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Rinehart “Electroconvulsive Therapy for Depression”
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]]>While conquest is outlawed per jus cogens and aggression is outlawed in word through treaties, it is still a modern practice that has shown no signs of slowing down in the decades since two massive world wars and the sequential creation of two international governing bodies. While major world powers see no negative repercussions in major economies or regional influences, no action against conquering will be taken. This will be proven through a compliance test of six instances where conquest occurred in Cyprus, Western Sahara, East Timor, Kuwait, Ukraine, and Palestine.
The selected cases illustrate the varied responses the international community has on conquest, proving that jus cogens and anti-aggression treaties are not adequate in outlawing a millennia-old tradition. Compliance with the jus cogens rule will be determined by whether the invading state begins settling the new territory or orchestrates forced movement of local populations, forcefully alters the local government in any way, or maintains any legal control over any portion of the invaded state. The most important principle of conquest is that it must be a state-issued annexation, with the purpose of acquiring new territory clearly in mind (McDougal 2015, 1851). Compliance with any of these principles will indicate an act of conquest and not simply occupation.
Examples of earlier legal treaties can be seen throughout the 20th century, showing that conquest has been an issue for some time. The first international legal body, the League of Nations, was established as a preventative council so that another world war, started by conquest, would no longer be an option. They created and accepted documents such as Article 10 in the Covenant of the League of Nations, which banned territorial acquisition by force and stated that the status quo could only be changed by agreement (Korman 1996, 183). However, even at the time, there was some dispute as to the exact meaning of the article.
World War II is evidence of the built-in ambiguity of Article 10 and continued conquest, as not twenty years passed before chaos covered the globe once again. After, the League of Nations evolved into the modern United Nations (UN). Double standards began coming out soon as well. The US had been circulating bills such as the Atlantic Charter since 1941, calling to eliminate territorial gain once more, while keeping in mind that they had no intention of following through (Korman 1996, 165).
In modern times, there are only three forms of legal territory gain. They are cession, accretion, and occupation. Cession is when a treaty is reached and land is willingly given from one state to another, without the use of force. Accretion is simply the natural addition of land mass through geological processes. A distinction will be made between occupation and conquest, as the two can appear very similar at times. Occupation will be defined as a temporary military takeover of a local government, with no intention of extended physical presence, no alteration of local government, and full relinquishment of local territory upon foreign withdrawal (International Committee of the Red Cross 2004). Anything other than these three forms is considered an aggressive act of conquest, and is seen as illegal.
The history of Cyprus ever since the Great War has been troubled at best, with constant disputes between themselves, Greece, and Turkey. This is in large part due to the geographical location of the state, being perfectly positioned between these two states that have been developing alongside each other and at odds with each other since 492 BC. Cyprus is a relatively new country, only gaining independence from Britain in 1960.
It is not surprising then that in 1983, Turkey made a move to annex at least a portion of the state by flooding the area with thousands of settlers and establishing a puppet government named the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”. The TRNC was immediately condemned as illegal by the international community. The annexation controls roughly 30% of Northern Cyprus and continued the historical pattern of Cyprus being unable to have unfettered independence (Mallinson 2010, xv).
While the international community did not accept the TRNC and wanted Turkey ousted from Cyprus, major world powers such as the US and Britain saw it expedient to legitimize the hostile takeover (Mallinson 2010, 38). Greece had made it known that if Cyprus was not in the new batch of countries to be admitted to the UN, it would bar entrance for the other countries. The US could not give the entirety of Cyprus to Turkey; doing so would cause international outrage. However, the US also needed Turkey as an ally. The US needed Turkey to be their political foothold into the Middle East. With the US refusing to chastise Turkey, no actions could be taken and the TRNC was legitimized, if only by being ignored by the rest of the world. While no countries formally recognized the TRNC, no countries could demand its dissolution. While still not a recognized, independent state, the TNRC is still alive.
The need for a foothold was not the only reason the US was so eager to look the other way with Turkey’s actions in Cyprus. The US and a few other Western powers were planning their invasion of Iraq and were desperately trying to woo Turkey to join them. They could use Turkey, a bordering country, for easy access into Iraq, reducing the amount of resources they would need to carry out their mission. Even more diabolical, though, was the US and British plan to undermine the EU in favor of NATO, and allowing Turkey to agitate the EU through Cyprus would do just that (Mallinson 2010, 39). It comes as no surprise then that there was no forward motion on this issue for decades after.
Only recently has the situation of the conquest showed signs of a peaceful end. For years, the Annan Partition scheme was the only diplomatic evidence of talks between the two parties, and all it did was further legitimize Turkish presence on the island. Cyprian President Makarios conceded a large degree of autonomy to Turkish Cypriots and formed a non-aligned bicommunal federal republic, hoping Turkey would reciprocate with some concessions as well (Mallinson 2010, 82). Unfortunately, none came until recently, with Turkey and Cyprus set to have peace talks in Switzerland this month of November 2016 (Kambas 2016).
Turkey complies with every measure to deem their actions in Cyprus to be conquest rather than simply occupation. Turkey flooded Northern Cyprus with hundreds of thousands of settlers to create a stronger Turkish culture. Turkey created a totally new government, the TRNC, as an extension of Turkish government on the island of Cyprus. Finally, Turkey fully annexed one-third of the island as claims it as Turkish land. Inversely, Turkey has upheld very few of the laws occupying states are held to in the Fourth Geneva Convention, thereby eliminating any chance of their conquest being considered occupation.
Western Sahara, or the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, is one of few entities known as a non-self-governing territory in the UN. The region was ruled by Spain through 1976, when the UN increased worldwide pressure to decolonize. Spain had no intention of letting Western Sahara become a self-governing entity, despite a multitude of local efforts to assert self-rule. The SADR was recognized by the ICJ as an independence-worthy colony, but the US and France instead favored a Moroccan annexation. This was an effort to gain favor in the African North West on the part of the west.
While all of this was going on in SADR, Spain was experiencing fierce domestic upheaval as the throne had almost drained Spanish reserves. In an effort to strengthen ties with their neighbor Morocco, Spain opted to give the SADR to Morocco after the Madrid Accords of 1975. This was in part due to a Moroccan threat to organize a mass march into Western Sahara to claim the land through settlers, known as the Green March, regardless of Spanish cooperation. SADR was not in agreement. There was already an established nationalist guerilla force, Polisario, that had been pushing Spain and any would-be Western occupiers out for years. Polisario was experiencing wild local success as a coalition of Sahrawi nationalists, spanning both Left and Right of the political spectrum, progressives and conservatives alike (Zunes 2010, 115). Not surprisingly, once Morocco squeezed control of the region out of a dying Spain, a liberation war ensued.
Morocco, upon gaining quasi-legal control over SADR, went through with their threatened Green March and sent thousands of Moroccan settlers into northern Western Sahara. Natives began a fiery war for independence that continues to today. SADR experienced international acceptance, despite Morocco’s efforts to dissuade potential allies. SADR was even admitted to the Organization for African Unity in 1982, backed by loyal ally Algeria. Morocco pushed back and threatened to tear the OAU apart, forcing Western Sahara out shortly after their entrance. The OAU did play a major role in the UN finding SADR independence worth pursuing (Zunes 2010, 174).
In 1991 the first UN Envoy specifically set aside to handle the conquest-hungry Morocco made marginal gains through a proposed Settlement Plan. This plan did a good job of favoring both parties, allowing Moroccan settlers to be counted as part of SADR for legislative purposes, but also letting SADR have an independence referendum where only natives would be allowed to vote. Negotiations went so far as to become UN Security Council Resolution 690, also known as MINURSO. Negotiations failed to proceed, however, and the resolution was quickly abandoned and the UN Mission in Western Sahara was abandoned. There was good news though, as a cease fire was agreed upon and has been in effect through this diplomatic push.
Morocco and Western Sahara soon engaged in a conflict similar to the Israel-Palestine conflict on the other side of Africa. International efforts to find peace were quickly exhausted, causing even long-time SADR ally Algeria to question their independence movement. In 2000, the UN made another large push to settle the issue, sending another mission to the area. The Baker Plan came into creation. It called for an interim SADR government voted in by pre-1975 locals, with a referendum occurring five years later, with all current citizens voting. Surprisingly, Polisario went for the deal, but Morocco denounced it. This proved to be a benefit to Polisario though, as the state fighting for independence gained a great deal of international approval for their efforts at diplomacy (Zunes 2010, 121).
Ever since the failed Baker Plan, the Moroccan-Saharan relationship has only worsened. Due to the UN pullout, Morocco has essentially gained de facto control of Western Sahara. All efforts on the part of Western Sahara have fallen short as well, since the US and France continue backing Morocco. There was an especially strong peak of violence in 2004 when a native political movement led to an all-out intifada against increasingly oppressive Moroccan forces. What is more, SADR supporters now view the once-glorious MINURSO as an accessory to the brutal occupation instead of the liberator it once was (Zunes 2010, 190).
Much like Turkey in Cyprus, Morocco sent massive amounts of government-sponsored settlers into the region that they want to annex. Also like Turkey, they did so to strengthen Moroccan influence in the region and to hopefully skew any referendum for independence. While Morocco did not establish a de facto government in Western Sahara, they do exert an immense amount of political sway in how other states interact with SADR. This negates any need for Western Sahara to negotiate foreign agreements and means they are not completely sovereign. Finally, while Western Sahara is still not universally recognized as part of Morocco, it does not have the international support needed to assert true independence. Therefore, it can be determined that Western Sahara was conquered by Morocco.
III. East Timor
East Timor is another example of a smaller region that has been oppressed and occupied throughout modern history. Portugal colonized the island as far back as the 16th century, which, while being a common practice at the time, was not well accepted by the natives living there. The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor succeeded in declaring independence in November of 1975, but was invaded by Indonesia just nine days later. Indonesia used the pretext of the Truman Doctrine to overtake the country, claiming danger of a communist regime. What is more, Australia’s Prime Minister at the time directly told the Indonesian President Suharto that, with local consent, East Timor should be part of Indonesia (Simpson 2005, 286).
Indonesia wasted no time. During the transition period before full Timorese independence, Indonesia began spreading propaganda against the dominant Fretilin political party. Indonesia even went so far as to send military groups guised as opposition forces to provoke conflict seemingly within the country itself (Simpson 2005, 293). The US and Australia simply observed. When Indonesia saw that there was no way to justify their invasion through a civil war, they launched an all-out invasion nine days after Timorese independence.
Twenty-five years of suffering followed the invasion. While the US and Australia watched, the Revolutionary Front fought to re-liberate their homeland. Indonesia responded with ferocious oppression. Famine came into the conquered 27th province of Indonesia, and massacres totaling some 200,000 people were carried out to oppress liberation movements. Just one year later Guinea-Bissau introduced General Assembly resolution 3485 to the UN, condemning Indonesian actions and calling for an immediate withdrawal (Simpson 2005, 298). Australia surprised the assembly by voting in favor of the resolution, while the US and most of Europe voted against Indonesian withdrawal.
Indonesia gave the appearance of a withdrawal when the resolution became internationally vetted; instead they established local militia factions to continue the work of death and oppression in East Timor (Tanter 2006, 17). In 1999 international efforts finally came into motion and Australia sent in peacekeepers to ensure that Indonesia was leaving the region ahead of a referendum vote for independence. Not surprisingly, East Timor voted for freedom and in the ensuing months Indonesia performed mass-deportations to try and ensure that East Timor would not be a stable country and have their freedom revoked. East Timor achieved full independence three years later, after the region has been stabilized by an interim UN government, with native Timorese clamoring for justice after attempted genocide (Tanter 2006, 17).
With so much evidence from the international community, Indonesia’s actions in East Timor are readily seen as conquest. While Indonesia did not sponsor mass-settlement in East Timor, they did perform mass-deportations to disrupt the local population. Indonesia also incorporated East Timor as an official province of the state, an obvious act of annexation. As a province of Indonesia, East Timor had little effective governmental control, despite a strong local political movement. Ultimately, the flagrant nature of Indonesia’s conquering of East Timor is what requited a loud international response from all states except the US and Australia, those most interested in a “dependable” government rule.
The case of Iraq invading and annexing Kuwait is included as a case study because it is the only conquest that resulted in a coalition force forcefully removing the invader from their new territory. Iraq and Kuwait never had good relations: Iraq saw Kuwait as a militarily weak neighbor who exerted more political pressure than was merited. Iraq was seeking a more powerful position in the region after stalemating with Iran in war. Iraq also needed funding for military and infrastructure overhauls to make the state more competitive. Iraqi president Saddam Hussein saw Kuwait as the perfect target, as it was the weakest among Iraqi creditors (Gow 1993, 18). Kuwait was also the weakest member of OPEC, which had decided to lower petroleum prices, crippling Iraq’s source of income. It is important to note that while these conditions were present, the decision to conquer caught the world off-guard (Gow 1993, 16).
Iraq entered Kuwait on August 2, 1990, and very shortly thereafter His Highness Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabeh was banished from the state he was supposed to rule. Kuwait had next to no military, making the complete Iraqi takeover a speedy process. By the end of August, Iraq had absorbed Kuwait as its 19th province and had established an administrative structure in the region. Having lost all political and territorial sovereignty, Kuwait had officially been conquered. This caused outrage in the international community, with the UN Security Council forming the first unanimous resolution, Resolution 662, demanding immediate Iraqi withdrawal (Gow 1993, 22). Iraq was driven back to their own borders and Kuwait was again an independent state nine months later. While the conquest did not last a great length of time, it still constitutes complete government takeover.
The fact that Kuwait was conquered is indisputable. What is interesting about this case is why the international community responded like they did. Of interest is the eagerness the US had in liberating a tiny Gulf state. Up until the invasion, the US and Kuwait had very rocky diplomatic ties. The US wanted to have better relations with Kuwait, who was a major oil producer in the region and a member of the lucrative OPEC. Once conquered, the US saw the perfect opportunity to gain favor in Kuwait’s eyes and have a political lever besides Israel in the Middle East. Cooperation with the US following liberation was part of the deal for freedom (Peterson 2007).
Another point that should be observed is that while third-world countries in the region suffered economic losses following Western retaliation, the US found itself $50 billion higher in direct capital inflow in the new economic market that formed (Gow 1995, 10). The sharp increase can be attributed to President Bush, who used this as an opportunity to present the US plans for a New World Order full of justice and security to the world. Kuwait was the opportune moment to begin the implementation of this New Order where the US was essentially wired into the center of everything. Not only did the US find retaliation advantageous economically, but also as a political springboard for future international relations. It was the perfect opportunity for the US to be the world police and save a state in distress.
While there were obvious reasons for international intervention on behalf of Kuwait, the gains made by the US show ulterior motives. In the previous three examples, the most the US ever did was either approve of the conquest or half-heartedly tell the aggressor to stop. This is one of the few times the world powers came together to reprimand a takeover, and it is also one of the few times where obvious benefits were seen after the crisis was handled. Conquest is accepted if it does not affect the world powers directly. Inversely, conquest is only allowed when it benefits world powers in some way.
The history of Russia and Crimea is long and bloody, as Crimea is a region full of turmoil and conflict. Once an independent country, Ukraine was conquered first by the USSR and Poland at the end of World War I. During the Second World War, Ukraine was hit particularly hard with large-scale killings and deportations occurring from the advancing Nazi army from the West and the belligerent USSR to the East. After the war, the USSR kept a tight fist on the region, which was undergoing a political revival from democratized neighbors to the west. To solidify relations, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev extended the new Union Treaty. However, this came at a poor time when Ukrainian politics were in flux (Solchanyk 2001, 40). Ukranians opted out of reunifying and instead broke off from the USSR in 1991.
Since independence, Ukraine has struggled to maintain independence from Russia as relations between the two states remained tense. Russia was particularly uneasy when Ukraine began integrating itself with the Commonwealth of Independent States, former members of the USSR (Solchanyk 2001, 65). Further integration with the West in 1995 made Russia nervous about becoming isolated in the region (Solchanyk 2001, 92). For roughly two decades Ukraine’s economy has struggled and they struggle to maintain diplomatic ties with Russia. President Yanukovych, who had served previous terms, received an invitation to join the EU in 2013, but he declines it, instead opting to promote ties with Russia. Intense rioting and protests followed, lasting for months and drawing Russian soldiers into the region and driving Yanukovych out of the country for acting against the popular will (McDougal 2015, 1847).
What followed was a swift Russian entrance into Ukraine. Russia sent more soldiers into the area to “control” the rioting populations. Shortly following, there was a referendum within the country on whether to reunify with Russia or not. The Crimean parliament reasserted its independence from Russia. However, the referendum came back with the majority saying to rejoin Russia. Then-interim President Turchynov and the international community declared that Russia had fixed the referendum results (McDougal 2015, 1848). Russia proceeded to annex Crimea just months later and still has military control over the eastern portion of the state.
The Russian takeover of Ukraine is included because of how blatantly Russia went against all international norms and domestic laws in both countries. In annexing Crimea, Russia violated a years-old treaty with the state, and also acted in aggression, violating the UN Charter and the UN Declaration of Principles. The way in which Russia attempted to absorb Ukraine also went against local Crimean laws of independence and legal rights, especially with the referendum having been declared illegal. What is most interesting is that Russia even broke their own established legislation for the absorption of foreign states (McDougal 2015, 1850).
These factors demonstrate Russian compliance with the parameters for conquest. Russia was importing citizens into Ukraine even before the rioting began, and dramatically increased the flow once the state began weakening. Russia also asserted government control over the already-established parliament. In addition to this, Russia forcefully took the Eastern portion of Crimea and placed it under Russian military protection, effectively shutting it out from Ukrainian control. Finally, the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta published a piece just before the invasion explaining what Russia was going to do to preserve the status quo of the region, which was to reabsorb Crimea (McDougal 2015, 1866). This article shows that Russia conscientiously acted to annex new territory with no intention of temporary occupation. This, per the definition given at the beginning of this paper, demonstrates complete compliance with the requirements of conquest.
The international community, observing the blatant and shameless act of conquest, could do nothing but watch. Russia is a dominant world power, wielding veto power in the Security Council. This means that the Security Council alone could not pass any legislation or formal reprobation against one of their own. The UN moved for a General Assembly resolution, but they could never get anything with physical consequences to come to fruition. All the international community could do was boycott Russian exports, particularly oil. This case shows perfectly why when one world power approves of conquest, or even performs it themselves, there is no real legislation or punishment in place to make the aggressor rescind their decision.
The history of the infamous Israel-Palestine crisis is well known. Within a year of being a sovereign state, free from British rule, Israel came under attack from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon from 1948-1949. Before the war, Israel, Palestine, and the international community had agreed upon the Partition Plan. This divided modern-day Israel between Israel and Palestine, crudely drawn to imitate the pockets of each group found across the state. After the first war, Israel expanded to hold almost all western Israel. In 1967 Israel launched a preemptive attack on Egypt in Gaza, Jordan on the West Bank, and Syria in the Golan Heights. Successful once more, Israel unofficially grew to its current size.
At the time of the 1967 war, Jordan had annexed the West Bank, lending to its name, and Egypt had annexed Gaza. After having lost two wars in a row, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt all signed peace agreements known as the Camp David accords with Israel that effectively gave the acquired territory to Israel for a transitional period that would last no more than five years, but it was struck down by the UN because Palestinian representatives had not participated in the negotiations. While Israel and the surrounding states came to peace, the Israeli-captured territories were no longer under direct legal control of anybody.
To this day, Palestine is not recognized as a regular sovereign state, being granted observer-only status in the UN General Assembly. While there are many issues to be resolved in the questionable acquisition of the land, Israel claims the territories, apart from Gaza, to be of disputed ownership. Palestinians themselves claim Israeli acts as a vernacular of post colonialism (Talhami 2014, 303). According the definition given at the outset of the study, Israel is not an occupier, but a conqueror of Palestine.
Israel is well known for the proliferation of the settler movements from Israel into disputed Palestine. While not directed by the state, these settler movements have been supported at times by Israel (Mendelsohn 2014, 502), fitting the first requirement for compliance with conquest. Israel has officially withdrawn from Gaza, but still exerts substantial governmental control over the West Bank, where a local government has been elected but deemed unfit for stable rule due to their inability to maintain control and accept international law (Lerner 2015, 6). Finally, not only did Israel essentially annex the West Bank by establishing checkpoints and visa stations between Palestine and Jordan, but they did so with the purpose of taking over the land. Otherwise, they never would have pushed that far after the 1967 War. While it can be deemed a separate entity, the fact that you are given an Israeli stamp in your passport indicates that at least Israel recognized Palestine as an absorbed territory.
Overall, international cries have come up against Israel for taking the land in the first place, with additional cries against the human rights violations occurring in the conquered areas. However, no international coalition force has come in to force the Israelis out and restore sovereignty to the Palestinians. That is because the US is the biggest supporter of Israeli policy and practice. The US is a veto-wielding member of the Security Council and can therefore strike down any resolutions aimed at real punishment against Israel, and is a strong deterrent against a non-US coalition, as the US would have to help defend their ally.
The US defends Israel with such vigor because of how useful the state is for staging Middle Eastern missions. The US has a close ally in the middle of a volatile region and will do everything possible to maintain that position. Not only is the location strategic, Israel is also one of the strongest states in the region, making them a valuable ally in any local conflict. Because a world super power sees the conquering as acceptable and advantageous, no legal or military action is yet to be brought to Israel’s attention.
Conclusion
While each of the states presented have varying details of how the conquest occurred as well as the results of those conquests, it is clear that they all share the defining factors of some form of state settlement, governmental overthrow, and state-recognized annexation. Every one of these cases is an example of modern-day land acquisition by conquering. While it might seem that with a case arising about once a decade that it is not a common occurrence, we have a very comparable rate of conquering compared to even 300 years ago when there would be an empire or two that would conquer in waves. It is not a new thing that is occurring, nor does it appear to be a dying trend in the international community.
Many of these issues are still ongoing, such as the cases of Israel and Palestine, Russia and Ukraine, and Morocco and Western Sahara. None of these cases shows any sign of being resolved soon, demonstrating again that the issue of conquest was not eradicated decades ago as the UN had hoped. The only thing that has changed for the most part is how countries go about making territorial gains. Cases such as Ukraine and Western Sahara show how often it starts as a political encroachment and persuasion and not storming the borders such as Indonesia or Israel. There is a subtler approach that makes it harder for the international community to eradicate.
It is worth mentioning as well that while some countries commit to taking a parcel of land, others, such as the US, let locals rule themselves and own the country they live in. However, the US will do everything possible to influence and control the local government. In the past seventy years, the US has attempted to overthrow over sixty foreign governments, with a handful of physical invasions to restore “peace” to the ailing state.
Some cases of this that are of importance are Iran in 1953, Afghanistan in the 80s, and Iraq in 2003. Every one of these governments was toppled directly by US efforts. While the regimes in charge at the time of overthrowal were not always humane or examples of international courtesy, the US still acted in aggression, breaking UN Charter Article 2(4) as well as the host of treaties presented at the beginning of this study. While not considered outright conquest, as these instances do not meet any of the outlined parameters of compliance, the purpose behind the interventions was the same.
The US has been the dominant world player since World War II, competing with Russia for regional and world power. As mentioned above, the ousted leaders were not exemplary people, but the governments that replaced them were sometimes even worse. The defining characteristic is that in nearly every case, the new government came out as strongly in favor of more unified US relations. The US has been participating in a sort of neo-colonization where it is not land that is possessed, but political leaders and thereby governments. This avoids the legal issues of outright occupancy or conquest, and it reduces the cost of conquering lands across the globe.
Instances of conquest are not uncommon, but the instances of this neo-colonization are infinitely more so. Russia is the other majority-contributor of political reconstruction. Every war of consequence since World War II has led to another country being restructured to fit the US needs and expectations. Examples include the fragile Iraqi government, the Iranian democracy for most of the 20th century, as well as a few South American countries.
If the UN is serious about eliminating all forms of conquest it cannot rely on the jus cogens rules to redirect territory-hungry states. At the current rate, conquest will continue to pop up around the globe for a long time to come. Serious measures need to be taken to eliminate the incentives of land acquisition and the socially acceptable illegality of the act, starting with the Security Council. Once the leading members can determine actual punishments for offending countries, the trend may begin to die down. Until that happens, any conquest that does not disrupt the bigger political and economic picture will go unnoticed.
Works Cited
Gow, James. 1993. Iraq, the Gulf Conflict, and the World Community. London, UK: Brassey’s (UK) Ltd.
International Committee of the Red Cross. 2004. “Occupation and International Humanitarian Law: Questions and Answers.” Accessed November 8, 2016. https://www.icrc.org/eng /resources/documents/misc/634kfc.htm.
Kambas, Michele. 2016. “Deal on Cyprus Reunification Closer Than Ever: U.N. Envoy.” Reuters, Nov 1. Accessed November 2, 2016. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyprus-talks-un-idUSKBN12W4NW.
Korman, Sharon. 1996. The Right of Conquest. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Lerner, Michael. 2015. “Repenting for What Israel Did to Gaza—Without Condoning the Wrongs Committed by Hamas.” Tikkun: 30, no. 3: 5-10.
Mallinson, William. 2010. Partition Through Foreign Aggression: The Case of Turkey in Cyprus. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
McDougal, Trevor. 2015. “New Imperialism: Evaluating Russia’s Acquisition of Crimea in the Context of National and International Law.” Brigham Young University Law Review 2015, no. 6:1847-1888.
Mendelsohn, B. 2014. “State Authority in the Balance: The Israeli State and the Messianic Settler Movement.” International Studies Review 16, no. 4: 499-521.
Peterson, J.E. 2007. Review of US-Kuwaiti Relations, 1961-1992: An Uneasy Relationship by Chookiat Panaspornprasit. International Journal of Middle East Studies 39, no. 4 (November 2007): 678-679.
Simpson, Brad. 2005. “’Illegally and Beautifully’: The United States, the Indonesian Invasion of East Timor and the International Community, 1974-76.” Cold War History 5, no. 3: 281-315.
Solchanyk, Roman. 2001. Ukraine and Russia: The Post-Soviet Transition. Oxford, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Talhami, Ghada Hashem. 2015. Review of Life in Occupied Palestine, edited by Cynthia G. Franklin, Morgan Cooper, and Ibrahim G. Aoude. Arab Studies Quearterly 37, no. 3:300-308.
Tanter, Richard, Desmond Ball, and Gerry van Kunken, eds. 2006. Masters of Terror: Indonesia’s Military and Violence in East Timor. Oxford, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Zunes, Stephen. 2010. Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
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]]>The post Violence against Women: An Interdisciplinary Approach by Iren Boyarkina appeared first on e.g.: A Journal of Exemplary Undergraduate Scholarship.
]]>Violence against women is one of the world’s global problems: according to the United Nations, about 35% of women in the world have experienced at least once in their life physical or sexual violence. Violence against women causes physical, sexual, reproductive and mental ill health and in some cases leads to the victim’s death. According to the statistics, 102 women were killed in Italy in 2012.[1] According to the Italian National Statistics Institute’ survey conducted in 2015, at least 6,788,000 women in Italy became victims of physical or sexual violence. To deal with this problem effectively, it is necessary to understand the main factors contributing to such a high violence rate, diminish them, as well as to elaborate specific measures for victims’ support and rehabilitation. In other words, a complex interdisciplinary approach is necessary in order to change public opinion, legislation, economics, medical assistance, etc. In this respect, the exchange of positive experience in combatting the violence against women on the international level is very important. It means both greater visibility for survivors of gendered violence as well as governments and legislators discussing resources and their varied approaches to decrease the rates of violence against women.
The present paper analyses some of the specific factors contributing to the violence against women in Italy (with special focus on the Southern regions) and reviews some measures and proposals aimed at combatting the latter in all its forms, particularly physical, sexual, economical, and psychological.
Striking regional differences are common in many countries in the world but Italy’s socioeconomic discrepancy between North and South is peculiar because of its longevity. This division is also manifested in the term coined to refer to the South of Italy: Mezzogiorno (south), which comprises eight regions: Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Calabria, Puglia, Basilicata, Sardinia, and Sicily. The differences in the economic development of Northern and Southern Italy allow some economists to speak about the existence of two economies in Italy, the former based mainly on industry and the latter based mainly on tourism and much less developed.[2] The economic development in the South is also hampered by its deteriorating infrastructures: many roads are in very poor condition, and “[r]ailways in the South include Italy’s oldest, opened in 1839.”[3] Also, “Most of Italy legs behind Europe in terms of digital infrastructure, but the South is especially backward.”[4] Needless to say, that infrastructures are extremely important for the development of the touristic sector, the only one which keeps the economy in the South afloat. However, the funds reserved for the development of the local infrastructures are often misused due to the high level of corruption and infiltration of mafia elements.
The low economic development in the South inevitably influences negatively the local labour market. Indeed, “Employment in the South is much lower than in any country in the European Union: at 40%; in the north, it is 64%. Female employment in the Southern Italy is just 33%, compared with 50% nationally […].[5] The situation is aggravated by the negative demographic trends such as lower birth rate in the south (1.4 children per woman against 1.5 in the north) and emigration northward and abroad. According to Istat, over the next 50 years the south could lose over 4.2 million residents, a fifth of its population, to the north or abroad.[6]
The striking differences between the north and south refer not only to the economic development but to the cultural differences as well. One should not also forget about criminality and organised mafia in the south, especially in Clabria, Sicily, Campania, and the penetration of the mafia-type behaviour into all spheres of daily life, a fact which influences the culture and mentality in the south and is exported as well.
Violence against women is closely connected to inequality of sexes and gender discrimination. Strikingly enough, it seems that the feminist movement, which started in the United Kingdom and the United States of America almost a century ago, still hasn’t arrived yet to Italy, especially to the South where the inequality of women compared to men is evident in all spheres of life: social, economic, political, familial, etc. From the economic point of view: in Italy the unemployment rate is much higher among women and reaches its maximum in the South, as it is demonstrated above. In the private sector, women are paid less for the same job done by men; the average salary among men is 1556€, and among women it is 1192€.[7] While the current UK Prime Minister Teresa May (known for her feminist positions) raised the issue of the equal salary for men and women as far back as 2008, no initiatives of this kind can be observed in Italy. As far as illegal employment is concerned, which is currently flourishing in Italy, again, the highest rate is among women. In the political sphere, it is possible to speak about the exclusion of women from the social and political life. According to the statistics, only 14% of mayors in Italy are women, mainly in the small communities.[8] The discrimination of women is most obvious in the government: the representation of women in the Italian government is very low. Only recently ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi appointed at least several women ministers—a good progressive tradition to follow.
In the most obvious way, the inequality of women is manifested in the family life, again, especially in the South. According to the long lasting cultural tradition in the South, a woman should stay at home and take care of husband and children. While this tendency, rather common in many countries before the Second World War, changed in the second half of the 20th century, in the Southern Italy it is still actual nowadays. Indeed,
it is still a widely spread conviction among Italian men that a woman or a mother cannot be ambitious and make her career, she must divide these two spheres. This explains unjust and precarious conditions of women in Italy. About 2.3 m of women cannot work due to the family reasons, 40% of them have a high school education or a university degree, 45% live in the South.[9]
Needless to say, a woman who stays at home and takes care of her family is completely economically dependent on her husband, and hence, very vulnerable. She is more apt to suffer in silence from physical, sexual or psychological violence simply because she is not able to leave her husband due to her lack of economic independence. In the South, it is the sign of a men’s social prestige if his wife does not need to work. Therefore, men try to encourage their wives to stay at home and take care of the family. However, here the double standard comes into play. First of all, a housewife is very dependent economically, and hence much easier to control and manipulate. She easily becomes a victim of psychological violence: her work about the house is constantly criticized; she is accused of being a bad mother or bad wife. It is a well-known fact that many Southern Italian men are much too attached to their mothers; they are in fact called “mammoni.”[10] Hence, whatever his wife does, his mother always does it better. Also, a wife can be accused of living on her husband’s money, of managing the money improperly, etc. It is hardly possible to repair the situation by going to work because then a women can easily be accused of being unfaithful (Southern Italians have a reputation for being very jealous) or of abandoning her children and that again causes psychological violence against her.
The discrimination against women and double moral standards applied to them in society are even more explicit in the Italian legislation, which until recently used to punish (or promote?) the “murder of honour” with an illusory imprisonment of 3-7 years:
Anyone who causes death of his wife, daughter or sister when discovers an illegal flesh relation and in the state of affect, caused by the insult to him directly or the honour of his family, is subject to the imprisonment for 3-7 years. The same punishment is applied to anyone who kills a person which is involved in the illegal flesh relation with his wife, daughter or sister. Art. 587, Penal Code.
The imprisonment for 3-7 years in reality was even shorter due to the fact that Italian prisons are always overcrowded so prisoners can be released by amnesty.
This law with a medieval flavour confirms and reflects a long-standing view of a woman as a second-rate being. It demonstrates clearly that a life of a woman in Italy has very little value compared not even to a life of a man, but even to his illusory “honour.” This double moral standard and discrimination against women becomes even more obvious if one remembers the international fame of Italian men as unfaithful women hunters. (e.g. Casanova, Don Giovanni, Latin lover, etc.) One cannot help thinking of brilliant French comedies with legendary Luis de Funes, “Gendarmes in New York.” While the Italian gendarme is trying to court a woman on the ship, he says: “Everybody says that we are ladies’ men…and it is true.” He is smiling and obviously is very proud of being considered a Casanova.” The hypocrisy and cynicism of the double standard lies in the fact that while an Italian man is proud of his extra-conjugal relations, he thinks he has a moral right to kill or injure his wife, daughter or sister even in a case even of a slight suspicion of infidelity. Moreover, to further comprehend the gender discrimination implied by Art. 587, one should not forget that usually it was not applied to women. Upon discovering the infidelity, an Italian woman could do nothing but, at most, commit suicide to protect her honour.
A legitimate question in this case is what are the remaining consequences of this law, abolished more than thirty years ago. Antonela Massaro, a Professor of Criminal Law at the University Roma Tre, observes that this law was abolished because it
didn’t correspond anymore to the sociocultural model which was widely spread over the territory of Italy. Obviously, the signature of a legislator alone cannot put an end or modify the reality deeply rooted, first of all, (I do not want to fell into general stereotypes) in the South of Italy.[11]
Indeed, even if the article 587 was abolished in 1981, it is not so easy to eliminate and eradicate the consequences of this legislative practice. It is easier to eliminate the law than the idea, which still abides in the minds of (especially Southern) Italian men who believe they have a moral right to kill or injure a woman if they manage to justify it with her (even illusory) infidelity. For this reason in the Southern Italian men (or men from the South of Italy who have emigrated to the north or abroad) are constantly accusing women of infidelity, which apart from being offensive, still has an intimidating connotation, since until recently such accusations would signify death with little consequence for a man. Interestingly enough, as a rudiment of this discriminating law, when the cases of domestic violence and violence against women are presented in the court in Italy, the accused and their lawyers are still accusing women of infidelity in the attempt to justify their acts of violence.
However, even a brief analysis of the Italian legislative system reveals that even after the abrogation of Article 587, a man committing an act of violence against women still has a big chance to get an illusory punishment or to avoid it altogether. There are several reason for that. First is the high level of bureaucracy and corruption in the Italian legislative system. Second is the court case processing times in Italy are too long; for example, a simple divorce case in general lasts between 10 and 15 years. In case the judge assigns the house temporarily to a victim of violence, it is a general practice in Italy that the man in most cases accuses her of damaging the house and property, thus continuing the acts of psychological and economical pressure on the victim and children.
Given that the majority of violence acts against women occur at home, it is very difficult to prove these acts altogether. However, even if the case of violence or feminicide is finally proven, the court decisions can be rather unanticipated, as in the recent case of an Italian Army soldier Salvatore Parolisi, who killed his wife in 2011 by stabbing her 35(!) times. Interestingly enough, in 2016 the court did not consider 35 stabs to be cruelty and rejected it as an aggravation motive.[12]
Almost a year ago, following the international experience in the field, a law on stalking and on feminicide was introduced in Italy. Hopefully, it will help to further reduce the number of victims of violence among women.
A female victim of violence faces problems already at the early stage of reporting the case of violence to the police; in Italy the main reasons could be the pressure of the family and the lack of women’s economic autonomy. Since the majority of violence acts are performed by husbands and companions,[13] it means that a victim must leave the house and be able to maintain herself and children. This task becomes very difficult if not impossible considering the employment rates for women cited earlier in the paper. In general, in 2015 in the age group 20-64, six persons out of ten are employed and again, these figures demonstrate gender inequality: 70.6% of men are employed and only 50.6% of women.[14] The public funds reserved to support women victims of violence are next to non-existent. The same goes for asylums, where in some countries like Germany and Sweden, a woman can ask refuge together with her children after experiencing a violence act. In such a situation, when an escape seems hardly possible, a woman prefers not to report acts of violence. One may add to it that everywhere in Italy, but especially in the South, police officers in charge of accepting such violence reports are not cooperative due to sociocultural models adopted in that region (and others). Rather often, after submitting a report of the act of violence, a woman is forced to withdraw it due to the threats and pressure from her husband/companion and his family, which in the South of Italy are very numerous and miraculously get united in such cases.
The issue of medical assistance to victims of violence against women is another important matter in Italy. The waiting time in the emergency rooms is too long: it can take up to 24 hours, and for some further medical appointments the waiting time can even reach 6 months! Taking into consideration that women more often speak about the violence act to the doctors than to the police officers, the necessity to improve the accessibility of medical assistance to the victims of violence becomes obvious. In this respect, it is useful to borrow the experience of other countries dealing with this problem, e.g. the United Kingdom, where the public health system is seeking to meet the demands of violence victims. Dame Sally Davies admits that “This violence impacts on the mental and physical health of women and also their children. In England, violence against women must be considered as a determinant of health by those planning and delivering healthcare.”[15] Maybe it is high time to think about whether violence against women in Italy is sufficiently addressed by mainstream healthcare provisions and how to improve the healthcare services that seek to address this issue. This should place public health policy-makers and practitioners at the forefront of an integrated approach to combatting violence against women. For example, in the UK it is already a general concern in the health and education system as to how undergraduate and postgraduate health workers can be effectively taught about violence against women so they will consider it and act upon it as a determinant of health.
In Italy, it is also necessary to work out a program aimed at general improvement of medical services for the victims of gender violence and at special and/or additional education of family doctors on violence issues, since women are likely to address them rather than police in case of gender violence, as explained above. Such a program could be one of the potential solutions to the gender violence problem.
Up to now, we analysed some factors contributing to the high violence rate against women in Italy. Now let us analyse some proposals on how to reduce this rate, reviewing the ongoing debates on this issue.
Marina Calloni, a member of the inter-ministerial committee on the human rights of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, suggests implementing the anti-violence plan proposed in the UK by Patricia Scotland, a member of the Chamber of Lords at the UK Parliament and the founder of the Global Foundation for the Elimination of Domestic Violence. This plan aims at reducing the number of victims of violence against women, reducing the suffering in the family as well as labour losses caused by the absence of women from work due to violence acts. The key measures of this plan are to cooperate with the employers, to educate and to sensitize them, emphasizing that for a woman victim of violence it is very important to maintain her job. Calloni explains that this plan is based on three main elements: functional services, i.e. interconnection between legislative system, police, public health system, social services, legal protection and assistance to victims; economic results obtained due to the reduction of absence from work caused by violence acts; and promotion of social policies ad hoc.[16]
According to Calloni, this anti-violence plan could also work in Italy, “however, taking into consideration some differences in socio-demographical and economical aspects of these two countries.”[17] Calloni speaks about different employment rates of women, but we should definitely add as an important aspect a substantial difference in the level of education among women in two countries. A big part of female population in Italy has no university education, especially in the age group over 40. In fact, ex-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi emphasized that today in Italy the young people constitute, probably, the first generation that brings home a university degree. With its 25% of university graduates in the age group 30-34,[18] Italy legs behind many EU countries, especially taking into consideration that the EU strategic program Horizons 2020 fixed the average rate of university graduates at 40% as the goal. In the South of the country, many women have hardly completed even a compulsory school education. In the south of Italy, the problem of compulsory school attendance is very acute; many young people simply leave the school due to various reasons: to join the gang, to help the family, disillusionment, etc. Indeed, according to the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat), more that 2.3 million of young people (24.7%) aged 15-19 neither work nor attend schools; in Sicily and Calabria this rate is even higher and reaches 40%.[19] Needless to say, that the education level also influences the level of gender awareness, and as such, must be raised constantly.
Many researchers indicate the importance of education in reducing the violence against women. For example, Calloni emphasizes that the problem of violence cannot be approached only from one side, but rather a complex approach and the participation of everyone are both needed. Research and education are of great importance to this issue.[20]
Valeria Valente argues along the same lines with respect to the school education in Italy as effective means to deal with issues of violence against women. She observes that today very little is done at schools to prevent violence against women. She admits that only in the last scholastic reform in Italy have some initial steps been taken to affirm the concept and necessity to sensitize schoolchildren against any form of discrimination and gender inequality. Apart from giving sex education, it is also necessary to teach respect for other persons and their feelings. According to Valente, it is evident that the violence is caused by the discrepancies and lacks in these fields of education; hence, the latter is the first antidote to use if we do not want to arrive at such dramatic consequences as violence.[21] Valente also emphasizes the importance of educating schoolteachers about these important issues.
Given the importance of education for the prevention of violence, let us analyse what models of gender roles and relations are taught and disseminated in printed and internet media, with special focus on the southern regions of Italy.
In Calabria, we come across a local “maestro di Calabresita,” which literally means “a teacher of Calabrian way of life.” Let us analyse what exactly he is teaching and in what way his teaching reflects the southern Italy’s gender inequality, unequal distribution of gender roles, and the connection of such ideas to the violence against women. Apart from collaborating with “Gazetta del Sud” (The Newspaper of the South) and with ANSA, he wrote a 100-page book “Rimembranze di un Ottuagenario,”[22] which was published at his own expenses by a small publishing company. Though this book has no artistic or literary value, it provides an interesting primary resource for understanding the distinct cultural values and gender norms of Southern Italy and allows a deeper insight into the nature of double moral standards with regards to family, and women, gender equality in the South, and which definitely doesn’t help to “sensibilize […] against any form of discrimination and gender equality […], to educate respect for other persons and their feelings.”[23] It is exactly because the author had been referred to as a “maestro di Calabresitá” by his friend, it is necessary to warn the public against such teachings both in print and on internet.
One can expect from such a book of memories a collection of touchstone events and turning points from the author’s life. The contents of the book suggests, however, that the author’s marriage, wife, children, and family in general are excluded from the list of important events. Also D. Lanciano, who earlier called the author “maestro di Calabresita”, writes that the book comprises “the main values and most memorable events of the life [of Pitingolo] lived in personal, family, professional and social spheres.”[24] If so, the book of “values and main events” does not contain even a name of the author’s wife, or even the fact that he had one. Does this mean that the wife and family are not among his values and important events? Usually for a person a birth of a child is an important event; one expects it should be mentioned in the “memoirs”. Pitingolo mentioned the name of only one child, and even in that case with a negative connotation because little Alberto was asking whether his dad would also work and be constantly absent even after his death. (This is because instead of dedicating at least some time to his kids and family, the author dedicated all his time to his “economic empire”, i.e. acquisition of land and apartments by all means. He was proud of his property but not of his wife and children.) To summarize, these facts imply that for Pitingolo, the “teacher of Calabrian way of life,” wife, children, and family in general are not among his main values and important events of life. Other events, like the encounter of nymphomaniac lover in his youth, a sexual relation with a friend’s wife, etc., are more important and worth mentioning in the book, according to him. Interestingly enough, that Pitingolo blames the former woman for his inability to pursue the university studies. It becomes obvious, however, that it was a mere excuse since he never got a university degree. He also did not encourage his children to pursue a university education either. Only one of his sons, in his fifties, took a degree from one of the third-rate online universities in order not to be dismissed from his job. In the same way, Pitingolo later blamed his wife for being unintelligent and for “ruining his children.” If the wife is not even worth mentioning among the important life events, the same goes for children. The idea that one gets from the book is that it looks like that women are only good to blame for all the misfortunes in one’s life and are not worth of being praised for anything they did for the author. It seems that the author did not have much respect for women, for their role in the family, and for his own family in particular. Such lack of respect for women perceived at all levels of his writing (and no doubts in oral communication as well) could not but influence the behaviouristic model of his sons. One of the sons was divorced by his wife because of domestic violence, and he is again under trial for the domestic violence against his ex-companion. This is an immediate example of how socio-cultural models promoted in the South of Italy by men (by demonstrating lack of respect to women) can favour violence against women. This book gives a better insight into the reality and customs deeply rooted in the South, to which Antonella Massara referred above. It is clear that similar writings from the South cannot teach respect in general and to women in particular, gender equality and equal distribution of gender roles are indispensable to prevent and diminish violence against women. Obviously, Italy needs other, better writers to promote real values and morality in order to improve the society and reduce violence.
The paper under consideration presents an interdisciplinary approach to the problem of gendered violence in Italy; it carefully considers a full spectrum of issues at stake in the service of actively combatting such violence. The advantage of an interdisciplinary approach to gender violence is that it analyses the problem as well as its possible causes and consequences from different points of view and hence, can put forward various proposals to diminish gender violence rate in Italy.
Several factors were considered, which contribute to the high rate of violence against women in the South of Italy: gender inequality, legislation, low employment rates among women and lower salaries and as a consequence, their economic dependence on men, lack of education on the issues of mutual respect, gender equality, equal distribution of gender roles in the family, etc. Some of the possible solutions could be: giving much more emphasis on the school education, teaching respect, gender equality, sensitizing students to any manifestation of violence in general, and gender violence in particular. In addition, special preparation of schoolteachers is necessary to teach these issues. As far as public health service is concerned, a possible solution could be the creation of a complex programme aimed at providing wider access to medical services, offering timely medical assistance to the victims of gender violence, as well as educating health workers, especially family doctors, to deal with the consequences of domestic and gender violence. In the economic sphere, it is important to raise the employment rate among women and to ensure equal salaries for the same job done by men and women. Also, a brief insight into the local customs in the South was taken; the necessity to promote moral values, family values, respect for women, and gender equality both in print and on the internet was emphasized. In fact, taking great cultural differences between North and South of Italy into consideration, a cultural programme for the South is necessary, aimed at eradicating the cultural roots of violence there. To sum up: the paper reviewed several proposals to diminish and prevent gender and domestic violence, as well as estimated the adaptability of international experience in the field with respect to the Italian realities.
Bibliography
Antonelli, Laura, “Non è un paese per giovani. Sud Italia. Disoccupazione fino al 60%.” 07.04.2016.
www.wallstreetitalia.it. Last consulted 4.01.2017.
“A Tale of Two Economies,” The Economist, May 16th 2015, on www.economist.com. Last consulted 10.01.2017.
Avitabile, Maria, “Lavoro ed educazione scolastica: ecco come prevenire la violenza sulle donne,” Nov. 25, 2015, last consulted 30.11.2016.
Barone, S., “Occupazione femminile: l’Italia non è un Paese per donne che vogliono carriera efamiglia.” URBANLIFE, on www.urbanpost.it. Last consulted 10.01.2017.
Davies, Sally, Chief Medical Officer for England, “Violence Against Women: A Determinant ofHealth.” www.cumberlandlodge.ac.uk Last consulted 20.11.2016.
Izzinoza, Maria. “Combattere il femminicidio con il metodo Scotland.” www.unimib/open/news. Last consulted 30.11.2016.
Lanciano, Domenico, “Lettere a Tito,” (109) 11.03.2015, www.CostaIonicaWeb.it last consulted 30.11.2016.
Malacrino, Christiano, “Delitto d’onore: superato o no?”, www.PoliziaeDemocrazia.it, Dic. Last consulted on 01.12.2016.
Pitingolo, G. “Le Rimembranze di un Ottuagenario,” Roma, 2014.
Footnotes:
[1] Maria Izzinosa, “Combattere il femminicidio con il metodo Scotland.” www.unimib/open/news. Last consulted 30.11.2016.
[2] “A Tale of Two Economies,” The Economist, May 16th 2015, on www.economist.com. Last consulted 10.01.2017.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] S. Barone, “Occupazione femminile: l’Italia non è un Paese per donne che vogliono carriera e famiglia.” URBANLIFE, on www.urbanpost.it/occupazione. Last consulted 10.01.2017.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] little mother sons (Italian).
[11] Christiano Malacrino, “Delitto d’onore: superato o no?”, in www.PoliziaeDemocrazia.it, Dic. 2016. Last consulted on 01.12.2016.
[12] www.CronacaQui.it, 02.09.2016, last consulted on 30.11.2016.
[13] Maria Izzinosa, “Combattere il femminicidio con il metodo Scotland.” www.unimib/open/news. Last consulted on 30.11.2016.
[14] www.istat.it. Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), Annual report 2015. Last consulted on 10.01.2017.
[15] Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England, “Violence Against Women: A Determinant of Health”, at www.cumberlandlodge.ac.uk last consulted 20.11.2016.
[16] Maria Izzinosa, “Combattere il femminicidio con il metodo Scotland,” on www.unimib/open/news. Last consulted 30.11.2016.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Laura Antonelli, “Non è un paese per giovani. Sud Italia. Disoccupazione fino al 60%.” 07.04. 2016, on www.wallstreetitalia, last consulted 4.01.2017.
[19] Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), Annual report 2015, on www.istat.it, last consulted 10.01.2017.
[20] Maria Izzinosa, “Combattere il femminicidio con il metodo Scotland,” on www.unimib/open/news, last consulted 30.11.2016.
[21] Maria Avitabile, “Lavoro ed educazione scolastica: ecco come prevenire la violenza sulle donne,” Nov. 25, 2015,
last consulted 30.11.2016.
[22] Memoirs of an eighty-years-old (Italian).
[23] Maria Avitabile, “Lavoro ed educazione scolastica: ecco come prevenire la violenza sulle donne,” Nov. 25, 2015,
last consulted 30.11.2016.
[24] Domenico Lanciano, “Lettere a Tito,” (109) 11.03.2015, www.CostaIonicaWeb.it , last consulted 30.11.2016.
[25] Maria Izzinosa, “Combattere il femminicidio con il metodo Scotland.” www.unimib/open/news. Last consulted 30.11.2016.
The post Violence against Women: An Interdisciplinary Approach by Iren Boyarkina appeared first on e.g.: A Journal of Exemplary Undergraduate Scholarship.
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]]>Michael Chabon’s novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay takes place around the era of World War II, a time when instilling American national unity was a greater priority than ever before. The novel, with its careful exploration and imagination of a queer relationship between Sammy Clay and Tracy Bacon, has much to say regarding queerness, its status in the future realm, and the timeless nature of its struggle for normalization.
The post Clouding the Horizon: Nationalism and Queer Utopias in Michael Chabon’s Kavalier & Clay by Everett Cheng (15-16) appeared first on e.g.: A Journal of Exemplary Undergraduate Scholarship.
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]]>While philosophy and literary studies are two entirely different academic disciplines under the humanities, ethical theories can be extremely useful in justifying the stance we take in moral issues brought up in literary texts. Ethics mainly works towards evaluating the moral permissibility of actions in nonfictional scenarios; however, the treatment of the fictitious characters and plot in literary texts as having verifiable existence allows us to use the ideas of philosophers in interpreting complex issues presented in novels.
The post “The Limits of Applying Ethical Theories to Literary Analysis” by Joanne Kim (13-14) appeared first on e.g.: A Journal of Exemplary Undergraduate Scholarship.
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]]>Homosexuality was accepted in Chinese history and major Chinese literature. However, there has never been a time like now when this complex issue is exposed to the society directly, igniting controversial debate. Since there were considerable and various historic, social, governmental, cultural causes, the issue is now becoming really complex.
The post “A Defense of the Legalization of Homosexuality in China” by Junmeng Zhu (12-13) appeared first on e.g.: A Journal of Exemplary Undergraduate Scholarship.
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]]>The reliability of one’s popular culture preferences as true indicators of his or her identity is a matter that relies heavily on perspective. Some view an individual’s cultural interests as insignificant factors in determining identity, pointing instead to innate elements of character as the traditionally dominant mediums of personal definition and asserting that common interests among groups do not always signal a universally definable identity.
The post “Does What You Like Define Who You Are” by Malie Fujii (12-13) appeared first on e.g.: A Journal of Exemplary Undergraduate Scholarship.
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]]>“What greater superstition is there than the mumbo-jumbo of believing in reality?” –The Lady’s Not for Burning, Christopher Fry
“What man of us has never felt, walking through the twilight or writing down a date from his past, that he has lost something infinite?” –Paradiso, XXXI, 108, Jorge Luis Borges
Seeing is believing. Most people consider that cliché to be true. In a scientific world, empirical reasoning is often more convincing than theoretical or magical reasoning and even psychological disorders are understood only if they come from a clear succession of events or interactions. Gabriel García Márquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” and Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Aleph,” both exhibit various degrees of tangible magical evidence. Although great influence on a character is generally considered the result of a tangible occurrence, I argue that when dealing with magical realism, intangible aspects in a character’s life have a more powerful impact than tangible ones.
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]]>In Arts of the Contact Zone, Marry Louise-Pratt reveals the concept of contact zones through several examples she discusses. According to her, a contact zone involves “social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other; often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today” (Pratt 591). Pratt claims that traditionally, contact zones have consisted of negative cultural collisions, but by evolving the idea into an art, this theory can become a productive way to enhance and summon learning. As a result, her theory is applicable to many modern-day situations. Recent advancements in technology have allowed video games to produce contact zones between a game’s identity and the players’ values and interests.
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]]>Guest post by Jessica Campbell
Over three years of teaching 100-level composition, I’ve held peer review about five different ways. No method is perfect, but this one has been largely successful. This peer review happens a day or two before a “final” draft of a paper is due to me; students bring in their rough drafts. I have done this with the major papers in all classes and also with shorter assignments in 109/110.
Here are the directions I give the students:
1. Get in groups of 3.
2. I will collect everyone’s rough draft and then redistribute the drafts to other groups.
3. Each person individually and silently reads one paper, marking the paper with questions, comments, and edits.
4. After 5 minutes, pass the paper to the group member on your right. At this point, everyone reads a second paper. In marking a paper for the second time, insert your own questions, comments, and edits, but also respond to those that the first reader made.
5. Again, take 5 minutes, and then repeat the process a third time.
6. When all group members have read all 3 essays, begin to discuss them as a group. Your group will fill out one Peer Response Sheet for each paper. That means that the three of you need to reach agreement about the paper’s strengths and weaknesses. Remember that this response sheet will go to the writer of the paper and will help him/her in identifying further revisions to make for the final draft.
The Peer Response Sheet mentioned in these directions is the product of a discussion held in class the previous day, during which we all look at the prompt and determine what would be the most useful questions to ask about the rough drafts. These questions vary depending on the assignment, but a generic example is below:
R.A.G.s Peer Response Sheet
Readers’ Names _______________________________________________________________
Paper Written By ______________________________________________________________
1. What are the strengths of this paper? What works?
2. What are the weaknesses of this paper? What does not work?
3. Does the paper have a complex claim? To what extent does it reflect the body of the argument?
4. Does the paper use quotations effectively? Does the writer provide sufficient analysis of the quotations to show how they contribute to the main point of the paragraph and the paper as a whole?
5. (Writer of paper: insert your own question here)
To me, this method has two major advantages. (1) The students participate a great deal in producing the questions that they and their peers will pose during the peer review. They therefore get practice in evaluating and editing their own work. (2) All the students, as part of reviewing groups of three, participate in discussions about writing. I have been amazed at the high level of discussion I have overheard from students in their conversations about each other’s papers. Since the writer of the paper is not part of the reviewing group, students feel more liberated in their constructive criticism.
One pitfall of this method is that reviewers sometimes give very short, unhelpful written answers to the questions on the Peer Response Sheet. It may be helpful to require full sentences and/or remind students that they need to be detailed and to give the writer guidance as to how to address an issue, rather than simply pointing the issue out.
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