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This article offers a new interpretation of mutiny, and of the ways in which this concept was defined and implemented in maritime law during the seventeenth century. It particularly focuses on British seafarers and the evidence surviving in the papers of the English High Court of Admiralty, placed in a comparative perspective with reference to other states' legal provision. Scholars of maritime social history have been particularly preoccupied with the idea of mutiny but have rarely provided a precise decision of it, or explored its legal intricacies, while generally basing their ideas on the increasingly punitive regulations issued by state navies. Some have presented mutiny as an essentially responsive action by which mariners expressed grievances and appealed to shared ideas of patriarchal justice. Others have found in mutiny the stirrings of a distinctively maritime tradition of political radicalism which fermented throughout the early modern period and ultimately contributed to the age of revolutions in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Across this divide, most historians have concurred in presenting it as an extreme, and often violent, act of resistance to constituted authority. This article shifts our attention to the supposed origins of this authoritarian system in the seventeenth century and expands our analysis beyond the martial law of state navies, which applied only in a specific and limited number of ships. It begins by considering the fragmented nature of the multiple systems of national, municipal, military, and customary maritime laws which governed seafaring, arguing that even in naval law there was no consistent definition or prosecution of mutiny, and that the provisions of customary law (much more ubiquitous than naval law) were far less draconian than popular myth would suggest. The article then turns to the depositions of mariners presented in admiralty court cases to explore how seafarers themselves delivered narratives about their conduct at sea, countering accusations of mutiny levied by their employers. It is particularly important to take into account the legal purpose and context of these sources, which highlight disputes and divisions and where statements were strategically crafted – on both sides – to pursue certain objectives. Through this analysis of both legal codes and legal practice, this article demonstrates that authority and law at sea were not a simple matter of unconfined power meeting radical resistance, nor of acquiescence to established hierarchies. While conflict, mistreatment, and asymmetries of power were undoubtedly present in early modern seafaring, the evidence from the High Court of Admiralty shows that, even at sea, shipmasters' and their crews' actions were shaped by knowledge of maritime law. Moreover, seafarers and their employers (whether commercial or imperial) shared expectations about the limits of commanders' power and about consensus and compromise aboard ship. Discussion and protest were only considered mutinous when a voyage failed and provoked recriminations over who should bear the fault and the cost: the consequences, more than the act itself, defined its legal status. This article therefore provides novel reflections on the social dimensions of maritime labour and the agency of early modern seafarers within imperial and legal systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments worldwide have made it a priority to combat religious extremism, resulting in various disciplinary and soft-power policies. This study focuses on dialogue as an effective way to counter and prevent religious extremism, using the Kharijites (the first extremist faction that mutinied against the caliphal authority) as a case study. Historical methodology is used to collect data, and a critical analysis is conducted using inductive and deductive methods to draw conclusions and insights for a proposed dialogue model. The essay argues that military power is ephemeral and sometimes counterproductive, so the emphasis should be on a long-lived "mind power." Further, given the embedded nature of religious underpinnings of extremists' ideologies, the study highlights seven key terms that form the foundation of the three-level dialogue model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alongside the private military company Wagner and his notorious Internet Research Agency (IRA), Yevgeny Prigozhin was associated with the Patriot Media Group (PMG) which amplified state narratives through its webpages and was registered by Roskomnadzor, the federal agency for supervision of Russian media. The Patriot Media Group was shut down after the mutiny, June 23, 2023, while most of its channels were removed or remain inactive currently. The essay provides a brief account of the Patriot Media Group’s structures, partnerships, and campaigns based on digital ethnographic observations of their web channels. The news coverage from predominantly Russian language news outlets sheds light on how the Group operated and what happened after Prigozhin’s mutiny. The essay concludes with some directions for future research on a complex and murky media production facility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze a range of future scenarios for Russia related to the Ukraine War. Although regime change is a publicly-stated objective for several leaders of NATO countries, we find very little prospect for it. The Russian economy has largely evaded the effects of the sanctions. Despite enormous casualties and incompetence in the management of the war, both Putin and the war remain popular with the Russian public. Contrary to most analysis to date, the Wagner Group mutiny of June 2023 is not an indication of Putin’s weakness, but his strength. The coercive mechanisms of the Russian state remain intact. Indeed, they have grown stronger. Finally, there is little to no prospect for the emergence of a significant antiwar movement. Regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, Putin is likely to remain in power. Western leaders should begin to grapple with this unpleasant reality and its policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies a cognitive narratological approach to Janet Murray's conception of the "multiform" digital text that allows a user to experience multiple versions or alternative outcomes of a story. I argue from a psychologically-grounded position that branching narratives are fundamentally dissatisfying due to completionism, the onus of choice and diffusion of inherent stakes. With reference to two of my own texts, AMNESIAC (2021) and Mutiny on the Batavia (2022), I describe a version of the multiform story that makes use of a labile digital text-space while preserving the teleology of a linear narrative, and which speaks to the essential human experience of a unique, individual existence over time. Digital texts, I also argue, can dramatise both the arbitrary and contingent mental constructions of reality and the determinist nature of media forms. An increasingly immersive mediated existence means that experimental narratives in particular must fulfil our prior expectations of meaningful stories while also using the allowances of unbound narrative to keep written stories innovative, interesting and to expose their essentially constructed nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experience teaches that attorneys may violate duties of confidentiality and trust to pursue personal gain. Multiple insider trading, embezzlement, and fraud prosecutions prove the point. The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 establishes a bounty regime whereby certain whistleblowers are eligible for awards of 10%-30% of Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") enforcement recoveries exceeding $1 million. Since its inception, this program has paid at least 207 whistleblowers more than $1 billion. The Commission's bounty program thus may be a meaningful inducement to breach privilege. The SEC asserts that its whistleblower authority preempts state law and that it can accept attorney-client privileged information. However, it simultaneously operates filter teams designed to sequester potentially privileged information from enforcement attorneys who might work on the matter, suggesting that it may be skeptical of its own preemption claim. This skepticism is warranted. The SEC's purported preemption is unsupported by the statutory text and legislative history. The Commission should, therefore, rescind its views regarding preemption but continue to operate its filter teams. The Commission would also be wise to modify its current filter team procedures and improve its communications regarding the receipt of potentially privileged information. Specifically, the Commission should reform and publicize its filter team procedures. It should also loudly warn whistleblowers that it will neither accept privileged information nor reward those who breach privilege. Finally, filter teams should adopt more aggressive techniques to ensure that they are not inadvertently receiving privileged information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 256 AH/869 CE, the rank-and-file of the Turkic-Central Asian military in Samarra, the Abbasid imperial centre, rose against their commanders and the caliphal court. This is according to al-Ṭabarī's third/ ninth-century Taʾrīkh (History). The present article discusses two related elements of the mutiny: the rise to influence and authority of members of the Samarran military command, and the resentment of the rank-and-file troops. The main topic, however, is collective action on the part of the troops. The issue is social (re)formation and solidarity on the part of enslaved and freed persons brought together by the circumstances of enslavement in a particular time and place, in this case third/ninth-century Abbasid Iraq. In treating the rebellion, the article draws briefly, in a comparative manner, on the work of scholars of imperial Rome, early medieval Europe, and the antebellum U.S. South. Drawing on what al-Ṭabarī tells us of the mutiny, the article also considers the history of enslavement and unfreedom in early Islamic-era society more broadly. The mutiny serves in this sense as a case study in the history of slavery in early Islamic society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates Republic of China Navy (ROCN) 'defection mutinies' during the Chinese Civil War where mutineers seized ROCN vessels and defected to the Chinese Communists. Examining the memoirs of defection mutiny ringleaders and participants, this paper postulates the determinant that enabled ROCN defection mutinies was Chinese Communist covert action that capitalised on ROCN internal conflicts, weakened the collective action problem's effect on pre-empting mutinies and provided the necessary support to conspirators that led to defection mutinies based on Communist preferences. This research contributes to the military studies sub-field by exposing the intersection between covert action and wartime military unrest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The military institution is structured in a manner that is meant to promote smooth flow of orders and instructions for implementation. Perhaps this is premised on the fact that time and disciplines are two critical variables that drive the military culture. Thus, this paper finds that in the theatre of operations, poor supply of equipment and lack of basic force projection and protection indices for soldiers could result in open or 'passive obedience' where troops' morale are either dampened or become an endless test on their patriotism and an albatross in their quest to defend the territorial integrity and citizens of their nation. This paper argues that for the best possible outcomes of combat efficiency to be gotten from field combatants, there must be an availability of the basic requirements that would aid the field combatants in attaining their strategic objectives. Furthermore, the paper drives the position that failure in the preceding areas will only portend extensive threats to the country's national security. The paper relied mostly on secondary sources available in extant literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luis Gusmán is undoubtedly one of the most representative authors of his generation, his 1973 work “El frasquito” (translated in Italy as “Il gemello”) marked a watershed, comparable to “El fiord” by Osvaldo Lamborghini or “Nanina” by Germán García. Gusmán is still today, in Argentina, a key figure for understanding the potential of that elusive, ghostly and perhaps now anachronistic object, which is the avant-garde.In his essay “La literatura amotinada “(2018), he revisits a concept (or rather a critical intuition) by Libertella, that of a mutinous literature, rebellious against the directives, conventions, and complacencies of the literary market: a strange, indigestible writing that not only transgresses what is established but also denies the very legitimacy of the Law that sets the boundaries of that establishment. In this interview, we asked Luis Gusmán both about that primal force of revolt, of mutiny, and about the ways in which this attitude contributes to rewriting a literary tradition and guiding the author’s own literary project. The recurring names of Héctor Libertella, Leónidas Lamborghini, Ricardo Piglia, Alberto Laiseca, and Jorge Luis Borges lead the way in this conversation.

Between the 1960s and 1970s, one of the central problems of Argentine literature was answering the question of how to write after Borges, how to relate to the omnipresence of his model. The poetics that emerged then as a generational response to that tension are still today an unsurpassed horizon for what concerns experimentation and originality: an entire generation of writers opposed to opportunistically exploiting the great international success of Latin American literature, launched two challenges, the first to cultural translation in which they were trained; the second to the impossibility of creating projects whose declared aim consisted in avoiding any mechanism of "capture" of the market. Starting from the concept of "mutinous literature", a concept proposed by one of the protagonists of that generation, Luis Gusmán, in this article four significant figures of Argentine literature of the last half century will be explored in depth, complementary and contrasting figures at the same time, problematic in the complex density of their proposals: Ricardo Piglia, Héctor Libertella, Leónidas Lamborghini and Alberto Laiseca.

A list, in alphabetical order by author and chronological order of Italian publication, updated to 30 October 2023, of all the works translated into Italian by authors who can be considered "mutineers", according to the perspective proposed by Luis Gusmán.

The article, titled "Mutiny on the Rising Sun: A Tragic Tale of Slavery, Smuggling, and Chocolate," discusses the mutiny that occurred on the ship Rising Sun in 1743. The mutineers planned to sail the ship to Orinoco, sell the cargo and the vessel, and split the money. The book provides a detailed account of the mutiny and explores the connections between smuggling, slavery, and the growing British demand for chocolate. The article also mentions the importance of the book for research on rural social hierarchies, gender norms, social change, and economic development. [Extracted from the article]

This briefing explores the factors that led to the consolidated position of the Nigerien Security and Defence forces in support of the coup d'état launched the night of 26th July 2023. The initial blockade of the former President's palace by the head of the Presidential Guard and 350 of its members looked like a mutiny. However, instead of moving swiftly to end the blockade, commanders from across the security forces appeared on national television that night to announce a coup. We show how dominant theories that have been used to explain the coup's (unlikely) success, including those relying on patrimonialism and coups as intra-military coordination games, do not adequately explain the support for the coup across rank and file, and the direction the coup took once announced. We argue that this coup cannot be fully explained without considering how the coup leaders advanced powerful ideological messages to garner support. By making the coup about 'correcting' the government's counter-insurgency strategy and regaining Niger's sovereignty through the removal of French counter-terrorism troops from the country, members of the military believed that everyone else would support the coup, thus making it less likely that they would resist the coup leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter sets out to provide helpful advice to President Putin following the recent mutiny of the Wagner Group. It suggests he has made a catastrophic mistake in invading Ukraine and needs to read the history of previous Russian mutinies to understand how they happen and what is likely to happen next. This is a story that starts in Ukraine and ends in chaos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1859, Key West found itself transfixed by a sensational criminal trial. Styled United States v. Carcer, Eloy, and Davis, and presided over by William Marvin, the island's legendary federal judge, the case involved a mutiny-murder aboard the slave ship Enterprise. Although famous in its day, the tale has been all but forgotten due to the Great Key West Fire of 1886, which destroyed nearly every record of the affair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Review of: 12 jours à Nuku Hiva: Rencontres et révolte russe dans le Pacifique Sud (12 Days at Nuku Hiva: Russian Encounters and Mutiny in the South Pacific), Elena Govor (2021) Leiden: Sidestone Press, 406 pp., ISBN 978 9 46426 018 2 (pbk), €60 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the cases of desertion in Spanish and English circumnavigations undertaken during the 16th century. Only four expeditions were able to overcome the Strait of Magellan and enter the Pacific Ocean, but there were many more attempts to repeat the voyages round the world, and in each we meet cases of desertion. The aim of the study is to identify common features of the described cases of desertion, and characteristics of the methods of maintaining order and discipline on ships. The crucial moment for most expeditions was the sectors from La Plata to the Strait of Magellan and attempts to cross the Strait of Magellan, as the ultimately dangerous part of the route. We find only one case of desertion in the Pacific Ocean, caused by the quarrel of the crew over captured spoil. In most part of the examples, desertion was caused by fear of the unexplored sea roads, by conflicts of interest and social contradictions, by personal enmity of crew members or by dissatisfaction with the actions of the leader of the expedition. The punishment for deserters at their homeland was surprisingly mild. The captains of the escaped ships not only saved their lives, but also continued their careers. But for every circumnavigation loss of even one ship was critical and could lead to difficulties or complete failure of the voyage.

The loss of the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia in 1629 on the Houtman Abrolhos off the west coast of Australia and subsequent mutiny is one of the most dramatic events in the history of European encounters with Australia, and was widely popularized in 17th-century publications. The archaeological remains surpass that of a shipwreck with its consequent jetsam and flotsam, and are the silent witnesses to a cultural landscape of survival created within a few months by a horrible sequence of events. Here we present archaeological evidence collected from 2014 to 2019 in a new research project that informs on these historical events. We discovered 12 victims in single and multiple graves, as well as evidence for survivors' resistance to a band of mutineers and remains of the possible gallows site where 7 mutineers were executed. Together these sites contribute to the understanding of the survival landscape at one of the earliest European sites in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Midshipman Philip Spencer aboard the I Somers i had grown up in an affluent family in Canadiagua, New York. Spencer's father ultimately located him and convinced him to become a naval officer; Spencer's father, used his influence with Abel P. Upshur, the Secretary of the Navy, to secure his son a midshipman's appointment. Reporting information to the commander, later that evening Mackenzie approached the 19-year-old Midshipman Philip Spencer and had him arrested and put in irons for inciting mutiny. [Extracted from the article]

"Chasing the Bounty: The Voyages of the Pandora and Matavy" by Donald A. Maxton is a collection of primary sources that recount the story of the HMS Pandora, which was dispatched by the British Admiralty in 1791 to capture the mutineers of the HMS Bounty. The book includes accounts from officers on the Pandora, as well as letters from Bounty men. The voyage of the Pandora was even deadlier than that of the Bounty, with the ship striking a reef in the Torres Strait and resulting in the death of 31 crew members and four prisoners. While the book is not a scholarly edition, it provides valuable insights into the Pandora's voyage and the broader context of the Bounty mutiny. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines how and why the nineteenth-century Nubian mutiny in colonial Uganda was not only a military mutiny as widely perceived by many scholars but a social uprising as well. Recognised for their military skills and discipline by the British in the early nineteenth century, in 1897, the Nubian soldiers serving in the British army mutinied against their British masters whom they accused of breach of a social contract made between themselves, under their leader Selim Bey, and Fredrick Lugard on behalf of the British at Kavali in the southwestern corner of Lake Albert in 1891. I use archival written materials augmented with oral histories of both the Nubian and non-Nubian participants, to provide an in-depth socio-historical account of the nineteenth-century Nubian mutiny in Uganda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concentrating on a series of mutinies that were planned during the summer of 1798 to take a number of British warships of the Channel Fleet into the enemy port of Brest, this article is a micro study of one of those ships, the 74-gun Defiance in the three-week period, 7–28 July 1798, during which the plot was hatched. The intention is to throw light on a number of key questions that relate to the organization and character of these planned mutinies, with consideration given to the motivating factors, the extent to which an organizational structure existed and identification of the key activists. Effectively a cross-sectional micro analysis of one ship's crew at a single point in time, it will allow for a better understanding of the vast range of factors that coalesced in the development of a plot to seize not just this warship, but at least seven other ships of the Channel Fleet while cruising off the port of Brest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of the events at both Ambala and Meerut indicates that the sepoys' plan was to rise in revolt while the Europeans were attending the Sunday church services. They wanted to catch them, unaware and unguarded. The uprising of the sepoys at Ambala in the morning and at Meerut in the evening is explained by this fact. The rest of the details of the uprising were to be worked out locally by the leaders in the two cantonments. The existence of a premeditated plan of rising at Meerut—the 20th N.I. and 11th N.I. would rise and the 3rd Light Cavalry would follow them after releasing their fellows from the jail, was confessed by a native officer of the 3rd L.C. to Lt. Gough. The final part of the plan involved going to Delhi after completely destroying the Europeans at the two stations. The British were, however, too alert to be caught napping at Ambala, and the sepoys failed to translate their plans into action. But they succeeded at Meerut. Had the Ambala troops succeeded like those at Meerut, the British would have found their work of a century undone overnight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Tillaberi region of Niger, 20 soldiers and one civilian were killed in an ambush on June 25th. The soldiers were attacked by a heavily armed coalition of assailants while carrying out a security sweep near Tassia village. The region has been a center of conflict, with rebels linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group waging an insurgency for almost a decade. Niger's army responded to the attack by killing over 100 terrorists in air and ground operations. The country has faced an upsurge in militant attacks since a coup in July 2023, mainly targeting defense and security forces in the Tillaberi region. Additionally, scores of Boko Haram jihadists and their relatives surrendered to the Mixed Multinational Force in Niger and Cameroon, and IS claimed responsibility for a prison break in the Tillaberi region. [Extracted from the article]

Studies on indiscipline and unrest aboard ship during the Age of Sail so far have mostly focused on the norm-violating behaviours of common seamen. This article, by contrast, investigates acts of insubordination committed by warrant and commissioned officers in the Royal Navy, using courts martial records as sources. It traces the contours of that historical phenomenon, identifying common confrontations as well as less frequent ones that may prove to be particularly revealing about disobedience among naval officers and what this can tell us about governance afloat and its challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]