Addressing the accountability challenges of international policing in peace support operations

There is increasing concern over the behaviour and accountability of international personnel, including CIVPOL contingents, deployed in peace-keeping and peace-building missions throughout the world. From the point of view of local populations the ??internationals?? are typically perceived to be ??above the law??. This is directly related to the fact that under status of forces or mission agreements (SOFAs or SOMAs) they are exempt from local host state jurisdiction. There are also significant practical problems in gathering and presenting evidence for disciplinary or criminal proceedings in their home states. This paper will analyse these problems in detail, based on a study of some recent European Union and international missions and suggest how a more co-operative home and host state approach to monitoring, investigation and adjudication of alleged misconduct might achieve more effective accountability and thus contribute to the overall success of CIVPOL missions.     

La Chambre introuvable et les principes du régime parlementaire

Summary

Discussions of British policy towards Poland and the Polish question in the years before the first Partition have recently been provided by Michael Roberts and by Hamish Scott. They have given both a narrative and an analysis of British diplomacy and foreign policy in the decade after the end of the Seven Years’ War. It is the purpose of this paper to suggest the resonance which British policy (and the lack of it) and opinion on Poland had for contemporary understanding of the British political system and political culture itself.1 The implications for Britain of the first Partition of Poland were ominous and unsettling for the British polity, and would challenge both diplomatic practice and political prejudices and commonplaces.     

Les conseils generaux du royaume de Naples pendant la decennie française 1806–1815

Summary

Spanish parliamentary history for the Habsburg era has undergone an historiographical revolution during the past decade. The revolution has centred primarily on the history of the Castilian Cortes. Traditionally considered to have been the least developed of the several Spanish Cortes, it is now being depicted as the most progressive and politically influential.

The scope and significance of this historiographical revolution is highlighted by two recently published books: José Ignacio Fortea Pérez, Monarquía y Cortes en la Corona de Castilla: Las Ciudades ante la Política Fiscal de Felipe II (Salamanca, 1990) and Luis González Antón, Las Cortes en la España del Antiguo Régimen (Madrid, 1989). When reviewed together, these two books underline the fact that early‐modern Spanish parliaments existed within a dynamic political context. To generalize about them as if they conformed to some particular variant of fixed parliamentary typology, as González Antón does, is becoming less justifiable the more we learn about the constantly changing character of Spanish parliamentary politics. Thanks to the growing number of exhaustively researched and archivally based monographic studies of Spanish parliaments, of which Fortea's Monarquía y Cortes is a model, we are beginning to understand better the complexity of parliamentary politics in early‐modern Spain.     

Performing the Political through Public Space: Teenage Girls' Everyday Use of a City Park

This paper focuses on how politics is entangled in how public space is used and perceived by children. By using teenage girls' use of a park as an example, it is argued that children are political agents who construct, perform and embody their political subjectivities through the spaces of their everyday lives. They are active and participatory political agents, but they communicate their political selves differently from adults. There is a time-spatial aspect in how identity takes shape and politics is practised, as it is not only through intense social interactions that politics is performed but also through spaces of solitude and reflection.     

The marriage boom: Spanish and Swedish women making sense of marriage during the marriage boom

This article analyzes the marriage boom that took place during the middle decades of the twentieth century. The increase in nuptiality is analyzed in Spain and Sweden from a qualitative perspective, and the authors describe how cultural, social, economic and institutional transformations were understood by women who were in their reproductive period during the marriage boom. In-depth interviews were conducted in both places with 51 women born between 1919 and 1951. The authors argue that it is important that the ways in which the factors previously identified as decisive of the marriage boom are studied for their motivating power, and the way they were or were not made important in people's understandings of their marital practices. The results show that despite the differences between the national contexts of Spain and Sweden, three interrelated themes recurred when the interviewed women framed their marital choices: (1) the normalization of marriage as a life event; (2) religion; (3) and education and work life. The results also suggest that the women highlighted norm systems within which their choices and decisions were made, rather than describing individual choices and decisions as stemming from individual preferences and wishes.     

Barriers to marriage and motherhood: the experiences of disabled women in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

The conceptualisation of disability is contested globally and issues in gender studies further complicate the movement towards the development of an inclusive and equal society. However, most disability and gender research studies are based on the data collected in the Global North, and little is known about disabled women in the Global South. The data presented here is from a bigger study focusing on the lived experiences of women with disabilities. This paper sets to explore how disabled women in Malaysia experience their lives in terms of marriage and motherhood prospects. The data of this qualitative study was collected from a set of in-depth interviews involving 32 women in Malaysia with physical (mobility) impairment. Over a period of 6 months, 16 Malays, 8 Chinese and 8 Indian women were interviewed twice. The analysis proposes both retrospective and introspective accounts on marriage and motherhood. The data gathered from the in-depth interviews was transcribed and analysed thematically with the help of NVivo software. The findings indicated that most participants have experienced significant barriers concerning individual constraints, familial control, and societal barriers. These were discussed with the intrinsic aspects and contextual factors of living in a patriarchal and traditional society that significantly undermined the wellbeing of disabled women in this study. Nevertheless, many of those interviewed refused to give up their hope of having a family life despite the constant struggles they encountered in their pursuit of happiness. However, their aspirations to experience family life were restricted and this caused them to experience significant psycho-emotional problems. They were constantly reminded that they were ‘disabled’ and not worthy of experiencing life like other women. The paper will discuss these challenges and negative societal attitudes towards the issue.     

Candidate Authenticity: ‘To Thine Own Self Be True’

Political Behavior - In recent electoral contests, political observers and media outlets increasingly report on the level of “authenticity” of political candidates. However, even though...     

Distorting Fundamental Norms of International Law to Resurrect the Soviet Union: The International Law Context of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Netherlands International Law Review - Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which commenced on 24 February 2022 represented just the latest, albeit most devastating, intervention in a neighbouring...