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"Does democracy require an agreement on specific foundational values? Bringing insights from Turkey to the study of democratization, this book argues that democracy may rather be about acknowledging the disagreement over values before negotiating over other concerns, such as rights, freedoms, capabilities and duties. It explores this idea by examining three landscapes of culture in Turkey, which have been the subjects of persistent stories regarding the unequal relationship between the self and the other. These include LGBT visibility and the entertainment sector, women and clothing, and Alevism and funerals. Through these case studies, the book analyses the remaking of (in)tolerance through the integration of LGBT representations into broader political struggles over values, the assertion of women's rights and freedoms from traditional values surrounding dress, and the conflict between essentialist intolerance and the syncretic traditions of Alevi identity. Bringing these landscapes together with the surrounding cultural tensions in Turkey and the West, Tracing Cultural Change in Turkey's Experience of Democratization will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Middle Eastern studies and politics, gender studies and cultural studies"--

This text presents an interdisciplinary approach to definition of torture by a group of prominent scholars of behavioural sciences, international law, human rights, and public health. It represents a first ever attempt to compare behavioural science and international law perspectives on definitional issues and promote a sound theory- and evidence-based understanding of torture

AFGHAN WAR. Since 20 December 2001 - the date which marked the authorisation of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to assist the Afghan Government - hundreds of thousands of coalition soldiers from around 50 different states have physically been and served in Afghanistan. Roughly 20 rotation periods have been experienced; billions of US dollars have been spent; and almost 3,500 coalition soldiers and 7,400 Afghani security personnel have fallen for Afghanistan. In this badly-managed success story, the true determiner of both tactical outcomes on the ground and strategic results was always the tribal and rural parts of Muslim-populated Afghanistan. Although there has emerged a vast literature on counterinsurgency theories and tactics, we still lack reliable information about the motivations and aspirations of the residents of Tribalised Rural Muslim Environments (TRMEs) that make up most of Afghanistan