Conflict Stalemate in Morocco and Western Sahara: Natural Resources,Legitimacy and Political Recognition

This article addresses the role of natural resources in the protracted conflict between Morocco and Western Sahara. Drawing from literatures of political ecology and political science, the article argues that natural resources have been deeply implicated in the conflict over time, with resource-related developments lending legitimacy to each party in different ways. The complex political economy of resource exploitation and the associated geopolitical enjeux have led to the de facto recognition of Morocco's occupation, and the symbolic aspects of natural resources have lent the Sahrawi cause legitimacy and an important node around which allies can be mobilised. That sovereignty is contested has facilitated a discourse in a different, more powerful way than when it is not in question, particularly in the Sahrawi's capacity to invoke international law to support their case. Drawing on the cases of South Sudan and Indonesia, the article ends with a brief discussion of the potential of the region's high-value resources for peace-making activities.     

A Contemporary Writer from Afghanistan: Akram Osman and His Short Stories

Akram Osman is one of the most outstanding contemporary Afghanistani writers. 1 ^?1 Although the commonly-accepted international term is Afghan rather than Afghanistani, in Afghanistan the term Afghan is synonymous with the Pashtoon ethnic group as far as non-Pashtoons are concern. The political strength of the Pashtoons led to them using the word Afghan to describe all ethnic groups; but this is resented by the many other ethnic groups in Afghanistan. In addition, the term Afghanistani is widely used inside Afghanistan. Therefore, I have chosen to use the word Afghanistani to describe the inhabitants of a multi-ethnic modern nation-state called Afghanistan. View all notes His short stories represent a current of modern Afghanistan literature in which an imported Western genre is mixed with indigenous literary traditions to become a mirror reflecting important issues and human needs in Afghanistan society. His works are divided into satirical short stories, stories of manners and diaspora stories which are not only pioneering in these types of Afghanistan literature, but also among the best to be created in modern Afghanistan. Among other particulars, his use of a form of a language based on folk traditions distinguishes his work from those of his contemporaries. Osman portrays a historical and artistic picture of Afghanistan social classes and their characteristics. Osman's stories display artistic merit and are of anthropological interest; and they have also become popular short stories in their own right appealing to the mass of Afghanistan society.     

Blessed be Discord, 1910: Ricardo Flores Magón's Manifesto Mode

This article explores how Ricardo Flores Magón used images to transpose the graphic tradition of nineteenth-century Mexican political journalism into prose by deploying montage to craft both allegorical and prismatic images: while certain images are divorced from their original context and take on a new life, others, analogically related to a single idea, appear prismatically in fragments on the page. The affinities Flores Magón's writing shared with modernismo and the historical avant garde – as intensification of the former and precursor of the latter – have been a blind spot for literary history, to which this article attempts to restore the importance of his writing.     

La représentation politique dans les doctrines et dans les institutions au XVIIIème et au XIXème siècles en Europe et aux Etats‐Unis: Une recherche en cours

SUMMARY

In this article Cristiana Senigaglia seeks to elucidate Hegel's conception of the coup d'état. This is necessary because Hegel did not systematically expound his view in this writings, notably it is not treated in his central work, Die Philosophie des Rechts. But a consistent view can be found in his historical and philosophical writings. The article suggests that Hegel did consider there were circumstances in which a use of force to change an existing political order, or lack of it, were justified. He cited the political chaos in early modern Italy, or the constitutional instabilities in France in his own time as examples where the forces of history justified illegal and forceful interventions, be they from above or below, or the intervention of the decisive historical individual, a Caesar or a Bonaparte. To be justified, in Hegel's view, such irregular actions must be consistent with the contemporary underlying forces driving the historical process: they must have the effect of creating a new, acceptable legal order to replace that which is overthrown; and in consequence must result in a new normalization. In order to be justified, and thus to succeed in the long term, the exceptional situation created by the coup must be temporary and limited. Hegel saw Robespierre and Bonaparte as examples where a justified coup was initiated, but then the will of the initiators became an obstacle to a new normalization.     

I Cry Out So That You Wake Up1: Cegerxwîn's Poetics and Politics of Awakening

This study focuses on the poetry of the well-known Kurdish poet Cegerxwîn (1903–84). Contextualizing Cegerxwîn's life and literary career within his specific social, political and historical circumstances, this article demonstrates the way in which Kurdish classical poetry during his madrasa education shaped Cegerxwîn's poetic creation. Furthermore, the oppression and exploitation of Kurdish peasants at the hands of tribal chiefs, sheikhs and nation-states contributed to Cegerxwîn's adoption of a Marxist and nationalist social and political standpoint. This article, attempting a closer reading of his poetry, suggests that at the essence of his poetry is found the continued use of the metaphor of awakening. Hence Cegerxwîn's poetics and politics can best be depicted as one of awakening the oppressed and subordinate social groups including the Kurds, peasants and workers from their deep sleep of oppression and exploitation. Through his Kurdish poetics and politics of awakening, it is argued, Cegerxwîn participates in the progressive political discourses of his times.     

Sexual Slander and the 1965/66 Mass Killings in Indonesia: Political and Methodological Considerations

Indonesia has been haunted by the “spectre of communism” since the putsch by military officers on 1 October 1965. That event saw the country's top brass murdered and the military attributing this putsch to the Communist Party. The genocide that followed was triggered by a campaign of sexual slander. This led to the real coup and the replacement of President Sukarno by General Suharto. Today, accusations about communism continue to play a major role in public life and state control remains shored up by control over women's bodies. This article introduces the putsch and the socialist women's organisation Gerwani, members of which were, at the time, accused of sexual debauchery. The focus is on the question of how Gerwani was portrayed in the aftermath of the putsch and how this affects the contemporary women's movement. It is found that women's political agency has been restricted, being associated with sexual debauchery and social turmoil. State women's organisations were set up and women's organisations forced to help build a “stable” society, based on women's subordination. The more independent women's groups were afraid to be labelled “new Gerwani ” as that would unleash strong state repression. This article assesses the implications of these events for the post-1998 period of Reformasi and reviews some recent analyses of 1965, state terrorism and violence and reveals blind spots in dealing with gender and sexual politics. It is argued that the slander against Gerwani is downplayed in these analyses. In fact, this slander was the spark without which the bloodbath would not have happened and would not have acquired its gruesome significance.     

The Concept of “the State” in Modern Political Thought

Quentin Skinner's magisterial The Foundations of Modern Political Thought was first published in 1978. A commemorative volume appeared almost thirty years later. My aim in this paper is less to revisit this last discussion by questioning either the importance or the impact of Skinner's book, both of which seem to me undeniable, than it is to unsettle a few of the assumptions that not only inform The Foundations and much of the work that it inspired, but which are all too often taken for granted. In particular, I note some limitations both of Skinner's use of the term “modern” and of his understanding of political thought before concluding that it may be time to reconsider the category of modern political thought.     

Politics and knowledge: An unorthodox history of modern China studies

Abstract

In the investigation of social phenomena — and the social organization of intellect is no exception — consideration of context is the crucial starting point for analysis. Professor Fairbank's comment on the CCAS Report, which he has duplicated for private circulation, and which is reprinted at his request in this journal, is not merely the expression of an intellectual position, but a political act.     

The Quest to Understand Global Jihad: The Terrorism Industry and its Discontents

In the 1840s Sarantis Archigenes, an Ottoman Greek citizen, wrote a book on political economy called Tasarrufat-? Mülkiye. The book contained both political-economic knowledge and developmentalist policy recommendations for the Ottoman Empire. The emphasis given to human capital, trade and transportation, industrialization and property relations is noteworthy. Since it did not reach large numbers of people, the importance of Tasarrufat-? Mülkiye has not been appreciated. The goal of this article is to provide an account of Archigenes' views on political economy as presented in his long-neglected book. Had the policy makers in the Empire in the second half of the nineteenth century taken Archigenes' views seriously, a sound development strategy could have been formed.     

The Quality of Gorbachev's Leadership

A prominent political scientist, identified with views expressing reservations about the success of Gorbachev's policies, briefly evaluates the quality of his leadership. The paper's focus is a response to a different assessment of that leadership by George W. Breslauer, published in an earlier issue of Soviet Economy. The author argues that during 1990 Gorbachev has lost most of the support he once enjoyed within both the Soviet populace and the Soviet political elite. He presents evidence that, during fall 1990, a right-wing coalition opposed to Gorbachev's policies was asserting itself. The essay covers developments through the end of November 1990. journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 124, 822.     

Nasser's Dilemma: Egypt's Relations with the United States and Israel, 1967–69

The article examines the American political efforts to bring about an agreement between Israel and Egypt between 1967 and 1969 and analyses the reasons for their failure. But it does not focus exclusively on the Americans; it also outlines the alternatives for Egyptian action during the period in question and looks at the political and military steps taken by Egypt's president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, vis-à-vis Israel and the United States. The main conclusion is that despite Egypt's dependence on the Soviet Union for economic aid and the rebuilding of the decimated Egyptian army, Nasser knew that the only route to a political process to regain Sinai ran through the United States. His diplomatic efforts were all derived from this insight. At the same time, the Egyptian president's attempts to exploit American pressure to his benefit, as he had done in 1957, was undercut by his overestimation of his bargaining chips, a mistake that was one factor in the collapse of the efforts to reach a diplomatic agreement in the region.     

Fantasy as ‘Recovery,Escape and Consolation’ in the Short Stories of Isaac Bar Moshe

Isaac Bar Moshe (1927-2004) was born in Baghdad and immigrated to Israel in 1950. This article deals with his literary world, which is split between realism on the one hand and fantasy, mysticism and dreams on the other, with both these planes reflecting his perspective on various existential questions. The article focuses on the short stories in his book Behind the Wall (1973), which, like many of his other works, are largely anchored in his private life and depict a bleak reality, with dreams and fantasy offering the only hope of escape into a better, more spiritual world. The article concludes with an analysis of Bar Moshe's stories in terms of the three functions of fantasy – ‘recovery, escape and consolation’ – as formulated by writer and philologist J.R.R. Tolkien in his book Tree and Leaf.     

Antonio Rosmini and representative institutions

SUMMARY

In this article, Georgio Campanini draws attention to the political ideas of the Italian philosopher Antonio Rosmini, who was an active participant in political debate in Italy in the first half of the nineteenth century. The article concentrates on Rosmini's most original idea, his insistence that in a representative system of government it is necessary to separate the securing of the political rights of the citizen from the ordinary processes governing the material interests of the society. Rosmini, who was orthodox in advocating an elected representative system, based on tax and property qualifications, to manage the ordinary business of the state, proposed a special institution, a Political Tribunal elected by universal male suffrage, with an open remit to intervene in government to defend the rights of the citizen. He held that the defence of individual rights could not be left safely in the hands of the state, but must be in the hands of independent representatives of every citizen, regardless of his place in society. Although Rosmini was able to put forward his ideas in the constitutional debates in Italy in 1848, they were not taken up. But his ideas anticipate current interest in Europe into setting up constitutional or supreme Courts to protect individual rights against the state, and Campanini suggests that, in this connection, the idea of their being elected by universal suffrage is worth serious consideration.     

Hostility and Hospitality: Muhammad Qazvini's Critique of Louis Massignon

In his magnum opus The Passion of al-Hallaj, the famous French scholar of mysticism, Louis Massignon (1883–1962), studied the life of the tenth-century religious figure and martyr Mansur al-Hallaj. While this earned Massignon high accolades, most famously from Edward Said in Orientalism, his contemporaries disputed the value of his contributions. In particular, this article will closely examine the writings of Muhammad Qazvini (1877–1949), an Iranian philologist who wrote a private letter to a colleague referring to Massignon's ‘Orientalist charlatanism’. Through Qazvini's private reflections we are able to explore the critical undercurrents of French Oriental studies, particularly in Qazvini's assessment of Massignon's concept of hospitality.     

The U.S. military and sexual violence against women

Abstract

The Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (BCAS) created the “Notes from the Field” section in 1992 in an attempt to bring BCAS closer to its activist origins and goals by publishing brief reports on events and issues of particular concern in the world today. Not intended to duplicate BCAS's usual in-depth and well-documented analysis and research, these reports are meant to be a less formal equivalent of “field notes” describing what is happening or being debated or studied out there in the world of action. Although analysis is usually a valuable part of these presentations, the “Notes” are more akin to urgent notices or offerings for discussion. The name “Notes from the Field” is not meant to imply the colonialist concept of people reporting back from the so-called Third World, and even though the name can be seen to loosely apply to the field of Asian studies, it does not refer to reporting on the more strictly academic aspects of fields of study within academia. The hope is that the information and opinions presented in these “Notes from the Field” will inspire readers to concern themselves with issues that matter, either through further study and analysis or by speaking out or taking action more directly.

It has been reported that on 4 September 1995 two U.S. Marines and one U.S. Navy man stationed at Camp Hansen Marine Base in Kin, Okinawa, raped a twelve-year-old Okinawan girl. This situation caught the Okinawan, Japanese, and international media's attention, brought out an Okinawan demonstration of 90,000 people in the latest of “U.S. Bases Out Of Okinawa” demonstrations that go back at least to 1972 with the reversion of Okinawa to Japan, made apologies by U.S. president Clinton mandatory, and resulted in the turning over of the three servicemen to the justice of Japanese courts, itself an act reflecting the need of the U.S. military and civilian authorities to try to defuse the situation.     

Thaksin's Achilles' Heel: The failure of Hawkish approaches in the Thai South

Abstract

Many scholars voice approval for the political strategies and approaches that businessman-turned-politician Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has borrowed from the business world. His CEO management style is regarded as a key political asset. Moreover, his populist policies such as the “one village–one tambon” village fund and the “bank for the poor” show him to be full of concern for grass-roots Thais. In this article I argue that Thaksin's handling of the South reveals another side of his character, his preference for the use of violence to tackle problems and his disdain for “softer” methods such as discussion and negotiations. Thaksin pays very little attention to peaceful solutions offered by academics, the National Human Right Commission, and even the government-appointed National Reconciliation Commission. Unfortunately, this hawkish approach has widened distrust and discrimination among Thais and non-Thais. Thaksin's draconian methods have had serious consequences both on himself and the country. The volatile conflict in Thailand's far South is Thaksin's Achilles' heel.     

Russian hegemony and Islamic resistance: Ideology and political organization in Dagestan 1800–1930

Administrative reforms within the Ottoman bureaucracy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries resulted in many educated men joining the civil service. Süleyman Nazîf's father served in the Ottoman power structure for many years, but Süleyman Nazîf himself, despite being appointed to important political posts, gave them up to continue his career as a poet, writer, journalist and patriotic political commentator. Like many high-ranking Ottomans, he was exiled to Malta by the British after Turkey's defeat in the First World War. Süleyman Nazîf has also left an indelible mark on the literary milieu of his time because of his ready wit and wry humour.     

Joan Miró's Black and Red Series: a political reading

This article calls into question the generally accepted view of Catalan artist Joan Miró as a painter of fantasy and dream, by focusing on the artist as socially and politically engaged. A political reading of his etchings the Black and Red Series (1938) situates them within the context of the Spanish Civil War. Informed by Claude Lefort's distinction between the political and politics, the political theme is shown to be mediated through the use of allegory (in the depiction of monstrous figures) and of formal procedures of artistic creation (surrealist automatism). Finally, the artistic gesture itself is interpreted as a political act of freedom.