Violence of war, ontopology, and the instrumental and performative constitution of the political community

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from CUP via the DOI in this record.This paper considers a neglected question in International Relations, namely how violence of war contributes to the constitution of the political community at the intersection between war and peace. It exposes limitations of means-ends, instrumental understanding of war violence due to the overlooking of violence’s performative attributes stemming from the centrality of bodily injuries in war. The instrumental violence on which the constitution of the political community is grounded finds expression in an order of representation that can be termed ontopology, and a pervasive—circular—relationship between ontopology and violence insofar as ontopology has inspired extreme forms of human behaviour and also been used to justify violence as a means to enact an ontopological goal. Yet, recognising the role of bodily injuries in the course of fighting allows for a more complete understanding of war. Crucially it enables an interpretation of the structure of war as a relation between war’s interior content—casualties in war—and the exterior, verbal issues standing outside it (pertaining to security, identity, sovereignty, authority, ideology), that lead to a surrogate contest of re-imagining political community in the process of which performative power of violence contributes directly to the emerging post-war peace and laws that justify it

Genocide and the ending of war: Meaning, remembrance and denial in Srebrenica, Bosnia

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.The occurrence of genocide during war is a serious security predicament facing humanity in modern times, producing civilian casualties measured in millions. The persistence of this heinous crime renders imperative understanding of the effects of genocide in the course of war and its aftermath, effects that this paper examines in the context of the Srebrenica genocide of July 1995 – the darkest moment in European history since the Holocaust. The analysis is grounded on a critical examination of the concept of genocide and its close connection with war. It shows that relations of power are central to the happening of genocide and the ways of dealing with it in the post-conflict setting. When embedded on asymmetrical relations of power, war can be conducive to genocide because it creates organizational, political, and psychological conditions that facilitate large scale killing of targeted people. Whilst in the course of war genocide benefits the perpetrators, in the aftermath of fighting genocide can lend credence to the victims’ community demands for recognition, accountability and redress. At the same time, the perpetrators and their community – frequently – deny genocide with the view to avoiding responsibility and reparations. The instrumental utility of genocide reflects rationales that go at the heart of enhancement of national identity and (contested) claims for political authority and legitimacy. More than twenty years after the Srebrenica genocide, these competitive and divisive claims do not bode well for Bosnia’s societal cohesion and transition to sustainable peace

On State Building and Wicked Problems: Stateness, Nationhood, and Mimicry

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this record.Responding to a set of wicked problems pertaining to weak or failed states, state building remains circumscribed by many of the problems it strives to address. Despite the expansion of literature, the challenging task of (re)building states in a postconflict setting is characterized by inadequate intellectual and policy coherence. Engaging with the existing literature, this paper seeks to add clarity in ways which relate directly to the agendas of academic research and policy making. Casting into sharper relief what is distinctive and/or familiar in state formation processes in the West and the rest of the world, the analysis highlights the differing impact of nationalism. In considering the critique that contemporary international-led state building neglects nation building, the paper suggests that the stateness of polities undergoing state building is intrinsically linked with nationhood. State building resides in both international and national locations of politics that condition the constitution of national identity via multiple (unequal) exchanges between external and local actors which can be depicted in terms of mimicry. Multiple political locations of state building notwithstanding, the task of bringing the imagined community into being is more suited to national actors. Ongoing challenges of nation and state building require more acknowledgement that the realization of the nation cannot be a primary domain of international actors

War and State Making at the End of Empire: Ottoman Collapse and the Formation of the Balkan States

ArticleThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.While the connection between war and state making in the ascendancy of the western state system has been well explored, the war-state linkages in the peripheries of the Great Powers, especially in times of imperial decline and collapse, have attracted insufficient attention among peace and conflict studies analysts. This contribution helps to fill this gap by revisiting the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 to underpin correlations between state making and political violence in this case which scholars are only now starting to research in more detail. The article contributes above and beyond the existing state of scholarship by grounding the analysis in a focused and explicit comparison between state formation processes in the Balkans and those in western Europe, which have provided the template for modern state making in the rest of the world. The focus is primarily on the initial stages of state formation in the context of the growing influence of the Great Powers in the region and the emergence of nationalism as a rationale for the nation-state notwithstanding the multiethnic setting

Limitations in Attributing State Responsibility under the Genocide Convention

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record.Protection from genocide has been a common denominator in state rhetoric since 1948 when the Genocide Convention was adopted. However, state accountability for this archetypical crime of the state is virtually non-existent. This paper addresses a two-pronged puzzle, namely: (i) why, no government involved in the commission of genocide has to-date been held responsible for it; and (ii) how legal processes of the sole Court that addresses states’ disputes regarding genocide – the International Court of Justice – condition, even limit, the quality of decisions taken by the Court with particular reference to state liability for this crime. The analysis contributes to an emerging debate on the application of state responsibility with reference to the protection from genocide by highlighting existing shortcomings pertaining to the interpretation and implementation of the Genocide Convention which, in turn, warrants a holistic revision of this treaty

The transformation of the regional order and non-state armed actors: Pathways to the empowerment

This chapter seeks to contextualize the proliferation of the non-state armed actors (NSAA) that have grown in numbers, expanded their capacity, and started to play decisive roles in regional security affairs, by situating it within the regional transformation. It argues that the phenomenon of NSAAs evolves within the overlapping processes of the reconfiguration of the states, the region, and regional security dynamics. It starts by analyzing different dimensions of the regional transformation under five different headings. Then, it moves from the assumption that the undoing of the regional order has given way to a new wave of insecurities, corresponding to four sectors of security, namely state security, regime security, interstate security, and human and societal security. These various patterns of insecurity, in turn, are argued to create different causal pathways that explain the emergence, proliferation, and empowerment of the NSAAs. The chapter identifies some of these causal pathways that produce different categories of the NSAAs, which are elaborated throughout this edited volume

Soluble polymorphic bank vole prion proteins induced by co-expression of quiescin sulfhydryl oxidase in E. coli and their aggregation behaviors

Abstract Background The infectious prion protein (PrPSc or prion) is derived from its cellular form (PrPC) through a conformational transition in animal and human prion diseases. Studies have shown that the interspecies conversion of PrPC to PrPSc is largely swayed by species barriers, which is mainly deciphered by the sequence and conformation of the proteins among species. However, the bank vole PrPC (BVPrP) is highly susceptible to PrPSc from different species. Transgenic mice expressing BVPrP with the polymorphic isoleucine (109I) but methionine (109M) at residue 109 spontaneously develop prion disease. Results To explore the mechanism underlying the unique susceptibility and convertibility, we generated soluble BVPrP by co-expression of BVPrP with Quiescin sulfhydryl oxidase (QSOX) in Escherichia coli. Interestingly, rBVPrP-109M and rBVPrP-109I exhibited distinct seeded aggregation pathways and aggregate morphologies upon seeding of mouse recombinant PrP fibrils, as monitored by thioflavin T fluorescence and electron microscopy. Moreover, they displayed different aggregation behaviors induced by seeding of hamster and mouse prion strains under real-time quaking-induced conversion. Conclusions Our results suggest that QSOX facilitates the formation of soluble prion protein and provide further evidence that the polymorphism at residue 109 of QSOX-induced BVPrP may be a determinant in mediating its distinct convertibility and susceptibility