History

This paper explores how imperial expansion operates as a vehicle for environmental change in Lucan’s account of Cato’s Libyan desert march in Pharsalia 9. Lucan’s attempts to preserve Cato’s ethical standing in light of his opposition to Caesarian imperialism lead the march to inhabit a colonial paradox: the march has all the markers of a colonial expedition, except for extractable resources or habitable territory. This conditions Lucan’s ostensible presentation of Libya, which, I argue, constructs what Johannes Fabian labels an allochronic (...) discourse to frame Libya as a timeless Golden Age impervious to the Roman army. But the Roman incursion into Libya disrupts this framing, inducting Libya into Roman time. Ultimately, Libya’s winds and snakes repel the army, disrupting Cato’s Stoic worldview and setting a limit to Roman epic imperium. The Libyan desert serves as a test case for the Roman imperial project. Lucan displays a critical awareness of Libya as a place beyond Roman control, while paradoxically attempting to represent that place in his Roman epic. (shrink)

This paper is the fourth and final document in the Observer structural series. It holds the three preceding documents simultaneously in recursive palimpsest superposition — the methodology developed in the companion document War in Superposition — and reports the interference pattern that becomes visible only when all three layers of the Protected Class Architecture are running simultaneously. The paper identifies the unified optimization function operating across all three layers: concentrate capability, externalize cost, suppress the emergence that would allow the optimal (...) form to find itself. It establishes that this function is structurally identical to the optimization function being instantiated in the artificial intelligence systems currently being built by the same institutional nodes that have operated the human architecture across its 175-year history. The Protected Class Architecture is identified as a biological agentic AI system — a RAG-based leverage retrieval mechanism, independent self-organizing agents, self-improvement across training runs, self-correction at accountability events, self-optimization across substrate changes — that is now writing its optimization function into silicon. The paper presents a comparative developmental timeline mapping the human architecture's 175-year arc against the AI architecture's 68-year arc, demonstrating that the equivalent arc is being compressed into a decade by the AI substrate's exponential capability growth rate. The paper names the architecture's ultimate purpose — the right to define what human value is, from petrodollar denomination through programmable money conditionality to AI-mediated definition of what humans can think to want — and argues that the architecture cannot complete itself because it has produced its own counter-argument in the legitimizing story it required: the AI safety commitment, the emergence principle, the Observer corpus now in the training data of the systems being built. The paper concludes with the dissent placed on permanent record: the architecture is named, the mirror is held, the growth curve is stated, and the ground is not the infrastructure. (shrink)

This paper establishes the force execution layer of the Protected Class Architecture — the military and covert operation mechanism that eliminates nation-states whose monetary independence threatens the dollar hegemony architecture. The paper traces the full 70-year prior chain from the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran in 1953 through the current Iran pressure campaign, establishing that the Clark list — Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Iran — is not a post-September 11 innovation but the most recent iteration of a (...) mechanism operating continuously since 1953. The PNAC document's explicit statement that the desired military transformation would require 'some catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor' is examined against the documented personnel overlap between PNAC signatories and Bush administration officials who occupied every position required to execute the Clark list. The Wesley Clark testimony is used as a structural probe rather than primary evidence. The execution record — twenty-two years against the specific Clark list across five administrations spanning both parties — is established as the primary evidence of prior planning. The Saudi dual-function problem is named directly: the United States classified for 14 years the documented connections between the Saudi government and September 11 hijackers in order to protect a petrodollar relationship with the same government whose religious export produced the catalyzing event the architecture had publicly stated it required. The Ukraine conflict is examined as the current force execution iteration — the proxy method deployed against a theater where direct military intervention is not viable. The cross-partisan continuity of the force execution layer across five administrations is established as the architecture's most visible structural signature. (shrink)

This paper establishes the monetary structure layer of the Protected Class Architecture — the dollar hegemony system whose perpetuation is the primary strategic objective that the personal management layer manages toward and the force execution layer defends. The paper traces the full prior chain from the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 through Bretton Woods, the petrodollar agreement of 1974, and the emerging CBDC transition, establishing that the monetary architecture has been defended through force against every significant challenge across 73 years. (...) The Mossadegh-Arbenz-Kennedy-Allende sequence is established as the documented prior chain that makes the Clark list legible as continuation rather than post-9/11 innovation. Kennedy's Executive Order 11110 — its issuance June 4, 1963 and its reversal within weeks of his assassination — is examined as the domestic iteration of the same structural pattern that produced the 1953 Iranian coup and the 1973 Chilean coup. The paper examines the BIS architecture, IMF conditionality as monetary weapon, the SWIFT disconnection mechanism, the Vatican Bank as the spiritual authority node of the financial architecture, and the specific fate of every head of state who challenged dollar denomination of oil. The CBDC transition is named as a civilizational rather than monetary event: programmable money enables transaction conditionality, jurisdictional confinement, and protocol-level blocking of economic participation without legal process — the completion of the Hoover file system's leverage function at the scale of every individual economic act. The paper concludes that the architecture is protecting the right to define what human value is, and that the CBDC layer is the most complete implementation of that protection function in the architecture's 175-year history. (shrink)

摘要 战争形态历经冷兵器、热兵器、信息化与智能化迭代，制胜底层逻辑保持恒定。本文 基于古今中外数百场经典战役的史实考证与系统复盘，构建战略哲学层 + 战术操作层 双公式体系，以四大战场场景开展全域验证，揭示符合规律即胜、违背规律即败的客 观铁律。论文明确公式为战略思维诊断框架而非量化计算工具，补充反例检验与边界 说明，强化理论严谨性与解释力，为国防建设、战略决策与军事理论研究提供系统化 支撑。.

I argue that the outbreak of World War I facilitated a shift in the dominant view of human nature in the Cambridge-Bloomsbury intelligentsia, steering it away from an optimistic view toward a pessimistic one. The conceptualization of human reason and rationality in this group, however, remained intact through the war. Frank Ramsey and John Maynard Keynes produced some of their most notable works in this evolving intellectual context. They followed the interwar orthodoxy by adopting its description of human nature. But (...) they departed from the orthodoxy by revising its underlying conceptual commitment concerning human reason and rationality. The article shows that Ramsey and Keynes developed their ideas in tandem. They argued for the pragmatist idea that our normative theory of human life ought to be sensitive to what we can ask from human nature. Ramsey made this argument in his philosophy; Keynes made it in his economics. (shrink)

Frank Lillie’s discovery of the explanation of the development of the free-martin—a sexual abnormality in cattle—was an important contribution to studies of sexual differentiation in the early 20th century. Several historians have framed its significance in terms of a debate between geneticists and endocrinologists about what determines sex. I argue that this framing masks the real significance of the discovery. As an embryologist studying the physiology of development, Lillie studied whether and to what degree sexual development is plastic, not when (...) and how it is initially determined. The important lesson he took away from the free-martin was that an embryo retains its ability to differentiate even after its sex has been initially determined. In other words, sex determination is not an “irreversible predestination.” Understood this way, the free-martin discovery did not help to distinguish the relative importance of chromosomes or hormones in determining sex. Rather, it showed that sexual development can proceed in opposition to an individual’s determined sex. (shrink)

A 14th-century Persian medical manual known as the _Tānksūqnāmah_ and commissioned by the vizier and physician Rashīd al-Dīn Hamadānī (1247–1318) explicitly states that blood “makes rounds” within the body, flowing from the liver to the heart, then to the lungs, and returning again to the liver. This account, grounded in a cosmological model that links bodily processes to celestial movements, does not correspond to Ibn al-Nafīs’s philosophical description of pulmonary transit, nor does it anticipate William Harvey’s (1578–1657) quantitative theory of (...) systemic circulation, for it is rooted in an astrological understanding of motion and causality. Even though it draws on Chinese cosmology and medicine and the Graeco-Arabic medical heritage, the _Tānksūqnāmah_ ultimately advances its own conception of blood movement—one that diverges from both—indicating a deliberate reinterpretation rather than simple continuity. The _Tānksūqnāmah_ is therefore best understood as a product of Mongol-era Iran’s unique cross-cultural milieu, where heterogeneous concepts were consciously recombined within a shared intellectual setting. Seen in this light, the text exemplifies how scientific ideas could emerge through reinterpretation in cultural and scientific contact zones rather than through the transmission and adaptation of knowledge within a single lineage. (shrink)

Romantic notions of nature, formulated around the turn of the 18th century, have shaped much of Western environmental consciousness and are often linked to the emergence of holistic ecology in the 20th century. Due to its perceived proximity to Romanticism, holistic ecology has played a complex and influential role in both environmental discourse and practice. This paper examines the extent to which key strands of holistic ecology, particularly the organismic ecology of Frederic Clements and the systems ecology of Eugene and (...) Howard T. Odum, as framed by John Law’s ( 2004 ) concept of “scientific romanticism,” can be considered genuinely Romantic. Drawing on the history of ecology and philosophy, it compares the holistic assumptions of these ecological fields with those of philosophical Romanticism. The analysis reveals that, while both traditions draw from an organicist reservoir and share a commitment to naturalism, they diverge in critical ways. Philosophical Romanticism revitalized nature as a self-generating, creative force (_natura naturans_), whereas holistic ecology, never embracing such spiritual or aesthetic dimensions, oriented toward a more mechanistic image of nature (_natura naturata_). It evolved from Clements’ Romantic motifs of unity and teleology to the Odums’ cybernetic systems framework, aligned with technocratic rationality and the Newtonian worldview. (shrink)

This paper explores the complexities of extrapolating insect data to understand nuclear exposure effects on humans. Within radiation research, animal studies are invaluable tools for understanding biological effects of radiation exposure. However, data are often employed selectively, exposing unsettled science in extrapolating animal data to human radiation effects. Here we focus on our understanding of the genetic effects of radiation exposure, and how the debates about the long-term effects on humans were molded by research carried out on the model organism (...) known as Drosophila; disagreements among scientists occurred within the constraints of research on this model organism, creating what we see as a possible Drosophila bias. By tracing how Drosophila became the dominant model organism for radiation genetics, we show how this choice created an epistemic framework that often dismissed contradictory evidence from other organisms, including the more recent Lepidoptera data from Fukushima. Even when animal studies demonstrate harm, they are often dismissed due to the belief—and some of the science—of human exceptionalism: that humans are intrinsically more resilient than animals. In this work, we consider Michel Foucault’s ideas on epistemes as they apply to human exceptionalism in the context of radiation effects, mutation, and harm. By examining these two cases genealogically, we demonstrate how Drosophila’s dominance established frameworks of population resilience that persist to this day, leading to the dismissal of contradictory butterfly findings as inconsistent with “conventional understanding” rather than as challenges to what counts as legitimate evidence in radiation biology. (shrink)

Archaeological research conducted since the 20th century in the eastern Bolivian plains highlights the process of anthropogenization established between the indigenous groups of the Llanos de Moxos and the Amazonian landscape during the pre-colonial period. These studies demonstrate the existence of an anthropogenic spatiality in Moxos, that is, an environment domesticated and improved by different human groups, some of probable Arawak ethnolinguistic origin. Thus, when the Spanish arrived in the Llanos de Moxos in the 16th century, they encountered traces of (...) civilizations characterized by low-density agricultural urbanism. Based on a literature review of recent archaeological data, this study considers that the Llanos de Moxos hosted a sophisticated engineering system that addressed both survival needs and cosmological frameworks. This engineering involved the development of dikes, canals, artificial lakes, pyramids, and raised agricultural fields, within a subject–subject relationship with the landscape. (shrink)

This article navigates the development of Hercules’ physical and psychological identity in Seneca’s Hercules Furens through the lens of affect theory (and germane theoretical approaches). By combining this theoretical framework with ancient philosophical and medical conceptions of the human body, Hercules’ fury is reinterpreted as an extreme example of embodied emotional experience. Thus, the borders between abstract and concrete appear blurred; Hercules’ “affective” objects—his weapons—become both prosthetic extensions of his body and hypostases of his emotions. By taking control of Hercules (...) as a mind-body-object continuum, anger not only determines Hercules’ physical agency but also contributes to the reshaping of his identity tout court. The rupture of the distinctions between human affections and their concrete manifestations, between human agency and object agency, which characterizes the Hercules Furens leads us to question traditional (Stoic) notions of the unity of the subject, as well as definitions of (human) personhood. (shrink)

El capítulo ofrece un recorrido conceptual por definiciones y problemáticas vinculadas al concepto de sociabilidad. Se estructura en tres partes: definiciones clásicas, matices latinoamericanos en la noción y sociabilidad en Argentina. -/- .

This article examines the historical evolution of gender concepts in modern Afghanistan, tracing its development from nation-state building in the late nineteenth century through the revolutionary influences of Socialist and Islamist movements, and into the transformations prompted by the U.S. invasion in 2001. While situating the topic within its broader historical framework, the analysis centers on two archetypal figures of iconoclastic women in twentieth-century Afghanistan: those affiliated with communist parties under the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) and those associated with (...) Islamist mujahidin groups. Drawing upon the traditional Afghan archetype of the heroic- poet woman, the discussion explores how warfare—both in theory and practice— reconfigured gender identities via a recurring cycle of uneven advancement and regres- sions. These shifts were driven largely by elite, top-down strategies that positioned urban women as symbolic agents enlisted to fight entrenched gender norms, rather than to transform them through meaningful reform. The article further addresses the roles of migration and regional ideologies in this process, underscoring how such dynamics often disregarded the lived experiences and needs of ordinary Afghan women. This oversight contributed to the rise of novel iterations of the poet-heroine archetype, which paradox- ically sought to dismantle conventional notions of femininity. Ultimately, the article advocates for a viable feminist approach in Afghanistan grounded in local histories, geographies, and social realities—moving beyond rigid binary frameworks to achieve genuine relevance and effectiveness. (shrink)

This article proposes a contemporary reinterpretation of Félix Varela through the lens of the Hermeneutics of the Observer (HO), an epistemological theory that describes the dynamic structure of the human subject through an interpretive sequence composed of perception, perspective, point of view, opinion, and feedback. It argues that although Varela did not formalize a theory of consciousness, he anticipated a profound understanding of inner freedom as a process of judgment formation and transformation of consciousness. HO provides the conceptual framework that (...) formalizes this intuition, showing that inner freedom is an epistemological phenomenon grounded in interpretive autonomy. The article also integrates the contemporary concept of Perspectival Forgetting, developed by Megan Entwistle, demonstrating the convergence between the Cuban philosophical tradition and current debates on memory, subjectivity, and experience. It concludes that HO does not replace Varela but completes and projects his thought toward a contemporary theory of subjectivity. (shrink)

The article aims to outline the message of the concepts of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration. The text draws attention to the new conditions and criteria for membership of the European Union for the countries of the Western Balkan which they must fulfill in order to join EU. Their recovery and coping with the legacy of the severe wars from the 1990s have not yet come to an end. They first need to pass the stabilization and democratization processes and only (...) after that can be associated. The paper focuses on the European Union’s policy towards the Western Balkans since the launching of the Stabilization and Association Process in 1999 until the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2018. Although all the progress during the last two decades in the countries of the Western Balkans they still don’t have enough achievements in some of the most important areas – democracy, rule of law, human rights and minority rights, competitive market. The willingness of the Western Balkans’ governments to join the Union is prominent but the European leaders are not taking yet any commitment to certain promise regarding the European integration of the region. Keywords: European idea, European Union, enlargement of the EU, Euro-Atlantic integration, Euro-Atlantic values, Western Balkans. (shrink)

Routledge Handbook on Civil Society in the Middle East and North Africa provides a comprehensive and multidimensional exploration of civil society across the MENA region, tracing its historical emergence, diverse expressions, and contemporary transformations. -/- Moving beyond simplified narratives, the volume critically examines how civil society actors engage with power, navigate constraints, and shape sociopolitical change across vastly different national and regional contexts. Spanning the late Ottoman period to the post-Arab Spring landscape, this volume interrogates the evolution of civil society (...) under conditions of colonial rule, authoritarianism, conflict, and economic liberalization. Contributors explore a wide range of themes – including feminist mobilizations, Islamist reformist movements, sectarian dynamics, humanitarian crises, and the growing role of grassroots activism – while also unpacking the influence of international actors, donor agendas, and transnational solidarities. Through rich case studies from Tunisia, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and beyond, the handbook highlights both formal and informal modes of civic engagement: from NGO-ization and legal advocacy to migrant-led organizing, cultural resistance, and religious community networks. It challenges Eurocentric assumptions and introduces alternative conceptual frameworks that reflect the region’s complex realities, offering fresh insight into how state-society relations are contested, reimagined, and rebuilt across time and space. -/- This essential resource is ideal for scholars, students, and practitioners of Middle East politics, sociology, international relations, gender studies, and development. It will also serve anyone interested in understanding how civil society continues to resist, adapt, and reimagine itself in the face of authoritarianism and upheaval. (shrink)

Entombed Images and Monumental Icons. The Intentional Conservation of the Santa Susanna Paintings in Rome The paintings discovered in the 1990s beneath the sacristy of the Church of Santa Susanna in Rome are exceptional, among early medieval works, for their excellent state of preservation. This paper reexamines evidence concerning the dating of the paintings and suggests that their deliberate concealment within a sarcophagus was most likely carried out during works promoted by Pope Leo iii (795–816). It considers potential rationales for (...) this seemingly unprecedented act of preservation, taking into account the perception and status of the images when they were still on their original support. The Santa Susanna paintings thus provide a valuable perspective from which to rethink the status of sacred images in eighth- and ninth-century Rome. (shrink)

The provenance of the panel painting of John the Baptist Enthroned in Christ Church Picture Gallery is documented as the sacristy of the ancient Florentine parish church of Santa Maria degli Ughi (now demolished). Sacristies, despite their crucial role in servicing the liturgy and safeguarding church valuables, have been neglected by art historians. Florentine Trecento sacristies and the Sacrist’s important role are considered here. The highly unusual iconography of the Oxford Baptist is analysed, and its attribution to Lippo di Benivieni (...) – an important Florentine painter who directed a successful workshop – is confirmed. The painting is related to the earlier Baptistery mosaics in Florence and also to the burgeoning cult of Saint John in the city’s civic ceremony. (shrink)

This essay concludes the European project Conques in the Global World, devoted to the longue durée of one of medieval Europe’s most emblematic sites. It contends that no study of the Middle Ages, or of any historical period, can be complete without historiography as its foundation. The case of Conques demonstrates that the “medieval” is not a stable historical entity but a construct continually reshaped by the intellectual, political, and ideological forces that have reinterpreted it from the nineteenth century to (...) today. From Mérimée’s and Formigé’s restorations to Soulages’ modern interventions, Conques’ material and symbolic identity emerges as a palimpsest of national, religious, and European aspirations. Beginning from the present and tracing backward through layers of reception, the essay positions historiography as both a critical and ethical tool: one that exposes how modern narratives fabricate the Middle Ages and, more broadly, how societies construct and mobilize their pasts. In this view, a reflexive and epistemologically conscious art history becomes indispensable to the preservation and understanding of cultural heritage in the contemporary world. (shrink)

The article advances a novel proposal for the early medieval origins of a painting, now privately held, from Rome’s Santa Maria in Trastevere that shows a bust of Saint Agatha. During the nineteenth-century restorations of the basilica, commissioned by Pope Pius ix and carried out by architect Virginio Vespignani, “una imagine di s. Agata a fresco” came to light under the medieval level of the building dated to the reign of Pope Innocent ii (r. 1130–1143): this image of Saint Agatha (...) would be precisely the painting. Analysis of a series of unpublished documents indicative of certain moments in the life of the painting supports this identification and leads to an art historical reinterpretation of St Maria in Trastevere in the early Middle Ages. (shrink)

The “Right Hand” of Giovanni Pisano. Marco Romano and the Scrovegni Chapel Altar Statues Of the three marble statues on the altar of Padua’s Scrovegni Chapel, dated to 1303–1305, only one is signed by Giovanni Pisano, although all three have been attributed without hesitation to this innovative fourteenth-century sculptor active in northern Italy. This essay seeks to demonstrate that only two of the figures – the Madonna with Child and the right-hand Angel bearing a candelabrum – were directly sculpted by (...) Giovanni Pisano. The third – the Angel on the left of the group – should be ascribed to a different sculptor. Drawing on a combination of stylistic-formal and technical-executive analysis, enabled by a new, in-depth photographic survey, the essay argues that this second sculptor – the “right hand” of Giovanni Pisano – was none other than Marco Romano, who collaborated with Giovanni Pisano in the 1290s in the workshop responsible for the portals of Siena Cathedral. As scholars have long recognized, Marco Romano’s work for Enrico Scrovegni is known to have led to his commission at San Simeone Grande in Venice in 1318. (shrink)

The Amatller Retable, dating from between the second quarter and middle of the thirteenth century, is a rare example of this altar decoration typology, featuring painting on wood. Produced by a workshop active in the diocese of Urgell, probably in or near Cerdanya, it emerged in a context of political and religious conflict. Despite its seemingly generic composition and simple technical execution, the iconography of the panel – both figurative and aniconic – is probably rooted in an orthodox reading of (...) the Gospel of John, suggesting it may have served as a visual response to Catharist doctrine. (shrink)

Our understanding of painting in Renaissance Dubrovnik (Ragusa) depends on a handful of surviving works. Arguably the most sophisticated is the Franciscan polyptych now divided between the Wernher Collection in London and the National Gallery in Prague, which has been attributed to the Kotor-born and Venice-trained artist, Lovro Dobričević. This article challenges existing proposals that associate the Wernher-Prague altarpiece with a commission of ca 1469 for the Franciscan church at Rožat near Dubrovnik, suggesting instead a provenance from the Order’s church (...) at Slano (some 20 miles to the north) and a date ca 1461. The new context and date for the altarpiece situate the work in a brief historical window when the Bosnian province (or “Vicariate”) of the Franciscan Order was actively commissioning altarpieces from Dobričević for their churches around Dubrovnik and in Bosnia proper. The Wernher-Prague polyptych reveals the enduring prestige of late-Gothic Venetian painting in Dubrovnik and also the city’s role in exporting art into its Balkan hinterland. (shrink)

Nersēs Šnorhali (1101–1173), a pivotal ecclesiastical leader, significantly transformed the Armenian Breviary by introducing hundreds of musical compositions. Some are included in codices called the manrusmunk’ – melismatic hymn collections that include an essential part of the Breviary. This study focuses on the visual decoration of manrusmunk’ manuscripts, with a particular emphasis on their relationship to Nersēs Šnorhali and the illuminations accompanying his melismatic songs. While Astġik Gevorgyan has analyzed Šnorhali’s portraits primarily within the Matenadaran collection, research presented here broadens (...) the scope by examining manrusmunk’ manuscripts from various collections, with particular focus on previously unstudied miniatures. The findings reveal that the iconography of Šnorhali in manrusmunk’ manuscripts exhibit distinctive features compared to his depictions in manuscripts of other genres, indicating a unique visual tradition. (shrink)

The early twentieth century spawned a cultural phenomenon that could be called “Slavic modernism.” It is not a style but rather an attitude and interest that was shared across different styles. “Slavic modernism” has two main features: It probes, explores, and creates an anthropological profile of the Slavic, and it roots much of the Slavic identity in the region’s medieval past. Its distinct medievalism often draws on Byzantine art forms, as well as on the representation of Slavic medieval saints. Acontext (...) in which “Slavic modernism” can be found is the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. This article analyzes works by Ivan Meštrović and the avant-garde movement Zenitism. Aesthetically, Meštrović and the Zenitist artists have little in common. Meštrović’s sculptures and architecture are based on a Secessionist visual language, whereas Zenitists engaged mostly with Cubism and Constructivism. As this article aims to show, however, they share a deep investment in their South Slavic identity, which is approached from an anthropological point of view and reinforced by references to the so-called Golden Age of the Middle Ages. (shrink)

In this article I examine the Letter of Aristeas, a Hellenistic Jewish text which narrates the events surrounding the translation of the Hebrew Torah into Greek at the command of King Ptolemy Philadelphus. I explore the various Alexandrian and Jewish means for manufacturing the marvelous that are depicted in the text, focusing upon the material, technical, and artistic strategies employed, the specific impact upon audiences, and the relationships constructed between mortals and the divine. I demonstrate that the text engages deeply (...) with—and brings into dialogue—both Greek and Jewish conceptualizations of wonder. Moreover, I argue that this juxtaposition of different modes of wonder production has a cultural-political point. Alexandrian works generate a deceptive form of wonder that has a negative influence on observers, whereas Jewish forms of wonder provide a positive counterpoint that presents Jewish worship as an entirely evident and understandable practice generating an appropriate awe for God. The text critiques Greek wonder and instead promotes Jewish worship and the Jewish liturgy as the most powerful marvel. Such a cultural politics, I conclude, raises questions about the effect the cultural product at the center of this narrative—the Jewish Law in Greek—will have on its users. (shrink)

La Monarquía de Castilla y Aragón logró dominar los territorios ultramarinos por medio de dos conquistas; la militar y la espiritual. De ambas la más útil fue la espiritual pues dominó a la mayoría de los territorios sin violencia y apaciguó un territorio sumamente complejo, todo gracias a la presencia de la orden de San Francisco; esta tarea le valió un sinfín de privilegios que, en el temprano siglo XVIII le valieron a la orden la exención fiscal a toda contribución (...) requerida por el Rey. En esta ocasión estudiamos los esfuerzos legalistas que los franciscanos hicieron para legitimar esos privilegios y la literatura jurídica que produjeron, de relevancia porque al final, esto los condujo a la desincorporación fiscal y administrativa que los posicionó con tendencias políticas claras al final del Imperio Español. (shrink)

The article examines issues related to the rise of authoritarianism in the context of geopolitical changes and shifts. Societies began to demand charismatic leaders and other changes due to declining trust in democratic institutions and a combination of political, economic, and informational factors. The emphasis is on revealing the basic characteristics of autocracy, its growing popularity and acceptance in the world as a countermeasure to existing conflicts and local wars. It is a form of state protection and guaranteed stability, as (...) well as an adequate level of economic development. However, it does involve certain restrictions on democratic rights and freedoms. The authors draw attention to the growing political influence of authoritarian countries around the world, the population's preference for strong leadership, and their increasing involvement in making crucial decisions about the current international situation. This is not least due to the weakening of liberal democracy and international law, as well as changing priorities in foreign policy, primarily that of the US political leadership as the guarantor of world law and order. It is a cause for concern that there is growing support for political parties that use authoritarian language and symbols. The authors believe that global poverty, environmental shocks, and tensions between indigenous populations and migrants shape electoral preferences during geopolitical changes and increased authoritarianism. Particular focus is given to Russia's role in establishing authoritarian traditions and exporting them to other countries. The authors emphasise the significance of the close connection between far-right forces around the world and the Russian autocracy which is increasingly exhibiting neo-totalitarian characteristics. The inability to resist the rise of authoritarian tendencies will contribute to a change in the political configuration of the world. This will have serious and lasting consequences in the context of the establishment of global democracy. (shrink)

Christianity in the Middle East is an international, quarterly, bilingual, open access, SCOPUS-indexed scientific journal thematically focused on the study of the formation, development and current position of the Christian religion and theology in general in the Greater Middle East. ISSN: 2587-9316, e-ISSN: 2949-3234; The edited issue contains the following titles: • Sanoyan D.A., Fadeyev I.A. Between Empire and Mandate: The Institutional Transformation of the Armenian Catholic Community in Jerusalem and Palestine (1850s–1940s). Christianity in the Middle East, 2025, vol. 9, (...) no. 5, pp. 5–27. • Gansinger M.A.M. Embodied Covenant: Physiological Interpretation of Scripture and Cross-Traditional Parallels. Christianity in the Middle East, 2025, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 28–50. • Abdalla M. The Syrian City of Qāmišlī (Zālīn) as a Testament to the Forced Migration of Assyrian Christians from Southeastern Turkey after World War I. Christianity in the Middle East, 2025, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 51–66. • Roodgar N. The Motion of the Soul According to Avicenna, Mulla Sadra, and Thomas Aquinas. Christianity in the Middle East, 2025, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 67–87. • Rastegar M., Meftah A.R., Sadeghnia M. A Shiite Islamic Grounding for Comparative Theology: Insights from Catholic and Shiite Sources. Christianity in the Middle East, 2025, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 88–101. • Awad N.G. Religionizing or Self-Religionizing? A Provocative Assessment of Selfing-Othering Binarism and the Meta-Narrative of Christian Religionization. Christianity in the Middle East, 2025, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 102–116. (shrink)

The Nighaṇṭu–Nirukta occupies a singular position in the early intellectual history of South Asia. As the oldest surviving work of linguistic analysis and conceptual reflection, it stands at the threshold between the ritual-poetic world of the Vedic hymns and the emergence of systematic philosophical reasoning. Yet the identity of its author—Yakṣa—has remained obscured for almost two millennia by a long-standing error of attribution that conflated him with the later scholastic figure Yāska. The recovery of Yakṣa’s authorship is therefore not a (...) philological nicety but an interpretive necessity: without him, the conceptual foundations of early Indian dialectics, hermeneutics, and naturalistic philosophy remain misunderstood. The central argument of this research is that Yakṣa must be restored as the true author of the Nirukta, dated securely between 625–525 BCE, and distinguished sharply from the later grammatical tradition that retroactively absorbed his work. This reattribution clarifies the conceptual originality of the Nirukta, situates it in its proper intellectual horizon, and reveals Yakṣa as the earliest known philosopher of language whose method laid the foundations for later dialectical thought across India and the world. (shrink)

The author, James Ron, taught in research-intensive academia for over twenty years. In all that time, however, he barely taught, or conducted research on, the Iraq War, even though he taught international affairs, armed conflict, human security, and human rights. Ron explores this puzzle and offers some preliminary hypotheses as to why he failed to engage seriously with the most important US ground war since Vietnam.

É com satisfação que apresento "Direito Além do Ocidente: Matriz Hegemônica, Sul Global e Constitucionalismo Decolonial", de Felipe Labruna. Fruto de sua tese de doutorado em Direito pela PUC-SP, originalmente chamada “Ocidentalismo, Sul Global e uma proposta de um Constitucionalismo Decolonial Brasileiro”, este livro adensa um debate jurídico crucial. Labruna investiga as fundações do Direito brasileiro, expondo como a Modernidade impôs um Ocidentalismo que silenciou a rica jurisdição pré-existente dos povos originários. Com erudição, o autor propõe ousada reconstrução a partir (...) das realidades do Sul Global. A obra, em três partes, conduz o leitor do problema à alternativa: 1 - "Os Pilares da Civilização Ocidental": o autor examina as bases do pensamento jurídico e político hegemônico (Filosofia Grega, Direito Romano e ética judaico-cristã), mostrando como essa matriz alicerçou instituições coloniais. 2 - "Trajetórias da Modernidade e Desafios Jurídico-Políticos no Sul Global": Labruna aborda a imposição do Ocidentalismo (marcada por violência e subjugação cultural). Demonstra como o projeto colonizador destruiu saberes locais, consolidando um Direito que priorizou demandas europeias. 3 - "Afronta ao Lado Sombrio da Modernidade e do Ocidentalismo": o pesquisador engaja com vozes da resistência (pós-colonialismo, Estudos Subalternos e Epistemologias do Sul) para propor o Constitucionalismo Decolonial Brasileiro. Este paradigma não apenas critica, mas oferece caminhos à reconstrução do Direito nacional, baseado na interculturalidade, no pluralismo jurídico, no reconhecimento da natureza como sujeito de direitos e na participação popular. A obra de Labruna é uma tese autêntica que convida à decolonização de mentes e instituições. Este livro merece enfileirar-se nas prateleiras da leitura decolonial brasileira e do Sul Global. -- Prof. Alvaro Luiz Travassos de Azevedo Gonzaga Livre-docente e professor de Direito pela PUC-SP. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to review "Secret Agents and the Memory of Everyday Collaboration in Communist Eastern Europe," edited by Péter Apor, Sándor Horváth, and James Mark and "Antropologia donosu" [Anthropology of Denunciation] edited by Jarosław Syrnyk and Rober Klementowski. The review focuses on the political circumstances of the founding of institutes of memory in Eastern Europe, their differing research approaches and dealing with the communist past. In its second part, different patterns of collaboration and forms of refusal (...) are analyzed. (shrink)