Q and A with Dr Katharine M Millar on support the troops: military obligation, gender and the making of political community

We speak to Dr Katharine M Millar about her new book, Support the Troops: Military Obligation, Gender and the Making of Political Community, which examines the gendered politics of ‘support the troops’ discourse in the US and the UK, focusing particularly on the early years of the so-termed ‘war on terror’

What makes violence martial? Adopt a sniper and normative imaginaries of violence in the contemporary United States

What makes violence martial? Contemporary militarism scholarship, owing to an analytical overdetermination of the role of military institutions, frequently conflates martiality with violence writ large. Drawing upon the illustrative case of Adopt A Sniper, a US military support charity founded by police officers operating during the global war on terror and intended to help supporters ‘directly contribute to the killing of the enemy’, this article interrogates the intuitive ‘line’ between martial and other, particularly colonial, forms of violence. To do so, I develop the concept of ‘normative imaginaries of violence’ – articulations of intersubjective beliefs; political community; spatial geographies; gendered, sexualized, racialized and classed power relations; and logics of legitimation. Through this lens, and informed by the work of Frantz Fanon, the article demonstrates that though coloniality and martiality are deeply intertwined, they are neither reducible to nor epiphenomenal of each other. Through a juxtaposition of the titular sniper with two additional figures invoked by Adopt A Sniper – the militiaman and the vigilante – I outline a novel, genealogical method that enables us to trace the entangled histories of contemporary violences and identify the implicit politics of ordering at work in existing, often fragmented, analyses of political violence

Mutually implicated myths: the democratic control of the armed forces and militarism

In the post-war era, international organizations have increasingly promoted the democratic control of the armed forces (DCAF) in new and transitional states. As DCAF employs the language of accountability, rationality, and peace, the principle has an explicitly normative character. Utilizing Foucauldian theory, this chapter argues that the purportedly pacific nature of DCAF, however, is a potent policy myth which is subtly dependent upon a secondary myth – militarism. The chapter examines the implication of academics and policymakers in the construction and reification of these mutually-reinforcing myths. Overall, it is argued that the discourse of militarism identifies the valorization of violence by democratic societies as ‘deviant’ exceptions to the generally pacific nature of DCAF, normalizing the quotidian reliance of democracies upon the (potential) for political violence

What do we do now? Examining civilian masculinity/ies in contemporary liberal civil-military relations

In contemporary Western, liberal democratic societies, the soldier is frequently regarded as “the best of us”, taking on the unlimited liability for the protection and betterment of the whole. In the context of volunteer militaries and distant conflicts, the construction of men (and the universalized masculine citizen) as “always-already” soldiers (or potential soldiers) poses a substantial obstacle to the identification or performance of “good” civilian masculinity – particularly during wartime. The theorization and articulation of a positive, substantive civilian masculinity, or masculinities, rather than one defined simply by an absence of military service and implication in the collective use of violence, is a central challenge of contemporary politics. As a means of illuminating the complex dynamics of this challenge, this article examines contemporary charitable practices of civilian support for the military, and corresponding constructions of masculinity, in the UK during the “war on terror”. In doing so, the article demonstrates the ways in which gendered “civilian anxiety”, through its connection to citizenship, comes to condition the political possibilities and subjectivities of all those who seek belonging in the liberal political community. The article concludes by arguing for the essentiality of a research programme oriented around “civilianness”, and civilian masculinity/ies

COVID-19 as a mass death event

As of the first week of February 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over two million people dead across the globe. This essay argues that in order to fully understand the politics arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to focus on the individual and collective experiences of death, loss, and grief. While the emerging scholarly discourse on the pandemic, particularly in political science and international relations, typically considers death only in terms of its effects on formal state-level politics and as a policy objective for mitigation, we argue that focusing on the particularities of the experience of death resulting from COVID-19 can help us fully understand the ways in which the pandemic is reordering our worlds. Examining the ambiguous sociopolitical meaning of death by COVID-19 can provide broader analytical comparisons with other mass death events. Ultimately, the essay argues that centering the impact of the pandemic on the experience of death and loss directly poses the question of how politics should value human lives in the post-pandemic world, helping us better formulate the normative questions necessary for a more ethical future

Britain avoids talking about COVID-19 deaths. that’s a mistake

How has the UK government acknowledged and talked about COVID-19 deaths? In an extract from their new report, Katharine M Millar, Yuna Han, Katharina Kuhn, Martin Bayly and Irene Morlino (LSE) warn that the current focus on ‘recovery’ and ‘inevitable’ deaths risks alienating sections of society, and suggest how it can do better. Pandemics present a ... Continue

Confronting the COVID-19 pandemic: grief, loss, and social order

This research addresses the challenge the 2019- 2020 COVID-19 pandemic (COVID-19) presents to social order as a result of mass grieving and loss. It places a particular emphasis on the UK response and lessons that can be learnt for further ‘waves’. A tendency for research to look at technocratic policy responses has led to the overlooking of the social impact that pandemics produce. This study, in contrast, employs a qualitative, comparative methodology to examine four key cases – the UK, Italy, South Korea, and Germany – from 1 January to 31 July 2020, as well as the UK during the 1918-19 influenza epidemic – to examine the politics of COVID-9 as a mass death event. Our research finds that the narrative framing of the pandemic as a particular type of crisis; the ways that deaths have been recorded and managed; and the manner in which loss has been mourned and commemorated vary across cases. This variance, the research suggests, has implications for the ways that societies may respond, particularly in the medium- and longterm. Recommendations are made for governments responding to future ‘waves’ of the virus in relation to communicating loss to the public, and commemorating deaths in a manner that supports social cohesion and prepares the public for future crises

Left Ventricular Structure and Function in Elite Swimmers and Runners

Sport-specific differences in the left ventricle (LV) of land-based athletes have been observed; however, comparisons to water-based athletes are sparse. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in LV structure and function in elite swimmers and runners. Sixteen elite swimmers [23 (2) years, 81% male, 69% white] and 16 age, sex, and race matched elite runners participated in the study. All athletes underwent resting echocardiography and indices of LV dimension, global LV systolic and diastolic function, and LV mechanics were determined. All results are presented as swimmers vs. runners. Early diastolic function was lower in swimmers including peak early transmitral filling velocity [76 (13) vs. 87 (11) cm ⋅ s-1, p = 0.02], mean mitral annular peak early velocity [16 (2) vs. 18 (2) cm ⋅ s-1, p = 0.01], and the ratio of peak early to late transmitral filling velocity [2.68 (0.59) vs. 3.29 (0.72), p = 0.005]. The diastolic mechanics index of time to peak untwisting rate also occurred later in diastole in swimmers [12 (10)% diastole vs. 5 (4)% diastole, p = 0.01]. Cardiac output was larger in swimmers [5.8 (1.5) vs. 4.7 (1.2) L ⋅ min-1, p = 0.04], which was attributed to their higher heart rates [56 (6) vs. 49 (6) bpm, p < 0.001] given stroke volumes were similar between groups. All other indices of LV systolic function and dimensions were similar between groups. Our findings suggest enhanced early diastolic function in elite runners relative to swimmers, which may be attributed to faster LV untwisting

STEPWISE - STructured lifestyle Education for People WIth SchizophrEnia : a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: People with schizophrenia are two to three times more likely to be overweight than the general population. The UK National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends an annual physical health review with signposting to, or provision of, a lifestyle programme to address weight concerns and obesity. The purpose of this randomised controlled trial is to assess whether a group-based structured education programme can help people with schizophrenia to lose weight. METHODS: Design: a randomised controlled trial of a group-based structured education programme. SETTING: 10 UK community mental health trusts. PARTICIPANTS: 396 adults with schizophrenia, schizoaffective, or first-episode psychosis who are prescribed antipsychotic medication will be recruited. Participants will be overweight, obese or be concerned about their weight. INTERVENTION: participants will be randomised to either the intervention or treatment as usual (TAU). The intervention arm will receive TAU plus four 2.5-h weekly sessions of theory-based lifestyle structured group education, with maintenance contact every 2 weeks and 'booster' sessions every 3 months. All participants will receive standardised written information about healthy eating, physical activity, alcohol and smoking. OUTCOMES: the primary outcome is weight (kg) change at 1 year post randomisation. Secondary outcomes, which will be assessed at 3 and 12 months, include: the proportion of participants who maintained or reduced their weight; waist circumference; body mass index; objectively measured physical activity (wrist accelerometer); self-reported diet; blood pressure; fasting plasma glucose, lipid profile and HbA1c (baseline and 1 year only); health-related quality of life (EQ-5D-5L and RAND SF-36); (adapted) brief illness perception questionnaire; the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; the Client Service Receipt Inventory; medication use; smoking status; adverse events; depression symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9); use of weight-loss programmes; and session feedback (intervention only). Outcome assessors will be blind to trial group allocation. Qualitative interviews with a subsample of facilitators and invention-arm participants will provide data on intervention feasibility and acceptability. Assessment of intervention fidelity will also be performed. DISCUSSION: The STEPWISE trial will provide evidence for the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a tailored intervention, which, if successful, could be implemented rapidly in the NHS. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN19447796 , registered on 20 March 2014

Expanded repertoire of RASGRP2 variants responsible for platelet dysfunction and severe bleeding.

Heritable platelet function disorders (PFDs) are genetically heterogeneous and poorly characterized. Pathogenic variants in RASGRP2, which encodes calcium and diacylglycerol-regulated guanine exchange factor I (CalDAG-GEFI), have been reported previously in 3 pedigrees with bleeding and reduced platelet aggregation responses. To better define the phenotype associated with pathogenic RASGRP2 variants, we compared high-throughput sequencing and phenotype data from 2042 cases in pedigrees with unexplained bleeding or platelet disorders to data from 5422 controls. Eleven cases harbored 11 different, previously unreported RASGRP2 variants that were biallelic and likely pathogenic. The variants included 5 high-impact variants predicted to prevent CalDAG-GEFI expression and 6 missense variants affecting the CalDAG-GEFI CDC25 domain, which mediates Rap1 activation during platelet inside-out αIIbβ3 signaling. Cases with biallelic RASGRP2 variants had abnormal mucocutaneous, surgical, and dental bleeding from childhood, requiring ≥1 blood or platelet transfusion in 78% of cases. Platelets displayed reduced aggregation in response to adenosine 5'-diphosphate and epinephrine, but variable aggregation defects with other agonists. There were no other consistent clinical or laboratory features. These data enable definition of human CalDAG-GEFI deficiency as a nonsyndromic, recessive PFD associated with a moderate or severe bleeding phenotype and complex defects in platelet aggregation