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162. The combatants of “certain death”. The sense of sacrifice seen through the “Great War”
- Author:
- François Lagrange
- Publication Date:
- 09-2006
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Cultures & Conflits
- Institution:
- Cultures & Conflits
- Abstract:
- Testimonies and historical analyses often identify the experiences of the combatants of the “Great War” to sacrifices. Nothing links them, at first looks, to the defined features of voluntary death (kamikazes or suicide-bombings). However some elements allow, at the margins, for example in the frame of the French experiences of WWI, to see common traits between the discourses on self-sacrifice on the one hand, voluntary death on the other. An analysis of the conceptions of military authors before 1914 allows reconstructing their radical vision of self-sacrifice in war leading to a valorisation of “certain death”. A complementary investigation reveals, at the beginning of the “Great War”, some cases of “certain death”. Although limited in number, these borderline-cases are significant. They shall not be overlooked in the comparative approach of the different senses and practices of self-sacrifice.
- Topic:
- War and History
- Political Geography:
- Europe
163. Debunking the 1930s Analogy: Neville Chamberlain's Grand Strategy Re-Examined
- Author:
- Christopher Layne
- Publication Date:
- 11-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for International Peace and Security Studies
- Abstract:
- The key events of the 1930s Hitler's rise to power, Germany's reoccupation of the Rhineland, the Anschluss with Austria, Munich and the subsequent German occupation of Prague in March 1939, and the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 transpired some seventy years ago. The events of the 1930s or at least Churchill's depiction of them have provided the standard images that have shaped U.S. foreign policy and scholarly research alike: falling dominoes, insatiable dictators, the interdependency of strategic commitments, the importance of demonstrating resolve, and the impossibility of achieving diplomatic accommodation with nondemocratic regimes. But does the myth track with the historical record? Does the 1930s myth accurately explain British grand strategy in the 1930s? Simply stated, my argument is that the 1930s myth as commonly understood in the United States is bad history, and that its use has contributed importantly to a series of dubious policy decisions by U.S. decisionmakers and still does. As I demonstrate, the British, in fact, were not willfully blind to the German threat or indifferent to the need to rearm to meet it. Rather, during the 1930s, London formulated a quintessentially realist grand strategy that attempted to blend deterrence and diplomacy to contain Hitler's Germany (and Japan and Italy), and defend Britain's interests as a world power by avoiding what, for Britain, could only be a disastrous war.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy and War
- Political Geography:
- Britain, United States, Japan, Europe, London, Germany, Italy, and Austria
164. A Few Thoughts on the Evolution of Infantry: Past, Present, Future
- Author:
- Lutz Unterseher
- Publication Date:
- 05-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Project on Defense Alternatives
- Abstract:
- During the Seven Years War a young, handsome and daring cavalryman in the Prussian Army was observed taking sexual liberties with his beautiful mare. This indiscretion was brought to the attention of King Frederic II. Advisors fretted as to what would become of the army as a fighting force, and of war in general, if such behavior were to spread across all ranks of mounted personnel. Many expected the king would have this deed punished in the most draconian manner. Frederic decided otherwise and simply ordered : “Transfer that chap to the infantry!”
- Topic:
- Security, Development, and War
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Prussia
165. Terrorism's Enablers
- Author:
- David Frum
- Publication Date:
- 08-2006
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
- Abstract:
- The war on terrorism demands that we focus not only on terrorists abroad, but also those who—by making excuses for them—aid and abet terrorism at home.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Terrorism, and War
- Political Geography:
- Europe
166. The Defense Monitor: Give Iraqis a Government Worth Dying For
- Author:
- Chet Richards
- Publication Date:
- 10-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Defense Information
- Abstract:
- There is a principle of engineering that says that when what you're doing isn't working, and trying harder makes the situation worse, you may be solving the wrong problem. With the attacks on London proving that occupying Iraq is not making the world safer, it is time for a radically new approach.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Government, Terrorism, and War
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, Europe, Middle East, and London
167. Chechnya Weekly: Volume 6, Issue 32
- Publication Date:
- 08-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- North Caucasus Weekly (formerly Chechnya Weekly), The Jamestown Foundation
- Abstract:
- Chechen State Council Chairman Taus Dzhabrailov raised eyebrows on August 15, when he told journalists that the two wars in Chechnya have killed about 160,000 combatants and civilians, 30,000-40,000 of them Chechen fighters and civilians. He said that the remaining victims were "representatives of various ethnic groups," but that the vast majority of these were Russians, Novye izvestia reported on August 16. Agence France-Presse noted that a large portion of the 400,000-450,000 people who lived in Grozny before the first war were ethnic Russian and that the city was devastated by Russian air and artillery bombardments in 1995 that caused massive civilian casualties. "They never thought they would have bombs dropped on their heads or be shot at by heavy weapons," the news agency quoted Dzhabrailov as saying. Izvestia, meanwhile, reported him as saying that "the figures I have quoted are compiled by collecting together information about all the losses in the republic in the last fifteen years. We obtained information from all those involved: the military, the Interior Ministry, and the districts. Our data for the Ichkeria period are based on official documents that I obtained from the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Ministry of Internal Affairs when I was an employee of the republican mufti's press service. The losses at that time were no smaller than they are now or were during the counter-terrorist operation."
- Topic:
- Security, Ethnic Conflict, and War
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, Asia, France, and Chechnya
168. The Battle over the Draft
- Author:
- Leon Aron
- Publication Date:
- 07-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
- Abstract:
- On December 29, 2004, Russia's minister of defense, Sergei Ivanov, announced plans to eliminate draft deferments for college students. Predictably, the popular reaction was so uniformly negative and furious that the abolition of deferments has been postponed—but not eliminated from the Kremlin's agenda.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Government, and War
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Europe, and Asia
169. La batalla de la educación: Historical Memory in Josefina Aldecoa's Trilogy
- Author:
- Sara Brenneis
- Publication Date:
- 03-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
- Abstract:
- Josefina Aldecoa intertwines history, collective memory and individual testimony in her historical memory trilogy: Historia de una maestra, Mujeres de negro and La fuerza del destino. In the series, Gabriela and her daughter Juana navigate through the Second Republic, the Spanish Civil War, the Spanish postwar and exile, and Spain after the death of Franco. Through the central theme of education, Aldecoa is able to express her own personal experiences of contemporary Spain alongside a generation's collective experiences. In this way, individual testimony and collective memory are fused through representations of education in Aldecoa's trilogy.
- Topic:
- Education, Peace Studies, and War
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Spain
170. The Palestine Question in the Wake of the War in Iraq
- Author:
- Michael Irving Jensen
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- By mid-January 2003 the American Assistant Defence Minister, Paul Wolfowitz, stated that America would work intensively in order to create a Palestinian State as soon as the War in Iraq was over. In Denmark and other European countries a number of politicians issued similar statements, and peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis became an argument to justify a war against Iraq. Even people who were not convinced by the necessity of war began to argue that something positive would eventually emerge from the war – especially in the case of the Palestine Question. Their argument held that the Americans had to do something constructive in the Middle East. They needed to engage more seriously, and they had to demonstrate to the Arab world that although part of the "war against terror" might be taking place in the Arab world, it was not a war against the Arab world, or against Islam, for that matter. Thus, it was only logical to engage the US in the Middle East, and thereby do the utmost in order to force the Israeli occupation to cease. Despite the huge American problems in "post-war" Iraq the question of Palestine is still very high on the agenda not only in the Middle East, but globally.
- Topic:
- International Relations and War
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Middle East