Between Imaginary Lines: Violence and its Justifications at the Military Checkpoints in Occupied Palestine

Looking at one site, the Israeli checkpoints in the occupied Palestinian territory, this article seeks to understand the mechanisms by which violence can present itself as justifiable (or justified), even when it materializes within frames presumably set to annul it. We look at the checkpoints as a condensed microcosmos operating within two such frames. One is the prolonged IsraeliPalestinian ‘peace process’ (the checkpoints became a primary technology of control in the period following the beginning of the peace process), and the other is regulatory power (disciplinary and biopower), which in the Foucauldian framework presumably sidelines the violent form which sovereign power takes. We argue that the checkpoints, which dissect the Palestinian occupied territories into dozens of enclaves and which are one of the most effective and destructive means of control within the current stage of occupation, can be seen as more than obstacles in the way of Palestinian movement; we suggest that they also function as corrective technologies that are meant to fail. It is with this failure that violence can appear as justified. In order to show the operation of this embedded failure, we examine one mechanism operating within the checkpoints: ‘the imaginary line’. The imaginary line is both a component within, and an emblem of a mode of control that constantly undoes itself in order to summon violence. Since it is never visibly marked in the physical space, the imaginary line is bound to be unintentionally crossed, thereby randomly rendering Palestinians as ‘transgressors’ of the rule and thus facilitating eruptions of violence by the soldiers stationed at the checkpoints. This article proposes an analysis of this hidden demarcation of space in order to question the different relations between subjects and power which it both assumes and constitutes.

Adaption and adjustment of military spouses to overseas postings: An online forum study

Little research has examined the impact of being an accompanying spouse on British military foreign postings. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate the experiences of 13 military spouses from 11 different overseas locations. Data were collected via an online forum and thematic content analysis was conducted. Key findings revealed that, regardless of the location, reactions to overseas posting varied considerably and were related to the military spouse's personality and personal circumstances, as well as their relationship with family, husband and their support networks. Spouses experienced a loss of control over their lives that was in some cases psychologically distressing. The findings corroborate and extend the findings from a previous study that was limited to one location, further highlighting the need for pre-established support resources from the military and healthcare professionals to be readily accessible for all military spouses. Importantly, such support provision may also facilitate the military spouse in regaining some control over their everyday life, enhancing their well-being and the experience for the family.

The impact of foreign postings on accompanying military spouses: an ethnographic study

As part of an ethnographic study, the impact of foreign postings on spouses who accompany military personnel was explored. Individual interviews and focus groups with 34 British military spouses based in one location in southern Europe were conducted. Key findings suggested that reaction to a foreign posting was a reflection of personal attitudes, prior experiences, support, ability to adjust to change and strength of relationship with the serving spouse and community. For many the experience was positive due to the increased opportunity for family time, for others this helped to compensate for the difficulties experienced. Some military spouses experienced significant distress on the posting, particularly if the family was not well-supported. The potential implications of military spouses not adapting to foreign postings have significant implications for healthcare practice. Provision of more appropriate support resources before and during the posting would facilitate the transition for the military spouse and their family.

Locally Unwanted Sea Use: The Case of Syrian Chemical weapons disposal in the Mediterranean

This paper discusses the opposition to the disposal of Syrian chemical weapons in the Mediterranean Sea. Following insights from Green criminology and recent calls in that discipline for the inclusion of new social movements and resistance, it discusses in detail how the issue was framed in terms of environmental and ecological justice by different protest actors. This process is aided by an analytical model that brings together the sociology of protest and social movements, insights from reflexive modernisation and the study of southern European civil societies. Methodologically, the focus is on mobilisations that took place in Greece in general and the island of Crete in particular. Data have been harvested through the examination of online sources, such as newspapers, blogs and dedicated social networks. The analysis of the findings suggests that these mobilisations were initially stimulated by real concern, but subsequently these were only carried through by certain movement entrepreneurs who didn’t hesitate to pepper these concerns with false claims and/or linkages to an already active anti-imperialist discourse.

Spectacles of military urbanism in online representations of the Elite Squad of the military police of Rio de Janeiro: a multimodal approach

This paper presents a multimodal analysis of online self-representations of the Elite Squad of the military police of Rio de Janeiro, the Special Police Operations Battalion BOPE. The analysis is placed within the wider context of a “new military urbanism”, which is evidenced in the ongoing “Pacification” of many of the city’s favelas, in which BOPE plays an active interventionist as well as a symbolic role, and is a kind of solution which clearly fails to address the root causes of violence which lie in poverty and social inequality. The paper first provides a sociocultural account of BOPE’s role in Rio’s public security and then looks at some of the mainly visual mediated discourses the Squad employs in constructing a public image of itself as a modern and efficient, yet at the same time “magical” police force.

Invention and uninvention in nuclear weapons politics

If there is one uncontroversial point in nuclear weapons politics it is that uninventing nuclear weapons is impossible. This article seeks to make this claim controversial by showing that it is premised on attenuated understandings of invention and the status of objects operative through familiar but problematic conceptual dualisms. The claimed impossibility of uninvention is an assertion that invention is irreversible. Drawing on “new materialism” this article produces a different understanding of invention, reinvention, and uninvention as ontologically similar practices of techno-political invention. On the basis of empirical material on the invention and re-invention of nuclear weapons, and an in-depth ethnography of laboratories inventing a portable radiation detector, both the process of invention and the “objects” themselves (weapons and detectors) are shown to be fragile and not wholly irreversible processes of assembling diverse actors (human and non-human) and provisionally stabilizing their relations. Nuclear weapons cannot be uninvented! Why not?

What’s behind Russia’s military build-up in Syria?

It seems unlikely that Moscow can hope for an outright victory in Syria’s civil war, so some kind of political compromise with the moderate opposition is in the offing. This, however, is at best a long shot given the hostility to Assad in the West and the intensity of the conflict in Syria.

Instead, the immediate priority seems to be to ensure a survival of the Syrian state and military institutions in the areas it can control, what one Russian observer called an “Alawite Israel” – a strip of land from the Mediterranean coast to Damascus, able to at least contain IS with some external support.

The Kremlin has consistently prioritised stability over revolutionary change and sovereign rights over humanitarian intervention. In fact, from the Russian point of view, the Western interventionist agenda of democratisation, which ignored local conditions, has made the situation in the Middle East worse – from Iraq to Libya and Syria.

Status and security: how Russian media is spinning airstrikes in Syria

Even before the Russian air force launched its first strikes over Syria, there was already a Russian presence on the battleground. These were not the spetsnaz, Kremlin’s special forces, but war correspondents from the leading Russian media outlets. This was as clear a sign as any that the Russia’s priority has shifted from Ukraine, where these reporters spent most of the past 18 months, to Syria.

There is, however, no unanimity on Russia’s latest escalation in Syria. As Russian state TV stations report successes of Russia’s high-precision weapons projecting an image of a high-tech Russian military equal to the US, doubts persist about the latest adventure in the Middle East.

'Rosie Hackett, the Irish Citizen Army and the Military Service Pensions Collection'

This chapter uses the newly released Military Service Pensions files to examine the contribution of Rosana 'Rosie' Hackett and the members of the Irish Citizen Army to the Irish revolution. It also includes and assessment of the collection as a source for studying the revolution and assesses how it helps reassess the role of the ICA in the revolution. It was produced to mark the naming of a Liffey bridge in Dublin after Rosie Hackett

De triomf van de tiran: Triumphi als kritiekmiddel in Romeinse literatuur

Of all the rituals of ancient Rome none was more spectacular than the triumph. Scholarly attention has long been devoted to the origins and circumstances of this ritual, but lately the role of the triumph in moral discourse has also come into focus. Emperors could gain great military prestige from celebrating a triumphus, yet this prestige could (posthumously) be undermined by hostile historians and biographers who used descriptions of triumphal processions to cast unpopular emperors in a negative light. Discussing in particular the ‘bad triumphs’ of Nero, Elagabalus, and Gallienus, but also considering many other cases, this article explores how triumphal descriptions could be employed as literary weapons. Ancient authors did not hesitate to emphasize, distort, or invent certain aspects of the ritual to suit their purposes. In fact, the triumphal idiom proved such a powerful tool for the delegitimation of emperors that it was even employed to situations which did not constitute triumphal celebrations at all. Hence the cultural elite sought to control the meaning of the ritual and to establish whether emperors counted as benign rulers or tyrants.

Why Putin has pulled Russia out of Syria

By formally quitting during a ceasefire he himself masterminded – and on the back of significant military gains – Putin can leave with his head held high. Having proven his critics wrong and demonstrated the capability of Russia’s military (and its new weapons – a splendid advert to any buyers of Russian arms), Putin can now concentrate on the diplomatic aspect of the peace process, something at which Moscow usually excels.