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In the wake of seven decades of protracted revolution and armed conflict in Southeast Myanmar, an ensemble of indigenous peoples and transnational activists have begun formulating a radical alternative vision of how peace and conservation might be achieved in practice. Through translating and rescaling indigenous modes of possessing the earth, this ensemble is working to transform 5,000 km2 of highly contested terrain in the highlands along the Salween River into a conservation zone they call the Salween Peace Park. In this study I explore what indigenous practices and cosmologies, and the ways they are being translated and rescaled into the Salween Peace Park, might teach us about ownership, sovereignty, and politics at large. The first half of this study focuses on the highlands along the Salween River, to explore how people residing here commonly treat their landscapes as already possessed, in the dual and entangled senses of being both occupied or haunted by spectral more-than-human presences, and controlled and owned by them. In these Possessed Landscapes human ownership of land is always ephemeral, ultimately nesting in the encompassing ownership of spectral presences (who I describe as persons). Humans can only borrow land by constantly negotiating with and propitiating its spectral owners. A corollary of these indigenous modes of possessing the earth is that these highlands were not so much anarchic as in sense of "no ruler", but rather, power and sovereignty is nesting in the hands of the spectral owners of the earth. I describe this as an alternative mode of politics that I name Spectral Sovereignty. In the second half I take a small step back to shuttle between the residents of these highlands and networks of activists based in Chiang Mai in Thailand. Here I focus on both growing new forms of dispossession and counterinsurgency that have accompanied the cooling of armed conflict, and efforts by ensembles of indigenous peoples, activists, armed groups, and conservationists to attempt to push back and re-territorialise and re-possess the earth. I go on to explore how this ensemble is subtly translating and rescaling possessed landscapes and spectral sovereignty into land laws and conservation policy as a way to transform these former war zones into a protected area, the Salween Peace Park. I then show how, in the process of establishing this protected area, these activists are continuing the revolutionary movements to attain greater autonomy for the indigenous people residing here. I then close this thesis by exploring what is happening as the Salween Peace Park is coming into contact and being negotiated on the ground in these highlands. Here we find revolutionary politics and spectral sovereignty are becoming entwined into a form of Alter-Politics that is unsettling established notions of sovereignty and politics. However, beyond unsettling, it also gestures towards alternative ways of understanding the shifting entanglements between people, politics, spectres, and other unseen more-than-humans, and radical alternatives to conservation and armed conflict in Myanmar, and beyond.

Сложность и важность изучения японо-американского взаимодействия в мировой политике требует постоянного совершенствования методов исследования. Однако работ, обращенных непосредственно к анализу данного взаимодействия как связанного с внешней средой единого организма, практически нет. Вместе с тем лишь на основе обобщенного, системного представления о японо-американских отношениях можно выявить логику, детерминанты и закономерности в их развитии. Статья посвящается рассмотрению взаимоотношений Соединенных Штатов Америки и Японии как целостной интегративной системы, обладающей специфической структурой. Особое внимание уделяется институционализации японо-американской системы, ее взаимодействию с мировой политикой. Определяются состав и структура этой системы, обнаруживаются ведущие взаимодействия между ее элементами. Раскрывается целостность системы, ее уровни и иерархия, динамика функционирования. Выявляются и выделяются главные внешние связи системы Соединенные Штаты Япония. Доказывается авторская позиция, рассматривающая в качестве основы системы институты двустороннего взаимодействия Вашингтона и Токио. В рамках такого подхода вводится и обосновывается понятие консеквенции взаимодействия США и Японии. Также анализируется сопряженность американо-японской системы и мировой политики. Устанавливается зависимость системы от изменений в мировой политике и зависимость мировой политики от изменений в развитии японоамериканских отношений. В результате дается целостная картина отношений, выявляются логика, детерминанты и закономерности в их развитии. Показывается, что глобализационные процессы, изменения в балансе сил, выход на мировую арену большого количества негосударственных акторов изменили и изменяют японо-американские отношения. Более того, изменения в японо-американских отношениях и есть трансформация самой мировой политики. ; The complexity and importance of the study of the U.S. Japan relations in world politics requires continuous improvement of scientific methods. However, works which would analyze the U.S. Japan relations as a single organism are practically nonexistent. The article analyzes the U.S. Japan relations as a whole integrative system with a specific structure. The institutionalization of the American-Japanese system, its interaction with world politics are considered especially. The author determines structure of the system, detects leading interactions between its elements, examines the integrity of the American-Japanese system, its levels and hierarchy, dynamics of functioning. The study attempts to prove the author''s methodology which considers bilateral U.S. Japan institutions as the basis of the American Japanese system. As part of this methodology the conjugation between the system of bilateral American-Japanese institutions and world politics is analyzed. The dependence of the system on world politics and the dependence of world politics on changes in the U.S. Japan relations are also revealed. As a result of the study an integral picture of the U.S. Japan relations is demonstrated. The logic and patterns of their development are determined. It is shown that globalization, changes in balance of power, emergence of a vast number of non-state actors on a world stage changed and continue to change U.S. Japan relations. What is more, the transformation of the U.S. Japan relations is the transformation of world politics itself.

The author used the 1956 Hungarian anti-Stalinist rebellion as the starting point for a thorough rethinking of the political structures of man's existence, in particular of political power. Such a rethinking is based on the insight regarding the autonomy of the political with regard to the economic and class structure of society. From this is derived not only the specific rationality of state and politics, but also the specific political evils related to the very nature of political power. Specific rationality, specific evil -- therein lies the double and paradoxical originality of the political. It is the task of political philosophy to make this originality explicit and to clarify its paradox: the greatest political evil is linked with the greatest political rationality, and political alienation exists precisely because the political is relatively autonomous. The autonomy of the political is not only the idea of man's stepping into man-hood through citizen-hood, but also the distinctive character of the political connection in relation to the economic connection. The understanding and criticism of the political paradox can be approached only if one sets clear boundaries to the political sphere and perceives the validity of the distinction between the political and the economic. Every criticism presupposes this distinction, and it does not abolish it in any respect. In order to rediscover the sense of the political, one must return to Rousseau's reflection in continuation of a return to the thinkers of classical antiquity (Aristotle's Politics in particular) as basis for any criticism of power. The truth of the political, as the reality of state ideality, is the legal equality of all before all, irreducible to class conflicts, to the dynamics of economic supremacy and alienation. But the state is also -- will, administration and physical coercion. Thus the political as a reasonable organisation implies politics as decision: the political is always accompanied by politics. Unlike the political, which exists only in great moments, in "crises", at "turning points", at crossroads of history, politics is perceived as a set of actions aimed at winning, executing and retaining power. Precisely politics poses the problem of political evil. This however does not mean that power is identical to evil. But power is particularly prone to evil; throughout history it has been perhaps the greatest opportunity for evil and the greatest demonstration of evil. The reason for this is that power is a momentous thing, that power is the instrument of historical rationality of the state. This is the fundamental political paradox. A practical solution to this paradox -- to achieve that there is a state, but that there is not too much of it -- is possible only through democratic control of the people over the state and through invention of institutional techniques the purpose of which is to make possible the exercise of power and to make impossible any abuse thereof. Adapted from the source document.

This is a history of beginnings, but it doesn't come from 1879. Rather it is about the politics of the World Centennial of National Parks in 1972. Not in 1964-100 years after the first national park in the world, Yosemite. Nor in 1979-100 years after Roya

Brings together enterprising pieces of new research on the many forms of organization in East and Southeast Asia that are sponsored or mandated by government, but engage widespread participation at the grassroots level. Straddling the state-society divide, these organizations play important roles in society and politics, yet are dimly understood.

"A clearly written and well-researched explanation of the rise of a tax system favorable to corporations in terms of the unintended consequences of states' attempts to deal with the demands for new social services." -- Michael McGerr, author of The Decline of Popular Politics: The American North, 1865-1928.

Examines political conditions since military coup d'état following 1993 elections, factors reducing effectiveness of sanctions, and US policy options. Discusses international pressure for fair treatment of jailed opposition leader Moshood Abiola.

 

Hundreds
of millions of Indian citizens have begun to vote and they will keep doing it
for six weeks. Indian democratic elections are the most massive human
mobilizations in the world —more than any other election, war, pilgrimage,
migration movement, or world fair. There are more than one million polling
stations and even a team of elephants to carry voting machines to the Himalaya.
Unlike in many other democracies, electoral turnout in India is higher among
the poor than among the rich, among the less educated than among the graduates,
in the villages than in the cities. Since the last elections, five years ago,
women vote (a little) more than men.

The
success of democracy in India has dismissed the pessimistic auguries after the
independence and the first election in 1952. But India is not an isolated case.
Let's see the numbers. A little more than half of the world's population lives
in democracy. Let's consider that "rich" countries are those above the world
average per capita income (in purchasing power, around $ 18,000 per year), and
"poor" are those below that threshold. About half of the world population
living in democracy lives in relatively poor countries (including India, but
also Indonesia, South Africa, and others), while about half of the population
living in dictatorships lives in relatively rich countries (including China,
but also S. Arabia, Russia, and others).

Some
traditional sociologists have been puzzled by the India case because it does
not fit the classical doctrine that economic development must precede democracy:
from Seymour Lipset to Adam Przeworski, who has "repeatedly predict India as a
dictatorship" before 2030. Yet, India is not an exception or an anomaly. The
earliest modern democracies, such as Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom,
or the United States, had also enforced broad male suffrage for competitive
elections in the nineteenth century when they were fairly poor, as poor as
India was in the mid-twentieth century or as is now.

For
about forty years after independence, when the government was dominated by the
Indian National Congress party, initially led by Jawaharlal Nehru, the
centralized and closed Indian economy grew at an often-mocked annual rate of
1%. But since the early 1990s, when it has liberalized and opened to new
technologies and globalization, India has enjoyed significant benefits from
open trade and capital inflows. Against all expectations, the Indian per capita
income at purchasing power has multiplied by five in thirty years. Precisely
because India was late in adopting more sophisticated institutions and
policies, it has been able to adapt more readily to the global economy. In
contrast to developed countries with old technologies and onerous preexisting
social arrangements, India has not had to dismantle former industrial and
bureaucratic structures that might have obstructed innovation.

Consequently,
the Indian citizens declare to prefer democracy to an authoritarian regime in a
proportion of four to one. In the most recent international poll by the Pew
Research Center, 72% of Indian citizens declare to be satisfied with the way
democracy works in their country --only after Sweden and in contrast with, for
example, 33% in the United States. (Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes
& Trends, 2024).

The Congress
Party, always led by Nehru's descendants Gandhi family, and the current incumbent
People's Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have alternated in
government seven times. The electoral system is a copy of the colonial British
tradition of single-member districts by simple plurality rule, which permits a
party with less than 40% of votes to get an absolute majority of seats in the lower
chamber of parliament. Yet, while numerous minor parties run independently, the
two larger parties run in very broad electoral coalitions: in the current
election, the incumbent BJP has formed a National Democratic Alliance with 12 mostly
state-based or ethnic parties, while the opposition Congress is running in an
India National Development Inclusive Alliance (to fit the acronym INDIA) with
23 parties, including several on the far left. Their participation in federal
politics also works as a factor of Indian union.

After
the end of the Cold War, the old Indian foreign policy of "non-alignment" was
initially replaced with one of "strategic autonomy." India remains outside the
United Nations Security Council, despite having become a nuclear power, and
outside the Group of Seven despite being the fourth democratic economy in size.
Nevertheless, India has become more dynamic in supporting the democratization
of its neighboring countries in South Asia, which is still a poorly integrated
region. It is also the oldest and most stable democracy of the so-called BRICS
group, now enlarged to nine members, and it has recently increased its
relations and deals with the United States and the European Union in a world of
fluctuating international coalitions. From a global and historical perspective,
democracy in India is already one of the most remarkable contemporary achievements
of humankind.

 Also in Spanish and Catalan in La Vanguardia:https://www.lavanguardia.com/opinion/20240429/9605408/mayor-fiesta-democratica-mundo.html

"The Greater Middle East, the vast region between the Mediterranean and China encompassing much of the Arab world, parts of northern Africa, and Asia, existed for millennia as the crossroads of empire: Macedonian, Mongol, Ottoman, Russian, British. But with the dissolution of empires in the twentieth century, postcolonial states have struggled to maintain stability in the face of power struggles between factions, leadership vaccuums, and the fact of arbitrary borders drawn by exiting imperial rulers with little regard for geography or political groups on the ground. In the Loom of Time, Robert Kaplan explores this broad, fraught space to reveal deeper truths about the impacts of history on the present and how the requirements of stability over anarchy are often in conflict with the ideals of democratic governance. In The Loom of Time, Kaplan makes an excellent case for realism the world over, but especially for it as an approach to the Greater Middle East. Just as Western attempts as democracy promotion across the Middle East have failed, a new form of economic imperialism is emerging today as China's ambitions fall squarely within the region as the key link between Europe and East Asia. As in the past, the Greater Middle East will be a register of future great power struggles across the globe. And like in the past, thousands of years of imperial rule will continue to cast a long shadow on politics as it is practiced today"--

This book examines the attitude of Malaysia's Islamist movements - The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS); The National Trust Party (AMANAH); The Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM) and the Malaysian Muslim Solidarity Front (ISMA) - towards the Arab Uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. The book analyses the perceptions of Islamist movement activists, politicians and members in Malaysia towards the 2011 Arab Uprisings, popularly known as the Arab Spring'. A questionnaire based-survey as well as in-depth interviews with activists and leaders ranging from individuals in opposing political parties (PAS and AMANAH) to non-government Islamist organisations (ABIM and ISMA) informs the findings of the book. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, the author analyses how the events impacted the activism, political approach and attitudes of the members of Islamic movements towards the issues of regime change, civil disobedience, political revolution, democracy, Islamism and political stability. The book demonstrates that Malaysian Islamists are mainly in support of free and democratic elections as a medium for political change as opposed to overthrowing the previous BN-led regime via civil disobedience, street demonstration or revolution'. A novel approach in examining the connections between Islamic movements in Southeast Asia and the Middle East and Africa, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Politics, History, Social Movements, Political Islam, Middle Eastern Studies and Southeast Asian Studies.

"In My Own Liberator, Dikgang Moseneke pays homage to the many people and places that have helped to define and shape him. In tracing his ancestry, the influence on both his maternal and paternal sides is evident in the values they imbued in their children -- the importance of family, the value of hard work and education, an uncompromising moral code, compassion for those less fortunate and unflinching refusal to accept an unjust political regime or acknowledge its oppressive laws. As a young activist in the Pan-Africanist Congress, at the tender age of fifteen, Moseneke was arrested, detained and, in 1963, sentenced to ten years on Robben Island for participating in anti-apartheid activities. Physical incarceration, harsh conditions and inhumane treatment could not imprison the political prisoners' minds, however, and for many the Island became a school not only in politics but an opportunity for dedicated study, formal and informal. It set the young Moseneke on a path towards a law degree that would provide the bedrock for a long and fruitful legal career and see him serve his country in the highest court. My Own Liberator charts Moseneke' s rise as one of the country's top legal minds, who not only helped to draft the interim constitution, but for fifteen years acted as a guardian of that constitution for all South Africans, helping to make it a living document for the country and its people."--Publisher description

"Since 2004, Thailand's southern border provinces have been plagued by violence. There are a wide array of explanations for this violence, from the revival of Malay nationalist movements and the influence from the global trend of radical Islam, to the power play among the regional underground crime syndicates, politicians, and state authorities. The disparate interpretations signal the dynamic and complex discursive contention of this damaging and enduring conflict, and this book looks at how this is played out in the Thai media, and with what possible consequences. In analysing the southern conflict coverage, the book presents the deficiencies in news coverage, as produced by four news organisations of different natures across a seven-year review period, and discusses the professional practices that hinder journalism from serving as a fair arena for healthy and rational democratic debates. Based on in-depth interviews with news workers, it argues that Thai journalism is not always monolithic and static, as shown in the discursive shifts in news content, the variations of journalistic practices and news workers' disparate stances on the conflict. The book goes on to highlight the less immediately apparent difficulties of political conflict reporting, such as the subtle patterns of intimidation and media manipulation, as well as the challenges of countering socially-prevailing hegemonic beliefs in Thai society. Exploring the political contingencies and socio-cultural influences at play, this book provides an in-depth study of journalism's role in politics in Thailand"--

The women's health movement shocked and scandalised when it burst into Australian politics in the early 1970s. It cast the light of day onto taboo subjects such as sexual assault, abortion and domestic violence, provoking outrage and condemnation. Some of the services women created for themselves were subjected to police raids; sex education material was branded 'indecent'. Moreover, women dared to criticise revered institutions, such as the medical system. Yet for all its perceived radicalism, the movement was part of a much broader and relatively conventional international health reform push, which included the 'new' public health movement, the community health centre movement and, in Australia, the Aboriginal health movement, all of which were critical of the way medical systems had been organised during the 20th century. The women who joined the movement came from diverse backgrounds and included immigrant and refugee women, Aboriginal women and Anglo women. Initially, groups worked separately for the most part but as time went on, they found ways to cooperate and collaborate. This book presents an account of the ideas, the diverse and shared efforts and the enduring hard work of women's health activists, drawn together in one volume for the first time. This relentless activism gradually had an impact on public policy and slowly brought forth major attitudinal changes. The book also identifies the opportunities for health reform that were created along the way, opportunities which deserve to be more fully embraced.

This paper explores how art contributes to the articulation of memories that counter the official historical narrative of Hungary's self-proclaimed political and ideological system, illiberal democracy. Amid deepening polarization between Europe's post-colonialist and post-socialist countries, the Hungarian government promotes a Christian conservative national identity against the "liberal" values of Western Europe. Systematic appropriation of historical traumas is at the core of such efforts, which largely manifests in removing, erecting and reinstating memorials, as well as in the re-signification of trauma sites. Insufficient civic involvement in rewriting histories generates new ways of resistance, which I demonstrate through the case study of a protest-performance organized by the Living Memorial activist group as a response to the government's decision to displace the memorial of Imre Nagy in 2018. I seek to understand the dynamics between top-down memory politics, civil resistance and art within the conceptual apparatus of the "memory activism nexus" (Rigney 2018, 2020) and "multidirectional memories" (Rothberg 2009). I argue that artistic memory activism has limited potential to transform the dynamics of memory in a context where a national conservative political force has gradually taken control over historical narratives, triggering inevitably polarizing responses in the society. Although profoundly embedded in local histories, the case-study may offer new ways of negotiating traumatic heritages through the entanglement of art and memory activism.