past is larger than the number of comments criticizing the movie. The result of this study shows that this phenomenon is related to several factors：younger generation who never experienced Japanese occupation, the history lessons in schools which focusing more on memorizing events rather than critically reflecting on the past, the act of silencing critics toward Japan by Indonesian government in 1970s, and the massive spread of Japanese pop culture in Indonesia since 1990s. Although the number is not as high as grateful and adoring comments, comments that have critical reflection toward the movie still exists. The commentators are usually those who have heard stories about Japanese occupation in the past from the previous generation or have learned about it from various sources of knowledge.

Issue of Czechoslovak radio in struggle against Hungarian and German propaganda

Radio as a tool of political propaganda had introduced a new dimension in ideological struggle between Czechoslovak Republic (CSR) and neighbouring countries. Since its establishment, CSR became a target of hostile propaganda spreading namely by Hungary. Technological progress during the second decade of 20th century enabled the radio to become increasingly popular influencing growing segment of population. Caustic relations between both countries had resulted from reluctance of Hungary to accept the Treaty of Trianon. Hungarian authorities determined to reverse inclusion of Slovakia to Czechoslovak Republic, focused foreign policy and state propaganda upon goal to achieve revision, which would result in establishment of status quo ante. This aim was supported by a significant number of Hungarians living in the Southern Slovakia. Therefore, political and cultural activities of ethnic Hungarians were judged by Czechoslovak authorities with suspicion and in cases when they were classified as irredentist, state security agencies suppressed them. On interstate level both countries waged ideological war, accusing each other of hostile acts. In this state of affairs radio gained an increasing importance. Constant improvement of quality and decreasing price made radio a valuable tool of political propaganda. Unlike other forms of propaganda (newspapers, leaflets, books, public speeches, etc.), radio broadcast was impossible to stop from penetrating state boundary. Significance of radio propaganda between Czechoslovakia and Hungary was increased by geographical closeness of both countries which facilitated spreading of radio signal. In addition, radio broadcast was not limited strictly to political issues. Popularity among population was reinforced by its ability to provide a broad scale of various programs such as music, sport, religion and others, which had been influencing ideological outlook listeners. Submitted paper analyzes various aspects of role of radio in Hungarian cross-border propaganda and endeavours of Czechoslovak security authorities to minimize its impact. The paper is mainly composed of documents deposited in Slovak and Czech archives complemented by Czechoslovak contemporary press.

Subverting war narrative in the purview of gender justice: Analysing Bishkanta (2015): A Liberation War documentary from Bangladesh

This article analyses how a Bangladeshi documentary film Bishkanta (The Poison Thorn) () directed by a feminist and cultural activist Farzana Boby negotiates the gendered war narrative of Bangladesh and how the film is being used as an enabling platform for the Birangonas (‘war-raped women’) to express their long-time endured suffering and outrage. The Liberation War of Bangladesh (1971) is amongst the most represented themes in Bangladeshi media culture. However, feminist scholars have been critical about the gender blindness of the depictions, with women’s experiences encoded only as victims. Hence, a documentary demanding recognition of women’s contributions and enabling space for women to speak about their losses, pains and grievance is an exception. By analysing the narrative techniques (i.e. plot, perspective, language and frames) this article shows how Bishkanta represents the stories of female rape survivors and make a claim for gender justice. Our findings suggest, despite Boby’s good intentions, Bishkanta has been reproducing the mainstream victimhood narrative ascribed to these women and occasionally reinscribing the gendered ideology of Liberation War in the mainstream nationalist discourse.

PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS OF THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PROBLEMS OF THE HISTORY OF UKRAINE IN THE REALITIES OF TODAY

With the beginning of the hybrid war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, the problem of history and its interpretation became especially acute. In the course of an ideological war between states, there is real speculation on the interpretation of history. In order to find ways to establish an optimistic worldview of Ukrainians, the author identifies the main current problems of interpretation of the history of Ukraine and outlines ways to solve them. Today, the educational sector, which is at the stage of modernization, also needs a philosophical analysis of the problems of interpretative history of Ukraine. Philosophical discourse about the content and directions of the historical process has theoretical and practical significance, contributes to the active search for optimal ways of social development. In his conclusions, the author relies on the scientific research of S. Krymsky, I. Boychenko, V. Bryansky, P. Ricoeur, R. Aron, E. Toffler, K. Jaspers, and others. researchers and concludes that Ukrainian society needs holistic ideas about the historical process, the need to form a national idea with an optimistic vision of Ukraine's future, recognition of the global concept of building a universal society, the need to integrate peoples and world civilizations, influence on modern Ukrainian realities in complex transformation processes, obtaining the neutralization of stable stereotypes of public opinion, which have a significant impact on modern Ukrainian realities in complex transformation processes.

Decoding the Sino-North Korean Borderlands

Decoding the Sino-North Korean Borderlands

Competition between Methodological Approaches in the History of Political and Legal Doctrines

The paper is devoted to various approaches to the study of political and legal doctrines. Each of them in its structure contains a methodological basis. It is the methodology of political and legal ideas that largely determines their scientific validity and practical feasibility. In this regard, methodological techniques are of great importance. The peculiarity of the history of political and legal doctrines as a scientific and educational discipline is that it not only uses certain methods of scientific cognition, like any other science, but also has a powerful methodological potential itself. Currently, we are witnessing an uncompromising war of ideologies having certain values and interests behind them. In this context, the paper reveals methodological approaches used in the cognition of the political and legal reality reflected in the ideas of thinkers of past eras and modernity. The paper does not consider general, particular and special methods of cognition. The emphasis is given to certain cognitive approaches and actions in order to analyze the content of political and legal doctrines. In this regard, the author attempts to consider history, for example, not as a science, but as a scientific method. The same applies to philosophy and sociology. This is somewhat at odds with certain «standards» regarding methodology as a set of methods and techniques for obtaining scientific knowledge. Nevertheless, in relation to the history of political and legal doctrines, such an approach is justified by virtue of the object and subject of the study. Competition between these approaches means only freedom of choice of research techniques and their ability to complement each other.

(Un)Doing Critical Theory in Pretoria, 1981–1987

Critical Theory came to occupy pride of place in the curriculum of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pretoria between 1981 and 1987, at the height of political repression by the apartheid state. This article seeks to unravel this apparently paradoxical phenomenon, examining the assimilations of Critical Theory to other contextually specific discursive formations, including Cold War ideology, neo-Calvinist salvation history, Christian nationalism, occidentalist ideas of “Europe,” and cultural pessimism in the late apartheid era.

Уроки війни для формування стратегії української східної політики: філософські міркування

The article analyzes the issues in political philosophy related to the attitude towards russians and everything russian in the context of a new phase of russian aggression against Ukraine. This attitude is polarized around two extremes – the total denial, deleting and canceling of everything associated with russia and the USSR, on the one hand, and the distinction and justification of russian culture or “ordinary people”, on the other. According to the classical polarization effect and the confirmation bias, social attitudes are polarized, centrist moderate at­titudes are deleted, and extreme attitudes prevail, which is detrimental to social stability and dialogue. If in Ukraine prevails the principle of total canceling of a russian, then outside Ukraine, especially in countries far from the war, the wrong approach of so-called prudence and moderation leads to the false contraposi­tion of the “Ukrainian” radical attitude of canceling and russian propaganda as two equal approaches, which is wrong from factual and logical side. Instead, the “moderate” position of distinction ignores some factual, historical, and political issues that relate to the genesis of russia’s ideology of war, the doctrine of “russian World.” These discussions are proof that Ukraine needs to develop a new clear strategy for russia and a russian, based on the rejection of the black-and-white approach, the provincial postcolonial complex, the attitude to russia not as “our one” but as “other one”, while Ukraine will considered as a center of thought and action, treating russia as a completely external factor. This strategy requires a dif­ferentiated approach to different strata of russian society, a critical attitude to russian civil religion, and must be based on the values of humanity and freedom, which in turn should be the leading narrative of russia’s transformation.

Between Fear and Fascination: The Soviet Union in the Modern Age

The article deals with the formation of Soviet power, the Soviet Union, the influence of the ideology of Marxism, Leninism and Stalinism on the processes associated with industrialization, national socialism, nationalism, war and peace, humanism and fascism, which were a response to the economic and political domination of the United States and Europe. In the context of comparative analysis, special attention is paid to the phenomenon of Bolshevism as a real challenge of the 20th century. Considering that without the October Revolution and the Civil War in Russia there would be no war ideologies in Europe, without the experience of a multinational empire there would be no ethnic cleansing, without the victory of the Soviet Union in World War II there would be no communist rule in Eastern Europe and etc. The article also examines the prerequisites for the formation and transformation of the totalitarian political system and regime of the USSR, against which the revival of democracy and market economy began in Europe.

That Obscure Concept of Desire: The Ideological War over Scientific Models

AbstractThis article analyzes the scientific debate surrounding the appropriateness of pharmacological interventions aimed at increasing female desire. It has three objectives: (1) to outline the nonepistemic values that underlie scientific concepts of desire; (2) to conduct an analysis of scientific misuses when justifying a drive-based model of desire and pharmacological intervention; and (3) to show how in this and similar cases of vague constructs we can demonstrate the role of nonepistemic values and assess their influence.

The longer abolition of the Chinese imperial examination system (1900s–1910s)

AbstractBy connecting seemingly scattered reforms and debates over the 1900s and 1910s, this paper outlines a longer process that eroded the institutional and ideological foundations of the imperial examination system (keju) that did not vanish immediately after the 1905 abolition. Under the title incentive program introduced in 1904, keju titles had been awarded to graduates of modern schools until the very end of the Qing dynasty. As the number of modern schools surged over the 1900s, the program led to an overexpansion of title holders, and ironically enhanced the scholar-official identity that was at odds with the discipline at the modern schools. To lobby for the abolition of the program, non-official reformers of education formulated a moralized critique against the keju titles, but no substantial reform had been undertaken before the 1911 Revolution ended the Qing dynasty. In the 1910s the same network of late Qing reformers launched an ideological war against traditional values that they saw as the ideological foundation of the keju. They constructed new concepts of education and vocation that spread through a powerful network connecting education, industry, and media. This “longer abolition” of the keju produced a prolonged effect on the visions of social order in twentieth century China.

Konflik, Karakter dan Pancasila: Studi Kepustakaan

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between conflict and character in Indonesia, and Pancasila as a source of character for conflict resolution. As the largest pluralistic country in the world, Indonesia cannot be separated from conflict. History records many identity conflicts caused by ethnic conflicts, religious and racial differences, conflicts between groups, and increasingly strong ideological wars. This research method uses literature study. The resulting literature studies are sourced from books, articles, which are relevant to conflict, interaction, character. The results of this study are (1) conflict is caused by the intersection of character needs and interests; (2) the character of the conflict includes the attitudes, emotions, and habits of various people. Therefore, the effort that must be done is to revitalize the practice of Pancasila values. Pancasila as a spiritual value (the highest cosmos), as well as a moral value, must be implemented in everyday life, with the aim of preventing and resolving conflicts in the present and in the future.