Burned as it is into the mind of US history students, the American Civil War is an outlier in the field, with its most meaningful divisions being geographic and ideological. Civil wars before, and especially after, have instead occurred among heterogeneous populations, with fault lines inscribed in blood much closer to the combatant’s homes. Closer, more intimate violence, carried out by small bands of fighters with infantry rifles, is distinct from imagined movements of mass formations and is much closer to the reality of civil wars and experienced by most people.

To better understand this kind of violence and the strategic logic/social impact behind it, the University of Oxford’s Samuel Ritholtz examines cruelty as a category for analyzing violence in conflicts. Defined as “the intentional infliction of pain and/or suffering,” cruelty sits as related to but distinct from other categories of violence, like atrocity and brutality, because what is essential for cruelty is that the intent is there, but the violence is optional.

Cruelty can have an outsized role in warping the political outcomes during or after a conflict. This is partly because it can, if done in public, leave witnesses, who must now continue with their lives, somehow aware of the capacity for cruelty inherent in the armed group they just witnessed. Moreover, writes Ritholtz, “There is a psychosocial harm to witnessing cruelty that has an impact on social relations and environments.”

Studying cruelty as both harm and future threat of harm can help understand why some people and governments accept otherwise unreasonable terms, all in the name of making cruelty stop. Ritholtz turns to the Colombian civil war to ground this theory in observation. “Within Colombia, brutal and cruel acts of violence are considered their own repertoire of violence known as sevicia (sometimes written in English as “saevitia” after its Latin origin), which is defined by courts as excessive cruelty and the multiplicity of trauma,” Ritholtz writes.

Since so much of the Colombian Civil War played out as insurgency and counterinsurgency fighting, it’s possible to look at acts of violence done and see if they fit a standard pattern, like raiding a village known to house guerillas, or an unusual one, like torturing villagers because it’s assumed the village houses rebels. Still, no evidence can be found to support that. That act of cruelty followed by brutality serves a political purpose for the soldiers by convincing them partly that the violence inflicted was justified.

“Cruelty is an act that harms physically, psychologically, and socially. When applied to violence, it violates a person's integrity at the corporeal and ontological levels,” writes Ritholtz.

All armed conflict is violence, but understanding the role of cruelty in shaping, escalating, and warping specific kinds of violence makes it a useful framework, especially for civil wars. In other words, in establishing a new political order, cruelty constrains the possibility of politics through violence means.

Anmol Irfan examined the challenge climate change presents to fast fashion in Southeast Asia. Making, sustaining, and preserving durable clothing, especially with traditional designs and practices, is a way to conserve resources for the future and reduce the climate impact of cloth manufacture are monumental tasks. Unfortunately, much of the existing messaging on hand is written about western clothes and sensibilities. Irfan notes that existing messaging aimed at creating a “sustainable society faces multiple barriers because of the way climate discourse often comes to South Asian countries from the Global North.” But new messaging in the language and values of people where they live could help.

Rebecca Kanthor reported on the lives of the elderly in lockdown in Shanghai. As the country strains to manage its zero-COVID-19 strategy, a decision to prioritize vaccination of younger people has left seniors, already skeptical of vaccination, disproportionately vulnerable. “I’m listening to government directives, staying home, and testing regularly," Wang Yili, 84, told Kanthor. "I thoroughly disinfect all the packages that come into our home. After the lockdown is over, we will just have to be extra careful.” It’s advice that feels right out of March 2020, and whatever risk it mitigates, it would be much more effective if Wang and her husband, along with millions of others, got vaccinated.

Halima Gikandi revisited the return of US troops to Somalia. The announcement, which came the day after Somalia’s election of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to be president, allows the US to base troops in the country under the Biden administration. Under Trump, the forces had been withdrawn but would travel in from nearby bases outside Somalia to support training. It’s part of a long-running program of security assistance, though one that seems unlikely to resolve the political challenges creating space for insurgent forces. “Maybe you can kind of put a little bit of pressure and have some tactical success against the group. But where is the strategic endgame there?” Omar Mahmood, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, told Gikandi.

When you stare into the void floof, the void floof stares back.

To keep the pilsners down, the dark lagers out, and the Hazy IPAs in.

No matter how much Nada Websurfing he does, he’ll still never be truly popular.

Everything is novel and good until you remember history is full of examples of how and why it is bad.

When basing strategy on wargames, pick ones that account for thermonuclear warheads, not dice rolls.

If there’s anyone whose strategic calculus never failed, it’s McNamara.

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