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Cyril Ramaphosa at NASREC Expo Centre in Johannesburg where facilities are in place to treat coronavirus patients. Photo by JEROME DELAY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images.
Visão embaçada e distorcida nem sempre é miopia: fique atento aos sinais do ceratocone
Aos primeiros sinais de visão embaçada, as hipóteses mais frequentes sempre são miopia, astigmatismo, hipermetropia. Mas esses sintomas podem indicar outra doença ocular chamada ceratocone - uma deformidade progressiva da córnea, que assume o formato...
The post Visão embaçada e distorcida nem sempre é miopia: fique atento aos sinais do ceratocone appeared first on Saúde Próspera.
Unha encravada: Como evitar e desencravar
Unha encravada: quem teve jamais quer repetir a experiência. Os que nunca passaram pela situação, tremem com a ideia de sentir aquela dor de que só ouvem sobre nos relatos.
The post Unha encravada: Como evitar e desencravar appeared first on Saúde Próspera.
Teste de sangue para detectar Alzheimer está próximo da realidade
Exame poderá detectar a doença na fase inicial. Pesquisadores da Faculdade de Medicina Osteopática da Universidade de Rowan, nos Estados Unidos, afirmam que estão perto de desenvolver um exame de sangue para detectar Alzheimer com precisão, o que dar...
The post Teste de sangue para detectar Alzheimer está próximo da realidade appeared first on Saúde Próspera.
Terapia inédita reverte leucemia incurável em bebê de 1 ano
Tratamento genético foi testado em Layla Richards que estava desenganada pelos médicos. Especialistas ressaltam que os resultados são iniciais e podem não ocorrer em outros pacientes.
The post Terapia inédita reverte leucemia incurável em bebê de 1 ano appeared first on Saúde Próspera.
Saiba como ter um sorriso perfeito
Todo mundo quer ter um sorriso bonito. Justamente por isso, a ideia de perder um ou mais dentes deixa qualquer pessoa desesperada.
The post Saiba como ter um sorriso perfeito appeared first on Saúde Próspera.
SUS vai oferecer aparelho de última geração para tipo de perda auditiva até então sem tratamento
Prótese auditiva ancorada em osso não emite um som como o aparelho convencional. Seu diferencial é vibrar o osso da cabeça.
The post SUS vai oferecer aparelho de última geração para tipo de perda auditiva até então sem tratamento appeared first on Saúde Próspera.
Episode 39: American Hustle/The Hobbit 2/Anchorman 2/Out of the Furnace
- American Hustle
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
- Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
- Out of the Furnace
- 2014 Bucket List Films
- What We Watched: Bully, Prisoners, Powwow Highway, Miss Representation, The Spectacular Now, Knuckle, Shut Up And Play The Hits, Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend's Boyfriend and The Act of Killing.
Next Episode: Martin Scorcese's The Wolf of Wall Street and Spike Jonze's Her.
Episode 38: Oldboy/Frozen
- Oldboy Review
- Frozen Review
- What We Watched: Fargo, Homefront, Gravity
- The Walking Dead Mid-Season Spoiler Discussion
- Oldboy Spoiler Discussion
- Thor: The Dark World Acid-Indused Hypothesizing
Episode 37: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire & The Wolverine
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire review
- The Wolverine Reviews
- What We Watched: jOBS, Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview, WWE For All Mankind: Life and Career of Mick Foley and The Lakota 38
Episode 36: Thor: The Dark World/Frances Ha
- Thor: The Dark World Review
- Frances Ha Review
- What We Watched
Episode 35: 12 Years A Slave
- 12 Years A Slave Review
- What We Watched: Seduced and Abandoned, Bad Granpda, Grave Encounters, Carrie, Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States, Adventure Time, Chopping Mall, Frenzy, The Halloween Tree, Sisters, Altered States, Sleepaway Camp, American Mary, Friday the 13th IV: The Final Chapter, Cannibal Holocaust, Prince of Darkness & The Fog.
Episode 34: Gravity
- Gravity Review
- What We Watched: Room 237, The American Scream, Bless Me Ultima, Ernest Scared Stupid, The Conjuring, V/H/S 2, H. H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer & Attack on Titan.
- Gravity Spoiler Discussion (after the outro music).
Episode 33: Upstream Color/The Kings of Summer/Blackfish
- Upstream Color review
- The Kings of Summer review
- Blackfish review
- What We Watched: Fruitvale Station, At World's End, The Spectacular Now, Elysium, Only God Forgives, and The ABCs of Death
- Grand Theft Auto 5 talk
Episode 32: Pacific Rim
- Pacific Rim Review
- World War Z mini-review
- What We Watched: The Lone Ranger, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Celeste and Jesse Forever, Despicable Me 2, Ruby Sparks, Melancholia, Do The Right Thing, ESPN 30 for 30: Broke, etc.
Next Episode: The Conjuring
Episode 31: Man of Steel/This Is The End
- Man Of Steel Review
- This Is The End Review
- What We Watched
Next Episode: World War Z & The Bling Ring
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Episode 30: Star Trek: Into Darkness/The Great Gatsby/Iron Man 3
- Iron Man 3 Review
- Star Trek: Into Darkness Review
- The Great Gatsby Review
- What We Watched
Episode 29: Oblivion
- Oblivion Review
- Jason's thoughts on Rob Zombie's The Lords of Salem
- Robert's thoughts on Trance
- Movie Homework: Slapshot/Do Deca Pentathlon/Session 9
- What We Watched: Game of Thrones, Sex and Lucia, Jack Reacher, Which Way is the Front Lime From Here, Loose Change 9/11
Episode 28: The Place Beyond the Pines/From Up On Poppy Hill
- The Place Beyond the Pines Review
- From Up On Poppy Hill Review
- Movie Homework: Beasts of the Southern Wild/Shame
- What We Watched: Evil Dead, Game of Thrones, The Staircase & A Dangerous Method
Next Episode: Oblivion/Trance
Episode 27: Evil Dead
- Evil Dead Review
- The Walking Dead Season 3 Discussion
- Other banter
Next Episode: The Place Beyond the Pines/Trance/From Up On Poppy Hill
If you live in Chicago and love movies. Support the projects our own Cody Johnson did sound work for.
Sacrificial Youth
Date: April 19th
Location: Logan Theatre (2646 N. Milwaukee Avenue)
Price: $10/per ticket
http://cimmfest.org/sacrificial-youth/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YcwJ1WtQDI
Dorothy Marie and the Unanswered Questions of the Zombie Apocalypse
Date: June 1st
Location: The Patio Theatre (6008 W. Irving Park)
Price: TBA
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dorothymariezombie
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5DBtTXYNKg
If you live in Chicago and love movies. Support the projects our own Cody Johnson did sound work for.
Sacrificial Youth
Date: April 19th
Location: Logan Theatre (2646 N. Milwaukee Avenue)
Price: $10/per ticket
http://cimmfest.org/sacrificial-youth/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YcwJ1WtQDI
Dorothy Marie and the Unanswered Questions of the Zombie Apocalypse
Date: June 1st
Location: The Patio Theatre (6008 W. Irving Park)
Price: TBA
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dorothymariezombie
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5DBtTXYNKg
Episode 26: Spring Breakers
- Review of Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers
- Movie Homework: The Seven Year Itch/Bronson/Kirikou and the Sorceress
You can download the podcast here (right click to save).
Next week's episode: Review of From Up on Poppy Hill
Movie Homework: Smoke Signals (Rudy), Minnie and Moskowitz (Jason), Black Book (Anthony), Beasts of the Southern Wild (Robert).
Next week's episode: Review of From Up on Poppy Hill
Movie Homework: Smoke Signals (Rudy), Minnie and Moskowitz (Jason), Black Book (Anthony), Beasts of the Southern Wild (Robert).
Episode 25: Oz: The Great and Powerful
- Review of Oz: The Great and Powerful
- Movie Homework: Network/Closer
- What We Watched: Dredd, Undefeated, Sassy Pants, Game of Thrones, Gummo, This is 40
Next Week's Main Review: Springbreakers
Episode 24: Stoker
- Review of Chan Wook Park's Stoker.
- What We Watched: Dredd, The Artist is Present, Side by Side, Silver Lining's Playbook, Arrested Development, All-Star Celebrity Apprentice, Bob's Burgers.
You can listen to or download the podcast here. (right click to save)
Next Episode:
- Review of Oz: The Great and Powerful.
- Movie Homework: Closer (Robert), Network (Jason), Suburbia (Rudy).
- New Cast Member, possibly.
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Episode 23: Warm Bodies
- Warm Bodies review
- The History of Zombie Movies That Rudy Likes
- What We Watched: Bob's Burgers, Some Bob Marley documentary, Movie 43 and The Innkeepers
Listen to or download the episode here. (right click to save)
Next episode: A Good Day to Die Hard
Episode 22: Mama
- Review of Mama
- What We Watched: The Last Stand, Tangled, Silent Hill: Revelations, Bob's Burgers, South Park, Arrested Development and The Hole.
Listen to or download the episode here. (right click to save)
Episode 21: Zero Dark Thirty & Most Anticipated of 2013
- Zero Dark Thirty Review
- Our Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of 2013
- What We Watched: Jiro: Dreams of Sushi, Take This Waltz, Futurama, The Great Happiness Space, Indie Game: The Movie, Somewhere Between, Lincoln & Chasing Ghosts
You can listen to or download our episode here. (right click to save)
Next Episode: Reviews of Mama and The Last Stand
Thanks again to Jim and Patrick from The Director's Club Podcast for their support.
If you'd like to check out their podcast go here: http://directorsclubpodcast.com
If you would like to read Jim's awesome blog on why he loves movie podcasts, go here: http://instantjim.com/post/40536863106/moviepodcasts2012
Episode 20: The Best of 2012
- Top 10 Films of 2012
- Movies We Wish We Saw In Theatres
- Most Overrated Movie
- Guilty Pleasure
- Biggest Disappointment
- Best Movie Poster
- Most Memorable Scene
- Best Movie You Saw In 2012 That Didn't Come Out In 2012
Listen to or download the episode here. (right click to save)
Next Episode: The Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of All Time.
Episode 19: Django Unchained
- Django Unchained Review
- Discussion on Tarantino: The Director
- What We Watched: Not Much
- What Game Jason Loves? A: Tokyo Jungle
You can listen or download the episode here. (Right click to save)
Email us at thefilmclubpodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail at 773-245-3476.
Episode 18: The Movie Marathon Episode
- Safety Not Guaranteed
- Holy Motors
- The Imposter
- What We Watched: Bernie, Take This Waltz, Nightmare Before XMas, This Is 40, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, End of Watch, The Campaign & Paranorman (kinda).
Listen to or download the episode here. (Right click to save)
Email us at thefilmclubpodcast@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail at 773-245-3476.
Episode 17: The Hobbit Review & Christmas Movies
- The Hobbit Review
- Christmas Movies
- What We Watched: Sunshine/Silver Lining's Playbook/The Grey/Argo
Download the episode here (right click to save).
Episode 16: The Caveman Episode
- Quest For Fire
- 10,000 B.C.
- What We Watched
- Miscellaneous Banter
Download the episode here. (right click to save)
Episode 15: The Perks of Being a Wallflower/Beasts of the Southern Wild
- The Perks of Being A Wallflower Review
- Beasts of the Southern Wild Review
- What We Watched
Download Episode 15 here. (right click to save)
Next episode is our Caveman episode. We will be discussing Quest For Fire, 10,000 B.C. and Ice Man.
The Centenary London Conference
Thursday 19 and Friday 20 November 2020, St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel
One hundred years since its founding in 1920, Chatham House continues to foster mutual understanding between nations through rigorous debate, trusted dialogue, independent analysis and influential ideas.
Since its launch in 2014, the London Conference, the institute’s annual flagship event, has established itself as a principal international forum where global connectivity can be explored and better understood drawing an internationally diverse and multigenerational gathering of participants and offering positive solutions to global challenges.
This year, drawing on the theme of Imagining Alternatives: Solutions for the World Beyond 2020, the London Conference 2020 will form the central pillar in the institute’s programme to mark its centenary throughout 2020.
This year’s agenda focuses on the changing nature of geopolitics and the global economy through the lens of our core research themes – sustainable and equitable growth, preventing conflict and improving the rules-based order. Each theme seeks opportunities for positive policy change, with emphasis on the impact of technological change, and a keen focus on empowering the next generation.
COVID-19 in South Africa: Leadership, Resilience and Inequality
7 May 2020
In a world looking for leadership, South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa has been remarkable. One year after he carried the time-worn ANC through a national election, South Africans are crying out for more.In the COVID-19 crisis so far, Cyril Ramaphosa has been widely praised for displaying the decisive leadership so many hoped for when they cast their ballot for him in May 2019. Buttressed by others such as health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, and on a simple objective to prevent transmission, South Africa has been a lesson to the world. Act fast. Act hard.
Former president Thabo Mbeki’s disastrous response to the HIV crisis cast a long shadow over his legacy, and Ramaphosa has taken note. South Africa has had one of the tightest lockdowns in the world. No exercise. No cigarettes. No alcohol.
The lockdown was imposed when the country had only around 1,000 recorded cases and just two deaths. As a result, transmission from returning travellers has not yet led to an exponential infection rate within the community. The government’s swift reaction has bought much needed time with the peak now seemingly delayed to September or October.
Continental and national leadership
Ramaphosa has also emerged as a key focal point for Africa-wide responses. As current chair of the African Union (AU) he leads the continental engagement with the World Health Organization (WHO), and the various international finance institutions, while South African officials are working with the AU and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) on a push for African debt restructuring.
He has also been active in trouble shooting to unlock external assistance to the continent, including from China and Russia. Appointing special envoys is typical of his boardroom-honed leadership style.
International and regional partnerships are vital for resilience and the arrival of 217 Cuban doctors to South Africa is strongly reminiscent of the liberationist solidarity of the Cold War era. And regional economies remain dependent on South Africa to protect their own vulnerable citizens. Following the 2008 financial crisis, it was South Africa’s regional trading relationships that remained robust, while trade with its main global partners in China and the US dropped.
Despite the plaudits, Ramaphosa remains vulnerable to challenge at home, notably around his failure to stimulate South Africa’s moribund economy. On the eve of lockdown, Moody’s joined its peers Standard and Poor’s and Fitch in giving South Africa a below investment grade credit rating. The move was a long time coming. Long mooted economic reforms were slow to materialise, and South Africa had fallen into recession.
Ramaphosa depends on a small core of close advisors and allies, initially united in apparent opposition to the kleptocratic rule of President Jacob Zuma and the deep patronage networks he created within both the party and the state. But this allegiance is being tested by economic reality. Support within the party was already drifting prior to the crisis.
Disagreements are not just technocratic – there are big ideological questions in play around the role of the state in the economy, the level of intervention, and its affordability, with key government figures sceptical of rapid market reforms. Energy minister and former union stalwart Gwede Mantashe is wary of job losses, and minister of public enterprises Pravin Gordhan protective of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Before coronavirus hit, Ramaphosa seemed content to allow these policy disputes to play themselves out with little decisive intervention.
Slow progress on reform, against worsening economic performance, left Ramaphosa and his allies exposed. In January the president missed the UK’s African Investment Summit in order to assert control over a party meeting at which it was expected his detractors would seek to remove Gordhan.
COVID-19 has sharpened thinking
As the independently assertive - and eminently quotable - pro-market reformist finance minister Tito Mboweni stated, ‘you can’t eat ideology’. Accelerated reform and restructuring is required if the government turns to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance.
For the first time, Gordhan has been forced to deny a bailout to beleaguered state airline South African Airways (SAA), and the government’s lockdown bailout of R300 billion has been applauded by business. Much like the fiscal stimulus and recovery plan of 2018, it relies on smart spending, targeting sectors with high multiplier effects. It also includes significant reserve bank loans.
But it has been criticised for not doing enough to help the most vulnerable. There is considerable fear of what could happen when the virus takes hold in South Africa’s townships and informal settlements where social distancing is almost impossible, basic toilet facilities are shared, and HIV and TB rates high.
There are mounting concerns of the humanitarian cost of a prolonged lockdown, and the government has been faster than others in implementing a tiered lockdown system, trying to get people back to work and keep the economy afloat.
South Africa has been criticized by the UN for the use of lethal force by security forces in enforcing lockdown and, in a society plagued by corruption, there are fears legislation to stop the spread of false information could be used to restrict legitimate reporting on the virus response or other issues.
COVID-19 shines a spotlight on societies’ fault-lines worldwide. South Africa is often touted as having one of the highest levels of inequality in the world but, in a globalized economy, these divisions are international as much as they are local.
Resilience comes from within, but also depends on regional and global trading and financial systems. South Africans and international partners have long recognised Ramaphosa’s leadership qualities as an impressive voice for the global south.
But he must also be an advocate for South Africa’s poor. This crisis could accelerate implementation of his landmark pro-poor National Health Insurance and Universal Health Care programmes. Or the hit of COVID-19 on top of South Africa’s existing economic woes could see them derailed entirely. Ramaphosa must push through economic reforms at the same time as managing COVID-19 and rebuilding trust in his government.
Webinar: Director's Briefing – National Leadership in Times of Crisis
Corporate Members Event Webinar Partners and Major Corporates
14 May 2020 - 6:00pm to 7:00pm
Add to Calendar
Online
Janet Napolitano, President, University of California; US Secretary of Homeland Security (2009-13)
Chair: Dr Robin Niblett, Director and Chief Executive, Chatham House
Across the globe, leaders on the local, national and international levels are grappling with the impacts of COVID-19 on their communities and the economy. But the coronavirus pandemic is just one of several existential crises the world is currently facing. Climate change, political instability and growing tensions with China and Russia, along with a lack of strong global leadership, has made it more difficult for individual nations to respond and coalesce in times of crisis.
This discussion will explore how leaders at all levels can best negotiate both the practical issues and the larger questions associated with these ‘grand challenges’. How is current US foreign policy affecting our collective ability to respond to issues such as pandemics or climate change? Has the COVID-19 crisis cemented the US retreat from global leadership and if so, who might step into the breach? How do we maintain momentum on other issues in the midst of a public health disaster of this magnitude? And what is the role of the business community, higher education institutions and other sectors in responding to these crises and shaping future public policy?
This event is only open to Major Corporate Member and Partner organizations and selected giving circles of Chatham House. If you'd like to attend, please RSVP to lbedford@chathamhouse.org.
Violence, visuality and world politics
7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3
In the May 2020 issue of International Affairs, we explore the many uses of images in the conduct of global politics.
This special section brings together diverse spaces and modes of visuality through specific, sustained attention to the various types of violence depicted. In doing so, these articles draw out a concern for the visual constitution of violence in global politics, and its emotional and political consequences. Individually and collectively, the contributions highlight the ways in which policy-makers and researchers are daily confronted by violent images that influence how complex political problems are seen and consequently understood. Paying attention to the power of the visuality of violence is necessary to understand how certain kinds of policy responses to direct and indirect violence unfold.
China and Russia in R2P debates at the UN Security Council
7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3
While China and Russia's general policies towards the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) are similar, the two reveal nuanced differences in addressing specific emergencies. Both express support for the first two pillars of R2P while resisting coercive intervention under its aegis, as they share anxieties of domestic political security and concerns about their international image. Nonetheless, addressing cases like the Syrian crisis, Russian statements are more assertive and even aggressive while Chinese ones are usually vague and reactive. This article highlights the two states’ different tones through computer-assisted text analyses. It argues that diplomatic styles reflect Russian and Chinese perceptions of their own place in the evolving international order. Experiences in past decades create divergent reference points and status prospects for them, which leads to their different strategies in signalling Great Power status. As Beijing is optimistic about its status-rising prospects, it exercises more self-restraint in order to avoid external containments and is reluctant to act as an independent ‘spoiler’. Meanwhile, Moscow interprets its Great Power status more from a frame of ‘loss’ and therefore is inclined to adopt a sterner approach to signal its status. Although their policies complement each other on many occasions, there is nothing akin to a Sino–Russian ‘bloc’.
Let's talk about the interregnum: Gramsci and the crisis of the liberal world order
7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3
The liberal international order (LIO) is in crisis. Numerous publications, debates and events have time and again made it clear that we are in the midst of a grand transformation of world order. While most contributions focus on either what is slowly dying (the LIO) or what might come next (China, multipolarity, chaos?), there is less analytical engagement with what lies in between those two phases of world order. Under the assumption that this period could last years or even decades, a set of analytical tools to understand this interregnum is urgently needed. This article proposes an analytical framework that builds on Gramscian concepts of crisis that will help us understand the current crisis of the LIO in a more systematic way. It addresses a gap in the literature on changing world order by elaborating three Gramsci-inspired crisis characteristics—processuality, organicity and morbidity—that sketch the current crisis landscape in a systematic way. Building on this framework, the article suggests different empirical entry points to the study of the crisis of the LIO and calls for a research agenda that takes this crisis seriously as a distinct period of changing world orders.
Power and diplomacy in the post-liberal cyberspace
7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3
It is becoming widely accepted that we have transitioned, or are now transitioning, from an international liberal order to a different reality. Whether that reality is different solely in terms of power dynamics, or also in terms of values and institutions, is up for discussion. The growing body of literature on ‘post-liberalism’ is used as an entry-point for this article, which aims to explore how the post-liberal transition applies to cyberspace. We explore how power dynamics are evolving in cyberspace, as well as how established norms, values and institutions are contested. The article then looks at the emergence of cyber diplomacy as a consequence and response to the post-liberal transition. As it will be argued, if cyberspace was a creation of the liberal order, cyber-diplomacy is a post-liberal world practice. What role it plays in shaping a new order or building bridges between different political visions, and what it means for the future of cyberspace, will constitute key points of discussion.
The multilevel identity politics of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest
7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3
This article uses the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) that took place in Tel Aviv to explore how cultural mega-events serve both as political arenas and as tools for identity construction, negotiation and contestation. These processes of identity politics are all conducted across national–subnational–international–transnational levels. The hosting of mega-events fleshes out these multiple processes in a very strong manner. We first discuss the politics of hosting mega-events in general. We then examine the identity politics associated more specifically with the Eurovision Song Contest, before examining in depth the complex forms of identity politics emerging around the competition following the 2018 Israeli victory. We suggest that it is important to study together the multiple processes—domestic, international and transnational—of identity politics that take place around the competition, as they interact with each other. Consequently, we follow the various stakeholders involved at these different levels and their interactions. We examine the internal identity negotiation process in Israel surrounding the event, the critical actors debating how to use the stage to challenge the liberal, western, ‘normal’ identity Israel hoped to project in the contest and how other stakeholders (participating states, national broadcasting agencies, participating artists) reacted to them, and finally we examine the behaviour of the institution in charge, the European Broadcasting Union, and national governments. We contribute to the study of mega-events as fields of contestation, to the understanding of the complex, multilevel nature of national identity construction, negotiation and contestation in the current era, and more broadly to the role that popular culture plays in this context.
Rethinking youth bulge theory in policy and scholarship: incorporating critical gender analysis
7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3
For decades ‘youth bulge’ theory has dominated understandings of youth in mainstream International Relations. Youth bulge theory has also become part of some public media analyses, mainstream political rhetoric, and even officially enshrined in the foreign policy of some states. Through the ‘youth bulge’ lens, youth—especially males—have been presented as current or future perpetrators of violence. However, this article argues that the youth bulge thesis postulated in mainstream IR is based on flawed theoretical assumptions. In particular, supporters of youth bulge theory fail to engage with existing research by feminist IR scholars and thus take on a biological essentialist approach. This has led to theoretical and practical misunderstandings of the roles youth play in relation to conflict, peace and security. These partial and biased understandings have also resulted in less effective policy-making. In critically reflecting on the ‘youth bulge’ thesis, this article argues that applying gender analysis is crucial to understanding the involvement of young people in general—and young men in particular—in conflict. Doing so will contribute to advancing more accurate analysis in scholarship and policy-making.
Accountability, denial and the future-proofing of British torture
7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3
When powerful liberal democratic states are found to be complicit in extreme violations of human rights, how do they respond and why do they respond as they do? Drawing on the example of the United Kingdom's complicity in torture since 9/11, this article demonstrates how reluctant the UK has been to permit a full reckoning with its torturous past. We demonstrate that successive UK governments engaged in various forms of denial, obfuscation and attempts to obstruct investigation and avoid accountability. The net effect of their responses has been to deny the victims redress, through adequate judicial processes, and to deny the public adequate state accountability. These responses are not simply aimed at shielding from prosecution the perpetrators and those who have oversight of them, nor preventing political embarrassment. The various forms of denial and obstruction are also designed to ensure that collusion can continue uninterrupted. A core concern of intelligence officials and ministers has been to prevent any process that would lead to a comprehensive prohibition on involvement in operations where torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are a real possibility. The door remains wide open, and deliberately so, for British involvement in torture.
How images frame China's role in African development
7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3
Political leaders, policy-makers and academics routinely refer to development as an objective process of social change through the use of technical, value-free terms. Images of poverty and inequality are regularly presented as evidence of a world that exists ‘out there’ where development unfolds. This way of seeing reflects the value of scientific forms of knowledge but also sits in tension with the normative foundations of development that take European modernization and industrialization as the benchmark for comparison. The role images play in this process is often overlooked. This article argues that a dominant mode of visuality based on a Cartesian separation between subject and object, underpinning the ascendance of European hegemony and colonialism, aligns with the core premises of orthodox development discourse. An example of how visual representations of development matter is presented through images of Africa–China relations in western media sources. Using widely circulated images depicting China's impact on African development in western news media sources as an example of why visual politics matters for policy-making, the article examines how images play a role in legitimizing development planning by rendering associated forms of epistemological and structural violence ‘invisible to the viewer’.
Webinar: International Humanitarian Law Amid Coronavirus
Members Event Webinar
15 May 2020 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Add to Calendar
Emanuela-Chiara Gillard, Associate Fellow, International Law Programme, Chatham House
Chair: Chanu Peiris, Programme Manager, International Law Programme, Chatham House
Further speakers to be announced.
In April 2020, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for a global ceasefire in order for communities and states to focus efforts on responding to the coronavirus outbreak. The consequences of armed conflict – including displacement, detention, lack of access to health services and disrupted social infrastructures – mean that those in conflict-ridden areas are amongst the most vulnerable to the virus. Observing international humanitarian law (IHL) could be one way of safeguarding against, at least, the provision of vital medical supplies and personnel for vulnerable groups. Against the backdrop of a growing health and economic emergency that is otherwise dominating government agendas, how do we emphasise the importance of humanitarian action and guarantee - or improve - compliance?
The panellists will discuss the remit and limitations of international humanitarian law and how the pandemic might complicate compliance. What is the framework for humanitarian action under international humanitarian law? What are the challenges to delivering relief? And how has COVID-19 impacted humanitarian action in conflict-ridden areas?
This event is for Chatham House members only. Not a member? Find out more.
Soundscapes of war: the audio-visual performance of war by Shi'a militias in Iraq and Syria
7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3
This article sets out to bring sound and music to the field of visual studies in International Relations. It argues that IR largely has approached the visual field as if it was without sound; neglecting how audial landscapes frame and direct our interpretation of moving imagery. Sound and music contribute to making imagery intelligible to us, we ‘hear the pictures’ often without noticing. The audial can for instance articulate a visual absence, or blast visual signs, bring out certain emotional stages or subjects’ inner life. Audial frames steer us in distinct directions, they can mute the cries of the wounded in war, or amplify the sounds of joy of soldiers shooting in the air. To bring the audial and the visual analytically and empirically together, the article therefore proposes four key analytical themes: 1) the audial–visual frame, 2) point of view/point of audition, 3) modes of audio-visual synchronization and 4) aesthetics moods. These are applied to a study of ‘war music videos’ in Iraq and Syria made and circulated by Shi'a militias currently fighting there. Such war music videos, it is suggested, are not just artefacts of popular culture, but have become integral parts of how warfare is practiced today, and one that is shared by soldiers in the US and Europe. War music videos are performing war, just as they shape how war is known by spectators and participants alike.
Horror, apocalypse and world politics (free)
7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3
World politics generates a long list of anxiety-inspiring scenarios that threaten to unravel everyday life with sudden and violent destruction. From total war and the concentration camps, through nuclear firestorms, global pandemics and climate disaster, the diabolical violence of the recent past and conceivable future is the stuff of nightmares. Yet International Relations scholars and practitioners are often criticized for being disconnected from the human realities of international calamity. The challenge for both is to engage world politics in a way that foregrounds the human consequences of extreme violence and depravation. In this article, we explore these difficult experiences through popular culture representations of the apocalypse, a subject of intense interest for researchers in a discipline where global destruction is a distinct possibility. However, we take a different route by engaging the apocalypse through the horror genre, the one place where human suffering is explicitly accentuated. We argue that the horror genre is at once an access point for ethical engagement with the human consequences of extreme violence and a complex terrain where dark imaginings can be politically loaded, culturally specific and ethically ambiguous.
Social media and the visibility of horrific violence
7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3
Images are central to social media communication. Billions of images are shared across different social media platforms every day: photos, cartoons, GIFs and short video clips are exchanged by users, facilitating or framing discourse on participatory sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Many of these images depict events of extreme violence, which circulate uninhibited by the conventional constraints associated with traditional news media censorship. A question arises here as to how such images mobilize public and policy-making responses to atrocities. This article examines the political dynamics of violent social media images. I argue that the particular qualities of social media can play an important role in how the digital visibility of horrific violence influences policy-making as a response to such atrocities. There is an important connection between the properties of social media platforms that allow user images to reach a global audience in real time and the emotional responses that this level of circulation generates. In turn, the pressure created by events made globally visible through the circulation of violent images and the audience responses to those images puts governments in a position where they are forced to act, which has significant implications for policy-making.
Politics, policy-making and the presence of images of suffering children
7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3
In 2017 Trump expressed pity for the ‘beautiful babies’ killed in a gas attack on Khan Shaykhun in Syria before launching airstrikes against President Assad's regime. Images of suffering children in world politics are often used as a synecdoche for a broader conflict or disaster. Injured, suffering, or dead; the ways in which images of children circulate in global public discourse must be critically examined to uncover the assumptions that operate in these environments. This article explores reactions to images of children by representatives and leaders of states to trace the interconnected affective and political dimensions of these images. In contrast to attending to the expected empathetic responses prompted by images of children, this article particularly focuses on when such images prompt bellicose foreign policy decision-making. In doing this, the article forwards a way of thinking about images as contentious affective objects in international relations. The ways in which images of children's bodies and suffering are strategically deployed by politicians deserves closer scrutiny to uncover the visual politics of childhood inherent in these moments of international politics and policy-making.
It's a man's world: carnal spectatorship and dissonant masculinities in Islamic State videos
7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3
Islamic State videos have often been associated with savage violence and beheadings. An in-depth scrutiny however reveals another striking feature: that female bodies are absent, blurred or mute. Examining a few Islamic State videos in depth, the article suggests that the invisibility of women in tandem with the ostentatious visibility of male bodies enable gendered and embodied spectators to indulge in homoerotic as well as heterosexual imaginaries. In contrast to studies on visual security and online radicalization which assert that images affect an audience, this article focuses on the interaction between video and audience and argues that spectators are not only rational and emotional but embodied and gendered as well. Islamic State videos do not only attract western foreign fighters through religious–ideological rhetoric or emotional impact but also through gendered forms of pleasure and desire that enable carnal imagination and identification. The article probes the analytical purchase of carnal aesthetics and spectatorship.
Virtual Roundtable: Land Reform in Ukraine: Is Zelenskyy's Government Getting it Right?
Invitation Only Research Event
14 May 2020 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm
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Ihor Petrashko, Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Ukraine
Andriy Dykun, Chair, Ukrainian Agricultural Council
Vadim Tolpeco, Ukrlandfarming Plc
Chair: Orysia Lutsevych, Research Fellow and Manager, Ukraine Forum, Chatham House
Chair: Orysia Lutsevych, Research Fellow and Manager, Ukraine Forum, Chatham House
Ukraine is known as the ‘breadbasket of Europe’ thanks to its grain exports. On 31 March 2020, the Ukrainian parliament passed a landmark law ending a 19-year ban on the sale of privately owned agricultural land. Due to come into force in July 2021, the law applies to 41.5 million hectares of farmland and economists predict substantial economic gains from this liberalization.
This event will discuss the impact of the law on Ukraine’s agricultural sector and food security. How can the government best implement this reform and ensure that small and medium-sized agricultural companies increase their productivity? What does this change mean for Ukraine’s capacity to export grain? Can the country’s food supply withstand crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic? What role could foreign direct investors play in boosting production?
This event will be held on the record.
Department/project
Algeria’s Perfect Storm: COVID-19 and Its Fallout
6 May 2020
Coronavirus is a godsend for Algeria’s government to introduce restrictive measures beyond those needed to contain COVID-19. But its new leaders are missing a chance to gain legitimacy, which will offset the socio-economic fallout of the drop in oil prices.2020-05-06-Algeria-Health-Covid
Algerian volunteers prepare personal protection equipment (PPE) to help combat the coronavirus epidemic in the capital Algiers. Photo by RYAD KRAMDI/AFP via Getty Images.
Although protests successfully ended Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s 20-year sultanistic rule a little over one year ago, demands have been continuing to dismantle the system, get rid of the old personnel, and institute democracy.
The controversial election in December of Abdelmadjid Tebboune — who has inherited a disastrous situation — has not tempered the determination of the Hirak protest movement. As a former minister and prime minister under Bouteflika, the new president has won little legitimacy, and protests have continued.
Now COVID-19 is worsening already dire economic conditions, such as a sharp drop in oil prices. By the beginning of May, statistics showed 10% of confirmed cases have ended in fatality, the highest percentage in the region.
Maintaining an authoritarian style
Hirak had already called for the suspension of the marches — mobilising online instead — before the government’s measures, which include curfews and lockdowns, demonstrating a high sense of duty. But instead of appeasing Hirak’s demands, the government has maintained the authoritarian style of its predecessors.
Tebboune released more than 5,000 prisoners on March 31 but kept prisoners of conscience and leaders of the hirak imprisoned, then subsequently imprisoned journalists and activists. It even passed a controversial penal law, that also covers fake news, and may be used to justify actions against journalists.
The regime wishes to see an end to the Hirak, and rejects accusations of totalitarianism by insisting freedom and a democratic climate exist in Algeria.
Tebboune’s actions contradict his praise for the ‘blessed’ hirak and his promises of instituting the rule of law. In proclaiming the measures, the government has shown disappointing leadership, acting in an authoritarian fashion.
Tebboune also declared proudly that Algeria was fully prepared to fight the coronavirus epidemic, an optimistic claim given the country has only 400 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, or one per 100,000 people. Despite hundreds of billions of hydrocarbon dollars accumulating during the Bouteflika-era, Algeria’s health system ranks 173 out of 195 countries.
Algerians often refer to hospitals as ‘mouroirs’, meaning ‘places for the dying’. Not only has the state failed to build modern hospitals but basic hygienic conditions are lacking, and government officials prefer being treated overseas. A 2014 project to build five university hospitals was abandoned, leaving the health sector in deplorable shape.
Before Chinese assistance arrived, the glaring lack of equipment to protect caregivers and care for the sick was evident. Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad admitted the health system required a ‘total overhaul’. The president recently stated Algeria’s doctors are among the 'best in the world' but didn't address why almost 15,000 Algerian doctors practice in France.
Strict containment measures are in sync with most countries but implementation is challenging when most people live in overcrowded urban dwellings (the average household consists of 5.9 members).
Water shortages in many areas makes good hygiene and decontamination impossible, while schools and universities find online teaching difficult when many students do not possess laptops or internet connections. And only 20% of Algerians have debit cards in a cash-dominated economy because of low trust in the public-dominated banking sector, making online shopping capability low.
An already declining macroeconomic situation is worsening due to COVID-19. The IMF revised its 2020 estimates for Algeria, forecasting a catastrophic contraction of -5.2% in a country where hydrocarbons account for 93% of export revenues and 60% of its budget.
Foreign currency reserves are now an estimated $55 billion (expected to fall to $44billion by the end of 2020), down from $200 billion in 2014, and Algerian crude has recently traded close to production costs, with the fiscal breakeven oil price at $157.
In line with its historic aversion to external borrowing, Tebboune recently ruled out seeking financial support from the ‘IMF or other foreign banks’, as he argued such borrowing undermines sovereign foreign policy because - when indebted - ‘we cannot talk about either Palestine or Western Sahara’, two causes dear to Algeria. ‘Friendly countries’ - most likely a reference to China - are said to have offered to grant loans which have been declined for now.
The government is forecasted to face a 20% budget shortfall this year, but Algeria’s fiscal response to COVID-19 is actually the largest among the regional hydrocarbon exporters at an estimated 8% of GDP, compared to an average of 3.2%. However, the government revised downwards its 2020 public spending by 50% (a second cut in a month, from an initial 30% reduction), halting state projects and slashing its $41 billion import bill by 25% while expanding agricultural production. National oil company SONATRACH will also cut planned investment by half to $7 billion but plans have been revealed to develop other natural resources including gold, uranium and phosphates.
But recent growth rates are insufficient to create jobs for those entering the labour market. Despite government attempts to support a rather anaemic ‘formal’ private sector, estimates are 700,000 jobs could be lost due to potential bankruptcies from reduced activity and a loss of markets abroad.
Facing potential social unrest and the quasi-preservation of a tired social contract, the government has committed to upholding public sector wages - including for 50% of the civil servants told to stay home - protecting sacrosanct, unsustainable subsidies, and increasing health expenditure to strengthen the capacity to combat COVID-19.
A supplementary finance law will include various measures that support businesses and the economic fallout. However, while the government is to be commended for its efforts to aid businesses, supporting large swathes of the population is challenging as approximately 50% of the workforce operate in the informal economy.
Weak administrative capacity and insufficient data to implement cash transfers makes the planned ‘solidarity allowance’ of 10,000 dinars ($80) for Ramadan difficult to allocate to those who most need it (especially those in the informal sector). Families, communities, and religious organisations continue to be a social safety net.
So COVID-19 has not created new problems, it has merely magnified and exacerbated the numerous inequalities and failures of the Bouteflika regime to sufficiently invest in human security (economic, food, health environmental, personal, community, and political). Typically, whenever oil prices and related earnings dwindle, the political system promises to reform and diversify the economy. Tebboune is repeating this same old tune.
There are positive elements, such as the government’s realization it must initiate genuine reforms. And local enterprises have been successfully producing artificial respirators, surgical masks, and other materials. Algerians, including the Hirak, are showing great social solidarity.
But the government must capitalize on these positive actions by introducing real change. Because, if not, Hirak will certainly be back in force once the crisis is over, and operating in an environment of worsening socioeconomic problems. The medicine of the past will not work.