Critique internationale - Content
No Abstract
No Abstract
No Abstract
No Abstract
No Abstract
No Abstract
Myriam Revault D’Allones, Le dépérissement de la politique. Généalogie d’un lieu commun, Paris, Alto Aubier, 1999, 318 pages.
Talbot (Ian), Pakistan : A Modern History, Londres, Hurst & Co., 1999, 432 pages.
Cohen (Pierre), Le Déaut (Jean-Yves) ,Quelle recherche pour demain ?, http://www.mission-cohen-ledeaut.org
Kymlicka (Will), Les théories de la justice. Une introduction, Paris, La Découverte, 1999, 363 pages.
Meyer (Birgit), Geschiere(Peter), eds., Globalization and Identity : Dialectics of Flow and Closure, Oxford, Blackwell, 1999, 338 pages.
[Eastern Europe: The political economy of a decade of transition]
The prescriptions put forth by the majority of experts and international financial institutions in 1989-90 with regard to Eastern European countries in transition articulated around three axes: 1) "shock therapy", 2) extremely rapid privatization, 3) the nominal pegging of national currencies onto stronger foreign ones. However, the experience of the last decade shows that the economy follows more indirect paths than those set forth in models and doctrines. Shock therapy had good results, but only in countries that were already not far from defined aims and which were willing to curb such therapy when necessary. Privatization was most successful when it did not occur too quickly. And the strict application of currency pegging had disastrous consequences, which led to the adoption of another, more flexible, system ("crawling peg").
[Romania: A unitary utopia in question]
Romania, the fall of the Communist regime and the loss of referents that followed have inspired a revival in a "tradition of the nation" whose foundation was laid during the 19th century, associating a representation of identity based on ethnicity with a unitary and centralized conception of the state. The sudden opening up to the outside world, pressures from an internationalized economy and Western institutions - specifically, NATO and the European Union, which Romania hopes to join - have led some to modify this tradition, while others have attempted to render it an absolute in order to better resist what are deemed destabilizing changes. These two tendencies can be identified in the way in which Romanians represent their pre-Communist and Communist past, as well as their manner of apprehending the tension between unity and plurality (ethnic, regional) at the heart of the nation-state.
No Abstract
[Cold calculations and wild crowds. The Hindu-Muslim riots in India]
It is generally thought that inter-ethnic violence is often provoked by leaders seeking legitimacy and power. But the question remains: why does such violence occur in some cases and not in other, apparently conducive, situations? In India, the number and magnitude (in victims) of anti-Muslim riots (measured for the entire period from Independence in several constituent states) are statistically linked to the approach of elections with uncertain outcomes (less than a 10% margin for the incumbent). Furthermore, riots are proportionately less numerous and less murderous in certain local configurations, such as when the Muslims vote plays a decisive role, in which case the local police is deployed by those in power to prevent or stop violence.
[What is a mass crime? The case of ex-Yugoslavia]
Dans la guerre, il faut tuer pour ne pas être tué : le risque de mourir représente une menace réelle. Dans le crime de masse, en revanche, la menace de mort est imaginaire puisque l' "ennemi" à détruire est sans armes. En ex-Yougoslavie tout particulièrement, la peur avivée par la propagande a joué ainsi un rôle fondamental : pour des raisons qui tiennent à l'histoire des Balkans, la manipulation a été relativement aisée. Une fois l'angoisse portée à son comble, le passage à l'acte criminel peut s'opérer et le crime de masse se dérouler selon un dispositif rationnel et efficace. Reste à s'interroger sur les atrocités "gratuites" qui sont allées de pair avec la purification ethnique. Il paraît difficile, en l'état actuel des connaissances, de trancher entre deux interprétations contradictoires, selon lesquelles ces atrocités ont un sens (Arendt) ou n'en ont point (Sofsky).
[The atomization of ends and the radicalism of means. On certain African conflicts]
The long war of liberation in Eritrea and today's war in Kivu provide two illustrations of a possible explanation for the extreme violence that occurs in numerous contemporary conflicts, most notably (but not only) in Africa. This involves, on the one hand, the disparity between local rationalities and the stated aims of "national" leaders and, on the other, a weak or destabilizing experience of the state among those involved in armed movements. Thus combatants often engage in war for perfectly "rational" reasons; however, as the conflict drags on, they find it difficult to construct clear political objectives. Societies or groups living in the midst of the most murderous conflicts rarely remain inert; they attempt, with varying and extremely fragile success rates, to reconstitute social bonds that war has destroyed.
