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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism > Armed conflict
This book, first published in 1980, presents the findings of the SIPRI-organized 1979 international symposium on the destruction and conversion of chemical weapons. Thirty experts from 14 countries discussed the destruction and conversion of present stockpiles of chemical warfare agents and munitions; the destruction and conversion of CW research and development facilities; verification of compliance, and confidence-building measures facilitating verification; and the environmental and occupational health hazards involved in maintaining and in disposing of stockpiles of CW agents and munitions.
This book, first published in 1980, is a close analysis of Britain's defence policy in the latter years of the Cold War. It examines the factors that limited the choices available to the governments of the day, including technological advances, costs, changes in the balance of power, strategic thinking in both West and East, and the consequent implications for the development of forces and arms.
This book, first published in 1986, is a major study of semialignment and a review of the individual nations within NATO to which the model could be applied. Towards the end of the Cold War, there arose within NATO this intermediate category between alignment and nonalignment, whereby a member state enjoyed the status and facilities of NATO membership while disassociating itself from certain NATO programmes. This book analyses the phenomenon, and the possibility that it weakened the credibility of NATO deterrence and the defence posture versus the Soviet Union.
This book, first published in 1989, is a comprehensive examination of the profound impact of World War II on Soviet military affairs. It systematically assesses the costs and lessons of the war and their substantial impact on Soviet military and Party leaders in the Cold War era and particularly in the 1980s. Starting with the experiences of the war and its influence on the development of Soviet military thinking, the book addresses the relationship between the military and the Soviet political system, threat perception, decision making, and crisis and risk assessment. Also discussed are the war's influence on the structure and operations of the military in the 1980s, focusing on doctrine, conventional forces, the defence industry and historiography.
This book, first published in 1975, analyses the three tools which the Russians used for attaining their political objectives: war, peace and neutrality. This study shows how they have evolved a clear-cut view, based on Marxism-Leninism, of the origins of war, the categories of war, the ways in which it can be made to serve the Marxist revolutionary interest, and the circumstances in which it is profitable to use it. As for peace, both Lenin and Khrushchev described it as a 'temporary, unstable armistice between two wars'. In the Leninist view, peace is a tool for attaining political objectives just like war, while neutrality is essentially ridiculous: 'he who is not with me is against me'. Nevertheless, there are occasions when neutrality is a concept acceptable to the Soviet leaders, and this study examines instances of this, alongside war and peace.
This book, first published in 1988, analyses the interests and activities of the Soviet Union in the northern Atlantic. It gives particular attention to the growth in exploration and exploitation of resources and to the problems presented by jurisdictional disputes. The responses of NATO, the United States and the Nordic countries to the expanded Soviet military presence are examined in detail.
This book, first published in 1981, offers an analysis of the ways in which one strategic situation in Cold War politics impinged on another, and the interplay of historical forces and trends shaping national policies and the world pattern of power. Bringing together a wealth of factual and analytical material about the alliance systems built around the two superpowers, it examines the areas that seem most dangerous to the peace of the world, particularly in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America.
This book, first published in 1983, examines the role that arms control has to play, alongside defence and deterrence, in stabilising East-West relations and reducing tensions during the Cold War. Arms control agreements were designed in the attempt to achieve parity between the nuclear forces of the superpowers, without making war more likely. A danger of confrontation between the USSR and the USA came from their involvement in Third World conflicts, and this arena is also discussed. The diplomatic approaches of the Soviet Union, the Third World and the West, and their aims in arms control, are also analysed.
This book, first published in 1982, examines the crisis of detente in Europe and between the superpowers, the crisis in arms control, and the heightening of tensions within NATO, and analyses the central precepts of Western policy and thought in these areas. These crises are examined in terms of the trends, thought and action in the area of Western security. In particular, the concept of strategic stability, the assumptions behind arms control, and between arms control and security policy, are critically analysed.
This book explores the question of whether peacekeeping commanders can be held accountable for a failure to protect the civilian population in the mission area. This requires an assessment of whether peacekeeping commanders have an obligation to act against such serious crimes being committed under domestic and international law. The work uses the cases of the Dutch and Belgian peacekeeping commanders in Srebrenica and Kigali as examples, but it also places the analysis into the context of contemporary peacekeeping operations. It unfolds two main arguments. First, it provides a critical note to the contextual interpretation given to international law in relation to peacekeeping. It is argued that establishing a specific paradigm for peacekeeping operations with clear rules of interpretation and benchmark criteria would benefit peacekeeping and international law by making the contextual interpretation of international law redundant. Second, it is held that alternative options to the existing forms of criminal responsibility for military commanders should be considered, possibly focusing more clearly on failing to fulfil a norm of protection that is specific to peacekeeping and distinct from protective obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
From ancient to modern times, sexualised war violence against women was tolerated if not encouraged as a means of reward, propaganda, humiliation, and terror. This was and is in defiance of international laws that have criminalised acts of sexualised war violence since the 18th century. Ad hoc international tribunals have addressed especially war rape since the 15th century. The International Criminal Court (ICC), however, is the first independent, permanent, international criminal court that recognises not only war rape but also sexual slavery and other sexualised crimes as crimes against humanity, war crimes, and acts of genocide in its statute and supporting documents. This book explores how the ICC definitions of rape and forced marriage came about, and addresses the ongoing challenge of how to define war rape and forced marriage in times of armed conflict in a way that adequately reflects women's experiences, as well as the nature of the crimes. In addition to deepening the understanding of the ICC negotiations of war rape and forced marriage, and of the crimes themselves, this volume highlights relevant factors that need to be considered when criminalising acts of sexualised war violence under international law. Sexualised Crimes, Armed Conflict and the Law draws on feminist and constructivist theories and offers a comprehensive theoretical and empirical examination of the definition of rape and forced marriage. It presents the latest state of knowledge on the topic and will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers, officials and intergovernmental organisations, and students in the fields of post-conflict law and justice, international law, human rights law, international relations, gender studies, politics, and criminology.
This book offers a sociocultural and interdisciplinary understanding of the impact of political violence on youth behaviour. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the Kashmir valley and reports from conflict areas across the globe, the volume brings into focus the ways in which violence affects social and psychological dynamics within the individual and the community. It develops a social psychological approach to the study of youth and violent conflict in South Asia, and offers new insights into the intricacies within the discourse. Focussing on the emotions and behaviour of people in largescale conflict, it expands the discourse on the psychological dimensions of hope, aggression, emotion regulation and extremist mindset to inform policy and intervention for peacebuilding. Moving beyond Western psychiatric models, this book proposes a more culturally and historically rooted analysis that focusses on collective experiences of violence to de-colonise psychological science and expand the understanding of youth's experiences with political violence. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics, psychology, peace and conflict studies, sociology and social anthropology.
This book examines the politics of military families in relation to the tensions between the state, military organization, and private life. It elaborates on the tensions between the advent of challenging worldwide deployment for the military and the prominence of the home front. The volume aims to understand the dynamics of conflict and change within triad figurations at the macro (society), meso (organizational), and micro (family) level and is guided by the following overarching research questions: What are the key issues in the three-party dynamics? What tensions exist in these dynamics? How do actors seek to arrive at a balance? What initiatives for change are made? With contributions from international scholars, who examine the workings of politics in military families at all three levels, the book argues that members within military families deal with shifting power balances and these are impacted by demands from organizations and the state. This book will be of much interest to students of military studies, sociology, organizational studies and politics.
This book examines the impact of foreign intervention in the course and nature of warfare in civil wars. Throughout history, foreign intervention in civil wars has been the rule rather than the exception. The involvement of outside powers can have a dramatic impact on the course and nature of internal conflicts. Despite this, there has been little research which has sought to explain how foreign intervention influences the course of civil wars. This book seeks to rectify this gap. It examines the impact of foreign intervention on the warfare that characterises civil wars through by studying the cases of the Angolan and Afghan civil wars. It investigates how foreign resources affect the military power of the recipient belligerent, and examines how changes in the balance of capabilities influence the form of warfare that characterises a civil war. Warfare in civil wars is often highly fluid, with belligerents adapting their respective strategies in response to shifts in the balance of military capabilities. This book shows how the intervention of foreign powers can manipulate the balance of capabilities between the civil war belligerents and change the dominant form of warfare. The findings presented in this book offer key insights for policy-makers to navigate the increasing internationalization of civil wars around the globe. This book will be of much interest to students of civil wars, intra-state conflict, war and conflict studies, and security studies.
This interdisciplinary book explores the Northern Ireland conflict through a human rights framework. The book examines the conflict from the creation of the Northern Ireland state in 1921 to 2014. This timeframe allows an analysis of how human rights impacted upon the conflict in its broadest understanding (i.e. the pre-violent conflict, the violent conflict and the post-violent conflict phases). Furthermore, it allows for a better understanding of how the various stages of the conflict impacted upon how human rights are understood in Northern Ireland today. The study's main findings are that: (i) human rights had a significant impact on the development of the conflict; (ii) human rights violations were both underlying causes and direct causes of the descent into violence; (iii) the conflict coloured the view of human rights held by the main political actors; and (iv) human rights continue to be partially understood through the prism of the conflict. More generally, this interdisciplinary work explores the relationship between law, politics and conflict. This book will be of much interest to students of human rights, conflict resolution, British politics, law and security studies.
This book examines whether differences in the organizational structure of armed groups shape patterns of human rights violations in civil wars. Since the end of World War II, civil wars have been characterized by extremely high numbers of civilian casualties. However, the exact extent of civilian suffering varies across time, conflict, and geographic region. Recently, a new strand of research has emerged, primarily focused on studying the dynamics underlying the variation in civilian abuse by examining the characteristics of the armed groups and how these characteristics influence the armed groups' behaviour towards the civilian population. With reference to principal-agent theory and data on the organizational structure of more than 70 armed groups active worldwide from 1989 onwards, the author's analysis functions both on the level of the armed group and on the level of the individual via personal interviews with combatants. Offering a unique insight into how factors such as recruitment methods, hierarchy and organizational commitment may affect the likelihood of civilian abuse by combatants, this book will be of much interest to students of political violence, civil wars, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR in general.
This book provides a rich analysis of the actors and organizations to reflect on the antecedents and trajectories of terrorism and insurgency in South Asia, and the different countermeasures adopted by the countries to deal with the security and developmental challenges. South Asia is a complex geography that has been both a victim and a playing field for indigenous insurgencies, and domestic and transnational terrorist movements. The contributors to this volume explore how this situation has posed serious challenges to the sovereignty of the states, to national and human security, and to the socioeconomic fabric of the communities, and to the ethnic and religious cohesion. The book provides detailed studies of country cases on terrorism, security, and insurgencies, and it underlines the national, regional, and global implications of the threats that emanate from this region. Presenting an opportunity to diversify away from a Western-centric focus on terrorism and security, this book will be valuable to researchers in political science, criminology, defense and security studies, and to policy makers and think tanks.
This book provides a rich analysis of the actors and organizations to reflect on the antecedents and trajectories of terrorism and insurgency in South Asia, and the different countermeasures adopted by the countries to deal with the security and developmental challenges. South Asia is a complex geography that has been both a victim and a playing field for indigenous insurgencies, and domestic and transnational terrorist movements. The contributors to this volume explore how this situation has posed serious challenges to the sovereignty of the states, to national and human security, and to the socioeconomic fabric of the communities, and to the ethnic and religious cohesion. The book provides detailed studies of country cases on terrorism, security, and insurgencies, and it underlines the national, regional, and global implications of the threats that emanate from this region. Presenting an opportunity to diversify away from a Western-centric focus on terrorism and security, this book will be valuable to researchers in political science, criminology, defense and security studies, and to policy makers and think tanks.
Originally published in 1994, the late Keith F. Otterbein's scholarship had followed an overall design since 1962, when he began conducting comparative studies of warfare using both ethnographic and cross-cultural methods. Through a conceptual framework derived from systems theory, he made signal contributions to our understanding of the role of warfare in human social evolution. He formulated a Fraternal Interest Group theory, utilizing it to explain not only feuding and warfare but also rape and capital punishment. Believing that armed combat is learned behaviour, he posed questions about its learning process that had yet to be answered. He acted as a major synthesizer of the growing literature on warfare and led attempts among anthropologists to apply their knowledge of war and peace to current events. This volume will serve both as a useful introduction to the anthropology of war and as a needed compendium of Professor Otterbein's ideas.
This book, first published in 1985, is the first full-length study of the Soviet Armed Forces as a social institution. Using military manpower as a substantive focus, it identifies those characteristics that the Soviet military shared with counterparts in non-communist systems and those that were unique to the society and political culture in which it was embedded. The discussion encompasses defence policy-making as a whole and focuses on conscription policy, the characteristics of the professional military, the role of the political officer, the mechanics of political socialization within the Red Army, and the experience of ethnic minorities in the armed forces. This analysis provides a window through which we can observe the broader military system at work; how that system affects, and in turn is affected by, the economic, social and political life of the Soviet Union. It contributes to our understanding of civil-military relations in communist systems and to our knowledge of Soviet political and social trends.
This book addresses the discursive importance of the prosecution's opening statement before an international criminal tribunal. Opening statements are considered to be largely irrelevant to the official legal proceedings but are simultaneously deployed to frame important historical events. They are widely cited in international media as well as academic texts; yet have been ignored by legal scholars as objects of study in their own right. This book aims to remedy this neglect, by analysing the narrative that is articulated in the opening statements of different prosecutors at different tribunals in different times. It takes an interdisciplinary approach and looks at the meaning of the opening narrative beyond its function in the legal process in a strict sense, discussing the ways in which the trial is situated in time and space and how it portrays the main characters. It shows how perpetrators and victims, places and histories, are juridified in a narrative that, whilst purporting to legitimise the trial, the tribunal and international criminal law itself, is beset with tensions and contradictions. Providing an original perspective on the operation of international criminal law, this book will be of considerable interest to those working in this area, as well as those with relevant interests in International/Transnational Law more generally, Critical Legal Studies, Law and Literature, Socio-Legal Studies, Law and Geography and International Relations.
This book, first published in 1985, examines thinking around chemical weapons from the standpoint of national policy-making in a manner that integrates both defence and arms-control aspects. The process of multilateral negotiations on chemical warfare arms control is not simple, nor are the issues involved and their associated technical questions. Constraints, standards and verification are needed. This book analyses these issues, and the interplay of domestic issues and specific security requirements. This book offers an analytical framework within which a wide spread of different considerations may be located and assessed.
This book, first published in 1985, examines the Cold War risks of superpower confrontations, mainly in the Third World, resulting in war in Europe. European security is usually analysed in the context of East-West relations in Europe, where though tensions often ran high, actual war seemed remote. The risks of war were much greater in other parts of the world, where the United States and the Soviet Union confronted each other using proxies. This book analyses these proxy confrontations, and the risks that they posed to the security of Europe.
This edited volume bridges the "analytical divide" between studies of transatlantic relations, democratic peace theory, and foreign policy analysis, and improves our theoretical understanding of the logic of crises prevention and resolution. The recent rise of populism and polarization in both the U.S.A and Europe adds to a host of foreign policy crises that have emerged in transatlantic relations over the last two decades. Through examining how democracies can manage to sustain and maintain mechanisms of crisis resilience that are embedded in the democratic peace, and particularly transatlantic relations, this book helps enhance the understanding of inter-democratic crisis resolution across issue areas. In doing so, it addresses some of the most important and prevalent crises of our time, such as anti-terrorism intervention in Afghanistan; Iran's nuclear program; burden-sharing within North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO; key aspects of the international order, such as binding norms for cyber security and the integration of China into the Western-led international economic order; as well as domestic order shifts, such as the British vote to leave the European Union (EU) and the impact of the Trump administration populist foreign policy on transatlantic crisis resolution. This book will be of key interest to students and scholars of International Relations, Transatlantic Studies, Foreign Policy Analysis, and Comparative Politics.
Why do nations go to war? Is war an institutionalized outlet for our aggressive instincts? Or is it a cultural invention rather than a biological necessity? Originally published in 1990, Eric Carlton, looking across a number of societies investigates why men and women go to war, and how they are able to commit atrocities against their enemy. He believes that central to these issues is the perception of the enemy and the ways in which this is 'converted' - consciously or unconsciously - into an ideology of aggression. Military training and ideology are based upon the definition of the enemy as 'the other', and studies in the text reveal the importance of the stereotyped image of the enemy when soldiers carry out atrocities. Dr Carlton explores the underlying problem of how and why societies resort to war, by analysing the motivations, usually religious and ideological, which legitimize warlike policies and activities. Fascinating case studies consider the ways in which the enemy has been seen in various historical and comparative contexts: for instance, to ancient Egyptians the enemy were non-people, to Romans uncouth barbarians, to Maoists class antagonists. These studies underline the fact that perceptions of the adversary determine the nature of warfare more than any other single factor. The book is unique in its discussion of the idea of the enemy in warfare and military ideology, and in its use of an historical method to comment on situations which are still relevant to the modern world. Its historical and comparative perspective, and its extensive case studies, make it of great value and interest to students of history, sociology, and politics, as well as to those engaged in war studies. |
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