Proof of life: Human remains and memory in the Philippine Drug War

This paper examines the aftermath of the Philippine government’s anti-drug campaign under President Rodrigo Duterte, focusing on the impact on families of victims of extrajudicial killings (EJKs). Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Manila, the research explores how these families navigate loss and attempt to reclaim dignity and humanity for their loved ones. The study reveals the formation of a community of "necro-activists" comprising journalists, religious figures, and medical professionals who support victims’ families in seeking justice and remembrance. Through interviews with photojournalists and victims’ families. This paper highlights the transformative role of human remains in asserting the victims’ agency beyond death. The research shows how forensic processes and religious rituals contribute to the reclamation of individual identities and challenge the state’s dehumanizing narratives. By examining the evolving meanings of EJK victims’ remains, this study sheds light on the broader socio-political implications of state violence and memory-making in the Philippines. The analysis situates this research within a global context of human rights and memory studies, drawing parallels with other regions affected by state-sponsored violence. Ultimately, this paper argues that the remains of EJK victims serve as powerful symbols that challenge state impunity and embody the resilience of communities seeking accountability and dignity amid pervasive violence.

“As long as they remember me, I am alive”: Commemoration and memory through stickers

This study explores the phenomenon of memorial stickers commemorating victims of the October 7, 2023, massacre and subsequent Israel-Hamas war. Analyzing 600 stickers collected across Israel, we examine how these artifacts shape personal and collective memory of these tragic events. Using content analysis, visual data analysis, and ethnography of texts, we investigate the stickers’ distribution, textual content, and visual elements. Three key findings emerged: (1) The widespread distribution of stickers expands commemoration beyond cemeteries, creating a larger community of remembrance; (2) Diverse textual content, from personal traits to universal messages, aims to keep the deceased’s values alive in social awareness; (3) Visual elements balance public recognition with private mourning through strategic use of photographs, colors, and barcodes. Drawing on theories of collective memory and continuing bonds, we argue that these stickers symbolically bring the deceased into daily life and public spaces, contributing to the processing of personal and national trauma.

From development aid to geopolitical leverage: the Aswan High Dam in global hydropolitics

The Aswan High Dam became a focal point where development, sovereignty and Cold War diplomacy converged. Drawing on US and British archival sources, this study reconstructs the negotiations over its financing and the withdrawal of Western support in 1956. It argues that Egypt’s pursuit of infrastructural sovereignty clashed with Western efforts to use aid as political leverage. Gamal Abdel Nasser’s management of the dam negotiations exemplified how post-colonial states could transform infrastructure into an instrument of autonomy, revealing the political dimensions of development and the limits of Western influence in the decolonizing world.

From the shadows to the light: elite commemorations and memory politics after the war of a Thousand Days in Colombia, 1904–1910

This article examines how Colombian elites reconstructed national identity after the War of a Thousand Days (1899–1902) by redirecting collective memory from recent conflicts toward unifying foundational narratives. Focusing on Rafael Reyes’ presidency (1904–1909) and the 1910 centennial, it argues that post-conflict memory making relied on “institutional mediation”: organizational frameworks that balanced competing memory claims while channeling diverse energies into shared commemorative goals. Institutions such as the Academia Colombiana de Historia, the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul and urban improvement societies negotiated between national reconciliation, regional autonomy and popular inclusion through industrial exhibitions, monument dedications and charitable activities. These efforts managed divisions not by erasing alternative narratives but by creating flexible mechanisms for coexistence. Yet regional resistance seen in Cartagena’s 1910 boycott and Antioquia’s Catholic modernity model revealed the limits of centralized projects, underscoring that forging a cohesive national identity remained an ongoing negotiation rather than a settled elite achievement.

Coups d’état in Cold War Latin America, 1964–1982 edited by Sebastián Carassai and Kevin Coleman, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2025, 296 pp., US $13795 (hardback), ISBN 9781009344838

Playing at War: Identity and Memory in Civil War Video Games edited by Patrick A. Lewis and James Hill Welborn III, Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 2024, 356 pp.

Intelligence, Insurgency, and Counterinsurgency: Slovenian Partisans Versus German Occupiers in World War II

In 1941, current-day Slovenian territory was occupied by the Axis countries; from 1943, a majority of the territory was occupied by the Third Reich. Subsequently, the Slovenian national liberation movement (e.g., partisans) was formed, which also created its own intelligence and counterintelligence apparatus. This article focuses on the abilities and activities of the Slovenian Security-Intelligence Service (1941–1944) and the Department for People’s Protection (1944–1946) to gather intelligence and counter the intelligence efforts of the German Abwehr , Sicherheitsdienst , and Gestapo . Using wartime and postwar archival material, supplemented by contemporary literature, the author provides an organizational overview of combating services based on selected wartime operations and activities to analyze the capabilities and shortfalls of the Slovenian guerrilla espionage system. These include examples of how Slovenian partisans gathered intelligence on German units (from passively observing enemies to interrogating captured or defected enemies) and direct-action activities against the occupiers. At the same time, German intelligence efforts in combating the insurgency movement are also examined, from establishing intelligence networks, to using (captured) activists and partisans to try and penetrate and destroy the partisan movement.

Strategic Warning in the Gray Zone: The Detect and Understand Framework

Efforts to conduct warning analysis of behavior below the threshold of conventional war—an area referred to as the “gray zone”—can be divided into two inextricably connected functions: identifying ongoing and emergent threats (“detect”) and contextualizing them within a broader understanding of an actor’s strategy, capabilities, and intentions (“understand”). Efforts to detect and understand are complicated by four fundamental challenges: weak signals, unfamiliar signals, attribution, and aggregation. Applying the “detect and understand” framework and its associated challenges to a dataset of 77 specific Chinese gray zone tactics illuminates how different activities challenge intelligence officers. The outcomes of this empirical analysis contribute to a series of recommendations for modernizing the capabilities of governments, particularly the United States and its allies and partners, to conduct intelligence analysis and deliver timely and accurate warning of modern gray zone threats.

British Commanders’-in-Chief Mission Andrew Long: BRIXMIS and the Secret Cold War: Intelligence Collection Operations Behind Enemy Lines in East Germany , Pen and Sword Books, Havertown, PA, 2024, 216 p., $49.95 (hardcover)

Terrorist Intelligence Netanel Flamer: The Hamas Intelligence War Against Israel , New York: Cambridge University Press, 2025. 207 pp. $39 (paperback)