War Debate Research Articles

Susan B. Anthony and the Struggle for Equal Rights

Susan B. Anthony and the Struggle for Equal Rights is an edited collection of essays that grew out of a conference organized at the University of Rochester in 2006, on the one hundredth anniversary of Susan B. Anthony's death. The title, which might appear misleading at first, should be understood broadly, as the volume does not exclusively focus on Anthony's life and work but also deals with her times. The editors' aim was to investigate “the diversity of thought and action in American women's involvement in nineteenth-century reform movements,” and, more specifically, “the conflicts and disputes that confronted female reformers” during Anthony's lifetime (p. ix). The four essays about Anthony are important contributions to the history of women's rights in the United States. Kathi Kern's insightful contribution highlights the often-underestimated religious foundation of Anthony's fight for women's rights as well as the numerous intersections between her Quaker faith and her politics. Laura E. Free deals with an important moment in the history of women's rights in the United States: the post–Civil War debate over black suffrage and female suffrage. She analyzes the different strategies used by Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton during the New York State constitutional convention of 1867 and their failed attempt to dissociate suffrage from manhood in the public discourse.

Towards an August Assembly of Suave Venusians? The early post-Second World War debate over New Zealand literacy and numeracy standards in transnational context

Purpose – Educational standards debates are a promising area of investigation for transnational study by historians of education. Drawing upon the work of Foucault, Kliebard, and Aldrich, the paper critically examines some of the outstanding features of the emerging debate over literacy and numeracy standards that sharply divided teachers, educational officials, parents, and employers in New Zealand during the mid-to-late 1950s. These included the polarisation of opinion across the nation, the involvement of the national media, and the tactics of mass persuasion adopted by the various protagonists. Design/methodology/approach – The paper utilises contemporary theory to critically interrogate an historical episode in which controversy over literacy and numeracy standards in schools led first to an in-house report, and finally to a national inquiry. The paper draws upon contemporary newspaper commentary, professional journals and parliamentary debates, as well as a considerable amount of archival material held at Archives New Zealand repositories in both Wellington and Auckland. Findings – The paper contributes to the field by illustrating the way in which historical debates over literacy and numeracy lie at the intersection of completing claims to truth. Behind such claims lie rival conceptions of education that make it unlikely that standards issues will ever be resolved satisfactorily. Hence the title of the paper, which refers to a jocular suggestion by a newspaper editor of the time that only an “August Assembly of Suave Venusians” could adjudicate in the debate. Originality/value – The value of the paper is that it links current theories on transnationality with archival research in order to critically examine a national case study. Much of the primary source material has never been utilised previously for research as Archives New Zealand has only just released the relevant files for research purposes.

Dialogue of the Deaf: Scholars, Practitioners, and the Drug War in U.S. Foreign Relations

In this paper I offer some Washington-focused reflections on the scholarly-policy divide in the drug war debate, drawing from more than two decades of observing and occasionally participating in what often seems to be a dialogue of the deaf — or perhaps the problem is not lack of hearing but not liking what one hears. Academics, I argue, have little discernible influence on the Washington policy debate on international drug control except at the margins (in technical aspects of crop substitution schemes, and so on). To the extent that scholars are involved in the foreign policy drug war debate — and there are plenty of disciplinary factors inhibiting this — it is primarily as outside critics rather than as trusted advisors. So to the extent that they have a receptive audience, it is more in the broader public sphere than in the halls of Congress or in the drug war bureaucracy. Their policy influence is therefore more indirect and more difficult to measure, though this does not mean it is necessarily unimportant.

Review: The Vietnam War Debate: Hans J. Morgenthau and the Attempt to Halt the Drift into Disaster, by Louis B. Zimmer

Review: <i>The Vietnam War Debate: Hans J. Morgenthau and the Attempt to Halt the Drift into Disaster</i>, by Louis B. Zimmer

China, India and Pakistan: models for an intermediate stage towards disarmament?

As the USA and Russia seek to reduce their nuclear arsenals en route to universal disarmament, they are hamstrung by the lack of a doctrinal basis for minimum deterrence. The cold war debate between Albert Wohlstetter and Patrick Blackett remains valid today. Though Wohlstetter's ideas, which produced large arsenals, remain influential, an examination of the history of nuclear rivalries shows that Blackett's thinking—offering security with more compact arsenals—is closer to reality. The minimalist doctrines and practices of China, India and, to a lesser extent, Pakistan offer useful lessons for the USA and Russia. But the Asian powers themselves need to iron out the inconsistencies in their thinking, which harbours elements of Wohlstetter's thought, if they are to be truly useful models that the bigger powers can emulate.

Louis B. Zimmer: The Vietnam War Debate: Hans J. Morgenthau and the Attempt to Halt the Drift into Disaster. (Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books, 2011. Pp. 389.)

Louis B. Zimmer: The Vietnam War Debate: Hans J. Morgenthau and the Attempt to Halt the Drift into Disaster. (Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books, 2011. Pp. 389.)

Scarred souls, weary warriors, and military intervention: the emergence of the subject in the just war writings of Jean Bethke Elshtain

AbstractOver the past three decades Jean Bethke Elshtain has used her critique and application of just war as a means of engaging with multiple overlapping aspects of identity. Though Elshtain ostensibly writes about war and the justice, or lack of justice, therein, she also uses just war a site of analysis within which different strands of subjectivity are investigated and articulated as part of her broader political theory. This article explores the proposition that Elshtain's most important contribution to the just war tradition is not be found in her provision of codes or her analysis of ad bellum or in bello criteria, conformity to which adjudges war or military intervention to be just or otherwise. Rather, that she enriches just war debate because of the unique and sometimes provocative perspective she brings as political theorist and International Relations scholar who adopts, adapts, and deploys familiar but, for some, uncomfortable discursive artefacts from the history of the Christian West: suffused with her own Christian faith and theology. In so doing she continually reminds us that human lives, with all their attendant political, social, and religious complexities, should be the focus when military force is used, or even proposed, for political ends.

The Cold War and British debates over the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics

This article examines the debate precipitated by the Thatcher government's (unsuccessful) attempt to secure a British boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Aware that it faced a struggle to win over the autonomous British Olympic Association, but with Thatcher in particular keen to support the United States, the government's case that the invasion required a specific response in the form of a boycott was steadily overshadowed as the public debate increasingly focused on arguments over human rights and détente and the use of state power.

The Vietnam War debate: Hans J. Morgenthau and the attempt to halt the drift into disaster

1 Acknowledgements 2 Author's Note 3 Preface 4 Chapter 1: Background to a Needless War 5 Chapter 2: Morgenthau and Bundy: The Harvard Dean Fails the Vietnam Reality Test 6 Chapter 3: Media Neglect of the National Interest 7 Chapter 4: Morgenthau and Schlesinger and the National Interest 8 Chapter 5: Morgenthau and the Council on Foreign Relations 9 Chapter 6: Morgenthau's Influence, Fulbright's Conversion and the Stupidity of Smart Men 10 Chapter 7: What I have said recently, I have been saying for years without anybody paying attention. 11 Epilogue 12 Bibliography 13 Index

Hal Kochs "Jeg anklager Rigsdagen". En efterkrigstidsdebat i perspektiv

Martin Ejsing Christensen: “Hal Koch’s Jeg anklager Rigsdagen: A Post Second World War Debate in Perspective”In his 1947 book Jeg anklager Rigsdagen [I accuse the parliament], the Danish theologian and public commentator Hal Koch vehemently condemned the treatment of the so-called collaborators in the aftermath of the German occupation of Denmark. Today Hal Koch’s moral condemnation and its presupposed historical analysis have been lauded by several historians as the moral and historical truth about the “Retsopgør”,the transitional justice of the postwar period. This article examines this received view by placing Hal Koch’s book in its contemporary setting through an analysis of newspaper reviews of the book. Combined with the existing knowledge about the political conditions in Denmark immediately after the Second World War, this leads to the conclusion that Hal Koch’s and today’s moral condemnation of the “Retsopgør” fails to take into account some of the political circumstances obtaining at the time. As a consequence, this moral condemnation may be seen as a symptom of a more general moralizing attitude today towards the Second World War in Danish history.

Pragmatism, politics and the politiography of civil wars

While Håvard Strand’s rejoinder to ‘Deconstructing civil wars’ is a welcome invitation to dialogue, its criticisms are grounded in a fundamental misreading of my article. Here I will attempt to address the sources of confusion, which stem from poor execution on my part and some theoretical blinders on the part of the author of the rejoinder. This response will clarify my ethical and theoretical concerns with the way in which mass intra-territorial armed violence has been studied recently, and then reinforce my proposed warrant for a pragmatic ( read: political) turn in the civil war/new war debate. This intervention will conclude by suggesting that the present debate highlights the need for a third estate in political studies, one that operates between political science and political theory: politiography.

The Politics of Atmospheric Sciences: “Nuclear Winter” and Global Climate Change

This article, by exploring the individual and collective trajectories that led to the "nuclear winter" debate, examines what originally drew scientists on both sides of the controversy to this research. Stepping back from the day-to-day action and looking at the larger cultural and political context of nuclear winter reveals sometimes surprising commonalities among actors who found themselves on opposing sides, as well as differences within the apparently coherent TTAPS group (the theory's originators: Richard P. Turco, Owen Brian Toon, Thomas P. Ackerman, James B. Pollack, and Carl Sagan). This story foreshadows that of recent research on anthropogenic climate change, which was substantially shaped during this--apparently tangential--cold war debate of the 1980s about research on the global effects of nuclear weapons.

The American Way of War Debate: An Overview

The American Way of War Debate: An Overview

From nation-states in conflict to conflict in nation-states: The United States of America and nation building from South Vietnam to Afghanistan

This article engages with the latest (post-Cold War) debate about the theory and practice of nation building (state building). This is linked to a discussion of the shift in US foreign policy towards Afghanistan relative to Iraq between late 2008 and late 2009. Afghanistan is currently a major focus of nation building efforts and counter-insurgency programs led by the United States of America. Meanwhile, the discussion here ranges from South Vietnam to Colombia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and explores some of the ghosts that now haunt the US presence in Afghanistan 9 years on from the start Operation Enduring Freedom at the end of 2001. We argue that the possibility of successful nation building in Afghanistan is both far-fetched and far-off. In fact, what is required is the reorientation and reduction (even termination) of Washington and its allies’ direct commitment to Kabul. Washington and its allies should focus on a grand strategy for the Middle East and Asia that attaches far less importance to Afghanistan. This should occur in the context of understanding the history of the emergence, universalization and contemporary crisis of the nation-state system. Nowhere are the limits of the nation-state system and the failure of nation building more apparent today than in Afghanistan. In this context a whole new approach to questions of war, peace and progress is in order. The comprehensive elaboration of a new security-development framework is beyond the scope of this article, but we conclude by elaborating some of the main elements of a new framework: this will include a point of departure for research and policy to move beyond the current crisis of the nation-state system and nation building.

The End of the Cold War Debate and the New Debate in America

The End of the Cold War Debate and the New Debate in America

A Historian’s View: The War Crimes Debate Down Under

This account, based both on historical research and personal memory, depicts the belated and unsuccessful efforts made in Australia to trace and prosecute Nazi criminals. The author, chief historian of the Australian War Commission, surveys the war crimes debate in his country, including personal vignettes from his life and work.

O papel de síntese da escola de Copenhague nos estudos de segurança internacional

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a contribuição da Escola de Copenhague para os estudos de segurança internacional, por meio do exame de sua relação com as teorias das Relações Internacionais e seus desdobramentos no campo de segurança internacional. Para cumpri-lo, realiza-se uma breve contextualização da literatura acadêmica mainstream dos estudos de segurança desde a gênese do campo, com vistas a melhor se compreender o impacto do construtivismo na área a partir da década de 1990. Posteriormente, procede-se a uma breve revisão dos debates realizados tanto entre racionalistas e construtivistas como entre as variações do construtivismo, com vistas a situar o trabalho do grupo de Copenhague nas discussões da área. Apresenta-se, por fim, um panorama da produção da Escola de Copenhague, sustentado em dois eixos principais: (a) as contribuições que mais se destacaram; e (b) os debates suscitados, com as críticas recebidas e as respostas fornecidas pelos autores. Conclui-se que uma das principais contribuições dos autores de Copenhague para os estudos de segurança internacional diz respeito ao papel de síntese de seu trabalho em relação aos debates mais amplos realizados no campo de teoria das Relações Internacionais e ao debate sobre segurança internacional no pós-Guerra Fria.

Gender Risks and Education: The Particular Classroom Challenges for Urban Low-Income African American Boys

A fundamental consideration in discourses on risk and schooling for primary and ^LjLsecondary school-age students focuses on gender inequalities in the classroom. Gender equity in education debates have raged for several decades and so remain an enduring concern of educators and researchers across the nation (Klein, Kramarae, & Richardson, 2007). Gender politics in classrooms, in teaching, and in teacher training have been accorded minimal to no attention by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and other educational policies. The blindness of NCLB, toward an approach best characterized by its devil and/or god in the details, still sends parents, educators, and researchers battling over how much gender matters and how much these issues go unaddressed throughout the school day. A recent report by the American Association of University Women found no disadvantage toward boys in American education, and it discredited the niyth that boys are receiving less attention and less schooling as compared to that of girls (Corbett, Hill, & St. Rose, 2008). This report was in response to a pendulum swing in the field from the earlier position that girls were disadvantaged, particularly in math and science skills development. Gender war debates have used individual studies to document disadvantage on both ends. However, a consistent review of the literature tends to point to one challenging reality namely, that gender may be too broad a category in critically examining the more challenging problems of educational equity or in developing future training, programs, and policies to ameliorate educational risk for students in primary and secondary schools (Dee, 2005). We take issue with a broad definition of risk within the context of gender because it tends to focus on a universalism that masks subgroups of students at greatest risk

Neue Kriege, neu betrachtet. Neubetrachtung des Forschungsstands und des Fallbeispiels Bosnien und Herzegowina

This study aims to review the state of art of the new wars debate from 1999 till today. In a critical reflection it analyses Mary Kaldor’s approach and identifies three core elements that guide the ...

Coverage of the pre-Iraq War debate as a case study of frame indexing

This study examined critical coverage, substantive news frames, and news sources in The New York Times and Washington Post coverage of the pre-Iraq War debate. This content analysis evaluated media coverage before and after Congress passed the resolution that authorized the use of military force in Iraq. Results demonstrated that Congressional consensus was related to diminished frequencies of critical and substantively framed paragraphs in coverage yet the ongoing international debate sustained relatively more intense levels of critical coverage after the resolution passed than before. Substantively framed coverage, however, declined across all source types and levels of measurement after the Congressional resolution. In sum, the observed increase in the level of consensus within the US government seemed to influence coverage of the pre-Iraq War debate as it continued within and among other groups, such that substantive news frames were indexed to this shift in the tone, intensity, and focus of the policy debate. These findings therefore suggest a level of integration between indexing and framing in which an increased level of official consensus may be predictive of not only certain tones of coverage but also certain news frames being adopted over others.