Showing papers in "Geopolitics in 2015"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the critical potential of the borderscapes concept for the development of alternative approaches to borders along three main axes of reflection that, though interrelated, can be analytically distinguished as: epistemological, ontological and methodological.
Abstract: The conceptual evolution of borders has been characterised by important changes in the last twenty years. After the processual shift of the 1990s (from border to bordering), in recent years there has been increasing concern about the need to critically question the current state of the debate on the concept of borders. Within this framework, this article explores the critical potential of the borderscapes concept for the development of alternative approaches to borders along three main axes of reflection that, though interrelated, can be analytically distinguished as: epistemological, ontological and methodological. Such approaches show the significant potential of borderscapes for future advances of critical border studies in the era of globalisation and transnational flows, thereby contributing to the liberation of (geo)political imagination from the burden of the ‘territorialist imperative’ and to the understanding of new forms of belonging and becoming that are worth being investigated.
331 citations
TL;DR: Can cultural production be more than a side-issue in border studies? The following set of papers clearly makes a move towards a new way of answering the question positively as discussed by the authors, and it is important to take...
Abstract: Can cultural production be more than a side-issue in border studies? The following set of papers clearly makes a move towards a new way of answering the question positively. It is important to take...
61 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that hotel spaces are connected to broader architectures of security and insecurity, war- and peacemaking, and argue that hotels need to be researched as geopolitical sites.
Abstract: This article sets a new agenda for research into the geopolitics of hotels. Moving beyond the study of hotels as neutral sites of leisure and tourism, hospitality mediated by financial exchange, we argue that hotels need to be researched as geopolitical sites. Hotel spaces – from conference rooms to reception halls, from hotel bars to corridors and private rooms – are connected to broader architectures of security and insecurity, war- and peacemaking. We present six themes for this research agenda: hotels as projections of soft power, soft targets for political violence, strategic infrastructures in conflict, hosts for war reporters, providers of emergency hospitality and care, and infrastructures of peace-building. We conclude that the geopolitical potential of hotels emerges from two spatial dimensions of the relation of hospitality: hotels’ selective openness and closure to their surroundings, and their flexible material infrastructures that can facilitate and mediate geopolitical processes. Research o...
43 citations
TL;DR: In the Arctic Council, China gained observer status in 2013, exemplifying its growing legitimacy as a regional actor in the eyes of the eight countries with territory north of the Arctic Circle as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In May 2013, China gained observer status in the Arctic Council, exemplifying its growing legitimacy as a regional actor in the eyes of the eight countries with territory north of the Arctic Circle. Yet since China remains an extraregional state without territory in the Arctic, Chinese officials continue to bolster their state’s legitimacy as an Arctic stakeholder through two spatially inconsistent but mutually reinforcing grand regional narratives. On the one hand, Chinese officials recognize the salience of territory and presence in the Arctic, underscoring their country’s “near-Arctic” location and polar scientific expeditions. On the other hand, officials depict the Arctic as a maritime, global space where climate change has potential ramifications for the entire planet. Significantly, these reframings are affecting intraregional states’ perceptions of the Arctic, demonstrating how a region’s territorial extent, symbolic meaning, and institutional form emerge through the ongoing conversation between e...
38 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that art and literature can be constitutive elements in the borderscape, along with other kinds of border and demarcation, and use the aesthetic categories of the sublime, the postmodern, and the defamiliarised to trace forms of "distance" or "distancing" as they appear in conceptualisations of borderscape.
Abstract: The borderscape is a flexible entity that goes beyond the space of the border and the borderland. This article argues that art and literature can be constitutive elements in the borderscape, along with other kinds of bordering and demarcation. Art and literature can help create resistance through performative acts of “borderscaping”, taking place in different locations and involving different perspectives. The article uses the aesthetic categories of the sublime, the postmodern, and the defamiliarised to trace forms of “distance” or “distancing” as they appear in conceptualisations of the borderscape. Artistic practices in the Norwegian-Russian borderscape are examined in an evaluation of their geopolitical significance, with particular attention given to descriptions of the Norwegian-Russian border in novels by John Fowles and Kjartan Flogstad.
37 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the production of citizenship as a geopolitical practice in the Middle East and highlighted the pervasiveness of Western democracy discourses in the work of local NGOs, and especially the tendency to view sectarian politics as a source of instability that must be sublimated by new forms of societal consensus.
Abstract: In the aftermath of 9/11, Western states have increasingly used the promotion of democracy and civil society as a means of effecting geopolitical aims in the Middle East. Democracy promotion has involved extensive financial support of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who work to instill (neo)liberal-democratic values and norms among populations that are seen to be lacking in these. This article, in examining the production of citizenship as a geopolitical practice, brings critical-geography scholarship into conversation with the critical literature on Western-funded civil society in ‘transitional’ societies. We focus on the case of Lebanon, which has been targeted by Western donors due to its strategic importance in deepening regional geopolitical rivalries. We highlight the pervasiveness of Western democracy discourses in the work of local NGOs, and especially the tendency to view sectarian politics as a source of instability that must be sublimated by new forms of societal consensus. But our account also highlights the scepticism that NGO directors feel toward their own efficacy and toward the influence of Western donors in Lebanese society. Their critical assessments of Western-funded civil society call into question the extent to which democracy promotion can secure Western geopolitical interests, much less enforce Western political supremacy.
31 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors offer a set of observations of the Australian Commonwealth's descriptions and instructions for its embrace of border security, including Operation Sovereign Borders, which has been interpreted as a further variation within national sovereignty, one that elevates the decisionist prerogative into total deterrence.
Abstract: Border security has become one of the key means by which the sovereignty and security of powerful nation-states is projected. This paper offers a set of observations of the Australian Commonwealth’s descriptions and instructions for its embrace of border security. Border security is legible here as a geopolitics that transforms the rights and responsibilities of maritime jurisdictions into a space of security that projects national sovereignty through the interdiction of boat arrivals. Its intensification as Operation Sovereign Borders is read as a further variation within national sovereignty, one that elevates the decisionist prerogative into total deterrence. Operation Sovereign Borders pushes the limits of sovereignty’s existence in the state toward a total domination of space, perception and human life in Australia’s maritime jurisdictions, in the name of the nation. This necessitates the development, defence and reinforcement of a regionally engaged materiality that is embodied, extended, enacted, and distributed. The intended effect of this coordinated effort is to secure the nation’s sovereignty as a unity, but the broader effect has been to devalue offshore life to secure onshore interests, in a way that now necessitates indefinite offshore detention.
31 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the seven communications on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) issued between 2003 and 2013 and concluded that the ENP appears as a bilateral state-centric policy, missing global scale, and neglecting the role of regional powers like Turkey or Russia.
Abstract: Over the last twenty years, European Union (EU) actorness at both regional and global scales, has become a fruitful topic of analysis in the eld of political science, and more specically in international relations and political geography. Critical geopolitics dedicated many substantive papers on EU discourses and representations. Our paper aims at providing a complementary way to study texts issued by the EU and to question EU actorness by adopting an approach based on textual analysis. The corpus examined includes the seven communications on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) issued between 2003 and 2013. These communications provide essential information regarding relations between the EU and its immediate neighbours. The textual analysis allows several relevant characteristics of discourses to be highlighted: stability and changes, actors, spaces and scales mentioned. The outcomes of the analysis conrm previous research on the subject: The ENP appears as a bilateral state-centric policy, missing global scale, and neglecting the role of regional powers like Turkey or Russia.
29 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the evolution and implementation of Spanish policy to control irregular immigration via maritime routes over the past two decades, starting from the premise that this policy was based on a comprehensive strategy of dissuasion to prevent, contain and hinder the arrival and settlement of irregular immigrants.
Abstract: This article analyses the evolution and implementation of Spanish policy to control irregular immigration via maritime routes over the past two decades. Starting from the premise that this policy was based on a comprehensive strategy of dissuasion to prevent, contain and hinder the arrival and settlement of irregular immigrants, for analytical purposes the article introduces the concepts of preventive dissuasion, coercive dissuasion and repressive dissuasion to describe actions of diverse categories, hierarchy and scope that sequentially and simultaneously shape and structure the logic behind dissuasion used in different “territorial settings”. Spain has deployed a great deal of this policy – mainly preventive and coercive dissuasion strategies – through bilateral agreements and formal practices with African countries. This article is based on fieldwork carried out between 2008 and 2012 in different Spanish border areas, including interviews with different actors and visits to border posts and surveillanc...
28 citations
TL;DR: In this dynamic and mutable field, artistic practices and interventions can interrupt and alterate the logic of the border, opening up a space of resistance and critical imagination, where the transparent, immutable and essentialist representation of border is constantly challenged as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Contemporary world is increasingly marked by borders, fences and walls, which run through the spaces we live in. Borders are the result of a composite articulation of material aspects, concerning their external realisation, and structures of imagination, symbolic constructs and conceptual formations that involve the border and make it meaningful. In this dynamic and mutable field, artistic practices and interventions can interrupt and alterate the logic of the border, opening up a space of resistance and critical imagination, where the transparent, immutable and essentialist representation of the border is constantly challenged. Works of artists such as Bajevic, Hatoum, Salcedo, Rosver and Meredith-Vula will be analysed. They are used to transforming this separation, which they have usually lived personally, in symbolic landscape like interior landscapes. Working on imagination and creating alternative spaces, artists are able to challenge dominant representations and hegemonic discourses, making the bord...
26 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the relationship between nature and culture, between material and immaterial power as well as the role of soft power, geopolitical imaginary and competitive identity in offsetting potentially unfavourable geopolitical conditions for small and medium-sized states is examined.
Abstract: This paper looks at how Swedish political scientist Rudolf Kjellen (1864–1922) conceived of the relationship between nature and culture, between material and immaterial power as well as the role of soft power, geopolitical imaginary and competitive identity in off-setting potentially unfavourable geopolitical conditions for small and medium-sized states. It is argued that with regard to small states, Kjellen did not maintain a consistent separation between “soft” cultural resources of power and “hard” laws of nature. Rather, he placed the mutually constitutive tension between geography (nature) and politics (culture) at the centre of his politico-scientific analysis, arguing that active “biopolitics” could supplement geopolitics. In Kjellen’s conception, cultural and natural resources are instruments of an otherwise integrated notion of power which challenges the contemporary separation between hard and soft power.
TL;DR: In this paper, the export-import business of penal policies that accompany the war on transnational street gangs between the United States and Central America is analyzed, and it is argued that far from being a unidirectional export of punitive politics from United States towards Central America, many of these punitive exports travel back home.
Abstract: This paper analyses the export-import business of penal policies that accompanies the “war on transnational street gangs” between the United States and Central America. It argues that far from being a unidirectional export of punitive politics from the United States towards Central America, many of these punitive exports travel “back home”. This creates transnational punitive entanglements that contribute to the contingent convergence of punitive geopolitics and domestic politics in the guise of a transnational penal apparatus that integrates law enforcement agencies and military forces, securocratic epistemic communities and national political entrepreneurs into a functionally cohesive but decentred transnational security structure engaged in a multilayered punitive containment of transnational street gangs across the Americas.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the gender politics of the "Hunger Games" film series and suggest that the lead character of the series, Katniss Everdeen, represents a progressive portrayal of the female action hero, contrary to much Hollywood fare.
Abstract: This paper explores the gender politics of the ‘Hunger Games’ film series. It suggests that the lead character of the series, Katniss Everdeen, represents a progressive portrayal of the female action hero, contrary to much Hollywood fare. Theoretically and methodologically, the paper approaches the series through the rubric of ‘popular geopolitics 2.0ʹ and suggests that, within this, opportunities exist for further alignment between feminist geopolitics and popular geopolitics. To support its analysis, the paper offers a critical review of coverage of the series on feminist online media. The paper finishes by assessing the progressive potential of the series, as well as future directions for feminist and popular geopolitics.
TL;DR: This paper explored the discursive performance and political significance of American exceptionalism under President Obama and examined how representations of exceptionalism, understood as ideational construct of uniqueness and superiority, are linked to practices of US foreign and security policy that confirm, but also contest, established notions of American leadership in world politics.
Abstract: This article explores the discursive performance and political significance of ‘American exceptionalism’ under President Obama. Moving beyond a critical examination of geopolitical identity, it investigates how representations of exceptionalism, understood as ideational construct of uniqueness and superiority, are linked to practices of US foreign and security policy that confirm, but also contest, established notions of American leadership in world politics. A particular focus lies on the 2012 presidential campaign, and how diverging ‘exceptionalist’ visions between Obama and Mitt Romney testified to competing ideas for American primacy and cooperative engagement. The article will further examine the cases of ‘leading from behind’ in Libya, American non-intervention against Assad in Syria, and US reactions to current crises concerning Ukraine and ISIS. The contextualisation of these episodes in contemporary, geopolitical discourse reveals how the practice of US foreign and security policy under Obama is shaped by a conflicted and paradoxical vision of post-American hegemony.
Abstract: The story of geopolitics may be described by the words of the Grateful Dead: “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” From being the driving force behind the establishment of geography as a modern un...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the expansion of China's development co-operation with African countries from the perspective of Sinocentrism, as there appears to be an absence of a superordinate concept or ideology that extensively encompasses and interconnects the diverse explications from existing studies.
Abstract: Over the past few decades, the rapid growth of China’s development co-operation with Africa has attracted worldwide attention. Some people assert that development co-operation in Africa has contributed to the general development of the continent; however, others, many of whom are scholars and Western politicians, dispute its influence on Africa and are suspicious of its real motives, noting its exploitation of natural resources and increasing market encroachment. This study will discuss the expansion of China’s development co-operation with African countries from the perspective of Sinocentrism, as there appears to be an absence of a superordinate concept or ideology that extensively encompasses and interconnects the diverse explications from existing studies. Henceforth, this research aims to contribute towards examining whether Sinocentrism could be a possible superordinate concept of existing studies. As such, it could be helpful in better understanding Chinese development co-operation in Africa, by ex...
TL;DR: The authors argue that the presumption of security-through-surveillance erodes border crossers' human rights, and that some people -those from disadvantaged race/class backgrounds -are more affected than others by security through surveillance.
Abstract: Since 2001, border security policy between Canada and the US has morphed from “smart borders” to the present “beyond the border” (perimeter security) agreement resulting in the expansion of new techniques of border surveillance including pre-emptive profiling of travellers and biometric data sharing. In this paper, we argue that these border agreements have increasingly resulted in a changing experience of sovereign power for those crossing the border. This is demonstrated through a discussion of: the major border policies between Canada and the US since 11 September 2001, developed under the influence of US hegemony; how these policies perpetrate a generalised state of exception; and how these policies affect refugees, migrants, and citizens. Reading Agamben’s insights from a sociological perspective, we argue that the presumption of security-through-surveillance erodes border crossers’ human rights, and that some people – those from disadvantaged race/class backgrounds – are more affected than others by...
TL;DR: This paper explored how walls have been and continue to be used in governing populations through mobility and incorporating a combination of disciplinary and biopolitical techniques through a range of spatial and territorial repertoires.
Abstract: Building on a long history of spatial control through walling in the region, walls and fences have been built in the Middle East in recent years to undertake a range of practices. Gated communities, residential and security compounds, anti-migrant walls, separation barriers and counter-insurgency fences can all be found in the Middle East. These walls address and govern problems that take the population as their subject. These walls all share a common frame of viewing the populations they work to govern as ‘problematic’ in multiple ways. This paper explores how walls have been and continue to be used in governing populations through mobility and incorporating a combination of disciplinary and biopolitical techniques through a range of spatial and territorial repertoires. As such it works to bridge the divide in border studies and critical security studies between geopolitical/topographical and biopolitical/topological approaches to borders and governance.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on a specific border area, the Couto Mixto, in an effort to contest this territorial trap, using some emerging border studies concepts, mainly borderscapes and border poetics, and discuss how this particular territory has been recently recovered and recreated.
Abstract: The assumption that the border between Spain and Portugal is a stable one since medieval times is commonplace. Thus, the territorial trap conception, as defined by John Agnew, dominates understanding of this border. This paper will focus on a specific border area, the Couto Mixto, in an effort to contest this territorial trap. Furthermore, using some of the emerging border studies concepts, mainly borderscapes and border poetics, this research will discuss how this particular territory has been recently recovered and recreated. The theoretical underpinnings are followed by an analysis of what the Couto was and how it has been reappropriated in narrative terms in the last twenty years. The paper concludes by discussing the empirical findings on the Couto in light of the theoretical sections. It is eventually suggested that tourism based on specific immaterial border legacy could encourage Couto’s inhabitants and the precarious economy of the area.
TL;DR: Based on the notions of popular geopolitics and practical geopolitics, the authors explores how China's geopolitical strategies are represented and reproduced by the popular songs in the CCTV (China Central Television) Spring Festival Gala during the past thirty years (1983-2013).
Abstract: Based on the notions of ‘popular geopolitics’ and ‘practical geopolitics’, this article explores how China’s geopolitical strategies are represented and reproduced by the popular songs in the CCTV (China Central Television) Spring Festival Gala during the past thirty years (1983–2013). Drawing on the (con)textual and visual analysis of 539 popular songs, how geopolitical knowledges are represented and reproduced by these songs and how these songs are involved with China’s geopolitical strategies are analysed. The main argument of this article indicates that the official regulated popular songs in the annual Gala can be considered as important constitutions of China’s state apparatus which aim at propagandising and legitimating the official geopolitical strategies on both internal and international affairs. As research of the geopolitical engagements of China’s popular music, this article might also be read as a contribution to wider literatures on popular and practical geopolitics from a non-Western persp...
TL;DR: Korf and Raeymakers as mentioned in this paper, Violence on the Margins: States, Conflict, and Borderlands, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 289 pages.
Abstract: B. Korf and T. Raeymakers (eds.) (2013), Violence on the Margins: States, Conflict, and Borderlands, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 289 pages. ISBN 978-1-137-33398-8 (Hbk).D. Gellner...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the geopolitical developments in the South Caucasus after the collapse of the USSR in the context of the Russian-American geopolitical struggle and their impact on the process of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Abstract: The article examines the geopolitical developments in the South Caucasus after the collapse of the USSR in the context of the Russian-American geopolitical struggle. Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, three recognised states of this region, should not only solve a set of complex problems such as to pass effectively through the difficult path of state-building, to respond adequately to the developments of the Russian-American struggle, but they should also take into consideration the impact of that struggle on the resolution of the conflicts in the region. The article aims to disclose the patterns and the peculiarities of geopolitical struggle in the South Caucasus, its impact on the process of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, that recently gained more significance, and also the obstacles and perspectives of the resolution of this conflict.
TL;DR: In this article, a discourse analysis of a corpus of documents has been conducted to investigate how de-and re-bordering affects the regionalisation process in practice and how it influences the cooperation within the Baltic Sea Region (BSR).
Abstract: Recent geopolitical changes and the strengthening of the security/economy nexus have multiplied the types and functions of territorial borders in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). These borders have been insufficiently addressed in previous research even though macro-regions cross over multiple borders, which are highly affected by geopolitical events and conflicts. This paper contributes to the debate about multiple borders with particular emphasis on the question how de- and re-bordering affect the regionalisation process in practice and how it influences the cooperation within the BSR. The results, which are based on a discourse analysis of a corpus of documents, show that the region-building process in the BSR itself creates new borders, which define the level of the member state’s political participation in the region. The governance of macro-regions would benefit from the development of such analytical frameworks that take into account the impact of the multitude of borders on the practical level.
TL;DR: In the US-Mexico border region, popular music can also offer a metaphorical representation of the US/Mexico border, transforming it from a local space to the symbol of all global power asymmetries.
Abstract: Popular music has not yet been widely considered by popular geopolitics practitioners. This paper develops such a perspective, using the US–Mexico border as a case study. In the area, the classic corrido and the more recent narcocorridos are flourishing. Their lyrics, exalting the deeds of border trespassers, usually represent the border as a superimposed boundary. Around the border, other more hybrid kinds of music stand for a very mixed borderland. The border is also portrayed in Anglo songs, referring to the ‘South of the border’ experience. In these, depiction leaves room for a different perception, since the border is represented as an open frontier, easy to cross, to find an abundance of girls and alcohol on the other side. Popular music can also offer a metaphorical representation of the US–Mexico border, transforming it from a local space to the symbol of all global power asymmetries, as in Manu Chao’s songs.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose to apply a concept introduced by John Brian Harley, the father of critical cartography, that of the map's internal power, to analyze the relationship between cartography and power.
Abstract: The relationship between cartography and power has aroused much interest in recent years, stimulated by innovative critical approaches. The empiricist and neo-positivist paradigms, no longer satisfactory, have been abandoned, while the analysis has been extended to include not only state-sponsored, but also popular cartography. Regardless of the character of the map or its source, it continues to be inserted in the context of the modern territorial state, as it is perceived as a key instrument for conveying the state’s narrative. Seen in this light, cartography inevitably comes out on the subordinate end of this relationship, since it fully conforms to the orthodox state-centred world view that has dominated modernity. Overturning this mechanically deconstructionist approach, this paper proposes, instead, to apply a concept introduced by John Brian Harley, the father of critical cartography – that of the map’s internal power. This concept, usually considered a given and rarely tested in empirical studies,...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss whether the maps made by visual artists and media designers can be a form of counter-mapping, communicating narratives that may blur how state borders are currently defined.
Abstract: This paper discusses whether the maps made by visual artists and media designers can be a form of counter-mapping, communicating narratives that may blur how state borders are currently defined. Maps and artworks have inseparable histories and many studies have been carried out in order to explore the role of cartography in the construction of national imaginations. If official maps published in atlases and textbooks are still limited to national territories, artistic maps became an important source of information about shared identities and cross-border activities. Taking as a case study maps made in a collaborative art project between Colombia and Venezuela and maps published in the Colombian mainstream press, the paper identified contradictory narratives, which can simultaneously dissolve and reinforce international borders. Starting with the analysis of images created in a very particular context, this paper seeks to contribute to ongoing debates regarding the relations between map art and popular geo...
TL;DR: In this article, unauthorised text and visual imagery on the border barriers of the Arizona-Sonora section of the US-Mexico boundary is considered as a therapeutic reaction to a state-dominated border policy which downplays local impacts.
Abstract: Physical barriers are an increasingly popular political mechanism for central government control over the flows of goods and people at borders. This medium also, however, serves as a canvas for unsanctioned expressions of belonging. Just as graffiti and art are deployed in the urban landscape as unconventional means of claiming space, they are utilised on international border barriers to contest prevalent political winds and re-claim local and alternative senses of who belongs and what is deemed important in debates over border policy. This paper considers unauthorised text and visual imagery on the border barriers of the Arizona-Sonora section of the US-Mexico boundary as a therapeutic reaction to a state-dominated border policy which downplays local impacts. It is argued that such imagery serves to re-scale border space and thereby re-capture a sense of belonging by those whose roles are marginalised by national politics and the neoliberal global economy.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an analysis of the European Union and of the integration process using the concept of empire, arguing that many scholars of politics have a biased understanding of this concept, which is "tailored" to analyse only one type of empire (the colonial empire), and to disregard the existence of another (outward) empire.
Abstract: This article presents an analysis of the European Union and of the integration process using the concept of empire. It also offers a critical reflexion on the use of the concept of empire to analyse contemporary polities. It argues that many scholars of politics have a biased understanding of this concept, which is ‘tailored’ to analyse only one type of empire, the colonial empire, and to disregard the existence of another type of empire. To escape this trap, the article suggests the use of two concepts, ‘inwards imperial governance’ and ‘outwards imperial governance’. These concepts make it possible to account for different types of empire in the past as well as contemporary polities. They also help shed a different light on the EU’s empirehood and its evolution over time. In its concluding remarks, the article suggests the potential usefulness of these concepts for the analysis of other contemporary cases.
TL;DR: A discourse analysis of domestic and international newspapers, radio transcripts, and television broadcasts about contemporaneous UNPKOs in Haiti and Cote d'Ivoire reveals staggering disparities as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Despite conducting sixty-six peacekeeping missions, the United Nations (UN) must repeatedly justify the necessity and wisdom of continuing these operations to the international community. Domestic success is contingent to a large degree on the willingness of citizens to cooperate with peacekeepers. Consequently, public perception in both the host country and abroad has become crucial to the continuation and maintenance of UN Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKO). A discourse analysis of domestic and international newspapers, radio transcripts, and television broadcasts about contemporaneous UNPKOs in Haiti and Cote d’Ivoire reveals staggering disparities. Diverging interpretations of mission mandates, violence, censorship, and colonial practices contribute to the way in which peacekeeping missions are perceived. This article identifies how current UNPKOs are perceived domestically and internationally and emphasises the role of these perceptions as a basis for evaluating and improving these operations.
TL;DR: This article argued that it was only the development of an independent French nuclear deterrent capacity between 1966 and 1972 that ultimately took the boundary from France's geopolitical map, and discussed the river's loss of strategic significance in West Germany due to the particularities of post-war statehood and the country's idiosyncratic geopolitics.
Abstract: During the first half of the twentieth century, the river Rhine constituted the key source of insecurity between France and Germany. Contemporary observers have claimed that the river lost this role in the 1950s due to the dynamics of Franco-German rapprochement and the emergence of the European Coal and Steel Community. This article tries to complicate this story in three steps. First, it shifts attention from early European integration to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and its role in the desecuritisation of the Rhine. Subsequently, it discusses the river’s loss of strategic significance in West Germany due to the particularities of post-war statehood and the country’s idiosyncratic geopolitics. Finally, the article argues that it was only the development of an independent French nuclear deterrent capacity between 1966 and 1972 that ultimately took the boundary from France’s geopolitical map.