Richard Turcsányi
Koreas witnessed during last few days some important events – starting
with the alleged successful missile test which launch a satellite to the orbit,
followed by the first anniversary of Kim Jong Il's death and the presidential
election in South Korea. We asked what all these mean for the future in Korean
peninsula Dr. James Hoare. Dr. James […]
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23rd February 2012, section Interviews
Petr Pribyla
Why should amnesties be seen as the very last resort of any political
decision to be taken in the transitional process? Which transitional justice
mechanism is the most crucial to be imposed first in periods of the transition?
What have we learned about transitional justice from the case of Spain after
Franco’s death in 1975? Why does one of the reconciliation policies in Rwanda
require former perpetrators who participated in Genocide to wash the bones and
sculls of those they had killed in 1994? These questions were answered by Anja
Mihr, Associate Professor at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights,
University of Utrecht (Netherlands), who is in her research focusing on
transitional justice, reconciliation, human rights and democratization. Her work
is mainly focused on transitional justice and reconciliation in Rwanda, Kosovo,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Chile, Spain and Somaliland.
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18th December 2011, section Interviews
Jan Daniel
After the last Middle
East Symposium, Global Politics editors have decided to shift their
attention to other very interesting region – Caspian Sea. According to many
IR scholars, world is now experiencing the power shift from the West to so
called „emerging powers“, which is accompanied by various geopolitical
turmoils. But is this also the case of Caspian region? If so, could this change
bring some fresh air to local frozen conflicts? These questions were answered by
various experts with diverse background and professional experience, but
profound understanding of Caspian affairs.
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2nd November 2011, section Symposium
Petr Pribyla
Where are the boundaries of our moral obligations in eradicating global
poverty? At what point can we speak of a fetus as a human being? Are we capable
of reaching objectivism in ethical questions? For what reason is it necessary to
reach reassessment of our view of human rights concept? Peter Singer, Ira W. De
Camp professor of bioethics in a Centre for Human Values at Princeton University
and Laureate professor at University of Melbourne, has been standing at the
forefront of debates about our ethical obligations and approaching global
poverty, euthanasia, abortions and animal rights for more than three
decades.
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28th September 2011, section Interviews
Jan Daniel a Kristina Horňáčková
Dr. Zaid Eyadat is a professor of Political Science and International
Relations at the University of Jordan and the chairperson of the Human Rights
and Human Development department. He graduated from the University of Southern
California, where he continues to teach. He has also taught at various
universities in the USA and Jordan and has worked as a consultant for diverse
international organizations and NGOs. Recently he conducted a course called
Islam and Human Rights at Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University in
Brno. Editors of Global Politics and Bulletin of The Czech Centre for Human
Rights and Democratization spoke with Mr. Eyadat about various issues
ranging from Arab revolutions to multiculturalism and liberal islam.
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18th July 2011, section Interviews
Tomáš Profant
Development is often accepted as an unquestioned goal of our societies. We
just want to be developed. Critical discussion on this topic is almost entirely
absent from the public debate in the Czech Republic. Global Politics hopes to
draw your attention to an approach that does not fit the mainstream thinking.
Promising young scholars from the Vienna University treat topics such as
sustainable development, colonial continuities, microfinance or the Zapatista
movement in Chiapas. Their unorthodox ideas are worth a thought for students who
seek more than just the usual „aid or trade“ question.
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9th July 2011, section Editorial board
Katrin Kohler
Within the framework of this paper I explicate the basic elements of
colonial as well as development discourse. Although we can identify an obvious
rupture line between colonialism and the era of development, I demonstrate that
the colonial heritage structures development discourse in various ways. While
there have been some significant changes on the rhetoric level, basic colonial
concepts still prevail such as a dichotomic and hierarchical worldview, the
evolutionary paradigm with the West as its benchmark, the idea of ‘white’
expertise etc. These often racialised assumptions produce unequal power
relations within the development industry and structure the very idea of
development itself.
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9th July 2011, section Articles
Eric Pfeifer
The aim of this paper is to establish reasons for the inclusion of certain
elements in the sustainable development discourse as well as its exclusionary
systems making for the “blind spots”. The question to be answered is: What
effects and implications does the order of the sustainable development discourse
have on the political sphere? What perspectives open up for tackling
environmental issues? Which perspectives fade away or disappear?
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9th July 2011, section Articles
Andrea Visotchnig
Microcredits – and microfinance in general – have recently been hyped
as a means to overcome poverty. However, the actual outcomes of this instrument
often differ from the intended ones. Moreover, the concept is a highly
problematic one when looked at it from a post-development perspective. Some of
its shortcomings, though, could be overcome by hybridizing microfinance with the
post-development concept of a language of a diverse economy.
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9th July 2011, section Articles
Christiane Loper
In the last years as a student of International Development, my naive
understanding of helping ‚the others‘ and my idea of the whole development
business was completely disillusioned. To be critical about development and
about what people mean when they use the term ‚development‘ became natural
and unavoidable. Therefore the topic of Post-Development seems somehow to be a
summary of my study. Everything deconstructed – but what next? It seems
important to me to look deeper at Post Development and its critique.
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9th July 2011, section Articles