Battle Of Algiers Analysis

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The French Battle of Algiers occurred over sixty years ago between France and the National Liberation Front (FNL) involving the independence of Algiers. The French tactics of torture, terrorism, shady moral decisions, and using power to exert influence are tragically still common tactics on the world stage between states today. Over the past sixty years, the tactics in the fight for power have not changed, nor has a solution for this fight been found. What about power makes man resort to terror attacks and violating human rights? The classic definition of power is the sum total of one capabilities (Pevehouse and Goldstein, 2016, 2.2), but what influence does that “one” legitimately hold over any other “one” and/or groups of other “ones”. …show more content…

The man does so while shedding a tear and half-heartedly trying to escape; clearly being forced to do something against his will. Within the first seconds of the movie depicts a subtle, yet powerful, connection between violence and power. Col. Mathieu is using his perceived power, through punishment, over the Arabic man to find out where rebel Ali La Pointe and others are hiding- and has the viewers see, it works. Throughout the movie only one dimension of power is exerted- dominance, and while the Battle of Algiers was won by the National Liberation Front, the overall war was lost, giving Algiers independence. I would argue this is because while violence can create immediate power, it will never maintain power over a group of …show more content…

This act of terrorism often violates human rights and is thought to increase power within the state, though again, violence. Human rights are the rights of all people to be free from abuses such as torture/imprisonment for their political beliefs and to enjoy certain minimum economic and social protections (Pevehouse and Goldstein, 2016, 7.5). Every semi-decent human being should be concerned, or at least interested in preserving human rights within their own nation, but sadly no state has a perfect human rights record. Even today in the United States many of our own people face racism, ethnic diversity, and extreme poverty. One might argue that violating human rights in the form of torture to extract information is worse than feeling discriminated against. But we have to think of the root of the issue for needing to torture individual- discrimination. Col. Mathieu’s main goal was to dismantle the National Liberation Front by “cutting off the head of the

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