• Acta Via Serica
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.31-54
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• 2021

Radicalisation has become an important issue for the Kyrgyz Republic with an increasing number of individuals leaving the country for conflict zones. The government of the Kyrgyz Republic adopted a number of policies to prevent radicalisation and violent extremism among youth. One of these measures is piloting a new subject, titled, History of Religious Culture, (История религиозной культуры) in public schools. The analysis in this paper aims to explore the experiences of teachers, who have taught the new class. The article also examines any differences in the level of resilience of pupils in schools, piloting and not piloting the new subject, towards radicalisation and violent extremism. Data used in this article comes from a survey with 760 adolescents across public schools in six regions of the country and key informant interviews with teachers who have taught the new class. Qualitative findings showed a positive experience of teachers who reported expanding their pupils' and their own knowledge of various religions. Quantitative findings indicate that the new class, History of Religious Culture, may have had a positive impact on violence-related beliefs in pilot schools that reported views less supportive of violence. The study concludes that the government's response to radicalisation and violent extremism has expanded beyond a security approach by including education. This, however, poses a risk of securitising education.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.40
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• pp.185-212
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• 2015

Bruno Dumont's film P'tit Quinquin (2014) trends toward 'the new extremism' in contemporary European cinema. This criminal-mystery-comedy film achieves the cinematic recognition of reality in the new extremist way: like typical new extremist films, P'tit Quinquin contains a lot of 'unwatchable' content, including disembodied parts of human body, carcasses, and the body of a boy who has killed himself. The reality, however, remains confidently invisible, despite everything that is visible within the film. In understanding Dumont's attempt to reach cinematic recognition, the relationship between 'the visible' and 'the invisible' is reconsidered. In the context of the film, the relationship between cinema and reality becomes indirect. The reality can be only felt, not seen. The invisible reality can be perceived only as a void, just like the criminal who is unknown even though he is sought after. To reveal this void, the film strives to give its viewers as much explicitly visible content as possible during its 200-minute run. This essay is an interdisciplinary attempt to examine the working and the effects of this cinematic attempt by Bruno Dumont; aspects of film theory, visual anthropology, (inter-)mediology, posthumanism in cultural theory, etc., are related for this purpose.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.193-218
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• 2014

This essay explores Congreve's last play The way of the World in terms of English new identity of the gentry represented by Mirabell in political, social and historical context of the Bloodless Revolution. Particularly, this essay focuses on behavioral differences between Mirabell and Fainall as characters who manage a certain type of acceptable Englishness through their heir. The acceptable Englishness separates what the differences are between two rakes from the outside of normative principle. The Way of the World reflects Lockean republican ideology in personal and familial relationships. Mirabell as a heroic rake represents new expectations for Englishmen who rejects absolute sovereign contrasted by Fainall's foreign tyrannical ways of domesticity. The Foreignness of Fainall's in the play is displaced by corollary change in the new model of English identity exemplified by Mirabell. Through the play, Congreve tends to satirize repressive morality of Hobbesian extremism and emphasizes the Revolution settlement based on consent sand trust instead. Mirabell's normative will harmonizes individual desire for happiness with social demand. In a sense Congreve's The Way of the World is a play reaching typical Restoration ending of intrigue and conspiracy through two rakes's interaction. Accordingly, this essay tries to show what separates the heroic rake from tyrannical libertine through their way of love, money, compromise and negotiation, which is their way of life.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.139-164
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• 2002

The objective of this Paper was to identify the internal and external symbols of Punks, and to assess the significance of punk style giving an inspiration to many high fashion designers. For this objective. comprehension on widely discussed idea of punk, furthermore grasping the internal and external form by inquiring historically punk look, and importantly looking into new ideas pursued by punk fashion by studying traits of punk image in 1980's and after are done. Punk in the latter half of the 70's was anti-fashion expressed for the young of working class to rebel against the established generation. At first some of the fashion was popularized by the young who imitated pop stars under the specific economy of Britain, and others with movement of hippie Punk is aesthetics extremism which neglects traditionalism in the past but pursues newness. It denied traditional way of expression and principles of aesthetics but created newness. Punk look was symbolized as poor look. grotesque, androgynous, black, graffiti, and bricolage. And the internal meanings of these symbols are ego-screaming, expression of nihilism, resistance, irony and ridicule, search for hedonism. The punk phenomenon continues today. Some teens still cling to the complete look. whether they have punks' idea and value or not. Diverse elements of punk style play a major role in the current trend of fashion and a source of the fresh inspiration for the high fashion designers. Punk style is truly the story of a fad that turned to fashion.

• Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.27-52
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• 2011

The regions of Central Asia have each acquired an elevated strategic importance in the new security paradigm of post-September 1lth. Comprised of five states, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, Central Asia's newly enhanced strategic importance stems from several other factors, ranging from trans-national threats posed by Islamic extremism, drug production and trafficking, to the geopolitical threats inherent in the region's location as a crossroads between Russia, Southwest Asia and China. Although the U.S. military presence in the region began before September 11th, the region became an important platform for the projection of U.S. military power against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. The analysis goes on to warn that 'with US troops already in place to varying extents in Central Asian states, it becomes particularly important to understand the faultlines, geography, and other challenges this part of the world presents'. The Kyrgyz military remains an embryonic force with a weak chain of command, the ground force built to Cold War standards, and an almost total lack of air capabilities. Training, discipline and desertion - at over 10 per cent, the highest among the Central Asian republics - continue to present major problems for the creation of combat-effective armed forces. Kyrgyzstan has a declared policy of national defence and independence without the use of non-conventional weapons. Kyrgyzstan participates in the regional security structures, such as the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) but, in security matters at least, it is dependent upon Russian support. The armed forces are poorly trained and ill-equipped to fulfil an effective counter-insurgency or counter-terrorist role. The task of rebuilding is much bigger, and so are the stakes - the integrity and sovereignty of the Kyrgyz state. Only democratization, the fight against corruption, reforms in the military and educational sectors and strategic initiatives promoting internal economic integration and national cohesion hold the key to Kyrgyzstan's lasting future

• Convergence Security Journal
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.167-177
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• 2018

Major countries, such as the U.S., UK and Germany have reformed their national intelligence systems in the face of transnational, asymmetric and comprehensive threats since September 11, 2001 and have strengthened the intelligence capacity involved in countering terrorism and WMD proliferation, right/left extremism threats. The Korean Moon Jae-in government is preparing a reform plan to eliminate illegal political intervention and abuse of power by the National Intelligence Service(NIS) and to rebuild it as an efficient national intelligence agency for national security. In discussing the reform direction of the NIS, it is necessary to discuss in detail whether adopting a separate model of intelligence agencies to restrict domestic intelligence activities of the NIS and concentrate on foreign intelligence activities or establish new domestic intelligence agencies. Second, as for the issue of transferring anti-Communism investigation authority of the NIS to the police, it needs to be carefully considered in terms of balancing the efficiency and professionalism of intelligence agency activity in the context of North Korea's continuous military provocation, covert operations and cyber threats. Third, it should strive to strengthen the control and supervision functions of the administration and the National Assembly to ensure the political neutrality of the NIS in accordance with the democratization era, to guarantee citizens' basic rights and to improve the transparency of budget execution.