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This article studies the Self-Defense Forces’ (sdf) changing relationship with Japan’s security policymakers, reflecting on changing ideas of antimilitarism in the security discourse. For a long time after defeat in the Second World War, the Japanese public was concerned about protection from, not by, the sdf. Accordingly, strict bureaucratic monitoring and control limited the sdf’s participation in the policymaking process. Using government resources and personal interviews, this article traces how policymakers’ perception and antimilitarist attitude toward the sdf evolved as Japan confronted an increasingly challenging security environment that necessitated the sdf’s military expertise to be integrated in the policymaking process. It examines why and how politicians reclaimed civilian control over the military from civil servants and the process by which they granted increasingly more policy influence to uniformed officers. At a time of Japan’s militarization, this article contributes to understanding the development and remaining limitations on the sdf’s political position and policymaking influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe relationship between liberalism and militarism continues to spark debate, especially regarding the impact of neoliberalism. While ­militarism is often seen as a threat to democracy, it can paradoxically enhance state capacity when strategically employed within radical political projects. This paper presents a comparative analysis of Argentina, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Colombia from 1982 to 2004, examining the interplay of political, military and economic networks of power. Using the concept of ‘civilian militarism’, this study reveals how neoliberal adjustments allowed the rise of civilian authorities that promoted militaristic values, using military actions and norms to pursue political goals in response to crises. It explores how neoliberal policies and transformations, sometimes compounded by contradictions surrounding the illegalisation of hard drugs, opened space for the emergence of radical political projects. This deterioration, coupled with weak political or civil society activism allowed militaristic leaders to rise with the intention of addressing the troubled times in some countries more than others. By offering a macro-historical comparative perspective, this paper demonstrates how neoliberalism, and the limitations of civilian and political actors, in some countries pave the way for the emergence of civilian militarism, which, if not contained, can lead to authoritarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the recent popularity of military science fiction, particularly the focus on the training of the recruit soldier as they make their way through boot camp, comes from and also benefits America's ongoing adoration for its military. With reference to three series by authors John Scalzi, Marko Kloos and Joel Dane, the paper argues that the texts are examples of what French theorist Jacques Ellul called integration propaganda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing challenges for women in Kashmir, India a region marked by militarization, patriarchy, and impunity. It highlights the rising cases of domestic violence during the pandemic, the limited response from state institutions, and the intersection of gender-based violence with the ongoing conflict in the region.

This study focuses on the division and conflict during the formative phase of Turkish nationalism in the Early Republican Period. Turkish nationalism, the founding ideology of Türkiye, was oriented towards identity and state building, and it developed an ethno‐secular vision. In contrast, Turkism‐Turanism nationalism, emerging from civilian circles, adopted a critical stance towards the official ideology and the prevailing understanding of ideology during that period, as evidenced by Atsız Mecmua. Using discourse analysis, this study examines prominent themes in Atsız Mecmua, such as anthropological Turkishness, Turanism, militarism, and a holistic approach to history. Conversely, communism in its ideological sense and identities other than Turkish were depicted as the other. Atsız Mecmua attempted to foster a new conception of nationalism to challenge Kemalist nationalism, seeking to forge Turkish unity through militarism and a fascist state model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the late 1940s to the late 1950s, the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) turned vigorously to the Arctic archipelago, expanding and confirming the colonial premise that the islands of the High Arctic were an extractive frontier for oil and gas. In this paper, the first of a planned pair, we show how the efforts of the GSC were hugely consequential for subsequent corporate hydrocarbon exploration, but were also intimately entangled with other, concurrent strands of militarization and Arctic colonialism. Numerous histories celebrate GSC geologists as heroic pioneers of extraction and northern field science. Both the militarization of the Arctic in the 1950s and the concurrent, infamous High Arctic Relocations have been discussed at length. This paper has a more precise, interstitial objective: to show that the GSC's fieldwork depended on both the infrastructure of Cold War geopolitics and the labour of Inuit who were moved to the region under duress—particularly to the new community of Qausuittuq (Resolute). Regardless of specific commercial outcomes, the version and vision of the Arctic installed by the GSC continues to foreground certain future geographies of the archipelago, while forestalling or marginalizing others. Key messages: The intensive efforts of the Geological Survey of Canada in the middle of the 20th century solidified the southern understanding of the Arctic archipelago as a potential extractive frontier.This mid‐century geological fieldwork was entangled with Cold War militarization and dependent on the coerced relocation of Inuit to the High Arctic.The practices and productions of this fieldwork continue to shape some versions of the Arctic future while forestalling or marginalizing others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines settler militarism and how it is mobilized through affective practices that ultimately bolster the settler colonial project. With this intent, it develops the concept of 'militarized atmosphere' defined as a staged environment where war is positioned outside politics and critical scrutiny through a series of affective manoeuvres and aesthetics. A militarized atmosphere operates through military aesthetics to attune people's bodies to a position of uncritical validation of a given discourse of war. This article argues that a militarized atmosphere crucially sustains the settler colonial project by removing or reducing contestation around the theme of war, which is a pillar of settler colonialism. In settler societies, numerous Indigenous individuals perceive themselves as embattled and seek acknowledgement of the history and legacy of colonial violence and warfare. In contrast, settler governments have a vested interest in concealing this history and its enduring legacy, and they do so by exalting military warfare as the foundation of the modern nation and creating affective attachments to the military. The article uses the case of Australia to elucidate the argument. It examines how the aesthetics of war commemoration at the Dawn Service, Australia's major commemorative event, contributes to producing a militarized atmosphere that sustains the Australian settler colonial project. It proposes a framework that links the feminist concept of affective militarism to settler colonialism and contributes to the emerging literature on settler colonialism and militarism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Police militarization is prevalent worldwide. Despite growing interest in the consequences of militarization, few studies focus on its causes. Through the case of Brazilian municipal police forces, we explore the connection between partisan ideology and police militarization. Some research shows that leftist administrations in democracies are more likely to emphasize human rights and less likely to militarize the police. However, leftist administrations might militarize police forces more than centrist and right-wing parties to compensate for perceptions of lower competence to deal with security issues, especially when they face high levels of violent crime. Using inverse probability of treatment weights, we show an association between leftist mayors and higher militarization of municipal police forces. Furthermore, in contexts of high homicide rates, mayors of Brazil's leading leftist party, the Workers' Party, tend to militarize local police more than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen various forms of honorific public art – statues, monuments, and the like – brought under renewed moral scrutiny. This scrutiny has resulted in some high-profile removals, some defacement and additional contextualization to augment existing objects, and some cases of the status quo prevailing. Scholarly treatment of the issues has similarly resulted in arguments that articulate competing values that support removal, modification or preservation. I bring the insights of these arguments to bear on specifically military commemorations, where I argue that they have ample application, but where they do not exhaust the moral complexity to be confronted. This is true first because military commemoration introduces a novel moral concern of militarism, and second because military commemoration frequently has a distinctively normative function of expressing gratitude. Both these points are most powerfully observed in collections of commemorations, rather than individual monuments, a distinction that deepens ongoing discussions about problematic commemorations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The military coup in Myanmar on February 1, 2021 unleashed massive popular uprising against military rule, which was met with heavy handed military violence. Less than a month after the coup the first soldiers joined the civil disobedience movement (CDM) along with many civil servants who refused to work under the military. The resistance to the military was soon named the Spring Revolution, with calls for pervasive transformation of Myanmar's political structures and security forces. Military defections gradually developed into a "revolutionary strategy." This article explores how this development evolved and how defectors were transformed into "revolutionary actors" during the ongoing revolutionary situation. The analysis is based on the personal narratives and collective activities of those soldiers who became active in the CDM. Applying a conversion narrative approach, the article traces the processes of defection from individual disaffection with military violence to the formation of CDM soldier groups and the personal transformation of soldiers. Adding to existing literature on military defections during popular uprisings against authoritarian regimes, the article demonstrates that defection holds significance not only for the outcomes of revolutions, but also for the shaping of revolutionary ideas and practices during revolutionary situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores the political dynamics of the Godzilla film franchise over the past 70 years, arguing that critical and scholarly characterizations commonly oversimplify the movies' complicated messages, which reflect the complex, often contradictory responses of Japanese filmmakers and audiences to the experiences of war, the atomic bombings, defeat, occupation, lasting subordination to the United States, and a seemingly endless postwar period. The analysis focuses on Honda Ishirō's Gojira (1954), in which pacifist sentiments are tempered by depictions of military weaponry and patriotic pride, and Yamazaki Takashi's Godzilla Minus One (2023), where ahistorical narratives, misty-eyed nostalgia, and ultranationalist tropes co-exist with strong anti-authoritarian and anti-establishment themes. By contextualizing these two films within the contested history of early postwar Japan and the polarized politics of the early twenty-first century, this essay suggests that the Godzilla series has shown remarkable continuities over time and has captured the profound ambivalence with which the Japanese people have negotiated memory, nationalism, and the charged relationship between Japan and the United States since the end of World War II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antagonism toward the Japanese Rising Sun flag is considerable in South Korea, and has often further complicated the bumpy relations between Seoul and Tokyo by reawakening and amplifying the pervasive anti‐Japanism in the country. Despite its significant effects, however, there has been little research on the phenomenon. Against this backdrop, this study analyzes how the strong hostility toward the flag in South Korea has developed, largely through carrying out quantitative text analyses of local newspapers, to thus expand the research on anti‐Japanism in the country. It reveals, surprisingly, that discourse on the Rising Sun flag in South Korea is a recent development, which has become prevalent since the early 2010s only. It argues as well that the aggravation of South Korea–Japan relations since that time, together with the Rising Sun flag's strong image among Koreans as a prime symbol of Japanese militarism, have been behind this development of South Korean animosity toward the flag. Accordingly, this research sheds new light on how the two nations' contemporary bilateral relations affect anti‐Japanese sentiment in South Korea, and also on the roles of symbols in this process, to thus offer a novel analysis of the recent development of anti‐Japanism in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understandings of masculinities are neither developed in isolation nor are entirely culturally unique but are multifaceted, hierarchal, and adapted throughout history to fit the specific milieu in which they operated. In the context of the Irish Civil War, 1922–1923, the Irish National Army's journal, An t-Óglách, constructed its model of hegemonic masculinity into a complex dual dialectic of anti-colonialist rhetoric and British appropriation. Looking at militarism, linguistics, and athletics, this article argues that An t-Óglách underlined the National Army's engagement in physical force and cultural nationalism as a performance of hegemonic masculinity, with the intent to confer legitimacy onto the National Army as a military and cultural institution in the early years of the Irish Free State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the stylistic and thematic choices of the film Shinings (Ivanov, 2024), its production process, and its aesthetics. Positioning the film in the context of other "In-between" films, I try to determine what makes Shinings depart from the fiction norm. This article also considers the film's relevance to contemporary geopolitical tension. How Shinings challenges the traditional notions of military heroism while reflecting youth uncertainty and fear, and how it serves as a cultural artefact that captures anxieties caused by the proximity of the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uncovers an increasingly dominant hyper-nationalistic digital landscape in mainland China, illustrated by the prohibition and complete removal of Chinese actor and celebrity Zhehan Zhang after he posted on Instagram photos of a trip to Japan, which included pictures of the Yasukuni Shrine buildings, a potent symbol of Japanese militarism. This landscape of pervasive censorship impacts public figures and regular netizens alike, in which context nationalism becomes a powerful tool for ousting individuals based on 'past mistakes'. Our analysis reveals a dual consequence: a combined censorship approach by authorities and netizens, targeting various individuals, while reinforcing implicit approval of this cyber-nationalistic atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This piece is a response to Cyrus Schayegh's analysis of the political context behind the emergence and foci of Settler Colonial Studies. I explore questions of teleology and geography as they relate to Caribbean history and U.S. militarism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in recent decades shows that private military and security contractors have reshaped the tenor and reach of US military power abroad while also accelerating the militarization of domestic policing. Previous work on militarized policing has primarily centered on urban environments. This article examines Blackwater North, a facility in a rural Illinois community, which provided privatized, militarized police training from 2007 through 2010. Drawing from newspaper accounts, government records, and ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the community after the facility's closure, I analyze residents' recollections of the local support of and opposition to Blackwater North. I argue that local supporters promoted a culture of perpetual preparedness that positioned militarized policing as a rational form of harm reduction, as well as one that could yield economic benefits to struggling host communities. I also examine the opposition and analyze the insider/outsider divides that emerged within the debate surrounding Blackwater North. At stake for both supporters and opponents were differing cultural conceptions of what increases, and what erodes, security. This case study focuses on rural spaces' role in the landscape of militarized policing and illuminates the cultural processes by which privatized military power and militarized policing become accepted and resisted at the community level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International Relations (IR) scholarship on ontological (in)security has explored how political agents seek to shape collective identity through the contestation and securitisation of memory narratives around controversial historical events. This article contributes a novel approach for understanding how actors promote emotional engagement with such narratives, synthesising nascent scholarship on vicarious identity and military subjectivity to develop the concept of 'militarised vicarious identity promotion'. I use this framework to analyse how national custodian, the Royal British Legion, used the British 2014–18 First World War (WW1) centenary to promote affectively resonant revisionism around a war with difficult resonances in Britain by encouraging subjects to 'live through' others. Its 'LIVE ON' and 'Every One Remembered' initiatives first countered the centenary's potential to destabilise homogenised militarist narratives underpinning national ontological security by rehabilitating WW1 through vicarious frames blurring different military subjectivities together in ways designed to reincorporate WW1 into homogenised remembrance discourses. Second, Britons were encouraged to integrate the nation's military history into their personal biographies by vicariously identifying with ancestral and adoptive WW1 connections. Through enabling feelings of pride and status assuaging civilian anxiety, 'vicarious military subjectivity' based on family connections provided emotional reinforcement for identification with simplistic WW1 revisionism and homogenised British militarism more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robert Park's response to the First World War can only be understood by considering his body of work extending from before the outbreak of that war to publications written near the end of his life. Park and his son Edward had contemplated writing a book on the nature of war, but it never came to fruition. His wrote sparingly and unsystematically—but insightfully—on the topic. His first publication on the topic appeared in a 1900 journalistic article on "The German Army: The Most Perfect Military Organization in the World." In it, he pointed to the uniquely destructive potential of modern warfare. In a second article he speculated about the impact of the First World War on the social sciences and in a third he explored the impact—potential and real—of the First World War on immigrant communities in the United States. During the Second World War, Park published an article on "The Social Function of War: Observations and Notes" that serves as his most systematic effort at articulating a theory of war. His final publication, refracted through the Nazi idea of the master race, explored the potential for racial ideologies to foster racial conflict and violence in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay considers the Immigration Act of 1924, otherwise known as the Johnson-Reed Act (JRA), within historical and contemporary contexts of anti-miscegenation and Indigenous erasure that are undercurrents of citizenship and immigration processes. By using a framework of settler colonialism carried out by the U.S. nation-state, we explore connections among racialized peoples in U.S. American empire and the push for racial purity through systems of blood quantum and anti-miscegenation laws. With attention to how colonialism from the continental USA flows to locales such as Guåhan/Guam, a place enacting sovereignty despite occupation and colonial possession, we consider how immigration and citizenship are wielded as tools of U.S. American militarization. Ultimately, we argue that critiquing miscegenation and militarism is necessary to overcome racial and colonial violences of empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Issue explores Latin America's recent wave of militarism across countries, the militarization of the rule of law, and its consequences on everyday life. It draws on the region's recent history of giving militarized responses to seemingly intractable social, political, and economical problems. We argue that the presence of military values, beliefs, and mentalities have permeated processes in which nations absorb and aspire to military practices, modes of organization, and martial discourses that require greater scholarly attention. The articles address a series of issues including various forms of militarism and the militarization of family, culture and education, diplomacy, policing, and public security in urban and rural settings. The contributions engage systematically with the roots of militarism and give evidence of militarization at the individual, national, and international levels, including a variety of case studies from across the Western Hemisphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a case study—that of militarized high schools in Mexico—as an example of how the militarization of government functions can pave the way to militarism. Over the past few years, the Mexican Ministry of Defense has proposed to state governments the creation of militarized public high schools. This case illustrates how Mexico is moving from militarization—understood as the assumption of government functions by the military—to militarism—understood as the promotion of military interests and values—in Mexico's security crisis, over the last three administrations. This article offers a public policy analysis to address the implications of militarized high schools. The central argument is that the implementation of militarized high schools has been possible through the normalization and institutionalization of militarization as a public policy response to some of the country's central problems, enhancing the Armed Forces' role as a de facto political actor. The analysis contributes to the "militarization and militarism" literature by exploring how the policy-making process plays a role in bridging between the two. The case study presents how policy of promoting a militarized model of education is directly proposed to state governments by Mexico's Ministry of Defense, thus visibilizing their role as a cuasi independent political actor and positioning their own agenda and values in areas traditionally reserved to civilian authorities. By accepting the Ministry of Defense's proposals on this matter, state governments are contributing to deepening the country's constitutional crisis and the undermining of its democratic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to land and to adequate housing—a constitutionally granted right in Brazil—is currently under attack by non-state armed actors, the so-called militias, in Rio de Janeiro. In their attempts to widen territorial control, "militias" weaponize urban development. To understand such form of militarization, I argue that we need to add a geographical perspective to literatures on criminal governance: Terrain and its political materiality is the basis and not only the outcome of spatial claims to power. To sustain this contribution, I turn to local scales and add insights from ethnographic studies on how paramilitary groups affect the lives of residents. I trace the paramilitary influence along their terrain-shaping and urban development activities. The empirical basis of my argument is drawn from the northern periphery of Rio de Janeiro, looking at how "militias"—emerging as armed developers out of a past as Death Squads—expand their influence by investing in urban development. In this paper, "militia" is conceived as a floating signifier. As such, the meaning of militia is contested, as it encompasses a wide range of practices including civil construction, laying infrastructure, and landscaping. This way, the term "militia" becomes a cornerstone of a militarized urban development discourse and practice. "Militia," as the encompassing center of a narrative cluster, bolsters bellicose forms of governing urban expansion, thereby further militarizing the everyday life of a large part of the marginalized urban society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review examines Votes, Drugs, and Violence, Authoritarian Police in Democracy, Resisting Extortion, as well as Democracy and Security in Latin America to outline the latest scholarly developments on how the region has dealt with the challenges posed by violent, militarized state and non-state actors. Leveraging distinct cases and methods, these four recently published books discuss the political rationale behind the military and institutional responses that have shaped public security in Latin America over the last three decades. Beyond unpacking their contributions, common themes, tensions, and shortcomings, we argue that by focusing on the political dynamics behind state interventions, these volumes highlight the persistence of a democratic paradox : rather than curtailing militarism and violence, or facilitating their containment via reforms, electoral dynamics and partisan incentives—part and parcel of democratic politics—have enabled the endurance of state and non-state militarization and violence. Relatedly, as Eduardo Moncada's new title underscores, ordinary Latin American citizens have had to adopt civilian militarization as a bottom-up resistance strategy to navigate the uncertainty this worrying paradox presents. By examining work by scholars including Guillermo Trejo, Sandra Ley, Brian Fonseca, and Yanilda María González this review helps to delineate future research as well as policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexico's public security has suffered a militarization process for at least two decades. Although there is consensus on this trend at the national level in the specialized literature, little research has been conducted on its subnational impact. To amend this gap, this article inquires the way in which militarization has permeated the structure and operation of subnational security forces beyond the local autocratic dynamics that reinforce militarization. Specifically, this article focuses on police reconfiguration regarding interaction with military in the six most violent states in Mexico: Jalisco, Nuevo León, Guanajuato, Sonora, Sinaloa, and Zacatecas. The qualitative analysis presented is based on 15 interviews and 18 focus groups with police offices and public security officials of these states. We argue that military presence on the streets and the arrival of the military-to-executive positions in public security institutions contributed to the adoption of military operating modes by the state police during Felipe Calderón (Dec. 2006–Nov. 2012) and Enrique Peña Nieto's presidential terms (Dec. 2012–Nov. 2018). Additionally, this article aims to explain how the military has permeated the state's public security institutions at different levels and dynamics (management, training, and operation) that promote the adoption of formal or informal military features that enable state police institutions to behave alike and resemble the army in their everyday activities. From a theoretical and methodological perspective, this article calls for the construction of a research agenda that focuses on the local and subnational processes of the militarization of public security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the political landscape of Latin American and the Caribbean region is changing, intelligence democratization remains a constant challenge. The majority of the countries in the region have not achieved a tradeoff between operational effectiveness and democratic transparency and accountability. Militarism and militarization policies and practices—along with weak and ineffective institutions and corrupt, apathetic, and inexpert leaders—greatly contribute to this constant challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I bring together scholarship from feminist international relations and comparative gender politics to investigate how and why Jordan has implemented its policy addressing domestic violence, the 2008 Family Protection Law. Through a qualitative case study, I find that implementation is partial. Aspects of the policy that elevate Jordan's status in the international arena and sustain domestic male privilege are implemented. Attempts at implementing aspects of the policy that grant greater autonomy to women are met with intense opposition, which is justified on the basis of preserving state stability. Taken together, this article demonstrates how international pressure and national security (i.e., state-centric) practices combine with domestic conservatism to produce unintended consequences: ineffective violence against women policies that are minimally implemented. The analysis adds nuance to both the feminist international relations and comparative gender politics literatures by demonstrating how domestic gender policymaking processes are influenced by national and international security politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the dynamic impact of green energy (GE), financial inclusion (FI), and militarization (MS) on attaining global economic sustainability (EGS, SDG‐8) in 121 nations from 2003 to 2022. Further, explore and compare 44 high‐income, 33 upper‐middle‐income, and 44 low‐ and lower‐middle‐income countries for a better understanding of empirical and policy contributions. This study utilized second‐generation econometric methods. Consequently, it employed a two‐step system GMM model, which was validated using the D‐K regression approach. The findings revealed that green energy and financial inclusion benefit EGS across all income levels having a significant and positive impact on economic sustainability. In contrast, militarization has a negative relationship with EGS, which proves it is detrimental to EGS in the overall sample and high‐income countries. However, it positively influences economic sustainability in low‐ and lower‐middle‐income countries. Moreover, other factors, such as institutional quality and armed conflicts, have mixed effects on ESG at different income levels. This study also provides persuasive policy measures and implications for achieving global economic sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022 marks a security policy paradigm shift akin to ‘9/11’ for Europe. For the international community of security experts, the invasion represents an anomaly for their rational choice analysis. Their ‘logic of consequence’ must be replaced by the alternative ‘logic of appropriateness’. Hence, the author of this paper employs a broad approach to strategic culture stressing Kremlin regime security as Putin’s operational code. Under this approach, interventionism characterizes the Russian ‘way of war’ as does sheer brutality. The decision to invade Ukraine resulted from Putin’s personal hubris and idiosyncrasies as much as groupthink within the Russian security elite. Putin’s calculus behind invading Ukraine is reconstructed as geopolitical and geo-economic imperialism, along with domestic concerns for pacifying Russia. The first year of war exposed a dysfunctional Russian strategic culture - a collapsing Blitzkrieg effort and a failure to prevail in the subsequent battle for Donbas. The Russian conduct of war reiterated the signature Russian strategic culture of massive destruction and unpunished war crimes. Putin often doubles down and escalates, as seen in the partial mobilization on 21st September 2022. The winter of 2022–2023 brought both systematic Russian attacks on critical Ukrainian energy infrastructure and fierce battles in Vuhledar, Soledar and Bakhmut in which Russia used meatgrinder tactics. The Russian military performance improved during the second year of the war due to the construction of massive fortifications along the frontline. Putin’s strategy has thus turned in favour of a long war of attrition seeking to outlast the combined effect of successive Western upgrading of the weapons supplied to Ukraine and the stamina of the Ukrainians themselves. The Ukrainian counteroffensive shows Ukraine to have the initiative, but progress is painfully slow. This reflects the fact that the war is a war of attrition between two different militaries supported by two dissimilar coalitions of productive power and high-tech innovative capacity.

This article argues that Souviens-toi de moi, a novel published in 2014 by French writer Martine Laffon, reclaims the memory of travailleurs chinois on the Western Front during the First World War, at the same time exposing the deliberate agenda of forgetting in both French and Chinese memory cultures. Referring to Mary Louise Pratt’s concept of contact zone and Leela Gandhi’s concept of affective cosmopolitanism, I show how the novel creates an inclusive ethics across race, gender and species, challenging the fixed hierarchies of Western modernity. Synchronously, by applying the multidirectional framework of noeuds de mémoire, the article demonstrates how Laffon constructs war remembrance at the conjunction of anti-militarism, anti-imperialism, feminism and the struggle for animal rights. The novel thus offers a vision of the First World War that radically departs from the French récit national and the Chinese instrumentalization of the laborers’ war memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how and why the northwest borderland region of Pakistan has become one of the world’s most heavily militarised regions. Before 9/11, the area was a historical colonial frontier, experiencing significant militarism and violence during the Cold War. After the 9/11 attacks and the American and allied forces’ invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, however, the Pakistani military undertook a massive intervention and deployment in the region and established a chain of checkpoints aimed at filtering and disciplining the local population. Consequently, local inhabitants have endured severe treatment from the military and other coercive apparatuses. Using an ethnographic method, this article documents the daily experiences of the local people amidst pervasive militarisation. It contends that recent instances of state violence and militarisation cannot solely be attributed to 9/11 but are deeply rooted in the region’s historical treatment as a buffer zone during colonial times. In this context, Pakistan’s postcolonial state has heavily relied on its violent methods and securitised infrastructure to regulate both the region and its people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document "The Bukele model: security at the expense of human rights" published in Alternatives Sud in 2024 highlights the social and human consequences of the exceptional regime in El Salvador. This regime, established for security reasons, has led to an increase in unjust detentions, growing militarization, and violations of human rights. The Bukele government has used this regime for political purposes, thus strengthening its control over institutions and the population. [Extracted from the article]

The document "The security implications of the militarization of the Horn of Africa" examines the increase in foreign military bases in the region to combat piracy and serve global and regional interests. This militarization leads to increased instability, support for coercive regimes, and neocolonialism. Countries in the region, such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea, are at the heart of this geopolitical and strategic dynamic. [Extracted from the article]

The document "Militarization, civil militarism and democratic erosion in Latin America" by Marcos Robledo Hoecker examines the effects of prolonged militarization of public security in Latin America. Political elites are increasingly relying on the armed forces to consolidate their power, threatening democracy and exacerbating human rights violations. Militarization is evident in countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela, and has led to an increase in human rights violations and a weakening of the rule of law. [Extracted from the article]

The document "Wars, Militarization and Resistances" published in Alternatives Sud addresses issues of armed conflicts, militarization, and resistance. It highlights the dynamics of armed confrontations, the actors involved, and the geopolitical stakes, emphasizing a rise in non-state violence. Militarization is analyzed through the lens of politics and security, highlighting the increasing global military expenditures and the involvement of armed forces in various political contexts. Resistance to war is also discussed, emphasizing the importance of naming those responsible, denouncing the profits of the military-industrial complex, and repoliticizing the issue of security to stop the war. [Extracted from the article]

Carlism has been a militaristic force, which has participated in successive armed conflicts of our time. But already since 1970 the Carlist Party positioned itself against the American bases in Spain and in the eigthier it was part of the moviement against NATO. Futhermore, in this context, the Carlist Partu was one of the co-founders of Izquierda Unida. The objetive of this research is to study the participation of the Carlist Party in the anti-NATO movement and to analyze the antimilitarist and pacifist arguments of this political movement so accustomed to weapons and war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the life and legacy of Jorge Semprún, highlighting his remarkable experiences from fighting in the French Resistance to surviving the Buchenwald concentration camp and later becoming a Communist leader and cultural figure in Spain. Topics discussed include Semprún's reflections on the importance of memory in both personal and political contexts, the tragic fate of fellow militant Julián Grimau and the broader implications of memory manipulation within Communist politics, and the relationship between historical remembrance and the forward-looking aspirations of socialism, emphasizing the necessity of acknowledging past struggles to foster future successes.

Victory Day celebrations in Russia have frequently been characterized as a vehicle for state militarism, particularly in the context of the full‐scale invasion of Ukraine. This article challenges the notion that the state is the sole proprietor of this national holiday. Drawing on recent ethnographies of Victory Day, the article argues that a trend towards patriotic performativity increasingly defines public celebrations. This trend has two outcomes: strengthening participants' sense of national community while reinforcing statist discourse – even among the holiday's critics. By examining the relationship between the Russian state and Victory Day, the article illuminates the crucial distinction between a reiterated, performative victory and the realities of actual warfare. This analysis contributes to broader discussions on collective memory, state power and the role of public celebrations in shaping national identity in post‐Soviet contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to wrest away the notion of popular political resistance and performativity from the realm of visibility in the 'public' sphere/space and place them within the unperformed acts that remain optically invisible. Taking the example of India-controlled Kashmir, where public spaces remain militarized and performative assemblies criminalized, the article focuses on how popular resistance to Indian rule is regularly embodied within what we call subaltern performativity. Furthermore, the gendered nature of this subaltern performativity is also underlined through ethnographic fieldwork. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the broader context of securitized responses to Covid-19 globally, Uganda experienced an oversized military role, ranging from law-and-order and lockdown enforcement, to managing food-relief supplies, medical operations, and partisan political repression. What explains this excessive militarization? To address this poser, the article draws on secondary sources and key-informant interviews to test the hypothesis that military involvement in pandemic responses depends on pre-pandemic militarism. The findings reveal direct links between pre-crisis militarism and Covid-19 responses, contrary to the view that exceptionality and novelty of Covid-19 informed overly militarized responses. Through pandemic framing and institutional morphing, pre-pandemic militarism foregrounded military roles because Covid-19 provided Uganda's ruling elites with a public health pretext to heighten militaristic rule, clutch the political arena in the context of elections, and deepen military presence in civilian public health realms. This excessive militarization of public health seriously impacts civil–military relations, specifically command and control, reporting and accountability, and resources management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precise conceptualization of the two terms Qarā'at (reading/recitation) and Qārī (reader/reciter) is among the necessities of the historical study of the Quran. Some signs show an important semantic evolution in the concept of these two terms during the first centuries. The semantic evolution of this term through the taxonomic method can be scientifically explained reassuringly. The taxonomic study can confirm the occurrence of this semantic development and explain its reasons. In the historical study of the Qārīs community in the first centuries, a noticeable transformation and change can be seen in the features and characteristics of their community, including jurisprudence, trustworthiness, literature, militarism, and singing. That is, the Qārīs in the first century were the same jurists, but in the following centuries, they gradually became people who had no connection with jurisprudence and piety, and their privilege was in literature and singing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This dialogue emphasizes the reciprocal obligations of Kanaka Maoli, CHamoru, and Chuukese people to one another from the particular context of Hawai'i. The collaboration represents a call for Hawaiians and Micronesians to take each other into fuller account and to develop our collective strength as we struggle for justice, in a time of global climate crisis. The authors confront imperialist militarism and internalized racisms within our communities. These dynamics hamper us from taking coordinated action. We believe these conversations are particularly urgent as our peoples meet rising seas and intensifying storms and fires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rather than dealing in death, if IR is to retain relevance among the social sciences in seeking to both account for and change a world in the midst of a deepening 'polycrisis', it needs to recognise and take its place in the web of life. In this article, I firstly argue for the need to 'choose life' by de-centring three key (interrelated) pillars of the discipline: the normalisation of militarism as a means and end of foreign policy; economic growth as the means and end of industrial economies and anthropocentrism and its unstated ideology of human supremacy in world affairs. Secondly, I propose a series of conceptual and methodological innovations by which a more ecological view of IR might take hold in the discipline, as well as concrete political strategies for embedding it in the conduct of IR. I suggest that these moves form the basis of both an improved account of the underlying sources of key threats in world politics such as war, poverty and ecological crises and an alternative source of solutions focussed on transcending dominant features of the discipline through a more than human account of IR and a more global and pluriversal account of world politics and the relations which matter most within it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medievalist video games are often embedded with complex modern militarism. Though the military-industrial-media-entertainment-network is a well-discussed issue in relation to video games, much of this work focuses on first-person shooters and representations of modern military combat. This same militarisation operates through more covert mechanics in medievalist video games – games set deliberately in a distanced, often fantastical, world – but the same logistical, schematic thinking and messaging is still hidden amongst the longbows and castles. This article analyses this phenomena using the 1991 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Nintendo video game as a case study text within which two distinct military temporalities operate simultaneously: the 1991 Gulf War and the medieval crusades. It examines the legacies of crusading medievalism but with particular concern for militarism and hypermediacy, exploring the way the American military context of the early 1990s resonates through this game text, particularly through its conceptions of violence and the body of the soldier. The rhetorical power of normalising militarised logistical thinking is significantly increased when it also coalesces with medievalism, and even seemingly simplistic games like Prince of Thieves form a crucial part of the legacy that today manifests in hyper-realistic shooter games that perpetuate racialized violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How and under what conditions do religious factors explain the militarization of interstate territorial disputes? We argue that inconclusive findings in previous studies stem from inadequate consideration of the interaction between challenger state religiosity and the domestic constituencies actually invested in religiously salient territorial claims. To address this gap, this article differentiates between secular regimes, which provide minimal support to their state's dominant religion and religious regimes, which strongly support their dominant religion. It also considers narrowly salient coreligionist populations, which appeal almost exclusively to religious audiences, versus broadly salient contested sacred sites, which appeal to much broader constituencies. We argue that the interaction between these two factors produces very different patterns of interstate conflict behavior. Secular regimes avoid escalation over narrowly salient religious claims because they do not depend upon religious constituents for support. However, they lack the necessary religious legitimacy to manage outbidding challenges that frequently arise over more broadly salient claims. Religious regimes, by contrast, enjoy high domestic religious legitimacy, enabling more peaceful engagement with broadly salient religious claims. Yet their political dependence upon religious constituencies incentivizes conflict when disputes involve narrowly salient religious claims. We test these propositions utilizing original data on the religious salience of interstate territorial disputes in the post-Cold War era, from 1990 to 2010. Analyses, using both dichotomous and continuous measures of regime religiosity, confirm these inferences and contribute to highly nuanced understandings of how state-religion policy and religious salience interact to influence patterns of interstate violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While significant attention has been paid to the perpetuation of pro-military ideology via discourse and political practice, less attention has been paid to the role of the body in (re)producing militarism. Drawing on 40 interviews with primarily civilian Canada Army Run participants, I argue that militarism is reproduced in part via civilians' embodied performances. Performances of militarism allow participants to feel and thus reproduce militarism through the body. Performances of military support allow participants to orient themselves toward the military in a way that reproduces pro-military mythologies and situates the performer socially as national subjects who appropriately exalt the military (and are thus deserving of exaltation in turn), binding participants together and reaffirming social bonds created via shared love of the military. Ultimately, performances of militarism reify the military as exalted, insulating it from critical consideration by the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the social construction of masculinity within the Israeli society, focusing on the associations between masculine identity, prior military service, and current involvement in long-distance running. A 2-year ethnographic research design was utilized, involving two running groups, which incorporated participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and running websites. The findings shed light on the significance of military service experience and the utilization of military discourse as strategies employed by runners to navigate the challenges of long-distance running and to reinforce their masculine identity. Through an analysis of the runners' military discourse and behavior, it becomes evident that the integration of women into traditionally masculine domains of intense physical activity poses a threat to masculine dominance, eliciting various responses from men, such as intensified sports training and the use of sexist and aggressive language. These coping mechanisms contribute to the perpetuation of male dominance within the long-distance running sphere while simultaneously providing male runners with a pseudo-corrective experience associated with their personal history of non-combat military involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early nineteenth century, various ideologies have attempted to design education systems with an abundance of military attitudes for the future of the state and society, thereby benefiting paramilitary organizations and incorporating military educational practices into public education environments. In the aftermath of the two world wars, numerous countries, particularly nation-states, embraced the concept of militarised education systems. The incorporation of military methods into education dates back to the late Ottoman Period (after 1913). Following the establishment of the Republic in 1923, military courses were incorporated into the education curricula with the purpose of preparing the youth to confront the potential threats of war, fulfil security needs, and safeguard the homeland. After 1927, in addition to the theoretical courses, Military Service Preparation Camps were implemented. A decade later, this military camp approach was extended to all levels of education. As a result, the education system was transformed into learning environments where basic military skills and knowledge were taught. In this article, Military Service Preparation Camps, which were effectively implemented in the Turkish education system between 1926 and 1946, were investigated based on the primary sources and the recollections of individuals who actively participated in these camps. The primary objective of the military training camps, supervised and coordinated by the General Staff, was to 'prepare youth for homeland defence and total war, and to promote military service'. In this vein, this study seeks to unveil the impacts of rigorous military training on Turkish society, particularly in the post-1945 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting with clashes between Western and Ukrainian feminists, this article discusses basic questions from an intersectional perspective on the relation between gender, war and religion. In the context of Russia's war against Ukraine, how should a gender-sensitive peace ethics look? Among feminists, as in religious communities, we find radical pacifist positions next to and sometimes conflicting with approaches that draw on traditions of "just war" and/or "just peace." After discussing the different approaches in Christian tradition, including Eastern traditions, and describing the imperialist nature of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the author highlights the importance of engaging feminist theories of war and militarism in the analysis and how they resonate with practices on the ground in Ukraine. The feminist lens demands attention for the full reality of war, for women's multilayered agency in war, and for the genderedness of discourses and practices surrounding war heroism and war traumas. Based on such considerations and arguments, the article proposes five "principles" for a feminist political theology on war and peace, as a contribution to the ongoing scholarly debate. Markers on a feminist-theological pathway to just peace may include: reconsidering the notion of sacrifice; fearlessly bringing theology into religious diplomacy; nothing for Ukraine without the voices of Ukrainian women; embracing a paradigm of human security instead of state security; and the remaining challenge to imagine a common future with the enemy beyond the current evil of destruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]