Can “political theatre” exist in today’s political climate? In the last few decades, our understanding of politics and theatre has undermined the basis on which prior generations of artists conceived of both politics and theatre. Caryl Churchill’s Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? sits at the intersection of critiques of dramatic theatre and new forms of post-dramatic, non-representational performance. The play tells the story of a man, Guy, who falls in love with a country, Sam, and critics have largely seen the play as an allegory for the “special relationship” between Britain and the United States. But while the play riffs on that metaphor, it also includes aspects that work against a political reading. Churchill’s depiction of the relationship as a sincere gay love affair raises questions about what it means to say that politicians are “in bed together.” As the play develops, the political critique and the personal relationships seem to work against each other, and the play becomes an elliptical invitation to think political theatre anew.
Condoleezza Rice, who was sometimes referred to as the most influential woman in the world, went down in history as one of the architects of US policy after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. As a member of the war cabinet of President George W. Bush, she took part in the decision to declare war on terror, armed intervention in Afghanistan, and the invasion of Iraq. Although the function of Head of the Department of State has been the biggest achievement of her political career so far, the role of advisor to President George W. Bush sparked a lot more interest and public criticism.
The aim of this article is to analyze so-called war on terror from the perspective of the political economy of communication. The author starts with a story about Osama bin Laden's death in Abbottabad (Pakistan), including sometimes shameful reaction on it (a specially in the United States). Then this paper addresses major trends in the TV shows about war on terror – in the American „24” and Polish „Misja Afganistan” („The Afghanistan Mission”). The next part of the article is devoted to a discussion of the phenomenon called WikiLeaks (a non-profit organization that publishes submissions from anonymous whistleblowers) in the context of the „Collateral Murder” video of U.S. Helicopter and „Cablegate” scandal – the U.S. Diplomatic cables leak, scandal began in 2010, when WikiLeaks began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by hundreds of its embassies, consulates, and diplomatic missions around the globe. In the conclusion, the significance of the war on terror is highlighted, but the author is convinced, that this is a part of a broader process – United States is losing its superpower status and American establishment is influenced by military-industrial complex, so global war on terror could be eternal. The process of globalizing war on terror is proceeding rapidly – from the author's point of view this is highly dangerous.
In the article “Carl Schmitt Revisited by the United States and the Terrorist” it is shown that Carl Schmitt’s morals, standards and views can be noticed in the United States policy in the context of so-called “war on terror”. According to the article, Islamic terrorists are a mirror image of Schmittan revolutionary partisan. It is discussed how terrorists are, as a problem, treated by the USA, which in author’s opinion displays many Schmittan features. Schmitt is one of the few who claim that the sovereign state is above the legal order and can set boundaries. It is therefore shown that the USA seem to have rushed into Schmittan “state of exception”, where norms are suspended in order to achieve security, resembling the thinking of the G.W. Bush administration. It is illustrated how the USA seem to be following Schmitt’s ideology, especially by making exceptions to international rules, but also putting the terrorist outside of the scope of international regulations. Lastly, author tries to answer the question if it is justified to follow Schmitt and obey to the rule of law.
The aim of the article is to present the status of Poland’s implementation of European Court of Human Rights judgments in the Al Nashiri and Husayn (Abu Zubaydah) cases due to the existence of secret CIA detention sites in Poland as well as torturing of persons suspected of terrorism. This article is focused on the factual findings made in the course of international investigations carried out by the European Parliament and the European Council. Persons suspected of terrorism are not in a legal no-man’s-land. They have the same fundamental rights, especially the same right not to be tortured. The state secret cannot be a tool for limiting state responsibility for conducting transparent and effective investigations on serious violations of human rights.
PL
Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie stanu realizacji przez Polskę wyroków ETPC w sprawach Al Nashiri i Husayn (Abu Zubaydah) w związku z istnieniem na terytorium RP tajnych ośrodków zatrzymań CIA i torturowaniem osób podejrzanych o terroryzm. Artykuł koncentruje się na ustaleniach faktycznych poczynionych w toku śledztw międzynarodowych prowadzonych przez Parlament Europejski oraz Radę Europy. Osoby podejrzane o terroryzm nie pozostają w próżni prawnej. Przysługują im w równym stopniu podstawowe prawa jednostki, w szczególności wolność od tortur. Tajemnica państwowa nie może stanowić narzędzia ograniczania prawnej odpowiedzialności państwa za przeprowadzenie transparentnych i skutecznych postępowań w sprawie poważnych naruszeń praw człowieka.
By making Americans aware of a secret government surveillance program targeting their electronic communications, Edward Snowden intended to kickstart a public debate on the nature of democratic governance. His intentions are likely to hit a wall of indifference. Why? The answer may lie in the American political culture.
On 20 May 2011, the Time weekly published a special report issue in its entirety covering the killing of Osama bin Laden. Clearly, owing to its thematic coherence, the Time Special Report issue could be examined through the lenses of qualitative content analysis tools. This paper, however, applies Goffman’s Frame Analysis. Based on two basic assumptions: (1) that the “frame” amounts to the structured knowledge and (2) that the language of media reports is never neutral, but highly constructed, the paper argues that the examined Time issue is fundamentally built on three frames: the “war on terror” frame, the “hero” vs. the “enemy no. 1” frame and, finally, the “indestructible USA” vs. the “primitive, yet promising Islamic countries” frame. In addition, drawing on the cognitive concepts of figure/ground organization and focalization, as well as the notion of metaphor, it investigates how the above distinguished frames are manipulated and modified.
The ‘War on Terror’ narrative placed the Muslim countries of Southeast Asia in a complex situation for which many of them were not prepared. Rising from the ashes of colonialism, Southeast Asian states with Muslim majorities had been struggling to develop a pragmatic approach towards religious and national identities of their states. Amongst the many Muslim states in the region, Brunei offers an interesting case. Brunei considered it national identity to be based on Malay identity and Islam. From the end of the Cold War and colonisation until the September 11 era, it considered itself a Malay Muslim country but followed the legal codes and political systems they inherited from the British colonial times. Pressure from the US during the Cold War encouraged the first wave of Islamisation in Brunei aiming to centralise political and religious powers in the hands of the Sultan. The ‘War on Terror’, however, transformed this dynamic in Brunei. This transformation has weakened secular ideas and political forces in the country by giving more power to religious forces in Brunei’s legal system. By studying Brunei, this paper demonstrates how the ‘War on Terror’ empowered religious forces politically by igniting a competition between the Sultan and religious forces over the degree of their religiosity. This competition has ignited the second wave of Islamisation that is different from the first one in terms of its goals, agency and the version of Islam they promote.
PL
Narracja, jaką przyjęto w czasie wojny z terroryzmem, doprowadziła państwa muzułmańskie Azji Południowo-Wschodniej do sytuacji, na którą wiele z nich nie było przygotowanych. Państwa te, powstałe z popiołów kolonializmu, walczyły o wypracowanie pragmatycznego podejścia do religijnej i narodowej tożsamości. Wśród nich szczególnie interesującym przypadkiem jest Brunei, państwo zbudowane na tożsamości malajskiej i islamie. Od końca zimnej wojny i kolonizacji do wejścia w erę rozpoczętą przez ataki z 11 września Brunei uważało się za malajskie państwo muzułmańskie, przestrzegające kodeksów prawnych i systemów politycznych odziedziczonych po brytyjskich czasach kolonialnych. Jednak już presja Stanów Zjednoczonych podczas zimnej wojny sprzyjała pierwszej fali islamizacji Brunei, mającej na celu scentralizowanie władzy politycznej i religijnej w rękach sułtana. „Wojna z terrorem” zmieniła dynamikę tego procesu, osłabiła świeckie idee i siły polityczne w kraju, dając siłom religijnym większe znaczenie i władzę w państwie. Artykuł ten pokazuje, w jaki sposób „wojna z terrorem” zwiększyła rywalizację sił religijnych z sułtanem o znaczenie religii w państwie. Ta walka zapoczątkowała drugą falę islamizacji, różniącą się od pierwszej celami oraz rodzajem promowanego islamu.
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