The Yale Review of International Studies
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
VOLUME 4, ISSUE 3, SPRING 2014 The Yale Review of International Studies The Acheson Prize Issue FIRST PLACE THIRD PLACE (TIED) The Historiography of Postwar The Invisible Ring and and Contemporary Histories the Invisible Contract: of the Outbreak of World War I Corporate Social Contract Tess McCann as the Normative Basis 91 of Corporate Environmental Responsibility SECOND PLACE Dilong Sun 57 Sinking Their Claws into the Arctic: Prospects for Four Ways to Matter in Sino-Russian Relations in the Pakistan: How Four of World’s Newest Frontier Pakistan’s Most Important TaoTao Holmes Politicians Retained Power 75 in Exile, 1984 – 2014 Akbar Ahmed 33 EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Samuel Obletz, Grayson Clary EXECUTIVE EDITOR Allison Lazarus MANAGING EDITORS Erwin Li, Talya Lockman-Fine SENIOR EDITORS Aaron Berman, Adrian Lo, Anna Meixler, Apsara Iyer, Jane Darby Menton EDITORS Abdul-Razak Zachariah, Andrew Tran, Elizabeth de Ubl, Miguel Gabriel Goncalves, Miranda Melcher DESIGN Martha Kang McGill and Grace Robinson-Leo CONTRIBUTORS Akbar Ahmed, Erin Alexander, TaoTao Holmes, Jack Linshi, Tess McCann, Dilong Sun ACADEMIC ADVISORS Paul Kennedy, CBE Amanda Behm J. Richardson Dilworth Associate Director, Professor of History, International Security Yale University Studies, Yale University Walter Russell Mead Beverly Gage James Clarke Chace Professor of History, Professor of Foreign Yale University Affairs, Bard College Nuno Monteiro Ambassador Ryan Crocker Assistant Professor Kissinger Senior Fellow, of Political Science, Jackson Institute, Yale Yale University University Jolyon Howorth Visiting Professor of Political Science, Yale University The Yale Review of International Studies 3 Letter from the Editors HONORABLE MENTION 5 Women of War: The Female Fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Erin Alexander 19 How Did the Chicken Cross the Pacific? Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Appeal to China’s Culinary Tradition in Creating Its Fast Food Empire Jack Linshi THIRD PLACE 33 Four Ways to Matter in Pakistan: How Four of Pakistan’s Most Important Politicians Retained Power in Exile, 1984 – 2014 Akbar Ahmed 57 The Invisible Ring and the Invisible Contract: Corporate Social Contract as the Normative Basis of Corporate Environmental Responsibility Dilong Sun SECOND PLACE 75 Sinking Their Claws into the Arctic: Prospects for Sino-Russian Relations in the World’s Newest Frontier TaoTao Holmes FIRST PLACE 91 The Historiography of Postwar and Contemporary Histories of the Outbreak of World War I Tess McCann Dear Reader: This year, we were humbled again by student interest in the Dean Gooderham Acheson Prize for Outstanding Essays in International Studies. The more than one hundred submissions we received represent a body of scholarship of exceptional diversity and depth; inevitably, we find ourselves wishing that we had the space to highlight more than just those essays to which we’re able to award prizes. We sincerely hope that all those students who submitted their work will consider contrib- uting pieces to future issues. Professors Charles Hill, Jolyon Howorth, Jean Krasno, and Michelle Malvesti, and Associate Director of International Security Studies Amanda Behm were all generous enough to dedicate their time to the consideration of submissions. On the basis of their judgments, we’re proud to present the winners of the Acheson Prize for 2014. We’d like to express our gratitude to all those who sub- mitted work; to our faculty judges, for their time and thoughtful consideration; to International Security Studies and the Yale International Relations Association, without whom this issue wouldn’t have been possible; and to our talented designers for the beautiful print publication before you. We greatly enjoyed reading all the pieces featured, and we hope you will as well. For more on what YRIS has in store for future semesters, you can like us on Facebook and subscribe to our weekly newsletter at yris.yira.org. We hope you’ll consider getting involved. Sincerely, The Editors 3 4 Women of War: The Female Fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Erin Alexander 1 Neloufer De Mel, Women & Since the start of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 1983, Tamil women the Nation’s Narrative: Gender have occupied a key role in the conflict. In the struggle for and Nationalism in Twentieth the anticipated state of Tamil Eelam, the socio-cultural role of Century Sri Lanka (Lanham: women has undergone, and continues to undergo, a radical Rowman & Littlefield, 1 2001), 206. transformation. As a result of this “gendered reconstruction of womanhood,” women are no longer constrained to the 2 Joke Schrijvers, “Fighters, Victims and Survivors: household during times of war, but instead, frequently venture Constructions of Ethnicity, out into the battlefields, side-by-side with their male combat- Gender and Refugeeness ant counterparts.2 We can see, looking back at the 26 year-long Among Tamils in Sri Lanka,” battle between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Journal of Refugee Studies 12.3 and the Sri Lankan state, that women do indeed play a vital role (1999): 308. in times of violent conflict. The question remains, however, whether the female LTTE combatants have been manipulated into victims of war by the male-dominated insurgency, or whether they have become agents of their own empowerment through their participation in the conflict. This paper explores the gendered dimensions of ethnic con- flict, with a focus on the role that women have played in the LTTE. I analyze the gendered reconstruction of Tamil women in war and determine whether their participation in violence has altered their own perception of themselves and to a lesser extent society’s view of female combatants. I will achieve this analysis by drawing from numerous sources that offer first-hand knowledge of, and interviews with, female LTTE fighters. In order to better understand the roots of the conflict between the Tamil and Sinhalese peoples of Sri Lanka, I will first provide a brief history of the Sri Lankan Civil War, leading up to the rise of the LTTE. In the second section, I will outline the LTTE’s role in the war, and how they transformed socio-cultural norms in Sri Lanka by mobilizing Tamil women for the fight. The following macro-section will focus on the subsequent effect that mobilization of female combatants had on society and, more importantly, on the women involved in the conflict; I will exam- ine how female sentiments were manifested in either a positive, self-empowering light, or in a negative, victimized manner. Next, I will concisely connect the Sri Lankan case of female fighters with one similar South Asian case study of women soldiers — namely, the Maoist insurgency in Nepal. In the conclusion of the paper I will look at ex-LTTE female fighters in today’s Tamil society. While the recruitment of female combatants by the LTTE has been perceived by many to be an act of victimization by the male leaders of the conflict, I believe that this new role HONORABLE MENTION 5 for women serves as an opportunity for the female soldiers to empower themselves by defying societal, socio-cultural norms. History and the Rise of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam 3 Marshall Singer, “The Tamil- As a consequence of European imperialist whims and internal Sinhalese Ethnic Conflict in Sri ethnic fragmentation, Sri Lanka has faced a relentless string Lanka: A Case Study in Efforts of conflicts over reclamation of its land. Since the sixteenth cen- to Negotiate a Settlement, 1983 – 1988,” The Institute for the tury, Sri Lanka has been a European object of admiration and Study of Diplomacy (1989): 2. possession. In 1505, the Portuguese colonized the island and divided it into seven warring factions. Nearly a century later, the 4 Donald L. Horowitz, “Making Moderation Pay: The Dutch arrived and began ruling the Sinhalese and Tamil king- Comparative Politics of Ethnic doms, falling short of capturing the prized Kandyan kingdom. Conflict Management,” in Upon the British arrival in 1815, Kandy was finally seized and Conflict and Peacemaking in the island was eventually politically “unified.” However, a truly Multiethnic Societies, ed. unified nation never really materialized.3 Joseph V. Montville (Lexington: Lexington Books, 1990), 461. Britain’s preferential treatment of a minority ethnic group over the larger ethnic population only exacerbated the disunity 5 Singer, “The Tamil-Sinhalese Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka,” 3. among the Tamil and Sinhalese populations. The Tamils, who made up 11 percent of the Sri Lankan population, had dispropor- 6 Ibid., 8. tionate access to English education and civil services. Despite 7 Frances Harrison, “Black Tigers the post-colonial attempts to address and rectify the ethnic Appear in Public,” BBC News, disparities, the psychological legacy of the colonial oppression November 26, 2002, accessed April 4, 2013, <news.bbc.co.uk/ was that Tamils continued to view themselves as rightful occu- 2/hi/south_asia/2516263.stm>. pants of their homeland. Upon independence, the Tamil people started to push for greater autonomy, and eventually the idea of the establishment of a Tamil Eelam became more and more appealing to them. The newly established Sinhalese government quickly began dis- enfranchising the Tamil people, establishing a mode of political representation based on the majority ethnic political parties.4 Sinhalese candidates began running on a platform of “Sinhalese- only,” promising to “restore Buddhism to its proper place in society.”5 These political tactics appealed