MetaFilter posts tagged with conflict

Dear Valentine, I Hate It When You...

AceRock — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:06:29 -0800

Save your marriage... with a writing workshop. Link to paper: (PDF)

"they did not know or expect that the evidence would point to Tehran."

the man of twists and turns — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 13:06:28 -0800

A Trail of Bullet Casings Leads From Africa’s Wars Back to Iran. Iran’s Cartridges & Their Quiet Distribution to Brutal Regimes and Many Wars. "Conflict Armament Research identifies and tracks conventional weapons in contemporary armed conflicts. Established in 2011, it was created in response to the growing need for informed, on-the-ground reporting on weapons proliferation in modern wars and insurgencies. " The "Small Arms Survey is an independent research project located at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland." Skirting The Law: Sudan's Post-CPA Arms Flows (PDF) Iran's Ammunition And Metallurgy Industries Group.

ConflictResolution

winecork — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:56:24 -0800

A lengthy wiki-list of "techniques to avoid or to resolve conflict."

“This is also the limits of photography in that sense; it only goes so far in understanding what’s in front of you,”

the man of twists and turns — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 05:34:20 -0800

New York Times' Lens blog: Looking at the Tangled Roots of Violence in Northern Nigeria highlights the work of Benedicte Kurzen.

Ms. Kurzen said. “I’m only photographing the symptoms of phenomena, of dynamics: symptoms translated through the daily life of the people. But I don’t think I’ll ever really know or really understand what’s cooking underground.”

Niza Yanay - the ideology of hatred: the psychic power of discourse

flex — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:08:00 -0800

"The Ideology of Hatred": An interview with Niza Yanay - "Once we understand how hatred operates as an apparatus of power relations, and particularly how the discourse of hatred is motivated and mobilised in national conflicts, serious questions about misrecognition, veiled desires and symptomatic expressions arise. These questions have, to a large extent, been left unaddressed in studies of hatred between groups in conflict." Niza Yanay teaches in the Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. She has written on the ideology of hatred, national conflicts, and prejudice and stereotypes; her new book is The Ideology of Hatred: The Psychic Power of Discourse (an extensive sample of this book is available on Google Books). More from Gordon's interview with Yanay:

YANAY: ...After 9/11, the word hate began colonising new spheres, operating as a social and political force that can both manipulate and mobilise an entire public in very specific ways. People began using the word hatred in the context of terrorism, particularly referring to Islamic groups who had expressed anger and criticism towards the West and the ravages of capitalism. The word hatred was thus transformed, becoming a signifier for danger, mostly the danger of Islam. In President Bush's rhetoric, the world was schematically divided between Muslims who hate on the one hand, and the West which had become the target of irrational hate on the other hand. I found it interesting that the West does not hate. This distinction between hatred as an experience and hatred as ideology underscored the need to ask new questions about the relation between politics and hatred. And these new questions, I believe, need to focus on power relations between different groups, such as coloniser and colonised, ruler and subject... GORDON: Can you give me a concrete example of this ideology at work? YANAY: Most people consider "suicide bombings" as motivated by hate, while very few people consider air strikes on populated areas to be hate crimes. The media often describes the suicide attack as a hate crime, but I have never come across a report describing the US drone attacks in Pakistan - that have killed over 3,500 people - as hate crimes. This suggests that hatred as ideology is at work. And this ideology helps determine who is blamed for being the initiators of hate, who becomes the target of hatred, and, in fact, when hatred counts as hatred at all... YANAY: The point I want to make is that we need to start thinking about the ideology of hatred as a symptom of desire. This might sound contradictory to many people, but actually hatred is always constructed within an already inevitable bond between two unequal groups or sides of rival power. Intense hatred assumes a prior and intense relationship. Consider the famous speeches of President Habyarimana of Rwanda between 1973 and 1994. He continuously attacked the Tutsi for being counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie traitors; but at the same time, he constantly referred to them as brothers. This, I argue, is typical and symptomatic. The use of intimate familial language to characterise the so-called traitor is a common practice in many ideologies of hatred. So, when we hear, speak of, or examine hatred, we must pay particular attention to issues of proximity, attachment, intimacy, desire and even love. Of course, these forces are not obvious when we think of hatred. But, if we want to understand how people become our hated enemy we must study the conditions of closeness and proximity. GORDON: Someone might say that this is counter-intuitive. Don't we commonly understand hatred in terms of distance, difference and enmity? YANAY: You are right to say that the ideology of hatred produces and means to produce separation and estrangement. But this is exactly my point. The paradox of hatred is that hatred aims to produce distance precisely because the two rivals are considered to be too close, too intertwined. Think about the Hutu and the Tutsi, the Serbs and the Croats, the Turks and the Armenians, the Israelis and the Palestinians, and so on. I am not simply saying that love can turn into hatred or vice versa, but that hatred is always an ambivalent experience and a hyperbolic concept. One cannot hate an individual or a group without attachment and closeness, without love. Lack of attachment tends to produce indifference, not hatred.

*Glenn Greenwald in the Guardian - New research shows the terrorizing impact of drones in Pakistan, false statements from US officials, and how it increases the terror threat *Mark LeVine in Al Jazeera - Why 'they' still don't hate 'us': the myopic nature of the 'us' versus 'them' worldview *John Miller in e-flux - Politics of Hate in the USA, Part I: Repressive Tolerance (followed by part II and part III) *Llezlie L. Green - Sexual violence against Tutsi women in Rwanda in 1994 - specifically, point #2 "Gender propaganda" (trigger warning) *Michalinos Zembylas - The affective politics of hatred: implications for education (PDF file) *Conor Friedersdorf in the Atlantic - What High School Taught Millennials About the War on Terrorism

Three Ts and Gold

the man of twists and turns — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 00:05:09 -0800

Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission changed their rules to require companies to disclose if they use 'tantalum, tin, gold, or tungsten if those minerals are “necessary to the functionality or production of a product”' These are also known as 'conflict minerals.' The Deadly Tin Inside Your Smartphone, Businessweek Big retailers have an exemption from disclosure. Raise Hope For Congo has a list of companies ranked by their efforts to use conflict-free minerals. Intel, HP, Phillips and SanDisk are at the top. FastCompany has another ranking. Why Junk Electronics Should Be Big Business

'You actually have to really build a collaborative relationship with the people on the ground if you want to have any hope of understanding what’s going on.'

the man of twists and turns — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 10:12:46 -0800

"Let’s Map Who Owes The Local Warlord Money": Meet An Urban Planner For Cities That Don't Yet Exist (via Small Wars Journal). David Kilcullen writes in 'The City as a System: Future Conflict and Urban Resilience' (via Abu Muqawama, CNAS)

In this model, the coastal city is the center of a larger system, with rural factors in the city’s hinterland—including environmental degradation, poor rural infrastructure, and rural conflict—prompting rapid urbanization. This creates ad hoc peri-urban settlements where slums and shantytowns displace land formerly used to provide food and other services to the city, and cover the rainfall catchment area for the city’s water supply. The city’s growth puts its infrastructure under stress, so that both the old urban core and the new peri-urban areas experience weak governance, crime, urban poverty, unemployment and conflict. Shortages of food, fuel, electricity and water exacerbate these problems. In turn, the city’s connectedness allows its population to tap into licit and illicit activities offshore, and to connect with global networks, including diaspora populations, an interaction that affects both local and international conflict dynamics.

Forbes interviewed Kilcullen: 'Most of our work focuses on applying design thinking to help government and private sector clients find innovative ways to stabilize conflict-affected and poverty-afflicted environments.' The New Yorker profiled him in 2006, saying “After 9/11, when a lot of people were saying, ‘The problem is Islam,’ I was thinking, It’s something deeper than that. It’s about human social networks and the way that they operate.” Kilcullen spoke at Columbia University: The Future Of Conflict, and Everything Else (Youtube)

"He is no longer his own person."

zarq — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:32:52 -0800

The Checkpoint. An essay which looks inside the conflicted mind of an Israeli soldier, stationed at a West Bank checkpoint. By Oded Na'aman, currently a student in the Philosophy PhD program at Harvard University, who served in the Israeli Defense Forces from November 2000 to October 2003. Mr. Na'aman is also a member of Breaking the Silence, a website that gathers and publishes anonymous testimonials from IDF soldiers -- combat veterans -- about their experiences and the realities of life in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

Strike At The Strand

The Whelk — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 09:23:51 -0800

The workers at Manhattan's famous Strand Bookstore are currently in conflict with management over a severe new contract that radically reduces benefits. Bookstore employee and cartoonist Greg Farrell has decided to explain the conflicts and background of the problem via comic book.

The last word on warfare

latkes — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:42:57 -0800

A short conversation on the cultural and biological origins of war.

OWS: Phase II

Benny Andajetz — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:45:39 -0800

Class Conflict Awareness Rose Significantly From 2009 To 2011 A new Pew Research Center survey reports that "the issue of class conflict has captured a growing share of the national consciousness".

Borders. Security. Refugees. Jerusalem.

zarq — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:37:51 -0800

The Atlantic is in the middle of a four-part special report on the Israel / Palestinian peace process, called "Is Peace Possible?" which features multimedia presentations on and analyses of what they believe are the four core issues of the conflict: Borders, Security, Refugees, and Jerusalem. (The latter two will be released on Monday, November 7 and 14th, respectively) The report was put together in collaboration with the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace. To Weigh In: The Project's Twitter Feed Additional reading / Associated materials: (The "Video" pages contain links to further reading that give both the Palestinian and Israeli perspectives.) Borders Video (and additional links) / Transcript * How to Connect the West Bank and the Gaza Strip * Difficult Truths on Borders Security * Video (And Additional Links) / Transcript * The Most Contentious Settlements in the West Bank. Also: The Baker Institute's Getting to the Territorial Endgame of an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Settlement and Imagining the Border: Options for Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Territorial Issue a 2011 Washington Institute for Near East Policy report by David Makovsky The magazine mentions their long history of covering the conflict. Other coverage: Newsweek has excerpts from former secretary of state Condoleeza Rice's new memoir. Atlantic: What Condi Rice's Memoir Gets Wrong (and Right) on Israel-Palestine

The shot that nearly killed me.

smoke — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 22:11:42 -0800

In pictures: the life of a war photographer (There are some graphic images in here; not for the squeamish, though for most would be SFW for most workplaces).

Photojournalism in Libya

oxford blue — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:58:15 -0800

Photojournalism in Libya from "a towering perspective": Bryan’s height — somewhere north of 6 feet 6 inches, closer to 7 feet with helmet and boots — is both a perennial joke and a source of wonder among those who cover war and know him. Why would anyone so damn tall take on a line of work where, on many days, you want to be small? Let’s be clear. Bryan is a big target. Correction: he is a very big target. He looks like a walking sheet of plywood out there. [via]

A Stateless People

gman — Thu, 19 May 2011 15:37:36 -0800

The CBC has launched an interactive web documentary with tonnes of videos that takes users inside Shatila refugee camp (pop. 12,000) in Beirut, where Palestinians have now lived for more than 60 years.

Conflict, Security, and Development

kliuless — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:32:09 -0800

Remove the scourge of conflict - "Taming mass violence is the theme of the World Bank's latest World Development Report, which focuses on 'conflict, security and development' [pdf] ... Mass violence destroys all hopes of progress. We should make a huge effort to eliminate this scourge. It seems feasible. It is desirable. So try."

War and Conflict Across the Globe

marxchivist — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:10:43 -0800

Conflict History: a Timeline of War and Conflict Across the Globe You can browse the timeline to find information about wars from a long time ago up to the present. A map shows the conflicts spread across the globe. You can search for specific wars: we got your War of Jenkins' Ear and your Battle of Gqokli Hill.

Defense firms lure retired generals

kliuless — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 13:49:09 -0800

From the Pentagon to the private sector - In large numbers, and with few rules, retiring generals are taking lucrative defense-firm jobs BONUS Meet General Warbucks - Warfare and corporate welfare What Ike Got Right - Why his warning against the military-industrial complex still matters Eisenhower's 'Military-Industrial Complex' Evolution - Documents released by the National Archives shed new light on the genesis of the phrase "military-industrial complex"

Cursed By Gold

gman — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 17:40:27 -0800

Georgina Cranston travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to photograph the women who work deep inside some of the country's disused gold mines. After I watched the Guardian video, I did a quick search and found a somewhat recent 60 Minutes piece on gold mining in the DRC, if you're interested.

Latest flare up in the Korean peninsular

butwheresthesushi — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:07:52 -0800

Artillery rounds are being fired across maritime borders between the Koreas. At least one soldier is dead. In what appears to be a response for South Korean military exercises (accompanying commentary from a blog which to be run by North Korea is here), the North Korean army has fired numerous (at least 200, according to CNN) artillery rounds on an island in South Korean territory, resulting in one South Korean marine dead and 15 wounded. The South Korean army has responded by returning artillery fire and deploying fighter jets but is seeking to limit the scope of the conflict. At the same time, there have been signals that South Korea was seeking redeployment of US nuclear weapons on its soil. This just one day after revelations about North Korea's uranium enrichment facilities.

Domestic Conflict, Explained by Stock Photos

Joe Beese — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:59:09 -0800

Domestic Conflict, Explained by Stock Photos

All you need is love

kliuless — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:42:22 -0800

Mass wedding for former Tamil fighters Fifty-three couples of former Tamil Tiger rebels were married Sunday ... at a rehabilitation camp near the northern town of Vavuniya. Reminds me how the PLO retired Black September: "Arafat ordered Abu Iyad 'to turn Black September off'. My host, who was one of Abu Iyad's most trusted deputies, was charged with devising a solution. For months both men thought of various ways to solve the Black September problem, discussing and debating what they could possibly do, short of killing all these young men, to stop them from committing further acts of terror. Finally they hit upon an idea. Why not simply marry them off?"

2010 Joint Operating Environment

falcon — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:16:10 -0800

Chronic budget deficits, compounding debt and unfunded liabilities suggest the US financial situation will not be remedied, wiping out military funding. Surplus world oil production could disappear entirely by 2012, and reach a 10 million barrel a day shortfall by 2015. Coalition military operations would become essential to protecting US national interests. According to this year's remarkably candid United States Joint Forces Command Joint Operating Environment report (PDF), anyway.

Planet War

netbros — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:53:47 -0800

From the bloody civil wars in Africa to the rag-tag insurgencies in Southeast Asia, 33 conflicts are raging around the world today, and it’s often innocent civilians who suffer the most. Each photo and summary has deep back story links.

"The soil is our bank."

lullaby — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:15:27 -0800

African land reform, plot by plot, may be the foundation for solving so much else – from famine to poverty to genocide.