The mediation of autocratic regimes: how local officials shaped authoritarian systems in Rwanda and Sudan

Local state officials impact authoritarian systems through the mediation they perform. Desrosiers and Mahé argue that these local functionaries fulfill a number of mediating functions, including translating and representing authoritarian systems at the local level. By enacting these two roles, however, local officials do not straightforwardly reproduce the system. Instead, their interpretations and choices fundamentally influence the imprint authoritarianism has on society, from how the regime is experienced at the local level to its groundings and resilience. They demonstrate this argument by looking at pre-genocide Rwanda and Sudan under President Omar al-Bashir

Thriving on chaos: the war in Darfur and the transformation of the authoritarian coalition

Authoritarian regimes are often considered to be prone to civil wars because they are fundamentally based on principles of marginalization and coercion. Recent literature on authoritarian resiliency tends nonetheless to consider that regimes that are plagued with violence cannot endure over the long term. Building on an analysis of Omar al-Bashir’s regime in Sudan, this paper explores the relationship between civil wars and the winning coalition, the group of people whose loyalty is necessary for the survival of the regime. It studies the way in which the war in Darfur has been fought, and demonstrates how this has led to changes within the coalition that may contribute to the entrenchment of authoritarianism in Sudan

Gasmelbari Suhaib. — Talking about Trees

Tourné en 2015, Talking about Trees, du réalisateur soudanais Suhaib Gasmelbari, suit les péripéties des membres septuagénaires du Sudanese Film Group (SFG), Ibrahim Shaddad, Manar al Hilo, Suleiman Mohamed Ibrahim et Altayeb Mahdi, alors qu’ils tentent d’organiser la projection d’un film dans un cinéma désaffecté d’Omdurman. Faisant l’économie des dispositifs classiques du cinéma documentaire — la voix off ou les entretiens en face à face —, le réalisateur laisse les enjeux de ce film à la f..

Négocier la domination autoritaire au Soudan : développement participatif et dynamiques de pouvoir dans la province du Nord Kordofan

Réalisé avec le soutien financier et logistique du Centre d’études et de documentation économiques, juridiques et sociales au SoudanEn 1989, un coup d’État mené par une coalition d’islamistes et d’officiers militaires instaure un nouveau régime autoritaire au Soudan. Les théories existantes de la résilience de l’autoritarisme peinent à expliquer pourquoi ce régime, caractérisé par son instabilité interne, est encore en place vingt-huit ans plus tard. Son utilisation d’un haut degré de violence et ses échecs répétés en matière de développement représentent, en particulier, des énigmes pour ces théories. En analysant la mise en oeuvre d’une politique de développement participatif dans la province du Nord Kordofan, la thèse démontre que le développement peut entretenir l’autoritarisme non pas par ses résultats, mais à travers ses discours et sa mise en oeuvre en pratique. Lancée en 2013, la Renaissance du Nord Kordofan s’appuie sur des dispositifs participatifs qui permettent aux autorités locales d’étendre leur pouvoir sur la population, tout en s’inscrivant dans un discours dépolitisant qui donne au programme les apparences du consensus. Ce discours dissimule les processus de musèlement des voix dissidentes ainsi que les luttes d’intérêts qui se jouent au sein des différents projets. Il permet en particulier d’écarter la responsabilité de l’État central dans la situation économique de la province, alors même qu’il est un acteur à part entière de la Renaissance. En effet, la participation de la population est utilisée par les autorités locales pour pousser le gouvernement fédéral à contribuer financièrement à l’initiative. Ce faisant, une relation gagnant/gagnant se met en place, la participation constituant également une politique de pacification de la population à moindre coût. La thèse démontre donc que cette politique de développement locale contribue à entretenir le régime et attire l’attention sur la multi-dimensionalité du pouvoir autoritaire, qui n’est ni exercé ni vécu de la même façon dans partout dans le pays.In 1989, a coup launched by a coalition of Islamists and military officers implemented a new authoritarian regime in Sudan. Existing theories of authoritarian resilience are unable to fully explain why this regime, which is characterized by its internal instability, has endured for twenty-eight years. The pervasiveness of repression and the repeated failures of the regime in terms of development are especially puzzling. By analyzing the implementation of a policy of participatory development in the province of North Kordofan, the dissertation demonstrates that development does not contribute to authoritarian resilience only when it bears results, but also through its discourses and practices. Launched in 2013, the Renaissance of North Kordofan is based on participatory devices that enable local authorities to extend their power upon the population, while using simultaneously a depoliticizing discourse that portrays the initiative as consensual. This discourse conceals how dissenting voices are silenced and how various vested interests are at play within the projects. It especially makes it possible to avoid talking about the central government’s responsibility in the current economic situation of North Kordofan, even though the government is indeed taking part in the Renaissance. Popular participation is channeled by local authorities to push the central state to fund the initiative. Through this mechanism, a win/win relationship between the two governance levels is implemented, since participation is also a pacification strategy, mitigating the potential threat of popular insatisfaction. The dissertation thus demonstrate that this local development policy contributes to entrench the authoritarian regime. In doing so, it brings new insights about the multidimensional aspect of authoritarian power, which is not exercised nor experienced the same way in all the areas that are subjected to it

Effects of the addition of high-dose vitamin C to polyethylene glycol solution for colonic cleansing: A pilot study in healthy volunteers

AbstractBackground:Polyethylene glycol (PEG) solutions, with or without osmotic agents, are used to empty the large intestine before procedures such as colonoscopy or colonic surgery. Data concerning the effectiveness of vitamin C as an ingredient in colonic preparations are scant.Objective:The aim of this article was to assess the effectiveness, acceptability, and tolerability of 6 preparations of a standard PEG electrolyte solution containing different doses of PEG, vitamin C (as an osmotic agent), and sodium sulfate in colonic cleansing.Methods:This double-blind, randomized, 2-period crossover study was conducted at the Lariboisière Hospital, Paris, France. Healthy adult volunteers were randomly assigned to receive 2 of 6 colonic cleansing preparations, each containing different doses of PEG (100 or 125 g/L), vitamin C (0, 5, or 10 g/L, in the form of sodium ascorbate, ascorbic acid, or a mixture of both), and sodium sulfate (5 or 7.5 g/L), diluted in water to a volume of 2 L. Study drug administration was separated by a washout period of 7 to 15 days, after which the volunteers received an alternate preparation. Stools were collected for 10 hours after the start of solution ingestion. The primary efficacy end point was stool volume. Secondary end points included acceptability of taste, assessed using a 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS) (0 = excellent to 100 = execrable), taste criteria (saltiness, acidity, and sweetness, assessed on a 4-point Likert-type scale [0 = very pleasant to 3 = intolerable]) and tolerability (clinical effects [changes in body weight, blood pressure, heart rate, and nausea and vomiting] and biologic effects [changes in serum electrolytes, creatinine, hematocrit, and ascorbic acid]).Results:Thirty volunteers (15 men, 15 women; mean [SD] age, 29.8 [8.2] years [range, 20–45 years]) were enrolled and completed the study. Mean (SD) stool volume obtained with preparations containing 10 g/L of vitamin C did not differ significantly from the volume obtained without vitamin C (2.54 [0.54] L vs 1.93 [0.62] L; 95% CI, −0.13 to 1.47). Mean (SD) VAS scores for acceptability of taste ranged from 54.4 (25.0) (preparation E) to 74.4 (20.1) (preparation C) (P = 0.03 preparation E vs all other preparations). The only significant difference in taste criteria was in acidity, with preparation A being the least acidic according to patients' ratings on the VAS (1.4 [0.7] vs 1.8 [0.4] [mean of the other 5 preparations combined]; P = 0.04 preparation A vs all other preparations). Mild dehydration occurred in 6 subjects (1 for each preparation). No clinical or biological adverse effects were found.Conclusions:In this study of 6 colonic cleansing preparations in healthy volunteers, the use of high-dose vitamin C as an osmotic agent in addition to PEG did not significantly increase stool output. All 6 preparations were well tolerated

The Protist Ribosomal Reference database (PR2): a catalog of unicellular eukaryote Small Sub-Unit rRNA sequences with curated taxonomy

International audienceThe interrogation of genetic markers in environmental meta-barcoding studies is currently seriously hindered by the lack of taxonomically curated reference data sets for the targeted genes. The Protist Ribosomal Reference database (PR2, http://ssu-rrna.org/) provides a unique access to eukaryotic small sub-unit (SSU) ribosomal RNA and DNA sequences, with curated taxonomy. The database mainly consists of nuclear-encoded protistan sequences. However, metazoans, land plants, macrosporic fungi and eukaryotic organelles (mitochondrion, plastid and others) are also included because they are useful for the analysis of high-troughput sequencing data sets. Introns and putative chimeric sequences have been also carefully checked. Taxonomic assignation of sequences consists of eight unique taxonomic fields. In total, 136 866 sequences are nuclear encoded, 45 708 (36 501 mitochondrial and 9657 chloroplastic) are from organelles, the remaining being putative chimeric sequences. The website allows the users to download sequences from the entire and partial databases (including representative sequences after clustering at a given level of similarity). Different web tools also allow searches by sequence similarity. The presence of both rRNA and rDNA sequences, taking into account introns (crucial for eukaryotic sequences), a normalized eight terms ranked-taxonomy and updates of new GenBank releases were made possible by a long-term collaboration between experts in taxonomy and computer scientists

The Protist Ribosomal Reference database (PR2): a catalog of unicellular eukaryote Small Sub-Unit rRNA sequences with curated taxonomy

The interrogation of genetic markers in environmental meta-barcoding studies is currently seriously hindered by the lack of taxonomically curated reference data sets for the targeted genes. The Protist Ribosomal Reference database (PR2, http://ssu-rrna.org/) provides a unique access to eukaryotic small sub-unit (SSU) ribosomal RNA and DNA sequences, with curated taxonomy. The database mainly consists of nuclear-encoded protistan sequences. However, metazoans, land plants, macrosporic fungi and eukaryotic organelles (mitochondrion, plastid and others) are also included because they are useful for the analysis of high-troughput sequencing data sets. Introns and putative chimeric sequences have been also carefully checked. Taxonomic assignation of sequences consists of eight unique taxonomic fields. In total, 136 866 sequences are nuclear encoded, 45 708 (36 501 mitochondrial and 9657 chloroplastic) are from organelles, the remaining being putative chimeric sequences. The website allows the users to download sequences from the entire and partial databases (including representative sequences after clustering at a given level of similarity). Different web tools also allow searches by sequence similarity. The presence of both rRNA and rDNA sequences, taking into account introns (crucial for eukaryotic sequences), a normalized eight terms ranked-taxonomy and updates of new GenBank releases were made possible by a long-term collaboration between experts in taxonomy and computer scientist

Documenter les licenciements arbitraires en contexte autoritaire: les archives comme pratique contestataire au Soudan (1989-2019)

Au Soudan, depuis 1997, le Comité exécutif des licenciés civils et militaires défend les droits des agents de la fonction publique arbitrairement licenciés par le régime autoritaire de l’Inqādh (1989-2019). La mobilisation par et pour le droit de cette organisation locale se traduit par la collecte et la production d’une archive de ces licenciements. Sur la base d’un entretien réalisé avec deux dirigeants du Comité et de l’étude d’un fragment de ces archives, soit 567 documents qui ont pu être photographiés lors d’une enquête de terrain réalisée en 2019, j’analyse comment la pratique archivistique du Comité politise l’enjeu des licenciements arbitraires tout en adoptant les formes matérielles caractéristiques du travail de l’administration, en l’occurrence celle du formulaire. Je montre ainsi comment l’action militante joue avec les lignes rouges du régime et tente d’assurer sa pérennité en adoptant des formes matérielles de revendication acceptables pour le pouvoir, et mets en évidence le fonctionnement et l’importance d’une pratique contestataire certes discrète, mais néanmoins subversive. Since 1997 in Sudan, the Executive Committee of The Dismissed - Civilian and Military has been defending the rights of civil servants arbitrarily dismissed by the authoritarian regime known as the Inqādh (1989-2019). This local organisation’s legal mobilisation is embodied in the collection and production of an archive of these dismissals. Based on an interview with Committee members and a fragment of this archive – 567 documents that were photographed during field research conducted in 2019 – this article analyses how the Committee’s archival practices politicise the issue of arbitrary dismissals while adopting the material forms characteristic of the state at work, in this case the graphic genre of the form. The analysis of this archival work shows how such activism plays with the regime’s red lines to ensure its own survival and avoid repression by conveying its demands in a material shape deemed acceptable by the authorities. The article thus highlights the inner workings and importance of a contentious practice that may be discreet but remains nonetheless subversive

Facing a pandemic: African armies and the fight against COVID-19

The goal of this report is to empirically study the domestic deployment of militaries to manage the pandemic on the African continent. In this perspective, the COVID-19 crisis is a case study of continuity and change: both within civil-military relations more broadly and within the armed forces in particular. The report focuses on four cases: Sierra Leone by Maggie Dwyer and Osman Gbla; Burkina Faso by Aboubacar Maïga; Uganda by Moses Khisa; and South Africa by Lindy Heinecken. The chapters draw on recent field research conducted by the authors, including interviews and observations, as well as secondary sourcessuch as media reports and grey material

Crisis narratives and institutional resilience: a framework for analysis

The term ‘resilience’ is widely used in current analysis of world politics to refer to a situation where institutions surprisingly sustain themselves against otherwise dire prospects. Yet, discussions of institutional resilience tend to underappreciate its dynamic character. This article proposes a reconceptualization of institutional resilience that centers the productive power of crisis. It argues that institutional resilience is best understood as an interpretative process rooted in a co-constitutive dynamic of crisis and adaptation. Resilience is made possible through the (re)production of a crisis narrative in context. We illustrate this argument with two case studies looking into how this dynamic unfolds in the context of political regimes (Cameroon) and international organizations (ASEAN). Doing so, we make the case for the development of a broader research agenda that can contribute to a better understanding of how institutions that are portrayed as frail and unstable not only survive but transform over time