Suchergebnisse

Ekkehardt Krippendorff walks the high road of peace research. His book, State and War, is a contribution to the grand task of abolishing war as an institution. He argues that states and the military are twins, created for the same purpose: breeding war and violence against each other's and their own subject populations. This review presents Krippendorff's arguments and extends them, showing how the two ahistorical conclusions that would seem to emerge from such reasoning - namely the anarchist and the pacifist conclusions - can be avoided.

This article reflects on the turmoil in the states of the Levant, particularly seen in the context of broader tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Particular regard is given to the radical challenge of Sunni and largely Salafi jihadism; the disabling of large parts of the Middle East state system in the wake of the Arab Spring; the dramatic fall in global energy prices; the fraying of traditional alliances between Saudi Arabia, the US and other powers. The increase in sectarianism and conflicts over authority in Islam are also discussed. (Asian Aff/GIGA)

For most reporters the atomic age began with a press release. "It's a statement from the president, "Assistant White House Press Secretary Eben Ayers told those gathered at the Monday-morning briefing on August 6, 1945, and he began to read:Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of TNT. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the British "Grand Slam" which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare....It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its powers has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.