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361. Editorial. The Voluntary Death of the Combatant: Sacrifices et Stratégies

Author:
Louis-Jean Duclos and Daniel Hermant
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
Le présent numéro qui traite de la « mort volontaire combattante » met l'accent sur le contexte polémique de ce geste et indique fortement l'intention stratégique de ses auteurs ou promoteurs, sans que pour autant nous ne nous fassions beaucoup d'illusions sur la dimension rationnelle et l'efficacité de ces calculs. Il souligne également la dynamique de l'acte et la complexité des motivations qui y mènent, ce qui exclut de nos analyses les explications purement individuelles - psychologiques et bien sûr psychiatriques - ; nous utilisons le terme de « sacrifice » pour qualifier cette démarche. Nous n'avons pas repris dans notre titre le mot « kamikaze », même si l'actualité en recommande l'usage, parce qu'il pose problème...
Political Geography:
France

362. Political violence, bombings and “Kamikaze-operations”: how the 11th of September is “hijacking” the future

Author:
Daniel Hermant
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
After September the 11th, the perception of terrorist-bombings has been restructured around the topic of suicide through the image of the kamikaze. The author analyses the underpinnings of this change that implies a focus on the unforeseeable character of violence, the tendency of radicalisation and that leads to inevitable generalisations. Because of its long-term consequences, this focus might amount to a “hijacking” of the future. He pursues by highlighting the destabilising consequences of this situation in our societies, in particular in the field of anti-terrorism that paradoxically has become very polemic.
Political Geography:
France

363. The quasi-contract of suicidal combat

Author:
Louis-Jean Duclos
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
The typological approach of voluntary polemical death, whether it is military or militant, murderous or purely declamatory, reveals a diversity of individual behaviours with complex antecedents, ranging from pathological compulsions to strategic calculation. To draw on the metaphor of the contract, as with common law crimes, in the analytical framework of combat suicide represents a great methodological advantage both in terms of the identification of the authors and the victims of the suicidal act and of its causes, object and effects. Once all emotional pollutions have been put aside, the apprehension of “kamikaze operations” reveals the limits of a conduct that is more desperate than efficient. Comment analyser ces pratiques suicidaires qui vont de l'immolation de soi sans victimes immédiates au geste kamikaze le plus meurtrier ? Que pouvons-nous comprendre aux motivations de leurs auteurs ? L'attentat-suicide serait-il devenu l'archétype même de l'acte brutal de violence qualifié de "terroriste" et le kamikaze, sa figure évidente ? A travers l'histoire et au-delà du Proche-Orient, ce numéro explore les logiques sacrificielles, les enjeux stratégiques de la mort volontaire combattante.
Political Geography:
France

364. Israel facing suicide-attacks: the new ethos of violence

Author:
Laetitia Bucaille
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
This article analyses the impact of suicide attacks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflictual relation. Taking Palestinian violence into account, Israeli narratives reinforce or reinvent self-perceptions and visions of the enemy. Palestinian suicide-attacks give rise to an existential fear among Israelis despite the military and economic superiority of the Jewish State in the region. The deep feeling of insecurity fuels a narrative of victimhood and strengthens the security prism. Promoted by political and military decisions-makers and imposing itself in the Israeli society, it supplants a political approach based on the will to find a compromise with the adversary. Anxiety contributes to demonize Palestinians and to diffuse a Manichaean vision in which the Israelis embody the Good and the Just. On this basis, divergent voices are excluded, sometimes at the price of a renunciation to some moral values.
Political Geography:
Israel, France, and Palestine

365. Resistance to the INES project

Author:
Pierre Piazza
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
The biometric ID Card project (INES) of the French ministry of Interior has given rise to much criticism and resistance since 2005. This paper analyses the different forms of contestation and the content of the critical discourses that have led to the provisional suspension of the INES project. Le projet de carte nationale d'identité biométrique (INES) du ministère de l'Intérieur français a suscité de multiples critiques et résistances depuis 2005. Cet article analyse les différentes formes de contestation ainsi que la teneur des discours d'opposition auxquels ce projet s'est heurté et qui ont conduit à sa suspension provisoire.
Topic:
Security and Government
Political Geography:
France

366. HORS-THEMES: Integration as injunction. The Ideological and Political Issues of Immigration

Author:
Danièle Lochak
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
L'étude vise à mettre en lumière les enjeux politiques, idéologiques et juridiques qui se sont noués autour de l'idée d'intégration depuis le milieu des années 1970 - moment où l'on a pris conscience que l'immigration de travailleurs, perçue comme temporaire, avait évolué vers une immigration durable et où l'intégration des immigrés est entrée dans le champ des préoccupations des pouvoirs publics avant de devenir un sujet de débat politique. Cette histoire se joue sur trois plans qui interfèrent sans cesse. L'intégration est d'abord un objet de discours ; mais le discours peine à déboucher sur des réalisations, au point d'apparaître comme un substitut à une action publique défaillante, même si l'intégration est l'un des objectifs officiellement assigné à la politique d'immigration, à côté de la « maîtrise des flux migratoires ». L'intégration est par ailleurs entravée par la réglementation du séjour et de l'éloignement : l'amalgame délibéré, dans les deux dernières « lois Sarkozy » de 2003 et 2006, entre droit au séjour et intégration, vient rappeler cette réalité souvent oubliée ou déniée.
Topic:
Government and Migration
Political Geography:
France

367. Should ratification proceed? An Assessment of Different Options after the Failed Referenda

Author:
Sebastian Kurpas
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
After the resounding Dutch no-vote of 62%, ratification of the Constitutional Treaty has become even less likely than it already was after the political earthquake caused by the French referendum three days before. While the German Chancellor and the French President encourage other countries to continue with the ratification process, the British message is clear: Any attempt to proceed at this point would be pointless. British Foreign Minister Jack Straw found rather subtle words in the House of Commons to describe the situation, but other sources suggest that instead of wasting their time on a lengthy and useless exercise that would cost the EU even more support, European leaders should bury the Constitution at the upcoming European Summit on 16-17 June (or soon afterwards) and then settle for something 'more modest'.
Topic:
Government and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Europe and France

368. Plan B

Author:
Richard Baldwin
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
The resounding French 'non' will have important consequences for French domestic politics. It may also change the way EU leaders proceed with future Treaties. But I do not believe that it will be the 'political tsunami' for the EU that many observers have predicted. Two reasons buttress this belief.
Topic:
International Relations and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Europe and France

369. Resolving Nigeria's Paris Club Debt Problem: A Case of Non-Performing Creditors

Author:
Lex Rieffel
Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
Intense domestic pressure has convinced Nigeria's President, Olusegun Obasanjo, to consider a deal that would eliminate the country's $31 billion of debt owed to the governments of the United Kingdom, France, and other aid-giving countries.
Topic:
International Relations, Debt, and Economics
Political Geography:
Africa, United Kingdom, Paris, France, and Nigeria

370. Nigeria's Paris Club Debt Problem

Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
Intense domestic pressure has convinced Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to seek a deal that would eliminate the country's $31 billion of debt owed to the governments of the U.K., France, and other aid-giving countries that use the Paris Club process to restructure debt that countries cannot repay. The Paris Club creditors have proposed an unprecedented operation—its first-ever buyback at a discount—that would cancel all of Nigeria's debt to them in exchange for a cash payment of roughly $12 billion.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, and Debt
Political Geography:
Africa, United Kingdom, Paris, France, and Nigeria