4 years today since Putin launched full-scale invasion of #Ukraine. Are we still sure there was no better way to respond to it? #pacifist #critique #war 🇺🇦☮️⚖️
👉 https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae275.
Article summary: 1/ asks whether military path worse than coordinated mass #nonviolent civil disobedience 2/ exposes 2 ingrained assumptions (on efficacy of #violence, & violence in 'human nature') 3/ reflects on how war transforms agents of violence & entrenches 'warism'/militarism
2/2 Article focuses on T’s
#defamiliarization of common justifications of #violence (with examples), encouraging readers to admit their implicit #complicity & noticing process which numbed them into accepting such complicity.
Then reflects on 4 specific
#subversive characteristics of defam: #disruption of automated perception, implicit #concession of problem, corrosion of respect for traditional
#hierarchies, & encouragement of
#empathy
Today's the 7th🎂of my article exploring the subversive potential of #Tolstoyan #defamiliarisation. Freely available here: https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/The_subversive_potential_of_Leo_Tolstoy_s_defamiliarisation_a_case_study_in_drawing_on_the_imagination_to_denounce_violence/9468479
Short thread summary: T is primary example of master of
#literary technique of ‘ #defamiliarisation ’ (looking at the familiar as if new) to shake readers into recognising absurdity of common views & practices.
1/2
Today's = 1st 🎂 of article in International Affairs articulating #pacifist critique of reactions to Russian invasion of #Ukraine ➡️ https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae275 #nonviolence #pacifism #war #Russia #militarism
Summary: 1/ asks whether military path worse than coordinated mass
#nonviolent civil disobedience 2/ exposes 2 ingrained assumptions (on efficacy of #violence, & violence in 'human nature') 3/ reflects on how war transforms agents of violence & entrenches 'warism'/militarism
2/ Then articulates 5 main an-pac contributions on: #fetishization of #violence; chronic sliding towards systemic #militarism; intersectional state-enforced #exploitation/#domination; structurings of international politics (current & potential); & questions of #politicalagency
Throughout & towards end, positions these ideas against more established schools of #IRtheory, from #justwartheory to #realism, #liberalism, #Marxism, #poststructuralism, #feminism & others.
This Saturday was 3rd 🎂 of my article in International Studies Quarterly presenting an #anarcho-#pacifist reading of #IR (freely available via #openaccess): https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqac070
Short thread summary: Paper seeks to articulate overdue #anarchopacifist lens to #IR #theory. Explicitly #critical & #normative. Starts with brief #history of cross-pollination between #anarchism & #pacifism.
In the last thirty years of his life, Leo Tolstoy wrote many books, essays and pamphlets expounding his maturing views on violence, the state, the church, and how to improve the human condition. Since then, these ‘Christian anarchist’ and pacifist views have often been dismissed as utopian or naive, and despite inspiring numerous activists, often forgotten or ignored. This chapter seeks to examine them in greater detail. Tolstoy’s political thought is divided into four main themes: pacifism, anarchism, anticlericalism, and activist methods. For each theme, Tolstoy’s main contentions are first summed up, then some of their criticisms are discussed, and then some reflections are offered on their ongoing relevance today. The chapter concludes that despite being an odd Christian, an odd pacifist, an odd anarchist and an odd activist, Tolstoy put forward: a compelling denunciation of violence which influenced numerous thinkers and activists; a condemnation of state violence and deception which can be extended to today’s globalised political economy; a bitter critique of the church which can be extended to religious institutions of our time; and a method of activism through withdrawal which continues to generate debate and is increasingly adopted by a variety of activists today. In short: Tolstoy’s Christian anarcho-pacifist political thought continues to deserve to be taken seriously.
Today is #Tolstoy's birthday. His #politicalthought is radical, #anarcho-#pacifist & #iconoclastic. Here's my book on it: https://sites.google.com/site/christoyannopoulos/publications/tolstoys-political-thought-christian-anarcho-pacifist-iconoclasm
Core chapters explore T’s
#pacifism, #anarchism,
#anticlericalism, #asceticism &
#nonviolent #activism. Each time first systematising T (with plenty of poignant quotes), then discussing criticisms of his views, then reflecting on relevance since.
