Europe and the people without planning: reconsidering British interventions in colonial Hong Kong

The commissioning of a plan by Patrick Abercrombie for British Hong Kong in 1947 is the entry point to explore claims of ‘benevolent colonialism’. Through an engagement with British colonial attitudes towards the majority Chinese population, we can critically re-evaluate claims that British planning brought a more enlightened form of urbanism. Instead, we find colonial inaction and a marked difference in housing and development standards based largely on racial distinctions between the perceived needs of European and Chinese inhabitants. By situating planning efforts in Hong Kong within the racial hierarchies of empire, we can examine how imperial power bolstered British planning

Learning from the History of British Interventions in the Middle East

Interrogates whether the British government has learned anything from its interventions in the Middle East, from the 1950s to 2016 Learning from history helps states to create foreign and security policy that builds upon successes and avoids past mistakes. Drawing on a wealth of previously unseen documents, sourced by Freedom of Information requests, together with interviews with government and intelligence agency officials, Louise Kettle questions whether the British government has learned anything from its military interventions in the Middle East. She provides an extended commentary on military interventions in the Middle East since the 1950s, including a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Whitehall decision-making and a critical examination of the 2016 Iraq Inquiry report. The result is a highly original account of key political events that challenges the claims of lessons being learned from recent wars. This book comes at a decisive moment as the ongoing war against Daesh, conflicts in Syria, and Saudi–Iran tensions continue to leave British action in the region as a contemporary reality where lessons from the past could prevent the British government from making the same mistakes again and again. Case Studies 1956: Suez – Operation Musketeer 1958: Jordan – Operation Fortitude 1961: Kuwait – Operation Vantage 1990–1: Gulf – Operation Granby 2003–9: Iraq – Operation Telic Key Features Reveals the relationship between history and policy in No 10, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence and across the intelligence community Exposes the tensions between government departments over crucial foreign policy decisions Draws on documents obtained through over 30 Freedom of Information requests, including reports from the Gulf and Iraq wars, documents from the Joint Intelligence Committee after Suez and Policy Planning documents from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office The author conducted interviews with current and past officials from the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and the intelligence agencies, including diplomats, Ambassadors, research analysts, service personnel, members of the JIC, MoD lessons teams, official historians and witnesses to the Iraq Inquir

The Transatlantic Dimension to the Conflict in Lebanon: Whatever Happened to the Responsibility to Protect?

In this BASIC Paper, Dr. Ian Davis examines the U.S. and U.K. roles and responsibilities in the Lebanon conflict. He supports the call being made by many governments and civil society groups: that a political solution to the twin crises of Lebanon and Palestine must be the international community's urgent priority. Dr. Davis also highlights the importance of international law in coping with the conflict and argues that the international community should be prepared to contribute a sufficient military force with a robust mandate to create a zone of security along the southern border with Israel. He concludes the paper by proposing key principles for a lasting solution to the conflict

'Just open your eyes a bit more': The methodological challenges of researching black and minority ethnic students' experiences of physical education teacher education

In this paper we discuss some of the challenges of centralising 'race' and ethnicity in Physical Education (PE) research, through reflecting on the design and implementation of a study exploring Black and minority ethnic students' experiences of their teacher education. Our aim in the paper is to contribute to ongoing theoretical and methodological debates about intersectionality, and specifically about difference and power in the research process. As McCorkel and Myers notes, the 'researchers' backstage'-the assumptions, motivations, narratives and relations-that underpin any research are not always made visible and yet are highly significant in judging the quality and substance of the resulting project. As feminists, we argue that the invisibility of 'race' and ethnicity within Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE), and PE research more widely, is untenable; however, we also show how centralising 'race' and ethnicity raised significant methodological and epistemological questions, particularly given our position as White researchers and lecturers. In this paper, we reflect on a number of aspects of our research 'journey': the theoretical and methodological challenges of operationalising concepts of 'race' and ethnicity, the practical issues and dilemmas involved in recruiting participants for the study, the difficulties of 'talking race' personally and professionally and challenges of representing the experiences of 'others'. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

The British Claim to rule Malta 1800-1813

The question of the nature of the legal authority exercised in Malta by British officials prior to 1813 has been a rich source of debate and controversy. The moment at which the British officials had a legal power to exercise full legislative and executive authority is elusive, despite its prominence as a seminal moment in Maltese constitutional history. Whether legal authority arose because of cession or conquest matters because, as we shall discover, the events on which these alternative possibilities are founded occurred at different times. If, for example, cession explains the legal and constitutional authority of the British Crown in Malta, we need an explanation of the legal source of that authority prior to cession. This is the question upon which this article focuses

Immigration and Domestic Politics in South Africa: Contradictions of the Rainbow Nation

The region of Southern Africa has been part of the global capitalist system since its inception in the late 15th century, when Portugal incorporated Angola and Mozambique into its empire. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company established a refreshment station at the Cape of Good Hope for ships travelling between Europe and the Far East.1 From that time the region has experienced several periods of deepening incorporation into the global system

Effective Counterterrorism: What Have We Learned so Far?

The fight against terrorism, in particular of Islamist nature, has become a focus area of foreign and security policies in Western countries and around the world. This substantial effort is however only to a limited extent matched by adequate evaluations as to its actual success. This paper offers an overview of the counterterrorism effectiveness literature in terms of main areas of interest, conceptualisation and operationalisation difficulties as well as methodological considerations regarding the types of methods used, validity and reliability evaluations. It discusses the different understandings of causality and proposes a working definition of counterterrorism effectiveness. We find that a main focus of the literature lies on the impact component of effectiveness, often in the sense of a reduction of terrorist attacks in general or a reduction of certain methods of terrorism such as suicide attacks. Our model article "What Happened to Suicide Bombings in Israel? Insights from a Terror Stock Model" by Kaplan et al. (2005) illustrates the above-mentioned issues and reflects the mainstream approach in this field. The article uses econometric methods to determine the impact-effectiveness of counter-terrorism and reflects the problematique associated with attempts to infer a causal relationship between counterterrorism policies and the occurrence of terrorism.Counterterrorism, effectiveness, causality, quantitative and qualitative research methods