Doctrine

About: Doctrine is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 21901 publications have been published within this topic receiving 204282 citations.

Fascist Doctrine and the Cult of the Romanità

Abstract: In a recent article published in this journal, Emilio Gentile briefly mentioned the cult of the romanita to illustrate his thesis about fascism as a political religion.' Gentile's observations on the (semi-) religious connotations of fascist doctrine are relevant to the debate concerning the ideological character of fascism. His thesis offers an adequate terminology for the description of fascism as a flexible type of doctrine, without leading to a nihilistic stance about the relevance of the study of fascist ideology. Although fascism hardly qualifies as an 'established' and consistent ideology of the Marxist type, a reconstruction of the doctrinal development of fascism (and its roots) is vital for our understanding of the relative success of the regime during the years of consensus. From a historiographical point of view, there is another important aspect of Gentile's article: he is one of the first scholars of fascist history to acknowledge the relevance of the cult of classical Roman history for fascist propaganda during the 1930s. In fact, he seems to support the thesis that the romanita was of major importance for the propaganda of fascist political doctrine during that decade. This was noted by various Italian scholars of antiquity such as Luciano Canfora and Mariella Cagnetta.2 Up until now, most historians of fascist ideology have dealt with the cult of the romanita as being of merely rhetorical and symbolic value for fascism, especially in propaganda concerning the Italian imperialism of the 1930s. Following this interpretation we are compelled to consider the use of the romanita within fascist 'imperial' propaganda as an opportunistic choice of 'Roman' catchwords and symbols, lacking any substantial ideological coherence and with no intellectual background of any standing.3 We are compelled to believe that fascist propaganda only emphasized the 'Roman' roots of the ducismo and the 'Roman'

The ‘Responsibility to Protect’ and the Structural Problems of Preventive Humanitarian Intervention

Abstract: While the normative and legal aspects of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine have been explored in great detail, scholars have largely overlooked the more practical question of whether and how international military action can avert mass atrocities. To shed light on this question, this article investigates the ‘strategic logic’ of preventive humanitarian intervention, or the assumed link between external military action and the desired outcome of preventing or stopping mass killing. It contends that there are five fundamental and seemingly irremediable tensions in this logic, all of which cast doubt on the feasibility of preventive humanitarian intervention and on the long-term prospects of R2P.

The Banjul Charter and the African Cultural Fingerprint: An Evaluation of the Language of Duties

Abstract: This article questions the universality of the human rights corpus and argues that a human rights doctrine that is legitimate across cultures and traditions is not possible without the participation of the wider globe. Its purpose is to imagine and reconfigure a rights regime that could achieve legitimacy in Africa. It argues that African cultures and conceptions of man have a lot to contribute to the exercise of the reconstruction of the human rights corpus. The piece focuses attention on particular African ideas and conceptions of society, morality, and human ethos that would enrich the human rights regime and make it more legitimate in Africa.