`4f24` Why wars keep happening
Just Peace Ukraine (Martin Curt 2024 f 24) Hope. Help. Donate. Pray.
A letter from the publisher —
G’day cobbers!
In the 303rd year of Pyotr Romanov's empire, in the 539th week of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, and on the 861st day of the Russo-Ukrainian War, Kyiv is in Ukrainian hands.
The hard-working staff at Just Peace Ukraine continue to turn up fascinating articles. Queensland’s very model of a modern Major General, Mick Ryan has a weekly reading list which today includes Why wars keep happening by Francis J. Gavin. It could be subtitled “Macro-economics is important, but does it explain everything?”
☼¶ _Engelsberg Ideas_
June 17, 2024 Francis J. Gavin
The lens of game theory and economics – micro and macro – moved far beyond describing how prices were set and how markets in goods or the flow of finance capital worked. The language of the market was applied to subjects ranging from law to human social behaviour. Indeed, that language of economics and the market has increasingly been used to describe human activities – sports, love and romance, and even war – that were once understood as driven by passions that were hard to measure and immune to bargaining.
All five of Mick’s selections are (imo) worth reading (see under Mick Ryan, below), but I especially draw your attention to :—
5. ☼¶ C4ADS
War Machine The Networks Supplying & Sustaining the Russian Precision Machine Tool Arsenal
by Al Maggard
Degrading Russia’s ability to wage war is critical to the survival of Ukrainian democracy. Among the Russian defense industry’s greatest vulnerabilities is its reliance on foreign technologies. Few technologies embody this vulnerability better than computer numeric control (CNC) machine tools — devices that employ computer technology to automate the manufacture of critical defense equipment like precision-guided munitions and aircraft parts.
☼¶ Nikkei _Financial Times_
https://www.ft.com/content/7110fc18-5a31-4387-9f4c-0cc5753d050a How Russia is using nuclear power to win global influence | Despite sanctions, Russian companies are building more than a third of the new reactors around the world, which is gaining Moscow new friends — Anastasia Stognei in Tbilisi, Benjamin Parkin in New Delhi, Jamie Smyth in New York and Malcolm Moore in London
☼¶ ☼ ψ The Kyiv Independent group, including Ukraine Daily, Belarus Weekly
Peace summit 'smart' way to combat Russian propaganda, Australian representative says. The Kyiv Independent sat down with Australian Government Services Minister Bill Shorten.
In an essay of July 2021, Peter Dickinson had already discerned Putin’s path :—
Putin’s new Ukraine essay reveals imperial ambitions
And even if you’re not a leftie, you may wish to cast an eye over today’s and in the Left corner.
Cheers,
Martin.
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+... and in the Left corner ...+
(For everyone, but perhaps of special interest to Social Democrats, Bolshevik imperialists, and other lefties)
☼¶ ☼Mary Harrington — Reactionary Feminist
☼TV Is Always Already Progressive A response to Spencer Klavan on "conservative art"
☼¶ _European Council on Foreign Relations Update_
Late-stage Putinism: The war in Ukraine and Russia’s shifting ideology
☼¶ _Engelsberg Ideas_
Paul Josephson chronicles how the Tsars, Soviets and now Putin have constrained and distorted the study and research of science in Russia.
+Wayfarers' Watch+
(For everyone, but especially for people interested in religion and theology)
☼¶ ☼Vatican News, Sala Stampa &c.
[The other] Father Martin: Jesus calls us forth from the grave A conversation with Fr James Martin, SJ, author of “Come Forth: The Raising of Lazarus and the Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle.”
By Andrea Tornielli
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☼¶ ☼Church Life Journal, an e-periodical of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame
The Political Theology of Recognition
Patrick Gilger on Charles Taylor.
The problem with framing the border [of the United Mexican States and the USA] as a crisis … is that in everyday parlance crises are chaotic, and chaos must be met not with holiness and hospitality but division and distance, regulation and rules, law and order. The deep problem—which includes but exceeds the need to work for legal immigration reform—is that framing the border as a crisis prevents us from seeing it otherwise. “At the root of our inability to address global migration is a fundamental misrecognition,” wrote Bishop Seitz. It is, he continued, “the borders we have internalized” that prevent us from seeing this “crisis” through the lens of Christ.
…
among the most important political roles the church catholic can play in fulfilling its own task of being an agent in salvation history is to recognize others in their differences. It would also mean that the self-chosen task of a post-Christendom Church responds (providentially?) to one of the most pressing dilemmas facing democratic polities in our majority-minority age: the problem of recognition. We can be helped in understanding this problem—and better understanding the political theological task of the Church thereby—by turning to an essential philosophical essay on this topic: Charles Taylor’s “The Politics of Recognition.”
+Greensleeves+
(On the world-room and its conservation, but also a magazine of interesting matters which don’t fit into the earlier sections)
☼¶ ☼Gordian Knot (Jack Devanney & al.)
☼600 year old spent nuclear fuel is just another poison, 2.0
☼¶ _People & Nature_
Post-election battlegrounds for climate and social justice. Where our movements may clash with a Labour government: on North Sea oil, public ownership of electricity, community energy and techno-fixes. By Simon Pirani.
☼¶ ☼Adam Tooze
+Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union+
(Mostly material from the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group)
‘Don’t scare my children, take the assault rifle away’ 16.06.2024
Ukrainian sentenced to 12 years in Russia for Ukraine's national anthem, balloons and anti-war speech 18.06.2024
Horrific beheading of Ukrainian prisoner of war is part of Russia’s deliberate policy in war against Ukraine 19.06.2024
Ukraine identifies Russian soldiers suspected of gunning down unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war 21.06.2024
+Pi Jaws &c.+
Like Birds Flying Overhead — J. Heinrich Arnold
Martin Luther once wrote that evil thoughts come like birds flying over our heads. We cannot help that. But if we allow them to build nests on our heads, then we are responsible for them. We will never be completely free of temptation; we should not even expect it. Even Jesus was tempted. At one time the idea of Jesus being tempted like an ordinary human being seemed blasphemous to me. Yet there is no question: he was, although he never sinned.
Where does temptation end and sin begin?
+ Laughter, the best Medicine+
Church attendance manual (4): The eight types of sermons
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+Publication Details+
Just Peace Ukraine is published by the Rvrd Martin Arnold
Abbe.Martincurt@gmail.com
who welcomes comments & suggestions and notification of typos.
For more information about Martin, go to
https://gravatar.com/martinoarnold
*_* Хай живе вільна Україна *_* L’Ukraine a toujours aspiré à être libre - Voltaire *_* Няхай жыве вольная Украіна *_* Larga vida a Ucrania libre *_* Да здравствует свободная Украина *_* Long live free Ukraine *_* 自由乌克兰万岁 *_* Bandera rossonera la trionferà!
*_* تحيا أوكرانيا حرة *_*
The rationale for Just Peace Ukraine is being revised. A new improved version will be unveiled at our earliest convenience. We expect that the new rationale will have headings —
The Russo-Ukrainian War is illegal
The Russo-Ukrainian War is immoral
The Russo-Ukrainian War is inexpedient
If you’d like to send in your own thoughts for any or all of these headings — or other material — feel free. We’ve been thinking about the rationale for so long that we find it hard to criticize our own prose.
In brief —
RF forces must leave Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and any other occupied territories. It must assist prisoners and the deported, whether children or adults, to return home. The Kremlin must use its fossil-fuel and other loot to recompense for damages its forces have caused.
+Tl;dr+
Samvydav Review for Just Peace Ukraine
Scores of Substack and similar samvydav sites sifted by the strenuous staff at Just Peace Ukraine.
Some interesting or worthy items are marked with some combination of the banner with the strange device [|εξηλσιορ*ψ|] — ψ, the Greek letter ‘psi’, may denote matter especially relevant to the Russo-Ukrainian War and anti-imperialism.
(Mnemonic: ‘psi’ has the form of a trident, which is an ancient symbol for Ukrainian government. The symbol was used in the Greek settlements on the Black Sea (or Psi). Tim Snyder reminds us that Greeks and Jews have the longest recorded settlements in Ukraine, and capital psi Ψ looks like an infant menorah.)
☼¶ ☼Aaron Ross Powell
☼The Worst Argument in Politics How to make a bad argument without realizing it.
☼¶ ☼Adam Tooze
The 1953 rebellion in East Germany. Pricey tankers. How Transnistria survives & Roman cities.
☼¶ ☼After Babel (Jon Haidt & al.)
☼Neighborhoods that Nurture: Why The Play-Based Childhood Requires More Than Just Putting Down the Phone It's easier to create “play-based childhoods” if we can simultaneously create vibrant “community-based childhoods” to support them. Seth Kaplan
Have some teens benefited in the era of social media? If so, depression rates should decline in some groups, especially LGB and marginalized teens. But they don't. Jean M. Twenge
Big News: The Surgeon General Calls for a Warning Label on Social Media Dr. Murthy is right. The evidence of widespread harm to adolescents is now strong.
☼¶ ☼Anne Applebaum [|εξηλσιορ*ψ|]
☼Autocracy Inc a sneak peek for subscribers
☼¶ ☼Comment is Freed (Sam & Lawrence Freedman)
☼Mapping Voter Coalitions A guest post from Sir John Curtice and Lovisa Moller Vallgarda
☼¶ ☼the Counteroffensive (Tim Mak &c.)
☼Kharkiv’s burned books. If you love books, you’ll want to read this. Publishers reeling after missile strike on Factor Druk printing house: "swamp of cellulite." Russian attack reduces Ukrainian publishing by ~40%.
☼¶ ☼Cosmopolitan Globalist (Claire Berlinski)
☼Hunger Games: Fifth Republic France.
Dramatis Personae Plotting, leaking, throat-slitting, backstabbing, purging, and more. Your guide to the wildest week in the history of postwar France. Part II
☼¶ ☼Daniel W. Drezner
☼Behold My New Adjective! Some distinguished personal news...
Robert O'Brien's Foreign Policy Amnesia Donald Trump's last national security advisor remembers Trump's foreign policy very differently from, you know, actual history.
College Deans Need Better Training What a really, really dumb op-ed reveals about (some) college administrators.
☼¶ ☼Diane Francis
☼China Plays Putin June 17, 2024
☼¶ ☼Eliot Wilson
☼The thought processes of Donald Trump The Republican presidential candidate has been making some startlingly surreal public utterances recently, which make me wonder how his mind works
The future of the Conservative Party (1) If the Tories lose on 4 July, the party will undergo substantial change, but I differ from some of the common beliefs and tropes currently in circulation
As voters we have to pull our weight There are complaints that we don't know enough about candidates, we don't understand how the system works: we can find out for ourselves
☼¶ ☼Erin Cook
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☼¶ ☼Gordian Knot (Jack Devanney & al.)
☼600 year old spent nuclear fuel is just another poison, 2.0
☼¶ ☼the brethren Hart (Addison Hodges, David Bentley & Fr Robert)
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☼¶ ☼Jennifer Bilek
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☼¶ ☼Kateryna Babinka (An Ukrainian Writer in London)
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☼¶ ☼Katja Hoyer
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☼¶ ☼the Liberal Patriot
☼No, Elites. Rural Voters Aren’t a Threat to Democracy. But increasing polarization between rural and urban America is a worrisome trend.
☼¶ ☼Maksym Eristavi
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☼¶ ☼Mary Harrington — Reactionary Feminist
☼TV Is Always Already Progressive A response to Spencer Klavan on "conservative art"
☼¶ ☼Mathworlds (Dan Meyer)
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☼¶ ☼Matt Osborne
☼The Wokesite Is Deflating In Value Staff cuts, lawsuits, and the elite ownership effect
☼¶ ☼Michael Judge
☼Letter to a Young Poet "You’ve already overcome the greatest obstacle of all to the writing of poetry—you’ve accepted your heart and what it longs for as your muse."
☼¶ ☼Mick Ryan [|εξηλσιορ*ψ|]
☼The Quest for a New Offensive Doctrine The lessons from Ukraine is driving the need for new forms of successfully executing attacks - at all levels of military endeavour
A New US-Ukraine Security Agreement A Quick Assessment of the agreement and what it means
Ode to the Turtle Tank The Russian turtle tank is weird and interesting, and only a temporary solution to a larger battlefield challenge
Ukraine Lessons for the Pacific Introducing a New Series on Translating the Lessons of Ukraine to the Pacific Ocean region
The Big Five - 22 June edition A weekly guide to readings on modern war and adapting to win
1. ☼¶ CEPA, CSIS, CftNI &c.
Crossing Thresholds: Ukrainian Resistance to Russian Occupation
by Jade McGlynn
2. ☼¶ _Engelsberg Ideas_
June 17, 2024 Francis J. Gavin
The lens of game theory and economics – micro and macro – moved far beyond describing how prices were set and how markets in goods or the flow of finance capital worked. The language of the market was applied to subjects ranging from law to human social behaviour. Indeed, that language of economics and the market has increasingly been used to describe human activities – sports, love and romance, and even war – that were once understood as driven by passions that were hard to measure and immune to bargaining.
3. The Jerusalem Post
IDF knew of Hamas's plan to kidnap 250 before October 7 attack - report The IDF had precise information about Hamas's intentions, but due to prevailing conceptions in the security establishment and possible negligence by officials, the warning signs were not acted on.
4. ☼¶ CEPA, CSIS, CftNI, CSET &c.
China’s Military AI Roadblocks PRC Perspectives on Technological Challenges to Intelligentized Warfare
Sam Bresnick, June 2024
5. ☼¶ CEPA, CSIS, CftNI, CSET, C4ADS &c.
War Machine The Networks Supplying & Sustaining the Russian Precision Machine Tool Arsenal
by Al Maggard
Degrading Russia’s ability to wage war is critical to the survival of Ukrainian democracy. Among the Russian defense industry’s greatest vulnerabilities is its reliance on foreign technologies. Few technologies embody this vulnerability better than computer numeric control (CNC) machine tools — devices that employ computer technology to automate the manufacture of critical defense equipment like precision-guided munitions and aircraft parts.
☼¶ ☼Persuasion (Yascha Mounk & al.)
☼Hopes for a Grand Bargain in the Middle East Are a Mirage Biden is deaf to the intractable nature of the situation.
☼¶ ☼Phillips P. O’Brien
☼War and Deterrence in the Indo-Pacific: Allies Could Determine a Great Deal Dont just look at the US and China
The Crimea Campaign: Boiling the Russian Frog A Primer to What is Happening in Crimea
☼¶ ☼the Radicalist (DJ Volodzko)
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☼¶ ☼Sarcastosaurus (Tom Cooper)
NATO & Ukrainian Air Defences by Donald Hill
Ukraine War, 22 June 2024: UMPKs over Lyptsi
☼¶ ☼Stephen Bradford Long and Stephen Weller
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☼¶ ☼Szego Unplugged (Julie Szego)
☼Fancy a PhD in Hamas Studies? The ugly hypocrisy of our universities
☼¶ ☼fr Thomas Plant
☼The Iconic Turn The Case for Christian Schools: Part 7
☼¶ ☼Timothy Snyder [|εξηλσιορ*ψ|]
☼In Their Own Words Russian propagandists' hopes for America
☼¶ ☼the UnPopulist
☼Why Do Our Ideologies Divide Us?: A Conversation with Political Scientist Jason Blakely Those who deny they're influenced by ideology are often the most susceptible to ideological capture
An ideology’s stickiness comes from the fact that, as human beings, we share a basic predicament: As Aristotle argued, we’re meaning-making animals seeking to order the goods in our lives in a way that is best for ourselves and for society.
Responsible Conservatism Really Was a Thing for a While David Austin Walsh’s intellectual history of the American right is excellent but overstates Trumpism's continuity with the conservatism that preceded it Joseph Stieb
Is Trump a Fascist or Something Else Entirely?: A Conversation with Nicholas Grossman He will defeat American liberal democracy through utter contempt for its institutions, not a revolution
☼¶ ☼Zeitgeist (Katja Hoyer)
☼Ha Ha Very Funny - A German's View of British Humour Thoughts on Fawlty Towers - The Play
BREAKING: Australian Federal Police Make Raids After Discovering CCP Backed Plot Against Me Drew Pavlou
Trade War Newsletter 216 - June 23, 2024 Dexter Roberts
Excerpts from Stanislav Aseyev’s Torture Camp on Paradise Street Cynthia R. Nielsen