July 30, 2014 · 5:04 pm

Centre for the Study of Interventionism

About Us: http://www.interventionism.info/

UN INTERVENTION picEver since the end of the Cold War, the idea has gained ground that there is a right or a duty to intervene in the internal affairs of other states. This can be for humanitarian reasons or in the name of UN Security Council Resolutions. According to this new doctrine, international law should be enforced by means of military violence and international criminal law can be used to indict. These claims stand in contrast to the hitherto existing principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, which is both an established principle of customary international law and also enunciated in the UN Charter.

The purpose of this Project is to take a critical look at the arguments in favour of interventionism and to analyse the track record of actual interventions. Continue reading →

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July 25, 2014 · 3:06 pm

Encouraging Reflection on Martin van Crefeld’s Bold Predictions in 1991 within ON FUTURE WAR

ON FUTURE WAR, London: Brassey’s, 1991 ISBN 0 08 041796 5

ON FUTURE WARAn examination of the nature of war and its radical transformation in our own time. The author argues that the Clausewitzian assumption that war is rational is outdated, and that strategic, logical planning is unrelated to the current realities of guerrilla armies, terrorists and bandits. He sets out to demonstrate that our most basic ideas of who fights wars, and why, are inadequate – because man has a need to “play” at war. Van Creveld also wrote “Technology and War”, “Command and War” and “Supply and War”

  • Extract from Flap Abstract of the Book, 1991
  • Michael Howard: “Famous Last Screams,” a review of On Future War

This item is meant to set the stage for both blog comments and short essays in this site in the near future. Standing now in 2014 we are in a position to comment critically on the views of this famous historian who resides in Israel. It is not unconnected to the items (a) “Where In-fighting generates Fervour and Power: ISIS Today, LTTE yesterday” and (b) “The Psychology of Totalitarianism via Skya’s Treatise on Japan’s Holy War”. Standing now in 2014 we are in a position to comment critically on the views of this famous historian who resides in Israel. Apart from the advantages of hindsight, several visitors to this website will have one advantage over van Crefeld: their experiential compass will not be in the heartland of international power, the West (and its offshoot Israel). They will be located in the peripheries of international clout and be backed by knowledge of the four Eelam wars in Lanka. Continue reading →

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July 25, 2014 · 2:25 pm

Sudharshan Seneviratne talks to the people of The HINDU

Meera Srinivasan, in The Hindu, July 2014

SS Pic by Meera Srinivasan

When Sri Lankan archaeologist Sudharshan Seneviratne drove down to Chanakyapuri on a hot day recently, memories of his Delhi days came back gushing. From being a student in the city in the 1970s to returning now as the highest representative of his country, life has come a full circle, says Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India who, as a student, spent a decade in India, studying in New Delhi and later researching early Buddhism in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

On 13th Amendment: In an interview to The Hindu , days ahead of his big move, Mr. Seneviratne says issues such as the implementation of the 13th Amendment — India has been pushing Sri Lanka to devolve more powers to its provinces as per this Amendment — the fishermen’s conflict or [the claim to] Katchatheevu could be resolved by coming together and working without “being parochial about it”. Continue reading →

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July 25, 2014 · 12:23 pm

Gunesekera’s NOONTIDE TOLL: Tip-toeing through Sri Lanka

Paul Binding, reviewing Noontide Toll, by Romesh Gunesekera, Granta, pp.256, £12.99, ISBN: 9781620970201

NOONTIDE TOLL‘The first night I stayed in Kilinochchi, I was a little apprehensive,’ admits the usually cool-headed Vasantha, van-driver and narrator of all the stories in Noontide Toll. Kilinochchi was the operational centre of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) until the Sri Lankan army’s entry in January 2009. Now the town offers amenities like the Spice Garden Inn, with glass-walled cafeteria and reception desk overflowing with coconut flowers and bougainvillea. Yet its assistant manager, Miss Saraswati, belies such luxurious blandness. A rat suddenly appears in the café; immediately she hurls a bottle, breaking the creature’s skull without destroying the implement. ‘I stared at Miss Saraswati. “You learn to do that at Jaffna hotel school?” ’ Next morning Vasantha notices ‘the trigger finger of her right hand was callused and discoloured at the edge’.

Miss Saraswati calls the van-man a ‘peacemaker’, and often he feels himself ‘a kind of doctor’. Those long journeys on which he takes passengers ‘looking for something lost and irretrievable’ are surely a form of ‘healing’. He has certainly learned to keep his counsel, so many revelations does he hear of grave splits in identity. Continue reading →

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July 24, 2014 · 10:20 pm

The Psychology of Totalitarianism via Skya’s Treatise on Japan’s Holy War

Richard A. Koenigsberg, reviewing Walter A. Skya: Japan’s Holy War: The Ideology of Radical Shinto Ultranationalism, Duke University Press, 2009, 400pp, ISBN-10: 0822344238

What is totalitarianism? Why did the Axis powers stick together? What did Japan have in common with Germany? This essential book articulates the ideology and psychology underlying Japanese ultra-nationalism.

japans holy war Skya explicates the thinking of Japanese social theorist, Hozumi Yatsuka (1860-1912). According to Hozumi, the individual exists in society—and society within the individual. The clash between individualism and socialism is resolved through the concept of g­odo seizon (literally, fused or amalgamated existence), meaning the merging of the individual into society. Human beings fuse together to create “society.” Continue reading →

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July 24, 2014 · 10:01 pm

Heartening Developments … and a young heart blooms

Kumudini Hettiarachchi reporting from Jaffna in The Sunday Times, July 2014

Knowing since 2009 that she had a hole in the heart, she and her paternal grandmother, Nakapillai Gnanasoundarie, from Alankerni in Kinniya, Trincomalee, were compelled to do nothing due to poverty. They just could not afford the heart operation at a cost of about Rs. 500,000 in Colombo, while accessing a government hospital in the capital also brought with it heavy burdens on this ‘single’ grandmother who was eking out a living as a labourer.

HEART OP -SUNDAY TIMESLast Sunday (July 6), however, her life changed in a way they had never imagined. Archana became the flag-bearer in a quest to introduce open-heart surgery in Jaffna. The initiation of open-heart surgery using the heart-lung machine for people living in the northern, north-central and eastern areas has been the quest of eminent Heart Surgeon Dr. Ravi Perumalpillai. Continue reading →

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July 24, 2014 · 3:45 pm

Rally for UNITY at Colombo — 27 July 2014

“Rally for Unity”, as a co-host, invites you to be a part of the Solidarity Day Rally organized by Socialist Youth Union and hosted by the broader citizen movements including FUTA, Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Artists’ Collective, “Saamuhika Prayathnaya”, Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, All Ceylon Muslim League Youth Federation, Young Christian Journalists Association, Sri Lanka Tamil Media Forum, Muslim Media Forum, Professional Journalists Association and other Journalist collectives, Professional Associations, Trade Unions, Youth networks and many concerned citizens.
The solidarity walk will start in Maligawatte and expected to reach Vihara Maha Devi Park by 4pm followed by a Rally on Unity and Diversity. The rally will be followed by a Festival atmosphere with performances by various ethnic representations as well as performance artists including Sunil Perera from Gypsies, Ishak Mohideen Beg and Nalin Perera from 6.30pm onwards
We urge you to be present for the event with your friends, family, colleagues and concerned citizens to be a part of this effort to make our collective voice heard against Hate and for unity of diversity.  You are encouraged to bring a board stating “Lets Rally for Unity – Hate Has No Place in Sri Lanka” if possible and join us in this effort. The events will be multilingual.
Please forward this to your networks and urge all who are interested to join us on this Sunday the 27th July @ 4pm near the Outdoor Theatre of Vihara Maha Devi Park
Thank you!
Sent on behalf of Rally For Unity – Hate Has No Place in Sri Lanka

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July 21, 2014 · 9:43 pm

Vested interests push asylum propaganda — thereby profiting from a lucrative trade

Bandula Jayasekera, in The Australian, 9 July 2014

AUSSIES CHECK A-S I couldn’t help reading over and over The Australian’s editorial of July 7 that said: “Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser doesn’t help his standing by likening the return of Tamils to Sri Lanka to handing over Jewish refugees to Nazi Germany. Such intemperance can only damage Mr. Fraser’s cause.” It certainly has, as has the hysterical language in the “lopsided” asylum debate in Australia in the past few days.

A misconception has been created among some Australians regarding asylum-seekers arriving from Sri Lanka because of a huge and very well-funded misinformation campaign carried out by parties with vested interests. Their claims are unfounded and unbelievable. Even Ripley would have said “You cannot believe it” instead of “Believe it or not!” Continue reading →

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July 21, 2014 · 11:27 am

Where In-fighting generates Fervour & Power: ISIS Today, LTTE yesterday

Michael Roberts, courtesy of Groundviews where some prejudiced and one-eyed commentary has already been set in train

“Division and in-fighting will sap and weaken any organisation or ideological current.” This formulation (mine) may seem a common-sense dictum.  Let me challenge this notion with another dictum: “fratricidal militant fission sparks dedication, skill and organisational power.” The recent, explosive expansion in Syria and Iraq of Sunni militants under the banner of ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham) can be placed alongside the rise of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) among Tamil militants in the 1970s-to-90s as potential illustrations of a thesis that undermines common-sense notions. In the LTTE case too one could say that “success breeds legitimacy” as Mendelsohn argues for ISIS in clarifying how that organisation’s military might and its capture of swathes of territory in recent months enabled it to supplant such Al-Qaeda branches as Jabhat al-Nusra (2014a). Continue reading →

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July 19, 2014 · 10:31 am

Australia remains a “lucky country” — courtesy of migration, feminism and egalitarianism

Natasha Bita, in The Australian, 19 July 2014, where the title is “Why Australia is still the lucky country”

MELDED by migration and forged by feminism, Australia has been transformed in half a century from its whitebread heritage into a cosmopolitan and egalitarian society envied the world over.

In 1964, when the first edition of The Australian rolled off the presses, this country employed a White Australia policy, and managed migration under the Aliens Act. Women lost their jobs when they married. Children died from tuberculosis and were crippled with polio. Men made up two-thirds of university students. We used typewriters and corded telephones, wrote letters in longhand and knew how to read street maps. Continue reading →

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