The civilised Self and the barbaric Other: ex-rebels making sense of sexual violence in the DR Congo

This article addresses discourses on gender and sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Based on discussions with 101 ex-combatants, we examine how former FDLR members make sense of sexual violence by studying prevailing gendered images of Self and Other. This analysis of potential perpetrators' mindset is part of the puzzle to find preventive measures. The findings demonstrate that ex-combatants attribute overwhelming power to biological ‘givens’ such as ‘urges’, ‘basic needs’ and ‘domination’ in their interpretation of sexuality. They also differentiate themselves from out-groups - enemy fighters and other nationals, especially Congolese - by attributing the latter with lower degrees of restraint. These insights demonstrate that a process of Othering is at work at the intersection of sex-gender-nation within the Congolese warscape, which complicates existing knowledge of sexual violence. The findings also suggest that the theoretical understanding of the phenomenon of sexual violence in war needs to place the notion of intersectionality central stage.     

Folklore as a source for creating exile identity among Latvian Displaced Persons in post-World War II Germany

This article draws on archival and print materials produced by Latvian Displaced Persons during the years they lived in UNRRA refugee camps after World War II. Its focus is on the ‘how’ of their cultural production and identity formation in camps that were established to expedite repatriation but became instead contexts in which Latvians as social actors opposed the goals of authoritative others to endow experience with their own textual meanings. This essay demonstrates how they recontextualized a variety of folklore genres as flexible and powerful resources for addressing their existential crisis and for solidifying exile as the basis for living purposefully off the territory of ‘home.’     

“熊通困境”：国际体系中的身份政治与安全两难

“熊通困境”是指国际体系中的崛起国家,因“异质身份”而面临现行国际体系强烈敌意、因实力相对增长而受到霸权国家及其附庸集团权势压制的双重难题。西周乃至春秋时期楚国的历史经验表明,由于特定国家与霸权国家及其附庸集团大不相同的国际政治身份,受到体系敌视、压制的状况,具有长期的国际政治效应。而此类国家实力增长及由此导致的权势对比变动,较一般崛起国家而言,往往将激发起现有体系内更为强大甚至远超常规的敌对性反应。崛起国家突破“熊通困境”存在两种方式与效应皆有所不同的路径：一是主要通过武力强制,力求最终颠覆现有国际体系,这意味着紧张局势的持续加剧乃至最终爆发大国间战争;二是致力于推动促进现有国际体系身份共识的瓦解,这意味着长期的、连贯的、灵活的、坚定的非军事与军事手段的战略组合运用。当前,在中国国家实力快速增长的背景下,霸权国家及其附庸集团对中国施加愈发强大压力的主要原因之一,便是美国等部分西方国家将中国视为与之“对立”的“他者”,并对这种国际政治身份存在根深蒂固的不信任乃至显著敌意。笃行和平与发展的当代中国,突破“熊通困境”的主要战略路径,在于逐步构建并推广新的国际体系“身份共识”,为此需要以改变他国意图和行为为目标,需要付出较长时间的努力、采取灵活的方式以及抱定锲而不舍之态度。     

The fundamental characteristics of the Kurdish nationhood project in modern Iraq

The protracted Iraqi-Kurdish conflict has plagued the country since the creation of Iraq in the 1920s. Iraqi-Kurdish relations are dominated by the clash of two contradictory nationhood projects: Kurdish and Iraqi. The Kurdish nationhood project was constructed with the perspective that the Kurds as a nation, could qualify for but is deprived of, achieving nation-state status. Based on the Kurdish project, Kurdistan and Iraq consist of two separate homelands: the Arab part of Iraq, which is part of the greater Arab homeland, and Iraqi Kurdistan which is part of the Greater Kurdistan region.     

Post-colonial folk dancing: reflections on the impact of stage folk dance style on traditional folk dance variation in Soviet and post-Soviet Estonia

ABSTRACT

The focus of this article is on traditional folk dance in Soviet and post-Soviet Estonia. Dance variation is analyzed through the prism of postcolonial theories to reveal the sequential effects of the colonial situation developed during the Soviet period. Specific causes and characteristic traits of the Soviet influence are explored. Colonialist echoes of the Soviet regime within contemporary Estonian culture are reflected in two trends in the variation of traditional folk dance: first, “contamination” of traditional folk dance with stage dance elements promoted during the Soviet era and, second, a regular search for “genuine” folk dance as a reaction to Soviet colonial heritage.     

No Moscow stooges: identity polarization and guerrilla movements in Donbass

Abstract

The paper argues that the grounds for the conflict in Donbass were prepared when different sections of Ukraine’s population developed conflicting perspectives of the past, the role of Russia in Ukraine’s history, and of how relations with the West should evolve. These differences lay the foundations for what became polarized identities and mutually exclusive ideologies. The study goes on to explore a changing political landscape of a leaderless uprising and formation of a protest movement out of locally available ingredients, the emergence of armed militias in unfolding security vacuum and the developments on the battlefield. As the rebel-held territories drifted away from mainland Ukraine, their new identity was formed by the war. The paper argues that understanding the internal dynamic of the guerrilla war and population’s survival has been key to the resolution, which is increasingly unlikely.     

Human Identification Using Automatic and Semi‐Automatically Detected Facial Marks

Continuing advancements in the field of digital cameras and surveillance imaging devices have led law enforcement and intelligence agencies to use analysis of images and videos for the investigation and prosecution of crime. When determining identity from photographic evidence, forensic analysts perform comparison of visible facial features manually, which is inefficient. In this study, we will address research efforts to use facial marks as biometric signatures to distinguish between individuals. We propose two systems to assist forensic analysts during photographic comparison: an improved multiscale facial mark system in which facial marks are detected automatically, and a semi‐automatic facial mark system that integrates human knowledge within the improved multiscale facial mark system. Experiment results employ a high‐resolution time‐elapsed dataset acquired at the University of Notre Dame between 2009 and 2011. The results indicate that the geometric distributions of facial mark patterns can be used to distinguish between individuals.     

Managing Victim Confrontation: Auto Theft and Informal Sanction Threats

Objectives. This paper explores how offenders manage the prospect of victim confrontation during auto theft. Methods. Data were drawn from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 35 active offenders recruited from the streets of a large Midwestern US city using snowball sampling methods. Results. Two contextual domains figured prominently in the offenders’ decision-making calculus: The area around the target and the target itself. The first galvanized the offenders’ attention to, and management of, informal social control. The second enjoined offenders to balance speed and stealth in breaching the target. Conclusions. Victim confrontation is an informal sanction that is distinct from both retaliation and traditional extralegal sanctions. The rarity with which it occurs in auto theft is likely due to confrontation avoidance measures offenders adopt at the front end of the offense and during the enactment process itself. The conceptual implications of victim confrontation in crime are explored in relation to the following five areas: (1) sanction celerity and present orientation; (2) sanction certainty and ambiguity aversion; (3) sanction interdependence; (4) violence avoidance; and (5) directions for future research.     

Identities,Boundaries, and Accounts of Women Methamphetamine Users

Drug users often define themselves as functional users and depict others as dysfunctional (i.e. junkies). Previous research on the social identities of drug users has focused on the symbolic boundaries they create to distance themselves from stigmatized others. Investigators have yet to focus on how users account for their own boundary violations. Here, we examine the narratives of 30 former women methamphetamine (meth) users to determine how they make distinctions between functional and dysfunctional meth users (i.e. “meth heads”). The distinctions they make are based on users’ abilities to maintain control of their lives and to hide their use from outsiders. Those who saw themselves as functional but who engaged in behaviors inconsistent with this image accounted for these behaviors to maintain desired identities. We show the complexity of drug users’ identities and illustrate how anti-drug campaigns that provide grotesque caricatures of drug users may prolong drug using careers.