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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political activism > Terrorism, freedom fighters, armed struggle > General
Too often, existing literature has conflated the discourses that enabled the 'War on Terror', ignoring the contextual specificities of the states that make up the 'Coalition of the Willing'. Australia's 'war on terror' Discourse fills this gap by providing a full and sustained critical analysis of Australian foreign policy discourse along with the theoretical synthesis for a specific model of critical discourse analysis of the subject. The language of then Prime Minister Howard is the primary focus of the book but attention is also paid to the language of key ministers, political opponents and other prominent actors. The voices of those who challenged the dominant discourse are also considered to shed light on the ways in which discourses can be destabilised. Kathleen Gleeson shows how Howard successfully invoked narratives of identity and sovereignty that resonated with his audience and promoted his reworked narrative of Australia whilst facing dissent from many actors who voiced their opposition most successfully when they capitalised on inconsistencies within the discourse.
In 'The War on Error', historian and political analyst Martin Kramer presents a series of case studies, some based on pathfinding research and others on provocative analysis, that correct misinformation clouding the public's understanding of the Middle East. He also offers a forensic exploration of how misinformation arises and becomes "fact." The book is divided into five themes: Orientalism and Middle Eastern studies, a prime casualty of the culture wars; Islamism, massively misrepresented by apologists; Arab politics, a generator of disappointing surprises; Israeli history, manipulated by reckless revisionists; and American Jews and Israel, the subject of irrational fantasies. Kramer shows how error permeates the debate over each of these themes, creating distorted images that cause policy failures. Kramer approaches questions in the spirit of a relentless fact-checker. Did Israeli troops massacre Palestinian Arabs in Lydda in July 1948? Was the bestseller 'Exodus' hatched by an advertising executive? Did Martin Luther King, Jr., describe anti-Zionism as antisemitism? Did a major post-9/11 documentary film deliberately distort the history of Islam? Did Israel push the United States into the Iraq War? Kramer also questions paradigms-the "Arab Spring," the map of the Middle East, and linkage. Along the way, he amasses new evidence, exposes carelessness, and provides definitive answers.
In 'The War on Error', historian and political analyst Martin Kramer presents a series of case studies, some based on pathfinding research and others on provocative analysis, that correct misinformation clouding the public's understanding of the Middle East. He also offers a forensic exploration of how misinformation arises and becomes "fact." The book is divided into five themes: Orientalism and Middle Eastern studies, a prime casualty of the culture wars; Islamism, massively misrepresented by apologists; Arab politics, a generator of disappointing surprises; Israeli history, manipulated by reckless revisionists; and American Jews and Israel, the subject of irrational fantasies. Kramer shows how error permeates the debate over each of these themes, creating distorted images that cause policy failures. Kramer approaches questions in the spirit of a relentless fact-checker. Did Israeli troops massacre Palestinian Arabs in Lydda in July 1948? Was the bestseller 'Exodus' hatched by an advertising executive? Did Martin Luther King, Jr., describe anti-Zionism as antisemitism? Did a major post-9/11 documentary film deliberately distort the history of Islam? Did Israel push the United States into the Iraq War? Kramer also questions paradigms-the "Arab Spring," the map of the Middle East, and linkage. Along the way, he amasses new evidence, exposes carelessness, and provides definitive answers.
This is the first comprehensive study of the core philosophical questions posed by terrorism such as: How should we define it? Is it morally distinctive? Can it be morally justified?Igor Primoratz seeks to overcome relativism and double standards that often plague debates about terrorism. He investigates the main ethical approaches to terrorism: in terms of its consequences, rights and justice, "supreme emergency," and the collective responsibility of citizens. The book provides a rigorous, yet accessible analysis of a range of moral positions, from the acceptance of terrorism when its consequences are good on balance to its absolute rejection. Primoratz argues that terrorism is almost absolutely wrong. It may be morally justified only when an entire people is facing a true moral disaster, and this should be understood in a highly restrictive way.Conceptual analysis and normative arguments about the practice of terrorism are complemented with case studies of terror-bombing of German cities in World War II and the role of terrorism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."Terrorism: A Philosophical Investigation" will be essential reading for researchers and students of philosophy and politics, and the general reader seeking to understand and evaluate acts and campaigns of terrorism.
Winning the Long War is a trenchant examination of the past seven years of the Global War on Terror, the future battlegrounds that will confront the United States in the struggle against radical Islam in the years ahead, and how America can reclaim the initiative in what has become the defining struggle of the twenty-first century. Middle East expert Ilan Berman offers new thinking on counterterrorism strategy and provides the new administration with ways to close the gaps in current American counterterrorism strategy. While there are many books about fighting terrorism, none offer Berman's approach of integrating diplomatic, legal, economic, military, and theoretical strategies into a comprehensive national security action plan. Using cutting edge analysis of current terrorism trends, Winning the Long War identifies three central failings that triggered the West's retreat and radical Islam's simultaneous advance: the failure to properly define the enemy, the inability to dominate the battlefields, and the inability to calibrate counterterrorism strategies. Demonstrating the need for more creative thinking about the nature of the conflicts in which the West now finds itself, this book lays out the steps that must be taken to win the long war.
This volume expands our understanding of the pursuit of human rights during the era of the War on Terror. The threat to human rights both in the United States and among detainees in US-governed detention facilities created a widely perceived crisis in human rights. This text explores the broad and complicated ramifications of crisis by looking comparatively at societies in the present era and looking back at the historical and legal foundations of human rights. Human Rights in Crisis contains an element of hope derived from a conviction that the pursuit of human rights happens on many fronts and in many ways around the globe; that a retreat from human rights in the United States does not necessarily signal a global retreat. The essays here include perspectives from History, Anthropology, and Legal Studies, with a resulting interdisciplinary portrait of the complexities of pursuing human rights in wartime.
How do right-wing extremist organizations throughout the world use the Internet as a tool for communication and recruitment? What is its role in identity-building within radical right-wing groups and how do they use the Internet to set their agenda, build contacts, spread their ideology and encourage mobilization? This important contribution to the field of Internet politics adopts a social movement perspective to address and examine these important questions. Conducting a comparative content analysis of more than 500 extreme right organizational web sites from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, it offers an overview of the Internet communication activities of these groups and systematically maps and analyses the links and structure of the virtual communities of the extreme right. Based on reports from the daily press the book presents a protest event analysis of right wing groups' mobilisation and action strategies, relating them to their online practices. In doing so it exposes the new challenges and opportunities the Internet presents to the groups themselves and the societies in which they exist.
Although there is a vast body of literature covering the ongoing debates concerning the novelty and gravity of the contemporary terrorist threat, as well as the most appropriate response to it, few authors have thus far analysed the complex set of counterterrorism measures that both the individual Member States and the European Union (EU) have attempted to develop. This volume offers a critical analysis of the measures the European Union has taken to combat terrorism and how, in a number of key areas, EU counterterrorism policy is more of a paper tiger than an effective counterterrorism device. Several legal EU counterterrorism instruments have not been properly implemented at the national level and questions have been raised regarding their effectiveness, appropriateness, and proportionality. The capabilities of EU agencies in the area of counterterrorism remain rather weak and the EU Counterterrorism Coordinator does not have any real powers apart from persuasion. However, this does not mean that EU level action cannot offer any value-added in the fight against terrorism. There are several areas where the EU can provide genuine value-added in the fight against terrorism due to the transnational nature of the contemporary terrorist threat and the nature of a borderless Europe.
The authors of this book are uniquely qualified to analyze the contemporary security landscape and promote necessary and pressing change. Each is a thought leader in his or her field. Four out of six authors are seasoned military professionals who share the view that the over-reliance on kinetic approaches over influence operations account for some of the failures of nations against extremists. Combined with civilian academic leadership this book is a practice in military civics. This collection of international perspectives, taken together, challenge commonly held assumptions and outmoded paradigms of engagement. In tribute to Co-Editor Amar Cheema, Brigadier General (R) We wish to dedicate this collaborative effort arguing for a more profitable approach to ending and pre-empting conflict as a fitting, living tribute to our Dear Friend, Colleague and Co-Editor, Brig. Amar Cheema, the consummate Soldier, Scholar and Gentleman. Brig. Cheema embodied the concept of "no one appreciates peace and stability as much as a Soldier". Editing and Co-authoring our book focused on using all elements of National Power to achieve and sustain stability is an apt legacy for our Dear Friend.
In Obstructive Marketing, Maitland Hyslop deals with a very negative kind of activity which embraces activities, legal or otherwise, designed to prevent or restrict the distribution of a product or service, temporarily or permanently, against the wishes of the product manufacturer, service provider or customer. When the author defined this phenomenon as Obstructive Marketing and started to research it more than a decade ago, it was seen as a valid concept that was perhaps ahead of its time. The World has moved on and in the era of globalization a study of this negative aspect of marketing is now required. Obstructive Marketing is now seen as the business equivalent of asymmetric warfare, which is increasingly understood because the rise of the South and East at the expense of the North and West has brought some Obstructive Marketing stratagems into sharp focus. Using the author's own research, this book explains what Obstructive Marketing is and why it is not called Anti-Marketing. The author explains who practises Obstructive Marketing, where, when and how; and why businesses are particularly vulnerable when entering new markets and engaging in change and innovation. Intriguing concepts such as cultural risk are illuminated along with formal links between Obstructive Marketing, asymmetric warfare and terrorism. This all leads to identification of the need for a strong Government/Business partnership to counter the effects of this darkest kind of marketing.
The purpose of this book is to narrate important, dynamic events that have taken place in the Indo-U.S. relations, beginning from 1943 to 2013. This includes the American role in India's independence, the Cold War, demise of the Soviet Union, resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism, terrorists' attack of American cities in 2001, decline of American power, rise of India, and rise of China. The study is confined to only three areas: terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and nuclear energy. The defining moment of the twenty-first century occurred in 2008 when these two estranged great democracies engaged one another to work on common goals and establish a strategic relationship between two natural allies.
The world was standing at the crossroads in 2015 as globalization propelled human beings into an increasingly integrated community of common destiny. In the meantime, the world witnessed the strategic competition among major powers. This annual publication offers views, opinions and predictions on global political and security issues, and China's strategic choices by Chinese scholars. It covers almost all the significant issues that took place in the international security arena in 2015. Besides the relations among major powers, it studies the international community's fight against Islamic State (IS), the strategic situation in the Korean Peninsula, political situation in Myanmar, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear issue, free navigation in the South China Sea, China's Belt and Road Initiative and its grand diplomacy.This book argues that the strategic competition among major powers is heightening, and smaller countries as well as extremist forces like the IS are seeking strategic space by taking advantage of the conflicts among major powers. The book concludes that to address this major historic challenge in international politics, it is essential that some major powers drop the hostile stance towards each other and enhance partnership to foster international cooperation.
The world was standing at the crossroads in 2015 as globalization propelled human beings into an increasingly integrated community of common destiny. In the meantime, the world witnessed the strategic competition among major powers. This annual publication offers views, opinions and predictions on global political and security issues, and China's strategic choices by Chinese scholars. It covers almost all the significant issues that took place in the international security arena in 2015. Besides the relations among major powers, it studies the international community's fight against Islamic State (IS), the strategic situation in the Korean Peninsula, political situation in Myanmar, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear issue, free navigation in the South China Sea, China's Belt and Road Initiative and its grand diplomacy.This book argues that the strategic competition among major powers is heightening, and smaller countries as well as extremist forces like the IS are seeking strategic space by taking advantage of the conflicts among major powers. The book concludes that to address this major historic challenge in international politics, it is essential that some major powers drop the hostile stance towards each other and enhance partnership to foster international cooperation.
This book explores the impact of new forms of online reporting on the BBC's coverage of war and terrorism. Informed by the views of over 100 BBC staff at all levels of the corporation, Bennett captures journalists' shifting attitudes towards blogs and internet sources used to cover wars and other conflicts. He argues that the BBC's practices and values are fundamentally evolving in response to the challenges of immediate digital publication. Ongoing challenges for journalism in the online media environment are identified: maintaining impartiality in the face of calls for more open personal journalism; ensuring accuracy when the power of the "former audience" allows news to break at speed; and overcoming the limits of the scale of the BBC's news operation in order to meet the demands to present news as conversation. While the focus of the book is on the BBC's coverage of war and terrorism, the conclusions are more widely relevant to the evolving practice of journalism at traditional media organizations as they grapple with a revolution in publication.
This book is about war and popular culture, and war in popular culture. Tara Brabazon summons, probes, questions and reclaims popular culture, challenging the assumptions of war, whiteness, Christianity, modernity and progress that have dominated our lives since September 11.A Addressing modes of thinking, design, music and visual media, Thinking Popular Culture offers a journey through courageous, interventionist and thoughtful ideas, performers and cultures. It welcomes those who ask difficult questions of those in power.A Addressing the lack of imagination and dissent that characterizes this new century, it is essential reading for any scholar of cultural studies and popular culture, media and journalism, creative writing and terrorism studies.
This meticulously researched, forcibly argued and accessibly written collection explores the many and complex ways in which Africa has been implicated in the discourses and politics of September 11, 2001. Written by key scholars based in leading institutions in Canada, the United States, the Middle East and Africa, the volume interrogates the impact of post-9/11 politics on Africa from many disciplinary perspectives, including political science, sociology, history, anthropology, religious studies and cultural studies. The essays analyze the impact of 9/11 and the 'war on terror' on political dissent and academic freedom; the contentious vocabulary of crusades, clash of civilizations, barbarism and 'Islamofascism'; alternative genealogies of local and global terrorism; extraordinary renditions to black sites and torture; human rights and insecurities; collapsed states and the development-security merger; and anti-terrorism policies from George W. Bush to Barack Obama. This is a much-needed meditation on historical and contemporary discourses on terrorism.
Most students of the history of Arab-Jewish relations have come to take for granted the stubborn resistance of the continuing dispute to any form of lasting and 'reasonable' solution. This book, first published in 1983, examines early Arab-Zionist negotiating experience with the assumption that this has direct relevance to our understanding of the possible outcomes of diplomatic approaches to resolving the conflict. Its main purpose is to assemble (half of the book consists of original souce documents) and discuss some of the raw material which may help readers focus more clearly on the origins of the conflict, and perhaps to eliminate some recurring fallacies about its development and the prospects for its resolution. An examination of the period 1913 to 1931 reveals of wealth of previous negotiating experience which is today largely forgotten, and indicates that there was little or no movement of any of the parties in the direction of modifying its basic minimum demands and aspirations.
With half of this book, first published in 1986, being given over to Neil Caplan's detailed analysis and half to the collection of the original documents, the second volume in Futile Diplomacy provides another essential resource for the understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In Arab-Zionist Negotiations and the End of the Mandate a key period in the negotiations between the two parties is examined, as attempts were made by both sides to reach a peaceful, negotiated settlement.
This book, first published in 1997, provides a careful and balanced behind-the-scenes account of the intricate diplomatic activity of the period between the first and second Arab-Israeli wars. The author examines the recurring deadlocks in terms of the motives and calculations of the various parties, and reveals how new incentives of pressures offered by outsiders proved incapable of reversing the serious deterioration of Arab-Israeli relations as the region headed for war at Suez. The text of this volume comprises both an in-depth analysis of the period and events, and a selection of primary documents from archival sources.
This book analyzes some of the commonly accepted causes of radicalization within the context of four organizations in eastern Africa. It identifies and discusses the facilitating agents needed to enable radicalization and recruitment, and answers one of the most fundamental questions the public and scholars alike are confronted with: Why are all people confronted with the same external circumstances not being radicalized? Practitioners and policymakers will realize that although one can learn from the experiences of others, developing and implementing effective counter-radicalization strategies should be shaped around the unique circumstances of the specific organization.
The term 'War on Terror' (WOT) covers a mass of interlinked topics. Here an outstanding group of authors and academics dissect them from ethical, political, legal, economic and historical perspectives. Drawn from the world-famous Oxford Amnesty Lectures, the essays are substantial contributions to their fields and of abiding relevance. Here it is argued that members of active terrorist groups should be pre-emptively executed; that there is no provision for WOT in international law; that WOT is not cost-efficient; that war and terrorism can no longer be distinguished; and that the term 'terrorist' has been captured by a specific political constituency. The arguments of the celebrated contributors, from Ahdaf Soueif to Joanna Bourke, are confirmed or contradicted by their respondents, resulting in broad, scholarly coverage of the issues. The book concludes with a fatwa against terrorism. The War on Terror lies at the heart of current debate about immigration, multiculturalism and foreign policy. It is one of the determining debates in the politics of today. This volume will be of interest to students of politics, law and religion and to anyone concerned with current affairs. It covers the politics of the Middle East and the Iraq War, human rights in Islam and the West and the ethics of intervention. This is a powerful contribution to an urgent debate.
This book analyzes the legality of the use of force by the US, the UK and their NATO allies against Afghanistan in 2001. The work challenges the main ground for resorting to force, namely, self-defence under Article 51 of the United Nations' Charter, by examining each element of Article 51 that ought to have been satisfied in order to legitimise the use of force. It also examines the wider context, including comparable Security Council resolutions in historic situations as well as modern instances where force has been used, such as against Iraq in 2003 and against Lebanon in 2006. As well as making the case against the legality of the use of force, the book addresses wider questions such as the meaning of 'terrorism' in international law, the changing nature of conflict in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries including the impact of non-state actors and an overview of terrorism trends as well as the evolution of limitations on the resort to force from the League of Nations through to 2001. The book concludes with some insight into the possible future implications for the use of force by states, particularly when force is purportedly justified on the grounds of self-defence.
This book explores a cross-cultural worldview called 'radical apocalypticism' that underlies the majority of terrorist movements in the twenty-first century. Although not all apocalypticism is violent, in its extreme forms radical apocalypticism gives rise to terrorists as varied as members of Al Qaeda, Anders Behring Breivik, or Timothy McVeigh. In its secular variations, it also motivates ideological terrorists, such as the eco-terrorists Earth Liberation Front or The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. This book provides an original paradigm for distinguishing between peaceful and violent or radical forms of apocalypticism and analyses the history, major transformations, and characteristics of the apocalyptic thought system. Using an inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural approach, this book discusses the mechanisms of radicalization and dynamics of perceived oppression and violence to clarify anew the self-identities, motivations, and goals of a broad swath of terrorists. As conventional counter-terrorism approaches have so far failed to stem the cycle of terrorism, this approach suggests a comprehensive "cultural" method to combating terrorism that addresses the appeal of radical apocalyptic terrorist ideology itself. This book will be of much interest to students of apocalypticism, political violence, terrorism and counter-terrorism, intelligence studies, religious studies, and security studies.
An arc of instability stretching across Africa's Sahel region, an area of strategic interest for the United States and its allies, is plagued by violent extremist organizations (VEOs). These organizations, including Boko Haram, al Qaeda, and other terror groups, have metastasized and present a serious threat to regional stability. Now these VEOs are transitioning. Under sustained pressure from French and regional security forces, and reeling from the loss of senior leaders, many of these groups feel backed into a corner. Despite setbacks, these groups continue to plague the region. To enhance policymakers' understanding of these threats and how to respond to them, CSIS experts from the Africa Program and Transnational Threats Project conducted field-based and scholarly research examining the broad range of factors at play in the region. This research provides little ground for optimism. Chronic underdevelopment, political alienation, failed governance and corruption, organized crime, and spillover from Libya help foster and sustain violent extremists throughout the Sahel.
How did the North European states react to the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001? Michael Karlsson argues that 9/11 led to a considerable pressure to strengthen rules and practices for counterterrorism and security, but that this pressure was mediated by several other conditions. The reforms were also affected by, among other things, how the threat of global terrorism was perceived, pressure from international institutions such as the UN, EU, and NATO, the domestic political context, and pre-existing rules and practices. His analysis uses the new institutionalism framework, tested through case studies of Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The book offers a unique lens on the study of counterterrorism from a new theoretical and regional perspective. |
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