Month: January 2018

Gene Sharp Has Died and the World Has Lost a Global Educator

Just a week after his 90th birthday, Gene Sharp passed away 28 January. The magazine New Statesman once described Gene Sharp as the “Machiavelli of Nonviolence” and Thomas Weber labelled him “the Clausewitz of Nonviolent Action.” Who was this man, and what did he contribute to our understanding of the use of nonviolent tactics in… Read more »

This Week in South Sudan – Week 4

Tuesday 23 January New satellite images show how the tiny village of Bidi Bidi, Uganda has grown into the world’s largest refugee camp since 2016. Wednesday 24 January South Sudan’s embassy in London is closed due to unpaid rent since August 2017. GoSS said it is trying its best to sort the payment situation out… Read more »

“Politics of Anxiety” (2017) – Reviewed by Jessica Auchter

Eklundh, Emmy, Andreja Zevnik, and Emmanuel-Pierre Guittet, eds, Politics of Anxiety. London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2017. Book Review by Jessica Auchter Politics of Anxiety, edited by Emmy Eklundh, Andreja Zevnik, and Emmanuel-Pierre Guittet, is arguably one of the better applications of Lacan in the field of International Relations (IR), following on engagement with Lacan by… Read more »

Grievances, Accommodation, and the Decline of Ethnic Violence

The finding that violent conflict has declined, especially after the Cold War, has generated a great deal of interest. Much of the initial debate focused on whether the claim itself is correct, but the finding itself seems robust in the sense that that the number and severity of violent conflicts has declined in most data… Read more »

Conflict and Insecurity in the IPCC

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is headed towards another round of assessing the world’s climate and how it affects our lives and livelihoods. Last September, the outline of the Sixth Assessment Report was approved and now the selection of authors is underway. ‘Climate change is fuelling wars across the world’. Thus, a heading… Read more »

This Week in South Sudan – Week 3

Tuesday 16 January The SPLA (IO)-appointed governor of Central Equatoria, Mario Laku Thomas, has defected to the National Salvation Front led by Thomas Cirillo. Laku claimed he took more than 90 SPLA (IO) soldiers with him. Wednesday 17 January According to a new report by the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring Mechanism, SPLA soldiers… Read more »

Debunking the Security Myth of Military Might

By Vitoria Basham Using and maintaining military force as a means of achieving security:  a flawed idea? In my recent article published in Security Dialogue I critique the longstanding idea that military force and the maintenance of strong armed forces provides security. This idea forms part of the social contract between liberal democratic states and… Read more »

This Week in South Sudan – Week 2

Tuesday 9 January Reports of clashes between government and SPLA (IO) forces in the Wunu’Lyet area, 10km outside Juba. Wednesday 10 January General Thomas Cirillo, leader of The National Salvation Front, denied reports that he has agreed with the exiled and former SPLA chief of staff, Paul Malong to form a coalition to fight President… Read more »