This text inquires into the problem of cadenced step as the disciplinary technique of the body, according to theories of Marcel Mauss and Michel Foucault. Author explores historical core of military body techniques in social context, developed by Dutch army reformers Counts of Nassau during 1590s and refined by the Prussian military in 1740s. Author interprets cadenced step inside framework of shifting paradigm of power, as Foucault analyses the sequence of three stages of power emerging during european Early modernity.
The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 was accompanied by mass enthusiasm. This wave of enthusiasm (Kriegsbegeisterung) was particularly high in Austro-Hungary. In the regions where the German population was significantly large crowds thronged the streets singing patriotic songs such as "Wacht am Rhein", "Heil Dir im Siegeskranz", "The Radecky Marsch", "Prince Eugene Marsch". They also arranged tributes in front of monuments, state buildings and military headquarters. Despite the fact that the operation to mobilise the Czech military went smoothly the German public noticed the lack of enthusiasm amidst the Czech soldiers and consequently the Czechs were seen as indifferent and even hostile. There was an attempt to promote demonstrations in Prague as an expression of Czech-German reconciliation. However as these were organised by the German minority in Prague the Czechs continued in their lack of fervour and viewed the war as a German one rather than Czech.
According to the 1867 constitution the Habsburg Monarchy's armed forces consisted of the common army, the navy, the Austrian Landwehr and the Landsturm. The armed forces had authority over three ministries and were themselves subject to the rule of three parliamentary institutions. From the beginning the growth of the armed forces had not kept pace with that of the population as a whole. There was a low volume of conscripts and poor training of reservists. This resulted in a relatively small army both in peace time and during war and meant that by the spring of 1918 Austria-Hungary had practically exhausted its available human resources. This was exacerbated by the high number of losses, both through death and capture. On the battlefield the number of deaths is thought to have been between 905,000 and 1,200,000 with 1.8 million injured. At the same time the number of deaths and illness in the hinterland increased while the rate of fertility dropped. In order to resolve this the government applied a number of measures: the upper age limit of conscription increased, the necessary standards for recruitment were lowered, training period was shortened, more use of weapons, factory workers were replaced with women, prisoners of war and workers from the occupied territories. However at this time the importance of the "war economy" was also growing which resulted in an increase in firms requesting the release of their employees from military service. In 1918 the Habsburg Monarchy had not only exhausted its human resources but was also on the brink of economic collapse.
This article is an attempt to present further results in the author's continuing qualitative field work among the historical war re-enactment societies of the fortress towns of Josefstadt and Theresienstadt (from 2010). Michael Foucaults Heterotopic theory of places is used to shed light on a wide range of ritualised social behaviour, centred around key symbols from the monarchical military culture of the Enlightenment. New categories for the analysis of local context have been created which are clearly compatible with Braudel's theory of longue-duree, that is isophenomenological historic-social objects, maintaining and transferring the original meaning of heterotopic social-disciplination.
Violent conflict is very old in human society. The development of military technology brought with itself the worst tragedies loss of human live and material devastation in the second half of 20th century in the Horn of Africa. This region is one of the centers of various political violent conflicts in the world, according to length of these violent conflicts, the number of death of people, mainly civilian, refugees and internal displaced persons (IDP). This study elucidates the root causes of long wars in the Horn of Africa focusing mainly on South Sudan and Somalia. It also illustrates how the Super Powers during the Cold War helped their client states to prolong the suffering of people in the region. When Socialist system disappeared from Eastern Europe, Mengistu Haile Mariam's and Siyad Barre's regime ignominiously collapsed. In Ethiopia Amhara power elite, who ruled the Empire state from 1889 to 1991 lost their state power and Tigrian guerrilla fighters captured it through the power of the gun, Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia, South Sudan is emerging from long heinous war to independence. The violent conflict in Somalia transformed after the old regime demise in 1991 and the new leaders unable to build new central government. Somalia is fragmented and became the good example of failed state in the theory of contemporary political sociology. The paper tries to explain these complex violent conflicts in this part of Africa.
