eurozine nr 10.2003

EUROZINE NEWS
10.2003

Contents:
1. Article of the Month: Saddam Hussein's armourers
2. Eurozine at the Frankfurt Book Fair
3. New Focal Point: Russia
4. The 16th European meeting of Cultural Journals: Belgrade Conference, 24-27/10 2003
5. Partner Section
6. New Articles
7. New Associates and Links

1. ARTICLE OF THE MONTH: SADDAM HUSSEIN'S ARMOURERS

Saddam Hussein's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction, the primary motivation for going to war with Iraq still remain elusive. In this exclusive article, David Baran takes a well-informed look at the political careers of the people working in the weapons programmes from the 1970s up until the war in 2003. Describing the mechanisms of military industrialization and the workings of patronage and clientelism amongst the military analysts and experts, Baran corrects the over-simplified view of Saddam Hussein as the ultimate evil-doer: "The focus on the figure of the tyrant, who is surrounded by some sinister accomplices, reduces the politics under such regimes to an automatic execution of the despot's will. The subsidiary and ordinary actors of this system always remain anonymous, interchangeable, mediocre and unnatural. Basically, the tyrant is surrounded by an immense amorphous bureaucracy that acts like an infernal machine and turns obsequiously his thoughts into reality. Furthermore, this mechanics is not operational unless the tyrant inhales his 'energy', born out of the fear he spreads and his desire to harm."

Baran also demonstrates how the public, despite the fact that no evidence of the WMD has been found, still clings to the idea that these weapons must exist:
"In the case of Iraq, the issue of 'weapons of mass destruction' somehow seemed to boil down to Saddam Hussein's evil intentions. Despite the particularly close surveillance, there is no striking evidence for the presumed existence of residual weapon stocks, production facilities, missiles capable of delivering chemical, biological and nuclear warheads or covert ways to import the necessary components or technologies. [---] In the political discourse this concealment strategy led to endless speculations, supported by the media's diabolization of Saddam Hussein as the incarnation of the evil. Besides, wouldn't his ability to constantly produce weapons that nobody can ever find intuitively be the best indicator of diabolic actions? This approach presents the 'weapons of mass destruction' not as a more or less complex technological appliance requiring infrastructure, components and know-how, but as a kind of physical sorcery or direct conversion of Saddam Hussein's evil intentions into reality."

David Baran
SADDAM HUSSEIN'S ARMOURERS
Who developed Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction?

This article is available in French, German and English
SADDAM HUSSEIN'S ARMOURERS in English
SADDAM HUSSEIN'S ARMOURERS in German
SADDAM HUSSEIN'S ARMOURERS in French

2. EUROZINE AT THE FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR

From the 8th until the 13th of October Eurozine will be at the Frankfurt Book Fair. You will find us in stand number 4.1 E133, where we exhibit all our partner journals, present the Russian Focal Point and discuss the European network of cultural journals, Eurozine and the need for a transnational European public space.

We look forward to seeing you there!

3. NEW FOCAL POINT: RUSSIA

Russia will be guest of honour at this year's Frankfurt Book fair. On this occasion, Eurozine has prepared a focal point ranging from debates on Russian statehod and nationalism to contemporary poetry. Most of the texts gathered here are collected from Eurozine's Russian partner Neprikosnovennij Zapas (NZ) in Moscow and present a variety of topics relating to Russia: The first part deals with problems of statehood and nationalism and includes a discussion on Russia's "European belongings". Larry Wolff and Alexander Yanov debate whether Russia could ever be part to the European Union; Axel Kaehne discusses concepts of liberal statehood in post-soviet Russia and argues that sociocultural rifts still run deep between European and Russian conceptions of statehood. These differences not only touch upon political concepts but also affect the sociological make-up of the society, more precisely, the concept of a middle class. Deemed necessary in Europe in order to maintain a functioning civil society and a viable democracy, the question is whether such a middle class has ever played a similar role in Russia now, or in the past. Or is a true middle class emerging in Russia only now? The three-part debate between Maya Turovskaya, Sergei Parkhomenko and Revekka Frumkina offers some surprising views. Two articles by Wladimir Malakhov and and Wladimir Berelowitsch provide background on domestic Russian issues: The falsification of history in new Russian schoolbooks and institutionalized racism against immigrants through the media, especially television. Finally, two articles on the Chechen war, Russia's most troubling conflict that refuses to go away: The renowned journalist Anna Politkovskaia analyses how the war in Chechnya has become sanitised by reinterpreting the conflict as a "war against terrorists" while Alexei Levinson investigates how some ordinary Russians have learned to profit from the war in their own ways.
Wespennest is concluding the focal point with poems on the war in Chechnya by Sergej Stratanowskij and Iwan Achmetjew and an editorial article that gives an overview on what is worth reading and what not amongst contemporary Russian literature.

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Publicerad: 2003-10-09


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