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What must states do to ensure victory on the field of battle? Conventional scholarship claims that a number of material and institutional factors significantly affect a nation's ability to generate military power. Recent studies suggest that other factors, including levels of education, civil-military relations, and western culture also play an important role. This new line of logic is important because these factors tend to be glaringly absent from rigorous concepts of military power. The principle finding of this study is that culture matters and that it matters more than originally thought. Culture is admittedly complex, intangible, and difficult to count, but empirical evidence shows that culture manifests concrete effects in combat, at times determining battlefield outcomes. Culture's absence from meaningful definitions of military power results in world leaders, military commanders, and learned scholars making important political, operational, and theoretical decisions with only partial information. Put plainly, decision-makers cannot accurately assess the martial capabilities of themselves or others without accounting for culture. Consequently, national leaders likely perceive threats where none exists; ignore threats that truly matter; place great trust in incapable allies, and turn away competent help. Moreover, this ignorance of what truly matters in combat means that much of a state's potential military capability remains untapped and left to happenstance.

In the nineteen-fifties, South African scholar and poet Guy Butler wrote Demea, an adaptation of Euripides' masterwork, Medea. The play carried with it a strong message against apartheid and a possible solution for South Africa's future. Due to government censorship, the play went unpublished and unperformed for nearly four decades. With the abolition of apartheid in 1990, national mythologies were struck down, and people were left to reframe their memories according to the new South African socio-political paradigm. The long overdue production and subsequent publication of Demea provided South Africa with a reimagined history and proposed a way of moving forward as a nation. By placing the events of Demea during the Great Trek of the nineteenth century, Butler is able to criticize the present and conceive a possible future by looking through the lens of the past. Butler sets up two treks. The first is historically accurate, and led by the Creon character, Kroon. This trek exemplifies European colonialism. The second trek, of Butler's own construction, is composed not of Boers, but of people of diverse racial backgrounds. This imaginary trek, led by Jonas (the Jason character), mirrors the Greek archaic colonial ideology. Thus, Demea offers an interrogation of two national mythologies regarding colonialism, ultimately proposing a solution to apartheid in the form of an altered history.

The words "police brutality" when paired together ought to sound like an oxymoron. Yet we have learned that marginalized group members have somehow not earned the same protection under the law as others. Although the law is the site at which ordinary citizens depend on jurisprudence, fairness, and integrity in the United States, the failure of the state apparatus to ensure such protection has facilitated the production of border communities. By "border communities," I do not mean those neighborhoods that are adjacent or contiguous. I mean there are very real cultural, social, political, and discursive separations that enable a sort of new artificial boundaries to be drawn that in effect disable the continuity, commonality, and sense of community that binds us together as human beings. Like all other borders, there are patrols, territories, migrations, police, and politics whose structural parameters constitute barriers to progress. This article examines whether there is any possibility of dismantling these boundaries and allowing the borders to effectively disappear or whether we will always be left with border communities that imprint our citizens with the stain of hegemony, entitlement, and patriarchy. Both Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin are treated as cases that are emblematic of a larger social terror and enigmatic set of privileges that remain unchecked.

The article addresses the notion of communism with a special angle of factuality and negativity, and not in the usual sense of a futurist utopia. After considering the main contemporary theories of communism in left-leaning political thought, the author turns to the Soviet experience of an "actually existing communism." Apart from and against the bureaucratic state, a social reality existed organized around res ius, that is, an unappropriated world that was not a collective property, as in the case of res publica. The alienation from things and from the state resulted not only in the sense of oppression, but in a new culture of a paradoxical "communality" (A. Zinoviev), where the "Other," be it a thing or a person, appears rather as ground, not figure. This culture of a non-thematic gaze led to a formation of a communality as a given, and not as a utopian desideratum. I claim that this is a major difference between the current Western society and a post-Communist society. The former is more solidary and collectivist, but only consciously and deliberately so, operating from an individualist ontology, while the latter is individualist, but with an assumption of the "Other" as a pre-given fact. In this chiasmus, both "communisms" are problematic, so that an alternative model of individuation (Virno), rather than the atomization of an assumed collectivity, would be preferable.

What is the relationship between security and secularization in International Relations? The widespread acceptance of secularism as the paradigmatic framework that underlies the study of world politics has left this question largely unexplored. Yet, the recent challenges to the secularization thesis and the growing attention that is being devoted to questions of religion and secularism in international politics increasingly suggest the importance of undertaking this investigation. This article takes up this task in three main steps. First, it will explore how the limits of a widely accepted but nonetheless problematic account of the emergence of the modern Westphalian nation-state contribute to a dominant underlying assumption in security studies that implicitly associates security with secularization. Second, it will articulate a competing genealogy of security and secularization which suggests that rather than solving the problem of religious insecurity, secularization makes the question of fear and the politics of exceptionalism central to the state-centric project of modernity and its related vision of security. Finally, the article will examine how these elements inform and, most of all, constrain attempts to move beyond the traditional state-centric framework of security. The focus will be on three such attempts: human security, the securitization theory and Ken Booth's critical theory of security. [Reprinted by permission; copyright Sage Publications Ltd. & ECPR-European Consortium for Political Research.]

After restoration of independence the state of Lithuania took up educational reform, which had been started in the years of national revival. Reinstatement of statehood opened new, according national aims, perspectives of social, cultural, economical and political germination. Reorganization of the school's chain, conforming learning needs and demand of modern society, also real financial abilities of municipality, has to improve the quality of learning, increase the accessibility and social justice, make the educational system more effective and accordant. So one of criteria of the educational system's renewal in Vilnius district is the reorganization of the secondary school's chain. But it is very important to research thoroughly the present situation, evaluate existing trends and perspectives. In Vilnius and it's region mixed schools, which were especially popular at soviet times, are not almost left – they were separated or restored into monolingual, mostly Polish and Lithuanian. The number of Russian schools has decreased significantly – at present only Russians and Byelorussians attend them. Stratifying needs of not only local Lithuanians but also national minorities to teach children in state Lithuanian language, especially severely increased the number of Lithuanian schools. At present students attend Lithuanian schools more than there are inhabitants of Lithuanian nationality, because often not Lithuanian present let children into Lithuanian schools. Hopefully this trend of Lithuanianity will remain in the future.

After restoration of independence the state of Lithuania took up educational reform, which had been started in the years of national revival. Reinstatement of statehood opened new, according national aims, perspectives of social, cultural, economical and political germination. Reorganization of the school's chain, conforming learning needs and demand of modern society, also real financial abilities of municipality, has to improve the quality of learning, increase the accessibility and social justice, make the educational system more effective and accordant. So one of criteria of the educational system's renewal in Vilnius district is the reorganization of the secondary school's chain. But it is very important to research thoroughly the present situation, evaluate existing trends and perspectives. In Vilnius and it's region mixed schools, which were especially popular at soviet times, are not almost left – they were separated or restored into monolingual, mostly Polish and Lithuanian. The number of Russian schools has decreased significantly – at present only Russians and Byelorussians attend them. Stratifying needs of not only local Lithuanians but also national minorities to teach children in state Lithuanian language, especially severely increased the number of Lithuanian schools. At present students attend Lithuanian schools more than there are inhabitants of Lithuanian nationality, because often not Lithuanian present let children into Lithuanian schools. Hopefully this trend of Lithuanianity will remain in the future.

The author analyzes the reasons for critical reconsideration of contemporary globalization theories at the beginning of the 21st century. An attempt at a paradigm transformation of the social, political and cultural development shows that the possible end of globalization -- as (1) a neoliberal ideology, (2) social paradigm of world development and (3) modernization strategy of transformation of the global age -- points out how the complex concept of culture is pertinent for all the relevant end-of-globalization theories. Now that culture has become both means and end of identity in a global age, we are left with the task to consider why the postmodern concept of culture, has in its plural meanings, been deconstructed in a biopolitical nexus of power. Theories of a turning point at all levels, at which a relation to space and time is established in the global world, point out to the comprehensive transformation of humanity and its social and cultural environment. Through analysis of the complexity of culture (Urry), biopolitics as the end of identity and three attempts at a critique of globalization as the end of history in the works of Wallerstein, Harrison and Rosenberg, the author concludes that culture as an empty hologram of power is not an alternative to globalization, but only its self-organizing system of ideological hegemony. Adapted from the source document.

The author analyzes the reasons for critical reconsideration of contemporary globalization theories at the beginning of the 21st century. An attempt at a paradigm transformation of the social, political and cultural development shows that the possible end of globalization -- as (1) a neoliberal ideology, (2) social paradigm of world development and (3) modernization strategy of transformation of the global age -- points out how the complex concept of culture is pertinent for all the relevant end-of-globalization theories. Now that culture has become both means and end of identity in a global age, we are left with the task to consider why the postmodern concept of culture, has in its plural meanings, been deconstructed in a biopolitical nexus of power. Theories of a turning point at all levels, at which a relation to space and time is established in the global world, point out to the comprehensive transformation of humanity and its social and cultural environment. Through analysis of the complexity of culture (Urry), biopolitics as the end of identity and three attempts at a critique of globalization as the end of history in the works of Wallerstein, Harrison and Rosenberg, the author concludes that culture as an empty hologram of power is not an alternative to globalization, but only its self-organizing system of ideological hegemony. Adapted from the source document.

Contrary to the generally accepted ideas of thirty years ago, the French have emigrated to distant lands and, in particular, to South America. An analysis of the counsular registries in Montevido, Buenos Aires and Caracas shows that their intégration into new environments was more rapid in the towns than in the countryside. The example of migrants from the Hautes-Pyrénées demonstrates the importance of political events in both the areas which they left as well as these in wich they arrived — on the volume and composition of the flow of emigrants. It also reveals that most of the migrants were young male and underlines the importance of welcoming networks in which professional qualifications, employment and family and local connections were interwoven, although the rôle of relatives always prevailed over that of the profession at the time of registration. The Venezulean counsular registry office shows, for another form of émigration, that for the inhabitants of Ossun (a village in the Hautes-Pyrénées), the urban registration was only the first stage of urban integration and that it was reversible. However, whether in Uruguay, Argentina or Venezuela, it was the family context in which the departure had taken place — more than the size of the town from wich the immigrant had come and the type of migrantion — which determined the level of adaptation to a new in South America.

All of the sociological surveys of Estonians carried out after the Second World War have highlighted family life and children as the main values for Estonians. Family and children were also the values that survived the transition from the Soviet to the post-Soviet system, becoming even higher ranked in Estonians' value priorities. Other rising values during the transitional period were health, close friends, self-education, and a pollution-free environment. Among those aspects suffering considerable decline were participation in social as well as in cultural activities (visiting cultural institutions, reading books,etc.),professional work, and taking care of one's own physical well-being. The rural lifestyle together with Lutheran religious values, which emphasize the family and a "good mother," have been the main cultural orientations handed down through generations of Estonian families. Even the Soviet period with its forced industrialization, collectivization and political terror did not break this value-system but, quite the opposite, often meant that the family became a place that provided "refuge, and temporary escape" from these pressures, thereby preserving important elements of an earlier cultural orientation. Through its ideologically restricted social studies and deformed official statistics, which left people without reliable information about reality, the Soviet system managed to preserve the relatively strong impact of cultural traditions on people's behavior.

One of the most unexpected outcomes of the Soviet bloc's transition out of communism has been the divergent but important paths followed by once ruling communist parties. In Poland, Hungary, and Lithuania those parties transformed themselves into pro-Western free market center leftists who have won elections and formed governing coalitions periodically since the early 1990s. The result has been former communists leading their countries into NATO and the EU even as their conservative opponents continue to condemn them for their communist past. No less surprising has been the ability of anti-Western neo-Leninist communist parties in Russia and Ukraine to win sizable pluralities of votes in free competitive elections. Their very strength has contributed to blocking genuine democratic alternation of power. By employing a unique cross-regional comparative framework The Left Transformed explores the divergent trajectories of ex-ruling communist parties in key countries of the former Soviet Empire. In-depth interviews, party presses and primary documents, and national election data provide a foundation for the most up-to-date examination of party transition, organization, ideology, and electoral fortunes through late 2002. This book is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in contemporary history, political parties, or comparative government in Eastern Europe and Russia. ; https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/faculty_books/1292/thumbnail.jpg

AbstractThe article discusses the transformations of technology in the last two decades, especially those related to privacy, based on the digital rights perspective. It debates how the concept of privacy is grounded on the distinction between public and private, a spatial metaphor no longer applicable in the face of the ubiquity of information and communication technologies. Hence, there is a premise stating the personal is increasingly more political nowadays, due to the phenomenon of surveillance capitalism. To anchor the theoretical debate in an empirically informed discussion, the work analyzes discourses about digital rights used in the main sessions of the Internet Governance Forum. The goal is to map the main Forum controversies about digital rights and their relation with contemporary democracies. Using a combined methodology based on both quantitative and qualitative data from the main sessions of the event, the analysis starts from a survey of the recurrence keywords related to the research; privacy, rights, surveillance, and freedom. From these results, a qualitative analysis of the discourses mobilized in these activities is conducted. The outcomes of the empirical analysis are then discussed from examples of technology regulation in the United States and the European Union. Among the main conclusions of the work, the emphasis lies on the need for transparency and accountability of the artificial intelligence algorithms.Related ArticlesGlen, Carol M. 2021. "Norm Entrepreneurship in Global Cybersecurity." Politics & Policy 49(5): 1121–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12430.Robles, Pedro, and Daniel J. Mallinson. 2023. "Catching Up with AI: Pushing Toward a Cohesive Governance Framework." Politics & Policy 51(3): 355–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12529.Zeng, Jinghan, Tim Stevens, and Yaru Chen. 2017. "China's Solution to Global Cyber Governance: Unpacking the Domestic Discourse of 'Internet Sovereignty.'" Politics & Policy 45(3): 432–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12202.

Motivation: The functioning of the audiovisual sector strongly depends on the use of copyrights and related rights. Problems with their clearing could harm the functioning of companies and might even lead to strong financial problems. The distribution of copyright-protected audiovisual works requires the licensing of rights by different rightsholders. Some of them are represented by Copyright Management Organizations (CMOs), which allow users to clear rights for many works without individual negotiations. Fees paid to CMOs for copyright-protected content constitute a significant part of operating costs for companies like TV stations, cable operators, VoD (Video on Demand) platforms. In case of intellectual properties for audiovisual works, CMOs make the valuation. They have been facing legal challenges due to subjective valuations as a result of being monopolies in the local market of the represented country and lack of transparency. Aim: This work explores the transparency of 21 CMOs in 4 EU countries due to their expected to be an integrated market status as the result of political and economic amalgamation. In addition to the adoption of The European Union Directive on collective management of copyright and multi-territorial licensing of rights, as part of the EU's Digital Single Market project, this exploratory research, with comparative analysis of CMOs using the linear ordering methods, explains the necessity of an epagogic approach to creating correct institutions besides directives and laws, such as central observation, an ombudsman for conflict management, or an official body to employ these features in one structure to actively govern the market. Results: The conducted analysis allowed us to reflect on the importance of transparency and taxonomic mapping of the audiovisual market landscape will be the guideline to flatten the copyright valuation divergence in the EU and eventually will pave the way for fewer disputes and more innovations.