The Norwegian Sociological Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award 2018 goes to a researcher whose exceptional career has had a significant impact on international social research. The reasons for the jury’s decision appear below. Brief biography For this year’s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, there is a link between the circumstances of his birth and his… Read more »
Month: February 2018
Why did Mali fall into jihadist hands?
Jihadists have succeeded in taking control of more than half of Mali, where many people in rural areas are now adherents of one armed group or another. This situation is largely the result of widespread frustration with the bad governance by the country’s corrupt ruling elites. While the jihadists have managed to take advantage of… Read more »
This Week in South Sudan – Week 5
Wednesday 31 January SPLM/A (IO) leader, Riek Machar unveiled a position paper for the second round of the High-Level Revitalization Forum, demanding a transitional unity government for 27 months. GoSS, on the other hand, declined to announce their position prior to the negotiations. The Government of South Africa and GoSS signed a memorandum of understanding on… Read more »
From Wales to Catalonia and Beyond: Gene Sharp and Non-Violent Nationalism
Gene Sharp – a pioneer in the study of non-violent action – died peacefully at the age of 90 on 28 January 2018. Obituaries in many newspapers have highlighted his contributions to the study of non-violent resistance against dictatorial regimes, pointing to how his work inspired the Arab Spring and his reputation as a “dictator’s… Read more »
Taking “Militarism” Seriously in Critical Security Studies- Renaissance of a Concept?
By Bryan Mabee and Srdjan Vucitec The word “militarism” has seen better days. Judging by Google Books’ Ngram Viewer, it first entered into the vernacular in the nineteenth century, first in Spanish, then in French, Italian and Russian, then in English and German. The word reached its zenith in these European languages during and after… Read more »
“Security and Defensive Democracy in Israel. A critical approach to political discourse” (2015)- Reviewed by Chloé Thomas
Sharon Weinblum, Security and Defensive Democracy in Israel. A critical approach to political discourse, Routledge: New York, 2015, 156 pp.: 978-1-138-82380-8 (hbk) Book Review by Chloé Thomas The balance between basic rights and democratic principles on the one hand, and security on the other has been a central question of our political imaginary for a… Read more »
Towards a More Peaceful World [insert ‘!’ or ‘?’ here]
Each war is dramatic and horrible and warrants a hundred history books and a thousand songs of sorrow. But it also provides one more data point, along with relevant covariates, to the collection of Tolstoyan war-and-peace data-bases, and statisticians may study the evolution of alleged decreasing violence levels over time. One of the bigger questions… Read more »