“A Devil's Engine”: Photography and Spirits in the Western Solomon Islands

This article looks at photographic practices in Roviana Lagoon in the western Solomon Islands of the South Pacific. It argues that the efficacy or affective power of photographs in this context must be understood in terms of what is locally called maqomaqo (soul or shadow). Photographs contain a material trace of the essence of what they portray, which enables them to “touch” their viewers. This case study allows us to think about the innate metaphysic of photography, and about the way in which “photography” only ever exists as a series of local photographies, which emerge from the interplay between this innate metaphysic of the photographic technology and local ontologies

Terrorism and crisis management: The Rangoon bombing incident of 1983

The Rangoon bombing incident represents one of the major crisis events for examination if one is to understand the process of crisis management of Chun Doo Hwan's government within the context of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command. Moreover, the Rangoon bombing was the first grave terrorist act on the international scene, and North Korea's involvement was not immediately revealed. This case clearly illustrated how South Korea's resolve in restraining punitive military action against North Korea could resolve a crisis without escalating it, and facilitate a favourable outcome. Indeed, in order to protect or to minimize the damage to its interests and without triggering an unwanted escalation of crisis, South Korea made vigorous efforts to pressure North Korea into softening its belligerent stance through the use of diplomatic sanctions.