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Discusses findings from the second annual Failed States Index for 2005, which uses 12 social, economic, political, & military indicators to illustrate the phenomenon of state instability to rank 148 states in order of their vulnerability to internal political violence & social dysfunction. Here, the top 60 failed, failing, & borderline states are listed. It is asserted that symptoms of state failure can appear anywhere; eg, Hurricane Katrina exposed huge problems in the US disaster preparedness & relief apparatus. Attention is given to the impact of demographic factors, corruption, democracy, & regional relations. D. Edelman

ABSTRACT: Throughout the world, political conflicts lead to violence between countries. In such situations, wars and terrorism result in physical and mental injury to members of the civilian population. The social work services are many times the first to provide assistance in the initial stages of shock and defense. The success of the services depends, among other things, on their organizational characteristics. The present study is based upon qualitative research conducted in Israel with social workers. The point of departure was the knowledge gained from the experience of the social workers. The sample included 46 interviewees from 20 social work services. Thirteen of the services were identified as having organizational resilience and coped effectively with emergencies among the civilian population exposed to war and terrorism, and the other 13 were found to lack resilience. The research findings indicated that the tendency to take action was the most prominent characteristic among the resilient organizations. Other characteristics that contributed to action (in resilient organizations) or deterred action (in unsuccessful organizations) were associated with organizational structure, management and leadership style, the decision-making process, communication, role division, relations with the environment, and nature of the roles of the team members. The study discusses the characteristics of resilience and practical aspects for the development of social work services. KEYWORDS: Resilience, Disaster, War

Massive violence erupted in July 2021 across various places in South Africa. The widespread protest and looting were triggered by arrest and imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma who received 15 months jail term for corruption charges during his tenure. Supporters of Zuma went on a rampage and caused serious damage to private and govt. properties. Several people died and injured due to clashes between rioters and military forces. This social turmoil is outcome of economic collapse in South Africa. Economy faced a massive setback due to pandemic crisis and incompetent handling of economic affair. Supply chain for businesses was severely disrupted and people faced acute food and fuel shortage. Inflation went spiralling high amidst social tension. In recent time, economic performance deteriorated and contraction in every sector led to high level of unemployment and poverty. Desperate people indulged in looting and vandalism which clarified level of frustration in social life. There was massive deployment of troops to quell the unrest. President Ramaphosa addressed the nation to maintain calm but real challenge remained unaddressed. Youth unemployment, wage rate stagnation, income inequality, unaffordable education, soaring inflation, govt. inability to disburse fund to support poor people worst hit by pandemic and economic deceleration stoked the fire of social unrest.

The present article is concerned with the influence of gender stereotypes on gender inequality and violence against women in modern Russia as well as the response of government institutions and civil society organisations to domestic violence incidents under lockdown. Conclusions on the role of stereotypes in the growth of inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic are based on findings of the research carried out by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) and the Institute of Socio-Economic Studies of Population of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed profound vulnerabilities concerning the state of women and exacerbated the current issues of gender discrimination. Today, discrimination has become obvious, and, to a certain degree, the state has recognised its prevalence in the labour market as well as in the areas of political activities and career advancement. However, existence of gender discrimination is still negated when it comes to issues of violence against women and reproductive rights. In general, the measures that have been implemented that aim to reduce women's vulnerability are fragmentary and inadequate.

RESUMEN: Este artículo alude a la complicada defensa de puntos de vista extremos sobre el delito político, a la problemática precisión del sentido de este concepto, a su curiosa relación con el delito común y a las ironías que enfrentan los debates sobre la criminalidad,si se tienen en cuenta experiencias y contextos cruzados por un conflicto armado de larga duración. Esta exposición crítica se enfoca principalmente en el caso colombiano, donde, además de las dificultades teóricas, es menester resaltarlas que emergen en la opinión pública, en donde no existe un consenso en torno al juicio que merecen los distintos actores del conflicto armado sino que existe un cansancio generalizado ante la guerra. Frente a tal panorama cabe resaltar una tarea por realizar en el campo investigativo, a saber, establecer una criminología de la guerra, en la que se reflexione sobre la cercanía entre la violencia de la guerra y la que es propia de la cuestión penal, para poder establecer, de algún modo, ciertos límites que permitan diferenciar el delincuente común, verdadero objeto de la criminología, del delincuente político. ; ABSTRACT: This article alludes to the complicated defense of extreme points of view on political crime, precision problems regarding the sense of this concept, its curious relationship with common crime and the ironies that face the debates on criminality, keeping in mind experiences and contexts crossed by long-term armed conflict. This critical exposition focuses chie fly on the Colombian case, where, besides theoretical difficulties, one finds a need to identify that which emerges in public opinion, where no consensus exists concerning the judgment which different actors of the armed conflict deserve, but, instead, one finds a general exhaustion of the war. Set against this panorama, one task stands out in the research field: to establish a criminology of the war, which reflects on the proximity between the violence of the war and that which is tied to penal questions, in order to be able to establish, in some way, certain limits that permit to differentiate common criminals, the true object of criminology, from political criminals.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist and My Revolutions address the way individual acts trigger change, by staging insurgents who try to connect their intimate revolt to the political movements of the time. Both novels are set in times of violence (the Cold War and 9/11), historic turning points characterized by strong ideological pressure. The essay focuses on the narrative strategies that work towards producing the category of moment as kairos, that is to say as bearing a degree of intensity likely to cause change. Acts of insurgency are staged as imminent, thus creating a crepuscular poetics, which shatters the theological teachings of ideologies under scrutiny and challenge the notion of utopia. These political novels provide a theory of fiction as a space for writing potentiality: differed action becomes a means to test possible outcomes and to reflect upon the writing of history. Instead of being pictured, violence is encoded in language, thus creating a narrative of terror (the narrator confiscates the enunciative space in Hamid's novel, the past contaminates the present in Kunzru's). Ethical decisions of refusal become pivotal narrative moments: they are triggered by untimely events that sever individuals from the group to which they belong, and lead to restore a sense of historicity into the present moment. Cet article propose de montrer que The Reluctant Fundamentalist et My Revolutions, deux romans publiés en 2007, traitent de la question du changement provoqué par des actes individuels, en mettant en scène des insurgés qui tentent de relier leur révolte intime avec les mouvements politiques du moment. Les deux romans sont ancrés dans des périodes de violence (la guerre froide et le 11 septembre), des tournants historiques caractérisés par la prégnance des idéologies. Cet article s'intéresse aux stratégies narratives qui conduisent à produire la catégorie de moment commekairos, c'est-à-dire comme porteuse d'une intensité à même de provoquer le changement. Les actes insurrectionnels sont figurés comme imminents, contribuant à créer une poétique crépusculaire, qui met à bas les enseignements téléologiques des idéologies en jeu, et remet en question la notion d'utopie. Ces romans politiques produisent une théorie de la fiction comme espace d'écriture de la potentialité, l'action différée devenant un moyen de tester des issues possibles et de réfléchir à l'écriture de l'histoire. Au lieu d'être représentée, la violence est encodée dans la langue, créant ainsi des récits de terreur (le narrateur confisque l'espace d'énonciation dans The Reluctant Fundamentalist ; le passé contamine le présent dans My Revolutions). Les décisions éthiques de refus deviennent des moments clé des récits: suscités par des événements intempestifs, elles arrachent les individus aux groupes et restaurent une forme d'historicité dans le moment présent. ; Cet article propose de montrer que The Reluctant Fundamentalistet My Revolutions, deux romans publiés en 2007, traitent de la question du changement provoqué par des actes individuels, en mettant en scène des insurgés qui tentent de relier leur révolte intime avec les mouvements politiques du moment. Les deux romans sont ancrés dans des périodes de violence (la guerre froide et le 11 septembre), des tournants historiques caractérisés par la prégnance des idéologies. Cet article s'intéresse aux stratégies narratives qui conduisent à produire la catégorie de moment commekairos, c'est-à-dire comme porteuse d'une intensité à même de provoquer le changement. Les actes insurrectionnels sont figurés comme imminents, contribuant à créer une poétique crépusculaire, qui met à bas les enseignements téléologiques des idéologies en jeu, et remet en question la notion d'utopie. Ces romans politiques produisent une théorie de la fiction comme espace d'écriture de la potentialité, l'action différée devenant un moyen de tester des issues possibles et de réfléchir à l'écriture de l'histoire. Au lieu d'être représentée, la violence est encodée dans la langue, créant ainsi des récits de terreur (le narrateur confisque l'espace d'énonciation dans The Reluctant Fundamentalist ; le passé contamine le présent dans My Revolutions). Les décisions éthiques de refus deviennent des moments clé des récits: suscités par des événements intempestifs, elles arrachent les individus aux groupes et restaurent une forme d'historicité dans le moment présent.The Reluctant Fundamentalist and My Revolutions address the way individual acts trigger change, by staging insurgents who try to connect their intimate revolt to the political movements of the time. Both novels are set in times of violence (the Cold War and 9/11), historic turning points characterized by strong ideological pressure. The essay focuses on the narrative strategies that work towards producing the category of moment as kairos, that is to say as bearing a degree of intensity likely to cause change. Acts of insurgency are staged as imminent, thus creating a crepuscular poetics, which shatters the theological teachings of ideologies under scrutiny and challenge the notion of utopia. These political novels provide a theory of fiction as a space for writing potentiality: differed action becomes a means to test possible outcomes and to reflect upon the writing of history. Instead of being pictured, violence is encoded in language, thus creating a narrative of terror (the narrator confiscates the enunciative space in Hamid's novel, the past contaminates the present in Kunzru's). Ethical decisions of refusal become pivotal narrative moments: they are triggered by untimely events that sever individuals from the group to which they belong, and lead to restore a sense of historicity into the present moment.

This article examines the Public Act of Acknowledgment of International Responsibility and Recovery of the Memory of María Claudia García de Gelman held in the Uruguayan parliament on 21 March 2012 through a theoretical framework of memory narratives. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered Uruguay to hold the Public Act as part of its February 2011 ruling in the Gelman v. Uruguaycase, which condemned its failure to investigate and prosecute individuals responsible for disappearing María Claudia García de Gelman and illegally adopting her baby daughter Macarena, while denying her knowledge of her true identity for over two decades. The Public Act was a memorialising event intended as an act of reparation, which also triggered irruptions of memory in Uruguay, resurfacing memory debates and discussions about the recent past of dictatorship and violence. The Public Act exposed once again the continued antagonisms between memory narratives of violence and justice that have existed in the Uruguayan political and social landscape since 1985. While the Act was an expression of the "state terrorism" narrative, its unfolding resulted in the resurfacing of narratives of "war" and "two demons" in the social and political arenas and of new interpretations of these narratives in light of events and politics in 2012.

This article examines the Public Act of Acknowledgment of International Responsibility and Recovery of the Memory of María Claudia García de Gelman held in the Uruguayan parliament on 21 March 2012 through a theoretical framework of memory narratives. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered Uruguay to hold the Public Act as part of its February 2011 ruling in the Gelman v. Uruguaycase, which condemned its failure to investigate and prosecute individuals responsible for disappearing María Claudia García de Gelman and illegally adopting her baby daughter Macarena, while denying her knowledge of her true identity for over two decades. The Public Act was a memorialising event intended as an act of reparation, which also triggered irruptions of memory in Uruguay, resurfacing memory debates and discussions about the recent past of dictatorship and violence. The Public Act exposed once again the continued antagonisms between memory narratives of violence and justice that have existed in the Uruguayan political and social landscape since 1985. While the Act was an expression of the "state terrorism" narrative, its unfolding resulted in the resurfacing of narratives of "war" and "two demons" in the social and political arenas and of new interpretations of these narratives in light of events and politics in 2012.

Las elecciones de 2019 en Colombia fueron las primeras elecciones locales en las que el partido de excombatientes de las FARC participó. Dada la gran controversia alrededor de la firma e implementación del Acuerdo de Paz, así como la continuidad de la violencia en varios municipios, existe gran preocupación sobre la participación de los excombatientes. En este artículo se analiza la relación entre la participación de FARC y la competitividad de las elecciones para Alcaldía y Concejo a través de un análisis estadístico. Se encontró que los municipios en que la FARC participó presentaron mayor competitividad electoral, pero esta relación depende de los niveles recientes de violencia de cada municipio. La implicación principal de este análisis es que el legado de la violencia, no la participación de excombatientes, es el factor que debería primar en las preocupaciones sobre la contienda electoral. ; The 2019 Colombian elections were the first ones in which the party of the former FARC combatants ran for local office. Given the great controversy surrounding the signing and implementation of the Peace Agreement, as well as the continuing levels of violence in several municipalities around the Country, there has been great concern about the electoral participation of the members of this political party. This article shows a statistical analysis of the relationship between the participation of the FARC party and its competitiveness in mayor and city council elections. We found that municipalities in which the FARC party ran for office had more competitive elections, but that it depended on the levels of recent violence experienced in each municipality. The main implication of our analysis is that the legacy of violence, not the electoral participation of former combatants, should be the main factor of concern in the electoral process.

The impact of resources on social unrest is of increasing interest to politicalleaders, business and civil society. Recent events have highlighted that (lack of) access tocritical resources, including food, energy and water, can, in certain circumstances, lead toviolent demonstrations. In this paper, we assess a number of political fragility indices tosee whether they are good indicators of propensity to food riots. We found that the mostaccurate is the Political Instability and Absence of Violence Indicator of the WorldwideGovernance Indicators by the World Bank. We compute a likelihood of experiencing afood riot for each quartile of this index. We found that the self-sufficiency of food does notseem to affect the likelihood of the occurrence of food riots, but that the level of politicalstability of a country does have a role. In addition, we identify a monthly and annualthreshold for the Food and Agriculture Organisation Food Price Index, above which foodriots in fragile states are more likely to occur.

Much of the rhetoric spread by jihadist organisations seems to indicate a strong commitment towards a set of religious and political ideas. But does cognitive extremism really lead to violent extremism? Terrorism scholars have been divided by this question for over a decade now. This article summarises and reflects upon the key theoretical debates about the question whether cognitive extremism really is a precursor for violent extremism. Using Schmid's distinction between non-violent and not-violent political movements, it argues that even though there is no linear path from adopting extremist ideas towards committing acts of violence, cognitive extremism of some extent seems to be a necessary precondition for violent extremism and that beliefs always play a, though not necessarily the central role. This however does not mean that cognitive extremism is a great predictor for eventual violent extremism or that violent extremists are necessarily the most ideologically radicalised.

The collective communication model of terrorism (CCMT) proposes that understanding terrorists' motives influences appraisal (threat perception and emotional well-being) and reaction to terrorism (intention to retaliate). Fischer et al. (2011) presented evidence from two experiments for the assumption that understanding motives of terrorism influences appraisal. The present preregistered experiment aimed to replicate their second experiment, validate the measures they used, and also test the second proposition of the CCMT. Ensuring sufficient power for multiple tests and the given effect size, we collected data from 188 participants. The findings by Fischer et al. (2011) were partly replicated, but the comparison of the original effect sizes and the effect sizes from the replication attempt does not provide convincing evidence for the hypothesis that understanding the motives for terrorism reduces the perceived threat or negative emotional impact of acts of terrorism. Correlations with other risk-perception measures call into question the validity of the items used to assess perceived threat. Results suggest that understanding the motives for terrorism may influence whether the targeted populations want to retaliate.

El desarrollo de respuestas políticas para los problemas de salud en la comunidad necesita para su concepción como problema social un sistema de vigilancia epidemiológica continuo y accesible para la población y de decisores que contribuyan a ello. En noviembre de 2003 comenzó una iniciativa de defensa de la salud de las mujeres en Internet con el objetivo de contar con una información que contribuya a la construcción de un enfoque poblacional del problema de la violencia del compañero íntimo (VCI). Desde entonces, mensualmente se publica en e-leusis.net (página de Internet dedicada a las mujeres) el índice epidémico (razón entre las muertes sucedidas en el mes correspondiente y la mediana de muertes del quincenio anterior) de muertes por VCI en la sección "Alerta Violencia". Más de la mitad de los meses estudiados (enero 2003 - diciembre 2004) resultaron epidémicos (índice epidémico mayor o igual a 1,25). La iniciativa se hizo pública en una rueda de prensa y cada mes se difunde una nota de prensa en la que se da a conocer el índice epidémico de muertes por VCI. Desde su puesta en marcha, "Alerta Violencia" ha recibido 2.330 visitas, con una media aproximada de 65 visitas semanales. Las noticias son cubiertas por varios periódicos, informativos de televisión y emisoras de radio. ; The development of political responses to a problem needs for its construction as a social problem of a continuous epidemiological surveillance system available for the affected public and key decision makers. A women's health advocacy net based initiative was launched in November 2003. Every month the epidemic index of deaths (ratio of deaths in that month and median of deaths occurring the previous 5 years) due to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is published in a section called «Violence Alert» of e-leusis.net a women's web page. The objective was giving visibility to information contributing to shape the problem. from a population perspective. The initiative was introduced at the beginning to journalists and every month a press release with the index results and a comment on it is circulated. More than half of the months studied (January 2003-December 2004) were epidemic (epidemic indexb ≥ 1.25). «Violence alert» has received 2330 visits since then, an average of 65 visits per week. The page attracted media coverage from radio, TV and newspapers. ; Instituto de la Mujer y el Ministerio de Asuntos Sociales. Instituto de Salud Carlos III a través de la Red de Investigación de sobre Salud y Género.