COVID-19 Pandemic and Social Unrest: The Social Protest by Other Means. Reflections on the Argentinian Case

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world have implemented exceptional measures aimed at restricting people's mobility or banning public spaces used, among other things, for protest, thus causing the expected regressive effects in the socioeconomic sphere. What happens with social protest when the public space is banned? Does it stop, is it displaced, does it occur in any other form? In this article we present a map of protest in Argentina since the beginning of the pandemic. We conclude that the levels of participation remain high and that, given the features of the protest itself, its claims may be channelled into the institutions.     

The mobilising effect of political choice

Political choice is central to citizens’ participation in elections. Nonetheless, little is known about the individual-level mechanisms that link political choice and turnout. It is argued in this article that turnout decisions are shaped not only by the differences between the parties (party polarisation), but also by the closeness of parties to citizens’ own ideological position (congruence), and that congruence matters more in polarised systems where more is at stake. Analysing cross-national survey data from 80 elections, it is found that both polarisation and congruence have a mobilising effect, but that polarisation moderates the effect of congruence on turnout. To further explore the causal effect of political choice, the arrival of a new radical right-wing party in Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), is leveraged and the findings show that the presence of the AfD had a mobilising effect, especially for citizens with congruent views.     

试论黄麻起义在探索中国革命道路中的地位与作用

在湘赣边界秋收起义领导人探索中国革命道路的同时,黄麻起义领导人也进行了艰辛探索,他们从鄂豫边地区实际出发,始终以武装斗争为工作重心,同时将土地革命和根据地建设紧密结合,较早形成了工农武装割据局面。他们以自己的开创性探索,为中国特色革命道路的形成提供了多方面的重要经验。     

Many Clicks but Little Sticks: Social Media Activism in Indonesia

Drawing on empirical cases from Indonesia, this article offers a critical approach to the promise of social media activism by analysing the complexity and dynamics of the relationship between social media and its users. Rather than viewing social media activism as the harbinger of social change or dismissing it as mere “slacktivism,” the article provides a more nuanced argument by identifying the conditions under which participation in social media might lead to successful political activism. In social media, networks are vast, content is overly abundant, attention spans are short, and conversations are parsed into diminutive sentences. For social media activism to be translated into populist political activism, it needs to embrace the principles of the contemporary culture of consumption: light package, headline appetite and trailer vision. Social media activism is more likely to successfully mobilise mass support when its narratives are simple, associated with low risk actions and congruent with dominant meta-narratives, such as nationalism and religiosity. Success is less likely when the narrative is contested by dominant competing narratives generated in mainstream media.     

The Power of Mass Mobilisation: Argentina's Struggle for the Legalisation of Abortion

The mass pro-abortion mobilisation which took place in 2018 has been arguably the most successful attempt in Argentina's history at altering the existing legal framework regulating access to voluntary termination of pregnancy. Never before has any legislative project legalising abortion reached the upper chamber of the Congress. Could this result be attributed to the support it received from a mass social movement? What are the limitations of mass mobilisations when a structural change to a long-lasting narrative is required? In order to address these questions, the issue of abortion will be examined through the perspective of power-making and counterpower-making strategies.     

论缉捕持枪抢劫犯罪团伙的战术

持枪抢劫犯罪团伙具有组织严密、预谋性强、智能化程度高、犯罪能量大、作案快捷、手段凶狠残忍、社会危害性严重等特点,警察必须注重持枪自卫,注重充分运用战术和注重战斗预感,尽早进入战时心理状态,并在接近现场、处置对方警戒人员、战斗中的协同与配合、被动情况下的反击、接近持枪犯罪嫌疑人等环节注意战术的运用。     

浅析非对称战争条件下武装冲突法的适用

现代战争中,非对称条件下的新战争形式动摇了武装冲突法的适用前提和条件,导致在法律适用过程中产生了一系列交战方利用武装冲突法缺陷而进行的规避,如精确制导下的非对称对待问题、非法战斗员特殊主体的问题、交战双方实力悬殊导致的武装冲突法不适用问题、新型交战力量的定位缺失等问题。基于此,应进一步完善规范武装冲突法,施行区分界定目标识别标准、合理合法对待非法战斗员、完善法律机制以控制大国对战争权的滥用、厘清新型交战力量主体资格、推进武装冲突法立法规范化进程、建立公正合理国际秩序遏制恐怖主义等措施,使其更好应用于现代战争中。     

法治思维视域下的武警法律战

武警部队开展法律战是党中央、中央军委着眼推进中国特色军事变革提出的战略性思想,是发挥政治工作作战功能的重要途径,是军事行动中的重要组成部分,是武警部队遂行任务不可缺少的战斗武器。要实现武警法律战研究健康发展,在部队遂行任务中成功运用,武警法律战应更多地从法治思维视角进行规范、统筹。     

Against Humanitarian Impunity: Rethinking Responsibility for Displacement and Disaster in Northern Uganda

Abstract

Given that humanitarian organizations can often be responsible for enabling, prolonging or intensifying violence and conflict through their interventions into war zones, it is important that these organizations, despite their presumed neutrality and beneficence, be held accountable for the deleterious consequences of their actions. The case of northern Uganda will be used to demonstrate how humanitarian agencies have made possible the government's counterinsurgency, including its policy of mass forced displacement and internment, which has led to a vast humanitarian crisis. The Ugandan government policy will be assessed as a war crime, making aid agencies accessories to this crime. This case study is used as an example to highlight that processes which demand the post-conflict accountability of those responsible for violence may be dramatically incomplete, and unjust, if they do not include the humanitarian agencies. In conclusion it will be suggested that if humanitarian organizations built popular accountability mechanisms into their daily operations this might prevent them from being complicit with egregious violence in the first place.