Bøger af Jean-Francois Caron

This book explores the emerging politics of Eurasia from the vantage point of Kazakhstan. Vladimir Putin¿s decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022 has led to the end of the post-Cold War paradigm of liberal convergence and has triggered a geopolitical shift that will lead to the establishment of a renewed bipolar world order. However, if Russia is responsible for that shift, it will most likely not be the power that will be the leading force of the anti-Western bloc. The leading force of this emerging bloc will rather be China to which Russia is inevitably destined to be relegated as a junior partner in Beijing¿s geopolitical orbit. This book, analyzing the geopolitics of a changing region, will interest scholars of international relations, Eurasia, and the economics of energy.

This book proposes an interdisciplinary look at the culture of shame in Central Asia and evaluates its role in the regulation of social and political interactions in the region. Contributors demonstrate how 'uyat' relies on patriarchal and hierarchical gender norms that negatively affect women and queer bodies. More specifically, contributors address issues of the taboo of sex education in Kazakhstani schools, favored heteronormativity and its consequences on queer bodies, and the compliance of parents to give their first born to adoption to the husband¿s parents in Kyrgyzstan. The book also reflects on how these norms are challenged by young generations. Lastly, the book will also bring a novel reading on local political dynamics by examining the role of shame in Kazakhstani politics as a form of accountability in the absence of genuine political competition. This book will interest scholars of Central Asia, gender theorists, and scholars of post-socialist societies.

This book explores the various ramifications and consequences of the violent civil protests that affected Kazakhstan in January 2022. In this compelling study, the authors examine the underlying social and political tensions that have affected this biggest country of Central Asia, especially since its political transition of 2019 and how the state has managed to justify its actions that led to a return to peace. It also puts in perspective this event in the wider transition affecting Eurasia with the war in Ukraine and how this shift of world politics may impact Kazakhstan that required the support of Russia and the other members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization during these protests. This book will be of value for scholars, journalists and NGOs working on authoritarianism and on Central Asia.

The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the serious crisis of political authorities that Liberal societies are currently experiencing.

This book tries to understand the lessons we ought to learn from the Covid-19 crisis as well as the profound transformations this pandemic will bring to the world order. This timely book will be of interest to scholars in Political Science and philosophy, as well as to general readers interested in what the post Covid-19 world may resemble.

This Pivot updates the ideas of the famous political philosopher from the Italian Renaissance, Machiavelli, for the 21st century, using case studies from the West and from Kazakhstan to demonstrate the utility of Machiavelli's ideas for contemporary political life.

We often think of the army as an institution whose members are required to blindly obey all orders they receive. However, this perception is inaccurate. Disobedience is a fundamental professional obligation of members of the military and overrides the obligation to follow commands. But what is the extent of this obligation? Are soldiers obligated to participate in what they consider to be an illegal war, or should they be allowed to enjoy a right to selective conscientious objection? Should soldiers obey a legal order that, if followed, would facilitate the perpetration of war crimes by a third party? How should soldiers act if they are ordered to follow a lawful order that could result in immoral consequences? Should soldiers be allowed to refuse to obey what can be labeled as suicidal orders? Based upon the nature of soldiers' professional obligations, this book tries to offer answers to these important questions. The author turns to a number of different case-studies, including conscientious objections, duty to protect in genocidal situations such as Rwanda and Srebrenica, suicidal orders in wars, as well as retribution and leniency towards war criminals, as a way of assessing the different legal and ethical implications of disobedience in the military.

Super soldiers are about to become the new actors in the battlefields of tomorrow. Armed with science fiction-esque equipment and drugs, they are about to make comic book and Hollywood superheroes a reality. -- .

As a way to draw visitors to their isolated fishing village on Quebecs North Shore, the tourist bureau commissions a documentary film recreating life as it was lived there in the 1940s and 50s. To gather material for the project, the filmmaker is sent in search of Rose Brouillard, now an old woman but raised on an island just offshore by Onile, a local fisherman. Rose is finally tracked down in Montreal, where she lives a solitary life fogged by one of the inevitabilities of old age failing memory.Dorothea (the name Rose gives the young filmmaker), takes her back to scenes from her childhood and invites her to tell her story as they go, and so we return to a past assembled from Roses fragmented recollections.Structured as a series of short cinematic takes, this novel about recovering both personal and shared histories is told in a polyphony of voices, including Rose herself (as a child, an adolescent, and in her old age), the sexton of the village church, his three female cousins, an elderly neighbour, a villager who passes time on the harbour wall, and Roses long-deceased mother. We see fishermen on the docks with their nets, hard-at-work villagers with shirtsleeves rolled up to the elbow, leafy gardens, and tree-lined streets, all recreated during Roses reminiscences. The problem is that many of these scenes are invented, not real. Does that matter? Or are the stories we tell more important?