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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Defence strategy, planning & research > Civil defence
Violent conflict can spell catastrophe for developing countries and their neighbors, stunting and even reversing the course of economic growth. Recent World Bank research on the causes of conflict and civil war finds that the countries most likely to be blighted by conflict are those whose economies depend heavily on natural resources. Natural Resources and Violent Conflict: Options and Actions first explains the links between resource dependence conflict and then considers what can be done to help reduce the risk of civil war in these nations. In this collection of previously unpublished essays by experts in the field, contributors consider the risks of corruption, secessionist movements, and rebel financing. They also consider the roles played by government, the development community, and the country's population and propose an agenda for global action. Focusing on what we can do collectively to diminish the likelihood of civil war, contributors to this volume suggest practical approaches and policies that could be adopted by the international community-from financial and resource reporting procedures to commodity tracking systems and enforcement techniques, including sanctions, certification requirements, and aid conditionality. A fascinating look at the results of important new World Bank research, this book represents an important addition to the dialogue on development.
"For its intelligence and humanitarian achievements, for its political honesty, for its power and its beauty (there is no other word), this book deserves to be called a masterpiece." American Ethnologist Jerome R. Mintz s classic study of the lives of Andalusian campesinos who were swept up by one of the 20th century s pivotal social movements provided a new framework for understanding the tragic events that tilted Spain toward civil war. In a new foreword, James W. Fernandez reflects on the fieldwork that led to the book and its contribution to subsequent developments in the ethnography of Europe and the historiography of modern Spain."
"Kenneth Rose's One Nation Underground explores U.S. nuclear
history from the bottom up--literally. . . . Rose deserves credit
for not trivializing this period of our history, as so many
retrospectives of the Cold War era have tended to do." "Important . . . One Nation Underground is an elegant account of
the issues involved in the nuclear age." "This is a fine compilation of a massive amount of research,
well founded in the existing literature, and presented in a
readable narrative." "A readable short history of the fallout shelters and the
broader political debate over civil defense. . . . Mr. Rose is a
good storyteller, and One Nation Underground is engagingly writen,
with an array of evocative photgraphs." "Rose writes well, with a good eye for the telling phrase and revealing example."--"Journal of Social History" For the half-century duration of the Cold War, the fallout shelter was a curiously American preoccupation. Triggered in 1961 by a hawkish speech by John F. Kennedy, the fallout shelter controversy--"to dig or not to dig," as "Business Week" put it at the time--forced many Americans to grapple with deeply disturbing dilemmas that went to the very heart of their self-image about what it meant to be an American, an upstanding citizen, and a moral human being. Given the much-touted nuclear threat throughout the 1960s and the fact that 4 out of 5 Americans expressed a preference for nuclear war over living under communism, what's perhaps most striking is how few American actually built backyard shelters. Tracing theways in which the fallout shelter became an icon of popular culture, Kenneth D. Rose also investigates the troubling issues the shelters raised: Would a post-war world even be worth living in? Would shelter construction send the Soviets a message of national resolve, or rather encourage political and military leaders to think in terms of a "winnable" war? Investigating the role of schools, television, government bureaucracies, civil defense, and literature, and rich in fascinating detail--including a detailed tour of the vast fallout shelter in Greenbriar, Virginia, built to harbor the entire United States Congress in the event of nuclear armageddon--One Nation, Underground goes to the very heart of America's Cold War experience.
Our understanding of civil war is shot through with the spectre of quagmire, a situation that traps belligerents, compounding and entrenching war's dangers. Despite the subject's importance, its causes are obscure. A pervasive 'folk' notion that quagmire is intrinsic to certain countries or wars has foreclosed inquiry, and scholarship has failed to identify quagmire as an object of study in its own right. Schulhofer-Wohl provides the first treatment of quagmire in civil war. In a rigorous but accessible analysis, he explains how quagmire can emerge from domestic-international interactions and strategic choices. To support the argument, Schulhofer-Wohl draws upon field research on Lebanon's sixteen-year civil war, structured comparisons with civil wars in Chad and Yemen, and rigorous statistical analyses of all civil wars worldwide fought between 1944 and 2006. The results make clear that the 'folk' notion misdiagnoses quagmire and demand that we revisit policies that rest upon it. Schulhofer-Wohl demonstrates that quagmire is made, not found.
Since the early 1990s, refugee crises in the Balkans, Central Africa, the Middle East, and West Africa have led to the international spread of civil war. In Central Africa alone, more than three million people have died in wars fueled, at least in part, by internationally supported refugee populations. The recurring pattern of violent refugee crises prompts the following questions: Under what conditions do refugee crises lead to the spread of civil war across borders? How can refugee relief organizations respond when militants use humanitarian assistance as a tool of war? What government actions can prevent or reduce conflict? To understand the role of refugees in the spread of conflict, Sarah Kenyon Lischer systematically compares violent and nonviolent crises involving Afghan, Bosnian, and Rwandan refugees. Lischer argues against the conventional socioeconomic explanations for refugee-related violence abysmal living conditions, proximity to the homeland, and the presence of large numbers of bored young men. Lischer instead focuses on the often-ignored political context of the refugee crisis. She suggests that three factors are crucial: the level of the refugees' political cohesion before exile, the ability and willingness of the host state to prevent military activity, and the contribution, by aid agencies and outside parties, of resources that exacerbate conflict. Lischer's political explanation leads to policy prescriptions that are sure to be controversial: using private security forces in refugee camps or closing certain camps altogether. With no end in sight to the brutal wars that create refugee crises, Dangerous Sanctuaries is vital reading for anyone concerned with how refugee flows affect the dynamics of conflicts around the world."
Our understanding of civil war is shot through with the spectre of quagmire, a situation that traps belligerents, compounding and entrenching war's dangers. Despite the subject's importance, its causes are obscure. A pervasive 'folk' notion that quagmire is intrinsic to certain countries or wars has foreclosed inquiry, and scholarship has failed to identify quagmire as an object of study in its own right. Schulhofer-Wohl provides the first treatment of quagmire in civil war. In a rigorous but accessible analysis, he explains how quagmire can emerge from domestic-international interactions and strategic choices. To support the argument, Schulhofer-Wohl draws upon field research on Lebanon's sixteen-year civil war, structured comparisons with civil wars in Chad and Yemen, and rigorous statistical analyses of all civil wars worldwide fought between 1944 and 2006. The results make clear that the 'folk' notion misdiagnoses quagmire and demand that we revisit policies that rest upon it. Schulhofer-Wohl demonstrates that quagmire is made, not found.
In the aftermath of the information sharing failures leading to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in a Pennsylvania field, states and localities across the United States established what are known today as State and Major Urban Area Fusion Centers. Collectively known as the National Network of Fusion Centers, many of these (now numbering 78) fusion centres are still in their infancy. The Homeland has been attacked five times since 2001: the Little Rock Recruiting Station shooting (2009); the Fort Hood shooting (2009); the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day (2009); the attempted car bombing in Times Square (2010), and the Boston Marathon bombings (2013). In the wake of these attacks, we have come to understand that homeland security, including counter-terrorism efforts, must be a national responsibility, a true and equal partnership across all levels of government, and inclusive of the American people themselves. A top down, wholly federal approach simply does not and cannot suffice. Fully integrating state and local law enforcement and emergency response providers as national mission partners requires a grassroots intelligence and analytic capability. This book provides a comprehensive study of the National Network of Fusion Centers in an effort to understand current strengths and gaps and provide recommendations for improvement.
Homeland Security: A Documentary History provides a rich and relevant exploration of the concept of homeland security throughout the nation's history, leading up to an examination of the new Homeland Security Department and its mission and impact. The Homeland Security Department was created in 2002 and involved the largest restructuring of the federal government in over forty years. Yet American institutions and officials have responded to homeland security issues throughout the life of the nation, for example, with the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Homeland Security explores the concept and challenges of homeland security through government reports, budget proposals, public affairs campaigns and press releases, speeches, testimony, and other primary sources. Process for creating a new executive department and changing institutions and bureaucracies; Steps, major debates, and events leading up to the creation of the Department; Impact on governmental institutions and employees, such as Congress and its committees and structure, federal and state bureaucracies, and civil servants; Budgetary implications at the federal and state levels; Challenges and ramifications for citizens and civil liberties; Missions and goals, such as aviation and border security, crisis planning, and citizen preparedness. Supplemented with a chronology, print and web resource list, and an index, Homeland Security is unique in exploring historical antecedents as well as the Department's impact on political institutions and the ways Americans live and govern. Perfect for undergraduates in political science and journalism programs, AP Social Studies students, and public library patrons. publisher. His newspaper reporting has won numerous national and state journalism awards, and he has written, coauthored, edited, or contributed to more than two dozen books. His most recent books include Insider's Guide to Finding a Job in Washington: Contacts and Strategies to Build Your Career in Public Policy (1999), How to Track Politics on the Internet (1999) and How to Access the Federal Government on the Internet, Fourth Edition (1999), all published by CQ Press.
In 1938, Britain prepared for war, and to spread the word about
what should be done in the event of attack, and to distribute the
gas masks that would become universal, a body of men and women were
called to public service - the Air Raid Precautions, or 'ARP'.
Armed initially with only a badge of appointment, they became the
object of public scorn. From the declaration through to early 1940,
the volunteer services honed their skills in the face of public
criticism. The ARP services - now a well-oiled machine with, among
other specialists, wardens, rescue workers, first aiders and
messengers - waited under the blackout. |
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