Assessing the Georgian conflict
Richard Falk discusses the recent violence in Georgia in light of the geopolitical context, involving NATO, Russia, the EU, and the US.
A Case for Civil Disobediences: Embracing the Power of Nonviolent Revolutions
This article discusses the shortcomings of violent social struggles – their relative exclusivity, vulnerability to foreign manipulation for geostrategic goals, and their likelihood (if successful) to establish similarly repressive and violent regimes to the ones they seek to overthrow. These are then juxtaposed with the relative merits of nonviolent struggles – their inclusivity, self-sufficiency, and compatibility with democratic structures of governance.
Just War
Alex Powell examines the concept of just war, and if it is compatible with peace. The framework of the analysis is the nature of justice and the implication of semantics in the term “just war”.
Iraq and the Corporate America
Corporate America is now mobilizing itself to do its part for operation Iraqi freedom, having been assured by the US government that its role in Iraq is as vital to the Bush administration’s vision for Iraq as the military’s. George Bush has said that he envisions a ‘US-Middle East free trade area’ within 10 years, ‘replacing corruption and self dealing with free markets’.
Deconstructing Reconstruction
David Ekbladh unravels the real meaning of “post-war reconstruction”.
Theatre of Peace: reflections
In the theatre the public gazes at a remarkable event, one based on conflict; but the audience of the theatre of war gazes at violent conflict. Is there some connection between these definitions of theatre that is more than semantic? Could there be a theatre of peace?
Yasser Arafat: Around the World
The World debates Yasser Arafat’s Legacy and what his passing means for Middle East.
From http://news.bbc.co.uk/, http://www.aljazeera.com/, http://news.yahoo.com/,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/, http://nobelprize.org/index.html, http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl, http://www.nytimes.com/
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.
Children in Armed Conflicts: Inconsistency of the Laws, Culpability and Criminal Responsibility of Child Soldiers
This essay explores the concept of Child Soldiery and its inconsistencies under International Law, with a focus on the vulnerabilities of children in situations of armed conflict.
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.