Lobzhanidze Luka

1. In some cases, why do political actors engage in violence?

Generally speaking, according to Boix, political actors choose violence when they determine
that there is more to gain from trying to overthrow the existing order than from accepting it.
Boix also mentions that there must be specific “material and organizational” conditions in
order for political actors to engage in violence. Above mentioned calculation involves two
main variables: cost of violence and gains from changing political order.

Violence happens more often if assets are distributed unequally, so that potential insurgents
have more to gain from violence. Especially if above mentioned assets are immobile, violence
become more attractive, because if assets are mobile, rich can easily move them out of danger
zone.

2. What kind of legislative document was created by the Parliament of Georgia in 2006?
A number of gender equality policies have been set up since 1995, Has gender
inequality been eliminated after this?

There were several important laws that were created in 2006, however The Law of Georgia
on Elimination of Domestic Violence, Protection and Support of Victims of

Domestic Violence was crucial in regard to gender inequality. This law has had several
improvements over the years, most recent one being in 2017. For example, above mentioned
law had really narrow scope of protection, as it pre-determined what family members can be.
And to this day law does not cover relationships involving non-cohabitating partners.

So, since 1995 gender inequality has been certainly reduced, however it is far from being
eliminated. For example, even in todays enlightened society there remains a stigma of being
a female in male dominated area, or vice versa. Even females look down upon fellow females
if they do anything slightly different than what “real” female should be doing, and this
becomes more of a problem, farther you move from capital.

3. What was meant in ‘backwardness’, ‘darkness’ - who were characterized by/under

these words?

There was 2 kind of implication that calling someone backward and uncivilized entailed.
First one was that you didn’t support or were reluctant to support woman emancipation, and
second one was more aimed toward religious people, so those who believed in god and
trusted priests. This was more aimed towards Muslim woman and there was even a saying
“backward child of the East”.

Also all of the customs especially ones regarding marriage where considered backwards and
automatically had Asiatic name assigned to it. What is also interesting is that, for example,
someone leaving in Moscow would consider Georgia eastern, while people in Georgia
thought that people leaving in Adjara were eastern.

4. What are 3 main biases that research on war and military must move beyond, and on
whose ideas are these biases based on?

Three main biases as Kestenbaum calls them are coercive monopoly, monofocal vision and
materialist preoccupation. First one means that states necessarily possess monopoly over
coercion, second one is that interstate and civil war can be fully understood in isolation of
each other, and last one can be explained that social consequences of wars lie exclusively in
material realm.

These ideas are generally based on thoughts of weber, who famously stated that State
becomes truly a state when it gains full monopoly over the legitimate use of force. Other
biases are influenced by the ideas of von Clausewitz, who formulated war as a relationship
between state, armed forces and society. State being political influencer of forces, armed
forces being instrument of coercion, and lastly society being governed by those who decide
upon the usage of force.