Research From SOS4 Democracy Project

Department of International Relations Seminar Series

As part of the Department of International Relations Seminar Series, we invite you to two seminars addressing urgent issues in global politics and society. Join us on April 25 at 14:30 for the following talks:

Genocidal Human-Machine Assemblage: Artificial Intelligence and the Mass Extermination of Civilians in Gaza - Vasja Badalič

Abstract

This research examines how the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the target selection process exacerbated genocidal violence in Gaza. The first objective is to examine how various AI-enabled systems, together with judgments made by Israeli soldiers, erased civilians from the battlefield by redefining them as military targets. The article examines the shortcomings of AI technology (e.g., uncertainty in proxy-based target determinations, faulty training dataset, incorporated error rate) and human decisions (e.g., using “dumb” bombs, relying on too wide pinpointing of targets) that contributed to the erasure of civilians. The second objective is to show how the human-machine assemblage created the conditions for indiscriminate and disproportionate armed attacks that ignored the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.

Biography

Vasja Badalič is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, Slovenia. His primary fields of research are contemporary imperialism and migration. He has published many peer-reviewed articles in academic journals and monographs, including in Drones & Unmanned Aerial Systems (Springer, 2016) and Automating Crime Prevention, Surveillance, and Military Operations (Springer, 2021). He is the author of five books, including The War Against Civilians: Victims of the ‘War on Terror’ in Afghanistan and Pakistan (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) and Preventive Warfare: Hegemony, Power, and the Reconceptualization of War (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).

The Role of Illiberal Cultural Policy in Slovenia’s Democratic Backsliding - Kristina Čufar

Abstract

The weaponization of cultural policy is one of the crucial, yet underexplored strategies of illiberal political actors. This paper investigates the multifaceted illiberal cultural policy measures employed to polarize society, influence the interpretation of history, consolidate so-called traditional values and ethnonationalism, and normalize political corruption and increasingly authoritarian political practices. The analysis and typology of illiberal cultural policy measures are based on the case study of a period of extreme illiberalization in Slovenia between 2020 and 2022, which was characterized by overt and frequent political interventions in the artistic and cultural sphere. Rather than treating them as isolated incidents, the paper traces their cumulative desired and actual effects, as well as the resistance they provoked. Based on the analysis of the Slovenian case, we propose a typology of illiberal cultural policy measures that is applicable to other contexts experiencing democratic backsliding. Illiberal political actors recognize the significance of art and culture as either the means of reinforcing illiberal ideology and political aims or the site of democratic resistance. By targeting the cultural sphere, illiberal political actors pursue the double goal of amplifying expedient narratives and silencing dissent. Increasing political control over cultural production thus curtails the space for democratic deliberation and permanently reshapes the socio-political landscape. Considering illiberal cultural policy as a pivotal strategy for indelible transformation of political ideology and practice reveals an important dimension of democratic backsliding and the success of illiberal politics in Europe and beyond.

Biography

Kristina Čufar is a Research Associate at the Institute of Criminology and an Assistant Professor in the sociology of law at the Faculty of Law University of Ljubljana. She graduated from the Faculty of Law University of Ljubljana and earned LL.M. and Ph.D. degrees at the European University Institute and spent several years teaching and researching at the University of Ljubljana. Kristina’s research intertwines the philosophy of law, critical legal theory and socio-legal approaches to investigate law’s complicity in the perpetuation of social inequalities, as well as the potentialities of socio-legal transformations. (presenting author)

Hana Hawlina is a researcher at the Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law, Ljubljana. She is a social and cultural psychologist, currently finishing her PhD on political imagination at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. She taught MA courses on the psychology of social change, and her research interests also include social movement studies, the social and moral psychology of cancel culture, and studying conflicting imaginaries of collective futures.