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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism > Armed conflict
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
With revolutionary changes in nanotechnology (NT) now on the horizon, many countries have started major research and development (R&D) programmes, which are mainly civilian. Often overlooked are military R&D programmes - in particular those of the US government. This is the first systematic and comprehensive presentation of the potential military applications of NT. In ten to twenty years, these applications may include extremely small computers, robots, missiles, satellites, launchers and sensors. They may also provide lighter and stronger materials for vehicles and weapons, implants in soldiers' bodies, metal-free firearms, autonomous fighting systems, and smaller chemical and biological weapons. These potential uses raise strong concerns. This assessment is made from a viewpoint of international security, considering the new criteria of dangers for arms control and the international law of warfare, dangers for stability through potential new arms races and proliferation, and dangers for humans and society. Some military applications, such as computers, will be so close to civilian uses that limits are impractical. Others, such as sensors for biological-warfare agents, may contribute to stronger protection against terrorist attacks and better verification of compliance with arms-control treaties. For preventive limitation of these new technologies, specific approaches are proposed that balance positive civilian uses and take into account verification of compliance, with a view to international peace and security, not national military strength. This book will be of great interest to scholars of military technology, non-lethal weapons, disarmament and security studies in general.
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.
This book examines Syrian displacement since the start of the 2011 conflict. It considers how neighboring refugee-hosting states - namely Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon - have responded to Syrian refugees, as well as how the international humanitarian community has assisted and protected refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Miller examines Syrian displacement as it relates to EU and US policies, and relates Syrian displacement to broader themes and debates on the international refugee regime and humanitarian intervention. The book argues that displacement is not a mere symptom or byproduct of the conflict in Syria, but a key variable that must be addressed with any peace plan or strategy for ending the conflict and rebuilding Syria. Responses to displacement should therefore not just be thought of in a humanitarian context, but also as a political, security and economic issue. Drawing on media reports, research briefs, scholarly books and articles, NGO reports and UN research to contextualize and critically analyze the blur of headlines and rhetoric on Syria, the book seeks to shed light on the political and humanitarian responses to displacement. It seeks to inform policymakers, practitioners and scholars about the current Syrian displacement situation, helping to make sense of the complex web of literature on Syrian refugees and IDPs.
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.
Published in 1997, the work explores the reorientation of security policies and the accompanying restructuring of the armed forces going on in Southern Africa under entirely new circumstances: Democracy has come to South Africa, the civil wars in Angola and Mozambique have ended, and the region is establishing a regional framework for cooperation. While covering the entire region, a special focus is placed on South Africa which is predestined to play a leading role, but which is struggling with the legacy of the apartheid regime and its repeated aggressions against neighbouring states. A defensive restructuring of the South African of the South African military is an element in the building of mutual trust. The implications of such defensive restructuring to a non-offensive defence are described in detail. In addition to the analytical contribution, the work also contains central documents and a bibliography.
Published in 1999. These essays are not deconstructive in the postmodern sense. None of the authors have that depth of scepticism about knowledge claims, but they are all concerned that the terms of reference of Cold War enquiry have been inappropriately bounded. The chapters by Murray and Reynolds specifically address the broad theoretical issues involved with paradigms and explanation. The chapters by Dobson, Marsh, Malik, Evans and Dix stretch out Cold War paradigms with successive case studies of Anglo-American relations; the USA, Britain, Iran and the oil majors; the Gulf States and the Cold War; South Africa and the Cold War; and Indian neutralism. All five authors challenge the efficacy of neo-realist analysis and explanation and critique the way that assumptions derived from that position have been used in historical explanation. The chapters by Ryall, Rogers and Bideleux deal with Roman Catholicism in East Central Europe, with nuclear matters and with the Soviet perspective. Each work goes beyond the limits of Cold War paradigms. Finally, Ponting places the Cold War in the broad context of world history. These essays provide thought-provoking scholarship which helps us both to nuance our understanding of the Cold War and to realise that it should not be taken as an all-embracing paradigm for the explanation of postwar international relations.
This book is a collection of articles and essays by Professor Herbert C. Kelman, a leading figure in the conflict resolution community and one of the most influential peace researchers. Professor Kelman, a social psychologist, has been a pioneer of conflict resolution and peace research, and his work in conflict resolution has included a decades-long action research program on the Arab-Israeli conflict which has seen the development of Interactive Problem-Solving Workshops, an approach which has had a deep impact not only on research, but also on the practice of conflict resolution around the world, and especially in the Middle East. Focusing on Kelman's conflict resolution-related work, this volume comprises an important collection of articles written by Kelman across his career as academic and practitioner. By bringing together these carefully selected articles the book offers a concise overview of the body of Kelman's work and his intellectual biography. It traces the origins of the field of conflict resolution, the development of the study and practice of Interactive Problem Solving Workshops, and the wider challenges faced by conflict resolution research and practice. This book will be of much interest to students of peace and conflict studies, conflict resolution, psychology and IR in general.
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.
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.
Across Africa, growing economic inequality, instability and urbanization have led to the rapid spread of private security providers. While these PSPs have already had a significant impact on African societies, their impact has so far received little in the way of comprehensive analysis. Drawing on a wide range of disciplinary approaches, and encompassing anthropology, sociology and political science, Private Security in Africa offers unique insight into the lives and experiences of security providers and those affected by them, as well as into the fragile state context which has allowed them to thrive. Featuring original empirical research and case studies ranging from private policing in South Africa to the recruitment of Sierra Leoneans for private security work in Iraq, the book considers the full implications of PSPs for security and the state, not only for Africa but for the world as a whole.
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.
Exploring case studies from the first Gulf War to the Syria crisis, this book discusses different approaches to the use of international law and the role it plays in international power politics. Analysis of the post-Cold War overseas military involvements of Western powers has focused on their legality and legitimacy, allowing for a conflation of the concepts and distracting from the true source of international legitimacy. Demonstrating compliance with international law can be helpful, but it plays a secondary role to other, more powerful considerations such as national interest and shared national security concerns. Exploring the key drivers for decision-makers, this book identifies the impact of previous experience on the use of international law in the quest for legitimacy ahead of launching military action. Patterns in approach and of relations between close Western allies (in particular the UK and US) are identified, offering valuable lessons for future strategic decision-making. This book will appeal to scholars and students of International Relations and International Law. Think Tanks focussing on International Relations and the use of force and practitioners working in the realm of foreign policy with a focus on the UN and international law will also be interested in the study and conclusions drawn.
This book is the first to offer an in-depth analysis of transitional justice as an unfinished agenda in Indonesia's democracy. Examining the implementation of transitional justice measures in post-authoritarian Indonesia, this book analyses the factors within the democratic transition that either facilitated or hindered the adoption and implementation of transitional justice measures. Furthermore, it contributes key insights from an extensive examination of 'bottom-up' approaches to transitional justice in Indonesia: through a range of case studies, civil society-led initiatives to truth-seeking and local reconciliation efforts. Based on extensive archival, legal and media research, as well as interviews with key actors in Indonesia's democracy and human rights' institutions, the book provides a significant contribution to current understandings of Indonesia's democracy. Its analysis of the failure of state-centred transitional justice measures, and the role of civil society, also makes an important addition to comparative transitional justice studies. It will be of considerable interest to scholars and activists in the fields of Transitional Justice and Politics, as well as in Asian Studies.
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 title was first published in 2003. France and the Algerian Conflict is a study of the French response to political upheavals in Algeria since 1988. In a very short period of time, Algeria has lived through a fast track democratization process, a coup d'etat and an upsurge of violence bringing the country to the brink of civil war. France's policy towards its ex-colony during this period of political and social hardship has been very tortuous. French leaders, from the Left or the Right, have shifted back and forth from supporting 'conciliation' in Algeria to backing 'eradication'. This book retraces the main events that occurred in Algeria from 1988 to 1995 and analyses the successive policy shifts of the French government both in terms of political discourse and policy means. In particular, it seeks answers to the issue of the French opposition to the Algerian militant Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).
This book explores the moral complexity of statecraft in the context of decision-making on armed intervention in the post-Cold War era. This book adds to the debate on humanitarian intervention by analyzing the moral complexity of statecraft when confronted with situations of severe human rights violations. Through a comparative case study of President Bill Clinton administration's failure to intervene in the Rwanda genocide (1994), the George W. Bush administration's tepid response to the Darfur atrocities (2003-07), and the Barack Obama administration's leadership behind the limited U.N. intervention in Libya (2011), it explores the factors - domestic and international - that influence decision-making about humanitarian intervention. These cases show, not only how international moral concerns often compete with interest-based and domestic concerns, but how decision-makers are often confronted by competing moral imperatives. In such situations, it is often not clear which imperatives should be followed. In an increasingly interconnected world, this book examines how we expect state leaders to balance different moral responsibilities. This book will be of much interest to students of humanitarian intervention, the Responsibility to Protect, human rights, US foreign policy, African politics and IR in general.
Waging Gendered Wars examines, through the analytical lens of feminist international relations theory, how U.S. military women have impacted and been affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although women were barred from serving formally in ground combat positions within the U.S. armed forces during both wars, U.S. female soldiers are being killed in action. By examining how U.S. military women's agency as soldiers, veterans, and casualties of war affect the planning and execution of war, Whaley Eager assesses the ways in which the global world of international politics and warfare has become localized in the life and death narratives of female service personnel impacted by combat experience, homelessness, military sexual trauma, PTSD, and the deaths of fellow soldiers.
Those working in Defence Studies explore the convergence between war and politics. It is, in the words of the editor of this new Routledge collection, 'the socio-technological study of how martial force is understood, built, and deployed'. Indeed, the term 'Defence Studies' has its origins in the establishment in 1927 of the UK's Imperial Defence College (later named the Royal College for Defence Studies in 1970), but research falling under that rubric has long been a global endeavour. Scholars of Defence Studies ask questions such as: What are the driving factors of defence policy? Why is history important for understanding emergent warfare? How might actors prepare for defence and war? Are defence policies appropriate for expected events? Now, in response to the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of a rapidly growing and ever more complex corpus of literature, Routledge announces a new title in its Critical Concepts in Military, Strategic, and Security Studies series. Edited by David J. Galbreath, Professor of International Security at the University of Bath, and Director of its Centre for War and Technology, Defence Studies is a four-volume collection which brings together the very best scholarship in a one-stop anthology of major works. The collection is fully indexed and includes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is destined to be valued by researchers, teachers, and advanced students as a vital research and pedagogic resource. |
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