Following persistent rumours of criminal misconduct by some Australian Special Forces personnel in Afghanistan, an administrative inquiry was launched in 2016 by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force. That inquiry's report revealed shocking evidence of 23 incidents involving 25 Australian personnel and resulting in 39 killings of persons hors de combat or under Australian control, as well as other misconduct.

Ten years after the eruption of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, which had a wide range of eclectic outcomes, it became obvious that the transitions to democratization have been derailed in the so-called post-Arab Spring countries, with the exception of Tunisia. This presentation unpacks the complexity of the parallel surge in anti-authoritarianism resistance movements, on one hand, and repressive counter-revolutionary movements, on the other hand, in this post-Arab Spring mediated political and media environment.

Joining link:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MTY2OGE4NjQtMzk2ZC00ZjM0LTk1N2QtZDEwNWVmMjUxNGEw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%223d702ee4-9121-44fc-9d09-812e89a96bc8%22%7d

Lucas de Lima Silva, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Brazil
Local-Regional relations and Colonial Villages of Indians in Dutch Brazil (1633-1654)

Michele Sollai, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), Geneva
Microcosms of colonial development: Italian and Ethiopian farmers at the crossroads of fascist empire building (1937-1941)

The paper will explore the birth and development of an idea of region in the French Basque country in the aftermath of the French Revolution, thus countering the frequent view that regionalism, as a cultural phenomenon, was born in the late nineteenth century. It will argue both for the persistence of a specific ancien-régime style of localism in post-Revolutionary France and for the evolution of such localism into a new stereotyped regional identity.

The series

This term’s series explores social science’s big concepts. It examines the contested meaning and diverse application of some of the theoretical ideas that unify and challenge social scientists. It brings together the bright minds of Oxford, and high profile external speakers, to consider the range of ways in which we can think about ‘power’, ‘space’, ‘identity’, and ‘belonging’.