Political Science Commons^™

Examining The Declining Utility Of Military Force, Ali Wyne

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War by Andrew J. Bacevich. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. 270pp.

Human Rights In El Salvador, Tait Robinson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Between 1979 and 1991 El Salvador was embroiled in a civil war that claimed over 70,000 lives. Longstanding socio-economic inequality between the rich and poor led to government-backed human rights abuses dispensed by the military. These ranged from denials of freedom and civil liberties to village massacres.

Contending Interventions: Coming To Terms With The Practice And Process Of Enforcing Compliance, Emilian Kavalski

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Purpose of Intervention: Changing Beliefs about the Use of Force by Martha Finnemore. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. 174pp.

and

International Intervention in the Post-Cold War World: Moral Responsibility and Power Politics edited by Michael C. Davis, Wolfgang Dietrich, Bettina Scholdan, and Dieter Sepp. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2004. 332pp.

Unraveling North Korea’S Preferences And Managing Its Nuclear Threat, Monti Narayan Datta

Political Science Faculty Publications

Chief among US national security concerns is the North Korean nuclear threat. Led by its reclusive, enigmatic leader, Kim Jong Il, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) is one of the last bastions of communism, representing a strategic and ideological challenge for the United States in the post-9/11 era. So great is the perceived threat of the DPRK, that in his 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush proclaimed, “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose …

The African Union, Makaria Green

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The African Union (AU) was established on July 8, 2001. Its predecessor was the Organization for African Unity (OAU)—established in 1963. The charter that created the OAU was the result of several multinational African conferences held in the 1950s and 1960s aimed at supporting Africans who were still under colonial rule to incite change through non-violent means. The OAU had just four organs: the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, the Council of Ministers, the General Secretariat and the Commission of Mediation, and Conciliation and Arbitration. On September 9, 1999, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government issued …

International Monetary Fund, Kris Kirby

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Just as the United Nations (U.N.) was created in direct response to the human atrocities and international conflict of World War II, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was created to help repair the decimation that was experienced by the developed nations that became involved in the war. While both organizations have seemingly similar objectives (i. e. , post-war reconstruction and creation of an environment for lasting peace), the Articles of Agreement of the IMF, however, contains no explicit mention of human rights.

The War On Terror, Gwyn Prins, Stanley Heginbotham, John Cooley, Steven Van Evera, Jack Blum, Jonathan Schell

New England Journal of Public Policy

Presents comments (from the EPIIC Symposium at Tufts University, February 2004) concerning the war on terror; concern on the problem about terrorism; elaboration on the claim that the world is not in a global war on terror; and problems of the use and abuse of the word terrorism.

The Role Of The United Nations In A Unipolar World, Brian Urquart, Michael Glennon

New England Journal of Public Policy

Presents comments on issues concerning the role of the United Nations in a unipolar world system. Discussion on the issue concerning the failure of the Security Council to reach unanimity on the occupation of Iraq and the regime change; Views on preventive war; Information on several problems encountered by the UN wherein their actions are considered irrelevant. From the EPIIC Symposium at Tufts University, February 2004.

Rhetoric Or Reality Exporting Democracy To The Middle East, Marina Ottoway, Andrew Hess, Naomi Chazan

New England Journal of Public Policy

Focuses on the promotion of democracy to the Middle East. Capacity of the U.S. to promote democracy in the Middle East; Discussion on the claim that spreading democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan is influenced by rhetorical flourish designed to impress American audiences; Assumption that the American brand of democracy is at a high price. From the EPIIC Symposium at Tufts University, February 2004.

The Pulse Of War: Writing A Response, Kevin Bowen, Tony Aiello, Chris Agee, Almira El-Zein, Fred Marchant, Carolyn Forché, Fanny Howe

New England Journal of Public Policy

Introduction and a series of articles and poetry concerning the war on terror being imposed by the U.S., and more.

Writes Kevin Bowen:

One year into the war in Iraq, the ugliness of the undertaking has become more and more inescapable. If anything, the experience has reaffirmed a few simple facts that deserve reiteration. There is no such thing as an easily winnable war. There is no such thing as a humane war. In every war, long after the fighting ends, peace will remain elusive, and memories of suffering will endure through generations.

Of course we knew all this before. …

Truth Under Fire: The War And The Media, Gary S. Messinger

New England Journal of Public Policy

Over the last hundred years, the relationship between war and mass communication has become increasingly elaborate. Governments and private-sector organizations have found more and more ways to use the media in wartime, and the range of available technologies has expanded to include print, film, radio, television, and the Internet. The system that exists today, at the start of the twenty-first century, is the product of many twists and turns over the decades: an accretion of some strategies for wartime use of mass communication and a rejection of others. An understanding of this evolution is a starting point for crafting policies …

Cruel Science: Cia Torture And U.S. Foreign Policy, Alfred W. Mccoy

New England Journal of Public Policy

The roots of the recent Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal lie in CIA torture techniques that have metastasized inside the U.S. intelligence community for the past fifty years. A contradictory U.S. foreign policy marked by both public opposition to torture and secret propagation of its practice has influenced American response to UN treaties, shaped federal anti-torture statutes, and produced a succession of domestic political scandals. After a crash research effort in the 1950s, the CIA developed a revolutionary new paradigm of psychological torture and then, for the next thirty years, disseminated it to allies worldwide. After September 11, the U.S. media …

A Bloody Tradition: Ethnic Cleansing In World War Ii Yugoslavia, Paul Bookbinder

New England Journal of Public Policy

When World War II began, a climate for mass violence already existed. The author examines the history of ethnic cleansing, cultural cleansing, mass murder, and genocide in Yugoslavia – Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Hertzegovena, and Kosovo – and finds that the historical atrocities are alive in active memory today. With a new awareness of the consequences of ethnic hatred, people can study their own histories cleansed of myth and nationalist delusions so that wars that unleash ethnic violence can be stopped before these excesses erupt.

Intervening In The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Strategy And Its Risks, David Matz

New England Journal of Public Policy

The primary problem in reaching a peaceful arrangement between the Israelis and the Palestinians is that a significant number of people on both sides reject dividing the land between the Mediterranean and Jordan (the two-state solution), and neither local government (not the Israelis nor the Palestinians) can control their own rejectionists. As long as any "solution" assumes that the local governments will be able to confront these rejectionists, that plan will fail. The only way around this is with the use of an international coalition composed, at least, of the United States, the EU, the UN, and Arab countries. The …

Weapons Of Mass Destruction & Public International Law, Michael Donlan

New England Journal of Public Policy

The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) into the hands of rogue dictators and terrorists has brought a sea change in strategic international relations, and is accelerating the necessity of public international law to protect humanity. Traditional balances of power have little force left to deter WMD. Major powers must seriously revamp and proactively exploit public international law, and, to that end, bolster multilateral institutions to marshal an action plan to leash this unacceptable risk. Leadership is needed on three levels: 1) promote a new mission for public international law to address WMD; 2) muster a broad-based coalition of …

Power And Freedom/I Am Right; You Are Dead, Wole Soyinka

New England Journal of Public Policy

Focuses on issues concerning political power and freedom. Discussion on the concept of quasi-state; Disadvantages of having a quasi-state; Importance of the experience of Algeria in post-colonial reconstruction on the developmental transformation of African nations; Need to accept the factor of power as an unquantifiable element governing social and nation relationships.

The Responsibility To Protect, Romeo Dallaire

New England Journal of Public Policy

From the EPIIC Symposium, Sovereignty & Intervention, at Tufts University in February 2003: Focuses on the responsibility to protect humanity. Experiences during the Rwandan catastrophe; Resolvability of humanitarian catastrophes with security problems; Several ways on how to intervene in the problem.

Genocide: What Do We Want It To Be?, Alan A. Ryan Jr.

New England Journal of Public Policy

The definition of genocide in the Genocide Convention has been universally accepted, in the statutes of the ad hoc international tribunals and the International Criminal Court, but it conceals a host of ambiguities. Sociologists, political scientists, and others have not devised any legally adequate substitute. This article proposes a non-linear definition of genocide, that is, a definition that takes into account the presence or absence of several factors, rather than one that attempts to generalize the crime of genocide. It disregards the motives or objectives of the perpetrator, sheds the secondary phenomena that often accompany genocide (such as dehumanization of …

The Role Of The Military, General William Nash, Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, Gwyn Prins

New England Journal of Public Policy

Presents comments (from the EPIIC Symposium at Tufts University, February 2004) on the issue concerning the role of the U.S. military on their citizens; Concern on defining victory in the war on terror; Discussion on the relationship between the political objectives of the U.S. grand strategy and how they employ a military instrument; Views on the role of the military force.

Conflict Resolution, Nation-Building & Constitution-Making., Nicholas Haysom

New England Journal of Public Policy

Most of the current and intractable armed conflicts in the world today are intra-state conflicts in societies divided along the fault lines of race, religion, ethnicity, language, and region. These conflicts are overwhelmingly animated by identity. Even where such conflicts do not take on a violent form, they serve to prevent the emergence of interest-based politics in multi-cultural societies. The political systems in such nation-states -- and their national constitutions -- are required to address the way in which multiple identities can coexist within an inclusive national polity and alongside a national identity. This challenge faces both new democracies and …

Peace-Building In An Inseparable World, Jonathan Moore

New England Journal of Public Policy

Our world is increasingly divided between the haves and the have nots, and the gap between these two is growing. Despite this, with all of its riches, the United States remains disconnected. A poor country in the aftermath of war is a microcosm of the world at large. Given the prodigious problems of the failed and failing nations discussed here -- Afghanistan, Cambodia, East Timor, Haiti, Iraq, Kosovo, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Somalia -- the tendency is to deny the enormity of the task and to treat the problem superficially and peremptorily rather than to attack its root causes. The …

Peace Through War? United States And Israeli Strategies, Heribert Adam

New England Journal of Public Policy

Can the lessons learned from South Africa's struggle with apartheid be applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Is a two-state solution in the Middle East a realistic way out of the long-standing dilemma? Or is a common state (what Israelis usually refer to as a "bi-national" state), which might be defined by a high security barrier, a feasible solution? The author investigates the implications of Iraq and 9/11 on progress toward a solution.

Formulas For Partition, Fragmented Maps, Yet No Solution, Mahdi Abdul Hadi

New England Journal of Public Policy

The author traces the history of the partition formula in Israel and Palestine, beginning with the 1937 British "Peel Commission" through the decades to the June War of 1967 and, almost a decade later, President Jimmy Carter's mention of a "Palestinian homeland." The Reagan Plan followed, and the 1980s witnessed a flood of political formulas that attempted to manage the conflict. In the 1990s, in the light of the post-Cold War era, a "culture of recognition and reconciliation" was introduced and with it, hopeful times. But the more recent efforts to bring the partition formula back, introduced against a background …

Transitions From Terrorism To Modernity: Linking External And Internal Change Dimensions, Greg Mills

New England Journal of Public Policy

The struggle between Arab nationalism and Islamic radicalism may determine the direction of Middle Eastern politics and society and possibly of world history for decades to come. The war on terror is likely to be more like the Cold War than a hot war, but a successful battle against the war on terrorism will have to involve military means with long-term engagement. The answer may lie in shifting the focus away from attempts to defeat the enemy to a strategy that attempts to neutralize the enemy, which demands nuance and empathy with local conditions.

Africa And The War On Terror, Eddy Maloka

New England Journal of Public Policy

The U.S. war on terror is now in its third year, and the bombings in Afghanistan and Iraq are far from over. Many analysts and policy thing-tanks have reflected on the impact of this war on Africa; some have put emphasis on the economy, development aid, security questions, and others on implications for U.S. foreign policy. The intention of this piece is to introduce new elements to the reflection.

From Dictatorship And War To Democracy: Alternative Future For The Drc, Claude Kambuya Kabemba

New England Journal of Public Policy

With a transitional government in place, peace is now a possibility in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Policy options are being considered to sustain the peace and start the work of building a Congolese state that would not repeat the failings of the past. There is hope that the transitional period will produce democratic elections and subsequently a legitimate government, which would start to shake the view of the DRC as the "heart of darkness." There are two main obstacles to state-building in the DRC: lack of consensus on governance and illegal exploitation of resources. The two are …

'Outside Agitators:' The Role Of Foreign Islamists In The Chechen Fight For Independence, Robert Kent Pinkerton Jr.

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to identify the role of foreign Islamist charities and terrorist groups in the current conflict in Chechnya. The issue of foreign Islamism in Chechnya is introduced through a general history of the region, including the role of religion in both traditional Chechen culture and in the present war. The evolution of Chechen war from a secular to a religious conflict is first examined by looking into the perspectives of various Muslim groups on the Chechen war and other similar conflicts and, conversely, the perspectives of many Chechens on the outsiders who purport to aid …

Book Review: The Psychological Origins Of Institutionalized Torture, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author reviewed Mika Haritos-Fatouros’s book The psychological origins of institutionalized torture, commenting on torture itself and how it relates to the human condition.

Moderating Politics In Post-Conflict States: An Examination Of Bosnia And Herzegovina, Angela M. Banks

Faculty Publications

The individuals who negotiated the peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina considered ethnicity to be the most salient division within Bosnian society. Consequently they organized Bosnia's political structure around ethnic representation. While it is doubtful that peace in Bosnia would have been possible without guarantees for ethnic-based political representation, such guarantees have proven insufficient for building a functioning, stable, and cohesive state. This article analyzes the role that Bosnia's political framework, which focuses exclusively on ethnic representation, has played in impeding the development of a significant cadre of moderate political actors and in hindering the success …

Psychological And Sociopolitical Factors Contributing To The Creation Of The Iraqi Torturers: A Human Rights Issue, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article was written by Dr. Mika Haritos-Fatouros, Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessalonica, Greece.

She discusses the human rights context of torture in Abu Ghraib from a political psychological perspective.