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The latest movie adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic novel Dune, Dune: Part Two directed by Denis Villeneuve, has set truly intergalactic box office records, and been globally exalted by movie critics. Dune: Part Two has, of 24 March, hit over US$220 million in the United States domestic box-office, and worm-holed its way to over US$520 million globally. Villeneuve's latest foray into the harsh world of Arrakis has been critically acclaimed as a masterpiece, with the film compared favourably to the brilliant Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back, while it currently enjoys near-perfect popular and critical reviews.
Dune: Part Two returns us to the story of Paul Atreides, quickly picking up from where Dune: Part One left us, as he enters the harsh desert climate of Arrakis in the company of the planet's indigenous inhabitants, the Fremen. In the film, the young Atreides must rally the 'desert power' of the Fremen, spurred on by his mother Lady Jessica, to have any hope of exacting vengeance against the brutal Family Harkonnen, who butchered his father Duke Leo Atreides and the rest of his royal House in Dune: Part One. The film depicts Paul gradually mobilising the thousands upon thousands of Fremen warriors across Arrakis against the Harkonnen rulers, and eventually in opposition to Emperor Shaddam IV himself, as his prescient visions reveal that his growing power will lead to an intergalactic holy war, much to the initial fear of himself and the revulsion of Chani, his Fremen comrade and lover.
Much good work has been written on Dune: Part Two as an example, or critique, of the white saviour narrative; a demonstration of interplanetary fascistic war; an exposé of brutal colonial violence; a self-aware Orientalist appropriation of a sandbox of non-Western cultures; a piece that deemphasises the complexity and agency of women from Herbert's original book; a movie that has noted analogies with the current Israel-Palestine war; and a movie that obviously took inspiration from Islamic and North African and Middle Eastern sources but equally relegates this recognition. Now, in preparation for seeing this movie for the third time at the local IMAX cinema, I wanted to do something a bit different before strolling in, and I swapped the 3D IMAX glasses for my Marxist spectacles to try to understand some key themes of this intergalactic blockbuster… spoiler alert! (for both Marxist theory and Dune: Part Two).
The post Marxist Viewing of Dune: Part Two appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).

Decentralization in Ukraine is lauded as the most successful of the country's reforms. The devolution of power to local government has not been without controversy; however, as decentralization proceeded during the war in Donbas. This article critiques Ukrainian's decentralization based on two promises of this reform: the weakening of oligarchic power and the empowerment of Ukrainians. Utilizing a feminist political economy framework, with relational ontological commitments, this paper argues that decentralization has, rather, empowered Ukrainian elites while marginalizing vulnerable groups during the war. To address political disempowerment and/or economic inequality, this paper concludes, decentralization must address the totality that structures social relations.

The World Bank has asserted a dominant role in post-conflict peacebuilding and during war itself. This article critiques the World Bank's evolving approach to war and peace through both a qualitative analysis of recent strategic documents and a case study of the Bank's engagement in Ukraine during the war in Donbas. I identify three prominent themes that inform the World Bank's evolving strategy for engaging in conflict-affected conditions, which may impact the possibilities for peace, whether conceptualized as negative, positive or a feminist peace. First, the rhetorical importance of governance is concretized to emphasize business solutions to economic and political problems; second, the conflict-affected population is reimagined in terms of human capital, emphasizing entrepreneurship and resilience; and third, private capital is presented as a saviour. I argue that, in practice, these imperatives lead to a further withdrawal of the state when social assistance and protection are most needed, the instrumentalization of the conflict-affected populace as receptacles of resilience and vassals of economic growth, and an emphasis on private capital as the principal social group to the exclusion of real people. I conclude by questioning whether World Bank reforms during conflict can positively contribute to peace.

El presente artículo muestra cómo las extremas desigualdades socioeconómicas y la criminalización de la pobreza constituyen una amenaza para la garantía de la paz en Colombia. El estudio analiza los factores que condujeron y sustentaron el auge de los llamados "falsos positivos" en Colombia1. Lo anterior, conformado por una serie de ejecuciones extrajudiciales perpetuadas hacia personas de escasos recursos económicos, especialmente a aquellos pertenecientes a sectores sociales marginales. Las víctimas de los falsos positivos fueron asesinadas por miembros de las fuerzas militares, en varios casos, en colaboración con grupos al margen de la ley, donde las personas asesinadas eran presentadas como integrantes de grupos armados ilegales dados de baja legalmente en combate. Estos delitos fueron cometidos durante el periodo comprendido entre los años 2002 y 2008, con un registro de por lo menos 3000 ejecuciones.