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 »
Month: January 2018
From Failure to Victory – 50 Years since the Tet Offensive
The Vietnam War remains the deadliest war the world has seen since 1945. The Tet offensive was a turning point. For the US, it took away the belief that victory was possible. All that was left was to find a way out. Fifty years ago, in the middle of the night on January 30, the… 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 »
Putin’s “Victory” in Syria has Unraveled Fast
The civil war in Syria will soon enter into the seventh year, with around 400,000 people dead and over 12 million displaced. Although the so-called Islamic State has been militarily defeated in Raqqa, no one party is in control of the country—and there is hardly much hope that the tragedy will end soon. Turkish offensive… 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 »