Reflections of Refugees in Africa
Africa’s numerous conflicts, including in Central African Republic, South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Egypt, Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere, together produced immense forced displacement totals in 2014, on a scale only marginally lower than in the Middle East (UNHCR, 2015). Women, men, and children have been consigned to foreign countries for safety where their indispensable needs of humanity are becoming a luxury. Furthermore, the definition of one as a refugee has caused more exclusion of non-state communities as well as expansion of their dehumanization.This paper will explore the status of refugees in Africa in terms of legal environment, communication, schooling and livelihood. This will be a desk top review taking qualitative approaches. It will draw information from previous surveys, reports, journals, books, and case studies.
Teaching Peace from Tales of the City: Peace Education through the Memoryscapes of Nagasaki
To what extent can the memoryscapes of a city contribute to peace education? I argue that narratives both create and destroy the imaginaries of peace. The failure of peace museums to create an effective vision of peace reduces them to the level of historical museums. Using the framework of peace education, I explore the exhibitions, contents, objects, and messages presented in the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and the Oka Masaharu Memorial Nagasaki Peace Museum. To demonstrate their contributions toward peace education, I analyze the power of narratives contained in these two peace museums and their positioning in the geography of peace education in Japan. Finally, I suggest which factors support the realization of peace education in peace museums.
Cuban-European NGO Collaboration: The ‘Special Period’
The purpose of this article is to achieve an understanding of the nature of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in Cuba and to highlight aspects of the collaboration that has occurred between Cuban and European NGOs. The motivation for undertaking this study is to begin the process of filling the gap in information with respect to Cuba’s NGO community and to get a sense of the circumstances under which international cooperation is carried out on the island. This article constitutes the preliminary findings of an interdisciplinary study of the role of NGOs operating within the context of a revolutionary socialist society. The article begins with essential background to understanding the reasons European NGOs entered Cuba in the 1990s
From Vienna to New York: Diverging attitudes and expectations among NPT members spell trouble for the 2015 NPT Review
The resurgence of Cold War style rhetoric between Russia and “the West”, ongoing concerns over North Korea’s nuclear program, a still elusive nuclear deal with Iran, and the recurrent fear of nuclear-armed non-state actors all stand as stark reminders that humanity still lives with the unacceptable risk of nuclear war. In this timely and important article, Rob van Riet reviews the promises and ambiguities of recent conferences, summits, working group sessions, legal actions, and negotiations on nuclear weapons, and evaluates the potential of the NPT review conference in May this year to make real political progress towards the goal of nuclear disarmament.
Structural Violence and the International Political Economy
In the contemporary world, the phenomenon we call globalization has brought to life ideas and predictions previously thought impossible. There has been a global diffusion of information technologies and communications, such as the internet, cell phones and satellite television; the facility of international travel; the increased accessibility of consumer goods and services; and the sharing of unique cultures and customs. While on the surface these realizations seem undoubtedly advantageous, they are not without their own serious downsides. Most notable is the fact that as globalization gained influence in the world, largely throughout the 1990s, the actual number of people living in poverty had increased by almost 100 million(1). To make sense of this dark irony, this increasing polarization between haves and have-nots, we must examine the underlying causes and systems driving the distribution of wealth and debt in the twenty-first century. Broadly, such a system might be referred to as the international political economy
Religions and War
The study of religions and war is somewhat inchoate, yet for many years scholars have noted the important role religion plays in national, ethnic and international conflicts. Many have recently pointed to the use and abuse of religious symbolism by politically motivated leaders who employ religious language as a means of generating support for purportedly righteous causes.
We have become increasingly aware that when conflicts are couched in religious and moral language, followers often quickly and enthusiastically fall in line many willing to make ultimate sacrifices to fight on God s behalf, or at least on God s side as defined by their leaders.
Whether such political leaders are sincere in espousing religiously-imbued rhetoric or whether they are simple demagogues, the approach clearly works. It works to a great extent because it seems that many people, no matter what their political leanings, prefer to reduce complex socio-economic, or political conflicts into a zero-sum values game of right and wrong.
Evangelicals Invade Iraq
United States based evangelical NGOs and evangelical churches alike mobilized their forces to distribute humanitarian aid, as well as a plethora of Christian literature and an army of missionaries. As the efforts were underway, the onlooking Muslim world suspiciously questioned such motive
Greed or Grievance in Colombia. Why does the FARC keep fighting?
Katharina Röhl analyses the driving forces behind the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in their continuing fight in an ever more violent armed conflict that has now lasted over four decades. While grievances certainly have been important, increasingly greed plays its part which in turn leads to new grievances.
The Japanese Constitution as Peace System
The wars in Asia would seem to demand that certain European countries, the U.S., and Japan all re-examine the value systems that presumably provided the justification for those wars. Many situations of “instability” in this century were actually based on the preconceptions and deeds of the nations that applied that label. Now as ever, if a country has reason to be opposed to something, it will typically display a tendency to assume that other countries are engaged in strategic designs or acting from an adversarial position.
The business of war
Saddam was captured by regular troops. However, underlying the tactical and strategic operations in Iraq, has been and is an emerging new generation of US military tactics that relies increasingly on sophisticated information and communication technologies, which are not only developed and produced by the civilian industry, but can in fact only be maintained and operated by civilian experts.