Suchergebnisse

Il saggio si propone di leggere il Della Tirannide nella sua veste dinopera critico-polemica, al fine di rivalutare il suo ruolo nel dibattito europeo sul dispotismo (ruolo che, almeno negli studi politici, non ha sinora ricevuto l'attenzione che merita). Dopo una sintetica ricostruzione del dibattito europeo – da Montesquieu a Mirabeau – il saggio si concentra sul Della Tirannide, mostrando i suoi elementi di originalità: il suo taglio incisivamente politologico, la sua serrata struttura logico-argomentativa, la prospettiva risolutamente repubblicana arricchita da inserti protoliberali e soprattutto la definizione del dispotismo europeo come dispotismo dissimulato, perché coperto dal velo ingannevole dell'apparato legale. The essay's aim to read Della Tirannide as a critical and polemical work, in order to adequately assess its so far neglected role within the European debate on despotism. Followin a brief reconstruction of the latter, from Montesquieu to Mirabeau, the essay will focus on Della Tirannide, showing the elements of its originality, such as its uniquely political flair, its tight logical-argumentative structure, its adamantly republican perspective, enriched by protoliberal accents, and, most importantly, the definition of European despotism as a covert, its tyrannical nature concealed by its legal system.

In the late 2000s, the renewed interest of the Arctic States over the Arctic has been seen with international concern as a revival of hard-core geopolitics towards an area that became an example of cooperation among states and minorities. This apprehension is based on a simplistic conception of territory as the natural material manifestation of the State over the Earth, typical of classical geopolitics and the realist school of International Relations (IR). The scope of this thesis is thus twofold. Firstly, it aims at problematizing the often academically neglected concept of territory. It is only adopting Wendt's social constructivist approach and the notion of the state "as-a-person", which rationalizes its personhood and agency on the international scene, that I assume it is possible to understand the contemporary situation of the Arctic, where the Arctic States are intentionally acting as the legitimate actors, within the socio-cultural framework of the current International Legal System. Moreover, with the analysis of the sources of international law and how they manage and resolve territorial disputes, it will be argued Carl Schmitt's previous conceptions of territorial sovereignty and geographical Order, described in the Nomos of the Earth, which is also at the roots of IR realism. My point is that, following Stuart Elden's insight, territory is indeed a political technological tool, whose technological aspects are represented by cartography which influences subtly the way we relates to the World and eventually even the patterns of the modern nation-state through what Franco Farinelli calls the cartographic reasoning. Such logic is best expressed by the three characteristics of continuity, homogeneity and isotropy, that 'stemming from the map' are the attribute themselves of the modern state. The categorization of these three features through the methodological means of Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis will provide an initial analytical framework for the Arctic Strategy documents of Norway, Russia and Finland. Considering them as the performative territorial representation of the state, it will be possible to prove whether the Arctic States are actually turning back to hard national interest-based policies, or some post-modern spatial aspect is predominating. The findings are promising on the analytical side, showing the appropriate flexibility for texts and maps, and illustrate that the Arctic States are 'still on the Map', managing to adapt global phenomena in the terms of cartographic reasoning, reaffirming thus their leading role in the determination of political space. Keywords: Arctic, Arctic Strategies, territory, territoriality, social constructivism, State-as-a-person, international law, effectivity, Carl Schmitt, Nomos of the Earth, UNCLOS, cartography, cartographic reasoning, political geography.

Textiles damage analysis is a very valuable tool in forensic investigations. However, to date, very little research has been carried out to understand the impact of bullet causing damages to clothing. According to the review of the most recent scientific papers, the frictional heating and crushing action of a bullet passing through synthetic fibres cause a unique transformation in their ends called mushroom-shaped morphology. In this study, the textile remains of six individuals executed during the first decade of the Chilean military dictatorship period (1973-1990) were analysed. The purpose was to examine their clothing in order to describe the fibre defects in the bullet holes. The fibres were directly observed using two different models of stereomicroscopy (MZ16A and EZ4D, Leica Microsystem Ltd., Wetzlar, Germany) and through a combination of transmitted, oblique and co-axial illumination (with Leica DFC500 Digital Camera), at x 230 and at a resolution of up to 840 Lp/mm. The mushroom-shaped morphology, along with rupturing of yarns, fibrillation or splitting of fibres, was observed in the bullet holes. Although the mushroom-shaped is a useful pattern for bullet hole identification in synthetic fibres, further research needs to be performed for developing a sounder interpretational framework of this type of forensic evidence.