For and Against: Analysing the Determinants of Humanitarian Intervention. Libya (2011) and Syria (2011–2013) Compared

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-49
Author(s):  
Arkadiusz Domagała
Keyword(s):  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Mass Killings ◽  
Taking Action ◽  
Prospect Of Success ◽  
Practical Question ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractWhile the normative and legal aspects of humanitarian intervention have been explored in great detail, scholars have usually overlooked the more practical question of when military humanitarian action can be undertaken. To shed light on this question, the first section of the article investigates the conditions and circumstances that should be taken into consideration by the potential interveners. The conditions and circumstances are mostly external in nature which means that the interveners capabilities are important but not a fundamental issue. One of the crucial conditions, often neglected, seems to be clear political situation in the state that is the object of intervention. Preventing or stopping mass killings as a desired outcome is dependent on generating political will that is interlocked with the prospect of success. In the next section, itemised conditions and circumstances are examined in the context of a revolution in Libya in 2011 and of the early years (2011–2013) of the civil war in Syria. It appears that, in the case of Libya, the internal and international situation was definitely to the interveners’ favour. By contrast, the risk of failure in Syria was perceived as very high. A humanitarian intervention in Syria for Western powers could have led to sticking in the quagmire and would have in fact served the interests of local players. The conclusion is if certain conditions and circumstances are absent, the interveners refrain from taking action. Subsequently, humanitarian intervention is more likely to take place when the potential interveners see a higher chance of achieving their operational and political goals by using military force.

Arithmetic

1993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Selikowitz
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Digit Span ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Intelligence Test ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Intelligence Scale ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Number Facts ◽  
Shed Light

Specific difficulties have been described in a number of areas of mathematics, but difficulty in arithmetic has received the most attention. This may be because all children are required to do arithmetical calculations in the early years of school, but can choose alternative subjects later, and it probably also reflects the fact that arithmetical calculations play an important part in everyday life. Another reason may be that arithmetical difficulty following brain damage in adulthood (dyscalculia) is a well-recognized and well-studied entity. This chapter will focus on specific arithmetic difficulty in children, that is, unexplained, significant delay in arithmetic ability. Although specific arithmetic difficulty was once considered rare, there is now evidence that it is not as uncommon as was previously thought. The psychologist may obtain sufficient information about the child’s arithmetical ability from the Arithmetic section (sub-test) of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV). This is a commonly used intelligence test that can be used for children from 6 years to 16 years 11 months. This test does not require the child to write down the answers. The problems are timed and they relate to various arithmetical skills. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division can all be tested. Some problems also require memorized number facts and subtle operations, such as seeing relevant relationships at a glance. The emphasis of the test is not on mathematical knowledge as such, but on mental computations and concentration. The WISC-IV will also give the psychologist information about other abilities, which may shed light on the child’s difficulties. In the Digit Span sub-test, the child’s ability to remember numbers for a short period is tested. In the Comprehension sub-test, verbal reasoning is involved. If, for example, a child has high comprehension but low arithmetic scores, this may suggest that reasoning ability is adequate in social situations, but not in situations involving numbers. If the psychologist wants further information on arithmetic ability, there are a number of tests that specifically test mathematical skills and allow these to be compared with those of other children of the same age.

22. Humanitarian Intervention

2018 ◽  
pp. 334-349
Author(s):  
Alex J. Bellamy ◽  
Stephen McLoughlin
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Society ◽  
International Security ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Post Cold War

This chapter examines the implications of humanitarian intervention for international security. It considers the debate between those who argue that the protection of civilians from genocide and mass atrocities is far more important than the principle of non-intervention in certain circumstances and those who oppose this proposition. This has become a particular problem in the post-Cold War world where the commission of atrocities in places like Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur prompted calls for international society to step in to protect the victims with military force if necessary. Humanitarian intervention causes problems for international security by potentially weakening the rules governing the use of force in world politics. The chapter first considers the case against humanitarian intervention before discussing the principle known as ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P).

scholarly journals Insurgency and Small Wars: Estimation of Unobserved Coalition Structures

Econometrica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 463-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Trebbi ◽  
Eric Weese
Keyword(s):  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Guerrilla Warfare ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Economic Costs ◽  
Internal Organization ◽  
Small Wars ◽  
Coalition Structures ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Global Terrorism ◽  
Shed Light

Insurgency and guerrilla warfare impose enormous socio‐economic costs and often persist for decades. The opacity of such forms of conflict is an obstacle to effective international humanitarian intervention and development programs. To shed light on the internal organization of otherwise unknown insurgent groups, this paper proposes two methodologies for the detection of unobserved coalitions of militants in conflict areas. These approaches are based on daily geocoded incident‐level data on insurgent attacks. We provide applications to the Afghan conflict during the 2004–2009 period and to Pakistan during the 2008–2011 period, identifying systematically different coalition structures. Applications to global terrorism data and identification of new groups or shifting coalitions are discussed.

'Legends have a tenacious life': Ernst Thälmann, the First World War and memory in the GDR

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (17) ◽  
pp. 5-25
Author(s):  
Norman Laporte
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Early Years ◽  
World War ◽  
History Writing ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Party Line ◽  
First World ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Socialist Unity

Despite Ernst Thälmann's prominence in the German Democratic Republic's official antifascist narrative, there was no 'scholarly' biography of him until 1979. The reasons for this shed light on the political culture of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) and its history-writing arm, the Institute of Marxism-Leninism – especially in the regime's early years under Walter Ulbricht. The refusal to falsify Thälmann's relatively conventional war record by the SED's appointed biographer, party veteran Rudolf Lindau, was a refusal to expunge his own party history from official memory. As a founding member of the International Communists of Germany (IKD), which was close to Leninism during and immediately after the war, Lindau did not want to contribute to myth-making which failed to account for the actual wartime antimilitarism of his own proto-communist grouping. The feud was part of wider debates in the SED about the nature of the November Revolution and the origins of the German Communist Party (1918), which ultimately identified the Spartacist tradition as the party's official heritage. Of course, Lindau could not change the party line; but he was given very considerable latitude to disseminate his own views within party circles. He only came into conflict with the party leadership after being accused of building a 'platform' (i.e. taking collective action) in the early 1960s and even then met no serious sanction. In short, the SED was not the monolith of cold-war cliché. Instead, it tried to maximise the latitude given to old Communists from a diversity of party traditions.

The field is ever further: In search of the elusive space of fieldwork

Ethnography ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 146613811989874
Author(s):  
Darryl Stellmach
Keyword(s):  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Narrative Ethnography ◽  
Humanitarian Action ◽  
Methodological Tool ◽  
Site Of Action ◽  
And Performance ◽  
A Site

This short reflection considers how humanitarian workers conceptualize and practice “the field” as a site of action. Through the use of narrative ethnography, and drawing on comparisons with the practice of academic anthropology, it attempts to draw out disciplinary assumptions that govern how and where humanitarian action is undertaken. It demonstrates how the field is a central imaginary that underpins the principles and performance of both anthropology and humanitarian action. It highlights how the conceptualization of “the field” is itself a methodological tool in the practice of humanitarian intervention.

Caron, Hayne, Compère: a transmission reassessment

1987 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 107-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Montagna
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Shed Light

Despite the diligent efforts of archivists, there are a number of fifteenth-century composers for whom are lacking most or all of their biographical details. Not all of these are minor figures. Caron, Hayne van Ghizeghem and Loyset Compère were all active composers who achieved a large degree of contemporary esteem, evidenced not only by the number of concordances but even by direct references. Yet Caron has become so obscure that not even his forename is certain. Hayne van Ghizeghem disappears from Burgundian records while still a relatively young man. There are no records at all for Compère's early years, and his later career is plagued by gaps. At this point, it is not likely that much more documentation will be found to shed light on any of these individuals.

scholarly journals The Effect of Professional Development on Multilingual Education in Early Childhood in Luxembourg

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudine Kirsch ◽  
Gabrijela Aleksić
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Language Diversity ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Multilingual Education ◽  
Paired Samples ◽  
Shed Light

While multilingual programmes have been implemented in early childhood education in several countries, professionals have shown to be unsure of how to deal with language diversity and promote home languages. Therefore, there is a need for professional development. The present article discusses the outcomes of a professional course on multilingual education in early childhood delivered to 46 early-years practitioners in Luxembourg. Using a questionnaire administered prior to and after the course as well as interviews, we examined the influence of the training on attitudes to multilingual education and activities to develop Luxembourgish and home languages. The analysis drew on content analysis, paired samples t-test and correlational analysis. The findings show that the course positively influenced the professionals’ knowledge about multilingualism and language learning, their attitudes towards home languages, their interest in organising activities in the children’s home languages and the implementation of these activities. The results shed light on special interest areas such as the quality of input that future professional development courses could focus on.

scholarly journals Managing the remains of citizen soldiers

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-51
Author(s):  
Adrien Douchet ◽  
Taline Garibian ◽  
Benoît Pouget
Keyword(s):  
Early Years ◽  
Individual Identification ◽  
World War ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Citizen Soldiers ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
The Individual ◽  
First World ◽  
Shed Light

The aim of this article is to shed light on the conditions under which the funerary management of human remains was carried out by the French authorities during the early years of the First World War. It seeks to understand how the urgent need to clear the battlefield as quickly as possible came into conflict with the aspiration to give all deceased an individualised, or at the very least dignified, burial. Old military funerary practices were overturned and reconfigured to incorporate an ideal that sought the individual identification of citizen soldiers. The years 1914–15 were thus profoundly marked by a clash between the pragmatism of public health authorities obsessed with hygiene, the infancy of emerging forensic science, the aching desire of the nation to see its children buried individually and various political and military imperatives related to the conduct of the war.

Professionalism and Politics in the Procurement Process: United States Civil War Early Years

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-76
Author(s):  
Ellen Lippman ◽  
Martin McMahon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Internal Controls ◽  
Early Years ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Procurement Process ◽  
False Claims Act ◽  
One Year

ABSTRACT The start of the United States Civil War in 1861 necessitated an increase in the U.S. military force from a population of approximately 16,000 men just prior to the beginning of the war to 700,000 men in less than one year. By the completion of the war four years later, an estimated 2,000,000 soldiers fought for the Union. The dramatic increase in manpower required a rapid response to supply the soldiers with clothing, equipment, and food. This paper analyzes the procurement process and its challenges during the early years of the war, from the initial rush to obtain a large number of supplies when established purchasing procedures were ignored, to the implementation of formalized internal controls and the adoption of the False Claims Act that was used to punish frauds carried out by procurement officers and outside contractors. This paper considers the political influences affecting procurement and finds that politics played only a small role in procurement, although a greater role in oversight of the procurement department.

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