WARFARE & PEACEKEEPING

What is a revolution?

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• A transformative event which attempts to change a nation, region, society or

sometimes the world

• Different revolutions have different aims and motives

  • American Revolution (overthrow and replace political power)

  • Russian and Chinese revolutions (radical social and economic change;

               regime of communism)

• Revolutions are fast moving

• Driven by people/groups inspired by hope; idealism and dreams of a better

         society

• Each revolution is unique to its time, location and condition

***Confrontation, conflict, disruption and division – can lead to war, violence, and

    human suffering

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Phases of a revolution

1. Long term conditions of revolutions

   1. Political, economic, or social grievances and dissatisfaction

   2. Dissatisfaction amongst masses

   3. Revolutionary ideas start circulating

2. Short term causes of revolutions

   1. Every revolution is triggered by a short term cause

   2. This event/crisis highlights existing grievances/conditions/sufferings

   3. Leads to more urgent demand for reform/action

   4. E.g. disastrous military wars/defeats, passing unpopular laws, government showing resistance to reform, rapidly deteriorating economic conditions, act of violence against people  

3. Ideology

   1. Developed, adapted and articulated by important thinkers and writers

   2. Promote revolution, explain objectives and justify actions

4. Flashpoints

   1. Critical moments where there is direct confrontation of revolutionaries                                                                                                      and forces of old regime

   2. Challenge power and authority, acceleration in pace of revolution

5. Armed Struggle

   1. By nature revolutions are violent

   2. Revolutionaries prepare militias or armies for own protection/                                                                                                                    overthrowing opposition

   3. Old regimes mobilize armies to defend themselves

   4. Eventually forces will clash                                                                                                Stages of the industrial revolution

6. Grab for Power

   1. How easy/difficult the success of a revolution is depends on the political and military power of the old regime  

7. Consolidation and confrontation

   1. After new regime is in power, it must fight off the existing threat

   2. Must rebuild society

   3. Earn the support of people

   4. Solutions for the things that caused the revolution to begin with

8. Division

   1. New regime might become divided over aims and methods of rebuilding society

   2. Revolutions are better at destruction than construction

9. Radicalization

   1. Radical political leadership saying revolution fails to meet objectives (to stop dangers like civil war, counter-revolutionaries, or foreign threats)

   2. Extreme measures might be taken (war, terror, price control)

10. Moderation

    1. When radical phase ends, new regime becomes more moderate

    2. Radical methods/policies are abandoned

    3. Restoration of control, order, stability and prosperity

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Autocracy – A system of governance by one person with absolute power

Plutocracy – A state or society governed by the wealthy

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Why does civil resistance work?

• Civil and non-violent resistance prevents fewer obstacles to moral and

physical involvement and commitment

• Higher levels of participation contributes to enhanced resilience

• Leads to more peaceful democracies which are less likely to lead to

civil war

 

6 Forms of Revolution – by Mark Katz

1. Rural revolution

2. Urban Revolution

3. Coup d’etat (e.g. Egypt 1952)

4. Revolution from above (Mao’s great leap forward of 1958)

5. Revolution from within (allied invasions of Italy 1944, and Germany 1945)

6. Revolution by Osmosis (Gradual Islamization of several countries)   

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Example:

Russian Revolution (1917)

• Violent revolution marked the end of the Romonov dynasty and imperial rule in Russia

• The Bolsheviks, led by leftist Vladmir Lenin, seized power and destroyed the traditional czarist rule’

  • Bolsheviks would later become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

• In the early 1900s, Russia was a very impoverished country in Europe, with enormous peasantry and growing minority of poor industrial workers

  • Russia practiced serfdom

    • Serfdom: the state of being a serf or feudal laborer.​

• When Russia went through the industrial revolution in the

         late nineteenth century, it brought about great social and

          political change

• Population boom + harsh growing seasons + series of costly

     wars – led to frequent food shortages

• Bloody Sunday Massacre of 1905 led to Russian Revolution of

     1905

• WWI (1914) caused disastrous effects on Russia, economy

     was disrupted

• The February Revolution overthrew Nicholas II and put the

     Durma in power; formed liberal programs of rights

• In November, Bolsheviks performed a bloodless coup d’etat

     against Durma’s provisional government

• Lenin became the dictator of the world’s first communist

     state

• After the Russian Civil war in 1923, Lenin’s Red Army created the Soviet Union/USSR   

 

Urban Revolution

***Due to cumulative growth of technology and increasing availability of food surplus as capital

In anthropology and archaeology, the processes by which agricultural village societies developed into socially, economically and politically complex urban societies

 

10 formal criteria to indicate development

• Increased settlement size

• Concentration of wealth

• Large scale public works

• Writing

• Representational art

• Knowledge of science and engineering

• Foreign trade

• Full time specialists in non-subsistence activities

• Class-stratified society

• Political organization based on residence

                                                                                                                                             China's Urban Revolution Project

Digital Revolution

• Advancements of technology from analog electronic and mechanical devices to digital technology available today

• Started during 1980s and is ongoing

• The development and advancement of digital technologies started with the fundamental idea of the Internet

• Changed the ways in which humans communicate

• 19477 invention of transistor; starting point for digital technology to come

• Made globalization possible   

 

Example:

Pink Tide

(Turn towards left wing in Latin America for two decades)

• Late 1990s and 2000s in Latin America

• Self-proclaimed socialist came to power (e.g. Nicaragua, Venezuela, Uruguay)

• Implemented radically progressive political agendas

  • Increased social spending

  • Nationalization of important industries

  • Renegotiate trade deals

  • Rewriting of constitutions

• Many leftist governments by 2010

• In 2012, President Fernando Lugo (leftist) of Paraguay was impeached, replaced by right-wing Partido Colorado

• In 2015, Mauricio Macri (right wing) was elected democratically as President of Argentina

• In 2016 President of Brazil was impeached and succeeded by a conservative

• Leftist in Venezuela holds very little power as President

• Return of conservative rule in Brazil and Argentina have has

widespread effects across the region (being the largest economies

of Latin America)  

 

What is war?

It is a contention carried on by force of arms between sovereign

states or communities having in this regard the right of states

Types of war:

• Hegemonic: Global war, over control of the entire world

• Total: Waged by one state to conquer and occupy another

• Limited: Includes military actions to gain some objective short of

surrender and occupation

• Civil: Between factions within a state trying to create or prevent

a new government

• Guerilla: Tactics and sabotage to indirectly harass and punish

the enemy army

 

What makes war and terrorism different?

• Proper authority and public declaration

• Causes and intentions

• Probability of success

• Proportionality

• Last resort

• War is governed by laws

 

Peace – The absence of war and violence whilst having the ability to manage conflict constructively, as an important opportunity for change and increased understanding

 

Example:

Arab springs

Tunisia

• Started in 2011 after vegetable cart owner committed self-immolation

• No ideology behind it

• Police was corrupt

• Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and regime were told to step down

• President fled after a month of protests

• Momentum set off uprising across the Middle East

Egypt

• Government overthrown on Feb 11th 2011

• President Hosni Mubarak steps down, faces charges of killing unarmed protester

• Elections held in November 2011

• Protests continue in Tahrir Square

• Mubarak was put in power by America, since 1980s, key ally of the West

• Military did not intervene (didn’t suppress revolts in Cairo)  

Libya

• Anti-government protests begin in Feb 2011

• Leads to civil war between opposition forces and Gadhafi loyalists

• People started protesting against Gadhafi (was in power for an extremely long time) after resignation of Mubarak (Egypt)

• Gadhafi was murder in the same year

• Tripoli was captured, government overthrown in August

• Rebel terrorist broke down the government

• Led to weak government (currently weak government)

Syria

• Protests on going since January 2011

• Continuing clashes between army and protesters

• Bashor al Assad (alawi) President; father was also ruler previously [extremely repressive rule],

• Syria holds key geo-politcal situation

• Civil war

Yemen

• Inspired by Tunisia

• Clash between police and government vs. people

• Army was split into 2 camps (Al Qaida took advantage and occupied areas in South Yemen)

• Saudi Arabia intervened, stopped civil war in Yemen

• President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed power transfer agreement giving his power to vice President al-Hadi

Bahrain

• People were inspired after Egypt

• Ruling Sunni minority and mass Shia population

• Intolerance towards Shiites (re-energized sectarianism)

• Saudi-Arabia intervened but failed to do much

• Tension between both sects still remains

*Algeria, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Morocco and Oman also part of Arab Springs  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuVRwDBiKws  

 

War on terrorism

• Also known as the Global war (military campaign launched by Bush Administration)

• American led global counter-terrorism campaign launched in response to 9/11

• Comparable to the cold war (in terms of scope, expenditure, and international relations)

• Intended to represent a new phase in global politics relations

• Important consequences for security, human rights, international law, cooperation and governance

• Major wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, covert operations in Yemen and elsewhere

• Major increase in military spending and large scale military assistance programs for cooperative regimes

• Increased funding of American intelligence agencies

  • Capturing terrorist suspects

  • Trading and intercepting terrorist finance

• Public diplomacy campaign to counter anti-Americanism in the Middle East

  • New anti-terrorism legislation in the US

  • New security institutions

  • Preventative detainment of suspects

  • Surveillance and intelligence gathering programs

  • Strengthening of emergency response procedures

  • Increased security measures generally

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• Negative impacts were far more than any positive impacts

• Osama Bin Laden killed

• By time of George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004

  • In Iraq, US forces overthrew Saddam Hussein’s government in 2003

    • Underestimated difficulties of building a functioning government from scratch

    • Neglected to consider the sectarian tensions

  • By late 2004, it was apparent Iraq was sinking into chaos and civil war

• In 2006, US faced full blown insurgency in Afghanistan led by a reconstituted Taliban

• Bush administration was criticized for actions considered immoral and illegal

  • Detention of accused enemy combatants without trial at Guantanamo Bay

  • Use of torture against detainees to extract intelligence

  • Unmanned combat drones to kill enemies in areas far from Afghanistan or Iraq

• By the end of Bush’s presidency, an extremely negative opinion of him was formed

  • Helped Barack Obama win election of 2008

    • Under him, both wars were gradually wound down

Cold War (stopping spread of communist ideologies globally)

• After WWII, USA and the Soviet Union (USSR) were the world’s superpowers

• They held different ideologies about economies and government (communism vs. capitalism)

• Fought a war of ideas (UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE)

• Post-war expansion of USSR into Eastern Europe fueled American fears of Russia ruling the world

• American’s believed best defense against USSR was ‘containment’ (containment of Russian expansive tendencies)

  • Arms Race in 1950s (acquire atomic weaponry)

    • H-bomb/atom bomb testing caused radioactive elements in the atmosphere  

  • Race to Space

    • Sputnik in 1957 was the world’s first artificial satellite (Russia)

    • Creation of NASA (USA)

    • First man in space in 1961 (Russia)

    • Neil Armstrong on the moon (USA)

  • The red scare in America – 1947 onwards (a promotion of wide spread fear by a society or state about a potential rise of communism, anarchism or radical leftism)

• First military action: USSR backed North Korea (communist) invaded South Korea (capitalist) [1950-1953]

  • America supported South Korea, eventually stalemate; ended in 1953

• Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis 1961 (real communist threat lay in unstable postcolonial ‘third world’ countries according to USA)

• 10 years of military action by USA in Vietnam against communist regime

• Nixon was diplomatic, tried to fix relationships with Russia

• Reagan believed communism was a threat, but at that point the USSR was already disintegrating causing the power in Eastern Europe to finish.

• The end of the cold war was marked by the falling of the Berlin War in 1981

• USSR ended in 1991

 

Communism in China (People’s Republic of China)

*Aftermath of civil war between Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Nationalist Party of China immediately after WWII

• CPC was formed in 1921, Mao Zedong in control of CPC in 1927

• Mao led a revolution in China and communist party obtained control in 1947.

• Followed example of Soviet Model of development through heavy industry with surpluses extracted from peasants

• In the 1950s, Mao split from traditional ‘Marxism-Leninism’ and developed Maoism (Chinese interpretation of communism)

  • Mao was upset with the ‘cold war’ situation and capitalism vs. communism

• Great Leap forward (social and economic 5 year plan targeting industry and agriculture)

  • Considered a failure, many people starved to death

• Cultural Revolution (reassert authority over government, preserve ‘true’ communist ideology [socio0political movement])

  • Mao overthrew enemies and millions were killed or prosecuted   

• Deng Xiaoping shifted ideals of China to form ‘market socialism’

  • Changes in economic system, developing Chinese socialism

  • ‘Four modernizations’ – Agriculture, industry, science and technology, military

  • Deng turned China into the economic world power that it is today

  • Opened China to the outside world and industrialized successfully

• Tiananmen Square Massacre, military force against civilians (1989)

  • Students protesting for individual freedoms

  • Deng officially resigned in 1989, after international condemnation for his government

• Current Constitution created in 1982, continually revised

  • Civil rights

  • Free to speech, press

  • Free worship

  • Right to trial

  • Right to own private property

• Computer usage exploded in China

  • Ethics of technology has become increasingly prominent

    • Privacy, censorship, public ownership and work ethic – serious ethical issues

 

Colonialism and Power in Congo

• Imperialized by Belgium (King Leopold II) in 1884   

  • King Leopold II was disappointed with inheritance of Belgium (small country)(He believed overseas colonies were key to a country’s greatness)

  • Congo was rich in resources; minerals, copper, ivory, rubber, network of waterways

  • 400 treaties signed by African chiefs giving land away to King Leopold

  • Officially placed under Leopold at Berlin conference of 1884

    • Leopold was given Congo under the agreement that he would being the people there into the modern world; Leopold ignored this and brutally governed Congo

• Personal fortune off of Congo’s ivory

• Forced labor by locals

• Huge profit from rubber for projects in Belgium

• Paid off Belgian debt by Congo’s forced labor

• Some money was used to build schools, hospitals, railroads in Congo

• Belgian’s Roman Catholic Church tried to take over the people of Congo’s religious views and teachings

• Leopold’s mistreating of Africans led to critical human rights movements

• Belgian government eventually had to take Congo away from Leopold

  • Millions of deaths caused by Leopold resulted in his loss of power

    • Mistreatment of Africans after ‘rubber boom’ (forced labor)

    • Women and children held captive until rubber made

    • Unrealistic expectations of rubber quotas, if not met, limbs would be cut off

    • Leopold forced to give Congo to Belgian State in 1908 (renamed Belgian Congo)

      • Belgian government was better than Leopold but was harsh at times

• In 1950s people of Congo fought for independence (Set up political parties, demanded self-rule)

• On June 30th, 1960 Congo gained independence and became a free nation

• Now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo

• A LOT OF INSTABILITY AFTER INDEPENDENCE

  • UN helped govern the state for 2 years after failure of government

 

There’s a really great Crash course video on Power in Congo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uArRzwKHvE    

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