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The WTO protests in Seattle witnessed the emergence of an international citizens' movement for democratic globalization. With the tactical exploitation of television, the internet, and other technologies, Seattle also witnessed the enactment of forms of activism adapted to a wired society. In the wake of Seattle, this essay introduces the "public screen" as a necessary supplement to the metaphor of the public sphere for understanding today's political scene. While a public sphere orientation inevitably finds contemporary discourse wanting, viewing such discourse through the prism of the public screen provokes a consideration of new forms of participatory democracy. In comparison to the public sphere's privileging of rationality, embodied conversations, consensus, and civility, the public screen highlights dissemination, images, hypermediacy, publicity, distraction, and dissent. Using the Seattle WTO protests as a case study and focusing on the dynamic of violence and the media, we argue that the public screen accounts for technological and cultural changes while enabling a charting of the new conditions for rhetoric, politics, and activism.

From the notorious "killing fields" of Cambodia to programs of "ethnic cleansing" in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the grizzly nature of ethnic and identity-centered conflict incites horror, outrage, and a human desire for justice. While the drive to humanize warfare can be traced to the writing of Hugo Grotius, current efforts to establish an atrocities regime are unparalleled in modern history. Combining approaches in international relations theory and international law, I examine the role political factors (norms, power and interests, institutions) and legal factors (precedent and procedure) play in the development of an atrocities regime. International tribunals have convicted generally low-level war criminals in both Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, but they have had much more limited success in achieving their more expansive goals—deterring atrocities and fostering national reconciliation in regions fraught with ethnic violence. This analysis reveals additional institutional modifications needed to construct a more effective regime and highlights the importance of placing this new regime within a comprehensive international strategy of conflict management.

Abstract  The story of Class was ended. This is the end of the conceptualization of class as a historical and political agent, whereas stratification as a hierarchy for individual achievement still exists. The death of class means a liberation of social thoughts from the inclination to justify violence, oppression, or even genocide for the sake of history and justice. At the same time, however, it eliminates one major public framework on which we may formulate and think about public goods. Liberal egalitarian moral philosophies by Rawls, Dworkin or Sen have emerged just at around the time when the story of class was approaching an end. They substituted the old socialistic egalitarianism and were intended to establish a new public sphere of social stratification. However, Rawls' and Dworkin's theories are foundationalistic and timeless, and hence destined to failure. This paper presents a provisional scheme for public philosophy of social stratification, by which social stratification is ethically interrogated and given a chance to produce public values.

The years 1997–1998 witnessed Britain's return of Hong Kong to
China; the fiftieth anniversary of the independence of India and Pakistan;
and the much less publicized 500th anniversary of the arrival of
the Portuguese in Asia. So were marked the beginnings and end of European
empire in the East, and so, too, a new global distribution of power was
recognized. The appearance on 20 May 1498 of a Portuguese fleet commanded
by Vasco da Gama at Calicut (Kerala, S. India), combined with the
penetration of the Caribbean six years earlier by a Spanish flotilla
under Christopher Columbus were, it has
often and eloquently been urged, the prelude to a fearful saga. In next
to no time Europe was enriched, non-European populations and ecologies
destroyed, indigenous states and economies overthrown, a peculiarly
European violence introduced into lands previously innocent of such ways,
and the yoke of European colonial rule and hegemony eventually imposed. In
short, as India's Independence Day Pledge (1930) pithily put it,
subjection to empire meant economic, political, cultural and spiritual ruin.

Irredentism & secessionism have been important causes of international conflict in the 1990s, yet few have considered why ethnic groups desire union with kin elsewhere or want to become independent. Why do groups desire independence rather than union with kin, or vice versa? We consider five distinct explanations: (1) the nature of the group itself; (2) characteristics of the group's kin; (3) contagion processes; (4) ethnic security dilemmas; & (5) the end of the Cold War. Using logit, we analyze data from the Minorities at Risk dataset. Our findings support elements of the conventional wisdom: Ethnic kin influence irredentism, & violence between a group & its host state increases secessionism. Contrary to current debates, groups that are more concentrated are more likely to be secessionist. Further, some factors are less important than usually argued: relative size, a group's ethnic distinctiveness, economic & political differences, regime type, & economic growth. 2 Tables, 1 Figure, 1 Appendix, 33 References. Adapted from the source document.

An introductory chapter looks at the dynamic nature of gender concepts, stressing that gender constructions can only be understood in relation to historical, cultural, social, political, & religious contexts. It is maintained that this collection goes beyond examinations of women's roles in various settings, or representations of gender in narrative contexts, to focus on the intersection of gender & religious identities in India, as well as the relation of the complex notion of gender identity with cultural & religious ideas about sexuality. It is noted that most of the essays grew out of a 1996 conference at the U of London on "Gender, Religion, & Social Definition." Although the contributors employ different methodologies & frameworks to explore gender in varied socioreligious contexts, the papers focus on one theme or an intersection of two themes: gender identity & gendered discourse. The studies include investigations of gendered constructs in ancient traditions/texts like the Indian vedic grammars, folk narratives, contemporary possession rituals, & urban communal violence. A synopsis of each essay is included. 79 References. J. Lindroth

Sir George Buchanan, Great Britain's ambassador to Russia during World War I, published his widely read memoirs in 1923. In those pages, he provided an influential account of the response of the Russian people to Germany's declaration of war:During those wonderful early August days Russia seemed to have been completely transformed. The German Ambassador had predicted that the declaration of war would provoke a revolution. He had even declined to listen to a friend who had advised him, on the eve of his departure, to send his collection of art to the Hermitage for safe keeping, as the Hermitage would, he foretold, be one of the first buildings to be sacked. Unfortunately for him, the only act of mob violence throughout the whole Russian Empire was the wholesale looting of the German Embassy on August 4. Instead of provoking a revolution, the war forged a new bond between Sovereign and people. The workmen proclaimed a truce to strikes, and the various political parties laid aside their grievances.

In 1915, African Americans in rural Texas observed communities in transition when they looked out the doors of their wood-frame houses. In that year approximately 72 percent of all blacks in the state, or 511,321 individuals, lived in rural areas. During the 1920s low commodity prices and high inflation combined to ruin many, but few left the land. Instead they rented land on the shares and struggled to earn enough of a living to keep families together. Yet the Great Depression intensified the poverty and forced many blacks to leave rural life behind. In addition, the violence and disfranchisement of the Jim Crow era, the race's subjugation to the crop-lien system, and the birth of the "New Negro" in an urban environment hastened the decline of black communities in the South. Scholars tend to concentrate on these factors, thus presenting the rural African American as a victim of economic, political, and demographic change. Few consider the ways that rural blacks challenged these persistent trends.

A nationwide telephone survey of 721 adults examined the impact of the third-person effect on individuals' perceptions of the media's general influence and immorality effects with three issues. The third-person effect perceptual hypothesis predicts that individuals will perceive media messages to have greater effects on other people than on themselves. A behavioral hypothesis predicts that third-person perception (i.e., seeing others as more influenced) will lead to support for restrictions on media messages. The findings reaffirmed robust support for the perceptual hypothesis. Regarding the behavioral hypothesis, effect perceptions were found to be issue dependent. For television violence, the issue with the clearest moral dimension, perceived immorality effects predicted support for restrictions. In contrast, perception of the media's general influence was a key predictor of support for restrictions on televised trials and negative political advertising. The failure of past research to distinguish dimensions of perceived effects may account for the less than robust findings regarding the behavioral hypothesis.

In the process of globalization, the nation-state's power to control its borders is disintegrating. In some respects, national borders have completely lost their relevance, owing to certain adverse ecological developments like the degradation of the ozone layer & other virtually global threats. They are also of limited use in influencing the speed & content of some trade operations concerning goods or currencies or the free flow of media information, but they continue to function efficiently for people. Immigration laws & certain other procedures of "rich" countries tend to distinguish between wanted & unwanted immigrants. Because of various catastrophes & disasters, widespread violence, & anticipation of bleak economic futures, the number of migrants continues to grow rapidly, as does the pressure from migrants from the "poor" & densely populated countries of the world on the borders of the "rich" countries. This is a multidimensional development with political, economic, & moral aspects. 23 References. Adapted from the source document.

A position paper on how the Zimbabwean educational curriculum should factor in the aspect of the human factor (HF) ; The challenges we face as a nation arc to define and determine the kind of skills and HF the nation needs in our process of education and training, right through life. Today, Zimbabwe and other African countries face multi-dimensional problems of scarcity, redundancy, surplus and having to employ newly introduced skills. We also face the challenge of assessing performance in terms of relevance, suitability, effectiveness and efficiency of the HF product from our education system, in the light of the social and economic problems we face. We also have challenges related to social vices such as violence, corruption, fraud, decadence, drunkenness and laziness. Many African countries have regressed instead of progressing because of their neglect to develop an appropriate HF centred education with checks and balances to guard against socio-economic and political decay. ; International Institute of Human Factor Development.

Examines the constraints & potentials of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) & women's groups in Indonesia in advocating for women's interests & needs, in the context of domestic & international politics. A background on the history & situation of NGOs in Indonesia & their domestic & international linkages is given. It is argued that, while international pressure has led to a degree of political space for expressing discontent & opposition, the ability of supranational powers to intervene into national politics is limited, especially concerning human rights. This is seen in the examples of women's campaigns against sexual violence & the struggles for land & worker's rights. It is shown that state intervention in women's struggles is not inherently oppressive, as long as issues are considered nonthreatening, eg, they revolve around the domestic sphere, traditionally associated with women. Further, constraints have come more from in NGOs, due to perceptions of gender often reinforced by the prevalence of patriarchal values in local communities. It is concluded that recognizing & understanding these constraints will help women NGOs find solutions. 18 References. Adapted from the source document.

SouthernAfrica has been at war since the 1960s. Following the capitulation of Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front and the acceptance of majority rule in Zimbabwe in 1980, the widely acknowledged root of most of the regional conflict has been South Africa. In defendingapartheid, the régime in Pretoria engaged in a systematic campaign of destabilisation designed to bring its neighbours to heel. Military invasions, raids, sabotage, support of dissident groups, and assassinations were all part of the National Party (NP) Government's 'total strategy' that employed violence as a key element in its regional policy to achieve economic, military, and political hegemony. P. W. Botha during his tenure as Prime Minister and President, 1978–89, 'politically modified the role' of the South African Defence Force (SADF), as explained by Herbert Howe, and 'created the military-dominated State Security Council, which effectively replaced the Cabinet and became the centre of national decision-making and official power in the 1980s'.1The result was the militarisation of South African society and a swath of destruction across the southern part of the continent.