Critique internationale - Content
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[Agents and Ambushes: Britain’s “Dirty War” in Northern Ireland]
This paper argues that, following recent revelations as to the identities of British agents within the Irish Republican Army (IRA), it is necessary to reassess why that organisation opted for a ceasefire in the early nineties. Rather than a product of a military stalemate, as is commonly portrayed, it is suggested that this was the result of the recognition, by the republican leadership, that the IRA had been all-but-defeated. Examination is made of the British state’s ‘dirty war’ against the IRA and the serious ethical questions raised by that war; most notably, ‘do the ends always justify the means?’ At the same time, it is recognised that, ultimately, it was precisely this ‘dirty war’, allied to a public security strategy that placed greater emphasis on the rule of law and human rights, that provided for the evergreater containment of the IRA. The contention would be that by mixing ordinary ‘police work’ with the clandestine use of agents, informers and lethal ambushes, the British state brought the IRA to a point where its leadership had little choice but to end the military campaign.
[Democracy and Norms of War: Locating Moral Responsibility for Atrocity in Iraq]
Several US military personnel have been accused of committing “atrocities” in Iraq. The dominant assumption is that these were isolated incidents. Further, it is commonly assumed that if these incidents were atrocities, or war crimes, the individuals who perpetrated them, and in some cases their commanders, should be held both legally and morally responsible. Yet the paradigm of individual responsibility does not capture all that is morally meaningful about these incidents. When policies regularly and predictably cause them, even though unintended, atrocity can become systemic. The concept of collective moral responsibility – at the organization, state, and public levels – helps us understand how these acts could occur and what they mean. Systemic atrocity and collective moral responsibility are two useful concepts to look for means to prevent atrocities and to respond to them.
[Targeting Killings during the Second Intifada: a Double Edged Sword]
The targeted killings committed by Israel against Palestinian armed groups during the second Intifada have provoked heated controversy and given rise to a considerable body of literature. Several Western governments and human rights NGOs, including in Israel, have condemned them. This article looks into the way the Israeli democracy has managed this "policy" of targeted killings. Is this modus operandi appropriate to asymmetrical war? How did what was supposed to be a weapon of "last resort" become a method used extensively? Have these killings contributed to lowering the number of suicide attacks since 2003-2004 or on the contrary to multiplying them? Have they eroded the capacity and motivation of radical armed groups to go after Israeli civilian targets?
[Between Democracy and Repression:18 Years of Counter Insurrection in Indian Kashmir]
Since 1989, date when the Kashmiri struggle for independence once again entered an active phase, Indian security forces have committed human rights violations in the Himalayan state. The present analysis highlights the complexity of the context in which they have operated within the framework of Indian counter insurrection policy. It in particular demonstrates the mechanisms by which India, by either blindness or incompetence, has let itself get caught in the trap set by Pakistan. Through armed Islamist groups that it trains and finances, Pakistan has reproduced in Kashmir the strategy implemented in Afghanistan during the 1980s. By intensifying terrorism in Kashmir, it has managed to provoke mass repression, which in turn has lastingly alienated the Kashmiri population from the Indian Union. The legal arsenal set up by New Delhi in Kashmir has had little impact on the security level but has been politically devastating in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Its impact has, moreover, been limited in the rest of the Indian Union, Pakistan's intervention making Indian nationalism prevail over humanitarian considerations. In these conditions, one can only remain skeptical as to India's capacity to reestablish normal relations with the Kashmiris.
[Russia’s War in Chechnya: Antiterrorist Discourse and the Legitimation of Violence]
The "war against terrorism" was the main argument put forward by the Russian state to justify resuming the war in Chechnya in 1999. The analysis of policies conducted in its name and the effects they produced in Chechnya, on Russian society and its political system, as well as on Russia's relations with the outside world, reveals how much this fight against terrorism in this country fits within a much broader context. It notably turns out that not only can the international climate reinforce internal objectives defined in a national framework, but also that the evolutions noted in the specific and exacerbated context of the war in Chechnya can shed light on more general tendencies to blur the frontiers between democratic and nondemocratic practices, ordinary justice and exceptional measures.
[The French Army and Ethics in Post-Cold World Conflicts]
In a number of incidents, particularly in Rwanda (1990- 1994) and in Côte d'Ivoire (2004), the behavior of certain French soldiers as regards their respect for military ethics and war ethics has been questioned. Can the hypothesis that democracies are increasingly taking liberties with the ethical standards in post-Cold War conflicts, liberties that are illustrated by the attitude of the US forces in Iraq, be applied to the French army? On the contrary. There has been a reinforcement of external and especially internal control of soldiers’ behavior in these conflicts. This is reflected particularly in a special concern for the issues of civilian losses, the controlled use of force as well as the implementation of a voluntaristic policy by the Army high command as regards the ethics of the military career since the French Army has become a professional one. The various forms of human rights violations committed in operations conducted since the end of the Cold War are analyzed here to assess the change in behavior of the Army as regards ethics.
[Poverty and Charity in Saudi Arabia: The Royal Family, the Private Sector and the Welfare State]
Most macroeconomic studies on Saudi Arabia have qualified the distribution system of this country as the welfare state. Yet the study of the concrete modalities of distribution and discourses connected to them shows to what extent members of the Saudi royal family cultivate confusion and ambiguity between public assistance and private giving, or charity. A study conducted in certain charity institutions, the development of which is currently encouraged by the state, helps clarify the particular role of royal family members and the private sector in this area. In Riyad, charity organizations and foundations are required to secure support from royal family members, who contribute along with the private sector to their funding. Caught in a vise between mandatory royal family patronage and bureaucratic control by the Ministry of Social Affairs, charity organizations, although legally private, are very limited in their autonomy.
L’européanisation : héritages, résistances, mobilisations collectives et cohésion
Nathalie Clayer, Aux origines du nationalisme albanais : la naissance d’une nation majoritairement musulmane en Europe, Paris, Karthala, 2007, 794 pages
Amandine Regamey, Prolétaires de tous pays, excusez-moi !,Dérision et politique dans le monde soviétique, Paris, Buchet-Chastel, 2007, 238 pages
Smaïn Laacher, Le peuple des clandestins, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 2007, 216 pages.
