Category Archives: Weekly Features

Featured weekly article: Is Kurdish Endangered in Turkey? A Comparison between the Politics of Linguicide in Ireland and Turkey

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Is Kurdish Endangered in Turkey? A Comparison between the Politics of Linguicide in Ireland and Turkey

By Dylan O’Driscoll

Volume 14, Issue 2, pages 270-288

Abstract

This article examines the historical process of the demise of Gaelic in Ireland due to the policies developed by England, and compares this to the process Kurdish is currently undergoing in Turkey. This comparison accentuates the threat that Kurdish is facing and demonstrates that the language is in danger of being eradicated. Through highlighting the similarities in the policies used by both England and Turkey to eradicate ethnic threats through assimilation, and the speed in which this process is happening in Turkey, this article determines that Kurdish has reached an important stage and that the actions over the next few decades will decide its future.

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Featured weekly article: From the Inside Out: Citizenship and Democracy in Multinational States

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From the Inside Out: Citizenship and Democracy in Multinational States

By John French and Annika Hinze

Volume 10, Issue 2, pages 255-270

Abstract

Since the fall of communism, democracy has come to be seen as the ‘only game in town’– the only legitimate form of political system. Democracy is considered legitimate because it provides for individual rights and allows the people access to the resources of the state. If ‘we the people’ defines the limits of these entitlements, the next logical question is who are ‘the people’? In contemporary developed states, the problem of diversity is most often framed as a problem of immigration; the arrival of new groups threatens both the presumed homogeneity of established nations and their democracy. We argue for a new conception of democracy, which takes into account the constructed nature of ‘the people’ that democracy empowers. This paper attempts to provide such an account by advocating a new understanding of the relationship between nationalism, citizenship, and democracy.

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Featured weekly article: American Identity, Congress, and the Puerto Rico Statehood Debate

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American Identity, Congress, and the Puerto Rico Statehood Debate

By Amílcar Antonio Barreto

Volume 16, Issue 1, pages 100-117

Abstract

Is the essence of American identity civic, ethnic, or a combination of the two? The 2010 debate in the U.S. House of Representatives on a bill to hold a referendum on the Puerto Rico status question provided a unique opportunity to shed light on these approaches. House Resolution 2499 would have asked the island’s electorate whether they preferred remaining a Commonwealth, become an independent country, or the fifty‐first state. Despite three choices, House members overwhelming focused on one: statehood. Effectively this bill asked lawmakers, in keeping with the civic identity thesis, whether they were willing to accept a culturally and linguistically distinct territory as an equal partner in the federation. These deliberations divulge much about congressional views on the official, civic, American identity and its alternatives. At another level this debate questions the assumption that the stability and consolidation of national identities cannot proceed with clearly and consistently defined boundary markers. That clarity, some contend, is imperative on the part of government leaders. This article argues that significant differences in how the nation is objectified may be overlooked in the short run, but may incur significant long‐term instability.

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Featured weekly article: Comment on Ethnic Politics in Contemporary Afghanistan: The Impact of Post‐2001 Foreign Intervention

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Comment on Ethnic Politics in Contemporary Afghanistan: The Impact of Post‐2001 Foreign Intervention

By Rahmatullah Amiri

Volume 16, Issue 3, pages 505-509

Introduction

Ethnicity has been much discussed in the context of Afghanistan. Yet, while much has been said about it by international commentators with an outside perspective, it is often forgotten that Afghans’ own understanding of the role of ethnicity in contemporary Afghanistan changes over time. Currently, there is increasing widespread concern among Afghans with the rise of ethno‐nationalism.

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Featured weekly article: India and the Great War: Colonial Fantasies, Anxieties and Discontent

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India and the Great War: Colonial Fantasies, Anxieties and Discontent

By Gajendra Singh

Volume 14, Issue 2, pages 343-361

Abstract

India was the site of British fantasies and anxieties during the First World War. It was the chief Imperial reserve for an Empire under threat – 1.7 million Indian sipahis (or ‘sepoys’) were enlisted to fight. At the same time, revolutionary conspiracies in India haunted the imagination of British officialdom. They were used, in the aftermath of the First World War, to justify everything from colonial massacres to the indefinite censorship of the press. How could British India simultaneously be constructed as Imperial success and the source of imminent Imperial decline? What was it about the nature of Empire during the First World War that enabled India to be seen as both fantasy and neurosis? This article will provide some answers with an analysis of wartime revolutionary movements in India and of the war experiences of Indian soldiers.

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