Suchergebnisse

Commitment to detaining war crimes suspects, particularly through military operations, was the key factor in Bosnia's post-Dayton development. The decision in the mid-1990s to take arrests forward was the single most important element of the international strategy of peace implementation, with detentions in 1997 prefiguring and signposting the way for firm civilian implementation of the Bosnian peace by the High Representative, using authority strongly confirmed by the Peace Implementation Council's Sintra and Bonn meetings. Detention operations changed the strategic dynamic. While Bosnian progress remained slow, the war crimes action helped to create space for political cooperation and development, as well as for the kind of political coercion by the High Representative that would emerge half a year after the first detention operation. Without such action, international strategic momentum and credibility would not have been established, and Bosnia's peace agreement stasis would probably have remained. The war crimes issue was therefore the 'ghost in the machine' driving the positive evolution of post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Dayton peace accords. (Ethnopolitics)

Despite trends to consider film in the context of international relations, there has been very little real focus on how filmic sources can assist the understanding of war and peace. There is merit in analysing film in its own right; however, beyond this it can be a useful device for teaching and researching particular wars and aspects of them, as well as the relationship of film to war in general. This is demonstrated here by reference to the films about the Yugoslav War of the 1990s. However, exploring the detail of combat or cause or social impact in a particular conflict is not the only role film can play in teaching or research strategies. It is within the power of the moving image medium to explore the very essence and character of both a particular war and the very nature of war itself. This is shown to be the case with Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, where the constant tussle between escalation and ethics, which underpins the conceptual frames of strategy, relating ends and means, is evident. War ceases to be war if the restraints are removed. When they are, the 'river of escalation' leads into the dark-hearted loss of soul, the critical loss of political perspective and purpose and the apocalypse of futility.

In the movie Team America, a five-strong, world police, special forces unit takes on the task of foiling various terrorist enemies of the United State, international peace & security. This paper argues that Team America, made with puppet characters, offers a vehicle for understanding & interpreting today's dominant global security issues. In the movie, the special forces units are seemingly unaware of the devastation caused by their mission or the trauma it brings to the local population, like when the special forces unit destroys the Sphinx & the Pyramids. The central message of Team America is that the giant may not always be gentle, but that the meek need the giant to protect them from the big, bad wolves. In this way, the movie reflects a constructivist realist interpretation of international relations where security issues are defined by the intersubjective interaction of interests, ideas, & values, created in the face of necessity. R. Prince