People with disabilities, their rights and sense of citizenship in post-war Iraq

A one day videoconference comprising live interviews

Australian environments in war and peace: towards an environmental history of Australia at war

This paper introduces the concept of an environmental history of Australia at war, and explores the various avenues that might be investigated within this emerging, multidisciplinary theme. Specifically, this paper focuses on the environmental histories of militarised landscapes on the Australian homefront, including in particular the land and sea military training areas that form part of the Department of Defence’s three-million hectare estate, and examines how cycles of war and peace have affected these environments.

The architectural edifice and the phantoms of history

Starting with the literal and physical role of the "ground," this article attempts to bring this "ground" into a discursive arena. In particular, the author is thinking about the period at the end of a war, the period in between destruction and reconstruction, exemplified in some classic postwar films in which the architecture of the city is in a state of ruin—deformed, eroded, and dark—but there is no further destruction. The article calls this period "a gap of history" and its investigation is set against a claim that architecture is a reconstructive practice, that it is enlightening and aspiring. History, on the other hand, is captured by scenes of the battlefield and dominated by a narrative of war and destruction. The article makes reference to the real and fantasy desire for destruction (war and history) and reconstruction (architecture), and how through the connecting plane of the ground architecture is entangled in war and history of destruction as it figures in reconstruction. Architecture is contingent on history as discursive—history that is not unified, fixed, or evolutionary but rather contested and rewritten within a conflictual battlefield.

Feudalism in the service of the revolution Reclaiming heritage in hue

This article discusses the way the past is being reexamined in modern-day Vietnam, particularly through the medium of heritage. Hue, the old royal capital of Vietnam, provides the case study, as this city reflects the great themes and events of Vietnamese history over the last two hundred years, from the establishment of a unified nation under the Nguyen, through the imposition of colonial control, the devastation of war, reunification, and the establishment of communism, to the consolidation of an independent postcolonial nation. The importance of Hue's heritage is recognized in its status as a “world heritage” site. The author argues that Hue's heritage is, nevertheless, problematic for Vietnam's ruling communists, because to them it largely represents a regime—the Nguyen Dynasty—that was “reactionary” and that had sold out the country to the French. The apparent contradiction between the standard communist view of the Nguyen past and the value accorded to Nguyen heritage in Hue is resolved, the author contends, by recourse to the depoliticized practices of heritage preservation and tourist promotion.

Speed, international security, and "New War" coverage in cyberspace

Mass media representations foster a view that the "War on Terror" is taking place both everywhere and nowhere, presenting Western governments with an opportunity to mobilize public support in new and ubiquitous ways. Starting with Virilio's critique of technology, speed, and de-territorialization, this article discusses the ways in which mass support is mobilized by the state in conventional pursuit of geopolitical objectives. Drawing on  contemporary international relations theory, the authors introduce the concept of "securitization" and discuss how war coverage in cyberspace has been used to securitize international threats, such as "global terrorism," to justify state intervention, including war. It is concluded that one of the paradoxes of war coverage in cyberspace is that whereas cyber-technologies should democratize the politics of war by liberating access to information about war, the state has coopted information and communication technologies to facilitate new forms of mass mobilization for war itself.

"Where myth becomes history" : the politics of mythical time in Heiner Muller's Medea

Heiner Müller in the 1980s produced a sequence of plays featuring Euripides’ heroine Medea using his distinctive, poetic modality of “the theatre of images”. These ostensibly postmodern narratives take the form of disjointed, visual and textual representations that are also fragmentations of historical and mythical times and spaces. Müller’s Medea plays are thus suggestive of the intersection between the discourses of history and myth — and the blending of historical time with ahistorical, supposedly “timeless” mythical narratives. Further, the postmodern possibility of history’s textuality to liquidate it into a type of (modern) mythology seeks expression in the plays’ representation of a converse equation: the moment signaled in the text as that “where myth becomes history”. This paper examines the problematisation of the myth-history dichotomy in Müller’s Medea plays, outlining the ways in which the “timeless” myth of the classical, infanticidal figure of Medea is strategically deployed to politicise evolutionist teleology, Western colonialism and the technologies of war in twentieth century Europe.

Into the protecting arms: the League of Nations and the extension of international assistance to unprotected persons in the Middle East and Europe, 1926 - 1928

The refugee dilemma in Europe in the years between the two world wars had a number of aspects: humanitarian, political, and diplomatic. It raised questions of migration, questions of international law, and questions of the fate of hundreds of thousands of individuals. Refugees were visible from the very last days of the war and remained a matter of serious international concern even beyond the outbreak of war again in September 1939. The refugee dilemma in Europe was, firstly, a humanitarian crisis because the size of the refugee population was without precedent. It was also a political problem because national governments had to contend with questions about the refugees' legal status and their legitimacy under national and international law, as well as balance humanitarian concerns with national political interests. The humanitarian and political aspects together created a crisis for the international community newly united in the League of Nations. One of its first great acts-to take these refugees into its protective care-was not even prescribed for it in its Covenant. But the refugee crisis facing Europe was so great that member states were united in the belief that the League had been established precisely to undertake a task of this kind.

Letting go without a fight : decolonization, democracy and war, 1900-94

Does the type of regime really make no difference to the likelihood of violent conflict over basic issues of stateness such as separatism and decolonization? Can democratic peace theory be successfully applied when dealing with the national identity or stateness question? This article extends the application of the democratic peace to the process of decolonization. It examines conflict between imperial states and their colonies during the process of decolonization and investigates the question of whether democracy affects the likelihood of conflict. The central finding is that, contrary to the implications of some prominent theories of state formation and democracy, democratic imperial states are significantly less likely to go to war with their colonial possessions in the process of achieving independence. Further, the authors find only a monadic, not dyadic, democratic peace effect. The regime type of the colony does not have a significant effect on the likelihood of war. It is the nature of the regime of imperial states, rather than that of colonies, that is a significant factor. In addition, the predominant source of this effect appears to be the institutional constraints placed on executive action within democracies, rather than the influence of mass politics or the effects of political competition. Regarding power-related factors, power parity between sovereign and colony makes conflict more likely (a colonial power-transition effect), but imperial decline actually makes war with colonies less likely. Sensitivity analysis reveals that a number of other hypothesized effects cannot find robust support. Simulations are used to assess the magnitude of the effect of regime type pre- and post-independence. Overall, the article contributes to theory development by investigating different institutional aspects of democracy and by distinguishing monadic and dyadic effects.

Spirit of enterprise

Remittances from Fijian workers overseas are the nation’s largest income – exceeding that of tourism and sugar. Fijian bodies have become a valuable export commodity in the increasingly privatised economy of war. Coco Fusco writes that from the 18th Century, texts have “reduced people of colour to the corporeal, whiteness was understood as a spirit that manifests itself in a dynamic relation to the physical world. Whiteness, then, does not need to be made visible to present an image; it can be expressed as the spirit of enterprise, as the power to organise the material world, and as an expansive relation to the environment.” This work asks where black and white bodies fit within this new economy of war…who is visible and who is invisible? Whose bodies are commodities and who embodies the spirit of enterprise?

Dresden as Opferstadt? : the politics of commemorating destruction, 1985-2005

Using public remembrance of the controversial WWII firebombing of Dresden as its case study, the thesis probes the politics of war memory and commemoration. It argues that before, during, and after Germany's reunification, Dresden was portrayed as a, if not the, leading paradigm of German wartime loss and suffering.

An evaluation of a mental health screening and referral pathway for community nursing care : nurses' and general practitioners' perspectives

Aims and objectives. To evaluate a feasible, best practice mental health screening and referral clinical pathway for generalist community nursing care of war veterans and war widow(er)s in Australia.
Background. War veterans commonly experience mental health difficulties and do not always receive required treatment, as can also occur for war widow(er)s. Whenever opportunity arises, such as during community nursing care, it is vital to identify mental health problems in a health promotion framework.
Design. A clinical pathway was developed by literature review and consultation and then trialled and evaluated using mixed methods – quantitative and qualitative.
Methods. Community nurses who trialled the pathway completed an evaluation survey and attended focus groups. General practitioners responded to an evaluation survey.
Results. Most nurses found the pathway clear and easy to understand but not always easy to use. They emphasised the need to establish trust and rapport with clients prior to implementing the pathway. It was sometimes difficult to ensure effective referral to general practitioners for clients who screened positive for a mental health problem. When referral was accomplished, general practitioners reported adequate and useful information was provided. Some general practitioners also commented on the difficulty of achieving effective communication between general practitioners and nurses.
Conclusions. Nurses and some general practitioners found the pathway useful for their practice. They offered several suggestions for improvement by simplifying the trialled pathway and accompanying guidelines and strategies to improve communication between nurses and general practitioners. This study adds understanding of how community nurses might productively screen for mental health difficulties.
Relevance to clinical practice. The trialled pathway, which was modified and refined following the study, is an evidence-based
resource for community nurses in Australia and similar contexts to guide practise and maximise holistic care for war veterans and war widow(er)s and possibly other client groups.

From Vienna to Yogyakarta: the life of Herb Feith

Herb Feith came to Australia as a Jewish refugee from Europe as it was on the bring of war in 1939 and went on to become an internationally renowned and passionate scholar of Indonesia. He died tragically in Melbourne in 2001. This engaging biography tells his own extraordinary story and traces his interest in Indonesia, his determination to establish networks of serious study of Indonesia and Southeast Asia and his commitment to peace activism.