A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via www.tandfebooks.com as well as the OAPEN Library platform, www.oapen.org. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license and is part of the OAPEN-UK research project. This book is an examination of the effect of contemporary wars (such as the 'War on Terror') on civil life at a global level. Contemporary literature on war is mainly devoted to recent changes in the theory and practice of warfare, particular those in which terrorists or insurgents are involved (for example, the 'revolution in military affairs', 'small wars', and so on). On the other hand, today's research on security is focused, among other themes, on the effects of the war on terrorism, and on civil liberties and social control. This volume connects these two fields of research, showing how 'war' and 'security' tend to exchange targets and forms of action as well as personnel (for instance, the spreading use of private contractors in wars and of military experts in the 'struggle for security') in modern society. This shows how, contrary to Clausewitz's belief war should be conceived of as a "continuation of politics by other means", the opposite statement is also true: that politics, insofar as it concerns security, can be defined as the 'continuation of war by other means'. This book will be of much interest to students of critical security studies, war and conflict studies, terrorism studies, sociology and IR in general. Salvatore Palidda is Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Education at the University of Genoa. Alessandro Dal Lago is Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the University of Genoa.

War, Conflict and Human Rights is an innovative inter-disciplinary textbook, combining aspects of law, politics and conflict analysis to examine the relationship between human rights and armed conflict. This third edition has been fully revised and updated, and contains a completely new chapter on business, conflict and human rights. Making use of both theoretical and practical approaches, the authors: examine the tensions and complementarities between protection of human rights and resolution of conflict - the competing political demands and the challenges posed by internal armed conflict and the increasing role of nonstate actors, including corporations, in armed conflicts; explore the scope and effects of human rights violations in contemporary armed conflicts, such as in Sierra Leone, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the former Yugoslavia; assess the legal and institutional accountability mechanisms developed in the wake of armed conflict to punish violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law such as the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, hybrid or internationalized tribunals and the International Criminal Court; discuss continuing and emergent global trends and challenges in the fields of human rights and conflict analysis. This volume will be essential reading for students of war and conflict studies, human rights and international humanitarian law, and highly recommended for students of conflict resolution, peacebuilding, international security, transitional justice and international relations generally.

The application and interpretation of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977 have developed significantly in the seventy years since the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) first published its Commentaries on these important humanitarian treaties. To promote a better understanding of, and respect for, this body of law, the ICRC commissioned a comprehensive update of its original Commentaries, of which this is the third volume. The Third Convention, relative to the treatment of prisoners of war and their protections, takes into account developments in the law and practice in the past seven decades to provide up-to-date interpretations of the Convention. The new Commentary has been reviewed by humanitarian law practitioners and academics from around the world. This new Commentary will be an essential tool for anyone involved with international humanitarian law.

The law of armed conflict is a key element of the global legal order yet it finds itself in a state of flux created by the changing nature of warfare and the influences of other branches of international law. The Routledge Handbook of the Law of Armed Conflict provides a unique perspective on the field covering all the key aspects of the law as well as identifying developing and often contentious areas of interest. The handbook will feature original pieces by international experts in the field, including academics, staff of relevant NGOs and (former) members of the armed forces. Made up of six parts in order to offer a comprehensive overview of the field, the structure of the handbook is as follows: Part I: Fundamentals Part II: Principle of distinction Part III: Means and methods of warfare Part IV: Special protection regimes Part V: Compliance and enforcement Part VI: Some contemporary issues Throughout the book, attention is paid to non-international conflicts as well as international conflicts with acknowledgement of the differences. The contributors also consider the relationship between the law of armed conflict and human rights law, looking at how the various rules and principles of human rights law interact with specific rules and principles of international humanitarian law in particular circumstances. The Routledge Handbook of the Law of Armed Conflict provides a fresh take on the contemporary laws of war and is written for advanced level students, academics, researchers, NGOs and policy-makers with an interest in the field.

This book sets out the major social scientific approaches to the study of Special Operations Forces. Despite consistent downsizing, over the past two decades the armed forces of the industrial democracies have seen a huge growth in Special Operations Forces (SOF). Through increasing numbers of personnel and more frequent deployments, SOF units have wielded considerable influence in conflicts around the world, with senior SOF officers having led major strategic operations. This increased presence and unprecedented expansion for SOF is largely a result of the 'new' kinds of conflicts that have emerged in the 21st century. At the same time, even with this high profile in the military, policy and media and popular cultural arenas, there is relatively little social scientific research on SOF. This volume aims to fill this gap by providing a series of studies and analyses of SOF across the globe, since the end of World War II. Analysing SOF at the micro, mezzo and macro levels provides broad and diverse insights. Moreover, the volume deals with new issues raised by the use of such forces that include emerging modes of civilian control, innovative organizational forms and the special psychological characteristics necessitated by SOF operatives. It concludes with a discussion of a question which continues to be debated in today's militaries: what makes SOF 'special'? Filling a clear gap in the literature, this book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, civil-military relations, irregular warfare, security studies, and international relations.

A profoundly different way of looking the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Reporting from Jerusalem for "The New York Times" and Fox News respectively, Greg Myre and Jennifer Griffin, witnessed a decades-old conflict transformed into a completely new war. The West has learned a lot about asymmetrical war in the past decade. At the same time, many strategists have missed that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become one of them. This book shows the importance of applying these hard-won lessons to the longest running, most closely watched occupation and uprising in the world.

The entire conflict can seem irrational -- and many commentators see it that way. While raising their own family in Jerusalem at the height of the violence, Myre and Griffin look at the lives of individuals caught up in the struggles to reveal how these actions make perfect sense to the participants. Extremism can become a virtue; moderation a vice. Factions develop within factions. Propaganda becomes an important weapon, and perseverance an essential defense. While the Israelis and the Palestinians have failed to achieve their goals after years of fighting, people on both sides are prepared to make continued sacrifices in the belief that they will eventually emerge triumphant.This book goes straight to the heart of the conflict: into the minds of suicide bombers and inside Israeli tanks. We hear from Palestinian informants who help the Israeli military track down and kill Palestinian militants. Israeli settlers in isolated outposts explain why they are there, and we hear the frustrations of a Palestinian farmer who has had his olive grove cut in half by Israel's security barrierShows the important lessons that can be learned by viewing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an example of modern, asymmetrical warAuthored by long-time reporters on the Middle East, the book provides a balanced and detailed look at the fighting based on first-hand experience and hundreds of interviewsExplains how the landscape of the conflict changed and why the traditional approach to peacemaking is no longer valid

With a new perspective on what's really going on in Israel and the Palestinian territories, "The Familiar War" is a book that will inform the debate on the Middle East and the future of the peace process, as well as our understanding of other conflicts around the world.

The Middle East conflict system is perhaps the world's most important and intractable problem area, whose developments carry global consequences. An effective investigation of the context and change in the region calls for a melding of academic approaches, methods and findings with policy oriented needs. The Israeli Conflict System brings together leading conflict scholars primarily from political science, applying a range of advanced, rigorous analytic and data-gathering techniques to address this single empirical domain-the contemporary Israeli Conflict System. Recognising the causal complexity of this conflict system, the volume's central theme is that the system's current conditions are best understood in their broader temporal/historic, cultural/linguistic, and spatial/geographic contexts. Through the lens of economic, geographic, historical, linguistic, and political analyses, and the application of data analysis, experiments, simulations, and models of rational choice, this volume shows how diverse disciplinary perspectives and methodologies can complement each other effectively. In this way, its chapters provide a model for the integration of factors and contexts necessary for understanding contemporary world politics, and a sampling of theories, approaches, and methods that are applicable, useful, or valid under different conditions. This book offers a cutting-edge resource for scholars and students of Political Science, International Relations, Conflict Studies and Middle East Studies.

This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to modern strategy, covering the context, theory, and practice of military strategy in all its different forms. Covering all the main issues in the field, the book explores the major themes through a combination of classical and modern strategic theory, history, and current practice. It is split into three main sections: The first provides the context for contemporary strategy and includes discussions of the human, technological, intelligence, ethical, and grand strategic dimensions. The second part explores the theory and practice of strategy in different geographical domains, including land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. The final part engages with three of the most challenging forms of strategy in the contemporary era: nuclear weapons, terrorism, and insurgency. This second edition brings the book up to date by including discussions of the rise and fall of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS); the emergence of robotics and artificial intelligence; major events in space and cyberspace; and the growing profile of nuclear weapons. Each chapter presents the reader with a succinct summary of the topic, provides a challenging analysis of current issues, and finishes with key points, questions for discussion, and further reading. This book will be essential reading for upper-level students of strategic studies, war studies, military history, and international security.

In this book, self-defence against non-state actors is examined by three scholars whose geographical, professional, theoretical, and methodological backgrounds and outlooks differ greatly. Their trialogue is framed by an introduction and a conclusion by the series editors. The novel scholarly format accommodates the pluralism and value changes of the current era, a shifting world order and the rise in nationalism and populism. It brings to light the cultural, professional and political pluralism which characterises international legal scholarship and exploits this pluralism as a heuristic device. This multiperspectivism exposes how political factors and intellectual styles influence the scholarly approaches and legal answers and the trialogical structure encourages its participants to decentre their perspectives. By explicitly focussing on the authors' divergence and disagreement, a richer understanding of self-defence against non-state actors is achieved, and the legal challenges and possible ways ahead identified.

This book explores the role of gender in influencing war-fighting actors' strategies toward the attack or protection of civilians. Traditional narratives suggest that killing civilians intentionally in wars happens infrequently and that the perpetration of civilian targeting is limited to aberrant actors. Recently, scholars have shown that both state and non-state actors target civilians, even while explicitly deferring to the civilian immunity principle. This book fills a gap in the accounts of how civilian targeting happens and shows that these actors are in large part targeting women rather than some gender-neutral understanding of civilians. It presents a history of civilian victimization in wars and conflicts and then lays out a feminist theoretical approach to understanding civilian victimization. It explores the British Blockade of Germany in World War I, the Soviet 'Rape of Berlin' in World War II, the Rwandan genocide, and the contemporary conflict in northeast Nigeria. Across these case studies, the authors lay out that gender is key to how war-fighting actors understand both themselves and their opponents and therefore plays a role in shaping strategic and tactical choices. It makes the argument that seeing women in nationalist and war narratives is crucial to understanding when and how civilians come to be targeted in wars, and how that targeting can be reduced. This book will be of much interest to students of critical security, gender studies, war studies, and International Relations in general.

This updated and revised second edition examines the conceptualisation and evolution of peace in International Relations (IR) theory. The book examines the concept of peace and its usage in the main theoretical debates in IR, including realism, liberalism, constructivism, critical theory, and post-structuralism, as well as in the more direct debates on peace and conflict studies. It explores themes relating to culture, development, agency, and structure, not just in terms of representations of IR, and of peace, but in terms of the discipline of IR itself. The work also specifically explores the recent mantras associated with liberal and neoliberal versions of peace, which appear to have become foundational for much of the mainstream literature and for doctrines for peace and development in the policy world. Analysing war has often led to the dominance - and mitigation - of violence as a basic assumption in, and response to, the problems of IR. This study aims to redress this negative balance by arguing that the discipline offers a rich basis for the study of peace, which has advanced significantly over the last century or so. It also proposes innovative theoretical dimensions of the study of peace, with new chapters discussing post-colonial and digital developments. This book will be of great interest to students of peace and conflict studies, politics, and IR.

A collection of essays written by a group of acknowledged experts provides in-depth comment on some of the more important aspects of conflict.

An A Z glossary of terms specific to the subject provides an ideal background for those new to the subject. Entries are provided for all the major current conflicts world-wide. Major entries include: Angola, Baluchistan, Cyprus, East Timor, Kurdistan, Kashmir, Lebanon, Tibet, Sri Lanka and Taiwan.

A section of maps is included, providing another level of analysis on a broad range of conflicts.

The Routledge Handbook of Arctic Security offers a comprehensive examination of security in the region, encompassing both state-based and militarized notions of security, as well as broader security perspectives reflecting debates about changes in climate, environment, economies, and societies. Since the turn of the century, the Arctic has increasingly been in the global spotlight, resulting in the often invoked idea of "Arctic exceptionalism" being questioned. At the same time, the unconventional political power which the Arctic's Indigenous peoples hold calls into question conventional ideas about geopolitics and security. This handbook examines security in this region, revealing contestations and complementarities between narrower, state-based and/or militarized notions of security and broader security perspectives reflecting concerns and debates about changes in climate, environment, economies, and societies. The volume is split into five thematic parts: * Theorizing Arctic Security * The Arctic Powers * Security in the Arctic through Governance * Non-Arctic States, Regional and International Organizations * People, States, and Security. This book will be of great interest to students of Arctic politics, global governance, geography, security studies, and International Relations.

This book presents a study of the international dimensions of the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan from before its outbreak in October 1947 until the Tashkent Summit in January 1966. By focusing on Kashmir's under-researched transnational dimensions, it represents a different approach to this intractable territorial conflict. Concentrating on the global context(s) in which the dispute unfolded, it argues that the dispute's evolution was determined by international concerns that existed from before and went beyond the Indian subcontinent. Based on new and diverse official and personal papers across four countries, the book foregrounds the Kashmir dispute in a twin setting of Decolonisation and the Cold War, and investigates the international understanding around it within the imperatives of these two processes. In doing so, it traces Kashmir's journey from being a residual irritant of the British Indian Empire, to becoming a Commonwealth embarrassment and its eventual metamorphosis into a security concern in the Cold War climate(s). A princely state of exceptional geo-strategic location, complex religious composition and unique significance in the context of Indian and Pakistani notions of nation and statehood, Kashmir also complicated their relations with Britain, the United States, Soviet Union, China, the Commonwealth countries and the Afro-Arab-Asian world. This book is of interest to scholars in the field of Asian History, Cold War History, Decolonisation and South Asian Studies.

How does the use of military drones affect the legal, political, and moral responsibility of different actors involved in their deployment and design? This volume offers a fresh contribution to the ethics of drone warfare by providing, for the first time, a systematic interdisciplinary discussion of different responsibility issues raised by military drones. The book discusses four main sets of questions: First, from a legal point of view, we analyse the ways in which the use of drones makes the attribution of criminal responsibility to individuals for war crimes more complicated and what adjustments may be required in international criminal law and in military practices to avoid 'responsibility gaps' in warfare. From a moral and political perspective, the volume looks at the conditions under which the use of military drones by states is impermissible, permissible, or even obligatory and what the responsibilities of a state in the use of drones towards both its citizens and potential targets are. From a socio-technical perspective, what kind of new human machine interaction might (and should) drones bring and which new kinds of shared agency and responsibility? Finally, we ask how the use of drones changes our conception of agency and responsibility. The book will be of interest to scholars and students in (military) ethics and to those in law, politics and the military involved in the design, deployment and evaluation of military drones.

The relationship between civil society and the armed forces is an essential part of any polity, democratic or otherwise, because a military force is after all a universal feature of social systems. Despite significant progress moving towards democracy among some African countries in the past decade, all too many African militaries have yet to accept core democratic principles regulating civilian authority over the military. This book explores the theory of civil-military relations and moves on to review the intrusion of the armed forces in African politics by looking first into the organization and role of the army in pre-colonial and colonial eras, before examining contemporary armies and their impact on society. Furthermore it revisits the various explanations of military takeovers in Africa and disentangles the notion of the military as the modernizing force. Whether as a revolutionary force, as a stabilizing force, or as a modernizing force, the military has often been perceived as the only organized and disciplined group with the necessary skills to uplift newly independent nations. The performance of Africa's military governments since independence, however, has soundly disproven this thesis. As such, this study conveys the necessity of new civil-military relations in Africa and calls not just for civilian control of the military but rather a democratic oversight of the security forces in Africa.

This reference work examines how sophisticated cyber-attacks and innovative use of social media have changed conflict in the digital realm, while new military technologies such as drones and robotic weaponry continue to have an impact on modern warfare. Cyber warfare, social media, and the latest military weapons are transforming the character of modern conflicts. This book explains how, through overview essays written by an award-winning author of military history and technology topics; in addition to more than 200 entries dealing with specific examples of digital and physical technologies, categorized by their relationship to cyber warfare, social media, and physical technology areas. Individually, these technologies are having a profound impact on modern conflicts; cumulatively, they are dynamically transforming the character of conflicts in the modern world. The book begins with a comprehensive overview essay on cyber warfare and a large section of A-Z reference entries related to this topic. The same detailed coverage is given to both social media and technology as they relate to conflict in the 21st century. Each of the three sections also includes an expansive bibliography that serves as a gateway for further research on these topics. The book ends with a detailed chronology that helps readers place all the key events in these areas. Provides fascinating information about cyber weapons that effectively strike through cyberspace to weaken and even cripple its target Demonstrates how social media is employed in conflicts in innovative ways, including communication, propaganda, and psychological warfare Explores potential technology avenues related to ensuring the continued military advantages of the United States Identifies and describes nuclear, precision, and other technological capabilities that have historically been the preserve of superpowers but have been newly acquired by various states

This book examines the concept of legitimacy as it may be used to explain the success, or failure, of key stability operations since the end of the Cold War. In the success of stability operations, legitimacy is key. In order to achieve success, the intervening force must create a sense of legitimacy of the mission among the various constituencies concerned with and involved in the venture. These parties include the people of the host nation, the host government (whose relations with the local people must be legitimate), political elites and the general public worldwide-including the intervening parties' own domestic constituencies, who will sustain (or not sustain) the intervention by offering (or withdrawing) support. This book seeks to bring into close scrutiny the legitimacy of stability interventions in the post-Cold War era, by proposing a concept that captures both the multi-faceted nature of legitimacy and the process of legitimation that takes place in each case. Case studies on Liberia, Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda, Afghanistan and Iraq explain how legitimacy related to the outcome of these operations. This book will be of much interest to students of stability operations, counterinsurgency, peace operations, humanitarian intervention, and IR/security studies in general.

Why do some violent conflicts endure across the centuries, while others become dimly remembered ancient struggles among forgotten peoples? Is nationalism really the powerful force that it appeared to be in the 1990s? In this wide-ranging and readable set of essays, Charles King examines the conceptual intersection of nationalist ideology, social violence, and the political transformation of Europe and Eurasia over the last two decades. The end of communism seemed to usher in a period of radical change-an era of extreme politicsthat pitted nations, ethnic groups, and violent entrepreneurs against one another, from the wars in the Balkans and Caucasus to the apparent upsurge in nationalist mobilization throughout the region. But the last twenty years have also illustrated the incredible diversity of political life after the end of one-party rule. Understanding these changes requires an appreciation for the multiple pathways from communism, as well as the particular ways in which scholars from the West have engaged with the region. As King shows, recognizing the intellectual predispositions and trajectories in the West is critical to understanding how scholars have interpreted-and at times misinterpreted-the complex politics of the ex-communist East. Extreme Politics engages with themes from the micropolitics of social violence, to the history of nationalism studies, to the nature of migration and demographic change in Eurasia. Published exactly twenty years since the collapse of the Communist system, Extreme Politics charts the end of Eastern Europeas a place and chronicles the ongoing revolution in the scholarly study of Russia, the Balkans, and the wider postcommunist world.

Why do some violent conflicts endure across the centuries, while others become dimly remembered ancient struggles among forgotten peoples? Is nationalism really the powerful force that it appeared to be in the 1990s? In this wide-ranging and readable set of essays, Charles King examines the conceptual intersection of nationalist ideology, social violence, and the political transformation of Europe and Eurasia over the last two decades. The end of communism seemed to usher in a period of radical change-an era of extreme politicsthat pitted nations, ethnic groups, and violent entrepreneurs against one another, from the wars in the Balkans and Caucasus to the apparent upsurge in nationalist mobilization throughout the region. But the last twenty years have also illustrated the incredible diversity of political life after the end of one-party rule. Understanding these changes requires an appreciation for the multiple pathways from communism, as well as the particular ways in which scholars from the West have engaged with the region. As King shows, recognizing the intellectual predispositions and trajectories in the West is critical to understanding how scholars have interpreted-and at times misinterpreted-the complex politics of the ex-communist East. Extreme Politics engages with themes from the micropolitics of social violence, to the history of nationalism studies, to the nature of migration and demographic change in Eurasia. Published exactly twenty years since the collapse of the Communist system, Extreme Politics charts the end of Eastern Europeas a place and chronicles the ongoing revolution in the scholarly study of Russia, the Balkans, and the wider postcommunist world.

The shocking, true story of a soldier gone rogue, and the court martial case that divided America. This is the full story of Eddie Gallagher, a US recruit who was inspired to serve his nation, who became addicted to combat, and whose need to prove himself among his fellow soldiers pushed him to extremes. His actions during a combat deployment to Mosul would divide his platoon, then the SEALs, the Navy, the armed forces, the government, and even the American public, when the President intervened in his trial. Alpha is an examination of how culture within the military has evolved since 9/11. In an endless war without major victories, the media has instead celebrated achievements of SEAL missions - such as the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the rescuing of Captain Phillips, and the survival of Marcus Luttrell. But the SEALs' popularity blinded the public to what was also happening within the armed forces. When Gallagher was accused of killing an unarmed enemy combatant, it created a scandal that reached the White House and millions around the world.

Mass media are essential to democratic society; in contrast, the War on Terror has been interpreted as an assault on democracy and freedom by Islamic fundamentalists. The building and maintenance of public support is essential in modern warfare due to the increasing politicization of warfare, where losses and gains are measured in political rather than military terms. And if progress cannot be demonstrated during a war, then by default one is assumed to be losing. Greg Simons tackles the complicated yet essential role of mass media in society. Taking the Global War on Terror as a prime example, the author adopts a multidisciplinary approach to analyze the various facets of war and the role of the media within it. Assessing in particular the Russian fight against terrorism, this book provides a broader perspective and understanding of contemporary struggles.

This book examines the importance of "military ethics" in the formulation and conduct of contemporary military strategy. Clausewitz's original analysis of war relegated ethics to the side-lines in favor of political realism, interpreting the proper use of military power solely to further the political goals of the state, whatever those may be. This book demonstrates how such single-minded focus no longer suffices to secure the interest of states, for whom the nature of warfare has evolved to favor strategies that hold combatants themselves to the highest moral and professional standards in their conduct of hostilities. Waging war has thus been transformed in a manner that moves beyond Clausewitz's original conception, rendering political success wholly dependent upon the cultivation and exercise of discerning moral judgment by strategists and combatants in the field. This book utilizes a number of perspectives and case studies to demonstrate how ethics now plays a central role in strategy in modern armed conflict. This book will be of much interest to students of just war, ethics, military strategy, and international relations.

This Companion examines contemporary challenges in Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) and offers practical solutions to these problems. Bringing together chapters from new and established global scholars, the volume explores and critiques the foundations of Peace and Conflict Studies in an effort to advance the discipline in light of contemporary local and global actors. The book examines the following eight specific components of Peace and Conflict Studies: Peace and conflict studies praxis Structure-agency tension as it relates to social justice, nonviolence, and relationship building Gender, masculinity, and sexuality The role of partnerships and allies in racial, ethnic, and religious peacebuilding Culture and identity Critical and emancipatory peacebuilding International conflict transformation and peacebuilding Global responses to conflict. It argues that new critical and emancipatory peacebuilding and conflict transformation strategies are needed to address the complex cultural, economic, political, and social conflicts of the 21st century. This book will be of much interest to students of peace and conflict studies, peace studies, conflict resolution, transitional justice, reconciliation studies, social justice studies, and international relations.