Injury and the Structure of War

Abstract

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Isolation Through Humanitarianism: Subaltern Geopolitics of the Siege on Gaza

“…The violence of the siege is visible in the ways in which it denies basic needs for the targeted population, and through its enforcement through policies like shoot to kill . Conventional wars, the types that punctuate the ongoing siege in Gaza, work in concert with siege as a means of injuring the population as a whole (Scarry ). The siege makes the injuries of war fester: there are no resources to repair the destruction and rebuild homes; it prevents victims from receiving appropriate medical care; it prevents families from returning to the territory to mourn the dead and to support the survivors; and is in itself a form of violence and deprivation.…”

The drive for power and the nuclear arms race.

“…Of the many forms of power listed by Wrong, three are especially relevant to this presentation: coercion, which compels compliance by threat or actual infliction of injury or other suffering (Scarry, 1985); persuasion, which secures acquiescence through the content of the communication; and legitimate authority, based on acceptance by both the wielder and the object of power of the former’s right to command and the latter’s obligation to obey. Coercion is the ultimate expression of power in anarchic situations such as the international arena.…”

Close and distant memories: from the stories about the local experience of violence to the configuration of a commemorative narrative in Colombia

“…Son relatos en el sentido de ser ejercicios locales -normalmente en un registro oral -que dan cuenta de sucesos o eventos que giran en torno al eje del impacto de la violencia, sin abordar necesariamente ninguna tarea de contextualización de esos eventos (Cobb 2016), ni de búsqueda y análisis del sentido de la violencia ejercida. El relato es el que asume la fórmula enunciada por Elaine Scarry (1985): se centran en la descripción del arma y de la herida. Es, por ello, producto del trabajo de las memorias cercanas, esas que nacen y se ejercitan a nivel local, alimentadas por las historias de aquellos que fueron víctimas de la experiencia violenta.…”