Desertion

« Insoumis et déserteurs italiens en France pendant la Première Guerre mondiale », », EL-GAMMAL (Jean), JALABERT (Laurent) sous la direction de, Autorités, pouvoirs et conflits du Moyen Âge à nos jours. 10e Université d’Hiver 2017 de Saint-Mihiel, Nancy, Annales de l’Est, 2018, pp. 273-293.

Wise men have said 'Physical injury is finite, emotional is infinite'. Their acumen was never challenged and perhaps will be noted in high perspicacity for times ahead. The relevance of this adage is seen in context when we bring into the fore the malady, highly social in nature, forming the core of this research, in the form of NRI Marriages or Non-Resident Indian Marriages. The predicament is not endemic to just the Indian shores, but more prevalent perhaps. Through this doctrinal research study, we endeavor to diagnose the problem and make an inquest into the root causes of this rancid 'social malaise'. Identifying the flawed, biased societal mind-sets to the lack of a policy framework on the part of the law makers, the paper sets out remedial as well as palliative measures to check and thwart this social plague. Trending in most states of India, this lamentable practice of deserting the wife has been seen to be on the upsurge. The safeguards listed out in this paper have been so devised as to not digress from the international and national legal conformities. The initiatives, if implemented will do well to withhold if not eradicate the problem.

Until the 1980s the academic world agreed that in Athenian sources a crime called moicheia referred to sexual relations of a male Athenian with a female Athenian who was from a citizen family and neither his wife nor concubine. Moicheia seems, therefore, to have been a broader term than the modern word 'adultery', which only applies to intercourse with someone else's partner, and to have also denoted sexual relations with someone else's mother, sister, or daughter. 1 Thus, laws against moicheia would have been established to protect not (only) the institution of marriage, but the authority (kyrieia) of a citizen over female members of his family (oikos). 2 The broad understanding of this term is founded on a law called Ehebruchsgesetz by Hans Julius Wolff, 3 which is attested in three fourth-century texts, and a description of events in speech 59 of Corpus Demosthenicum that was to illustrate this law in practice.

This book offers valuable perspectives on the evolution of Colombia’s armed conflict, the war’s changing territoriality, the logic of violence against the civilian population, and the consequences of war and violence for society on a variety of levels. The authors utilize primarily qualitative approaches and conduct their analysis at both the national and sub-national level as well as comparatively with other intra-state wars. Bringing together social scientists from the fields of political science and government, international relations, economics, geography, and criminology, among others, the book accounts for the recent changes of Colombia’s armed conflict.  It is a relevant contribution for scholars and policymakers with an interest in Colombia’s intra-state war, in particular, and, more broadly, in internal conflicts, warfare and violence. Its findings are especially relevant given the ongoing peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the nation’s largest and oldest guerrilla group/Este libro ofrece una valiosa perspectiva sobre la evolución del conflicto armado en Colombia, la territorialidad cambiante de la guerra, la lógica de la violencia contra la población civil, y las consecuencias de la guerra y la paz para diferentes sectores de la sociedad en distintos niveles. Los autores utilizan aproximaciones cualitativas y conducen sus investigaciones al nivel nacional y sub-nacional así como de manera comparada con otras guerras intra-estatales.  Los autores pertenecen a diversas disciplinas de las ciencias sociales como ciencia política, relaciones internacionales, economía, geografía y criminología. El libro en su conjunto da cuenta de los cambios en el conflicto armado en Colombia. Es una contribución relevante para académicos y tomadores de decisiones interesados, en particular, en el conflicto armado colombiano y, en general, en la temática de las guerras intraestatales, la conducción de las mismas y la violencia. Las conclusiones son particularmente relevantes dado el actual proceso de paz entre el gobierno y las FARC.

Soldiers were instrumental in the French colonization of Louisiana as warriors, settlers and laborers, but many refused to serve imperial ambitions: ten percent of all recruits absconded while serving in the Mississippi Valley and the Gulf Coast. A labor problem as much as a military one, desertion had a profound impact on French colonial rule in the region. Despite their formal status as free workers who enlisted voluntarily, the soldiers’ experiences were that of coerced labor, and their defections a means of collective protest and resistance against their exploitation. While local authorities sought to stop and punish deserters, such assertions of French sovereignty paradoxically depended on the cooperation of European and Indigenous neighbors. The impact of military desertion therefore highlights how power was negotiated on the ground when soldiers—designated agents of imperialism—frustrated imperial designs by reclaiming their mobility.

"The quite increasing number of marital separation and the issue of poor well-being of individuals involved was the main reason of doing this paper. The focus is to know the relation between marital commitment (MC) and subjective well-being (SWB) of husbands and wives in Gapan City, Nueva Ecija. It will investigate the relationship of the husbands and wives’ socio-demographic characteristics and their SWB, MC and perceived marital commitment (PMC).  It was also intended to know  the differences of husbands and wives in terms of MC, PMC and four components of SWB.
By means of quantitative method of research, the study found that husbands and wives have high level of SWB (which is exemplified by high levels of positive affect, marital satisfaction, family satisfaction and life satisfaction and low level of negative affect), high level of MC as well as PMC. Marital commitment, perceived marital commitment and some components of SWB were also found to be significant correlates of the respondents' age, monthly income, length of marriage and highest educational attainment. Also, MC and PMC were also found to have a significant relationship with all components of SWB. Moreover, gender differences on the level of SWB, MC and PMC were not found significant.
Overall, the study suggests that to be able to have a satisfying relationship, couples should exert effort on their relationship and preserve the bond between them that will lead to good well-being.
"

Using a unique data set compiled from the Service and Pension Records of nearly 800 men who volunteered for the 11th (Lewisham) Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment in 1915, this article examines the effectiveness of military discipline as it was applied to a citizen army in the Great War. Although the great majority of the 'Originals' in the unit had clean conduct sheets and did their duty, there was a small group who were more recalcitrant, many of whom were transferred to reserve units before the battalion went overseas. Offences both at home and on active service abroad are examined and statistical comparisons of Field General Courts-Martial are made with the other Royal West Kent battalions during the period that the 11th Battalion was active overseas. The evidence suggests that the later a volunteer enlisted the more likely he was to commit a serious offence. Various forms of absence were the greatest disciplinary issue for the authorities during home service but were of minor importance overseas. Styles of battalion command are significant, both for understanding the range and number of courts-martial and for supporting the view that each battalion in the British Army had a unique disciplinary record. An efficient and effective army depends on first-rate discipline and high morale, which are created and sustained by a range of factors that include competent leadership, functional training, strong motivation and a military code of law that acts firmly as the final arbiter on disciplinary issues. The pre-1914 British army was paternalist in ethos with a harsh training regime and an even harsher disciplinary code that was laid down in punctilious detail in King's Regulations, the Manual of Military Law and Field Service Regulations. Assessing the impact of military law on discipline and morale during the war can be difficult.1 Not least is the problem of the survival of official records of the disciplinary process. Most military offences were tried at different levels within a battalion, yet almost no records remain beyond brief notations to be found in soldiers' service records, if they have survived. The most trivial offences were dealt with summarily by NCOs, the slightly more serious by the company commander. More significant cases of indiscipline, ones which could be tried by court-martial, were heard in the orderly room of the battalion CO, usually a Lieutenant-Colonel. He had considerable powers to punish, and an offender had the option either of accepting the CO's award or of being tried by court-martial. Given that the authorities at brigade and divisional levels tended to determine the morale of a unit (and the quality of its CO) by the number of its men tried by courts-martial, it was in the interests of the regiment to deal with misdemeanours in-house.2 Despite military law's draconian nature, therefore, there was some flexibility in its processes, both in terms of which charge or charges would be brought and at which level of command an offender was tried. Nevertheless, over the course of the war tens of thousands of soldiers were tried by court-martial for very serious offences such as desertion, cowardice and insubordination. These would be tried by a

portuguesO presente artigo toma como objeto de analise o lugar dos desertores e refratarios da tropa portuguesa durante a guerra colonial. Partindo da forma como o tema tem vindo a ser debatido recentemente na sociedade portuguesa, procura-se avancar no conhecimento historiografico sobre o tema, trazendo novas informacoes e interpretacoes sobre a desobediencia a incorporacao militar. Nesta medida, revisita-se a posicao dos diversos sectores oposicionistas portugueses perante a desercao, no interior e no exilio, examinam-se as diferentes tipologias associadas a recusa da guerra e compilam-se dados novos sobre o tema, nomeadamente para a quantificacao do fenomeno, complementados com notas analiticas que contribuem para a sua contextualizacao. EnglishThis article analyzes the question of deserters and draft evaders from the Portuguese army during the colonial war. Utilizing as its starting point the recent discussions taking place about this issue in Portuguese society, the analysis se...

La storia di Franz Mesow  , caporale appartenente alla 9ª compagnia del 7° reggimento dell'NSKK-Transportbrigade Speer  , che venne arrestato nell´ottobre del 1944 con l´accusa di essersi allontanato dal suo reparto e di essersi unito ai partigiani della 55ª brigata garibaldina d'assalto "Fratelli Rosselli".

Objetivo/contexto: la deserción, o salida no autorizada de un grupo armado, tiene importantes implicaciones para la contrainsurgencia, la terminación de una guerra y la dinámica de reclutamiento. Si bien la investigación existente enfatiza la importancia de motivaciones individuales para la deserción, el declive organizacional, en forma de adversidad militar y financiera, también puede condicionar la deserción. El declive organizacional socava los instrumentos de un grupo para canalizar las preferencias individuales hacia la acción colectiva. Estos instrumentos incluyen los incentivos selectivos, el atractivo ideológico y la coerción. Cuando el poder vinculante de estos instrumentos disminuye, los deseos individuales comienzan a dominar el comportamiento, lo que aumenta la probabilidad de deserción. Metodología: se utiliza la insurgencia de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) para examinar este argumento con un enfoque multimétodo. Primero, se realiza un análisis cuantitativo para explorar datos únicos sobre más de 19.000 desertores de las FARC reportados entre 2002 y 2017, proporcionados por el Ministerio de Defensa de Colombia. Al protegerse contra amenazas a la inferencia causal, el análisis estadístico indica que el declive organizacional impulsa la deserción. En segundo lugar, se lleva a cabo un análisis cualitativo utilizando una gran cantidad de informes detallados sobre entrevistas con desertores realizadas por personal militar colombiano. Conclusiones: los informes demuestran que el declive organizacional debilita los incentivos selectivos, la ideología del grupo y un régimen coercitivo creíble, y fomenta la deserción mediante estos mecanismos. Originalidad: estos hallazgos brindan información clave para los formuladores de políticas, dado que la deserción puede contribuir tanto a poner fin a un conflicto como a acelerar el reclutamiento de nuevos combatientes.

This paper studies the impact of the old brain drain phenomenon in Africa and particularly in Cameroonian Universities. Through documentary researches, primary data are collected from the Department of Academic Affairs in all Cameroonian State Universities. The results obtained show for each University institution the number of deserted lecturers per faculty (and/or training schools) and per grade over the last ten years. Assistant lecturers, who are the most concerned, are followed by Senior lecturers. On the contrary, associate professors and professors are less concerned by brain drain in Cameroonian Universities. If there is hope that the departure of some University teachers can possibly be beneficial, the phenomenon of brain drain constitutes at the same time a source of anxiety for Cameroonian Universities. Given that human resources are a precious capital to preserve for all organization, solutions are outlined so as to attempt reducing or simply eradicating this scourge tha...

El  presente  documento  es  un  artículo  producto  del  Trabajo  Final  de  Graduación  para optar por el grado de Licenciatura en Orientación de la Universidad de Costa Rica, durante el periodo 2008-2009, que aborda el tema de la salida anticipada del Sistema Educativo Formal Costarricense, a partir del relato de dos jóvenes (un hombre y una mujer) quienes en su adolescencia no concluyeron
la Educación General Básica; ambos estudiantes viven en Río Frío, cantón de Sarapiquí, provincia de Heredia. Dichos casos fueron analizados por la autora y parten de la hipótesis de que en el fenómeno de  la  salida  anticipada  convergen  tanto  factores  externos  como  internos  al  individuo.  La  historia  de cada caso fue construida mediante un estudio de casos, que permitió concluir que factores externos, provenientes  del  contexto  familiar  y  educativo,  no  permiten  que  se  de  un  adecuado  desarrollo  de factores internos, como el interés y la motivación hacia el estudio, ocasionando a su vez un paulatino alejamiento del o la adolescente del centro educativo ya sea por exclusión, repulsión o expulsión.

"Abstract: To what extent did private landed property in Norway go to the Crown after the Black Death (1349–50) and the subsequent epidemics when no one any longer, due to the dramatic population falls, could or wanted to take over the ownership and fulfil the duties bound to it? This question, which has not been investigated in earlier research, is studied here, with Jämtland as a case. In Jämtland it was obviously quite common that farms not only were deserted, but also became ownerless after the Black Death and therefore came into the possession of the Crown. This especially applies to smaller, less attractive landed properties situated in marginal areas. The Jämtland case thus demonstrates, on one hand, what extreme consequences the depopulation after the Black Death could result in, and, on the other hand, what far-reaching regal rights that could be claimed in Norway in the 14th century. However, later – when the farmers of Jämtland again had become more interested in using the deserted farms – the representatives of the Crown returned the ownership to individuals, through a great number of gifts.

Key words: Black Death, desertion, ownership of land, regal rights"

Establecer los departamentos y el nivel educativo con las tasas maximas y minimas de deserción en Colombia, junto con las demás variables de interes, empleando visualizaciones para entendimiento. Estudiar la correlación de las variables en el nivel educativo con un mayor indice de deserción en Colombia emplenado estadistica inferencial para su validación. Obtener un modelo y su valor de presición para la variable deserción en el nivel educativo seleccionado empleando una función predictiva para el periodo comprendido entre 2018 y 2020.

Our paper is based on results from the FWF project “Byzantino-Serbian Border Zones in Transition: Migration and Elite Change in pre-Ottoman Macedonia (1282-1355)” (P 30384-G28). The Balkans witnessed a time of war and change of power between the Byzantine Empire and the Serbian Kingdom in the 13th and 14th centuries. The Serbian expansion took place from the important city of Skopje in the North in the direction of the town of Prilep in the South in various stages from 1282 until 1334.
For our paper, two source-based terms in medieval Serbian charters are essential. Firstly, these charters attest to so-called exaleimmata (abandoned landed property). Secondly, we come across the term selište. It indicates either a settlement site, which was foreseen to be resettled, or a destroyed village. We can tell the difference in many cases, because the sources highlight very often explicitly that a settlement site was deserted (in Serbian pusto). Our hypothesis is that these deserted villages could mark a path of destruction, on which King Stefan Dušan marched to the South against the Byzantine Empire.

XIII Seminario del Desierto -- Desierto de Las Palmas (Benicàssim, Castellón, España/Spain) - 31 march to 2 april 2017 (weekend)
Centro de Espiritualidad "Santa Teresa" del Desierto de Las Palmas
Tel. 964300786 -- e-mail: [email protected]

This paper examines desertion in civil wars, focusing on the role of combatants’ hometowns in facilitating desertion. Analyzing data from the Spanish Civil War, the paper demonstrates that combatants who come from hill country are considerably more likely to desert than combatants whose hometowns are on flat ground. This is because evasion is easier in rough terrain. The finding implies that the cohesion of armed groups depends on control, not just positive incentives, and that control of territory in civil wars goes beyond rebel-government contestation, and consists also of control behind the lines. The paper bridges micro and macro approaches to civil wars by indicating the multiple uses to which individuals can put structural conditions like rough terrain. This helps to clarify the macro-level link between rough terrain and civil war. It also shows that micro-level research can profitably examine structural variables alongside individual characteristics and endogenous conflict dynamics.

This article focuses on the transgressive figure of the deserting (or AWOL) soldier in American culture. The figure of the deserting soldier runs like a controversial leitmotif through American literature as well as several important Hollywood films. Given the central role of the military hero in the cultural imaginary, I am interested in exploring how the deserting soldier is depicted, especially in relation to the transgression of essential norms of masculinity and nationality. Within the larger context of the deserter in American culture , I will examine the deserter trope as it is represented in Kimberly Peirce's Iraq War film Stop-Loss (2008).
The deserting soldier transgresses several distinct boundaries. As an institution, the military is defined by disciplinary control , by a long list of rules and regulations, including how to be (and not to be) a man. Part of the struggle for hegemony in the gender order is the use of culture for such disciplinary purposes: setting standards, claiming popular assent and discrediting those who fall short.

During the Great War, the Ottoman state mobilized its citizens under two war policies, soldiering and provisioning, which led to a disastrous outcome. A "tacit" contract was developed between soldiers and the state, which legitimized, for the former, the continuation of their mobilization or their demobilization through desertion.

This paper studies the impact of the old brain drain phenomenon in Africa and particularly in Cameroonian Universities. Through documentary researches, primary data are collected from the Department of Academic Affairs in all Cameroonian State Universities. The results obtained show for each University institution the number of deserted lecturers per faculty (and/or training schools) and per grade over the last ten years. Assistant lecturers, who are the most concerned, are followed by Senior lecturers. On the contrary, associate professors and professors are less concerned by brain drain in Cameroonian Universities. If there is hope that the departure of some University teachers can possibly be beneficial, the phenomenon of brain drain constitutes at the same time a source of anxiety for Cameroonian Universities. Given that human resources are a precious capital to preserve for all organization, solutions are outlined so as to attempt reducing or simply eradicating this scourge tha...

This paper studies the impact of  the old brain drain
phenomenon in Africa and particularly in Cameroonian
Universities. Through documentary researches, primary data are
collected from the Department of Academic Affairs in all
Cameroonian State Universities.

This paper studies the impact of the old brain drain phenomenon in Africa and particularly in Cameroonian Universities. Through documentary researches, primary data are collected from the Department of Academic Affairs in all Cameroonian State Universities. The results obtained show for each University institution the number of deserted lecturers per faculty (and/or training schools) and per grade over the last ten years. Assistant lecturers, who are the most concerned, are followed by Senior lecturers. On the contrary, associate professors and professors are less concerned by brain drain in Cameroonian Universities. If there is hope that the departure of some University teachers can possibly be beneficial, the phenomenon of brain drain constitutes at the same time a source of anxiety for Cameroonian Universities. Given that human resources are a precious capital to preserve for all organization, solutions are outlined so as to attempt reducing or simply eradicating this scourge tha...

... 4 Miriam Dixson, The Real Matilda: Woman and Identity in Australia, 1788 to 1975, Penguin, Melbourne, 1976, p. 105 ... For an extended study, see Christina Twomey, 'Without Natural Protectors': Histories of Deserted and Destitute Colonial Women in Victoria, 1850-65, PhD thesis ...

This article is devoted to an investigation of the military desertion
phenomenon during the Late Modern period; in particular, it is described as
counter-modernization response of European peripheries to state-led violence and
modernization. The European Modernization of the 18th and 19th centuries was
the process that changed practically all spheres of life, including the transition
from agrarian to industrial societies. This modernization had different actors,
with the state as the most significant pertinacious factor of change. During the
last third of the 19th century, most European regimes began to implement
conscription as the most modern military technology in order to protect against
possible enemies. The idea of citizen-soldiers was also used for the shaping of
nation-building, and the educating of citizens and the propaganda of the
achievements of Modernity like literacy, education, hygiene, etc. Military service
became an important period of life for most European men, a transition from
teenage to maturity in all meanings of this word.
Modernization also had its losers. In contrast to metropolitan areas, in European
peripheries modernization often was perceived in the form of additional
obligations, not benefits. The process was sometimes complicated by the
existence of patriarchal reservations in closed locations that in general were
hostile towards changing their centuries-old lifestyle. The examples of military
desertion from the Habsburg empire’s Northeast (Bukovina, Galicia, Eastern
Hungary) to Russia demonstrate the scale of counter-modernization reactions of
this peripheral region to imposed modernization and change. Those young men
267
who could not accept the changes often had to avoid the military by leaving their
own country. These people became perpetual deserters, i.e. persons, who were
trying to stay in the traditional society at any price. Several times they migrated
from Austria-Hungary to Russia and vice versa. The case studies of such people
demonstrate the military necessities as related to modern armies, the same as the
irreversibility of modernization and unenviable fate for those who could not
adapt to the changing world.

En étudiant l'histoire médiévale du terroir rural compris entre Verberie et Pontpoint (Oise), on est frappé par la fréquente occurrence d'allusions à un village disparu dénommé Tilio. Cette implantation humaine, mal localisée, a toujours été confondue par les historiens avec les villages voisins de Noël-Saint-Martin 1 , de Villeneuve-sur-Verberie, de Roberval 2 , de Noël-Saint-Remy 3 , du Tilleul, commune de Béthisy-Saint-Martin 4 ou même de Tillet, commune de Gondreville 5 ! Les mentions en ce lieu d'une ecclesia, d'un mansio, d'une terra arabilis (citée en 1152), d'une aula (1265), d'une domus, d'une justicia (1295), d'un hôtel et d'une chapelle (1444), semblent indiquer que nous sommes en fait en présence d'un chef lieu de paroisse et de seigneurie, et qu'une activité agricole s'y est développée. De même, l'existence d'une " Croix-des-Trois-Evêques " en un point où ne se rencontrent à l'époque moderne que deux diocèses nous amènent à nous interroger sur l'existence, à proximité, d'une paroisse disparue appartenant à un troisième diocèse. Les mentions de Tilio se multiplient aux XII e et XIII e siècles, jusqu'en 1444, date à laquelle on apprend " qu'il n'y habite personne

This article analyzes the question of deserters and draft evaders from the Portuguese army during the colonial war. Utilizing as its starting point the recent discussions taking place about this issue in Portuguese society, the analysis seeks to expand the historiographical knowledge that has been built up about this theme, contributing fresh information and new interpretations relating to the matter of disobedience to military conscription. With this aim in mind, we set out to reevaluate the stance that Portugal's opposition groups adopted in relation to the question of desertion, both at the domestic level and in exile, examining the various typologies relating to the "refusal" of the war and collecting new data on the topic. Important steps will thus be taken towards a quantification of this phenomenon, including the provision of analytical observations that help to put it into perspective. Keywords Colonial war; desertion; Estado Novo; anticolonialism Resumo O presente artigo toma como objeto de análise o lugar dos desertores e refratários da tropa portuguesa durante a guerra colonial. Partindo da forma como o tema tem vindo a ser debatido recentemente na sociedade portuguesa, procura-se avançar no conhecimento historiográfico sobre o tema, trazendo novas informações e interpretações sobre a desobediência à incorporação militar. Nesta medida, revisita-se a posição dos diversos sectores oposicionistas portugueses perante a deserção, no interior e no exílio, examinam-se as diferentes tipologias associadas à recusa da guerra e compilam-se dados novos sobre o tema, nomeadamente para a quantificação do fenómeno, complementados com notas analíticas que contribuem para a sua contextualização. Palavras-chave Guerra colonial; deserção; Estado Novo; anticolonialismo

http://www.ifea-istanbul.net/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=3151:m%C3%A9lisande-genat-doctorante-ehess-r%C3%A9fugi%C3%A9s-syriens-dirak-et-de-turquie-jeudi-19-septembre-2013-%C3%A0-18h-%C3%A0-lifea&Itemid=288

"From Conscription to Desertion, the Experience of Syrian Kurds in Assad’s Wartime Army

“I swear to God that if another country had invaded Syria it would have been much better. We all would have fought to the death for our country. But this…”

While young Kurdish conscripts of Syria have had a different experience during the Civil War than most other Kurds – as those living in the Kurdish part of Syria have been relatively spared from the worst fighting – they share the general sentiment that the ongoing war is not theirs. For those unfortunate enough to have their scheduled conscription period fall at the advent of the civil war, those between the ages of 20 and 23 depending upon deferments, the last two years have been an unforeseen nightmare.
After being impressed into service they were trained and deployed to the battlefields of western Syria, pursuant to the standard Army procedure of deploying soldiers away from their homes. Fear and information control inside the army, sustained through intense isolation of enlisted men, have been essential tools in maintaining a minimum of discipline and compliance in soldiers lacking any true loyalties to the regime.
At the start of the uprising in 2011, the regime offered full citizenships to tens of thousands of Kurds whose families had lacked full citizenship rights for generations, in a desperate attempt at winning an internal ally. That policy change merely revealed to most Kurds the cynical nature of the regime and gave them no guaranties of any peacetime favor from Assad. Yet the other belligerent factions presently on the battlefield offer nothing of interest to young Kurdish deserters, to include the PYD, which most see as a self-serving reincarnation of the PKK unacceptably linked to the regime.  This has produced a generation of young Syrian Kurdish men waiting on the sidelines for something worth fighting for.

Initially, in the first months of the war, the main factor that kept young Kurdish soldiers from deserting was to preserve their personal future in Assad’s Syria. As a cohesive future in Syria began to appear less likely with the uprising turning to civil war, their prime motivation became self-preservation and the fear of retaliation against their families even if it meant complicity in war crimes. Delegation of authority to junior officers above them in the Syrian Army at war has allowed rampant petty brutality. Murder, torture, rape, and theft became endemic to small unit operations. Eventually, for those lucky enough to survive, an imminent sense of their certain death often coincided with a fortuitous opportunity to allow them to successfully desert. Most of them chose to seek asylum in Northern Iraq, knowing that it means they will never be able to return to a Syria still ruled by Assad.
This research is based on a series of interviews conducted in the northern part of Iraq, where the Syrian refugee community currently makes up about 3% of the population. This conference will develop upon the following themes:
The status of Kurds in the Syrian military during the Civil War
Their perspective through the development of the conflict – from the initial training, to their operational deployment: suppressing protests, searching houses, conducting arrests, running check points, and direct combat
The complex psychology and circumstances of desertion
Integration into refugee life – particularly at Camp Domiz 
How their perspective differs from other Syrian Kurds refugees on the situation in Syria


This conference is complemented by rich personal narratives from the deserters themselves."