Building foundations for the comparative study of state and non-state terrorism

In this article, we argue that a comparative study of state and non-state terrorism that uses the minimal foundationalist definition of terrorism as its central analytical framework offers a unique and instructive approach for answering the question: “what is terrorism?” To date, most recent comparative case study analyses of terrorism focus on ideologies, political/governance models, structural/contextual enablers, practices, organisational structures, and/or the basis of issues such as trust, belonging, and membership. We uniquely contribute to the growing literature on comparative terrorism studies by comparing and contrasting state and non-state terrorism on the basis of strategic communication vis-à-vis the preparation, execution, and outcomes of political violence (the “terrorism attack cycle”), the instrumentalisation of victims, and fear management. We argue that state and non-state terrorism are co-constituting and co-enabling phenomena, possibly best conceptualised as two bounded and coiled strands of the political violence DNA.     

From failed states to fragile cities: redefining spaces of humanitarian practice

It has become commonplace to claim that cities are becoming conflict zones, or ‘war zones’. This article traces some of the discursive and conceptual shifts that made it possible to define the city as a new frontier for international humanitarian action in states of the Global South. In order to represent cities as humanitarian spaces, concepts of ‘failure’ and ‘fragility’ have been problematised and subjected to reinterpretations that legitimised new strategies applied to the urban realm. I argue that this re-scaling of humanitarian practices enables a de-coupling and inclusion of so called new ‘urban conflicts’ in strategies of global liberal governance. Moving from failed states to fragile cites is a key development to understand changes in the practices that redefine humanitarian spaces today. The definition of urban violence as a new type of conflict informs a new cycle of expansion of the humanitarian order focused on the city. The article analyses the problematisation of concepts of failure and fragility as a decisive move to redefine the boundaries of humanitarian spaces.     

Culturalism and the rise of the Islamic State: faith,sectarianism and violence

This paper looks at the ways in which culturalist discourses have influenced our understanding and representation of the rise of the so-called Islamic State. It argues that, in keeping with older narratives on the motives of ‘bad’ Muslims, its political and economic objectives have been overlooked and/or downplayed. Instead, I propose, there has been a strategically efficacious focus on its appeal to Islam, on its sectarian rhetoric and on its use of violence. By continuing to emphasise the ethical over the political in these ways, the culturalism that underpins the dominant representation of the Islamic State’s emergence has, I conclude, served three key purposes – the mobilisation of the ‘good’ Muslim, the exculpation of Western foreign policy and the legitimisation of force.     

Drones and the uninsurable security subjects

This paper engages with the security dynamics underlying the use of drones and their impact on security subjects – individuals and groups that are the ultimate recipients of specific security policies, regardless of whether these have beneficial effects on them. Using Mark Duffield’s distinction between the insured Global North and the non-insured Global South, this paper discusses how drones generate a radical dissociation between the intervener and the intervened that ultimately produces new security environments at the margins of the international system. These new security environments are defined by the articulation between space, technologies and bodies: bodies of invisible subjects; bodies that are uninsurable.     

Policing neoliberalism in Egypt: the continuing rise of the ‘securocratic’ state

This article examines the increasing power of the police, their centrality to the reproduction of the neoliberal global order and their dynamic relationship with various elements of the ruling elite. It focuses on the case of the post-2011 uprising in Egypt to examine how the police institution has taken advantage of the uprising to increase its power and relative autonomy. The article demonstrates the centrality of the police to the Sisi regime’s efforts at reducing political discourse to an inflated and simplistic concept of ‘security’ in an attempt to establish its long-term legitimacy.     

Seamen,national welfare and global deregulation, 1850–1914

In nineteenth-century Britain, the status of seamen revealed the ambiguities of the modernisation paradigm: Were seamen slaves? Why did the abolitionist movement refuse to put them in this category? And how can we explain the fact that, even today, the global market for seamen includes a large number of ‘global seamen’ with no rights? The global market of seamen expresses the connections between the lack of rights, persistent bondage, colonialism and deregulation. It blurs the difference between recruitment for the Navy and recruitment in the labour market. The current seamen’s labour market still reflects the tensions between global deregulation and national welfare, between global and national unionised seamen. We show that, contrary to conventional beliefs, these are not opposing realities, but fully integrated dynamics and ideologies.     

A dilemma for the welfare state: managing the cost for shorter working hours, 1919–2002

The purpose of this article is to study how the Swedish welfare state has managed the cost of shorter working hours. During the twentieth century, several official reports were published in order to produce knowledge about this issue and to deal with the cost for the reform. This article aims to examine the arguments and beliefs of the political economy of the welfare state that emerge from these formulations. An examination of shorter working hours as social policy sheds new light on the relationship between the welfare state and capital, in addition to limits for social policy imposed by the economic system. A reduction of work hours has never been justified as a reform that simply gives more time for leisure and less time for work, but has been assigned a cost that was necessary to manage. The reform was considered possible because it was interpreted as helping to reproduce labor power or capitalism as a whole. It was thought impossible and undesirable when considered to be a threat to this reproduction. This article shows the process of managing the cost for shorter working hours in Sweden and how arguments fundamentally changed over time, although the basic premises remained the same.     

谈刑事录像的现状与教学

刑事录像是刑事科学技术的一个重要组成部分,是刑事技术中的一种新手段。加强刑事录像课教学,推广、普及刑事录像技术,使之更好地为刑事侦察工作服务,是我们公安院校面临的急需解决的问题。本文主要从刑事录像在公安实战中的作用;加强刑事录像课教学的必要性及具体的几点措施等几个方面作初步的探讨。     

Injustice and Employees' Destructive Responses: The Mediating Role of State Negative Affect

The focus of this study was employees' destructive behavioral intentions (i.e., exit, neglect, and aggressive voice) as a result of perceived injustice. In order to get an indication of the generalizability of the results, two studies employing different methodologies were conducted among different samples: a survey study (Study 1) among 244 female maternity nurses from The Netherlands, and a vignette study (Study 2) among 71 male and 43 female employees from an international company in South Africa. Furthermore, the second study tested whether the effects of injustice on destructive behavioral intentions were mediated by state negative affect. Two models appear to fit the data well. The first model suggests that interactional injustice gives rise to negative behavioral reactions through an increase in state negative affect. The second model shows that procedural justice can buffer the negative effects of low distributive justice. Specifically, employees report more negative affect and, subsequently, a stronger tendency to leave the organization only when both distributive and procedural justice are low. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

关于私分国有资产罪主体认定的几个问题

私分国有资产罪作为单位犯罪 ,由于其犯罪主体的特殊性 ,在实践认定中经常引发一些争论。比如 ,混合制公司、单位的内设机构、部门等能否构成该罪的主体就存在较大分歧。对于私分国有资产罪的主体进行深入分析 ,将有助于该罪在立法与司法上的统一与完善。