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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism > Armed conflict
This book examines what makes accountability for previous violations more or less possible for transitional regimes to achieve. It closely examines the other vital goals of such regimes against which accountability is often balanced. The options available are not simply prosecution or pardon, as the most heated polemics of the debate over transitional justice suggest, but a range of options from complete amnesty through truth commissions and lustration or purification to prosecutions. The question, then, is not whether or not accountability can be achieved, but what degree of accountability can be achieved by a given country. The focus of the book is on the politics of transition: what makes accountability more or less feasible and what strategies are deployed by regimes to achieve greater accountability (or alternatively, greater reform). The result is a more nuanced understanding of the different conditions and possibilities that countries face, and the lesson that there is no one-size-fits-all prescription that can be handed to transitional regimes.
We are living amidst the fallout of the most controversial conflict
of our times. This book is a tough examination of how and why it
was fought and of its continuing effects.
Leaders in War present unique first-person perspectives across the spectrum of American combat operations during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. From division commanders to platoon leaders, the authors deliver an insider's view of tough leadership challenges, tragic failures, and triumphant victories. Leaders in War captures the essence of the post-Cold War US Army: how an all-volunteer army, equipped with new weapons systems and adjusting to new battle doctrine, mounted one of history's most successful military campaigns. Described here are the details of the tremendous logistical challenges, innovations in intelligence, ground combat operations from platoon to division, and a wide range of combat support operations. Leaders in War focuses not just on the successes, but on the failures as well, in operations ranging from violent tank battles against the vaunted Iraqi Republican Guard to train-and-fill operations thousands of miles away. Leaders in War illustrates how US Army leaders adapted to the psychological strains of combat, the fog of war, unforeseeable challenges, and the fury of tank warfare during the Persian Gulf War.
An incisive analysis of the use of the press for propaganda purposes during conflicts, using the first Gulf War and the intervention in Kosovo as case studies. As the contemporary analysis of propaganda during conflict has tended to focus considerably upon visual and instant media coverage, this book redresses the imbalance and contributes to the growing discourse on the role of the press in modern warfare. Through an innovative comparative analysis of press treatment of the two conflicts it reveals the existence of five consistent propaganda themes: portrayal of the leader figure, portrayal of the enemy, military threat, threat to international stability and technological warfare. As these themes construct a fluid model for the analysis and understanding of propaganda content in the press during conflicts involving British forces, they also provide the background against which the author can discuss general issues regarding propaganda. Amongst the issues which have become increasingly relevant to both recent academic debate and popular culture, the author tackles the role of the journalist in war coverage, the place of the press in a news market dominated by 'instant' visual media and the effectiveness of propaganda in specific cultural and political context. This book will appeal to advanced students and researchers in war studies, media studies/propaganda and psychology.
Egyptian efforts to acquire long-range surface-to-surface missiles in the early 1960s carry important lessons for our time, when weapons of mass destruction and charges of politicizing intelligence are key issues. This new study traces the history of the early Egyptian ballistic missile program, which began with the successful recruitment of German scientists who had experience in Hitler's V1 and V2 missile projects. Yet even as these Germans began their work on developing missiles for Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Israeli intelligence was busy collecting information on their activities. Indeed, this intelligence sparked a crisis in the Israeli leadership; Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, and other top Israeli officials anxiously debated strategies to grapple with this new threat to their national security. Ultimately, they adopted a multifaceted approach that included intimidation of the scientists and their families, appeals to the West German government to order the scientists' recall and, finally, an attempt to involve the U.S. government in the intricacies of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Drawing extensively on material from recently declassified U.S. government documents, this new major work demonstrates how Nasser's missile program played an instrumental role in cementing the U.S.-Israeli national security relationship. The book concludes with several key lessons that can help stem the global proliferation of advanced weapons. This book will be of great interest to scholars of proliferation, international relations, the Middle East, disarmament and security studies in general.
NATO was hugely successful in facing off the Soviet Union during the Cold War. But has it been equally successful in addressing the "new threats" of the post-Cold War era? This new study assesses the organization's political and military initiatives, and how its outreach to Russia, Ukraine, and other countries in the Euro-Atlantic and Mediterranean regions, devoted considerable attention to WMD proliferation risks. It also probes the political factors, both inside and outside NATO, as well as resource constraints, which have limited the alliance's "added value" in the international community's effort to combat proliferation. The events of 11 September 2001 and bitter intra-alliance controversy over the 2003 Iraq intervention have highlighted questions regarding NATO's future role, and even its continued viability. This is a serious reflection on how the alliance should figure in the fight against WMD and terrorist threats and an examination of today's key issues, including the use of force in international relations and the possibility of constructing new, post-Cold War collective security rules. This is the first study to evaluate, critically and in-depth, how a long-standing security organization has adapted - and must continue to adapt - to the global security challenges of our time. This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of international politics, military history and all readers interested in the future of NATO and international security. This book will be of great interest to students of NATO, security studies and international relations in general.
This book offers a fresh examination of the political economy of the peacebuilding process in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the aftermath of the country's 1992-95 war. Little progress has been made in transforming the country's war-shattered economy into a functioning market economy, this new study explains the principal dynamics that have led to this, and places Bosnia's economic transition process within the context of the country's broader post-conflict peacebuilding process. The central argument this book persuasively advances is that much of Bosnia's ongoing economic crisis, and its current reform stalemate, can be explained by exploring the interactions of an inappropriate international model of economic reform with the country's particular post-conflict and post-socialist political economy. This book is essential for readers who wish to build an understanding of the region and assess its future prospects and hopes.
Five major groups fought one another in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Second World War: The German and Italian occupiers, the Serbian Chetniks, the Ustasha of the Independent State of Croatia, the Bosnian Muslims, and the Tito-led Partisans. The aims, policies, and actions of each group are examined in light of their own documents and those of rival groups. This work shows how the Partisans prevailed over other groups because of their ideological appeal, superior discipline, and success in winning the support of large numbers of uncommitted Bosnians, particularly the Bosnian Muslims.
This new book traces the changing relationship between Russia and NATO through the prism of conventional arms control, and focuses on the negotiation, implementation and adaptation of the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty. It shows that arms control agreements reflect rather than affect relations between parties and how the CFE Treaty codified parity between NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) in November 1990. It also shows how the CFE Treaty reflected the status quo at the end of the cold war, but the benefits were short lived, at least for Russia. Although still widely viewed in the west as the cornerstone of security and stability in post-Cold War Europe, from the Russian perspective the treaty was soon overtaken by events. With the collapse of the WTO and the Soviet Union in 1991, it became impossible to talk of a military balance between east and west in Europe, especially as all the former WTO states opted for membership in NATO. This study details how the other state parties worked hard to adjust and adapt the treaty to meet Russian concerns about its new weakness relative to NATO, and the issues that complicated Russian acceptance of CFE limits. This book will be of great interest to all students of NATO, European politics, international relations and strategic studies in general.
This volume brings together some of Professor Azar Gat's most significant articles on the evolution of strategic doctrines and the transformation of war during the 20th and early 21st centuries. It sheds new light on the rise of the German Panzer arm and the doctrine of Blitzkrieg between the two world wars; explores the factors behind the formation of strategic policy and military doctrine in the world war era and during the cold war; and explains why counterinsurgency has become such a problem. The book concludes with the spread of peace in the developed world, challenged as it is by the rise of the authoritarian-capitalist great powers - China and Russia - and by the chilling prospect of unconventional terrorism. This last essay summarizes the author's latest research and has not previously been published in article form. This collection will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, military history, and international relations.
This essential companion provides a comprehensive study of the literature on the causes, course, and consequences of the Korean War, 1950-1953. Aimed primarily at readers with a special interest in military history and contemporary conflict studies, the authors summarize and analyze the key research issues in what for years was known as the 'Forgotten War.' The book comprises three main thematic parts, each with chapters ranging across a variety of crucial topics covering the background, conduct, clashes, and outcome of the Korean War. The first part sets the historical stage, with chapters focusing on the main participants. The second part provides details on the tactics, equipment, and logistics of the belligerents. Part III covers the course of the war, with each chapter addressing a key stage of the fighting in chronological order. The enormous increase in writings on the Korean War during the last thirty years, following the release of key primary source documents, has revived and energized the interest of scholars. This essential reference work not only provides an overview of recent research, but also assesses what impact this has had on understanding the war.
This anthology examines and deconstructs what Israeli security looks like and how its various security identities have evolved both before the establishment of the state and in the years and decades since 1948. It casts light on how aspects of Israel's foreign relations have been shaped as much by internal politics as by external challenge. Further, not only does it answer the questions surrounding Israel's past, but examines carefully what type of country it has now become. Compared to much of the turbulence in the region, Israel's diplomacies have been remarkably resilient and inventive. With the background of 100th anniversary of the Balfour declaration this book is a multidisciplinary study using several different methodological approaches; from discursive analyses, to theories of memories and identity, to interviews with Israeli soldiers in the field, to a legal approach to the topic, as well as International Relations studies and traditional archival studies. South Africa was one of Israel's main partners in terms of security cooperation and weapons research and development until the fall of the apartheid regime. This has been compensated with Israel opening up diplomatic relations with China (1991) and India (1992) and extending its ties with Japan. While the EU often criticize Israel's policies against the Palestinians, this is mostly rhetoric as for practical purposes Israel is like a member of the EU. This comprehensive volume studying contemporary Israel is an invaluable resource for students and scholars interested in Foreign and Security Policy, Israel and the Middle East.
This book examines and compares the diverging security approaches of the UK, China and India in peacebuilding settings, with a specific focus on the case of Nepal. Rising powers such as China and India dissent from traditional templates of peacebuilding and apply their own methods to respond to security issues. This book fills a gap in the literature by examining how emerging actors (China and India) engage with security and development and how their approaches differ from those of a traditional actor (the UK). In the light of democratic peace and regional security complex theories, the book interprets interview data to compare and contrast the engagement of these three actors with post-war Nepal, and the implications for security sector governance and peacebuilding. It contends that the UK helped to peacefully manage transition but that the institutional changes were merely ceremonial. China and India, by contrast, were more effective in advancing mutual security agendas through elite-level interactions. However, the 'hardware' of security, for example material and infrastructure support, gained more consideration than the 'software' of security, such as meritocratic governance and institution building. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, development studies, Asian politics, security studies and International Relations in general.
This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the global diffusion of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) and its impact on military innovation trajectories in small states. Although the 'Revolution in Military Affairs' (RMA) concept has enjoyed significant academic attention, the varying paths and patterns of military innovation in divergent strategic settings have been overlooked. This book seeks to rectify this gap by addressing the broad puzzle of how the global diffusion of RMA-oriented military innovation - the process of international transmission, communication, and interaction of RMA-related military concepts, organizations, and technologies - has shaped the paths, patterns, and scope of military innovation of selected small states. In a reverse mode, how have selected small states influenced the conceptualization and transmission of the RMA theory, processes, and debate? Using Israel, Singapore and South Korea as case studies, this book argues that RMA-oriented military innovation paths in small states indicate predominantly evolutionary trajectory, albeit with a varying patterns resulting from the confluence of three sets of variables: (1) the level of strategic, organizational, and operational adaptability in responding to shifts in the geostrategic and regional security environment; (2) the ability to identify, anticipate, exploit, and sustain niche military innovation - select conceptual, organizational, and technological innovation intended to enhance the military's ability to prepare for, fight, and win wars, and (3) strategic culture. While the book represents relevant empirical cases for testing the validity of the RMA diffusion hypotheses, from a policy-oriented perspective, this book argues that these case studies offer lessons learned in coping with the security and defence management challenges posed by military innovation in general. This book will be of much interest for students of military innovation, strategic studies, defence studies, Asian politics, Middle Eastern politics and security studies in general.
The attacks of September 11, 2001, the US response and the international community's approval of the subsequent military action represent a new paradigm in the international law relating to the use of force. Previously, acts of terrorism were seen as criminal acts carried out by private, non-governmental entities. In contrast, the September 11 attacks were regarded as an act of war which marked a turning point in international relations and law. This exceptional and timely volume examines the use of force in the war against terror. The work is based on the central theme that the use of force is visibly enrolled in a process of change and it evaluates this within the framework of the uncertainty and indeterminacy of the UN Charter regime. The status of pre-emptive self-defence in international law and how it applies to US policy towards rogue states is examined along with the use of military force, including regime change, as an acceptable trend in the fight against state-sponsored terrorism.
This book explores the historical relationship between China and Japan, and how this has exacerbated their dispute over the Senkaku/ Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. There are three paradoxes in the bilateral relationship complex interdependence does not preclude the possibility of open conflict; cool-headed assessments are quickly being overtaken by nationalism and a proclivity for irrational behaviour and lastly, both countries have invested so much resources in claiming the islands, such that they have neglected the costs of conflict. These paradoxes in turn stem from two fundamental issues differing interpretations of historical issues and the intractability of China and Japan s positions on the island dispute. It is argued that a festering dispute over the islands and even conflict would undermine security in the Asia Pacific and disrupt trade in the world s most economically vibrant market. Therefore, it behoves China and Japan to work out mutually-acceptable arrangements, not necessarily to make things better, but at the least to keep relations from getting any worse. It would be proposed, for example, that Japan accept the objective reality that there is a dispute over the islands. Together with other measures, such as a reduction of maritime activities around the islands, would build the foundation for a long-term rapprochement.
A stimulating new inquiry into the fundamental truth of strategy - its purpose, place, utility, and value. This new study is animated by a startling realization: the concept of strategic victory must be summarily discarded. This is not to say that victory has no place in strategy or strategic planning. The outcome of battles and campaigns are variables within the strategist's plan, but victory is a concept that has no meaning there. To the tactical and operational planner, wars are indeed won and lost, and the difference is plain. Success is measurable; failure is obvious. In contrast, the pure strategist understands that war is but one aspect of social and political competition, an ongoing interaction that has no finality. Strategy therefore connects the conduct of war with the intent of politics. It shapes and guides military means in anticipation of a panoply of possible coming events. In the process, strategy changes the context within which events will happen. In this new book we see clearly that the goal of strategy is not to culminate events, to establish finality in the discourse between states, but to continue them; to influence state discourse in such a way that it will go forward on favorable terms. For continue it will. This book will provoke debate and stimulate new thinking across the field and strategic studies.
This book explores the challenges of transforming the violent conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinians into just peace. There are many challenges involved in the bottom-up transformation of the violent structures that sustain the State of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory. This book examines these structures as it assesses the actors and strategies that are contributing to the termination of cycles of violence and oppression. Consisting of contributions from both peace practitioners and academics who have conducted research within Israel and the occupied territory, the volume utilises a multidisciplinary perspective to examine promising strategies for conflict transformation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. Moreover, it spells out the types of nonviolent strategy that are being used to expose and undermine occupation structures, and surveys the manner in which a variety of key actors are working towards the transformation of the ongoing conflict. As a whole, the volume presents a proposal for the transformation of the conflict between Palestinians and the State of Israel that embraces the constructive potential of conflict, engages with power asymmetry, and pushes for justice and accountability. This book will be of much interest to students of conflict resolution, peace studies, Middle Eastern studies, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and IR in general.
This book examines the role of civilian police in peace operations which has expanded greatly since the early 1990s and has culminated in international policemen assuming responsibility for law and order in Kosovo and East Timor. It looks at the way civilian police play a critical role in reforming local police forces and at times enforcing the law themselves.
Prison Time in Sana'a tells the story of Dr Abdulkader Al-Guneid's harrowing experience inside jail in Yemen's capital shortly after it was taken over by Houthi rebels. In his hometown of Taiz, Al-Guneid, a medical doctor, had been an outspoken figure on Yemeni politics for decades. In recent years, his social media and interviews were read around the world and attracted a global following from an audience anxious to hear an unbiased explanation of the underlying roots of the conflict. Ultimately, his activism placed him in the movement's crosshairs, leading to his abduction on 5 August 2015 and incarceration in an undisclosed Houthi jail in Sana'a. For the next 300 days, Al-Guneid shared his time with American hostages, Houthi fighters, Al Qaeda militants and ordinary Yemenis caught up in the chaos of war. Following his release, he wrote about his experience in exhaustive and gripping detail from exile in Canada. Initially typing his entire account on his mobile phone, his story has since been distilled into a deeply personal account of his incarceration offering an extraordinarily candid perspective on the Yemen crisis from deep within Houthi-held territory.
This textbook provides a thorough grounding in the vocabulary, concepts, issues and debates associated with modern land warfare. The second edition has been updated and revised, and includes new chapters on non-western perspectives and hybrid warfare.
The right to self-determination has played a crucial role in the process of assisting oppressed people to put an end to colonial domination. Outside of the decolonization context, however, its relevance and application has constantly been challenged and debated. This book examines the role played by self-determination in international law with regard to post-conflict state building. It discusses the question of whether self-determination protects local populations from the intervention of international state-builders in domestic affairs. With a focus on the right as it applies to the people of an independent state, it explores how self-determination concerns that arise in the post-conflict period play out in relation to the reconstruction process. The book analyses the situation in Somalia as a means of drawing out the impact and significance of the legal principle of self-determination in the process of rebuilding post-conflict institutions. In so doing, it seeks to highlight how the relevance of self-determination is often overlooked in this context.
The year 2018 marks the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Belfast Agreement that initiated an uneasy peace in Northern Ireland after the forty years of the Troubles. The last twenty years, however, has still not been sufficient time to satisfactorily resolve the issue of how to deal with the events of the conflict and the dissonant heritages that both gave rise to it and were, in turn, fuelled by it. With contributions from across the UK and Europe, Heritage after Conflict brings together a range of expertise to examine the work to which heritage is currently being put within Northern Ireland. Questions about the contemporary application of remembering infiltrate every aspect of heritage studies, including built heritages, urban regeneration and planning, tourism, museum provision and intangible cultural heritages. These represent challenges for heritage professionals, who must carefully consider how they might curate and conserve dissonant heritages without exacerbating political tensions that might spark violence. Through a lens of critical heritage studies, contributors to this book locate their work within the wider contexts of post-conflict societies, divided cities and dissonant heritages. Heritage after Conflict should be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students engaged in the study of the social sciences, history, peace studies, economics, cultural geography, museum heritage and cultural policy, and the creative arts. It should also be of great interest to heritage professionals.
This book analyses the role of war and violence (in both its physical and symbolic forms) for social work in a time of neoliberal globalisation from a social justice perspective. It argues that the consequences of wars, in both their old and new forms, and the exercise of symbolic violence for the practices of social work at national and global levels have been ignored. This work explores the relationship between recent neoliberal and global transformations and their consequences for intensifying 'new wars' and conflicts in non-Western countries on the one hand, and the increasing symbolic violence against marginalised people with immigrant and non-Western background in many Western countries, on the other. The analytical approach of the book, based on the theories of multiple modernities and symbolic violence, is unique since no other work has applied such theoretical perspectives for analysing inequalities in relation to the condition of lives of non-Western people living in Western and non-Western countries. This is a necessary contribution for social work education and research since the discipline needs new theoretical perspectives to be able to meet the new challenges raised by recent global transformations and neoliberal globalisation.
By drawing on social movement theories, this book explains how terrorist movements decline, using the case of Irish Republicanism. The continuity of terrorism and political violence from generation to generation demonstrates the need to go beyond a focus on groups or individuals in order to explain how terrorism ends. The concept of de-radicalisation has been critiqued for its lack of explanatory value in accounting for disengagement from terrorism or how the risk of terrorism re-emerging is reduced. However, building on the morphogenetic approach, this book distinguishes between structure/culture and agency over time in order to analyse the causal influence between the two. Two processes are analysed: disengagement framing processes explain how actors change attitudes to violence and the book identifies which factors ensure frames resonate with audiences; and social movement de-radicalisation accounts for the outcomes of disengagement in initiating structural change which transforms the landscape the next generation finds itself in. The fundamental aim of the book is to provide theoretical and conceptual insights into how terrorism can not only come to an end, but can be prevented from emerging to be a significant threat again within a society. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, social movement theory, British and Irish Politics, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR in general. |
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