526 research outputs found
Introduction: Theories and Practices of Internal Colonization. The Cultivation of Lands and People in the Age of Modern Territoriality
No full textThe article argues that internal colonization should be analyzed from a transnational perspective, as a shared repertoire of ideas and practices that can be observed in the interwar period. First, it critically discusses the use of ‘internal colonization’ and ‘internal colonialism’ as historical and analytical concepts. It then links these to recent debates in historiography about the ‘colonial’ nature of continental empires and the distinct place and importance ascribed to internal colonization within these debates. The last part presents the variety of rationales underpinning resettlement schemes and shows how these were articulated in the various programmes and practices of internal colonization analyzed in this theme issue
Loyalty and Secret Intelligence: Anglo-Dutch Cooperation during World War II
Get PDFSecrecy and informal organisation produce, sustain, and reinforce feelings of loyalty within intelligence and security services. This article demonstrates that loyalty is needed for cooperation between intelligence partners as well as within and between services. Under many circumstances, loyalty plays a larger role in the level of internal and external collaboration than formal work processes along hierarchical lines. These findings are empirically based on the case study of Anglo‒Dutch intelligence cooperation during World War II. By demonstrating that ‘loyalty’ critically affects the work of intelligence communities, this article contributes to current and future research that integrates history, intelligence studies, and research on emotions
An Assemblage Approach to Liquid Warfare: AFRICOM and the 'hunt' for Joseph Kony
No full textThe Western state-led turn to remote forms of military intervention as recently deployed in the Middle East and across Africa is often explained as resulting from risk aversion (avoidance of ground combat), materiality (‘the force of matter’) or the adoption of a networked operational logic by major military powers, mimicking the ‘hit-and-run’ tactics of their enemies. Although recognizing the mobilizing capacities of these phenomena, we argue that the new military interventionism is prompted by a more fundamental transformation, grounded in the spatial and temporal reconfiguration of war. We see a resort to ‘liquid warfare’ as a form of military interventionism that shuns direct control of territory and populations and its cumbersome order-building and order-maintaining responsibilities, focusing instead on ‘shaping’ the international security environment through remote technology, flexible operations and military-to-military partnerships. We draw upon assemblage as a heuristic device and the case of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) to flesh out the complex and fluid nature of liquid warfare and the ways by which power operates across space. We outline how the forging of a transnational military assemblage in the name of ‘hunting Kony’ allowed for the buildup of an archipelago of military bases and operational capabilities across Africa, which serve as hubs for the monitoring, disrupting and containment of potential risks and dangers
An End to Evil: An Eschatological Approach to Security
No full textIn this article, a case for developing a Christian approach to (in)security is offered, hinging on the idea that there is an end to evil. It is argued that there still is merit in combining the human longing for securitas with a biblical sense of certitudo. First, a short selection of religious or ecclesiastical thought and action on the topic of security and safety is examined. Then, today’s thinking about security is analyzed through the lens of Adam’s timescape concept. Finally, I advocate the need for a biblically informed eschatological interpretation of security concerns that reorients the existing administrative, social scientific, or other academic approaches to fear, danger, threat, and insecurity
Hungry Minds: the Eisenhower Administration and Cultural Assistance in Sub-Saharan Africa (1953-1961)
No full textDwight Eisenhower did not ignore the call for African independence because of the Soviet threat. Instead cultural assistance—education and information—were employed to foster self-government. This commitment to cultural assistance explains why aid to African countries in real numbers remained low: economic assistance had to include educational schemes to be effective
Friendship in world politics: Assessing the personal relationships between Kohl and Mitterrand, and Bush and Gorbachev
No full textThis article offers a theoretical approach to evaluate political friendship, and to test this approach by focusing on two well documented and supposed friendships: those of Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand, and George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev. In so doing the article aims to address an academic oversight where friendship is taken for granted, without pausing to define and measure its influence on political actors. Part one aims to operationalize the concept of friendship, offering a concise philosophical overview of the concept, culminating in a demarcation between a (businesslike) partnership and a character driven friendship. Part two analyses the current state-centred approach to friendship in international relations and shows that operationalizing the concept of friendship between actors connects directly to current research on friendship, adding an additional layer of analysis on the level of political actors. Part three follows with an overview of the supposed friendships between Kohl and Mitterrand, and Bush and Gorbachev, which are then evaluated in the light of the definitions of partnership and friendship. This paper concludes by marking the similarities and inherent differences of the two friendships, particularly pausing on the thin line a politician must walk between personal affections and an opportune political agenda
EU Support for Justice and Security Sector Reform in Honduras and Guatemala
No full textThis desk study reviews the literature on EU programmes that supported security and justice reform in Guatemala and Honduras, focusing on two programs: the programme in support of the security sector (PASS) in Honduras and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). The former was an EU led programme, almost entirely funded by the EU, the latter is a hybrid UN organisation, co-funded by the EU. The first section of the report provides some background information about the political context in the Central American isthmus, and in particular in Guatemala and Honduras. The next section briefly reflects on the development of the relationships between the Central American region and the EU. The longest section of the report discusses the two programmes separately. Each case starts with a brief introduction and some background information, moves on with a presentation of the development of the programme over time, and finalizes with a discussion of different assessments and evaluations of the intervention. The report closes with a reflection on the capabilities of the EU
Review of Luc Panhuysen, Oranje tegen de Zonnekoning. De strijd van Willem III en Lodewijk XIV om Europa
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