Libya: paralysed by militias

Recent security incidents – including an oil blockade, the kidnapping of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, and a lethal clash between a militia and civilians in Tripoli – have exposed the stranglehold that Libya's militias have over their country. Political paralysis is complicating efforts to tackle the problem.     

Mothers and militias: Islamic state construction of the women citizens of Northern Sudan*

As the only Sunni Islamic Republic in the world, Sudan's middle‐class, modernist Islamist revolution can be seen as a model for the mobilization of public consciousness about citizenship in an Islamic state. That this citizenship is consciously and conspicuously gendered is the main theme of this paper. In the north, where mobilization has been most successful, Sudanese women have both been constructed and have constructed themselves as the woman citizen— mother, Muslim, and soldier. A brief historical background reveals complicated shifts in national, local, and gender identities, from the colonial state to the present. The crux of the paper is an exploration of state hegemonic strategies, including the manipulation of gender and other identities, especially as these are manifested in the fashioning of the ‘new Muslim woman’. Women's complicity in and resistance to these constructions are among the dynamics of contemporary northern Sudan. The paper also explores the waning of ‘Arab’ identity claims in the face of state emphasis on Islamic identity and the relevance to Islamist women. Interview statements by Islamist women attest to both their complicity in and resistance to their construction as members of the Islamic nation/community.     

Deterring Iraq: The UK Experience

After deploying forces to Kuwait to forestall an incursion in July, 1961, the United Kingdom faced the daunting challenge of deterring an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait for nearly a decade. Informed by volumes of recently declassified UK documents, a review of the interplay among intelligence, contingency planning and force posture provides a useful case study of deterrence under conditions affording little to no warning. It particularly emphasizes the value of a bounded, realistic military strategy, delegation of authority to the operational commander, and the utility of a responsive intelligence collection and analysis system.