This dissertation studies conflict in a hierarchical international system, the British Empire. How did the British Empire respond to violent and nonviolent resistance within its colonies? I develop a theory explaining how and why an imperial metropole becomes involved in and grant concessions to its colonies. Unlike federal nation-states and looser relationship like in an international organization, modern European empires were characterized by selective engagement of the metropole with its peripheral colonies. This has important implications for understanding metropolitan response to peripheral resistance. In contrast to more recent work, I find that violence was more effective at coercing metropolitan concessions to the colonies in the British Empire than nonviolence. I argue that this occurred because violence overwhelmed the capabilities of local colonial governments, and violence commanded metropolitan attention and involvement. This theory is supported with a wide range of data, including yearly measures of anticolonial resistance, every colonial concession made by the British Empire after 1918, daily measures of metropolitan discussions of colonial issues from cabinet archives, and web-scraped casualty data from British death records. In addition, I present in-depth case studies of British responses to resistance in Cyprus and the Gold Coast, along with a conceptual schema of different types of resistance to understand strikes, riots, terrorism, and civil disobedience in a number of other British colonies. My findings show that the effectiveness of resistance is conditional on the political structure that it is embedded in and that hierarchy matters for understanding state responses to resistance.

abstract: A growing body of literature has sought to explain the nature and effects of conflict-related sexualized violence. However, a critical problem that persists concerns why wartime rape varies both within and across conflicts. Political science literature mainly addresses these questions of variation in sexualized violence through group-level or structural explanations. Yet, clear patterns of combatant non-participation in conflict-related sexualized violence is apparent, even in cases where sexual violence is severe and pervasive. What allows one combatant to refrain, while another combatant, even within the same combat unit, perpetrates sexualized violence? In this dissertation, I argue that critical differences concerning attitudes, beliefs, and motivations exist between individual combatants. In light of these differences, I reintroduce the individual combatant onto the theoretical map as a critical unit of analysis and I explore the implications of gender inequality as an important and relevant factor related to sexualized violence in political conflict. Drawing on findings from social psychology, political psychology, sociology, and political science, the theory developed argues that combatants differentially internalize important norms related to gender that become particularly activated based on primarily externalized contextual influences. To test the theory, I conduct a mixed-method, sub-national comparative analysis of combatants and attitudes and beliefs associated with gender inequality during the Bosnian War (1992 – 1995). I rely on qualitative data generated from semi-structured, comprehensive interviews with psychologists, victim’s advocates, and legal experts managing sexual violence war crimes cases, and combat veterans directly associated with the Bosnian War (1992 – 1995) to assess differences at the individual-level of analysis. To additionally determine the broader effects of gender inequality, I employ an ordered probit regression analysis to ascertain the relationship between gender inequality related to institutional health and education factors and the severity of wartime rape. The combined results of these analyses demonstrate that individual differences between combatants better predicts the likelihood of a combatant to commit sexualized violence compared to structural or institutional accounts alone. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Political Science 2019

Against the backdrop of repeated political violence between Israel and different belligerents in the first and second decades of the 21st century (2003-2017) and by employing a social-psychological theoretical framework, this dissertation explores the effects of political violence on Israelis ’ social and national identities. The findings support the discussion of the social consequences of political violence in Israel, be them increased cohesiveness among different social groups (ethnic minority and majority) or social fragmentation and increased polarization between other groups (rich vs. poor or political right vs. left). Whereas Social Identity Theory constitutes the theoretical base for the explored hypotheses, Israeli social place-making practices are also discussed. Topic Whereas a vast amount of literature has been dedicated to the effects of exposure to violence on individuals and groups for over a century, it mainly focuses on type, duration or location of such violence. Since the relevant literature seems to consider the occurrence of political violence a unitary phenomenon, it consistently fails to attend to a most important factor- the aftermath of such violence. By overlooking the discrepancy in violence’ aftermath and by neglecting any analysis derived from it, I argue that the comprehensive literature examining the social effects of political violence and post-conflict societies is missing a vital piece of the puzzle. Accordingly, the contribution of this dissertation to the conflict literature is twofold: first, it disaggregates the aftermaths of two common forms of political violence, wars and military operations and explores their effects on individuals, groups and the Israeli society as a whole. Second, it closely examines some of the central assumptions of Social Identity Theory, one of the most comprehensive theories of group relations in the context of concrete political violence. It does so while paying special attention to highly fascinating identity components and basic social building blocks: national identification, social trust and social rifts in Israel. Methods The dissertation employs various methodologies: First, a macro-level, statistical examination of the relationship between different war outcomes and socio-national identities was conducted using two web-based experiments. Second, a qualitative analysis of Zionism in Europe and in Israel’s early years complemented a discussion of Israeli narratives of belonging, memory politics, ingredients of national pride and contemporary social challenges. Third, a quantitative micro-level analysis of the effect of successful and unsuccessful military operation on the Israeli society was conducted. The latter utilized a unique, self-compiled database, following an extensive manual content analysis , alongside data originating in annual social surveys conducted in Israel by the Guttmann institute. Knowledge gained The first empirical chapter (chapter four) was set to establish the underlying assumption upon which the dissertation is based; Namely, that different outcomes of political violence have distinctive effects on individual identities. In this chapter, predictions derived from Social Identity Theory were put into an initial macro-level analysis through two original web experiments. The latter explored the effect of different war outcomes (distinguishing between victory, defeat, stalemate and a negotiated agreement) on social and national identities . Whereas the research supported the underlying hypothesis according to which distinctive war outcomes are associated with distinctive effects when national identification is concerned, no significant differences between war outcomes were found in relation to individuals’ social identities. These results are consistent with Social Identity Theory and the self-esteem protection/enhancement strategies derived from it (BIRGing and CORFing ); the significant differences between war outcomes (mainly between victories and defeats) are explained by individuals’ tendencies to share in the glory of a successful other (to BIRG) following a positively evaluated war outcome, and to distance themselves from an unsuccessful group (to CORF), following a negatively valued war outcome. The non-significant results concerning social identities are consistent with Simmel’s conflict hypothesis suggesting that conflicting interactions strengthen the internal cohesion of pre-existing groups. In this regard, it appears as though individuals react to the conflict itself whereas its aftermath did not play any significant role. The overall outcomes obtained thus laid the foundations for an extensive micro-level analysis of the effect of outcomes of political violence on socio-national identities among Israelis. Chapter five refocused the attention on the state of Israel and the Israeli society. It provided a historical analysis of Jewish-Israeli nationalism, rooted in the Zionistic movement in Europe in the late 19th century, which preceded the establishment of the state of Israel. The analysis centered on nation-building processes which took place in Israel’s first years, namely, the constructing of a new Jewish-Israeli identity by means of institutionalizing the Hebrew language as an official language, integration of new immigrants and the role of the Israeli defense force as a melting pot. The study of the origins of Israeli national pride, both in the country’s first years and in contemporary times, complemented the discussion as it is entwined with both Jewish and Israeli identities. The analysis suggests that while Israel was established as a democracy, it was never a space of ethnic diversity. As the national home for world jury based on a Zionist narrative and highly influenced by the Holocaust, no plurality of ethnic discourses existed in Israel in over 50 years. The research describes the way state-sponsored dominant Jewish and Zionist narratives morphed into a uni-dimensional Israeli identity. This, in turn, prevented Arab-Israelis, the largest ethnic minority in Israel, from being incorporated into the Israeli society. Recurrent political violence as part of the on-going Israeli Palestinian conflict further contributed both to the exclusion of Arab-Israelis from the original Israeli narrative and to the bonding of Jewish Israelis. It was only in the last decades and against the backdrop of significant changes endured by the Israeli society that place-making processes were put on the political and social agenda. Whereas nation and community-building processes are still prominent in contemporary Israel, they now exist side by side a vibrant and vocal discourse of post-Zionism, Jewish secularism and “Israelism” which is not based on Judaism but on an Israeli cultural narrative. Persistent political violence that contributed to social fragmentation in Israel’s first decades alongside cultural commonalities between Jewish and Arab Israelis now begin to serve as a common denominator in contemporary Israeli society. If those continue to resonate among Israelis, it is thus not implausible that they would eventually substitute Judaism and Zionism as social unifiers in the process of creating a “same boat” society. Under such circumstances and with diminishing boundaries between Arab and Jewish Israelis, the former will no longer be construed as an “out-group” by the Jewish majority in Israel. Nonetheless, drifting away from the original Jewish integrator and common factor of more than 75% of the country’s population may threaten the Jewish communities of Israel with social fragmentation. Consequently, the study of the effect of political violence on both Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Israel set forth in the upcoming chapters is of great importance for the future of Israel. Chapter six set out to examine the relationship between Israelis and their nation-state following different outcomes of Israeli military operations. Special attention was paid to changes in levels of national pride among Jewish Israelis, Arab Israelis and new immigrants across a tempestuous ten-year period (2003-2013) and in conjunction with successful and unsuccessful conclusions of Israeli warfare, as perceived by the Israeli public. Using a regressing analysis of data originating in social surveys, the research tested the validity of predictions derived from Social Identity Theory in both the individual and the social levels. Results indicate that the effect of recurrent warfare on national identification among Israelis is highly mitigated by the perceived outcome of such warfare as well as by sub-group membership (ethnic/social majority vs. minority). Consistent with Social Identity Theory, an Israeli military success was highly associated with increased national identification for the general Israeli population. However, contrary to conventional wisdom and to the “minority hypothesis ”, the same effect was also registered among Israeli Arabs. While Israeli Arabs, the largest ethnic minority in Israel, might share neither the country’s collective Jewish narrative nor its Zionist ethos they are Israeli citizens who nonetheless feel a sense of belonging to the state of Israel . As such, they are a part of a larger in-group which shares personal and economic interests. Those are equally and existentially threatened when Israel is experiencing unsuccessful military operations. This positivistic evidence suggests that Israeli Arabs’ identification with the state of Israel lies in the area of “Israeliness that is beyond Jewishness”. The analysis also affirmed the existence of an “embedded identity effect” concerning national identification among Jewish Israelis; Israeli Jews, the majority ethnic group in Israel, maintained high national-identification levels regardless of the way the warfare was concluded. This finding is unsurprising considering Israel’s Jewish character and the circumstances of its creation. Whilst societies subjected to external threat may unite in the face of a common enemy, chapter seven sought to examine whether this is true in the Israeli context and if so, whether the outcomes of political violence mitigate the effect. Whereas a large scholarship examined the effect of violence on social cohesion and political tolerance in Israel, it mostly focused on Arab-Israelis and immigrant. The research presented in chapter seven studied the effect of discrepant outcomes of Israeli warfare on social cohesion, social tensions and trust between the various communities of Israel (both Jewish and non-Jewish). The research focused on the general level of social trust in society alongside six specific social rifts, prevalent in present-day Israel: the intercommunal rift (between the Israeli Jewish community and the Israeli-Arab community), the Jewish intercommunal rift (between Jews of Ashkenazi and Sephardic/Mizrachi origins), the religious rift (between orthodox and non-orthodox Jewish communities), the ideological/political rift , the socio-economic rift and the nativist tension (between native Israelis and new immigrants). Results revealed a highly significant effect of Israeli military success concerning all six social rifts and a very mild effect concerning social trust. For all but one rift (the Jewish inter-communal rift), successful termination of Israeli warfare was associated with an increased social tension between the different communities in Israel (though in different levels of significance). This unfortunate finding which points to increased fractionalization among the different communities in Israel following Israeli military successes is in line with several other studies examining the effects of political violence on political exclusionism in Israel. Whereas the literature supports the notion that in time of crisis social cohesion increases, it is not surprising to find increased tensions following military successes rather than failures. An exception to the observed rise in social tensions in Israel is the increased cohesion between Ashkenzi and Sephardic/Mizrachi Jews (the Jewish intercommunal rift). The results support the conclusion that the Jewish population, the majority ethnic group in Israel, is united behind the idea that Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people (and possibly a necessary refuge from rising anti-Semitism around the globe). A decrease in Jewish intercommunal tension following Israeli victories supports the cohesive potential of in-group pride and is consistent with the Jewish foundation and Zionistic narrative of Jewish Israelis and with the existence of an embedded Jewish-Israeli identity . As for the national level, a “rally around the flag” effect is a term used to describe the uniting power of common threats. An underlying motive for this surge in national unity is linked to patriotism, as individuals respond to threats by identifying with their in-group . However, when the crisis is over, politics and society quickly revert to normal and existing social rifts resurface. Whereas an unsuccessful termination of an Israeli military operation is likely to induce a “rally around the flag” effect, a military success demonstrates the opposite effect. Consequently, the seemingly rising tensions between various communities in Israel observed following an Israeli military success is consistent with a reverse “rally around the flag” effect and reflects the fractionalized nature of the Israeli society. Another explanation to the observed trend of increased social tensions following a successful warfare may be directly linked to the experience of in-group guilt or shame despite a successful outcome. Such gilt might lead to rising tension between those who are more/less supportive of the outcome, or perhaps feel that more should have been done to achieve a more solid outcome. Finally, the increased tensions may speak to the theorized dynamic at the heart of the present and similar works that reflects the more destructive side of pride and in-group glorification. According to that scholarship, out-group hate can even extend to people perceived to be “hostile minorities ”. Whilst the increase in intercommunal tension is expected and in line with the results of similar studies examining the effect of violence or stress on the relationships between Jewish and Arab Israelis, the increase in religious tensions, socio-economic tension and ideological tensions could be reflective of a second circle of out-group hate; Supporters of the political left alongside less observant and wealthier elements of the Israeli society , may experience in-group guilt and possibly shame despite the perceived successful outcome, thus distancing themselves from those experiencing pride at the outcome. The effect of education, in particular higher education, in reducing social tensions and increasing social trust emerges as another important finding of this research. Whether education provides a sense of optimism and control over one’s life that allows people to trust, or whether it provides opportunities for contact and networks’ creation with others, the study confirms the potential role of education in reducing social tension even in a highly diverse and conflict-torn Israeli society. Moreover, since social divisions may be exploited by political entrepreneurs, and since increasing social tensions might result in the erosion of social capital, raising the alarm would be the first step in directly addressing such important issues (for example, by policy making). Lastly, any serious peace negotiation with a Palestinian leadership would require difficult concessions to be made by both parties. As such, the way towards a peaceful conclusion of the Israeli Palestinian conflict would inevitably depend, among others, on the social strength and cohesion of the Israeli civil society.:Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1.1 Background and Motivation ................................................................................. 7 1.1.1 National Identification ............................................................................ 10 1.1.2 Social Trust ............................................................................................. 14 1.1.3 Focusing on Israel ................................................................................... 16 1.2 Prologue ............................................................................................................. 17 1.3 Contribution Scope ............................................................................................. 18 1.4 Overview of Aims and Chapters ........................................................................ 20 2. Theoretical Framework: Conflict Research, National Identification and Social Trust Part I: Conflict Research 2.1 Conflict Research ................................................................................................. 24 2.1.1 General Theory and Practices ................................................................ 25 2.1.2 Contemporary Trends and Challenges ................................................... 26 2.1.3 Looking Forward ................................................................................... 27 Part II: Belonging, Identity and the Nation 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Identity Formation ................................................................................................ 28 Social Belonging and Group Identification ......................................................... 29 The Sense of Belonging, Nationhood and Statehood .......................................... 30 2.4.1 What is a Nation? ................................................................................... 30 2.4.2 National Identification ........................................................................... 32 2.4.3 Hierarchies of National Belonging ........................................................ 33 2.4.4 The Nation State .................................................................................... 34 2.4.5 Nationhood and Statehood ..................................................................... 35 Conflict Patriotic Affinity: Conceptual Outlines ............................................................. 38 2.6.1 Between Patriotism and Nationalism ..................................................... 41 Coping With Threatened Social Identity ........................................................... 42 and Group Identification ........................................................................ 36 2 3 2.7.1 Social Identity Theory ......................................................................... 42 2.7.2 Basking In Reflected Glory ................................................................. 45 2.7.3 Cutting Off Reflected Failure .............................................................. 46 2.7.4 Self-Embedded Social Identity ............................................................ 48 2.7.5 National Identity of Ethnic Minorities ................................................ 50 Part III: Social Trust and Cohesiveness 2.8 Social Capital and Cohesion .............................................................................. 52 2.9 Unraveling the Riddle of Social Trust ............................................................... 54 2.9.1 Threats to Social Trust and Social Cohesion ....................................... 56 3. Methodology 3.1 Macro-level Analysis ......................................................................................... 60 3.1.1 Appropriateness ..................................................................................... 60 3.1.2 A Short History of Web Experiments .................................................... 61 3.1.3 Web Experiments: Advantages and Challenges .................................... 63 3.2. Micro-level analysis ........................................................................................... 69 3.2.1 Focusing on The state of Israel and Israeli Society ............................... 69 Contemporary Israeli Media .................................................................. 72 Military Censorship ............................................................................... 75 3.2.2 Episodes of High Intensity Political Violence ....................................... 75 3.2.3 Perceived Outcomes of Political Violence ............................................ 77 3.2.4 Relevant Issues Concerning the Use of Survey Data ............................ 78 Vague Concepts .................................................................................... 78 Categorizing Identities .......................................................................... 80 3.2.5 The Israeli Democracy Index ................................................................ 82 3.2.6 Control Variables ................................................................................... 83 3.3 Framing in Communication and Their Effect on Public Opinion ...................... 84 3.3.1 The Use of Emphasis and Equivalence Framing in Shaping Public Opinion .................................................................................................. 85 3.3.2 The Effect of Frames in Shaping Individual Perceptions ...................... 87 3.3.3 Assessing a Frame’s Strength in Political Settings ................................ 88 4. The Ending matters: National and Social Identification Following Discrepant War Outcomes 4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 90 4.2 Experimental Study I ........................................................................................... 93 4.2.1 Procedure and Experimental Design ..................................................... 93 4.2.2 Measures ................................................................................................ 95 4.3.3 Results .................................................................................................... 95 4.2.4 Discussion .............................................................................................. 99 Seriousness Check ................................................................................. 99 National Identity .................................................................................. 100 Social Identity ...................................................................................... 102 4.3 Experimental Study II ......................................................................................... 103 4.3.1 Using video Vs. Text in Experimental Research ................................. 103 4.3.2 Procedure and Experimental Design .................................................... 104 4.3.3 Measures .............................................................................................. 105 4.3.4 Results .................................................................................................. 106 4.3.5 Discussion ............................................................................................ 109 Seriousness Check ............................................................................... 109 National Identity .................................................................................. 109 4.4 Limitations ....................................................................................................... 110 4.5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 111 5. Focusing on the State of Israel and Israeli Society 5.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 114 5.2 Jewish Nationalism and the Zionist Movement in Europe .............................. 114 5.3 Zionism, National Identity and Hebrew Culture Following the Establishment of The State of Israel ....................................................................................... 118 5.3.1 The Israeli Defense Forces .................................................................. 119 Serving in the Israeli Defense Forces .................................................. 120 Education, Socialization and Nation Building ..................................... 121 The Effect of the IDF on the Israeli Society ........................................ 123 5.3.2 Sport as an Integrative Tool for Shaping Israeli Collective Identity ... 129 5.4 The Jewish and Democratic Nature of the State of Israel ................................ 132 4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5 Current Challenges to Contemporary “Israeliness” ........................................ 134 5.5.1 Ethnic-religious Classification of Israelis- Between Citizenship and Nationality ........................................................................................... 136 5.5.2 Israeli Nationalist Particularism ........................................................... 137 Israeli Patriotism and Ingredients of Israeli National Pride ............................. 140 5.6.1 Tzedakah, Gemilut Hasadim and Tikun Olam ..................................... 141 5.6.2 Mashav ................................................................................................. 142 5.6.3 Operation “Good Neighbor” ................................................................ 144 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 148 6. Together We Stand? Perceived Outcomes of Political Violence and National Pride 7. 6.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 150 6.2 Hypotheses ...................................................................................................... 151 6.3 Data, Measures and Method ........................................................................... 153 6.3.1 Focusing on Israel .............................................................................. 153 6.3.2 Military Operations ............................................................................ 154 6.3.3 Survey Measures: National Identification ......................................... 155 6.3.4 Perceived Outcome of Military Operation ......................................... 157 6.3.5 Control Variables ............................................................................... 158 6.4 Findings and Discussion ................................................................................ 159 6.4.1 Preliminary Findings .......................................................................... 159 6.4.2 Disaggregating the Israeli Society ..................................................... 163 6.4.3 Interaction Analysis ........................................................................... 164 6.5 Robustness Checks ......................................................................................... 169 6.5.1 Israel’s General Situation ................................................................... 170 6.5.2 Proximity to the Center of Violence .................................................. 171 6.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 172 In Us We Trust? The Effect of Military Operations on Social Cleavages and Social Cohesion in Israel 7.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 174 7.2 Hypothesis ....................................................................................................... 175 7.3 7.4 6 Data, Measures and Method ............................................................................ 179 7.3.1 7.3.2 7.3.3 7.3.4 The Israeli Society in Context ............................................................ 179 Military Operations ............................................................................ 181 Perceived Levels of Tension and Trust in the Israeli Society ........... 183 Perceived Outcomes of Israeli Military Operations .......................... 185 Control Variables .............................................................................. 185 7.3.5 Findings and Discussion .................................................................................. 186 7.4.1 7.4.2 7.4.3 Preliminary Findings ......................................................................... 187 The Effect of Individual Level and Country Level Variables on Social Tensions and Social Trust ....................................................... 189 Examining the Effect of Israeli Military Operation on Inter-group Tensions ............................................................................................. 193 Exploring the Rise and Fall of Social Trust ...................................... 197 7.4.4 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 200 7.5 8. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 203 8.1 Limitations ...................................................................................................... 210 8.2 Going forward: Ideas for Future Research ...................................................... 213 8.3 Final remarks/Epilogue ................................................................................... 215 9. References ................................................................................................................ 218 10. List of Figures .......................................................................................................... 254 Appendices A. The Evolution of Conflict Research in the 20th Century ................................. 255 B. Supplementary Material Chapter Four ............................................................ 268 B.1 Experiment I .......................................................................................... 268 B.2 Experiment II ......................................................................................... 274 B.3 Witnessing a Real Conflict as a Potential Covariate ............................. 287 C. Supplementary Material and Robustness Checks, Chapter Six ....................... 288 D. Supplementary Material and Robustness Checks, Chapter Seven .................. 308

This dissertation offers a history of the perilous American present. Through a series of timely case studies I investigate the constitutive force and present-day regeneration of political and racial violence in the United States. Drawing on a range of contemporary critical thought, "Afterlives of Violence" constellates scenes from recent works of memoir, fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and film, my principal interest in each case being to excavate the temporalities, the effects, and the disavowals of American carnage—understood less as a damaging deviation from a “great” past than as precisely that past’s unceasing, pernicious fallout. Where often violence continues to be conceived of as an event, my research and readings draw on examples from twenty-first-century American literature, politics, law, and culture to present it instead as a haunting structure that is enduring at least in part because of the very illegibility and deliberate obscuring of its aftermaths under certain idioms of thought and norms of representation. Bookended by discussions of a white supremacist’s massacre at a Charleston church (in July 2015) and of the national memorial to racial terror lynching established in Montgomery (in April 2018), the dissertation offers a series of figures for thinking through history’s afterlives—both in the grim renewal of its violences in the U.S. today and in the imaginative arts of refusal which its inheritance inspires. In the first two chapters of the dissertation, I critically explore the ways that recent African American and Native American literature maps, respectively, the residual afterlives of slavery and ongoing menace of antiblack animus, and, the blind spots in settler colonial law that simultaneously conceal and extend the violence of occupation, in particular exposing the lives of Native women to harm across time. Through extended readings of texts including Saidiya Hartman’s "Lose Your Mother," Dionne Brand’s "A Map to the Door of No Return," Louise Erdrich’s "The Round House," and Layli Long Soldier’s "WHEREAS," I demonstrate how the wounding attachments of history and the longing for a different future they prompt are, in turn, exacerbated and thwarted by injurious mnemonic and political legacies that the authors present as essentially unfinished with their lives. I also show how these texts perform a fundamental critique of liberal gestures of redress and apology, as well as concomitant invocations of closure associated with the politics of recognition. Here, the present is celebrated for its being newly distanced from a past we have come to identify as imprudent, with the meaning or substance of race additionally believed to have been at long last left behind. Quite to the contrary, the texts I analyze have us understand that these efforts too often only seek to acknowledge the traumatic specters of history in order to more quickly forget the tenacious continuing hold of their traces on modern American life. In the work of Hartman and Brand, for instance, the physical and metaphorical abyss which is the Door of No Return ensures that the losses of history remain irreparable, while Erdrich and Long Soldier each demonstrate how the precedents and aporias of settler law guarantee that they survive. Where the opening chapters are in some fashion concerned with the aftereffects of a violence often interpreted as historical, the later chapters of the dissertation shift to examine two emergent technologies of state violence: the drone and the border wall. Beyond the immediately notable racial dimension that ties them to the preceding case studies, these forms of violence also have their own genealogies, too, which I read back into them. Further, I propose that their ominous afterlives are prospectively prefigured in our own destitute times, even as I also insist the future necessarily remains undecided. Concentrating, in the first case, on the visual and temporal regimes of extraterritorial drone killing—which I argue can be revealingly likened to the death penalty in the conception of “future dangerousness” each shares—and, in the second, on the brutalist aesthetics and political rhetoric of walling plans for the U.S.-Mexico border—which in specific ways derealize the lives that this architecture is intended to target—these chapters use primary legal documents to draw out the logic and justification of preemptive and protective violence. I pay particular attention to how these respective forms of harm are frequently legitimated on the basis of their being humanitarian in character. In an extended analysis of a trio of Hollywood “drone films” I show how they troublingly come to adopt this same frame, staging targeted execution as a regrettable necessity and lesser evil, while in readings of executive orders and government reports pertaining to the southern border I unweave the misleading mobilization of human rights discourse to justify wall construction. With the assistance of decidedly more critical texts, including Solmaz Sharif’s "LOOK" and, in the context of the militarized borderlands, Sara Uribe’s "Antígona González" and Valeria Luiselli’s "Tell Me How It Ends," I provide a distinct rejoinder to this mode of thinking. I highlight the authors’ formal efforts to bring back into view, first, the ways of seeing and types of narrating that make possible the conversion of calculated erasure and cruel destitution into ethical action, and, just as importantly, the bodies affected and existences wrought in the wake of political violence. Beside its sustained insistence on the need to truly reckon with the fact that everything which has happened will never not have happened, ultimately at stake in the symphony of reflections offered by "Afterlives of Violence" are questions of how we recognize, think, describe, and, perhaps finally, refuse or resist violence. Inspired in large part by the multitemporal geographies of loss and hope, of suffering and flourishing, traced in the work of American studies and feminist scholars including Saidiya Hartman, Christina Sharpe, Colin Dayan, Avery Gordon, Patricia Williams, and Judith Butler, I wager to break the hold of the past—or to derail the perils of the present—in the service of a more just future, at minimum their multifarious and continuing afterimages of violence must first be properly pictured. Insofar as law, photography, and history must be understood as other names for the transmission of the past, I have found them useful instruments to think with in this endeavor, while literature, broadly conceived, I have interpreted as a site for the performance of thought’s suspension, its undoing, its reinauguration.

This study examines how Swedish media portrays women’s and men’s political violence. This is done by using critical discourse analysis according to Fairclough’s three dimensional model. The material that’s analyzed is 17 articles produced by some of Sweden’s largest mediahouses. Analyzing the portrayal of women’s and men’s political violence is important because identifying these is one of the first steps to contribute to an understanding of, and change of the view that women’s and men’s violence is different from each other. This study is based on Gentry and Sjoberg’s (2015) theory that women’s political violence is narrated either as mother, monster or whore and that men’s political violence is based on political or ideological reasons. This study found four different categories that explain women’s and men’s political violence. The findings show that men and women are described with gender neutral explanations or that women are mainly portrayed as either mothers or perpetrators and that men are mainly portrayed as perpetrators.

No description available.

As the Honduran presidential election of 2017 approaches, the world of 17-year-old Libertad Morazán gets louder and faster. Protests roar in every corner of Tegucigalpa. Mamí and Abuela work longer hours. Maynor, Libertad's older brother, sneaks out more than ever, carrying the dangerous secrets of a student-led movement against the government. The world only seems to slow down around Camila, Libertad's long-time friend who lately seems to hold Libi's hand and eyes two seconds too long. Libi and Cami's friendship always toed the line of something more— or did, at least, before Libertad's phone stopped working and their communication got cut to school-hours only. Libi can't help but think this is part of why Camila starts officially dating Pablo, the soccer team captain. If this isn't enough reason to desperately need her phone back, Libertad has just discovered the power of social media to speak against the conditions that keep her family— her country— in a permanent state of exhaustion and mourning. Using an anonymous Instagram account, Libertad posts short but charged poems denouncing the injustice local news outlets ignore. She finds an audience that resonates with her, but people who speak out in Honduras are rarely able to do so for long. Libertad knows this. Getting her phone back comes with a price, as both her political poetry and secret romance risk being exposed to Mamí and Abuela—the women who have sacrificed everything to raised her. The pillars of her life. In the midst of civil unrest, Libertad learns of the power and heartbreak in queerness, family, and activism. / Master of Fine Arts / Libertad is a young-adult novel.

Although the government of the United States of America was established to protect the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness among all American citizens, this thesis argues intractable gang violence in inner-city Chicago has persistently denied these rights, in turn undermining fundamental (and foundational) American political values. Thus, gang violence can be argued to represent a threat to both civil order and state legitimacy. Yet, where comparable (and generally lower) levels of community-level violence in Northern Ireland garnered the sustained attention and direct involvement of the United Kingdom's central government, the challenge posed by gang violence has been unappreciated, if not ignored, by the American federal government. In order to mobilise the political commitment and resources needed to find a durable resolution to Chicago's long and often anarchic 'uncivil war', it is first necessary to politicise the problem and its origins. Contributing to this politicisation, this thesis explains why gang violence in Chicago has been unable to capture the political imagination of the American government in a way akin to paramilitary (specifically republican) violence in Northern Ireland. Secondly, it explains how the depoliticisation of gang violence has negatively affected response, encouraging the continued application of inadequate and largely ineffective response strategies. Finally, it makes the case that, while radical, a conditional agreement-centric peace process loosely modelled on that employed in Northern Ireland might offer the most effective strategy for restoring the sense of peace and security to inner-city Chicago lost over half a century ago.

A shortcoming in the literature is the lack of information and research into how refugee children from Africa experience life in South Africa and what their degree of exposure to xenophobia is, from South Africans. This motivated the researcher to investigate the extent of xenophobia towards refugee children living in Shelters in Cape Town. A survey of refugee children was done by means of a questionnaire that assessed the forms of xenophobia and who it was that discriminated against refugee children because of their foreignness. The results of the study showed that refugee children do experience xenophobia, in various forms from different sectors of South African society. Although some of it is violent in nature, it is mostly prejudice and xenophobic comments that the children are exposed to. This research provided a baseline for more extensive research into this phenomenon. / Social Work / M.A. Diac.(Play Therapy)

While domestic fascism within the United Kingdom has never critically challenged Parliamentary sovereignty, it has decisively disrupted public order since its roots were established in the inter-war political scene. The violence provoked by Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) was one of the stimulating factors behind the enactment of the Public Order Act 1936. This Act significantly strengthened the powers of the police to regulate or proscribe varies forms of political activism. This thesis analyses the legal responses of Parliament, the police and the judiciary to interwar British fascism. In addition, by analysing the legal responses to public disorder from before and after the 1930s, it positions the BUF within their wider historical context which enables this thesis to assess and evaluate consistencies and discrepancies within the application of the law. By enhancing the historical contextualisation of the period with a critical legal lens, the principal forms of fascist propaganda are evaluated, including public processions, public meetings and the wearing of political uniform. It is argued that the application of a historico-legal methodology challenges the perception that the authorities were inherently politically biased. This thesis explores alternative factors which explain why the responses of the legal authorities appeared inconsistent in their approach to the far-Right and the far-Left. In order to critically analyse the police’s decision making process when monitoring political activism, the limitations of public order law and the nature of police discretion itself become fundamental components which offer a more balanced explanation for the appearance of political partiality within the police force.