Humanitarianism,civil society and the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper reflects on responses to Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee crisis in the weeks that followed the increased numbers of Rohingya refugees who arrived from Myanmar after 24 August 2017. Drawing on literature on the local and international dimensions of humanitarianism, and the analytical lens of performance, it explores narratives of helping in relation to the shifting character of Bangladesh’s civil society, changing expressions of local and international religious sentiments, and the importance of understanding both formal and informal responses historically in the context of Bangladesh’s own experiences as a country born from a crisis in which citizens became refugees fleeing state-sponsored violence.     

Race relations,nationalism and the humanitarian Rohingya crisis in contemporary Myanmar

ABSTRACT

The recent ethnic tensions in Myanmar especially in the Rakhine state has once again placed the country onto the centre stage of global media attention. The aim of this paper is to look at race relations in contemporary Myanmar with a special focus on the Rohingya community. The paper argues that problematic race relations in the country today should be analysed within a certain historical context and should be seen as part of a historical continuum. This paper places a lot of importance on this historical continuum. In this connection, the British colonial policies of divide and conquer, politicians and their obsession with Buddhism and trying to make it the state religion shortly after independence in 1948, and the xenophobic policies followed by the military junta after 1962 deserve special mention. The paper further argues that the current state of affairs and escalation in violence has happened recently because of the convergence of the activities and ideologies of certain political groups like the military junta, the National League for Democracy, the Arakan League for Democracy, and the role played by certain Buddhist extremist groups like the MaBaTha in Burmese politics. To ease the existing tension in the Rakhine, the central government would need to take a more federally minded approach and introduce meaningful democracy and development in the frontier parts of the country where there is a strong ethnic minority presence.     

Nieo: How to put third world surpluses to effective use

This article deals with the issue of honour killings, a particular type of intrafamily femicide in defence of honour in Jordan. The legal, social, religious, nationalist and tribal dimensions and arguments on such killings are presented. Drawing on Arabic and English source material the role of rumour, social values and other dynamics in normalising this practice in Jordan today is analysed. Honour killings, which contradict many international and national laws and covenants, are clearly connected to the subordination of women in Jordan and to the 'criming down' of domestic violence. The prevailing discriminatory culture cannot change without implementing a comprehensive programme for socio-legal and political reform.     

The Asian Development Bank as a Global Risk Regulator in Myanmar

The Asian Development Bank (adb) is engaged in development projects throughout the Greater Mekong Subregion, although for most of the past two decades it has boycotted Myanmar (Burma) because of donor government sanctions. Despite being criticised for its neoliberal focus and its lack of transparency and accountability, the adb’s operations compare favourably to those of the Myanmar government and many transnational corporations constructing and financing projects there. This article engages with the concept of risk, which increasingly frames how development in fragile states like Myanmar is understood, to critically analyse the adb’s nascent re-engagement in Myanmar according to the risks this poses for five constituencies: the adb itself; donor states; the Myanmar government and military; private capital; and marginalised communities. While deeper engagement in Myanmar poses different risks for each group, critical analysis suggests that the adb must increase the genuine participation of civil society actors in its activities to address the most significant risks of all, those facing marginalised communities.     

Girls as “Weapons of Terror” in Northern Uganda and Sierra Leonean Rebel Fighting Forces

Girls—both willingly and unwillingly—participate in terrorist acts within the context of contemporary wars. These acts range from targeting civilians for torture and killing to destroying community infrastructures so that people's physical and psychological health and survival are affected. Girls witness or participate in acts such as mutilation, human sacrifice, forced cannibalism, drug use, and physical and psychological deprivation. This article focuses upon girls in two fighting forces: the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Northern Uganda and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone and their roles as combatants whose primary strategy is perpetrating terrorist acts against civilians. In analyses of gender and terrorism, girls are typically subsumed under the larger category of female, which marginalizes their experiences and fails to recognize that they possess agency and power.     

The terrorists' dilemmas: Some implicit rules of the game 1

Abstract

Knowledge of certain dilemmas faced by terrorists may serve to narrow the options available to the opposing parties and aid in varying government response to terrorist acts. Such dilemmas are the identification with violence, the problem of attacking or seeking a negotiated incident, choice of level of terror, maintenance of one's objectivity within a group characterized by conformity, and retaining one's identity as a historic victim.     

Re-thinking Myanmar's political regime: military rule in Myanmar and implications for current reforms

The Myanmar military has long dominated national politics as well as the state apparatus since first coming into power in 1958. Despite a series of challenges to its rule, the military has been able to constantly re-invent itself while re-asserting its dominance over society. Cycles of popular protests and dissatisfaction with military rule have not led to regime change nor weakened the military as a unified institution. The latest incarnation of the nominally civilian government has introduced a series of liberalising reforms that have dramatically opened more socio-political space for opposition and non-state actors to participate in national politics. Despite the somewhat optimistic outlook of a more liberalised Myanmar in the future, the institutional design and historical legacy of the military's role in state-building have ensured that it has enough ‘reserve domains’ to maintain its prominent role within any foreseeable future governments in Myanmar. By tracing the historical development of the Myanmar military regime, this paper argues that current reforms were introduced as a strategy for the military to ensure its continued survival as the primary political actor in Myanmar.     

Economic agendas old and new and chinese administrative reform

Facing new agenda economic development issues, China like other developing states is forced to coordinate policies regionally. As need for decentralization “downward” stretches to include delegation “outward,” Beijing must find its best response to the new trend. Four tests reveal no reason for China to stay aloof from simple Membership in Pacific-Asian regional organizations. Three tests reveal no problem with China taking an Activist role in such regional organizations. Three final tests reveal potential costs China would pay for seeking a regional Leadership role, especially before Beijing's post-succession direction is determined.     

5.5 Transportation

Since the early 1990s, reports on topics ranging from neighbourhood renewal and low demand to social exclusion have highlighted the damaging effects of anti-social behaviour. Local authorities are urged to develop a 'holistic' response to anti-social behaviour. Recent research into the effectiveness of legal remedies reveals a tension between attempts to address the underlying causes of anti-social behaviour and the government's emphasis on legal action to control and punish perpetrators. Drawing on this research, the article examines why many landlords are still evicting perpetrators rather than dealing with the underlying causes of their behaviour. The article concludes by outlining the barriers that landlords and other agencies must overcome in order to develop a holistic approach to the problem.     

Modernization of Terror: The Transformation of Stalin's NKVD, 1934–1941

A defector's Russian barbecues

Edward Lee Howard: Safe House: The Compelling Memoirs of The Only CIA Spy to Seek Asylum in Russia. National Press Books, Bethesda, Maryland, 1995, 299 pp., $23.95.

The Comintern's U.S. legion — I Stalin's American division

Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov: The Secret World of American Communism. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1995, 348 p., $25.00.

Arcane no more

Roy Godson: Dirty Tricks and Trump Cards: U.S. Covert Action and Counterintelligence. Brassey's, Washington, DC, 1995, 337 pp., $24.95.

Chiang's aide keeps mum

Sidney H. Chang and Ramon H. Myers, eds.: The Storm Clouds Clear Over China: The Memoir of Ch ‘en Li‐fu. The Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, Calif., 1994, 359 p., $24.95.     

Useful,But Not A Panacea: Performance-Based Program Budgeting in Florida

Abstract

Florida's performance-based budgeting reform, called performance-based program budgeting or PB², followed a defined plan of implementation from its inception in 1995. The reform's implementation was perhaps more interesting for its dynamic adjustments than its planned progression, however. At various points along the reform trajectory key entities charged with driving the reform process had to deal with challenges to both the substance of reform and its day-to-day management. This article presents some of the story of this process. PB² has not proved a panacea for all the budgeting woes governments like Florida's may face, but it has been useful and the story of its implementation should be of interest.     

Six general principles of intelligence

The KGB's loyal critic

Oleg Kalugin (with Fern Montaigne): The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West St. Martin's Press, New York, 1994, 375 p., $23.95.

Marks for the Marxists

Craig R. Whitney: Spy Trader: Germany's Devil's Advocate and the Darkest Secrets of the Cold War Times Books/Random House, New York, 1993, 375 p., $25.00.

Miffed in Canada

Mike Frost and Michel Gratton: Spyworld: Inside the Canadian and American Intelligence Establishments Doubleday Canada Limited, 1994, 280 p., $29.95 Cdn.

Will we ever know?

Pavel Sudoplatov and Anatoli Sudoplatov with Jerrold L. and Leona P. Schecter: Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness — A Soviet Spymaster; Foreword by Robert Conquest Little, Brown and Company, Boston and New York, 1994, 532 p., $24.95.

Defense's tormented soul

Townsend Hoopes and Douglas Brinkley: Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1992, 387 p., $30.00.

Anti‐Semitic spies

John Loftus and Mark Aarons: The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed The Jewish People St. Martin's Press, New York, 1994, 658 p., $26.95.     

Meseret’s story: women,work, and betterment in an Ethiopia–Saudi Arabia return labor migration

ABSTRACT

This life-history examines the return migration of Meseret, an Ethiopian woman in her twenties, from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia as a domestic worker. Meseret's successful labor migration is contextualized in hierarchical local and global economic and political structures as well as her personal goals and familial strategies for betterment or socio-economic improvement. An initial comparison will be made between Meseret's natal family and her affinal Rastafari family (her husband's family) in the Jamaica Safar or Jamaica neighborhood of Shashemene in Ethiopia in terms of livelihood, gender roles, mobility, and status. Meseret's high status as a returnee in urban Ethiopia will be juxtaposed against the low value still accorded to women's paid and unpaid domestic and care work in destination and origin countries. Recognizing structural factors and migrants' subjectivities enriches both qualitative and quantitative analyses, and has the potential to provide the groundwork for equitable migration and labor policies.     

Target Malacca Straits: Maritime Terrorism in Southeast Asia

The strategic and economic importance of the Straits of Malacca makes it one of the world's major sea routes most vulnerable to a terrorist attack. The piracy problem that continues to frustrate maritime authorities in the Straits bears proof to this and, given the heightened security concerns post–9/11, has alarmed the waterway's major users. Although international pressure has forced the littoral states—Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia—to up their efforts on improving Straits security, national interests and a reluctance to address the problem as a potential terror threat continues to hinder cooperation. This article attempts to look at how three neighbors in the same Straits came to have such divergent policies on combating maritime terrorism.     

Locating black feminist resistance through diaspora and post-diaspora in Edwidge Danticat’s and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s short stories

ABSTRACT

Migrating to the US is transformative in the short stories in Edwidge Danticat's Krik? Krak! and Chimamanda Adichie's The Thing Around Your Neck. The currents of Blackness, gender and class alter their characters' experiences of the world, shaped by the global flows of migration taking place under neoliberal capitalism. This essay explores the nuanced and conflicting ways diaspora and post-diaspora spaces can facilitate Black feminist resistance in Danticat's ‘Caroline's Wedding' and Adichie's ‘Imitation'. I offer a Black feminist analysis, paying attention to the literary body as the site where tensions are dramatised. My reading of Danticat's and Adichie’s short stories leads to a progressive reconsideration of diaspora.     

Strengthening Intergenerational/InterculturalTies in Immigrant Families (SITIF)

Abstract

Intergenerational/intercultural conflict is a significant stressor in immigrant families that occurs because of differential acculturation between migrant parents and their children. In spite of its negative mental health consequences, few empirically tested interventions address this problem. Strengthening Intergenerational/Intercultural Ties in Immigrant Families (SITIF) is a culturally-sensitive, community based intervention that aims to strengthen the intergenerational relationship. It promotes immigrant parents' emotional awareness and empathy for their children's experiences, cognitive knowledge and understanding of differences between their native and American cultures, and teaches behavioral parenting skills with the objective of enhancing intergenerational intimacy. SITIF was tested with a group of 16 middle class and 14 working class immigrant Chinese parents. Using objective and subjective assessment tools, the findings provide empirical support for SFTiF's effectiveness in enhancing parenting skills and strengthening the inter-generational relationship in immigrant Chinese American families.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Turner's turn with the CIA

Stansfield Turner: Secrecy and Democracy: The CIA in Transition Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1985,304 p., $16.95.

007s Analysis of KAL's Flight 007

Alexander Dallin: Black Box: KAL 00 7 and the Superpowers University of California Press, Berkeley, 1985, 130 p., $14.95

Oliver Clubb: KAL Flight 007: The Hidden Story The Permanent Press, Sag Harbor, N.Y., 1985, 132 p., $14.95

Knowing who's who

Ernest May: Knowing One's Enemies Princeton University Press, 1985, 561 p., $29.50

British intelligence from A To Z

Anthony Read and David Fisher: Colonel Z: The Secret Life of a Master of Spies Viking, New York, 1985, 264 p., $17.95

Setting the record straight

Nigel West: A Thread of Deceit: Espionage Myths of World War II Random House, New York, 1985, 285 p., $16.95

Unreliable Witness: Espionage Myths of the Second World War In England: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1984, 275 p., £8.95.

The catcher in the lie

Paul Ekman: Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage W. W. Norton &; Company, N.Y., 1985, 320 p., $17.95

The cat's meow

William M. Leary: Perilous Missions: Civil Air Transport and CIA Covert Operations in Asia. The University of Alabama Press, Birmingham, Ala., 1984, 281 p., $22.50

Proceed with caution

Ernest Volkman: Warriors of the Night William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1985, 434 p., $17.95

Beyond what the facts will bear

Walter Laqueur: A World of Secrets: Uses and Limits of Intelligence New York: Basic Books, 1985, 404 p., $21.95     

Freedom of information: Developments in the United Kingdom

The great Iranian whodunit

Edward Shirley (pseud.): Know Thine Enemy: A Spy's Journey into Revolutionary Iran, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1997, 247 p. $24.00

The big con game

John Barron: Operation SOLO: The FBI's Man in the Kremlin, Regnery Publishing, Inc., Washington, D.C., 1996, 368 p., $24.95.     

Iran's Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism: A view from the pulpit

Abstract

This paper examines the Friday prayer sermons delivered by Iran's new leadership to answer the question of whether Iran's Islamic fundamentalism has crested with the death of its spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini in June 1989. The analysis shows that an attempt is underway to articulate the Islamic identity of post‐Khomeini Iran in economic, political, and social relations. The study concludes that although President Rafsanjani is willing to reevaluate Iran's domestic and foreign relations, the totalitarian, Islamic, and revolutionary structure that Khomeini helped build is still intact. As such, the regime's tendencies toward radicalism and export of the Islamic revolution remain unchanged. In this scenario, resort to terrorism by the Islamic Republic in order to maintain its structure and tendencies cannot be ruled out.     

Crisis and resurgence: East German state security

The Great Case Officer

Peter Grose: Gentleman Spy: The Life of Allen Dulles Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 1994, 641 p., $30.00.

Chronicle of a Secret War (III) Laos: The CIA's Biggest Venture

Kenneth Conboy, with James Morrison: Shadow War: The CIA's Secret War in Laos Paladin Press, Boulder, CO, 1995, 453 p., $49.95

Much Ado About Nothin'?

H. W. Brands: The Devil We Knew: Americans and the Cold War. Oxford University Press, New York, 1993, 243 p. $11.95 pb.