Military and Politics

“I have just finished reading Lessons Not Learned: The U.S. Navy’s Status Quo Culture and highly recommend it to anyone who truly cares about the Navy’s present and future ability to support and defend our nation's interests. I wish I could say that I enjoyed the read, but, as is often the case in confronting unpleasant reality, it was a disquieting experience. And, reality it is. I can vouch for the accuracy of the author’s observations and the validity of his conclusions. I was a first hand witness during my own career that spanned destroyer, diesel submarine, and nuclear submarine service. Whether we can ever change the culture of the U. S. Navy from one characterized by institutionalized parochial self interest to one that rewards commitment to the national best interest based upon enlightened prediction of future warfare requirements is, at best, an open question. Certainly, it cannot happen unless the highest levels of the Defense Department and the Navy recognize and understand the Lessons Not Learned. I thank Roger Thompson for producing a book that should be required reading for all those incumbents from the Secretary of Defense down to Navy Junior Officers.”

- Commander Kerry Gentry, USN (Ret.), Former SSBN skipper


“For a comprehensive, thoughtful and independent-minded critique of today’s U.S. Navy, I know of no work better than Professor Roger Thompson’s Lessons Not Learned: The U.S. Navy’s Status Quo Culture. I recommend the book as essential reading for anyone interested in or professionally involved in naval matters, whether officer, civilian analyst, contemporary historian, defense journalist or navy buff. It is of particular value and importance to those who are courageous enough and patriotic enough to be committed to military reform. The military reform literature is well endowed with strong critiques of American air and ground forces, but is relatively weak in insightful writings on the Navy’s ineffectiveness and waste of men and money. Thompson’s book fills that gap. Lessons Not Learned is particularly hard-hitting in documenting the evidence for the U.S. Navy’s ongoing and shocking vulnerability to diesel subs and mines. As he makes clear, both weapons systems are nearly ubiquitous in the maritime Third World and the presence of either turns U.S. control of the seas into a delusion. Equally valuable are Prof. Thompson’s blunt comparisons of the strengths and weaknesses of American naval forces vis a vis the strengths of smaller allied forces. Unsurprisingly, these disparities in combat readiness, tactical skills and exercise outcomes prove to be greatest in anti-mine warfare and anti-submarine warfare—though sadly declining American aerial tactical skills are certainly not glossed over. But Thompson’s most valuable contribution of all is the thread that runs throughout the book: the most crucial weakness of the U.S. Navy is not materiel or money. It is, plain and simply, the closed-mindedness, hubris and rampant careerism of the Navy’s leadership, greatly magnified by a mindless up-or-out personnel system. That leads to an enlisted force with inadequate skills, morale and training plus an officer corps more focused on promotion and plush retirement jobs than on building a navy competent to win wars.”

Pierre Sprey, Lead Designer of the A-10 Warthog and Co-designer of the F-16

“La educación militar en la transición democrática argentina. Tensiones entre concepciones tradicionales y reformistas en el contexto de crisis profesional e institucional del Ejército. 1984-1986”. En: Páginas. Revista Digital de la Escuela de Historia de la Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Año 9, Nº19. Enero-abril de 2017. pp.98-121. ISSN 1851-992X.

Introduction
15th April 1945
The Leader's Order.
Order Of The Day.  15th April, 1945.
Last Proclamation: Soldiers Of The German Eastern Front!
For the last time our deadly enemies the Jewish Bolsheviks have launched their massive forces to the attack. Their aim is to reduce Germany to ruins and to exterminate our Folk. Many of you soldiers in the east already know the fate which threatens, above all, German women, girls, and children. While the old men and children will be murdered, the women and girls will be reduced to barrackroom whores. The remainder will be marched off to Siberia.
We have foreseen this thrust, and since last January have done everything possible to construct a strong Front. The enemy will be greeted by massive artillery fire. Gaps in our infantry have been made good by countless new units. Our Front is being strengthened by emergency units, newly raised units, and by the Germanic Folk Militia. This time the Bolshevik will meet the ancient fate of Asia -- he must and shall bleed to death before the capital of the German Reich. Whoever fails in his duty at this moment behaves as a traitor to our Folk. The Regiment or Division which abandons its position acts so disgracefully that it must be ashamed before the women and children who are withstanding the terror of bombing in our cities. Above all, be on your guard against the few treacherous Officers and soldiers who, in order to preserve their pitiful lives, fight against us in Russian pay, perhaps even wearing German uniform. Anyone ordering you to retreat will, unless you know him well personally, be immediately arrested and, if necessary, killed on the spot, no matter what rank he may hold. If every soldier on the Eastern Front does his duty in the days and weeks which lie ahead, the last assault of Asia will crumple, just as the invasion by our enemies in the west will finally fail, in spite of everything.
Berlin remains German, Vienna will be German again, and Europe will never be Russian.
Form yourselves into a sworn brotherhood, to defend, not the empty conception of a Fatherland, but your homes, your wives, your children, and, with them, our future. In these hours, the whole German Folk looks to you, my fighters in the east, and only hopes that, thanks to your resolution and fanaticism, thanks to your weapons, and under your leadership, the Bolshevik assault will be choked in a bath of blood. At this moment, when Fate has removed from the Earth the greatest war criminal of all time, the turning point of this war will be decided.
Adolf Hitler.

There are more types of borders today than ever before in history. Borders of all kinds define every aspect of social life in the twenty-first century. From the biometric data that divides the smallest aspects of our bodies to the aerial drones that patrol the immense expanse of our domestic and international airspace, we are defined by borders. They can no longer simply be understood as the geographical divisions between nation-states. Today, their form and function has become too complex, too hybrid. What we need now is a theory of the border that can make sense of this hybridity across multiple domains of social life.

Rather than viewing borders as the result or outcome of pre-established social entities like states, Thomas Nail reinterprets social history from the perspective of the continual and constitutive movement of the borders that organize and divide society in the first place. Societies and states are the products of bordering, Nail argues, not the other way around. Applying his original movement-oriented theoretical framework "kinopolitics" to several major historical border regimes (fences, walls, cells, and checkpoints), Theory of the Border pioneers a new methodology of "critical limology," that provides fresh tools for the analysis of contemporary border politics.

“Power is war, the continuation of war by other means”: Foucault’s reversal of Clausewitz’s formula has become a staple of critical theory — but it remains highly problematic on a conceptual level. Elaborated during Foucault’s 1976 lectures (“Society Must Be Defended”), this work-hypothesis theorises “basic warfare” [la guerre fondamentale] as the teleological horizon of socio-political relations. Following Boulainvilliers, Foucault champions this polemological approach, conceived as a purely descriptive discourse on “real” politics and war, against the philosophico-juridical conceptuality attached to liberal society (Hobbes’s Leviathan being here the prime example).
However, in doing so, Foucault did not interrogate the conceptual validity of notions such as power and war, therefore interlinking them without questioning their ontological status. This problematic conflation was partly rectified in 1982, as Foucault proposed a more dynamic definition of power relations: “actions over potential actions”.
I argue, somewhat polemically, that Foucault’s hermeneutics of power still involves a teleological violence, dependent on a polemological representation of human relations as essentially instrumental: this resembles what Derrida names, in “Heidegger’s Ear”, an “anthropolemology”. However, I show that all conceptualisation of power implies its self-deconstruction. This self-deconstructive (or autoimmune) structure supposes an archi-originary unpower prior to power: power presupposes an excess within power, an excessive force, another violence making it both possible and impossible. There is something within power located “beyond the power principle” (Derrida). This (self-)excess signifies a limitless resistantiality co-extensive with power-relationality. It also allows the reversal of pólemos into its opposite, as unpower opens politics and warfare to the messianic call of a pre-political, pre-ontological disruption: the archi-originary force of différance. This force, unconditional, challenges Foucault’s conceptualisations of power, suggesting an originary performativity located before or beyond hermeneutics of power-knowledge, disrupting theoreticity as well as empiricity by pointing to their ontological complicity.
The bulk of this essay is dedicated to sketching the theoretical implications of this deconstructive reading of Foucault with respect to the methodology and conceptuality of political science and social theory.

This essay is a brief summary of the facts both from and preceding the Norman conquest of Scotland which ultimately led up to the First War of Scottish Independence in the early 14th century.
The essay is in Catalan.

Este artículo es un breve resumen de los hechos tanto de la conquista normanda de Escocia como los que la precedieron, que acabaron desembocando en la Primera Guerra de Independencia Escocesa durante la primera mitad del siglo XIV.
El texto está en Catalán.

This study examines the role of political factors in attitudes toward World War II in contemporary Ukraine. The question under examination is which factors determine public views of the principal warring sides and their leaders in Ukraine. This paper uses a representative national survey specifically designed for this research project and conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in 2012. It analyzes the roles of regionalism, political party preferences, ethnicity, language, age, and sex in attitudes toward the Red Army, Soviet partisans, the German Army (Wehrmacht), and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during the war, as well as toward the wartime leaders of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and the UPA. The analysis of the survey data shows that regional values, political party preferences, ethnicity, language, and age have significant effects on views of the Soviet Army and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the war and attitudes toward the wartime activities of Joseph Stalin and Roman Shukhevych. Public perceptions of the German Army and Adolf Hitler in Ukraine do not vary much across regions, political parties, and ethnic, language, age, and sex groups.

The texts "About the rhythm in military art", "About the gaze in military art", and "About the attitude of the spirit in military art" by the notorious samurai Miyamoto Musashi, are part of his book, known in English as the "Book of the five rings". This ancient military treatise consists of a work of enormous value, divided into five chapters, and is considered the most accurate record of what was considered by Musashi to be his most valuable legacy, his meticulous and rational way of thinking about military art, and in particular , individual duels.

This important work, although it has an evident focus on kenjutsu, that is, on Japanese swordsmanship, more specifically, the Niten ichi-ryū style, founded by Musashi himself, does not fail to present more reflections on the art of war in a more general way.

يتناول عبد الفتاح ماضي في كتابه عثرات في الميدان: كيف أخفقت ثورة يناير في مصر؟ الصادر عن المركز العربي للأبحاث ودراسة السياسات، المسار المتعثّر لثورة 25 يناير 2011 في مصر؛ باعتبارها جزءًا من نضالٍ ممتد في التاريخ الحديث للشعب المصري من أجل التغيير، وحدثًا أداره فاعلون داخليون وخارجيون بقناعات ومصالح مختلفة، وفي سياقات إقليمية ودولية غير مواتية.

يروم الكتاب فهم التحوّلات الكبرى التي طرأت على مسار الثورة، والبحث في عددٍ من القضايا المحورية، مثل دور النخب ومجموعة من جنرالات الجيش في الثورة، والعامل الخارجي والديمقراطية في مصر، وقضايا الهوية والتغيير في مصر.

مقدمات الثورة

يتألف الكتاب (300 صفحة بالقطع الوسط، موثقًا ومفهرسًا) من مقدمة وسبعة فصول وخاتمة.

في الفصل الأول، "مقدمات ثورة 25 يناير"، يعرض المؤلف مقدمات ثورة يناير، مع التركيز على إرث مرحلة مبارك في المجالَين السياسي والاقتصادي، موضحًا كيف أغلق نظام مبارك سبل الإصلاح السياسي التدرجي، وأفسد الحياة السياسية عقودًا طويلة، ما أدّى إلى إسقاطه وحزبه الحاكم عبر التظاهرات الشعبية. كما يعرض كيف ثارت قطاعات واسعة من المصريين ضد النظام، ودور الجماعات الاحتجاجية الشبابية والحركات الاجتماعية والعمالية في تعبئة الشارع ضد مبارك، ودور أدوات التواصل الاجتماعي والإعلام والجمعية الوطنية للتغيير وحركة 6 أبريل.

أما في الفصل الثاني، "اندلاع الثورة وردّ النظام"، فيرصد المؤلف اندلاع الثورة، وردّة فعل سلطة مبارك التنفيذية عليها، بدءًا من عناده وتهوينه شأن الحراك الشعبي ضده، مرورًا بخطابات التهديد والوعيد واستخدام القمع الوحشي ضد المتظاهرين، وانتهاءً بمحاولات التشبث بالسلطة وبدء تحرك الجيش.

تحولات الثورة

يُعنى المؤلف في الفصل الثالث، "تحولات الثورة المصرية"، بمسار ثورة يناير وتحوّلاتها، فيتناول تحول الثورة من كونها ثورة "ديمقراطية" تنادي بالحريات والعدالة الاجتماعية إلى ثورة "انتخابية"، من خلال البحث في الطريقة التي أدار بها الفاعلون السياسيون الرئيسون المرحلة الانتقالية بعد إسقاط مبارك (12 شباط/ فبراير 2011 - 30 حزيران/ يونيو 2013)، مركزًا على انفراد المجلس الأعلى للقوات المسلحة بإدارة الدولة، واعتماد خريطة طريق تقوم على التنافس الحزبي الانتخابي قبل التوافق، وسلوك القوى السياسية التقليدية التي تصدّرت المشهد السياسي، إضافةً إلى غياب الحوار والتوافقات الكبرى. كما يتناول المؤلف تحوّل ثورة يناير مرة أخرى من كونها ثورة "انتخابية" إلى ثورة "مضادة"؛ من خلال عرض الطريقة التي أوقف بها جنرالات المجلس العسكري المسار الديمقراطي، وقادوا ثورةً مضادة أطاحت المكتسبات القليلة التي حققتها ثورة يناير، وأقامت نظامًا يقوم على الصراع الصفري مع القوى التي لا تصطف مع النظام. ويوضح هذا الفصل كيف كانت اختيارات النخب تُعبّر، في واقع الأمر، إمّا عن قناعات وأفهام مغلوطة، وإمّا عن مقدمات أيديولوجية متحجرة، أو مصالح ضيقة، أو نصائح غير مدروسة قُدّمت من أطراف مختلفة، أو عن خليط من هذا وذاك.

الحوار والتجربة الدستورية

ينصب اهتمام المؤلف في الفصل الرابع، "محاولات الحوار الوطني"، على محاولات الحوار التي جرت في مراحل مختلفة؛ حيث يبدأ بعملية الحوار التي بدأتها جماعة الإخوان المسلمين قبل اندلاع الثورة بشهور، واستمرت في الشهور الأولى للثورة، وتُوّجت بما سُمّي وثيقة التحالف الديمقراطي. كما يعرض المؤلف حوارات المجلس العسكري الحاكم حتى لقاء "فيرمونت" وانتخاب الرئيس محمد مرسي، إضافة إلى الحوارات التي أجراها هذا الأخير، ثم بعض المبادرات التي قُدمت بعد 30 حزيران/ يونيو 2013.

أما في الفصل الخامس، "التجربة الدستورية بعد الثورة"، فيقدم المؤلف الوثائق الدستورية التي ظهرت في مرحلة المجلس العسكري حين شهدت البلاد إعلانًا دستوريًا في 13 شباط/ فبراير 2011، ثم تعديلات دستورية متعلقة بـ 9 مواد من دستور 1971، ثم إعلانًا دستوريًا آخر في 30 آذار/ مارس 2011، ثم إعلانَين دستوريّين (في 25 أيلول/ سبتمبر و19 تشرين الثاني/ نوفمبر 2011) يعدّلان إعلان 30 آذار/ مارس، ثم إعلانًا دستوريًا مكملًا في 17 حزيران/ يونيو 2012. كما يقدم المؤلف الوثائق الدستورية التي ظهرت في مرحلة مرسي؛ وذلك حين عرفت مصر في 12 آب/ أغسطس 2012 إعلانًا دستوريًا جديدًا (ألغى الإعلان الدستوري الصادر في 17 حزيران/ يونيو 2012)، والإعلان الدستوري في 21 تشرين الثاني/ نوفمبر 2012، ودستور 2012. ويقدم المؤلف، أيضًا، الوثائق الدستورية التي ظهرت في مرحلة ما بعد 30 حزيران/ يونيو 2013، وشهدت فيها البلاد بيان القوات المسلحة في 3 تموز/ يوليو 2013، وإعلانَين دستوريين (في5 و7 تموز/ يوليو 2013)، ودستور 2014.

جنرالات الداخل والعوامل الخارجية

يتناول المؤلف في الفصل السادس، "جنرلات الجيش وثورات الشعب"، بعض الجوانب ذات الصلة بعلاقة مجموعة من جنرالات الجيش المسيطرين على المؤسسة العسكرية بثورة يناير، فيعرض حالات مقارنة من خارج العالم العربي لإيضاح ما يأتي: سبب استيلاء العسكريين على السلطة، وطبيعة الحكم العسكري، وطريقة خروج العسكريين من السلطة. ثم يعرض باقتضاب الحالة المصرية، بدءًا من جذور تدخّل الجنرالات العسكريين في السلطة، وتطور أدوارهم السياسية والاقتصادية، مرورًا بالمغالطات التي ردّدها إعلام ما بعد 30 حزيران/ يونيو 2013 بشأن دور الجيش، وانتهاءً بالمخاطر المترتبة على طبيعة النظام الإقصائية والبوليسية؛ لا على الحياة السياسية والثورة فحسب، بل على المؤسسة العسكرية ذاتها والأمن القومي العربي أيضًا.

في الفصل السابع، "العوامل الخارجية والثورة المصرية" (الفصل الأخير)، يعالج المؤلف بعض الأدوار الدولية والإقليمية في مسار الثورة المصرية، فيتناول موقف القوى الغربية من مسألة الديمقراطية في البلدان العربية قبل ثورات 2011، ثم موقف الولايات المتحدة الأميركية وأوروبا وروسيا من الثورة المصرية، ودعم القوى الإقليمية نظامَ ما بعد 30 حزيران/ يونيو 2013، إضافةً إلى أثر استخدام خطاب الحرب على الإرهاب واستراتيجياته في مسار الثورة.

Right-wing violence and terrorism have slowly gained more academic and public attention in recent years, with an increase in anti-immigration and anti-government organised violence from the extreme right in most Western countries. Some evidence exists that right-wing extremists have attempted to infiltrate the military in their home countries to gain access to tactical training, weapons, and to recruit highly skilled new members. Research about the extent and impact of extreme right-wing links to the military is, however, scarce. In addition to the lack of insight into potential right-wing (or other forms of) extremism problems in the military, most armed forces have not developed effective countering violent extremism (CVE) tools. In this way, the incorporation of CVE in the military lags far behind the use of CVE in other aspects of counter-terrorism in the West. As the military, next to the police and intelligence, is a critical part of a country’s security infrastructure, it must also include specially designed mechanisms to protect it from infiltration and abuse from violent extremists and those planning terrorist activities. This Policy Brief will discuss available knowledge about extreme right-wing links to the military in Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. It will conclude by formulating concrete recommendations for handling this potential threat.

This article presents an analysis of the current developments of social media and its influence on the future military operations. It discusses the organisational capabilities of the Internet-based social platforms and argues that they allow civilian self-organisation that will increase undesired civilian participation in future armed conflicts. In its second part, the article analyses the role of social networks in the ‘wars of ideas’ that accompany the battlefield on the ground. The article advocates a noteworthy potential of the social networks as tools to promote perceptions and images as a part of ideological confrontations.

https://journalistethics.com/
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This publication is about the Deep State and pursues four core objectives.

This book: 

• Defines the notion of the so-called ‘Deep State’;
• Outlines 101 tools that the Deep State uses to achieve short-term objectives;
• Analyzes the mechanisms that the Deep State uses to pursue its arch objective;
• Synthesizes an original diagram that summarizes the Deep State’s modus operandi.

This book is written for those with zero to little knowledge of the ‘Deep State’. It analyzes credible sources that claim a Deep State apparatus exists. Much discussion is cutting-edge. The Deep State’s existence has not mainstreamed in public knowledge during pre- or recorded history.

This book synthesizes the consensus that appears in various public sources. Examples include mainstream and alternative media reports, scholarly publications and institutional documents. Discussions are Western-centric. They focus on power structures in Europe, the Near East (e.g. Israel) and the United States of America (USA). These are the core locations of Deep State bases.

This book aims to arm readers with the tools required to form their own opinions. Much language in this book unambiguously informs the audience of the author’s informed opinions. May critical readers conduct their own independent research and always draw their own conclusions.

Sidi Rezegh and Tobruk are the largest disasters suffered by South Africa in its military history. Yet, despite their enormity, Sidi Rezegh and Tobruk are little understood and hardly remembered. South Africa declared war on Germany on the 6 September 1939, after a bitter internal debate, amounting to a conflict between Afrikaner nationalists and those who supported the British Empire. South Africa’s political ambivalence and disunity ran parallel to her unpreparedness for war in every important department from the lack of vital coastal defences to the miniscule size of her army and air force and complete lack of a navy. The first six months of 1941 saw the South Africans play a significant part in completely defeating the Italian colonial forces in East Africa. However, the campaign was poor preparation for what the South Africans were to encounter in the North African Desert months later. South African troops spent their time rebuilding fortifications in Egypt rather than in essential training to acclimatise this “bush war” army to harsh desert conditions. In a reluctant political decision, the unprepared South Africans were committed to Operation Crusader. The inexperienced South Africans met up with the battle hardened Afrika Korps at Sidi Rezegh on 23 November 1941 and were annihilated in the face of overwhelming odds. In revisiting this forgotten battle, it has been found, using primary and secondary sources, that the South Africans extracted an enormous price on the German armour in what may have been the true turning point of Operation Crusader. In May 1942, Rommel’s Afrika Korps sallied forth in a series of lightning moves that demonstrated the Axis grip on combined operations and managed to isolate the vital port of Tobruk commanded by an inexperienced South African, Major General H. B. Klopper. His surrender in one day is often compared to the previous siege endured under similar circumstances, where the Australians managed to hold Rommel at bay for 244 days until the siege was lifted. Klopper’s surrender of Tobruk resulted in a political crisis for Winston Churchill and for Jan Smuts, as the fiasco caused considerable tension within the Allied camp and within South Africa. On re-examination, interesting facts have emerged from the primary source material, as to the state of the Tobruk defences and of its unfortunate commander and how the United Kingdom, acting in concert with South Africa, sought to suppress the true facts. Immediate post-war memory has been shaped and distorted by sensitive political considerations that affected relations between South Africa and the United Kingdom. Thereafter, the memory of Sidi Rezegh and Tobruk was relegated first by a nationalistic Afrikaner government and then since by a democratically elected government, both of which have seen very little use in incorporating these two milestones into the national memory.

AKP hükümetini devirmek amaçlı, 15 Temmuz 2016 Askeri Darbe kalkışması ve kaos yaratma eyleminin, yapan askerlerin çoğunluğunun Fethullah Gülen cemaati üyesi olması nedeniyle yurt dışı istihbarat örgütleri tarafından desteklenen bir örtülü operasyon olup olmadığı bu makalenin ana konusudur. Makalede Gülen cemaati, bir siyasi örtülü operasyonlar kapsamında yaratılmış, ülke yönetimini ele geçirerek, Türk devletinin yeniden inşa edilmesi ve dış politika uygulamalarında, Yurt dışı devletlerin çıkarlarına uygun olarak hareket etmesini sağlayacak siyasi bir araç olarak görülmektedir. Bu görüşten yola çıkarak 17-25 Aralık 2015  ve 15 Temmuz 2016 Askeri Darbe Kalkışması da bu örtülü faaliyetlerin devamı olarak sayılmaktadır.
Makale de öncelikle örtülü operasyon kavramı açıklandıktan sonra, Fethullah Gülen cemaatine değinilecektir. Cemaatin lideri, örgütlenme yapısı, uygulama geçirmek istediği amaçlar ve bu amaçlarla paralellik taşıyan Yurt dışı devletlerin ulusal politikaları arasındaki benzerliklere değinilecektir. Yurt dışı devletler olarak öncelikle ABD, İsrail sonrasında İngiltere ve Almanya temel alınmaktadır. Ancak ABD’den ikamet izni alarak, cemaatini buradan yöneten lideri Gülen nedeniyle ABD ve İsrail daha önemli ülkelerdir.

Believers say he preaches a new, modern form of Islam. Critics charge he is a power hungry wolf in sheep's clothing preparing to convert secular Turkey into an Islamic republic; a conspirator who has created a state within the state and attempted this weekend to topple democratically elected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a failed military coup.

That was not how past Turkish governments or for that matter Mr. Erdogan in his first eight years as prime minister saw Fethullalh Gulen, the leader of one of the world’s largest and wealthiest Islamic movements.

In December 2015, then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter changed the cultural landscape of the military by stating the U.S. military will let women serve in all combat roles beginning in 2016. Just three years prior to this announcement, the American Intelligence Journal published an article titled "The Other Fifty Percent: Psychological Operations and Women in Eastern Afghanistan," which discussed the importance of females working in combat operations as psychological operations (PSYOP) soldiers. The intent of the article was to force the discussion of how women can be a unique resource on the battlefield beyond merely manpower. The purpose of this follow-up article is two-fold: first, to review how the military has changed in reference to women participating in combat roles since 2012; and second, to discuss how the Intelligence Community (IC) has long utilized women in operations and leadership roles in a way of interest to the military.

Factors as culture, values, and symbols are crucial to understand the evolution of the Italian foreign and defense policy. However, scholars' attention to such variables in the study of Italian defense policies still leaves many gaps. Since the end of the Cold War, Italian troops have been constantly engaged in military operations abroad spreading a " peacekeeper image " of Italy in the international arena. The goal of this work is to investigate the features and the evolution of the main strategic narratives adopted by political leaders to interpret the Italian military involvement in Afghanistan. How have politicians crafted strategic narratives on the Afghan mission? How have these story lines influenced public opinion during the conflict? Has the disproportionate gap between the storyline, based on the traditional values of peace and multilateralism, and the war-torn reality on the ground, affected the level of public approval? Or have the ways in which narratives were built in 2009 played a more significant role? In order to answer these questions, this paper relies on polls, content analysis of parliamentary debates, and public discourse analysis (2001–2011).

Some Brazilian military voices have recently turned to condemn indigenous lands in Amazonia as a threat to national sovereignty. Under this manifestation (actually, a rhetorical attack to indigenous rights established by a large indigenist tradition), military criticism try to discredit the State indigenist politics as a whole. This article appreciates both the anachronism of these critics regarding the large Brazilian indigenist legal tradition and their affiliation with a more recent authoritarian tradition; but it also observes how discursive elements of this last one (the authoritarian tradition) face the new debate about social regulation, regarding the notion of difference and the meaning of collective rights concerned to it.

The presence of multinational forces in conflict zones helps to strengthen the legitimacy of operations, sharing responsibilities, costs and risks. Cooperation within a multinational military mission in crisis or conflict situations should also take into account cultural differences and their effects. In the current multicultural military context, knowledge of cultural differences and cultural sensitivity is, in our view, the key to making cooperation more effective within the multinational military coalition. The question that arises is the following: "In a complex multicultural environment, what are the most important factors that, by interaction, can affect the effectiveness of the mission?" The culture of nations, multiculturalism, cultural factors, items that through the difference in manifestation and perception, produce major effects within the multinational mission, are the issues upon which special attention must be paid. Papers must be prefaced by an abstract in English up to 250 words. The text will be written in 10pt high, Italic, justified, left-right alignment. A number of maximum 8 keywords will be written 10pt below the abstract. The words will be 10pt high, Italic, left alignment, and separated by a semicolon.

Intersectional analysis attempts to more adequately theorize how social divisions (of ethnicity/race, class, gender, sexuality, age, etc.) interact and affect each other, without reducing one to another. “Triad analytics” is introduced here to emphasize affective investments and the mutual constitution of subject formation (who we are), cultural concepts (how we think), and embodied practices (what we do). I argue that pervasive gender coding privileges not only (some) men but also subjectivities, conceptual frames, and embodied activities that are characterized as masculine. These analytical starting points are used to explore RGC and S in colonial and contemporary contexts of militarization and war. The process reveals how “official war stories” do political work with material consequences: constructing enemy “others,” legitimating calls to war, justifying extremes of violence, and normalizing RGC and S forms of subjection.

Having explored in the first two parts of this series the abstract concepts of national and maritime strategy, identifying the dangers and challenges with the formulation and application of each, and the problematic chain of historical evidence, focus will now move towards an analysis and evaluation of current strategy, applying knowledge and theory to ascertain the aptness of the UK's stated ways

On Wednesday, 4 March 2020, the Ethnographic Museum (Museum Volkenkunde) in Leiden announced that it had discovered the Indonesian freedom fighter, Prince Diponegoro's (1785-1855), long lost heirloom dagger (keris), Kangjeng Kiai Nogosiluman (His Highness the Unseen King of the Snakes). It is being given back this week in the context of a rare royal visit to Indonesia by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima (11-13 March), which in turn is being preceded (8-13 March) by one of the largest trade and technical missions sent by the Netherlands to their former colony. So what is going on? Has this fortuitous location of the Javanese freedom fighter's keris a political agenda? The present paper (in Dutch) explains some of the background.

The paper offers analysis of the discourses on the Great War (World War I) and of the practices of the culture of remembrance in interwar Lithuania. The research addresses the scope and the nature of literary fiction dealing with the theme of the Great War in interwar Lithuania (with the focus on the literary merits of translated works by foreign authors and of those by local authors, the ‘upsurge’ of and changes in the fiction on war), and the significance of the war to the public at large; the research also expands on the practices of the commemoration of the Great War and on the maintenance of military cemeteries in interwar Lithuania. On the one hand, literature on war in interwar Lithuania was an object of analysis, while, on the other hand, it represented a field of publishing industry with the works by foreign authors translated and local authors published. The Great War was a landmark event for a whole generation. It changed people’s lives and attitudes to war, and opened up new horizons for war fiction. Multitudes of young gifted people had to spend several years at the front because of universal conscription. Later they wrote books often based on their own experience, or even their diaries, that became literary classics. In Lithuania translated works came first: the publication of the novel
All Quiet on the Western Front can be considered a turning point that was followed by the works of Lithuanian authors. In a sense, the 1930s were a time of a breakthrough for the literature on the subject of the Great War in Lithuania. Certain episodes of the Great War, such as its outbreak and causes, the German occupation, and the military actions reflecting the war experience of the Lithuanians (1914 in East Prussia, the battle of Augustów in 1915, and the fall of Kaunas Fortress)
were actualised in interwar Lithuania. Such a situation stemmed from geographical and national reasons: the said operations took place on the ‘Lithuanian lands’ with numerous involvement of the Lithuanians. There were controversial judgements on the war: on the one hand, it had caused heavy casualties and immense material losses leading to moral decay and changes in the heretofore familiar mode of life and mindset. On the other hand, the war ‘woke up’ the Lithuanian nation and created
conditions for the restoration of the Lithuanian state, which was straightforwardly referred to as a true miracle and was thought impossible were it not for the Great War (followed by the fall of three European empires). The casualties of the Great War therefore came to be seen as a sacrifice on the ‘altar of freedom’ of Lithuania and this
claim was further reinforced by the fact that a great number of Lithuanian soldiers took part in the Great War serving in the armies of other countries (in particular those of Russia, Germany, and the United States) and many of them perished on various fronts.

The Azerbaijani military portal Azerideffence.com recently published information about Baku acquiring French ASTER 30-SAMP/T and VL MICA air-defense missile systems. A representative of the company producing these missile systems—MBDA—confirmed the information. Several days later, the Russian newspaper Kommersant informed that Moscow had refused to sell Baku the Bal-E coastal missile system despite Azerbaijan’s huge interest in purchasing it.

Much attention in the West has focused on Iran as a problem country. This book challenges the representations of Iran as a hostile regional power led by ideologues, and goes further by discussing how international relations are viewed from inside Iran itself, outlining the factors which underpin Iranian thinking on international relations and considering what role Iran, as a large and significant country in the Middle East, ought to play in a fairly constructed international system.

The book is written by leading scholars and policy makers from inside, as well as from outside, Iran and includes academics with unparalleled access and insights into the world-views of the Iranian leadership. Subjects covered include: the rationale of Iran's Islamic constitution, including its electoral system, and the impact this has on international relations; Iran's view of the ideal international system, including the place therein of ethics, justice, and security; Iran's international interests, including energy needs; and relations with the West, including the clash between Iranian and Western views of the world order.

The present paper will investigate pardon letters or “lettres de rémission” granted to soldiers by the Valois dukes of Burgundy from 1386 to 1482. During this period, the chancery records contain 885 remission letters by which the prince granted his pardon to individuals who committed a crime and petitioned for mercy. This large amount of documents includes more than 15 percent of pardons granted to petitioners who served or had served the dukes in their armies. In the narrative parts of their letters, these soldiers insisted on their military pasts as a good reason to be pardoned. The purpose of this paper is to study the contents of these military pardons to underline how they contributed to shape a collective military identity in the Burgundian State. Following the works of Christopher Allmand, according to whom fifteenth-century leaders undertook to transform their soldiers into professional State agents, I will argue that military pardons were used by the dukes of Burgundy as a tool of social disciplining. Because they granted a large amount of pardons to their soldiers who affirmed their military identity in their petitions, the dukes promoted the military service as a motive to be forgiven. And because they only forgave simple homicides and refused to pardon typical war crimes such as pillage, rape, or even desertion, they indicated which kind of behaviour was worthy for the good Burgundian soldier, and which one was not.

The important questions in politics are of probability, not possibility. What would the plausible and probable consequences of a particular intervention have been? What would have had to differ in order for successful intervention to result? Only an anti-political ethical framework – a kind of crude deontology – could find overriding significance in the mere possibility that lives could have been saved.

Das Landwehrstammregiment 54 stellte wohl im Rahmen der Raumverteidigung von 1979 bis 1994 das stärkste Landwehrregiment des österreichischen Bundesheeres auf, das bei allen Übungen und Einsätzen diese Aufgaben auch exzellent, mit dem Militärkommando Steiermark als vorgesetzte Dienststelle, wahrgenommen hat. Zum Gedenken an seine ehemaligen Soldaten und zur Aufrechterhaltung einer gerechten Tradition seien hier alle Truppenzeitungen veröffentlicht, um dieser Pflicht halbwegs gerecht zu werden!

This book chapter examines Herbert Remmel’s childhood experience which juxtaposed Hitler’s Germany and de Valera’s neutral Ireland. Born in 1936 in Cologne he experienced the war from the perspective of a child. As a fortunate nine year old, he escaped the bombed out Rhineland by taking advantage of a humanitarian operation involving the Irish Red Cross and the Save the German Children Society (SGCS). He landed off the mail-boat from Liverpool at Dun Laoghaire in Dublin on 27 July 1946 as a member of the first group of approximately 80 German children arriving under the scheme. Herbert’s experiences with his two Irish foster families instilled in the young German boy a deep and intimate appreciation of Ireland, its society, the Irish sense of place, the people’s traditions, the Irish rural way of life and Irish nationalism. Though only in Ireland for just under three years, the interlude was indelibly imprinted on his being and identity. His experience granted him rare insights into both his native fatherland, Germany, and his fostering motherland, Ireland.