The roots of Islamist popularity

In this article I will answer the question why, in the Islamic world, Islamist activism finds the support that it apparently does among segments of the general public of the various countries. In particular, the initial elements and circumstances that induce a person to support or even join an Islamist group are the subject of this study. After defining the notion of Islamism in the first section, I shall give an assessment of the popularity of Islamism. Following upon this, the third section will show that the conditionalities which drive a person towards an Islamist inclination or conviction cannot in the main have anything to do with the Islamic religion per se. Lastly it will be argued that these conditionalities are rather to be found in a wide array of interacting political, social, historical and economic factors.     

The post-cold war predicament: A conclusion

The 1997 Asian economic crisis discredited the international discussion about ‘Asian values’ in Pacific Asia, replacing it with a globalised ‘good governance’ discourse. The financial breakdown undermined claims by Asian autocrats that government should be based on authoritarian ‘Asian values’, not ‘Western democracy’. Yet, seven years later, authoritarian regimes in the region are flourishing while the new democracies flounder. Why have dictatorships, not democracies, prospered politically since the Asian financial crisis? Pacific Asia began as an ‘imagined community’ of developmental dictatorships, making authoritarian development the ‘original position’ against which democratic governance is judged. While the demise of ‘Asian values’ contributed to the fall of the Suharto regime in Indonesia, it did less harm to authoritarian regimes in more economically developed Malaysia and Singapore. The US‐led anti‐terror coalition provided several authoritarian rulers in Pacific Asia with welcome support from the West, while allowing them to weaken internal opposition. The new democracies, by contrast, faced international pressures to combat terrorism, often arousing local protest. Finally, middle class‐based reformist movements have risked destabilising the region's new democracies in the name of good governance.     

从伊拉克战争看舆论战特征

伊拉克战争是人类社会第一场空前程度的言息化作战.美军在战争中使用的信息化武器已达到90%多,而在海湾战争中,仅为8%;从目标选定、信息获取、传输反馈、火力攻击这一过程,过去为48小时,而现在仅为10秒钟.从新闻舆论战的战略和战术层面上看,美军的信息化程度和信息攻击,也达到了前所未有的程度.在战争之前,美军仅向伊拉克境内派出的"影子杀手"就有上万人,他们担负的重要任务就是侦察与策反,暗杀与爆炸等活动.其行动往往出于威慑的目的.在战争之中,美军除在战场投放了81种、3170多万份各类传单外,还建立飞行广播电台,向伊拉克人发放收音机,发送电话、短信息等,美军对伊拉克国家战略情报的获取,轰炸目标选定后现场再判定,以及从对伊拉克高官、共和国卫队和一般武装部队官员,直到普通伊拉克公民的舆论攻心方面,都做了大量的工作.从时间性、空间性和重要性上说,舆论战的作用都非常突出.全面信息威慑是信息化战争的根本属性.从伊拉克战争中可以看出,在信息化战争条件下,舆论战有许多明显的特征.     

The disasters of war in Darfur, 1950-2004

This article investigates the conflict that had been developing since the 1950s in Darfur and which in 2003 and 2004 burst into intense warfare. A 'complex-structuring of violence' standpoint explains the warfare. The argument is organised in two parts. The first section formulates the position by introducing Darfur, next evaluating the prevailing barbarisation perspective's attempts to explicate Darfur warring and, finally, formally presenting the complex structuring standpoint. The second section offers evidence bearing upon this standpoint. This involves information showing that four interrelated structural realms form a causal complex producing the violence. The article ends with discussion of the US government's role in Darfurian disasters of war.