bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Conclusions
Authors: Scott Juliette R.
Published: February 2019

The Conclusions discuss the theoretical models put forward in this interdisciplinary practitioner research project on outsourced legal translation, and their potential application in order to enhance the fitness-for-purpose of translated texts. Emphasis is placed on the need for comprehensive briefing due to serious ensuing risks with consequent effects on the outcomes of litigation, the proper administration of justice, and the fight against crime. A review of legal translation performance constraints on textual agency and relational agency that have emerged from the data is provided. A number of avenues for future research are sketched out, and the importance of translator professionalization is foregrounded, as is bidirectional dialogue between clients and translation practitioners, in the performance of what, in the light of this extensive market survey, proves to be an arduous and highly sensitive task.
Introduction
Authors: Stevens John A.
Published: February 2019

This chapter argues that Keshab Chandra Sen’s worldview was shaped by the cultural, intellectual and religious traditions of both India and Britain. It situates the study in the context of current scholarship concerning new imperial history, histories of identity and subjectivity, postcolonial studies and subaltern studies. It sets out the methodological and theoretical framework of the book, with particular reference to discourse analysis, theories of identity and subjectivity, postcolonial theory, liberalism and universalism. It provides a brief biographical introduction to Keshab Chandra Sen and argues that he is a significant and neglected figure in the history of Bengal and the Bengal renaissance.
BBC Hausa Service Interview with Muhammad Yusuf
Authors: Cook David
Published: February 2019

(c. 15 OCTOBER 2008)

[Trans.: Abdulbasit Kassim]

This is probably the only interview of Yusuf by a foreign media agency. The interview was moderated by Bilkisu Labaran of BBC Hausa service in Kano and it should be dated to approximately 15 October 2008 (according to the reference to the moonsighting, which would have been 30 September 2008, said to have been “two weeks ago” in the text). In the interview, Yusuf reiterated his opposition to Western education, the polio vaccination, and the Nigerian government. He expounded the source of his creed and refuted the Kharijite label pinned upon him by Izala scholars. He also advocated the prophetic (pseudo-)medicine and gave a detailed account of the moonsighting controversy between his group and the Islamic authorities as well as the dispute between his followers and the Izala movement...
Western Civilization is Atheism and Anti-Islam
Authors: Shekau Abubakar
Published: February 2019

(16 FEBRUARY 2009)1

[Trans.: Abdulbasit Kassim]

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQY4GLtzLdU

This video lecture should be considered in its importance to be the political and religious statement of Abubakar Shekau, who would become Yusuf’s successor. The content of the lecture is closely related to the content of text 11 delivered by Yusuf. The themes covered in this lecture would later feature in many of the writings and multimedia messages of Shekau after 2009. Of specific interest in this lecture is Shekau’s parody of the national pledge and anthem which represents his anti-national ideology and revulsion of the Nigerian state. Shekau’s style and his rather bullying attitude, during the question and answer period, contrast with that of Yusuf (see texts 10, 12). There were some missing parts at the beginning of the video...
Hādhihi ‘Aqīdatunā (This is Our Creed)
Authors: Shekau Abubakar
Published: February 2019

(c. SPRING 2009)

[Kanuri trans. team and Atta Barkindo]

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jeowy05QfBw

This video is a lecture of Shekau, leader of Boko Haram after 2009, in the Kanuri language, and is undated. From the contents, speaking as it does of Yusuf having been in Abuja, it was probably delivered during the early spring of 2009 (on the evidence of him alluding to “seven years” of the group’s history, as it was founded in 2002). The style of this lecture is folksy, hortatory, and, comparatively speaking, there is little citation of the Qur’ān or exegesis...
Provision of the Muslim Fighters
Authors: Yusuf Muhammad
Published: February 2019

(14 MARCH 2009)

[Trans.: Abdulbasit Kassim]

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWCNdqwGU-M

This video was delivered in Hausa and Arabic by Yusuf, and is based upon the well-known hagiography of the Prophet Muhammad, al-Raḥīq al-makhtūm (The Sealed Nectar), and is aimed at the spiritual training of Boko Haram. It discusses the necessity of following the commands of Allah as opposed to the desires of the soul, purification of the soul prior to...
Grouping of Sermons
Authors: Kassim Abdulbasit
Published: February 2019

The themes of this sermon on colonialism (third sermon in the series) parallel the themes in the History of Muslims (text 11). It also parallels a speech delivered by Osama Bin Laden titled “Crusader Wars.”
1

“A Sermon on Colonialism”

[Standard Islamic opening]

And thereafter:...
Open Letter To The Nigerian Government or Declaration of War
Authors: Yusuf Muhammad
Published: February 2019

(12 JUNE 2009)

[Trans.: Abdulbasit Kassim]

This is the last official statement of Yusuf before the June–July 2009 uprising. It is quite easy to see his open rebelliousness, frustration and anger over the indiscriminate killing of his followers, together with his growing paranoia and apocalyptic sense. This lecture was a defining moment for Muhammad Yusuf. It ushered his movement into a new cycle...
Interrogation of Muhammad Yusuf
Authors: Cook David
Published: February 2019

(30 JULY 2009)

Just before his extrajudicial killing by Nigerian security forces, Yusuf was interrogated in Maiduguri. This interrogation contradicts statements by the Nigerian Police that Yusuf was executed because of a shoot-out between him and the security forces. Below is a transcript of the interrogation...
Message From Shekau
Authors: Cook David
Published: February 2019

(17 APRIL 2011)

[Trans.: Abdulbasit Kassim]

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ChTgAjpoyY

In the aftermath of the July 2009 conflict, Nigerian security officials claimed that Shekau had been killed along with other Boko Haram members in clashes between the group and the security forces, a recurring phenomenon of premature Shekau death statements. He re-emerged in a video interview with a local Nigerian journalist from...
Disassociation of the Jamā‘At Anṣār Al-Muslimin from Targeting Muslim Innocents
Authors: Cook David
Published: February 2019

(14 MAY 2013)

[Trans.: David Cook]

Available at: http://azelin.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/jamc481at-ane1b9a3c481r-al-muslimc4abn-fi-bilc481d-al-sc5abdc481n-22innocence-of-the-mujc481hidc4abn-from-the-blood-of-the-innocent-muslims22.pdf

On 18 March 2013, there were bus bombings in Kano, during which approximately sixty-five people were killed. On 13 April 2013, the first Baga massacre occurred, during which at least 187 people were killed (it is still unclear whether this was the work of Boko Haram). In the light of these massacres it is not surprising that Ansaru felt the need to proclaim its disassociation (...
Raid on Maiduguri
Authors: Shekau Abubakar
Published: February 2019

(26 MARCH 2014)

[Trans.: Abdulbasit Kassim]

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pba8uvuf9Is

On 14 March 2014, Boko Haram carried out a daring daylight raid on the heavily guarded military prison at Giwa Barracks in Maiduguri, freeing some of their incarcerated members. The freeing of these prisoners was important for the evolution of Boko Haram’s caliphate. In this video, Shekau claimed the attack on behalf of the group, and declared war against the “Civilian JTF” (...
Shekau Says He is Alive and Well
Authors: Cook David
Published: February 2019

(5 OCTOBER 2014)

[Trans.: Abdulbasit Kassim]

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC0GJtoTttM

Shekau once again resurfaced and dismissed the claims of his death following the report of the Nigerian Army that he was killed in Konduga on 17 September 2014. In this video, Shekau confirmed the killing of the Nigerian pilot (Chimda Hedima), who was captured when Boko Haram members shot down a Nigerian Air Force jet (text 42). The full version of this video also shows graphic scenes of amputation, stoning to death, and beheading...
Shekau Speaks on Cease-Fire and the Chibok Girls
Authors: Cook David
Published: February 2019

(1 NOVEMBER 2014)

[Trans.: Abdulbasit Kassim]

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15Xh-rf2FoU

On 17 October 2014, the former Nigerian Chief of Defense Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, announced a ceasefire agreement between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram. Badeh’s announcement followed a similar announcement on Voice of America Hausa by Danladi Ahmadu, who claimed to be “the general secretary of Boko Haram.” Hassan Tukur, private secretary of President Jonathan, represented the Nigerian government in the ceasefire negotiations, said to have been mediated by Chadian President Idriss Déby. Part of the agreement included the release of the Chibok schoolgirls. Although Déby claimed to have verified Danladi as Boko Haram’s representative, the ceasefire agreement fell apart upon this video’s release. In it, Shekau denied any ceasefire agreement, labeling Danladi an unbeliever who has no relationship with the group. Shekau also said more than 200 out of the 219 remaining Chibok girls have converted to Islam and been married off. He also gave information about the abduction of a German national by the group, and ruled out future talks with the government, considered “illegitimate.”...
Charlie Hebdo
Authors: Shekau Abubakar
Published: February 2019

(14 JANUARY 2015)

[Trans.: Abdulbasit Kassim]

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzIAPmhuFK41

In this eight-minute-long video, Shekau celebrated the attack on the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo on 7 January 2015, and reiterated Boko Haram’s belief system and its vision to continue fighting. He also cited classical Islamic theologians to justify the group’s ideology that whoever rules by a system of law other than the law of Allah is...
Nigerian Preachers (2006–2008)
Authors: Nwankpa Michael
Published: February 2019

This chapter provides a historical background to Boko Haram’s insurgency by discussing its theological rationale and argument. Particularly, it focuses on the last three years before Boko Haram transformed into a full-blown insurgent group in 2009 and draws attention to the extensive religious debates between the leadership of Boko Haram and the religious scholars and establishment in northern Nigeria. The chapter also presents the socio-political events and conditions within and without Nigeria that may have contributed to the emergence of Boko Haram and inspired Boko Haram’s Jihad. In this chapter, Muhammad Yusuf, the charismatic founder of Boko Haram and his deputy and current leader, Abubakar Shekau goes to extensive length in establishing the group’s creed, religious ideology and raison d’etre.
Making Nigeria Ungovernable
Authors: Nwankpa Michael
Published: February 2019

Chapter three captures the beginning of Boko Haram’s jihad and the initial stages of the post-2009 violence: 2009-2012, following the brutal and extrajudicial killing of Muhammad Yusuf by the Nigerian police. It catalogues the matrix of events including warfare strategy that depict Boko Haram’s clash with the Nigerian state and perceived enemies including Christians and the media. The chapter also shows a significant interaction between Boko Haram and other transnational terrorist organisations such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and al-Qaeda central. The earliest internal schism and fractionalisation of Boko Haram that led to several splinter groups such as Ansaru-2012 are discussed in this chapter.
West African Islamic State (2015–16)
Authors: Nwankpa Michael
Published: February 2019

Part five of the book presents the current state of Boko Haram as the Islamic State’s official affiliate in West Africa, showing a clear trajectory in the transformation of Boko Haram leadership as Nigerian preachers to Islamic State’s franchise. The chapter reflects on Boko Haram’s journey especially whether its present state could have been avoided if the Nigerian state had responded differently. The reflective mode however shifts towards more realistic assessments that include an analysis of Boko Haram’s quest to regain its original motive and rebrand itself and the contestation between its local and global agenda. This is most visibly reflected in the internal criticisms against Shekau’s leadership style and unhinged attacks especially against Muslims and the recent leadership contest and infighting between the de facto leader, Abubakar Shekau and ISIS-backed al-Barnawi, the son of Boko Haram’s murdered founder, Muhammad Yusuf. The chapter offers prognosis that helps us understand the likely direction that Boko Haram may take and the possible outcomes.
Work, Status, and Social Mobility
Authors: Andrews William L.
Published: February 2019

Chapter 2 contains a comprehensive examination of the work and socioeconomic mobility of mid-century narrators while they were still enslaved. The work that narrators did before they achieved freedom and the leverage and mobility that many gained from that work significantly affected their self-estimates and their views of other slaves as well as slaveholders and nonslaveholders. Most mid-century narratives were produced by former skilled slaves, whose stories often dramatize how personal self-respect and pride, earned privileges, and mounting aspirations for opportunities and autonomy led to various kinds of resistance to control and, eventually, to freedom. This chapter also examines the least studied of the mid-century narratives, those by former agricultural workers (field hands) to explore their perspectives on work, exploitation, and freedom. The chapter concludes by examining the roles of paternalism, privilege, and intraracial—particularly family—relationships in the early life of Frederick Douglass.
Class and Conflict
Authors: Andrews William L.
Published: February 2019

Chapter 3 begins by reviewing the depictions of class differences among slaveholding and nonslaveholding whites in the South, centering on the contempt the narrators expressed toward “lazy” and “idle” slaveholders and “mean masters.” Yet some narratives recount class-based alliances between upper-echelon slaves and their “friends” in the white upper class. This chapter explores dissension the narrators attributed to envy, treachery, betrayal, and threats of violence between a favored “confidential” minority of domestic or skilled slaves and a resentful enslaved majority. The chapter examines narrative depictions of conflict, verbal and physical, between whites and blacks whose “impudent” bearing, speech, and behavior often identified them, insofar as the indignant whites were concerned, as intractable “gentlemen” and “lady” slaves. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the class implications of Douglass’s memory of a fight between an enslaved woman, Nelly Kellem, and an overseer in My Bondage and My Freedom.
The Fugitive as Class Exemplar
Authors: Andrews William L.
Published: February 2019

Chapter 4 reviews the fugitive slave narrative’s role in rehabilitating the character of the slave by representing the fugitive slave as a special class of “superior” men and women who proved themselves worthy of freedom by refusing a degraded, victimized status. Traits of admirable character, such as initiative and intelligence, sometimes distinguish aspirants for freedom from so-called ordinary slaves, implying that those whom the fugitives left behind them were liable to judgment for acquiescing to their enslavement. However, many narratives note multiple factors, including emotional ties and fear of reprisals, that made flight for freedom untenable for most slaves. In some narratives scenes of parting, in which fugitives struggle emotionally and ethically with the idea of abandoning enslaved loved ones, dramatize an excruciating dilemma: how to justify a final and irrevocable assertion of an individual priority, freedom, over the needs and welfare of loved ones, family, or community.
Epilogue
Authors: Andrews William L.
Published: February 2019

The epilogue notes that kinship, privilege, occupation, intragroup status, and social mobility affected crucial transitions in self-awareness as well as class awareness among the narrators. Growing self-respect kindled in many narrators a desire for a future that coalesced around an imagined free self. Narrating this process of inner growth individualized and liberated African American personhood in mid-century literature. Slave narratives from this generation created the most sophisticated commentary on caste and class in the South to be found in nineteenth-century American literature. In the late nineteenth century, former slaves continued to publish autobiographies in large numbers. Their experiences in slavery and perspectives on it were often very different from those of the antebellum narrators. Without taking into account the slave narratives published between 1865 and 1901, our comprehension of slavery and the full diversity of African American self-portraiture in the slave narrative will remain limited and partial.
Recycled Lives
Authors: Chajes Julie
Published: February 2019

This study historicises and contextualises the rebirth doctrines of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891), the matriarch of the Theosophical Society and one of the most influential women of the nineteenth century. It analyses Blavatsky’s complicated theories about the cosmos and its divine source as presented in her two seminal Theosophical treatises, Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine (1888), as well as her articles and letters. The book argues that Blavatsky taught two distinct theories of rebirth and that the later one developed from the earlier. It reveals Blavatsky’s appropriation of a plethora of contemporaneous works in the construction of these doctrines and contextualises her interpretations in nineteenth-century intellectual and cultural life. In particular, it explores Blavatsky’s adaptations of Spiritualist ideas, scientific theories, Platonism, and Oriental religions, which in turn are set in relief against broader nineteenth-century American and European trends. The chapters come together to reveal the contours of a modern perspective on reincarnation that is inseparable from the nineteenth-century discourses within which it emerged. In addition, it reveals some consequential, perhaps unexpected, and evidently under-acknowledged historical roots of the reincarnationism that is so popular in today’s postmodern world.
Reincarnation in The Secret Doctrine
Authors: Chajes Julie
Published: February 2019

Chapter 3 exposes the differences between Blavatsky’s earlier and later theories of rebirth through a close reading of her second major work, The Secret Doctrine (1888). The chapter begins by explaining the ‘macrocosmic’ aspects of Blavatsky’s reincarnation doctrine, that is, her cosmology, which describes the birth, death, and rebirth of planets, solar systems, and even universes. The chapter then explores the ‘microcosmic’ elements of the teaching, namely, Blavatsky’s statements on birth, death, and the revival of human life. The chapter concludes by analysing Blavatsky’s re-interpretation of the ‘second chance’ she believed would be given to those who died in exceptional occurrences. It also considers her claim in The Secret Doctrine that despite the usual acquisition of a new personality in each lifetime, it was possible for adepts to preserve their personal identity through repeated incarnations.
Conclusions
Authors: Chajes Julie
Published: February 2019

Chapter 8 concludes this study by making some general observations about Helena Blavatsky’s thought, appeal, and influence. It brings together the elements discussed in the previous chapters and highlights her value to the historian of nineteenth-century culture. The chapter argues that Blavatsky’s constructions of Hinduism, Buddhism, science, Platonism, and Spiritualism all came together in her rebirth doctrines. Her definitions of all these were interdependent at the same time as they were inseparable from signal late nineteenth-century cultural trends. Due to her influence on the development of modern forms of religion, including the almost ubiquitous New Age Movement, Blavatsky has significantly contributed to the popularisation of reincarnation in the West. She can be considered one of the principal architects of religion in modern times.
Islam and the Opening of the Chinese Mind
Authors: Bianchi Robert R.
Published: February 2019

Islam’s impact on China is growing because its external and internal influences are more intertwined than ever. Islamic civilization permeates the New Silk Road, shaping all of China’s efforts to integrate megaregions throughout Afro-Eurasia. At the same time, the development of Islam inside China changes the way Chinese people define themselves as a nation and as members of the human family. The deeper China enmeshes itself in the Islamic world, the more Chinese must ask themselves what it means to be Chinese. When Chineseness is understood more inclusively and universally, China gains greater effectiveness in relating to Muslims everywhere, regardless of nationality. For generations, Chinese scholars from many disciplines have drawn upon Sino-Islamic interchanges to reinterpret Chinese identity in more pluralist and cosmopolitan ways. Especially notable are the contributions of Gu Jie Gang in history and ethnography, Fei Xiao Tong in social science, and Tang Jun Yi in neo-Confucian philosophy.
For God and Ulster, Self-Interest, or Social Networks?
Authors: Blake Jonathan S.
Published: February 2019

Using survey and interview data, this chapter shows that the well-established idealist, rationalist, and structuralist explanations for participation in contentious political action do not fully explain loyalist parading. The chapter presents data from participants and comparable nonparticipants to assess the strength of the three models. It demonstrates that parade participants’ attitudes toward the Protestant in-group and Catholic out-group are not notably different from those of nonparticipants, that participants do not receive selective material incentives, and that pre-existing social networks do not differentiate participants and nonparticipants. The data do show that participation might be spurred by social sanctioning and that participants are more likely than nonparticipants to have a history of past parading. Overall, none of the three important existing theoretical approaches explain patterns of parade participation.
Conclusion
Authors: Blake Jonathan S.
Published: February 2019

This chapter summarizes the main arguments and findings of the book and presents brief comparative case studies of contentious rituals in Jerusalem and India. In reviewing the book, the chapter reiterates that explaining participation in loyalist parades in Northern Ireland requires understanding their ritual nature. Theories that do not account for this cannot fully explain why people choose to take part in contentious rituals. The chapter then examines comparative contentious rituals. Scholars who have closely studied why people participate in these contested events in Jerusalem and India come to conclusions similar to the ones in this book: that participants are drawn by the benefits intrinsic to the very experience of participation in symbol-laden public rituals tied to their collective identities. The chapter concludes by suggesting that contentious rituals are the purview of majority groups, not minorities, and that they require intimate knowledge about the rival community.
From Benghazi to Bagnoli
Authors: Weighill Rob , Gaub Florence
Published: February 2019

This Chapter presents an account of the rapidly evolving and highly volatile political and strategic environment as the situation in Libya deteriorated. JFC Naples, the NATO headquarters that was to assume responsibility for the operation, was profoundly unprepared for the ensuing campaign and faced many challenges as it planned and transitioned for war. In the face of increasing regime violence and international support, the chapter examines the establishment of an interim government (The National Transitional Council) to counter Gaddafi. It further covers the formal activation of a coalition intervention operation under US command. International political activity intensified sharply as nations and alliances sought a resolution to the ensuing conflict, but with an increasing likelihood of a NATO-led intervention operation to protect civilians. The international community also considered means by which the flow of refugees could be stemmed to reverse the humanitarian crisis.
2011
Authors: Ahram Ariel I.
Published: February 2019

Chapter 2 discusses the breakdown of the normative and practical consensus surrounding sovereign statehood and the possibilities of a new Wilsonian moment in MENA. The 2011 Arab uprisings represented a continuation of a global crisis that led to the proliferation of civil wars, state failures, and state births. None of the initial uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, or Syria were bent on separatism. But the outside intervention gave separatists new ways to challenge the legitimacy and capacity of existing states and make claims for self-determination. The international community, however, vacillated in its response to these efforts, creating conditions for state collapse.
Southern Yemen
Authors: Ahram Ariel I.
Published: February 2019

Chapter 4 looks at the Southern Movement (SM) in Yemen. As in Libya, the Southern Movement took advantage of the ouster of a dictatorship and the crumbling of an already weak central government. The Yemen civil war, which erupted as Houthi forces from the north stormed Sana’a, gave the SM a new opportunity to take control in the south. The SM claimed the once-independent South Yemen as its direct forebear. There was disagreement within the SM about whether to seek outright secession or accept federalist devolution. Various factions within the SM vied for control over Yemen’s oil deposits and ports. The SM tried to win international support, particularly from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, claiming that it could be a force for stability.
Kurdistan
Authors: Ahram Ariel I.
Published: February 2019

Chapter 5 focuses on the Kurds, the region’s largest stateless minority group. This chapter compares and contrasts the efforts by the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq, which has operated with more or less unfettered autonomy since 1991, and Rojava, the Kurdish entity that appeared in Syria during the civil war in 2011. Both maintained liminal positions within their parent state, pledging their loyalty to the governments of Iraq and Syria while at the same time maximizing their autonomy from any central control. They articulated their demands for separatism by pointing to the denial of Kurdish self-determination at the end of World War I and engage international society for support.
The Islamic State
Authors: Ahram Ariel I.
Published: February 2019

Chapter 6 is about the Islamic State. IS in some respects stood as the outlier among these cases. It adamantly rejected the sovereignty of all existing states and asserted that its own independence represents the recreation of the medieval Islamic caliphate. In so doing, IS disrupted not just Syria and Iraq but the entire structure of the international system. Still, much like other separatists, IS also used the vocabulary of self-determination derived from the Wilsonian moment to denounce the existing regional order and offer its own alternative. It similarly sought to establish undisputed physical control over territories left unguarded by Syria and Iraq, creating parallel state institutions that supplanted the nominal sovereign.
Is There an Absolute Value that Overrides All Other Considerations?
Authors: Kekes John
Published: February 2019

One answer was given in Maccabeus 2 by a venerable old man and his imagined younger alter ego. The old man was guided by what he took to be an absolute value and died rather than violate it. The young one accepted the same value, but when it came into conflict with other things he had reason to value, he did not think it was absolute. This chapter considers how the reasons for the certainty of the old man and the flexibility of the young one could be evaluated. It shows that although their reasons were derived from their different personal and social circumstances, yet the reasons of one were better than those of the other. Having their cases in front of us, we can consider whether we have or should have an absolute value that we would be ready to die for, if it becomes necessary. I give reasons why we may individually make a reasonable absolute commitment to a person, ideal, or cause without claiming that reason requires everyone to make that or any other absolute commitment.
How Should We Respond to Evil?
Authors: Kekes John
Published: February 2019

The chapter draws on an insufficiently appreciated novel, Lovely Green Eyes. It compares how a young girl and a Priest responded to evil. The girl could save her life in awful circumstances only by prostitution that forever destroyed her innocence. The Priest sheltered her after horrors she lived through and helped her slow recovery from what she had endured. The girl was young and resilient, responded well to the evil she suffered, and gradually resumed a semblance of normal life. The Priest could not reconcile his religious faith with the condition of the world that led to what was done to the girl. The girl’s reasons for responding to the evil she suffered were direct and practical. The Priest’s reasons were indirect and theoretical. The girl responded to the evil done to her reasonably, dauntingly difficult as that was. The Priest tried to respond to it but could not find a reasonable way of reconciling it with his faith. Each had reasons for how they responded to evil, but the girl’s were better than the Priest’s. The chapter shows how reasons for and against responding to evil in these different ways can be reasonably evaluated. It leads us to ask whether we could be as resilient as the girl was if we had to respond to evil. And to ask as well whether we can reconcile our view of the world in which evil is prevalent without obfuscating the horrors we cannot help knowing about.
Is It Always Good to Be True to Who We Are?
Authors: Kekes John
Published: February 2019

The hardness of this question is made clear by considering the actual case of an honorable army officer who found that circumstances prevented him from doing the duty he was wholeheartedly committed to doing. I compare him with a young man in Koestler’s novel, Arrival and Departure, who mistakenly blamed himself for a fatal accident. The soldier could not remain true to who he was and wanted to be and killed himself because of it. The young man was deeply dissatisfied with who he mistakenly supposed he was and did not want to be true to it. This chapter shows that a reasonable answer depends on having a realistic view of who we are, on the reasons for and against being satisfied with it, on having an opportunity to change, and on the nature and seriousness of the challenge that leads to the hard question. Remaining true may be stupid, pig-headed, or a sign of integrity and strength. Endeavoring to change may be the result of weakness, cowardice, and opportunism, or the desire to reform and self-discipline. There is no universally applicable answer to this hard question because the reasons for and against being true to who we are depend on who we are and take ourselves to be. Thinking about this hard question makes it obvious how simple minded are the contemporary celebrations of autonomy, authenticity, sincerity, and doing our own thing. Whether it is good to be true to who we are depends on who we are.
Do Good Intentions Justify Bad Actions?
Authors: Kekes John
Published: February 2019

The comparison is between the biographies of a dedicated communist commander of one of the Gulag camps and of a Nazi SS officer. Each is guilty of having done very bad actions. Each believed that his intentions were good and that his bad actions were justified in the circumstances. One intended to protect his country against its enemies. The other intended to save as many lives as he could by means of his bad actions in order to gain the trust of other SS officers. He was an intentional collaborator in the crimes of the SS, but he thereby saved many lives. A reasonable answer to this hard question depends on whether their intentions were really good or merely believed to be so; on what the overall balance was of their good and bad the actions; on whether they should have had doubts about the nature of their intentions and actions; and what the justification of their bad actions was supposed to be. There are reasonable answers, but they vary with persons, intentions, actions, and contexts. If we bear in mind the questionable good intentions of the communist and the Nazi, we should become less trusting of our own supposedly good intentions and more attentive to the likely consequences of our actions.
Are Moral Values the Highest of All Values?
Authors: Kekes John
Published: February 2019

Plutarch’s Cato was an ancient moralist who had no doubt about the priority of moral evaluations to whatever conflicted with them. Montaigne was a politically experienced magistrate, legislator, and mediator who knew from personal experience that moral, personal, political, and religious evaluations often conflict. Montaigne thought that there were circumstances in which moral evaluations should be reasonably overridden by non-moral evaluations. Cato denied it. Intransigence led Cato to undermine the Roman Republic he was morally committed to defend. Montaigne’s prudent counsel was a moderating influence in the civil war that raged in sixteenth-century France. The hard question is whether or not there are limits beyond which we could not reasonably go in overriding moral evaluations. The chapter compares how good were the reasons Cato and Montaigne gave for their conflicting answers to this hard question. That should lead us to consider how we in our circumstances should resolve conflicts between our own moral, personal, political, and religious evaluations. And we should be aware of the dangers of dogmatic moralizing that suppresses contrary personal, political, religious, and other evaluations.
Conclusion
Authors: Kekes John
Published: February 2019

The comparative approach of this book is an alternative to the absolutist and relativist approaches to hard questions. Central to the argument are the unavoidability of conflicts, the context-dependence of reasonable answers, the plurality of evaluations and good lives, and the importance of personal attitudes.
Who Are the Bishops and Where Do They Come From?
Authors: Fichter Stephen J. , Gaunt Thomas P. , Hoegeman Catherine , Perl Paul M.
Published: February 2019

This chapter provides an overview of information on the current bishops of the United States: their age, where they are from, where they went to school, what they studied, their theological perspective, and which pope appointed them bishop. Additionally, what is the size and complexity of the dioceses they lead? Characteristics such as these are helpful in understanding the human, cultural, and geographic context of the American bishops at the start of the 21st century. In trying to assess and identify the desired qualities for a bishop, some criteria are hard to measure and instead rely on a careful discerning judgment (solid faith, gentleness, wisdom, etc.), and other criteria are more readily ascertained and documented (age, management skills, education, etc.).
A Day in the Life of a Bishop
Authors: Fichter Stephen J. , Gaunt Thomas P. , Hoegeman Catherine , Perl Paul M.
Published: February 2019

This chapter describes the normal daily routines that bishops follow and compares their averages (in terms of hours spent sleeping and working) to those of other American males in their same age category. Analysis is also made of the amount of time that they spend praying and exercising each day. Some interesting results come to the fore such as the fact that bishops sleep two hours less per day and work two hours more per day than men their own age. We also delve into their preferences for both secular and Church news sources, noting (not surprisingly) that the more traditional bishops choose conservative outlets and the more progressive ones choose liberal sources.
Governance and Administration
Authors: Fichter Stephen J. , Gaunt Thomas P. , Hoegeman Catherine , Perl Paul M.
Published: February 2019

This chapter takes the perspective of the diocese as an organization and the bishop as the leader and administrator of that organization. In business terms the bishop would be the chief executive officer. A diocese is perhaps more comparable to a nonprofit organization, where the CEO is the administrator and the board of directors are responsible for governance and mission. However, in the case of the diocese, the bishop is responsible for both the administration and governance. The chapter uses data from the survey and interviews, as well as reviews of diocesan websites to examine different aspects of the bishop’s role as an administrator of the diocese. First, it explores a key decision-making area by reviewing different strategies bishops use to staff parishes when there are not enough priests. Second is a review of diocesan strategic and pastoral planning processes. The final section discusses diocesan level policies, including safe environment and protection of children.
‘Passive Resistance’ in India, 1905–09
Authors: Hardiman David
Published: February 2019

The first chapter examines the development of civil forms of protest in India under the rubric of ‘passive resistance’. This method was devised initially by nationalist activists who were impressed by the success of campaigns of what was then known as ‘passive resistance’ in Europe. These European campaigns are appraised in their historical context, showing how they inspired Indian nationalists involved in the Swadeshi Movement of 1905-09, with its rallying cry of Bande Mataram (Victory to the Motherland). The important contribution of the Bengali nationalist, Aurobindo Ghose, in the development of this strategy is analyzed. The focus in these campaigns was on efficacy rather than ethics. This tradition continued in India into the Gandhian period, and it is one of the tasks of this book to show how this created enduring tensions within the movement.
Introduction
Authors: Rudel Thomas K.
Published: February 2019

“Business-as-usual” conditions during the last three decades of global warming have enabled special interests associated with fossil fuels to dominate the political economy of energy in most states. Gradual adoption of cleaner fuels from wind and the sun, a form of ecological modernization, has occurred, but in a context of growing demands for energy, the adoption of cleaner fuels has not reduced the use of fossil fuels, so the warming of the earth through greenhouse gas emissions has continued unabated. Alarmed observers have responded by urging radical changes in energy use. This book describes how these changes have occurred in the few twentieth-century cases of radical environmental reform.
Radical Environmental Reforms
Authors: Rudel Thomas K.
Published: February 2019

Socio-ecological processes occur either as presses or as pulses. Changes in press-like processes occur in small increments, and this dynamic encourages political domination by “business-as-usual” special interests. Changes in pulse-like processes occur suddenly, and they encourage the formation of encompassing coalitions that challenge rule by special interests. Pulses mobilize people by calling attention to a problem. Focusing events facilitate mobilizations for sustainability to a greater degree in larger political arenas than they do in smaller political arenas. Pulses also mobilize people by underlining sharp physical limits in the situations of people and the degraded resource. These caged conditions on islands, in common pool resources, and in other sharply limited human habitats underscore the limits of human exploitation and make it easier to mobilize people to reform or eliminate natural resource–degrading practices.
The Great Plains
Authors: Rudel Thomas K.
Published: February 2019

When the last great North American frontier, the Great Plains, closed three decades into the twentieth century, farmers could no longer replace the exhausted soils on their farms with fertile, uncultivated lands elsewhere. The closing of the frontier caged American farmers. The fall in the prices of agricultural products after World War I, coupled with widespread soil exhaustion, deepened rural poverty during the 1920s. The Depression impoverished rural peoples even further, and it discredited the capitalist class. In a political-economic sense, the Depression leveled some elements of inequality. The Dust Storms of the mid-1930s provided graphic, visual evidence of environmental degradation on farms, and they focused popular attention on the need for more sustainable practices. Franklin D. Roosevelt responded, with support from the large New Deal coalition, pushing through reforms in soil conservation and forest restoration that have shaped natural resource practices in the United States for almost a century.
England
Authors: Rudel Thomas K.
Published: February 2019

Amidst a worldwide globalization of markets in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, England became dependent on overseas sources for grains and for timber. These trends gradually reduced English agriculture to providing dairy products. During the interwar years, English farming declined still further when real estate developers, with the stimulus provided by the spread of automobiles, began to convert fields alongside roads into lots for new homes. The shock of World War II and the German submarine campaign to starve the British into submission focused the public and policymakers’ attention on food security. To assure their access to food in the event of another war, the English established green belts reserved for agricultural land uses around major English cities during the 1950s and 1960s. These regulations made cities more compact and reduced energy consumption among urban residents.
Coastal Maine
Authors: Rudel Thomas K.
Published: February 2019

Fishers for lobsters in coastal Maine cluster in groups or “gangs” around the harbors where they fish and moor their boats. The State of Maine began regulating the capture of lobsters in the late nineteenth century with the passage of laws limiting the capture of both very large and small lobsters, but fishers rarely complied with the laws, so they had little effect. A lobster bust occurred in the 1920s and 1930s when both the size of the catch and the price of lobster declined. After the bust, compliance with the laws increased and, with active support from the fishers, the state established local management of the fishery with limits on the number of fishers and traps within each management zone. Focusing events played a less prominent role in the environmental reforms in this smaller political arena than they did in the larger political arenas in the Great Plains, United Kingdom, and Cuba.
The World
Authors: Rudel Thomas K.
Published: February 2019

Comparable environmental reforms have never occurred at the global scale of governance. Segments of the dynamic described in the four case studies have taken place at the global scale. A focusing event, World War II, spurred the creation of a global governance institution, the United Nations, which later became the organizational sponsor for the ongoing international effort to counter climate change. Different kinds of focusing events, extreme weather in the form of droughts or storms, have over time contributed to an increase in the number of nations advocating for radical reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. These changes suggest that, over time, an international “climate club” could emerge. These trends, while fragmentary and so far unsuccessful in producing mandatory global-scale reforms, are consistent with the theoretical dynamic that has driven the national-scale reforms analyzed in the case studies.
Conclusion
Authors: Rudel Thomas K.
Published: February 2019

Radical reforms tend to occur in polycentric ways, in multiple arenas at the same time. They also occur in polymorphous ways. In large political arenas, the shock of a focusing event almost immediately mobilizes citizens and leaders, so coalitions assemble without prolonged dialog. In smaller political arenas, labor-intensive persuasion by word of mouth has built the support necessary to enact the reforms. Although the link between radical reforms and eco-authoritarian politics seems plausible, the reforms examined here did not generate eco-authoritarian regimes. The reforms did encourage a corporativist style of governance in which local reform efforts worked in conjunction with reform efforts in larger political arenas. These experiences suggest that corporatism may provide particular advantages as a political strategy for confronting the challenges of climate change.
The Historical Foundations of Yemen’s Globalisation
Authors: Bonnefoy Laurent
Published: February 2019

The chapter opens the first section of the book, focusing on the various challenges of Yemen through its relations with the outside world. The chapter shows how much its history has been shaped by the outside world, despite an image of backwardness. It presents the divided trajectories of north and south Yemen as well as some of the specificities of its populations, in particular in terms of tribal structures and religious identities, and how they came into play since the beginning of the twentieth century, letting Yemen appear as an issue in the international game.
Artistic Exchanges
Authors: Bonnefoy Laurent
Published: February 2019

While Yemen has inspired quite a few foreign artists and is thus represented, either in the guise of an orientalist dream or as a threat to international security, local artists have had few opportunities to present their production to the outside world. Such ignorance is to a large extent a symptom of the paradox of the relationship between Yemen and the world. However, new productions by Yemeni intellectuals are reaching new publics and reshaping the image of their country.
Introduction
Authors: Clarke Michael
Published: February 2019

Despite the significant attention given in the scholarly literature to exploring the strength, scope and implications of counter-terrorism policy since 9/11, there has been no systematic analysis of China’s approach to terrorism and counter-terrorism. This is a major lacuna given China’s increasing power and influence in international affairs and the increasing incidence of terrorism in Xinjiang. This chapter provides an overview of how the book addresses this gap in the literature via four major areas of investigation: the scope and nature of terrorism in China and its connection with developments in other regions; the development of legislative measures to combat terrorism; the institutional evolution of China's counter-terrorism bureaucracy; and Beijing's counter-terrorism cooperation with international partners.